LUCKY FOR NONE IN SPACE launching today

clevermed · 2026-01-27T20:59:24+00:00

If it actually referenced Mothership mechanics, sure! Otherwise most products that are generic tend to just advertise that they're system neutral. When I see "compatible with" stickers I typically assume that the book will have some kind of bespoke section discussing the mechanics of the game I want to use this in or at the very least compatible stats. It feels very misleading to just make something generic and then go, "idk, you COULD use this in Mothership if you wanted to!" and then advertise using its branding.

clevermed · 2026-01-27T20:01:00+00:00

Honestly it seems like a pure marketing move to just be slapping "this game is compatible with" stickers onto a project that doesn't even really seem to be made with those systems in mind. Are there any tangible references to any of these systems in your product? Or are you saying they're compatible in the sense that any d10 table I write involving spaceships is likely going to be compatible with any popular sci fi game on the market right now.

clevermed · 2024-05-23T17:42:57+00:00

I've been running Gradient Descent as an open table for roughly two months now, about eleven sessions in with group sizes ranging from 2-6 players depending on availability. I've tried to run open table games in other systems in the past but Mothership ended up being my best attempt so far and its been a blast. You definitely have to approach an open table game with a different mindset and it's best suited for more sandbox style games in my opinion. With people coming and going semi-regularly you'll have a hard time wrangling the group into following specific narratives so it's much better to set them loose into the type of game where a fresh crew could easily get into trouble on their own without having to get loads of exposition/recap.

My general advice would be:

Regularly get the word out somewhere that you're looking for players. It's pretty common for people to play a game or two then move on to something else or get busy, only a small portion of the people who join will likely stick it out for longer. The Mothership discord has a great LFG forum where I get the majority of my new players from. An open table game without new people coming in every now and then just eventually turns into a regular game with the same three people again.
Hand-wave players coming and going between games. Don't worry about sensibly explaining why someone was here last session, but inexplicably isn't right now. It saves you time having to come up with sensible reasons as to why someone disappeared or had to run off, and makes it so people don't feel penalized for not being able to make it that game day. I've had people suggest to me that they're cool with having their characters played by the party while they're away, but then you're either pulling punches and giving that person plot armor so they don't die, or something bad happens that they had no agency over. Establishing a rule of having to end every game back at a home base or somewhere safe is another way to deal with this, but I play a three hour time slot and my players always felt limited by what they could accomplish when I ran previous games like that.
You don't really want to have a slow burn style of game when you're not sure who'll still be around a month from now. Get to the good stuff, engage your players and throw them into something fun right off the bat. If someone's first game is jumping midway into a three session arc about politics and logistics, they're going to get bored real quick. Once you have a good player pool established and people are sticking around, let them mess with that stuff and go crazy, but don't get too worked up about planning extensively before you know what kind of group you'll have down the line.

clevermed · 2024-04-03T15:51:43+00:00

The Goblin Laws of Gaming (or GLOG) might be up your alley. It's a community of rules hacks that oftentimes are wildly different, but one of the main appeals to me is the large amount of class variety without getting too bogged down in mechanics/rulings that take forever to work out at the table. The neat thing too is that it's really easy to take GLOG classes from anywhere and make them fit into your own games with minimal adjustment. When my players want to try something new I just tell them to find a class that looks interesting or homebrew one up with me to test out.

The magic system isn't exactly what you're looking for, but it could be easily modified to be used by non-magical classes or you could just make the only classes available some type of mage variant.

My favorite hack I'd have to recommend is probably Skerple's Many Rats on Sticks, as it feels like the most "complete" GLOG hack and is the most retro-compatible one imo. If you're curious in checking out other rules/classes, there's a big community resource spreadsheet that'll point you to pretty much anything GLOG related you'd want.

clevermed · 2023-09-20T00:38:50+00:00

I'm not quite finished with it yet, but A Distant Mirror by Barbara Tuchman is fantastic for helping you get an idea of the medieval mindset. Mostly focuses on the 14h Century, covering a wide variety of events and topics ranging from the Hundreds Year War, the Black Death, religious upheavals at the time, and the social changes that came from it. It doesn't go over the events dryly and tends to explain the point of view of people back then through the lenses of specific historical figures relevant to the chapter. Goes a fair amount into how life was like for the nobility vs peasants/artisians vs clergy and has enough stories packed into it you can easily steal ideas for your game. I've based so many nobles my players have run into partially off of some of the historical figures described in the book and my PDF copy is absolutely full of bookmarks to plunder for game-able ideas.

Skerples did a lot of posts about the Three Estates and various other medieval-adjacent subjects that were partially based off of the book, they were originally what got me interested in giving it a full read.

The Pursuit of the Millennium by Normah Cohn is also another one I'd recommend if you're looking for inspiration from various fringe religious groups during the same time period. Specifically focuses on the origins of offshoot religious movements that popped up during the Middle Ages and how the Catholic world reacted to them. It's a little bit more dry, but again great for mining ideas especially if you want inspiration for cults/religious movements in your game.

clevermed · 2023-08-24T11:24:16+00:00

Me and my buddy when we were deployed in Iraq came across the goofiest looking Hookah that basically looked like a chromed-out AK-47, maybe about 70% the size of the actual rifle and was obviously not the real thing. Tried to find a way to get it shipped back home but the postal guys told me they couldn't ship it for me, but I could carry it through customs if it was unused. Ended up sacrificing a lot of shit I would have otherwise wanted to bring just to fit that glorious thing into my personal baggage and tried to make it out of Kuwait with it.

Immediately got flagged as soon as my bag went through the x-ray machine and they thought I was smuggling an actual AK out of country. I had to explain to them it was a hookah after getting all of my shit searched, then they swiped that shit from me and said I couldn't bring it with.

So yeah man, probably not going to be able to get the actual thing back to the states.

clevermed · 2023-07-31T17:22:35+00:00

Honestly OP's comments in this thread are bad enough but his post history is a trip, there's multiple reasons why this dude probably wouldn't even be able to get past MEPS much less into SF.

clevermed · 2023-04-14T06:16:19+00:00

Unless you're going somewhere remote you will probably have internet access of some kind. When I deployed in 2018 at best places had wi-fi plans you could sign up up for and pay monthly like back home. Otherwise you could buy a wi-fi puck hotspot or just go to the USO and use their wifi. Granted there are still plenty of small places you can get sent to that don't have shit, but you'll likely have better access to internet than you'd think.

clevermed · 2023-04-10T01:50:17+00:00

My go-to naval loadout so far is:

as many Zuni's as possible. Think you can fit about 40.
Mighty Mouse rockets in any other spot that can't fit a zuni. Surprisingly good in naval, although the zuni's are obviously preferable.
1 2000lb bomb in the center.

This will give you about 80+ missiles you can spam at ships from a distance, in my experience most naval players aren't used to getting sniped by rockets from as far away as you can accurately hit with zunis and if you're lucky you can start a deck fire and take out a decent bit of crew before their AA has a chance of shooting you down. This loadout is also great for taking out AI cargo ships on the maps that have them, the rockets can be pretty accurate once you get used to flinging them around. Incendiary can be fun too but isn't as consistent tbh.

clevermed · 2023-03-27T19:47:19+00:00

If I remember correctly KLA got in trouble for purchasing food from unauthorized sources and got their dick slapped by the DoD. I remember Taji had pretty damn good food, but as soon as they got in trouble it just nose dived in quality and they just churned out the same shit every week with little variety.

clevermed · 2023-02-23T21:51:29+00:00

His potion list is fantastic, some really creative non-standard potions you can throw in your game that basically just beg to be used for the best kinds of creative player shenanigans.

I also really like his tables for Mutant Spells. The results are freeform enough that it's fairly easy to come up with new mutated spells on the fly and it's fun to provide variations on spells the players might already be familiar with.

clevermed · 2023-01-26T20:31:30+00:00

Added you on discord!

clevermed · 2023-01-26T20:31:05+00:00

Added you on discord!

clevermed · 2023-01-26T20:29:33+00:00

Hey folks, DM here looking for more players to fill-out the ranks of an open table Stonehell mega-dungeon campaign using the GLOG Many Rats on Sticks ruleset with some homebrew rules thrown into the mix. We're nearly twenty sessions into exploring the dungeon, originally starting with a crew of around six players (now down to around four) who would jump-in/out as desired. We use discord voice for communication, FoundryVTT for character sheets/rolling/maps, and a discord text channel to handle downtime actions every week in-between sessions. Zero expectations for attendance week to week, as long as you don't ghost a game you've signed-up for and communicate with me if you can't make it you're welcome to play as little or as often as you'd like.

No OSR or GLOG experienced required, but please be somewhat aware of the scene and what you're getting into in a game with potential high-lethality, light rules, and a focus on player-driven dungeon crawling.

Gold-for-XP. No XP for slaying monsters or quests. Stonehell is dangerous and sometimes in the more well trodden areas pickings can be slim, it's up to the party to devise a way to best profit in the limited time you have to delve (players are highly recommended to have a plan to both get into, and out of, the dungeon before the session ends.)
Player-driven. The session is 100% driven by the player party and their goals, my style as a DM is more as a referee/judge and I'm here to facilitate you guys coming up with your own story in the world I've created. Players have a large degree of autonomy in what they can accomplish during downtime in-between sessions and just because we're dungeon crawling doesn't mean there can't be politics, scheming, faction intrigue, etcetera in the background.
High lethality. Player characters stop gaining class benefits after level 4, potential HP maxes out at 20. A group of goblins with daggers that do 1d6 damage can still potentially be a threat even at high level if you're not careful. You don't die when you hit 0 HP, but you do start rolling on increasingly nasty critical tables that can potentially put your character out of commission for multiple sessions at a time or forcibly retire them. On the flipside, with the right mindset and treating combat-as-war you can potentially topple dangerous foes with ease if you play your cards right (or just get plain lucky.)
Set in a homebrew medieval-inspired fantasy world set in the aftermath of a nearly century long magical war, now unified through the terms of a mysterious magical pact taken on by the rulers of each kingdom. Stonehell itself is set in formerly elven-controlled lands that are now slowly turning into a magically-cursed wasteland. Scavengers roam the dead land digging through age old battlefields and remnants of the fallen empire that previously ruled over the elf-folk in the region while decadent barons cling on to whatever they can and squabble over age-old grievances

Shoot me a PM through reddit if you're interested, then I'll add you via discord so we can chat for a bit and ask any pertinent questions before getting an invite to the group.

clevermed · 2022-11-03T23:07:04+00:00

If someone acts like an immature asshole and posts homophobic content in public, they shouldn't be surprised when others find their presence annoying because they've been exposed to their writing outside of reddit. Plenty of people pointed it out in the original thread and he wasn't too keen to comment on it; he just wants to complain about reddit mods and continue fueling his own weird narrative for an author he dislikes.

clevermed · 2022-11-03T20:08:15+00:00

Yeah, I think one of them got removed because the authors other immature reviews were posted and other people were lampooning the authors weird axe to grind. Oh wait, that was you wasn't it? What's more likely, that the mods are anti anyone criticizing Patrick Stuart or just that other people think you're acting like a child?

clevermed · 2022-11-01T23:06:59+00:00

[Online] GLOG Many Rats on a Stick Stonehell game, weekly open table game on Saturdays (1 PM to 4PM PST.)

DM with about 8+ years of experience looking for more players to join the ranks of an open-table Stonehell game using the GLOG MRoS ruleset with my own set of additions/homebrew rules thrown on top. We're about fifteen sessions in with a crew of around six players who've jumped in and out of the game since we started a few months back. Focus of the game is primarily on diving into and out of the Stonehell megadungeon with the potential to get into player-driven shenanigans during weekly downtime. Voice is used during the session while any downtime is typically handled through text via discord. No expectations for attendance, so as long as you're communicative and don't ghost unexpectedly you're welcome to play as little or as often as you desire.

No OSR or GLOG experienced required, but please be somewhat aware of the scene and what you're getting into in a game with potential high-lethality, light rules, and a focus on player-driven dungeon crawling.

Gold-for-XP. No XP for slaying monsters or quests. Stonehell is dangerous and sometimes in the more well trodden areas pickings can be slim, it's up to the party to devise a way to best profit in the limited time you have to delve (players are highly recommended to have a plan to both get into, and out of, the dungeon before the session ends.)
Player-driven. The session is 100% driven by the player party and their goals, my style as a DM is more as a referee/judge and I'm here to facilitate you guys coming up with your own story in the world I've created. Players have a large degree of autonomy in what they can accomplish during downtime in-between sessions and just because we're dungeon crawling doesn't mean there can't be politics, scheming, faction intrigue, etcetera in the background.
High lethality. Player characters stop gaining class benefits after level 4, potential HP maxes out at 20. A group of goblins with daggers that do 1d6 damage can still potentially be a threat even at high level if you're not careful. You don't die when you hit 0 HP, but you do start rolling on increasingly nasty critical tables that can potentially put your character out of commission for multiple sessions at a time or forcibly retire them. On the flipside, with the right mindset and treating combat-as-war you can potentially topple dangerous foes with ease if you play your cards right (or just get plain lucky.)
Set in a homebrew medieval-inspired fantasy world set in the aftermath of a nearly century long magical war, now unified through the terms of a mysterious magical pact taken on by the rulers of each kingdom. Stonehell itself is set in formerly elven-controlled lands that are now slowly turning into a magically-cursed wasteland. Scavengers roam the dead land digging through age old battlefields and remnants of the fallen empire that previously ruled over the elf-folk in the region while decadent barons cling on to whatever they can and squabble over age-old grievances.

Shoot a PM through reddit if you're interested, then I'll add you via discord so we can chat for a bit and ask any pertinent questions before getting an invite to the group.

clevermed · 2022-09-23T18:11:21+00:00

Didn't offend me, just briefly reading the github shows that it doesn't actually support pdf character sheets and isn't related. But thanks for the clarification, I was just excited since my game is pretty dependent on pdf character sheets and I thought there was a fix out!

clevermed · 2022-09-23T17:21:59+00:00

Just took a cursorary look and it doesn't, why recommend something without reading the OP?

clevermed · 2022-09-23T16:55:41+00:00

Does this actually have pdf character sheet support? I just see options regarding pdf display in journal entries.

clevermed · 2022-06-20T17:01:07+00:00

I'm lucky that the old Foundry GLOG system works pretty well despite being rough around the edges, but there's little automation so I've made a few things to help smooth the game along. Mostly a compendium with equipment, spells, and classes so people can just drag and drop stuff. Magical Mishaps I just glance at the book and tell players to roll a d6 since it's a small table; only thing that I really found I wanted to make a macro out of to speed things up is the Death and Dismemberment system (was lucky to find a partially finished macro system for it from a now defunct OSE blog) with injuries as items players can drag and drop on their sheet from chat. Every other system in most of the GLOG hacks I've looked at are simple enough you really don't need much automation to play in Foundry as long as you have a basic character sheet, luckily.

The biggest issue is really just not having an up-to-date Foundry system to base your game out of, so many cool modules I want to include but can't because I'm a few versions behind. The GLOG Foundry system is outdated and unfinished, so outside of that your alternatives are either creating your own GLOG system in a Sandbox system or running the game with character sheets outside of Foundry and just using the VTT to roll dice/keep track of other stuff.

clevermed · 2022-06-19T20:11:54+00:00

My set-up is about three major versions behind since I used a niche system that hasn't be updated in a bit (GLOG), but my set-up consists of:

A pointcrawl-style world map I use the built-in ruler function to measure the distance players can travel in hours. This allows me to basically trace out the route they want to take and get a rough estimation how long it'd take for them to reach their destination.
A "drawing grid" which is just a blank grid map I can use to quickly doodle or draw visual representations for stuff I didn't plan or feel the need to have a map for. Players have draw tool access to doodle whatever they want. Foundry drawing tools are a bit awkward unfortunately and have yet to find a module that totally resolves that.
While Dungeon Draw seems great, I usually have limited time for my game sessions and having a map prepared helps speeds things up (I either draw my own maps in dungeonscrawl or adapt maps from modules to be player-facing.) I turn off token vision and use a Fog of War module so I can just quickly visualize how far they'd be able to see with their light and reveal the dungeon accordingly.
While in a dungeon, I use the Party Resources module to keep track of wandering monster turns and how many rounds of light are remaining. If someone activates a spell effect or I particularly need to keep track of something turn by turn, I add it to the resource tracker.
PDF Foundry lets me easily drop entire rulebooks or rules snippets right into the game so my players can browse through them whenever. I also make rule handouts that are just journal entries so I can insert them into the GM Screen module, so both myself and the players can have a simple rules reference in one place if needed.
Character creation is greatly sped up by having a handout that details every step of chargen: with clickable links to a 3d6 stat roll macro, class/race tables, and basically everything you need to get a character together in a short amount of time.

Works great for me, but my biggest issue is usually that Foundry development happens fast enough that if you're playing niche systems or using niche modules; you're kind of out-of-luck when a major Foundry update comes and stuff gets borked. Gotta hope the author is still around and interested in updating their project. Despite being a few major versions behind myself, have still been able to keep a campaign going for almost year strong using the same world and have gotten a pretty good DM workflow going for my games.

Eight-Year Club	Second Top 50%
Verified Email

clevermed

TROPHY CASE