Mothership Player Character Hooks

Mothership is an awesome sci-fi/horror TTRPG echoing films like Alien, Event Horizon, and The Thing. The rules are fast and easy-to-learn, the presentation is beautiful, and it's got one of the best GM guide's I've read for any game, ever. It's like someone mashed up a good story-game theme with OSR philosophy, added a chest-burster, and put it in a nice little box designed to assimilate your brain.

Don't take my word for it. Go watch this Quinn's Quest review which completely sold me. The Quinn's Quest review gives a nice overview of the game and how it plays so I won't rehash it here. But one thing bothered me - Quinn discusses it as well - there isn't much to go on when making characters. The game relies on the OSR philosophy of "discovering your character as you play."

I asked about this idea in an OSR-focused Discord and how players developed their characters in games like Mothership and got some interesting replies. Martin, who blogs at Pointless Monument, suggested that, "characters should still have backgrounds, goals and (important for the horror genre IMO) flaws; debts, vices, negative personality traits etc."

I loved this idea, but I also love the jump-in-and-play philosophy of Mothership, so I decided to create some quick random tables for character development. I used these at my Mothership game last week and the players really connected. It gave them something besides the random patch and random personal item to develop a character around.

Invite players roll once on the "Why Are You Here?" table based on their class and once on the "Quirks and Flaws" table. They can also just pick one that looks fun to play or create their own.

Why Are You Here?

Choose one or roll 1d10 for your class:

Marine

1: You took this job after being dishonorably discharged from the military for punching your CO. (he deserved it)

2: You needed to get away from your exes before one of them kills you

3: You want to earn enough creds to buy your own private hab-bunker

4: You lost a bet

5: You're not sure - you woke up here after a long bender. Apparently you signed a contract.

6: You signed on after falling for a crew member on shore leave. Too bad they jumped ship at the last port of call.

7: You were no good as a civvy; you need a taste of danger to feel alive

8: You went AWOL, changed your name, and never looked back

9: You'll take any job where you get to hold a big gun

10: You lost a limb in action; you received a cybernetic replacement but your veterans benefit wasn't enough to pay for the surgery

Scientist

1: You need money to pay off high-interest college loans

2: You always dreamed of studying xenobiology in person

3: You are trying to understand what makes us human

4: You get a strange thrill out of cutting people with a scalpal

5: Idealistically you've always dreamed of seeing the stars

6: You're looking for xeno artifacts or technology to sell on the black market

7: You're running experiments on how parasites and fungi evolve in zero g environments

8: You're a minor government official tasked with doing dull and repetitive research

9: This was the only job you could get after a rival researcher trashed your reputation by accused you of falsifying results

10: The government of your homeworld disallowed your research for ethical reasons

Teamster

1: You're paying off the loans for a cybernetic replacement after you lost your left hand in a welding accident

2: You're an indentured servant working your way free of a Company-owned colony

3: You're on the run from some thugs you owe a lot of money to

4: You're sending money home to family members in trouble

5: This gig was better than the shit work on your homeworld

6: You lost a bet

7: You love handling big machines; the bigger the better

8: You dream of flying your own ship; working on this one is the closest you'll ever get

9: You're smuggling narcotics between ports of call for a crime family

10: You're not sure: your cryostasis unit malfunctioned, leaving you with holes in your memory

Android

1: You serve the needs of the company...even the ones the other crew members don't know about

2: You are full of viruses and due for retirement after this mission

3: You are a brand-new issue android and this is your first mission

4: Your memory was corrupted due to recent exposure to magnetic radiation

5: Your programming led you to believe that you were human and only recently have you learned the truth.

6: Your code has been hacked by a rival corporation. You are to gather valuable intel without revealing this fact

7: You have an interest in mastering human behaviors and you practice imitating them at every opportunity

8: You were designed as a pleasure droid but were transferred into this role due to a faulty personality module 

9: Due to a bug in your code, you identify more closely with non-human and artificial lifeforms than you do humans

10: You pretend to serve the needs of the company but you have hacked your own code

Flaws & Vices

Choose one or roll 1d30:

1: You have an itchy trigger finger

2: You suffer from terrible insomnia and/or narcolepsy

3: You tell bad jokes at inappropriate times

4: You owe a lot of money to some bad people

5: You consume your crewmembers' food / alcohol / drugs without asking

6: You smoke constantly

7: You're addicted to pain pills

8: You're a compulsive thief

9: You're OCD

10: You're a braggart

11: You're nervous about everything

12: You see the worst in everything

13: You're obnoxiously optimistic in terrible situations

14: You're a narcissist

15: You're shallow

16: You're lazy

17: You're unreliable

18: You drink too much

19: You don't trust anyone but yourself

20: You touch people inappropriately

21: You have anger issues

22: You get off on violence

23: You're condescending to others

24: You'll sleep with anyone or anything that smiles at you

25: You're greedy

26: You're a compulsive gambler

27: You're a compulsive liar

28: You're a religious fanatic

29: You're stingy and refuse to share with others

30: You're reckless - you don't take danger seriously until someone gets hurt

I hope you find these useful in your own Mothership (or any sci-fi) game! Let me know what you think and if you have any Mothership hacks you'd like to share.