The Haunting of Ypsilon-14 - Play Review
Earlier this month I looked at my RPG spreadsheet and saw that I was close to playing 10 different RPG systems this year, a record for me. With spooky season upon us I asked one of my tables to pause our Pathfinder 2nd Edition campaign of Abomination Vaults to play a one shot of Mothership. I have a great and accommodating crew of players and they agreed.
I settled on The Haunting of Ypsilon-14, a very popular introductory module. It's a trifold pamphlet. Inside the folds of this hazard yellow module there is a single picture of an asteroid, dense text describing a mining base and a monster. I hunted down some cool visuals to use in Foundry including these neat images from Istallri and this fake console interface. I read this bad boy two to three times and a few articles about running Ypsilon-14. Finally, I solicited the advice of a fellow GM who loves Mothership, horror and has run The Haunting of Ypsilon-14 previously.
The situation on Ypsilon-14 is very straightforward and draws directly from a huge Mothership inspiration: Alien. Your player's ship arrives to deliver supplies to a mining station on the titular asteroid. When they arrive the shit hits the fan as an invisible monster, released by the mining, starts picking off crew.
A Digression about Horror
Let me start with a disclaimer that will color my review. I don't have a deep catalogue of horror either in cinema or novel form. I have seen Alien and Aliens. I've read more horror novels but not a ton. I love the horror aesthetic. A good creepy monster, dark atmosphere, looming shadows. I'm a dark fantasy person, but I feel that's not the same as horror. And when it comes to RPGs, my experience is definitely on the heroic side.
At the Table
This adventure is dense but I found it to be thoughtfully designed. The interior of the pamphlet is both the dungeon map and they key. I love this. It makes the connections between spaces explicit keeps me from flipping back and forth between the map and key. There is a lot of text in these locations but good use bolding helps to parse them at the table.
The first friction I felt was starting this module. This is a bit of a thorny nest of interlocking points. I wanted to hook players, I wanted there to be a narrative reason why they couldn't leave immediately and I wanted to wrap this whole adventure in our normal 3 hour time block. The text doesn't address any of this at all.
To keep the adventure contained to Ypsilon-14 I had the Company restrict take off until receiving an "All Clear" message from the Heracles. This other ship was crewed by a Company scientist. To start on an every day footing I had Mike's disappearance happen recently enough where people were annoyed, not scared. From there things went smoothly until the Monster's first attack.
Which brings me to my second difficulty: eleven NPCs is a lot to deal with in a 3 hour session! Nine of them were present in the opening and it was hard to give a scene with them all any texture. I focused on just a few to characterize. Then the killing started and I couldn't quite devour them fast enough. I felt that this was a bit awkward. The player crew tried to take charge and keep the NPCs safe. But since so many of them were alive this led the players to skipping the bunks, sidelining investigation.
Otherwise things went pretty smoothly! The crew worked together to try and figure out what was going on and save the crew. They sought out Mike and the Company scientist, Ethan. There was a fraught descent down the elevator. An exploration of a dark mine. There was plenty of easily accessible detail to support their investigations and provide for tense moments. The audio files provided in the digital version were also really well received by the players.
Due the equipment loadouts the players rolled, I allowed the players (through some good tactics!) to defeat(?) the monster. Our game ended up as less horror and more low heroism.
What Would I Change or Prep for?
This tiny adventure is extremely dense. I think I could run this many times and never have a similar experience.
If I was to run this again for a 1 shot I might start off with the monster having already killed several crew members and the rest of the crew holed up through-out the mining base. I think this would be great for a 1-shot.
Another idea might be to really slow burn this adventure. Have the NPC crew all working hard on the clock and don't have any time for the players. The players are locked in due to mandatory shore leave or maybe they need to connect with the Heracles and Dr. Ethan. People start disappearing. This might put the focus more on investigation and could lead to a 2 session experience.
I'd be hesitant to allow the crew to easily leave, even with the adventure's directive of having the monster stow away onboard. I think the NPCs and strange location bring more drama than the player crew's ship. I'd only pursue this option if the mining base has been wrung of its drama.
Conclusion
I enjoyed running this adventure quite a bit. There are a lot of things to interact with here and mysteries to solve. To refer back to the excellent Mothership Warden's Guide, this adventure has Survive, Save, Solve well covered. There's a horrible invisible monster on the loose that you have to escape. There's a cat and 9 NPCs that need help. There's multiple mysteries with the Yellow Goo, the monster and Dr. Ethan Giovanni. I think it's easy to connect these details and keep the players moving.
If you're planning on running The Haunting of Ypsilon-14 is to plan your start: how are you planning for your player crew to get and stay on Ypsilon-14? Then think about that big list of NPCs and how you want to use them.