Thursday, 10 September 2026

1d100 Combat Stat Roll Critical Successes (Ideas)

1d100 Combat Stat Roll Critical Successes

Wardens! Players too? Need inspiration for what might happen on a Combat stat Critical Success? Fear Not!

This may be more for inspiration than actually rolling… Roll or have Player [ideally?] or Warden choose; not all are equal and some will be situationally better. I don't roll on this at all except sometimes for enemies. See also here for a great set of tables on crit fails & successes.

01-03   Quick reflexes: recover from bad result of prior action (e.g. dropped weapon)


03-06   Damage opponent’s weapon or make them drop it

07-09   Knock opponent prone (if possible)

10-12   Hit multiple opponents in Close range (if automatic weapon) or Adjacent (if swinging big weapon)

13-15   Knock opponent off balance—[-] for them until they adjust or violent encounter ends

16-18   Attack is Anti-Armor

19-21   DMG maximum

22-24   DMG double its roll

25-27   Wound roll is at [+]

28-30   DMG roll twice and sum


31-33   Opponent blinded—[-] for them until they get medical care

34-36   Hit opponent in chosen location; if a Wound results then it happens to that location

37-39   Opponent is stunned; loses 1 (or 1d5?) turn(s)

40-42   Quick fingers: may reload/switch weapon as free action now

43-45   Take opponent’s weapon (in melee)

46-48   Fancy feet: hit opponent and move 1 more range

49-51   Attack is silent (if possible); if opponent dies/goes unconscious they do not make a noise

52-54   Compel opponent to surrender/flee (they need to make Instinct roll?)

55-57   Impale opponent (if relevant)—weapon is stuck in their injury and gives them [-] until removed

58-60   Prepare counter-action—if opponent makes specified action next round, you can attack again

61-63   Humiliate foe—give them a scar; put them in an embarrassing situation, etc. (or intimidate them)

64-66   Pin opponent—they cannot move until making Combat/Instinct check

67-68   Make use of environment: hit ideal spot to inconvenience target or aid crew

69-71   Finesse: show off; no game mechanics effect but your Combat success is impressive!

71-73   Encourage crew: -1 Stress to all friendlies viewing; from exemplary performance

74-77   Distraction: give ally in Close range an extra action now

78-80   Suppression: opponent may not attack anyone for 1 round


81-83   Interruption: stop specified ability/action of target

84-86   Speedy reflexes: may take an extra action now

87-89   Aid ally: do 1 simultaneous non-Combat action to help ally in Close range

90-100 Choose one of above or roll two

           

 

Wednesday, 9 September 2026

1d100 Mishaps When Failing a Combat Stat Roll

Wardens! Need inspiration for things that can happen when a Combat stat roll is failed? Fear not! Here is a table I use. Loosely. Because some results are worse than others; e.g. apply "hit an ally" carefully. Some of these are better as Critical Failure results...

1d100 Mishaps When Failing a Combat Stat Roll

01-03   Trouble with recoil/swing, or lose grip: drop weapon

03-06   Weapon jams; clear the jam next round with a Combat check or Intellect + Jury Rigging/Mechanical Repair/Military Training/Firearms – or is stuck in something if melee weapon, Strength check or similar to free it

07-09   Weapon suffers damage and is at ½ damage until repaired

10-12   Weapon suffers damage and is at Disadvantage [-] for use until repaired

13-15   Weapon uses an extra shot and misses

16-18   Weapon uses 1d5 extra shots and misses (or all remaining ammo and misses)

19-21   Hit the/adjacent enemy but do ½ damage; or use all ammo and hit ½ damage

22-24   Hit an ally but do ½ damage

25-27   Hit an ally or two Adj.; they can Body save to avoid full damage; otherwise ½ damage

28-30   Hit an enemy but do ½ damage to them and (you or nearby ally)

31-33   Hit the local environment, creating hazard (obscuring smoke; dangerous gas; electrical shock or venting heat; disabled life support; hull breach; etc.)

34-36   Recoil/overswing disorients you; you cannot attack next turn

37-39   Slip and fall to ground (take next round to stand, or be [-] from ground for some actions)

40-42   You stumble and knock an adjacent ally down prone

43-45   Distract an ally with your mishap: they are at Disadvantage [-] on their next action

46-48   Something’s in your eye-- Disadvantage [-] for vision-related checks until cleared

49-51   Armor/clothes strap breaks; opponents can ignore AP until armour is fixed

52-54   Twist ankle/wrist: Disadvantage [-] on Speed or Combat rolls using that limb until treated

55-57   You’re outmanouvred! Lose cover, or similar tactical problem arises

58-60   If an ally is adjacent to you, one of the above mishaps happens to them instead

61-63   That was a bad shot/move! Increased self-doubt: 2x Stress result from this fail (i.e., +2 not +1 Stress)

64-66   Watch out! Ally is nearly hit and must make a Fear save or they gain +1 Stress

67-68   WTF? Ally sees how bad your attack was and grows in doubting you—they gain +1 Stress

69-71   Rising panic! Your next Panic check is at Disadvantage [-]

71-73   Am I cursed or something? Sanity save or +1 Stress

74-77   Butterfingers! If an enemy is Adj. to you, it may now grab your weapon as a free action; or drop it

78-80   Ouch! You wrenched/bruised a limb (recoil?) or other body part and take 1d5 DMG

81-83   Ricochet! Everyone (attacker included) within Close range to target = Body save or take ½ damage

84-86   Wide open! Enemy gets an extra attack on you (or someone else?) now, rolling their Combat stat

87-89   Lose Edge/enemy gains Edge (i.e., Edge = next action gets [+] or extra attack or similar benefit)

90-100 Choose one of above or roll two

 

On Critical Failures, may use the above as a guideline and make the result much worse.

Sunday, 6 September 2026

A cat cafe for Prospero's Dream

Wardens! Cat-obsessed? Are your players or their PCs? Shouldn't you/they be? 

Fear not! Cuddly cats are available for a reasonable fee on Prospero's Dream station!

“Cyber-Cat-Fey”

Location: wherever it works out best…

Building Description: Squat cylindrical new building made of white and grey banded plasteel, emblazoned with its logo and sign advertising its name.

Owner: Cedar Oversong, they/them, 30s, fit, beautiful features, surgical mods to look like an elf with silvery hair. Serious and businesslike.

5 cr entry; drinks etc. 2 cr.

Description of interior: Slick, clean décor of white and grey banded plasteel with curving architecture that has no sharp angles. The walls are decorated with diverse, flickering holo-art images of cyber-cats [PICS]. A small, cat-accessible counter monitored by a teenage girl (Calypso; friendly and competent; cat-crazy) with pigtails and rosy cheeks serves customers warm drinks and snacks. A 3D maze of platforms, tubes, vents, climbing walls and other challenges encases the main room. Green plants are ensconced into nooks here and there. Catnip incense pervades the air, covering odors from the multitude of litter boxes. Soft electronica music plays.

Cats: roll 1d5 cats on 1d10 table, to see who's around:

0. “Booster”: Synthetic black cat with mini-turbojets enabling incredible zoomies; mischievous.

1. “Dopey”: Sleepy grey-black tabby, napping 80% of time.

2. “Chantal”: Ginger tabby female; cybermods allow her to warble recent cyberpop hits; very affectionate.

3. “Mr. Nude”: Hairless synthetic cat with bright neon pink skin; curious.

4. “Sockit”: Big, burly white cat with bright blue eyes, likes to fight (play or real).

5. “Gwar”: Obese mottled cat always looking for treats but accepts scritches.

6. “Jemma”: Modified to have sparkling stars over silky hide. Aloof.

7. “Razor”: Hissy grey longhair cat, aggressive (to non-cats, mostly), at best standoffish; does jump-scare attacks.

8. “K-000”: Fully robotic, matte black kitten who is playful but very clumsy; can speak but has mind of an 8 year old.

9. “Swoopz”: Cyber-winged, feathered calico. Social but not affectionate.


Quotable Quotes from Shakespeare's "The Tempest"

Wardens! Players too! Want something nerdy to drop into your Prospero's Dream Mothership game and see if any literary players (or Warden) spot it? Fear not! Have at a roughly assorted list here:

TEMPEST LINES
 
see also: Caliban upon Setebos
By Robert Browning
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43748/caliban-upon-setebos
 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Setebos
https://criticsoftheclassics.wordpress.com/2015/05/20/the-monster-of-the-tempest-caliban/
 
Thou shalt be free
As mountain winds: but then exactly do
All points of my command.
 
Pardon, master;
I will be correspondent to command
And do my spiriting gently.
 
O, I have suffered with those that I saw suffer.
My library was dukedom large enough.
Ferdinand, 
With hair up-staring – then like reeds, not hair – 
Was the first man that leaped; cried ‘Hell is empty
And all the devils are here.’
For I am all the subjects that you have,
Which first was mine own king.
Full fathom five thy father lies;
Of his bones are coral made;
Those are pearls that were his eyes:
Nothing of him that doth fade,
But doth suffer a sea-change
Into something rich and strange.
Sea-nymphs hourly ring his knell: Ding-dong
Hark! now I hear them,—Ding-dong, bell.
Misery acquaints a man with strange bedfellows. 
Hast thou not dropped from heaven?
I am your wife, if you will marry me:
If not, I'll die your maid: to be your fellow
You may deny me, but I'll be your servant,
Whether you will or no.
The clouds methought would open and show riches
Ready to drop upon me, that when I waked,
I cried to dream again.
Our revels now are ended. These our actors,
As I foretold you, were all spirits and
Are melted into air, into thin air;
And, like the baseless fabric of this vision,
The cloud-capp'd towers, the gorgeous palaces,
The solemn temples, the great globe itself,
Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve,
And, like this insubstantial pageant faded,
Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff 
As dreams are made on: and our little life 
Is rounded with a sleep.
This music crept by me upon the waters,
Allaying both their fury and my passion
With its sweet air: thence I have follow'd it
 
Where the bee sucks, there suck I:
In a cowslip's bell I lie:
There I couch when owls do cry.
On the bat's back I do fly
After summer merrily.
Merrily, merrily, shall I live now
Under the blossom that hangs on the bough.
I have great comfort from this fellow: methinks he
hath no drowning mark upon him; his complexion is
perfect gallows.
 
Now would I give a thousand furlongs of sea for an
acre of barren ground, long heath, brown furze, any
thing. The wills above be done! but I would fain
die a dry death.
 
There's nothing ill can dwell in such a temple:
If the ill spirit have so fair a house,
Good things will strive to dwell with't.
 
They are both in either's powers; but this swift business
I must uneasy make, lest too light winning
Make the prize light.
 
The fringed curtains of thine eye advance
And say what thou seest yond.
 
What seest thou else
In the dark backward and abysm of time?
 
A rotten carcass of a butt, not rigg'd,
Nor tackle, sail, nor mast; the very rats
Instinctively had quit it
 
Safely in harbour
Is the king's ship; in the deep nook, where once
Thou call'dst me up at midnight to fetch dew
From the still-vex'd Bermoothes, there she's hid.
 
by telling of it,
Made such a sinner of his memory,
To credit his own lie, he did believe
He was indeed the duke
 
O, wonder!
How many goodly creatures are there here!
How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world,
That has such people in't.
As you from crimes would pardoned be,
Let your indulgence set me free.
We all were sea-swallow'd, though some cast again,
And by that destiny to perform an act
Whereof what's past is prologue, what to come
In yours and my discharge.
 
While you here do snoring lie,
Open-eyed conspiracy
His time doth take.
 
This thing of darkness I acknowledge mine.
 
Now I will believe that there are unicorns...
 
Awake, dear heart, awake. Thou hast slept well. Awake.
 
I would not wish any companion in the world but you, Nor can imagination form a shape, Besides yourself, to like of.
 
Let us not burthen our remembrance with a heaviness that's gone.
                                                    
I shall laugh myself to death at this puppy-headed monster. A most scurvy monster! I could find in my heart to beat him.
 
Why, thou deboshed fish thou,
was there ever man a coward that hath drunk so much
sack as I to-day? Wilt thou tell a monstrous lie,
being but half a fish and half a monster?
 
A fish: he smells
like a fish; a very ancient and fish-like smell; a kind of
not of the newest Poor-John. A strange fish!
 
'Ban, 'Ban, Cacaliban! Has a new master: get a new man. Freedom, hey-day!
 
Your tale, sir, would cure deafness.
 
Moon-calf, speak once in thy life, if thou beest a good moon-calf.
 
I will have none on't: we shall lose our time,
And all be turn'd to barnacles, or to apes
With foreheads villanous low.
 
Flout 'em and scout 'em
And scout 'em and flout 'em
Thought is free.
He that dies pays all debts
 
Trinculo, keep a good tongue in your head: if you
prove a mutineer,—the next tree! The poor monster's
my subject and he shall not suffer indignity.
 
He receives comfort like cold porridge.
 
To think but nobly of my grandmother: Good wombs have borne bad sons.
 
You taught me language, and my profit on't is, I know how to curse.
The red plague rid you for learning me your language!
 
Their manners are more gentle, kind, than of our generation you shall find.
 
I long to hear the story of your life, which must captivate the ear strangely.
 
Watch out he's winding the watch of his wit, by and by it will strike.
 
At this hour, Lie at my mercy all mine enemies.
 
Ye elves of hills, brooks, standing lakes and groves,
And ye that on the sands with printless foot
Do chase the ebbing Neptune and do fly him
When he comes back; you demi-puppets that
By moonshine do the green sour ringlets make,
Whereof the ewe not bites, and you whose pastime
Is to make midnight mushrooms, that rejoice
To hear the solemn curfew; by whose aid,
Weak masters though ye be, I have bedimm’d
The noontide sun, call’d forth the mutinous winds,
And ‘twixt the green sea and the azured vault
Set roaring war: to the dread rattling thunder
Have I given fire and rifted Jove’s stout oak
With his own bolt; the strong-based promontory
Have I made shake and by the spurs pluck’d up
The pine and cedar: graves at my command
Have waked their sleepers, oped, and let ‘em forth
By my so potent art. But this rough magic
I here abjure, and, when I have required
Some heavenly music, which even now I do,
To work mine end upon their senses that
This airy charm is for, I’ll break my staff,
Bury it certain fathoms in the earth,
And deeper than did ever plummet sound
I’ll drown my book.
 
Now my charms are all o'erthrown,
And what strength I have's mine own,
Which is most faint: now, 'tis true,
I must be here confined by you...
But release me from my bands
With the help of your good hands:
Gentle breath of yours my sails
Must fill, or else my project fails,
Which was to please: now I want
Spirits to enforce, art to enchant;
And my ending is despair,
Unless I be relieved by prayer,
Which pierces so, that it assaults
Mercy itself, and frees all faults.
 
I' the commonwealth I would by contraries
Execute all things; for no kind of traffic
Would I admit; no name of magistrate;
Letters should not be known; riches, poverty,
And use of service, none; contract, succession,
Bourn, bound of land, tilth, vineyard, none;
No use of metal, corn, or wine, or oil;
No occupation; all men idle, all;
And women too, but innocent and pure.
 
For several virtues
Have I liked several women; never any
With so full soul, but some defect in her
Did quarrel with the noblest grace she ow'd
And put it to the foil
 
Although they want the use of tongue, a kind of excellent dumb discourse.
 
Look thou be true; do not give dalliance
Too much the rein: the strongest oaths are straw
To the fire i' the blood: be more abstemious
 
Where the bee sucks. there suck I:
In a cowslip's bell I lie;
There I couch when owls do cry.
On the bat's back I do fly
After summer merrily.
Merrily, merrily shall I live now
Under the blossom that hangs on the bough.
 
How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world, that has such people in't!
 
Let us not burthen our remembrance with a heaviness that's gone.
 
Now I want
Spirits to enforce, art to enchant,
And my ending is despair,
Unless I be relieved by prayer
Which pierces so that it assaults
Mercy itself and frees all faults.
As you from crimes would pardon'd be,
Let your indulgence set me free.

Prospero's Dream: Typical Costs

Wardens! Are you like me and running a game on Prospero's Dream station? Fear not! I compiled these costs, mostly from APOF itself and then also some from PSG/WOM.

Mothership costs / Prospero’s Dream
Income:
500 cr/month per Trained skill
1000 cr/month per Expert skill
2000 cr/month per Master skill
Includes travel time
Work-travel costs normally paid
Hazard pay = 1-5x normal salary
+1000cr/Jump (cost+wear & tear)
Or just a flat rate per PC
[Advocate in Prospero’s Dream Court = 5kcr/win]
 
Normally this income is eaten up by cost of living
In best case, PC can save 1 month salary/year
 
Jobs board: (Phoenix Contracting Mesh)
Green list =       basic jobs 1-10kcr
Black list =        restricted jobs; 10-100+kcr
Red list =          100+kcr; need good reputation/patron
Windfalls =        1+Mcr; extraordinary
 
Bartering may always be an option if either party cannot afford
 
Prospero’s Dream costs:
[Docking fees 2 kcr/day or 10kcr/week; refuelling 1-5x normal; discount warp core 50kcr, single-jump]
Weapons locker                                    1cr/day/weapon
Credstick O2                                         10cr/day
Seller’s license                                      2kcr/year
Bribes:                                                  minor 2d10x10cr; major 2d10x10kcr
Directions from strangers                       10cr
 
Travel on Dream:
Walking                                                free!   (15min/square on map)                            (1 encounter)
Gondola on waterways; sewers              1cr/slice (~2 squares), one-way                         (1 encounter)
Tuk tuk, rickshaw, Jimmy Cab, etc.         1cr/slice (~2 squares), one-way                         (1 encounter)
Dreamscape Metro                                5cr single pass; 10cr day pass; 50cr week pass             (1 encounter/trip max)
Monorail (middle-class)                         10cr/person/trip or 50cr/day pass                         (unlikely encounter)
Travel via (space) shuttle                       50cr/person/trip (safest)                                     (no encounter?)
 
Basic living expenses: (food, drink, etc.; not housing)
Squalor             10cr/day (300/month); eluding Tempest Co.
Borderline         50cr/day (1500cr/month); bare essentials
Citizen              100cr/day (3000cr/month)
Decadent          300cr/day (9000cr/month)
 
Housing costs:   typical, per person
Hostel               1cr/night
Capsule Hotel   100cr/night
Arco-Op            500cr/month but 20hrs co-op work/month
Apartment         1d5kcr/month rent         or 1d10x100kcr to buy (roll once/month; that is best deal you can get)
Penthouse        10kcr/month rent           or 1d10Mcr to buy (roll once/month; that is best deal you can get)
 
Total cost if have locker w/1 weapon, 6cr share of seller’s license, O2, Borderline living (so far = 67cr/day) +  Arco-Op housing = 2500cr / month (can barely meet ~3000cr/month salary and that’s plus Arco work time)
(no travel/directions/bribes included; or lump those as ~500cr/month)
 
Other costs on Dream
Cover charges, drinks, food, entertainment, maintenance/supplies, religion, medical care…
 
Training 10/50/200 kcr
 
Shore leave on X-class (not P.D.) = 1d100 x10 kcr
Retirement = safe at 1Mcr+

Mothership: list of available classes

Players and Wardens! Four classes not enough for you in Mothership RPG? Fear not! I keep an up-to-date list, and now have it hyperlinked for sources of almost all of them. Hopefully soon I'll find them all.

Plenty more are on the Mothership Discord forum

Mothership Classes

1)             Smuggler (and this)

2)             Criminal

3)             Convict

4)             Mobster

5)             Dealer (merchant etc.)

6)             Space Greaser

7)             Bounty hunter (and here)

8)             Private Investigator

9)             The Suit (Company agent)

10)          Director (Company field agent)

11)          Altered (taken and returned by alien entities; forever changed)

12)          Zealot (warrior cultist/“paladin”)

13)          Spiritual Leader

14)          Bioascetic Solarian

15)          Sower Solarian

16)          Void Musician (“music of the universe” weirdo)

17)          Voidborn (grown up on station/ship/asteroid)

18)          Voidtouched (cosmic mystic)

19)          Void Urchin (plucky space-kid)

20)          Void Monk

21)          Retiree

22)          Death Doula (guide through death-related experiences)

23)          Tourist (rich Core World person “touring” in rented body)

24)          Flesh Mechanic (cybernetics obsessed)

25)          Data Leech (digital obsessed)

26)          Galactic Gong Farmer (poo/septic maintenance)

27)          Rim Farmer

28)          Asteroid Miner

29)          Colonist

30)          Celebrity

31)          Fool

32)          Clown

33)          Cryptozoologist

34)          Field biologist

35)          Zoologist

36)          Pirate

37)          Spec Op (Company security)

38)          Secret Agent (spy; disguised as other class)

39)          Operator (non-military tough person)

40)          Marshal (Outer Rim law enforcement)

41)          The Law (law enforcement background)

42)          Sergeant (Military leader)

43)          Ranger (wilderness operative)

44)          Weaver (hyperspace pilot)

45)          Witness (field reporter)

46)          Emissary

47)          Journalist

48)          Camera Operator (ARKYR supplement)

49)          Producer (ARKYR supplement)

50)          Sound Recordist (ARKYR supplement)

51)          Utility Technician (ARKYR supplement)

52)          Alternative android (Walks of Life expansion); or here, or here

53)          Robot

54)          Retro Robot (1950s style)

55)          Conscious Construct (alternative robot)

56)          Biologic (human clone with visceral horror aspects)

57)          Hybrid (disturbed human-android mess)

58)          Replika (various forms of deeply flawed biomechanical constructs)

59)          Psychic—quite a few: (1) , (2) , (3), (4), (5), (6), (7), (8) to name some (some of which are rules more than classes, but could make any class become psychic)…

60)          Space vampire! (a la Blindsight?)

61)       Acolyte

62)       Prisoner

63)       Empath

64)       Juggernaut (gonzo cyborg space marine)

65)       Attache (bearer of mysterious briefcase)

66)       Gunslinger (Desert Moon of Karth)

67)       Duster (Desert Moon of Karth)

68)       Tenderfoot (Desert Moon of Karth)

69)       Retriever ("extrajudicial abductions of privileged addicts")



Beyond Jonesy: Cats In Mothership Scenarios

Wardens! Are xenomice troubling your PCs in Mothership RPG, is there a lack of sufficient cuteness, or do you need to add the horror of cat-...