Echoes in the Graveyard
A downloadable game
The crew of the deep space survey vessel, Graveyard is trapped. Not by an evil crime syndicate or predatory creature but by the impassive, unfeeling force of Time itself. Can your players save them? Can they save themselves?
Echoes in the Graveyard is a 24-page sci- fi horror adventure for the Mothership Sci-Fi Horror Role Playing Game by Tuesday Knight Games.
Featuring:
- A familiar, mind-bending sci-fi trope recreated in a simple, easy-to-play format.
- A complex challenge for players that rewards smart play over brute force.
- A small cast of memorable NPCs designed for playability, including a talking computer.
Plus bonus content for use with any Mothership game:
- Technobabble and Science Jargon generators to support interactions with expert NPCs.
- 5d10 solar system generator to quickly create an unexplored sector.
- Expanded Jump Space content:
- Jump sickness rules for humans who stay awake during jump
- Non-lethal, jump induced android malfunction table
- Jump space rumors and plot hooks
Purchase
In order to download this game you must purchase it at or above the minimum price of $6 USD. You will get access to the following files:
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Comments
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I plan on running this next week, and I have a really basic question. How exactly are the PCs meant to arrive on The Graveyard, when they start on their own ship? Are they supposed to be docked with it already, are they responding to a distress signal, etc.?
Page 8 "Beginning the loop" includes direction on this topic. After you establish the PCs Starting Positions, their ship collides with the Time Loop. Once this happens, everything on their ship is stuck in Temporal Stasis and outside of the ship is the Void, which means they can't really do anything to escape without leaving their ship. When they eventually leave their ship, either through an airlock or some other means, they are immediately transported onto the Graveyard at a random hour. When I have run the adventure, I have encourage the PCs to leave by making it clear that they aren't able to effectively do anything on their own ship. If you are concerned they may never leave their ship, you could say their ship is docked with...something...but the scanners aren't working due to the temporal stasis and the only way to find out what's there is to exit the ship.
However you get them off the ship, they immediately appear on the Graveyard at a random hour, then return to their own ship at Starting Positions after 1 hour in game time, 15 minutes of real time or if all the PCs die. Then the loop begins again:
They appear at starting positions
Exit their ship
Appear on the Graveyard
Explore the Graveyard until the loop repeats
They appear at starting positions....
There are some more details on page 8 regarding how PCs can return to specific hours within the time loop.
Good luck and have fun. Feel free to ping me again if you have more questions.
Hey, thanks for the reply! This is my group's first time playing Mothership, so I want it to be special and I appreciate your help.
I'm not sure I got my question across clearly the first time. I understand most of what you're saying. But my question is more along the lines of: when they exit their ship's airlock, how do they get from there to The Graveyard? You say, "they are immediately transported onto the Graveyard," and what I'm asking is...what does that look like? Is it like...one moment they're on their ship...they open their airlock... and then they're just all of a sudden on The Graveyard? I don't want to say teleported per se...but is it just instantaneous like teleportation? Like "wait, how the hell did I get here?"
One other question while I've got you: How long does this take to run on average?
Thanks again! This was such a cool adventure to read, and I'm really looking forward to seeing the many fun ways the characters inevitably end up dying lol
Happy to help and honored that Echoes will be y’all’s first foray into MoSH.
Each Hour has a specific location on the Graveyard where the PCs begin. These locations are all over the ship, which means they’ll be suddenly changing locations upon exiting their ship. This is supposed to be abrupt and confusing. Definitely should be like “how the hell did I get here?!”
When I’ve run it I make it very sudden. You exit your airlock and you are immediately in a different place. It should be strange, disorienting and hard to understand. It doesn’t need to make sense. The fact that it doesn’t make sense should clue the PCs into realizing that something very strange is happening.
I do the same thing when the loop repeats and the PCs return to Starting Positions. Bang, regardless of what was happening they are back in the exact spot they started, doing the same thing, holding the same stuff, etc. This is intentionally playing on time loop tropes (like in Groundhogs Day where the day always starts with the same song). These hard cuts to repeated elements are there to hopefully clue players in to the fact they are trapped in a time loop.
Regarding the duration, I’ve ran it twice and both times we played for 2 sessions with each session between 3 - 4 hours long. I’ve heard of groups taking longer and shorter to escape. Because this is a mystery and a puzzle, it will vary based on how quickly players realize their in a loop and how quickly they understand the events of the loop. Don’t be afraid to reveal that they are trapped in a loop if they are having trouble realizing it. That isn’t the important part. The real challenge is figuring out why the loop is happening and altering the events in the loop to change the outcome.
Yes!!! Be super brutal and kill the PCs often. Once they realize they come back when the loop repeats, they’ll get really crazy and try stupid stuff, which is another key element of a good time loop story. Kill them and then watch kill themselves doing wild schemes. 😈
Wow, again so stoked this will be your first Mothership adventure. I’d love to hear how it goes!
You've answered my questions perfectly, and now I feel fully prepared to run the game! The "doesn't make sense" part is what needed to click for me. It doesn't NEED to make sense.
You've also given me the idea to repeat the same real-life song at the beginning of the first few loops, to bake in the repetition even more.
I was hoping to play 2-4 sessions, so that's perfect. I'll definitely let you know how it goes!
I can already tell you though...your module got me more excited for GMing, not just Mothership, but in general, than I've been in two decades. Here's a little backstory...
I just finished running a level 1-10 PF2E campaign, (Gatewalkers) and had requested a break from GMing anything crunchy for 6 months while I rest my brain and prepare for the 11-20 campaign (Fists of the Ruby Phoenix). So for the last couple of months, my friends have been GMing shorter games. We've played some World of Darkness stuff and a GM-less game called The Zone (which was out-of-this-world good).
But after reading your module, I immediately bought several other modules, devoured them, and realized that I'd probably consumed enough content to last our group a year of gaming. So I asked them if I could just GM a giant Mothership campaign, starting with your module...and they said yes! So Pathfinder has to go on the backburner for a while, but oh well. Worth it
I am thrilled to hear that my module helped you get jazzed about GMing again. I too got pretty burned out on crunch, which is what got me interested in MoSH in the first place.
Hell yes, use a song at starting positions. That is a great idea.
There are a ton of great modules for Mothership, definitely enough for a long campaign. If you ever need a random planet, here’s a planet generator I made a couple years ago. The content is by Ian Yusem so you know it’s good.
https://anodyneprintware.com/planets/
Sorry to ask the same question seen so often in these comments, but any physical copies available now? I checked Spear Witch, Exalted Funeral and TKG, but no luck.
YO! I just shipped a box of 100 copies to TKG so it should be back up there shortly.
Fantastic, thanks!
Yo! It looks like print copies are up on the TKG store. https://shop.tuesdayknightgames.com/products/echoes-in-the-graveyard
Thanks for the heads up, I contacted them a while back and they said it'd be up soon so I've been checking back every couple of days. Just got my order in and can't wait to try it out!
I let this sit for too long without reviewing it. This was the first Mothership campaign I ever ran. The layout is so easy to use, everything you need for the day is on that page. I set a 14-15 minute timer for each "day" and let the timeline play out, making minor adjustments as my players interacted with the Graveyard and crew. Great times and great memories.
Thanks for these very kind words. I’m super stoked that you enjoyed playing it.
Any chance on some physical copies being printed soon?
Hey PoB,
It looks like Spear Witch still has some physical copies. Let me know if that doesn't work out. I few hard copies left.
https://spearwitch.com/products/echoes-in-the-graveyard?_pos=1&_sid=48b1b863c&_s...
Being stuck on repeat has never been so much fun.
https://www.rpggeek.com/thread/2620735
thanks for this great review! I really appreciate you taking the time to share your thoughts.
Just saw the print copies are sold out again? Will new be available at a later time?
I just sent 30 copies to Exalted Funeral on Saturday so they should have more in the near future. Also, TKG is going have some for sale on their site soon as well.
Very nice! Thank you. I'll keep a watch on those webstores.
Print copies are sold out, do you know when they'll be in stock?
The second print run is in progress now. The upcoming holiday may slow down the shipping so hopefully it will be up on Spear Witch again in the next 2-3 weeks.
FYI, print copies are back in stock at both Spear Witch and Exalted Funeral.