Mothership to Alien RPG Conversion Rules, Part 1

I love the Mothership roleplaying game, but a lot of their modules are quite “universal” in that they have little in the way of stats and focus more on adventure outlines and tables… meaning they are very well suited for use in other RPG systems, such as Alien: The Roleplaying Game (hereafter referred to as “Alien TRPG”), by Free League.

Based on this Reddit post, I figured that a way to convert Mothership material to Alien TRPG stats would be helpful for those who buy these modules in the hopes of using them with Free League’s system…

What follows is the quick and dirty method I came up with to convert Mothership PCs and NPCs to equivalent Alien TRPG stats. It is pretty rough and doesn’t always produce a balanced character, so some common sense tweaking is strongly advised.

I will post “creature” conversions soon.

 

CHARACTER CONVERSION

Role -> Career

• Marine = Colonial Marine or Colonial Marshall (as appropriate)
• Teamster = Roughneck or Officer (as appropriate)
• Scientist = Scientist or Medic (as appropriate)
• Android = Synth, with appropriate Career

Note: Typically, Androids seem to serve as technicians, assistants and executive officers in Mothership.

Abilities

• Strength = Strength + Body + Armor / 20 (round down)
• Agility = Speed + Combat / 20 (round nearest)
• Wits = Intellect + Sanity / 20 (round nearest)
• Empathy = Intellect + Fear / 20 (round nearest)

Skills

Note: this was the tough one, since Alien TRPG has a lot fewer skills than Mothership does. Feel free to suggest changes to this for re-balancing once you test it out!

Trained Skills

• Archaeology = +1 to Observation for each point in this skill
• Art = +1 to Observation for each point in this skill
• Athletics = +1 to Stamina and +1 to Mobility for each point in this skill
• Biology = +1 to Observation for each point in this skill
• Chemistry = +1 to Observation for each point in this skill
• Computers = +1 to Comtech for each point in this skill
• Driving = +1 to Piloting for each point in this skill
• First Aid = +1 to Medical Aid for each point in this skill
• Geology = +1 to Observation for each point in this skill
• Heavy Machinery = +1 to Heavy Machinery for each point in this skill
• Linguistics = +1 to Observation for each point in this skill
• Mathematics = +1 to Comtech for each point in this skill
• Mechanical Repair = +1 to Heavy Machinery for each point in this skill
• Military Training = +1 to Stamina and +1 to Mobility for each point in this skill
• Piloting = +1 to Piloting for each point in this skill
• Rimwise = +1 to Manipulation for each point in this skill
• Scavenging = +1 to Survival for each point in this skill
• Theology = +1 to Observation for each point in this skill
• Zero-G = +1 to Survival for each point in this skill; add EVA Expert talent

Expert Skills

• Asteroid Mining = +1 to Heavy Machinery and +1 to Survival per point in this skill
• Astrogation = +1 to Observation for each point in this skill
• Botany = +1 to Observation for each point in this skill
• Close Quarters Combat = +2 to Close Combat for each point in this skill
• Engineering = +2 to Heavy Machinery for each point in this skill
• Explosives = +2 to Heavy Machinery for each point in this skill
• Firearms = +1 to Ranged Combat for each point in this skill
• Genetics = +1 to Observation for each point in this skill
• Gunnery = +1 to Ranged Combat for each point in this skill
• Hacking = +2 to Comtech for each point in this skill
• Jury-Rigging = +2 to Heavy Machinery for each point in this skill
• Mysticism = +1 to Observation for each point in this skill
• Pathology = +2 to Medical Aid for each point in this skill
• Physics = +1 to Observation for each point in this skill
• Planetology = +1 to Observation for each point in this skill
• Psychology = +2 to Manipulation for each point in this skill
• Tactics = +1 to Command for each point in this skill
• Vehicle Specialization = +2 to Piloting for each point in this skill

Master Skills

• Artificial Intelligence = +3 to Comtech for each point in this skill
• Command = +2 to Command for each point in this skill
• Cybernetics = +3 to Comtech for each point in this skill
• Hyperspace = +1 to Observation for each point in this skill
• Robotics = +3 to Comtech for each point in this skill
• Sophontology = +1 to Observation for each point in this skill
• Surgery = +3 to Medical Aid for each point in this skill
• Weapon Specialization = +2 to Ranged Combat for each point in this skill
• Xenobiology = +1 to Observation for each point in this skill
• Xenoesotericism = +1 to Observation for each point in this skill

Talents

• Pick whichever are appropriate for the character’s role, skill set and level. Higher level characters should have more Talents.

Note on Mothership NPCs

Perhaps fortunately, NPCs in most published Mothership modules do not have a great deal of stats printed, meaning that you can simply generate most of them from “scratch” as Alien TRPG NPCs. These conversion guidelines should help in adapting what stats they do have to Alien TRPG equivalents, though, hopefully.

Player characters will require comprehensive conversion, however, but likely it is easier to just recreate the PC entirely using Alien TRPG’s character generation rules, unless they already “leveled up” as part of an active and ongoing Mothership campaign that the GM wishes to “cross over” to the Free League system.

 

WEAPONS CONVERSION

The following is how I substitute Mothership weapons for Alien TRPG ones. Note that some have no core book equivalent but “fit” with new weapons I was already working on for an “Aliens: Dark Horse Comics” sourcebook (Wilton Tangler, for example), which I link to below.

• Combat Shotgun = Armat M37A2 Shotgun
• Crowbar = Blunt Instrument
• Flame Thrower = M240 Incinerator Unit
• Flare Gun = Flare Pistol^*
• Foam Gun = Wilton Tangler^*
• Frag Grenade = M40 HEDP Grenade^*
• Hand Welder = Cutting Torch
• Laser Cutter = Rexim RXF-M5 EVA Pistol
• Nail Gun = Watatsumi DV-303 Bolt Gun
• Pulse Rifle = Armat M41A Pulse Rifle
• Revolver = .357 Magnum Revolver
• Rigging Gun = SpaceSub ASSO-400 Harpoon Grappling Gun
• Scalpel = Knife
• Smart Rifle = Armat M42A Scope Rifle
• SMG = Armat M39 Submachinegun^*
• Stun Baton = Stun Baton
• Tranq Pistol = MedTech Synapse Scrambler^*
• Vibrochete = Hand Axe^*

^* = new weapon; see here

Note: this entry was originally posted on Reddit here.