Aging and Dying in Mothership

The Years Doth Pass

Mythic Bastionland splits days into Phases, years into Seasons, and a lifespan into Ages.

This is helpful for time skips. If hours pass, skip ahead a phase or two. If weeks pass, skip ahead a season or two. If years pass, skip ahead an age or two.

It also has rules for aging.

In that game, young characters start with all stats d12+d6 (average 10), and mature characters start with all stats d12+6 (average 12.5, 25% better than young).

After an age, young characters become mature, rerolling their stats and keeping them if higher. After another age, mature characters become old, rerolling stats again and keeping them if lower. Each age after that, they lose d12 max vigor (average 6.5), which is the stat representing physical health/strength, dying of old age if this takes their max below zero (so typically in another two ages or so).

How to represent this in Mothership?

Rules as written, starting strength is 2d10+25 (average 36), and starting body save is 2d10+10 (average 21).

So with that in mind, here’s my adaptation of the aging and dying rules from MB for MoSH:

• If your character starts young, generate stats as normal but then reduce them all by 5
• Same for if they start old, but only the physical stats (strength, speed, and body save)
• When they become mature, reroll all stats and keep if higher
• When they become old, reroll all stats and keep if lower
• Each time an age passes beyond that, reduce their max strength, speed, and body save by d10 (roll with advantage if they have reliable access to good healthcare, and with disadvantage if they have an unhealthy lifestyle or environment)
• If this brings their body save below zero, they die of old age
• If this brings their strength or speed below zero but not their body save, they are still alive but must retire from adventuring due to being bedridden, frail, or having serious mobility issues.

This results in overall longer lifespans than Mythic Bastionland (reducing the “you die if this goes below zero” stat by about a quarter each age rather than about half), which I think makes sense for a sci-fi setting vs a medieval one. Adjust how many years an “age” is for desired realism or to suit the setting.

Marines and Teamsters start with +10 to their body saves which may make them live a bit longer (which makes sense as fitness is linked to lifespan), but they also lead dangerous lives so I’m sure it balances out. Characters that want to live longer should make sure to allocate some of the stress they convert with shore leave to their body save! This represents taking care of your physical health :)