Custom Classes

Mothership 1e only includes four default classes, which are wonderful for generic play. Wardens may have a player who want a specific type of character and designers may want to create custom classes to accompany a module. This section provides a heuristic for developing custom classes, but is not a procedure . The specific classes in the subsequent sections of this chapter are examples of the heuristic in action where you can see how all of these are just guidelines not procedural rules.

Stats and Saves

When considering adjustments to Stats and Saves, think about the flavor of the character in the fiction and add bonuses of anywhere from -25 to +

Trauma Response

It is easiest to just use one of the stock Trauma Responses from one of the existing classes. However, if you are developing a custom Trauma Response, you really want to think of them as granting temporary conditions, you don't want them to act as essentially hidden skills, which is a tendency you can fall into when developing Trauma Responses.

Health

Use the built-in classes as a guideline for how many Wounds to grant a custom class. The default is assumed to be 2 Wounds with stronger characters having 3 Wounds; however, you may want to give a special character anywhere from 1 Wound to 5 Wounds depending on the purpose of the class.

Loadouts

It's better to have a single highly flavorful Loadout than it is to have a full ten generic loadouts. When developing loadouts, you want to think about items that lead to interesting problem-solving when playing as that class. Loadouts should be fiction driven like every other aspect of a class, don't worry about balance.

Trinkets and Patches

If you want to have class specific Trinkets and Patches, I recommend developing a d10 table of each. There is no need to develop a full d100 table of each if you are not developing them to be generic.

Skills

For custom classes, I advocate for giving a class specific skills rather than giving choices like with the stock classes. Custom classes are either something developed alongside a player or are good for defining human NPCs in modules. Players may choose custom classes from a module, but classes that are part of modules are generally just another way to provide flavor.