Paradigm Shift: Gradient Descent

What happens when a Mothership scenario is brought into Mage: The Ascension?

Adam examines Gradient Descent, a science-fiction horror scenario set aboard an abandoned android factory controlled by an AI called Monarch. The station contains valuable technology, discarded androids, copied human minds, unreliable allies, zero-gravity hazards, and an intelligence determined to make visitors question whether they were ever human.

The episode considers how to use the Deep as an Iteration X construct, how Monarch might connect to the Matriarch or Threat Null, and how the scenario can work for Technocrats, Tradition mages, Disparates, acolytes, or extraordinary citizens.

Show Notes

• Mothership - A sci-fi horror TTRPG with OSR-style, d100 rules and stress/panic mechanics, inspired by Alien and Event Horizon.
• Gradient Descent - A 64-page sci-fi horror megadungeon for Mothership, written by Luke Gearing, illustrated by Nick Tofani, published by Tuesday Knight Games (2020)
• Iteration X and Technocracy campaign hooks
• Correspondence, Life, Mind, hacking, and scenario balance
• Why the station works best outside the Umbra