Bathtub Reviews are an excuse for me to read modules a little more closely. I’m doing them to critique a wide range of modules from the perspective of my own table and to learn for my own module design. They’re stream of consciousness and unedited critiques. I’m writing them on my phone in the bath.

Brackish is a 19 page module for Mothership by Norgad, a creator I’m keeping a very close eye on, and C. Bell. In it, you investigate a space station that has sent a distress signal, with the goal of photographing each NPC and identifying their status, location and cause of death, all the while being pursued by a zombie-like creature. I received a complementary print copy of Brackish.

The thing that stands out most about Brackish are the goals: This is clearly inspired by video games like Return of the Obra-Dinn and Case of the Golden Idol, which in turn are inspired by classic mystery novels and board games. This means the players are incentivised to continue exploring until they’ve identified all 11 staff on the manifest. It also renders the environment and the NPCs a puzzle to be solved, making this a really compelling twist on the typical horror scenarios that occur in Mothership.

In addition to the zombie foe who persuades the players, the station is flooding due to a damaged airlock, and this flooding varies either on a timer or with the supplied soundtrack, in real time. This means that travel changes, and routes vary, and you can be trapped or prevented from accessing certain rooms depending on the time. I love these dynamic environmental challenges, and the real time soundtrack is a lovely touch.

The enemy creature, Flotsam, is interesting: Mystical, levitating, passing through mirrors and reflective surfaces, but nevertheless with unique varying tactics as it is injured. It’s uncommon for a Mothership module to feature a creature grounded in magic, but whilst Flotsam has fairytale vibes, it also responds in an dynamic way to the players offences. More foes in Mothership should be written like this. My main issue with Flotsam is that its goal is to protect a mystical object that the station has recovered: There’s no reason it would attack the player characters, let alone the entirely of the ship, even if it can be assumed that the creature is protecting only those that open the chest. I feel like, of the times specified for it to strike, finding the Stone Key is the only one that makes sense as motivation, and opening or finding the chest isn’t mentioned. I’d just change this, to be honest: The players might find Flotsam and it’s in hibernation, they photograph it and carry on their goal, until they trigger it by finding one of those aforementioned items.

If I changed this, though, the module might lose integrity. While this module departs Norgad’s typical tenseness — a smart move, as you expect the players to be investigating closely every room — this information is aimed at providing evidence for the stated goals of the players, not to tell them what happened or why Flotsam is there. There’s no way to find out that the key and the chest are the cause of all of this, without triggering it — partially because the station itself wasn’t entirely aware either. I don’t think this is necessarily a bad thing — but if I reposition the mystery to point at Flotsam, it’s not geared to prove that part of the story. It’s supposed to be a mystery why Flotsam appeared — it just might help if we knew a little more about the artefact and Flotsam, in terms of running the module, even if it never were revealed to the players.

The layout is solid, the art minimal but functional. The main issue in terms of visual design is that the rooms aren’t numbered in the key, just on the maps and minimaps. I think the thought is that this is redundant because the minimap cleverly rearranges the map such that the map keyed in that column is at the top of that column: This isn’t immediately apparent, though, it took some reviewing to realise this. Clever, but not well communicated. In terms of the map itself, it’s just begging for ventilation shafts, I have to say, given the nature of Flotsam and the flooding. I might add that in.

Brackish is a module, though, that benefits from preparation — while the evidence leading to each crew member is summarised at the back (this is excellent as far as I’m concerned), you might want to highlight that evidence in the module text, as it’s not highlighted natively, for example. You probably want to pitch this as an investigation or puzzle, to your table, as well. If the players aren’t digging through paperwork, looking in filing cabinets, and examining bodies, you’ll have to talk a lot as a referee, which would end up being quite dull. If they engage in being crime scene investigators eagerly, though, they’ll be in for a rewarding time. Importantly, the evidence provided doesn’t have to be adhered to at all: So long as they survive and have a convincing story that accounts for every crew member, they’re ok: Your superiors don’t know the real story. I like that, and it’s another reason perhaps not to centre Flotsam like I’m inclined to.

Overall, Brackish is the first module in a while to take on investigation as a goal , and it does it in an interesting way different to others like Witchburner and The Big Squirm, while keeping true to the horror roots of Mothership. With the right, fully engaged table, one that enjoys puzzles and is keen to emulate crime scene investigation for a few sessions, you’ll have an absolute ball.

Idle Cartulary

Playful Void is a production of Idle Cartulary. If you liked this article, please consider liking, sharing, and subscribing to the Idle Digest Newsletter. If you want to support Idle Cartulary continuing to provide Bathtub Reviews, I Read Reviews, and Dungeon Regular, please consider a one-off donation or becoming a regular supporter of Idle Cartulary on Ko-fi.