If there’s one thing that the Warhammer 40k world rarely captures, that’s how terrifying it is for everyman. While grimdark comedy has always been part of the franchise’s DNA, the scale of warfare also means a lack of personal horror. It’s easy to brush aside Necrons vaporizing an entire squad of Imperial Guardsmen on the tabletop. But if you were one of those boots on the ground, such warfare would look like the end times. Just ask Ciaphas Cain.
Or better yet, experience it for yourself in this upcoming sci-fi horror adventure.
Twisted Unseen is a 36 page adventure module for Mothership: the Sci-Fi Horror RPG that takes place in a mysterious superstructure. For the unfamiliar, Mothership is a horror RPG set in space with OSR-style rules. You are not badass Warhammer 40k Space Marines. Instead, you are an average person desperately fighting against the horrors of space. And that’s if insanity doesn’t get you first. Plus, the creators took direct inspiration from Alien and Event Horizon, so best believe there’s cosmic horrors afoot.
The OSR-style rules and gritty premise makes Mothership a haven for sci-fi spooks. Twisted Unseen will feel particularly familiar to 40k fans. Ancient portal technology, metallic man-eating skeletons, and endless caverns promising more horrors than the last? It’s practically a Necron Tomb. The goal of this adventure is to map out the super-structure to learn its secrets, else you face an eternity in darkness.
On top of Mothership’s unique 1d100 event system, the adventure’s map-building aspect makes it mechanically intriguing. Exploration is so often just theater of the mind or set dressing in TTRPG sessions. Making the map itself the gameplay loop adds a new layer of tactile tension. Each new chamber draws them closer to freedom and death in equal measure.
You can support Twisted Unseen on Backerkit here.
The Wargamer Discord has plenty of tabletop fans you can ask to join this deadly space adventure. For more tabletop scares, these D&D horror one shots should shock you.