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Hi, I've played a little Mothership and listened to some actual plays, and I think the system is really tense and exciting. But one thing bothers me, perhaps because I come from a more narrative-focused side of the TTRPG spectrum: when a player dies in mothership, they're meant to hop into a nearby NPC and start playing them instead.
I've not actually experienced this in a game (all our characters have survived so far), and it hasn't come up in any APs that I could find. How does that moment feel, as a player? Are you disappointed that you "failed"? Was the horrible grisly death scene actually kind of cool, and it made your session more fun? How attached were you to the second character? Did you enjoy suddenly switching perspectives?
I think the mechanic is an interesting way to deal with player death, and totally necessary for a game which welcomes character death generally, but I wonder if there are other solutions that might break immersion less. For example, a friend of mine suggested using infection and dismemberment as ways to raise the stakes and keep the pressure on without actually killing PCs and forcing a character reset.
Or is this the wrong way to think about this? This is an OSR game, after all - do most people just not overthink this, throw their characters into harm's way and just enjoy the chaos?
Ars Magica does Troupe games, everyone has 2 or 4 PCs to play and you jump around in different plots with the same overall group. So I've used that idea, and be in games with that idea.
The way I got into that was by having my "Main" and my "henchmen" I fully built the "Main" while I went around trying to hire specific "Henchmen" to do things I needed done. Now the DM built them as NPCs but it wasn't a big deal. Then I got to RP the Henchmen on their sidequests doing what the "Main" needed done. It wasn't often but it added to the game when the Henchmen won or failed and we knew why because we controlled them.
Then my "Main" died in a big combat, bound to happen, so I picked a Henchman to play as my new Main. Since he was more involved in the over all game and I had moments playing him I wasn't worried about any attachment or anything. In fact I liked him a bit more, since I got to tweak his stats and things, playing a different character, and just knowing the system better. This set up gives a player a chance to know their backups and play them a few times to mess around, see if they want that to be a backup.
I always give a PC a chance to get into the new shoes of a fresh character, even a few small scenes alone, history building, something to give them a chance to see with the new set of eyes they made and WHY they are now part of the group. All depending on the situation at hand.
Though, I don't see a death as a "BAD" thing. People tend to say PC death shouldn't happen cause "RPGS are co-op storytelling experiences" And they forget that sometimes, a story can end on a death and it's just as interesting and satisfying to see the ripples from the death vs going on again and again.
Don't get too attached to a character in games like this, enjoy the story and accept that it ended on a death if it happens. Your DM can and should find ways to tie that back into the plot for at least a few moments for a Swan Song of the dead character.
Honestly this is a game were Death NEEDS to be around often, and with no threat of it for fear of "Breaking Immersion" it kinda rips some of the teeth out of horror.
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"Usually I don't like a character dying simply because they made a few bad rolls: it can cut short an arc in a way that's unsatisfying"
That's on the Table then, if everyone just shrugs their shoulders and moves on then oh well. A death should be meaningful, I mean even if it's someone that you've only had like 8 RL hours interacting with. It's why I like games like ACKS that rewards Heroic Funerals with giving the next PC more EXP and brings them up in levels. Or gives them cool artefacts from the dead hero.
I always point out Boromir dying in Fellowship as a meaningful death for a PC. I TRY to give my players a dramatic moment if it makes sense, someone bleeding out gets his moment VS someone exploded or disintegrated.
Having PCs being a Mentor/Patron to NPCs is a great way to make things interesting. I had a Fighter NPC that I had rescued in a war torn country, my Wizard mentored him in the ways of magic making him an Spellblade later on. It was really fun and awesome to keep things going through fighting and surviving, to end with my Wizard dying and handing off his magic items then playing the Spellblade and knowing the items he had gotten was pretty awesome.