I’ve been using Prospero’s Dream as the homebase for my Mothership open table set in the Tempest Cluster. This space station is described in A Pound of Flesh and will also be featured in the upcoming Prospero’s Dream boxed set.
Scattered throughout A Pound of Flesh are a bunch of different rumors concerning the station. Among other sources, they can be obtained by:
- Spending 100cr at the Docks
- Buying a drink from Sem, bartender at the Stellar Burn
- Exchanging an O2 tank in the Doptown Slums
I wanted to incorporate these disparate rumors into the wider rumor procedures I’m using for my open table, and to do that easily I wanted to unify them into a single master rumor table for the station. I took the opportunity to add a bunch of new rumors, too.
Since this seems like the sort of thing other GMs using Prospero’s Dream might find useful, I’m sharing the full table here.
PROSPERO’S DREAM – MASTER RUMOR TABLE
| d100 | Rumor |
|---|---|
| 01-02 | There are strange creatures growing in the Choke. / There have been strange disappearances in Doptown, but no confirmed sighting there yet. / Officials are quietly reassuring the public that there’s no risk of anything escaping the deoxygenated zone. (Chokespawn, APOF p. 35.) |
| 03 | Yandee, leader of the Golyanova Bratva, is secretly an android. (APOF, p. 8) |
| 04 | Cutter, commander of the Tempest Mercenary Company, is plotting a secret coup to overthrow Yandee and her Novo Droogs as leader of the station. (APOF, p. 9) |
| 05 | Ukko/Ukka is a Hunglung sympathizer. (APOF, p. 9) |
| 06-07 | Imogene Kane, a O2-debtor activist, is planning an uprising. / She’s operating out of Doptown. (APOF, p. 8) |
| 08 | Imogene Kane and the Hunglungs are planning to overtake the Airlock and invade the Dream. (APOF, p. 8) |
| 09-10 | There’s a drug called Sycorax that makes installing cybermods a lot easier. / Sycorax requires a fruit that’s harvested from somewhere in Doptown. / Underpaid Doptownians harvest the fruit in the Burrows. (They’ll show the way there for 100cr.) (APOF, p. 23) |
| 11 | Angus, the leader of the Canyonheavy data brokerage, knows everything about everyone. (APOF, p. 8) |
| 12 | Brunhildh, Chief Adjudicator of the Court, keeps a pet monster in the Cells. (APOF, p. 27) |
| 13 | Something called “Caliban” is infecting data terminals throughout Prospero’s Dream. (APOF, p. 6) |
| 14 | The Aarnivalkea, a tree maintained by the Solarian Church, can heal any disease. (FALSE) (APOF, p. 22) |
| 15-16 | Someone named Dr. Bancali is modding patients in the Choke. / He’s implanting Doptownians with artificial “gills” to help them live longer. / His lab is hidden behind the Sludge Falls that lie between Doptown and the Sink. (APOF, p. 34) |
| 17 | There is a secret Farm Two in the Solarian Gardens where drugs are manufactured. (APOF, p. 22) |
| 18 | Something is growing in the deeps beneath Doptown. It talks to the Doptownians in their sleep. (APOF, p. 30) |
| 19-20 | Life Support 01, the sole remaining semi-functional life support system in the Choke is failing. / A repair team has recently been lost en route to Life Support 01. / The expensive (50,000cr) industrial filter of Life Support 01 needs to be replaced, which would bring it back up to full capacity. (APOF, p. 32) |
| 21-22 | Life Support 02, one of the original life support systems on the station, is lost somewhere within the Sink. / If it could be found and repaired, the Choke’s air supply would be restored. |
| 23-24 | Beneath Doptown lies the Sink, formerly the heart of the station, but now a half-sunken city and wasteland. / The Sink is filled with sewage and strange creatures. (APOF, p. 34) |
| 25 | A giant wailing creature the Doptownians call the Wire Man stalks the Sink. (APOF, p. 34) |
| 26 | The safe in Loshe’s office contains plans for an experimental Jump-6 drive. (APOF, p. 11) |
| 27 | The robotic limbs in the Dock repair bays are glitching, causing long delays. (APOF, p. 10) |
| 28 | The Q-teams at the Docks are secretly kidnapping new arrivals. (FALSE) (APOF, p. 11) |
| 29 | The disinfectants supposedly used by the Q-Teams at the Docks are just cover story for implanting nanotech trackers on everyone who comes aboard the station. (FALSE) (APOF, p. 11) |
| 30 | Indyl, who runs the Ecstasy in the Stellar Burn, has a poison tongue. (APOF, p.12) |
| 31-32 | The Seraphs of Virtue, who work as bodyguards for Indyl in the Ecstasy at the Stellar Burn, are highly skilled assassins. / They can be hired for 2mcr per target. (APOF, p. 12) |
| 33 | Zhenya, the holographic assistant at the Chop Shop, has been appearing in Slickworlds. (FALSE) (APOF p. 14 and 21) |
| 34-35 | The Babushka at the Chop Shop owes Yandee a huge monetary debt. (TRUE) / The Babushka’s debt is due to her addiction to holopet collecting. (FALSE) |
| 36 | The stock of reaped cybermods at the Chop Shop has recently been refreshed. (APOF, p. 15) |
| 37 | If you have slickskills from the Ice Box installed, make sure to get the latest upgrades installed. The older versions have glitches. (APOF, p. 21) |
| 38 | Beware Vox Box scammers: Those with the skillslick installed can record and then mimic other people’s voices. (APOF, p. 21) |
| 39 | The Evangelical Solarian Church is planning a solar astrological survey of nearby systems to prepare a new solar pilgrimage route. (APOF, p. 22) |
| 40 | If you see someone with a sunspot (a bindi burned into their forehead), they’re a member of the Solarian Church. (APOF, p. 22) |
| 41 | Ukko/Ukka, leader of the Solarian Church, leads a holy Solarian ceremony at the Altar of Dawn at “dawn” (0600 hrs), “high sun” (1200 hrs), and “sundown” (1800 hrs). The curious are always welcome. |
| 42-43 | The Solarians have a lot more money than tithing from the faithful would explain. / They’re drug manufacturers, working for Yandee. |
| 44 | Teamsters Local 32819L is a powerful shipping union… but only because they smuggle drugs for the Golyanova Bratva. / If you can get in good with Reidmar, the leader of the union, there’s a lot of money to be made. (APOF, p. 9) |
| 45 | The Solarians have quietly sent out feelers. They’re looking for qualified chemist. (They’re looking to hire people to work in the drug labs of Farm Two.) (APOF, p. 22) |
| 46 | The Aarnivalkea is a giant tree, the first to be grown n the sunspheres of Prospero’s Dream. It’s said the roots go down four storeys. (APOF, p. 22) |
| 47 | The Aarnivalkea, the giant tree that’s a holy site for Solarians, bears fruit. The gardener monks harvest the fruit, but no one knows what they do with it. (APOF, p. 22) |
| 48-49 | Prospero’s Dream is known for its exotic drugs. / You’ll find them in the Sun Market. (APOF, p. 22) |
| 50 | You can win big cash prizes competing in e-sports at the Battlestations in the CANYONHEAVY.market. / Buying a seat will cost you beaucoup creds, though. (APOF, p. 24) |
| 51 | You can become an Advocate for trial by combat at the Courts. Build a rep and earn a lot of creds from the desperate. Or take public defender gigs for 5kcr. (APOF, p. 26) |
| 52 | Someone (Ukko/Ukka) is paying extra creds to sponsor advocates for O2 debtors in the Courts. (APOF, p. 26) |
| 53 | Have you seen the pit creatures at the Courts? My favorite are the diamond dogs. (APOF, p. 27) |
| 54 | There are a lot more than just troops hidden in the Tempest Mercenary Company HQ. They’ve got a whole R&D department hidden in there, researching God knows what. (APOF, p. 28) |
| 55 | The Tempest Mercenary Company is always hiring new recruits. If you survive, I’ve heard the higher ranks can earn a lot of money. (APOF, p. 28) |
| 56 | I heard a bunch of Tempest mercenaries on an outer hull patrol got blasted off. Their corpses are still orbiting the station and you can hear ‘em bump against the bulkheads. (APOF, p. 29) |
| 57 | When KAS pulled out and abandoned the Sink, rumor has it that a bunch of their old labs were never properly cleaned out. There’ s a ton of valuable xenoarchaeological artifacts still to be found down there. |
| 58 | My cousin was stuck in the Choke until I paid his O2 debt. / He told me he saw terrible things down there, like pulsating sacks of flesh stuck to the walls. (APOF, p. 30) |
| 59 | Pay your O2 taxes. Banishment to Doptown is as good as a death sentence. (APOF, p. 30) |
| 60 | The Airlock (APOF, p. 30) is a lie. There are old maintenance tunnels, drainage pipes, and ventilation shafts that connect the Choke to everywhere else on the station. (APOF, p. 35) |
| 61 | Prospero’s Dream was originally built by aliens. They still live down in the Sink (APOF, p. 34), using the Doptowners for experiments and probing. (FALSE) |
| 62 | Mama’s Game is the best Mahjong club on the station, but there’s no androids allowed. (APOF, p. 42) |
| 63 | Yandee’s Penthouse is guarded by at least twenty armored troopers. (APOF, p. 43) |
| 64 | CANYONHEAVY is the premiere data brokerage firm in the Cluster. / They can also be hired for espionage work. (APOF, p. 24) |
| 65 | Reidmar is the union leader of Teamster Local 32819L. (APOF, p. 8) / His daughter, Trieu, owns a ship called the Conquer All. / They’re fixing it up together. (APOF, p. 11) |
| 66 | There’s a heavily secured hangar bay in the Docks that only Reidmar and his personal retinue are allowed to enter. (APOF, p. 10) |
| 67 | Union meetings for the Teamsters Local 32819L are held in the offices of Loshe, the dockmaster. (APOF, p. 8 and 10) |
| 68 | Brunhildh, Chief Adjudicator of the Courts, is a retired bounty hunter. (APOF, p. 9) |
| 69 | Brunhildh, Chief Adjudicator of the Courts, is Yandee’s right hand. (TRUE) / But it’s said that she wants to overthrow her boss and take control of the bratva. (FALSE) (APOF, p. 8-9) |
| 70 | The Hunglungs are a telepathic hivemind. (FALSE) (APOF, p. 6) |
| 71 | Race Cutter, commander of the Tempest Mercenary Company, may be station-bound now, but he cut his teeth as a privateer. (APOF, p. 8) |
| 72 | Race Cutter, commander of the Tempest Mercenary Company, is known to frequent the Ecstasy. (APOF, p. 12) |
| 73 | The secret Shinken-Ri Dojo can train in the secret martial arts of the God’s Fist. (APOF, p. 43) |
| 74 | There is a warp core vault located below the Docks. (APOF, p. 10) |
| 75 | Meat is surprisingly cheap on Prospero’s Dream. / Because of the Slaughterfactory, a massive biological tissue cloning and meat processing plant. (APOF, p. 43) |
| 76-80 | Roll on the Ships Currently Docked table (APOF, p .11). |
| 81-00 | Roll on the Prospero’s Dream Crisis Rumors table. |
Note: Some rumors are divided into parts using one or more /’s. Additional parts develop the rumor in more detail. You may choose to give the full rumor, or the additional parts might be rewarded for investigating the rumor, over time (as events develop), or as the result of rolling the rumor a second time.
PROSPERO’S DREAM – CRISIS RUMORS
| d10 | Rumor |
|---|---|
| 01-03 | Outbreak Rumor |
| 04-06 | Strike Rumor |
| 07-09 | Unrest Rumor |
| 10 | Roll random Headline* and generate a rumor. |
*See Open Table Headlines for more details.
In A Pound of Flesh, there are three Crises currently happening on Prospero’s Dream. Each Crisis is divided into three phases, during which various events are happening and locations are being altered. These rumors are designed to point the PCs towards where the weird/interesting stuff is happening.
Arranging these rumors into a random table, however, is difficult, since the situation on the station is constantly evolving. (This is particularly true in my campaign, as I’ve separated the Crises and have them advancing independently of each other.) Therefore, you can roll on the table above to determine which Crisis the rumor belongs to and then select a rumor from the appropriate phase for that crisis.
Note: In your campaign, you’ll know what the current status of each Crisis is and could stock and update a rumor table with only those rumors that are currently relevant.
OUTBREAK RUMORS
- [Outbreak 1] There’s a strange girl who keeps showing up in the Slickworlds in the Ice Box (APOF, p. 200. / She says her name is Ariel.
- [Outbreak 1] Several Slickbay users have gone catatonic. / Some have awoken, describing a cryhing girl who calls herself Ariel.
- [Outbreak 1] The plague is coming through the air filters from The Choke.
- [Outbreak 1] There’s going to be a mass execution of infected prisoners at the Courts.
- [Outbreak 2] Strange images of a laughing man (Dr. Bancali) flash on terminals across the station.
- [Outbreak 2] Gilled Hunglungs are suffering severe mutations. / They’re the source of the plague. / They’re desperate to have the modification removed and the Chop Shop is overwhelmed.
- [Outbreak 2] The Ice Box slickworlds have been shut down. Something has gone seriously wrong with them. / All the slickworlds merged into a single bleak wasteland ruled by a demon named Caliban.
- [Outbreak 2] I saw a huge, fleshy mouth open in the bulkhead.
- [Outbreak 2] The Hunglungs have bred monsters and released them into the station. (FALSE)
- [Outbreak 3] Report of the latest location to be taken over by Caliban. (APOF, p. 7)
- [Outbreak 3] CANYONHEAVY.market has been shut down. The doors are being welded shut.
- [Outbreak 3] Everyone in DOPTOWN has asphyxiated.
STRIKE RUMORS
- [Strike 1] Ships operated by the Teamster Local 32819L have been missing their docking dates.
- [Strike 1] (INSERT FACTION) is responsible for the missing ships! (FALSE)
- [Strike 1] The Stratemeyer Syndicate has claimed responsibility for the missing ships. They’re demanding a 30mcr ransom payment.
- [Strike 1] Negotiations between Yandee and Reidmar have broken down. Rumor is the Teamsters are planning to go on strike.
- [Strike 1] Teamsters are offering a 2mcr bounty for the return of the teamsters being held hostage.
- [Strike 2] Tempest Mercenaries are planning to assassinate Reidmar and disband the union.
- [Strike 2] The Golyanova Bratva is recruiting scab ships willing to cross the teamsters’ picket line and get trade flowing again.
- [Stirke 2] Fuel prices have spiked as a result of the strike.
- [Strike 2] The Life Support modules are being shut down from lack of supplies due to the strike. The whole station is going to turn into Doptown! (FALSE)
- [Strike 2] Teamsters are subject to mass arrests. The holding cells at the Courts are overflowing.
- [Strike/Unrest 3] The Tempest Mercenary HQ is in total lockdown. No one in or out.
UNREST RUMORS
- [Unrest 1] It would take 50.4bcr to pay off the O2 debt of everyone currently living in the Choke.
- [Unrest 1] Report of the most recent bombing. (APOF, p. 7)
- [Unrest 1] A Hunglung wants to recruit you to join the revolution.
- [Unrest 1] Identified Hunglungs are being snuck off station somehow. / Someone must be bankrolling the operation. (It’s the Solarian Church.)
- [Unrest 2] The Solarian Church was working with the Hunglungs! / Tempest Mercenaries have laid siege to the Farm.
- [Unrest 2] Yandee has ordered the Airlock to be sealed. The entire Choke is now under Quarantine.
- [Unrest 2] Yandee has ordered all O2 debts to be doubled.
- [Strike/Unrest 3] The Tempest Mercenary HQ is in total lockdown. No one in or out.
- [Unrest 3] The Airlock has fallen!
Great stuff! Happy to hear you’re doing more MoSh content. I’ve been running it exclusively as of late. It’s a refreshing change of pace. Thanks you!