Original art by me.

Simon

The Cohort - Adventure for Mothership 1E

LINK:
https://spellbound-inc.itch.io/the-cohort

Your crew is hired to recover stolen corporate assets and missing colonists aboard the SS Libratus, deep within the Scyros Drift. What awaits them is a nightmare of biomechanical transformation, concealed agendas and desperate survival. Getting aboard is only the beginning. Getting out with your humanity intact is another matter.

The Cohort is a fully illustrated sandbox adventure for Mothership First Edition, written and illustrated by Simon Taylor. Explore the freighter, navigate competing factions and uncover corporate secrets as a spreading infection threatens to turn the crew into something else.

Short summary

A 32-page A5 science-fiction horror adventure for Mothership 1E, combining starship exploration, corporate intrigue and invasive biomechanical horror aboard the SS Libratus.

Features

• Physical 32-page A5 PDF.
• Sandbox adventure shaped by your crew’s decisions.
• Mapped starship setting, including an isometric map of the SS Libratus.
• Competing factions, sinister NPCs and biomechanical threats.
• Mothership 1E stat blocks and infection mechanics.
• The Red Moon, a short PDF adventure that can be played as part of The Cohort or separately.
• Stat Sheet PDF for The SS Libratus, the main location of The Cohort
• VTT Assets - includes a map of the SS Libratus, counters of all the main threats and NPC's featured in The Cohort, plus counters to represent your Crew, each character type represented (Android, Scientist, Teamster, Marine).
• Original illustrations throughout, by Simon Taylor.

Hi there,

Simon Taylor from Spellbound Inc. Just sharing the 3PP Mothership commissions I did last month. The t-rex and the putty guy are both featured in the upcoming 'It Followed Me Home' by One-Eyed Werebear. I even wrote the entry on the android rex myself!

If you're in need of strong, evocative art for your next Mothership project, please reach out to me on the email below.

Commission Rates available upon request

Only 3 slots available during September. Hurry, they disappear fast!

Portfolio & gallery:
https://www.spellbound-inc.com/gallery

Email: contact@spellbound-inc.com

Hi there.

I’m Simon Taylor of Spellbound Inc. I’ve been a professional illustrator for around 30 years, and I currently have six illustration slots available for August — one finished piece per slot. Once they’re gone, they’re gone, and I’m not sure when I’ll next be opening commissions.

I’ve worked on Heroes’ Feast Flavors of the Multiverse: An Official D&D Cookbook for Ten Speed Press, a Wizards of the Coast licensee; card artwork for Decipher Inc.; fantasy illustration for Mongoose Publishing and Beyond Cataclysm; and, most recently, Joshua and Michael Kramer’s excellent Grim Merchants MM25 project.

I’m also a TTRPG creator myself. I’ve written and illustrated three Mothership adventures that successfully funded on Kickstarter. Mothership is my favourite RPG, so I’d be particularly happy to work with other Mothership creators — although fantasy, sci-fi, horror and other TTRPG projects are all very welcome.

AUGUST Commission Rates available upon request

I’m happy working from a detailed brief or helping develop a visual concept from a rough idea. If you have an adventure, supplement or character that needs bringing to life, please get in touch.

Only 6 slots available during August.

Portfolio & gallery:
https://www.spellbound-inc.com/gallery

Email: contact@spellbound-inc.com

Gallery and Commission Rates: www.spellbound-inc.com/gallery

Just finished this commissioned work - it's a b-movie style poster to memorialise a crew that braved the events of the excellent adventure Another Bug Hunt.
My own work. Procreate on iPad.

For the past few months I’ve been quietly developing a new tabletop roleplaying game project I’ve been calling the Dark Reach.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/spellboundinc/dark-reach-the-roleplaying-game

At its heart, it’s a space opera exploration RPG about crews pushing deeper into dangerous, half-ventured regions of dangerous void, clinging to the insides of a mid-sized or larger starship.

You Play All Crew Members

Featuring troupe-style play (each player generates and controls more than one character), everyone at the table fills out the crew at all positions (Command, Midships, Lower Decks). This way, you'll always have one character in play (away team member on a planet, command carrying out diplomatic talks/space combat, and lower decks providing vital support.

A lot of the influences behind it are things I’ve enjoyed over the years; the best campaign I ever ran for my group, West End Game’s Star Wars: DarkStryder Campaign, many an hour spent in the edge of known space in TSR’s Star Frontiers, Battlestar Galactica (1978), Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, Disney's the Black Hole, Space 1999, Star Trek: Voyager, Space Above and Beyond (a totally underrated sci-fi show from the 90’s), Farscape, the transportive, evocative art in both Heavy Metal magazine and 2000AD, old sci-fi paperbacks like EE Doc Smith’s Lensman series, the various works of Poul Anderson and Alan Dean Foster amongst many others.

Mechanically, I'm designing the game to be fast, tense and intuitive, with a system based on one sentence ‘Statements’ that act as a springboard for an evolving narrative between GM and players, eschewing a dry Skills system that turns task resolution into a binary affair. Emphasis is on emergent storytelling, exploration, danger, misfit crews forming tight bonds through adversity, upgrading a vessel far from the safety of civilised space, having that sense of shared experience and ownership of a mutual home drifting in the void.

CORE TASK CHECKS

When your Crew attempts something dangerous or uncertain, you roll:
2d6 + Relevant Stat + Relevant Statement
A total that equals or succeeds the Task Difficulty (TD) set by the Guide (GM) is successful.
Most standard actions use TD 10, with harder tasks increasing from there.

STATS: Thought, Resolve, Competence. Each of these core stats represent a combination of your ability to reason, mental/physical resilience and your innate skill level. They provide a positive modifier to your Task Check.

STATEMENTS: These are short descriptive phrases that define your character, ship, gear, injuries, reputation, or circumstances. they provide a positive modifier to your Task Check.
Examples:
Knows the black market (positive Statement)

Happiest in a junk yard (positive Statement)

Wanted by corporate security (negative Statement)

Lost left eye on Ixis V (negative Statement)

If a Statement would meaningfully help or hinder a Task Check, it applies.
The idea is to keep storytelling quick and flexible while making characters feel distinct and grounded in the fiction.
Quick-Play Rules are on the way, detailing character gen, combat, starship upgrades and more!

Making The Dark Reach Your Own

From Session Zero, both the Guide and Players create Worlds, Factions, Alien Species and Lore in the form of Rumours. These notes are then jotted down where they exist as coordinates on a blank Dark Reach map. When the Crew arrives at one of these notes, the Guide determines if the rumour is true or false. If false, the referee changes the nature of that note rather than discount it, i.e. The Ryxian Rangers you've heard heroic tales of are revealed to be a an oppressive police state.

More from the Reach soon. Keep those scopes clear.

All art was created by me, (digital in Procreate). No AI.

Simon

Gallery of original my art here:

https://www.spellbound-inc.com/gallery

Art Rates and more examples of professional work here:

https://www.spellbound-inc.com/gallery

Interested in using my art for your project?
Message me here:

https://www.spellbound-inc.com/contact

DARK REACH RPG is a fast, cinematic sci-fi tabletop RPG built for fans of 70’s-80’s ship-based space opera (Battlestar Galactica, Ulysses 31, Space 1999, Buck Rogers in the 25th Century), space exploration, dangerous adventures and the relentless threat of unknown space. Easy to learn and driven by narrative-first mechanics, it keeps the action moving without drowning players in rules.

CORE TASK CHECKS
When your Crew attempts something dangerous or uncertain, you roll:
2d6 + Relevant Stat + Relevant Statements
Beat the Task Difficulty (TD) set by the Guide to succeed.
Most standard actions use TD 10, with harder tasks increasing from there.

STATS: Thought, Resolve, Competence. Each of these core stats represent a combination of your ability to reason, mental/physical resilience and your innate skill level. They provide a positive modifier to your Task Check.

STATEMENTS: These are short descriptive phrases that define your character, ship, gear, injuries, reputation, or circumstances. they provide a positive modifier to your Task Check.
Examples:
Knows the black market (positive Statement)

Happiest in a junk yard (positive Statement)

Wanted by corporate security (negative Statement)

Lost left eye on Ixis V (negative Statement)

If a Statement would meaningfully help or hinder a Task Check, it applies.
The idea is to keep storytelling quick and flexible while making characters feel distinct and grounded in the fiction.
Quick-Play Rules are on the way, detailing character gen, combat, starship upgrades and more!

Follow the Kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/spellboundinc/1877799700/

My most recent Mothership artwork.
Character art commission.

More Mothership art here:
spellbound-inc.com

The clock is nearly out on The Cohort — my latest 32-page sandbox horror adventure for Mothership 1E.
A drifting freighter.
A rescue mission built on corporate lies.
A ship slowly being consumed from the inside by something biomechanical and hungry.

Inside The Cohort you’ll find:

A fully explorable two-deck starship sandbox
An isometric map of the SS Libratus
The Remade — horrific biomechanical predators born from Project: Ascendant
Rival factions including the Blood Sisters and the Unblinkered
A ticking jettison protocol that escalates pressure as the situation spirals
New creatures, ship systems, locations, and emergent threats for Wardens to unleash

All physical backers have already unlocked:
The Red Moon pamphlet adventure
VTT asset pack + tokens

And if we hit the next Stretch Goal before the campaign ends, all physical backers unlock the embroidered Blood Sisters patch.
There’s also a free downloadable SS Libratus ship file available right now if you want a taste of the setting before backing.
If grimy cassette-futurist sci-fi horror is your thing, now’s the time!

Thanks for reading this!

Back The Cohort Here!

Simon

Spellbound Inc.

A3 Art Print Available Here:👇

https://www.spellbound-inc.com/shop/p/xqx7kb8sm9odkauy6ks2vltgqjsjgv

Everyone remembers the scene… Luke is there at the bar, minding his own business. Then along comes two spacer ruffians itching for a fight.
They have the death sentence in 12 systems. They like bragging an out it too.
A3 Colour Art High Quality Art Print featuring original art by Simon Taylor

Limited to 100 printed

Each print is hand signed by the artist and numbered

Also available in monochrome (see options)

Hello!

To mark the half way point of The Cohort, the latest Mothership 1E adventure by Spellbound Inc, we’ve decided to give a little something back to this awesome and supporting community.

It’s a pdf that’s free, whether or not you’re a backer/followed of the project.

The SS Libratus—a mid-sized Aurok-class freighter at the heart of The Cohort—is now available as a free downloadable PDF, including:

Full Mothership 1E ship stat block!

In-universe background and lore

New artwork not featured in The Cohort adventure 

Clean silhouette diagram for quick reference

A ready-to-use asset you can drop into any session

If you’re a Warden, you can slot this into your game tonight without any prep.

Download it from the Kickstarter Page👇**:**

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/spellboundinc/the-cohort-an-adventure-for-mothership-rpg?ref=user\_menu

This is a small piece of the wider project—but it should give you a clear sense of the tone, the design approach, and the kind of material waiting inside The Cohort.

If you’ve been following along and haven’t backed yet, now’s a good time to come aboard. There’s more like this already in the pipeline, and more still to unlock.

And if you know someone who runs Mothership—or just enjoys grim, industrial sci-fi—feel free to pass this along. Word of mouth is what keeps projects like this moving!

More to come soon.

Simon

— Spellbound Inc.