In the verdant and tightly-wound habblock known as the Grove, where each alley and every inhabitant is home to old traditions, the Antecedent Solarian Fellowship prepares for the three-day Solstice festival.
Rites of Renewal is a neo-pagan folk horror sandbox adventure for Mothership RPG, where ancient traditions live again in the bowels of a haphazard, overcrowded space station. In the verdant and tightly-wound habblock known as the Grove, the Antecedent Solarian Community prepares for the three-day Solstice festival.
The strange rituals of the insular agrarian commune syncretizes the rural pagan traditions of The Wicker Man (1973) and the urban decay of Candyman (1992).
This module is a short pressure-cooker campaign spanning the three days of the Festival. Each new day brings a new Rite of Renewal, and downtime activities to enjoy. And each new night brings another bloody Rite of the Horned God, carried out in secret across the Grove.
Experience what the Grove has to offer, either as a mistrusted Outsider, or a Grover, with special connections to the people and place. Each option has 5 Job Hooks to quickly get your Crew immersed in the festive chaos, and on the trail of the Grove’s mysteries.
Prospero’s Dream is at aphelion. Soon the station will begin its return journey on its elliptical orbit back towards the warm embrace of the sun. Deep within Prospero’s Dream the people of the Grove ready themselves for the Aphelion Solstice Festival.
Explore the Grove as a haze of spiritual exaltation, festive misrule and drunken revelry, takes over the tightly packed habblock. Partake in the food, drink and festivities. Dance around the maypole. Take in a pantomime, or sing a song or two.
But look a little closer, and you’ll see more than the festival is taking place.
In the Rites of Renewal horror has a human face, albeit, oft hidden beneath a horned mask.
The Verdant Grove. A labyrinthine favela, ensnared with plant life and steeped in resurrected traditions.
The Locals. What they grow together, they share evenly. In theory.
The Antecedent Solarian Community: Agrarian collectivists, derided as luddites, for their adherence to manual ways of work.
The Red Harts: Shadowy technophobic radicals, intent to expand their slayings beyond surreptitious lynchings of androids and cyborgs.
The Dryads: Bohemian scientists pioneering an explosive biofuel, and seek to share their findings outside the Grove.
The Hereafter Gang: Misanthropic youths enacting a self-fulfilled prophecy to ascend as a major player.
And many more NPCs to flesh out the back alleys and businesses of the Grove.
Create your own Grovers: 5 roll tables to create Grover PCs, or NPCs. Neo-Pagan inspired first & second names, appearance options, local connections and Trinkets.
Unraveling Mysteries. The three days of the festival surge with furtive factions, their motives, and ample opportunities to trounce the Grove with reverberating consequences.
New Items & Equipment. There is no cutting edge tech in the Grove, just old things, given a new lease on life.
Rustic farming implements, haphazard pipe guns and improvised explosives.
Local libations, like Grover’s Gold Cider and John Barleycorn’s Beer.
Prophetic Concoctions and other strange recipes from the Grimoire of Trinity, the witch of the Waterways.
Traditional idols and trinkets of the Grove, which bring comfort to believers, and unnerve the outsiders.
Paraphernalia of the Grove’s festive period, floral garlands, a menagerie of animal masks and a crown for the Oaken Monarch.
Production
Rites will be roughly 40 pages long and staplebound to keep in theme with Mothership Month this year. We're paper-perverts at the Peregrine Coast, though, so we're going to be printing the whole zine on Munken Pure Rough paper to give it the lovely yellowed look you're seeing on the mockups, and everything will be printed exclusively in 100K ink.
Written by Joshua Luke Cable / @joshualukecable. Writer of scripts and RPGs (Transmission for Them & Johnson2) based in Barnsley, South Yorkshire.
Layout and design by Eryk Sawicki / @press_peregrine. Grafik dezajner (Sin Eater, Doomspiral, Johnson2). Also runs Peregrine Coast Press. Based in Leeds, West Yorkshire.
Art by Alice Gribble / @pickledpennies. A self taught linocut printmaker based in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire. In keeping with the handcrafted ways of the Antecedent Solarian Community, our art for the Rites of Renewal is hand-printed by Alice. More of her work can be found here.
Digital - £10
Grab a copy of Rites of Renewal digitally, sent to you as soon as it is finished.
Physical - £18
Grab a physical copy of Rites of Renewal, printed on high-quality paper.
Reveller - £30
Grab a physical copy of Rites of Renewal and an A5, digitally-printed art print of our cover art.
Ascendant - £40
Grab a physical copy of Rites of Renewal, an A5 print of the cover, and a US-letter sized map of the Grove, printed on the same high quality paper as our core zine.
Oaken Monarch - £85
Grab a physical copy of Rites of Renewal, all the previous rewards and a handmade linoprint from our artist Alice Gribble. There are only 100 of these available because they take roughly 3 days from start to finish!
Here's Alice making the very first one - and it could be yours!
This year, we're trying something different. Nearly every Mothership Month project is part of a shared shipping initiative. That means:
One pledge manager. When Mothership Month ends, you’ll receive one combined pledge manager survey for all participating projects — our “mega pledge manager.” That means just one survey and one shipping payment for multiple projects.
One shipping charge. Because these projects will ship together, you’ll only pay shipping once, saving you money.
One fulfillment timeline. All participating campaigns are scheduled to ship at the same time, ensuring your rewards arrive together.
Two exceptions. Only two creators (Bombs Bursting in Air and Roach Motel) have opted out of this group fulfillment plan; their shipping will be handled separately. Why did they opt out? These two projects are very close to being ready to fulfill, and it didn't make sense to their teams to wait.
When will these projects ship? Our collective goal is to have all Mothership Month 2025 projects fulfilled before Mothership Month 2026 begins. Some projects are further along than others, so their timeline for digital rewards will vary. But we have roughly a year to fulfill before Mothership Month 2026, which gives everyone enough time to finish up and get their products to our warehouse.
What is Mothership Month?
Every year, Tuesday Knight Games and dozens of third-party creators launch new Mothership projects around a shared theme. This year’s theme (“The Dream Returns”) centers on Prospero’s Dream, the infamous X-Class back-world, black market space station. Each project ties back to the Dream in some way. Not only that, but we'll be opening up Prospero's Dream as a shared setting for all third-party creators going forward.
Get your exclusive Supply Pod!
This year we're changing up the Supply Pods. Now there is just ONE BIG SUPPLY POD. It's unlocked once all projects fund and it improves as we hit more group achievements. How do you get the Supply Pod? Back 5 or more projects at the physical level and get access to all the cool goodies.
