WHITE HEAT: A kitchen-crawl for Mothership RPG

WHITE HEAT brings body horror to the elevated world of fine dining. Combining the breakneck tension of The Bear with the creeping dread of The Thing, WHITE HEAT is a high-stakes dungeon-crawl where the crew navigate maze-like kitchens while uncovering trails of contamination and corporate scandal. YES CHEF! 

• Original Artwork: By Strega Wolf van den Berg
• Adventure Scenario: A one-to-three session mission with ramifications to feed into a larger campaign
• Memorable NPCs: A full cast of unique and clashing personalities with their own hidden agendas
• Mapped Kitchen-Crawl: More than 15 keyed rooms full of strange tech to be used by or against the crew
• Hooks and Rumours: A corporate contract to get the crew involved with clear objectives
• Tie-ins to the Dream: Several connections to other established locations on Prospero's Dream, including Canyonheavy Market, The Ice Box and The Sink
• Detailed Warden Advice: Guidance for Wardens on running different aspects of the mission
• Finally, Two Kinds of Invasive Horror: The privacy kind and the body horror kind

Harvey's is the Dream's most exclusive restaurant. An ever-changing roster of famous faces drop by to savour its one-of-a-kind culinary (or other) experiences. Whether it's the wildly inventive menu or the personality cult of the head chef, there’s always a buzz, and always a waiting list. 

The crew are hired as food standards and safety inspectors to perform a routine inspection of Harvey’s—interviewing chefs about hygiene procedures, observing food handling practices, etc. They are provided "OFFICIAL" badges, a polaroid camera and a sample collection kit and will be paid for every piece of evidence they acquire of unsanitary conduct/material. The dirtier the find, the bigger the payout. The hiring company is not actually interested in the hygiene of Harvey’s. Rather, they are aware of a series of infections linked to Harvey’s and wants to isolate the cause for their own study. They don’t tell the crew this. 

Eight chefs preside over the kitchen. They are the most talented and well-respected chefs working the rim. Each brings a unique set of ambitions and quirks, meaning the crew are set to butt heads with some while making alliances with others, all the while probing their secrets and threatening to throw their delicate hierarchy into chaos.

Unknown to the crew, an infection has broken out in the storerooms below the kitchen. The infection spreads through digestion and compels the infected to find ways to spread it further. The symptoms, of course, reflect the journey of any chef at the top of their game:

• First three days: loss of appetite 
• 1 week: loss of faculties of visualisation and imagination 
• 2 weeks: weakened sense of self, loss of personal values 
• 3 weeks: whispers from the hive mind, occasional loss of self-control 
• 4 weeks: subsumed into hive mind, total loss of personality 
• 5 weeks: explode, leaving behind hollowed out roach-infested shell

I’m Gilbert Newport—sci-fi devotee, Mothership warden, and the writer behind White Heat, my debut module and first foray into crowdfunding. This project grew out of my years working in fine dining restaurants and the many "horrors" I witnessed there. If you’re a foodie, you might catch (sometimes not so) subtle nods to culinary icons like Marco Pierre White and Paul Bocuse woven throughout. White Heat is a collaborative effort: I’ve written the module, and the visuals are brought to life by the super talented Strega Wolf van den Berg. Funding from this campaign will allow me to fully commit to the project—bringing in editors, layout support, and any other help needed to make this the best it can be. Project Status: The first draft is complete. Over the next several months, I'll continue to add and refine content in light of new art, ideas and playtesting feedback. I'm planning to have the final digital version ready by mid-2026 with fully functional draft iterations released earlier.