To determine success or failure of actions, the player must roll a number on percentile dice that is less than the relevant attribute or Resistance.

[2] Mothership Player's Survival Guide was designed by Sean McCoy, who was inspired by some of the original science fiction role-playing games such as Metamorphosis Alpha.

[2] McCoy explained that Mothership's journey from "online sensation to a real physical product available on store shelves" was "thanks to a dedicated community, including a Discord server with more than 10,000 fans in it.

[2] Further supplements published in zine format, such as Dead Planet (2018), A Pound of Flesh (2019), and Gradient Descentt (2020) provide new settings, adventures and further tools for more sophisticated play.

"[7] Writing for the Polish site Poltergeist in 2020 about the early editions available at that time, Adam Waskiewicz was less than impressed with the artwork, calling most of the illustrations "sloppy sketches."

However, he found the rules to be well written, noting "we get simple and quick mechanics, adapted to play sessions in which characters will easily lose their lives and healthy senses, and survival (not to mention a promotion) will only be for a lucky few."

"[8] In his 2023 book Monsters, Aliens, and Holes in the Ground, RPG historian Stu Horvath noted, "The real novelty of the system is Stress and Panic, both of which interrupt the flow of the actions" Horvath concluded "The core rules presented in the Mothership zine provided good bones, and the modules that followed built the house.