Five Parsecs from Home - Review

Hello and Welcome Back, 

Now I have a couple of games under my belt I thought I would cobble together a review of the 5 Parsecs rules.

5 Parsecs from home is a solo tabletop Science Fiction/Space Opera adventure game by Ivan Sorensen and published by Modiphius Entertainment. We are now at Version 3 which has grown and ironed out a few kinks.

You play a crew of a small star ship looking for work around frontier space getting into and hopefully out of trouble. The game is set in its own space opera background although the author actively encourages the players to use the rules in their own settings if they wish. If you check out various Facebook groups and discord channels you will find players applying the rules to the Star Wars, Star Trek, Firefly/Serenity, Alien, 40K, Necromunda (yeah I know its 40K) and Deadzone universes. Some players even use their own made up settings, myself included.

The Crew of the Problem Child aka Loop's Heros

The game is figure agnostic so you can happily raid your collection and dust off old figures, allowing you mixing and matching them together. There is nothing stopping you playing with paper chits for the figures should you wish.

While the game is solo, you could have someone play your opponents and there are notes for allowing players to play co-operatively either with one crew or a crew each.

Ever since getting my grubby mitts on the rulebook a couple of years ago I have been dying to give them a spin. My first impressions was that it was a nice rule book, but as it’s a solo set the amount of tables looked a bit daunting. However the tables follow each other logically and once you have used them that fear will melt away.  One nice aspect to the rules is that the Author encourages players to change or ditch rules to suit themselves. It is refreshing to see.

The first step is crew creation. You have a choice between a all human crew (for those of you wanting a Firefly style adventure) or a crew that is a mixture of races. If you are playing a different setting you can always substitute the closest alien to those in the Unity Universe.

A typical crew size is 6, although you can go larger or smaller with the crew if you wish. You roll on the various tables which gives you the stat lines for the Captain & Crew. They will also give you background to the characters and gives character motivations. The dice decide everything, all you have to do is come up with their names. You also get to roll what motivates and binds the crew and with a little creative thinking you can draft a story about how they met.

You will also roll crew equipment and weapons, which is up to the Captain to dole out each mission. This also allows for characters to be given the right kit and weapons as the campaign progresses.

After this you get to create the crew’s ship and how much your captain owes on it. All you have to do is name the hulk of junk you are flying about in.

Then you get into the meat and gravy. Each game is called a Campaign Turn. You get to choose what the end of the campaign should be (so many games played, target events, character development milestones) and you also choose what mode to play the campaign in. I am currently playing Normal but there is easy and a few harder modes which increase the enemies you will face among other things. I would keep those modes for a more seasoned crew as it can get a little exciting on Normal mode with a crew starting out in the adventure business.

Your captain has to pay the crew (they will strike!), pay off the debt on the ship (or it may be repossessed), dole out equipment and jobs. The main pregame jobs are (but is not exhaustive) is to find a job patron, trade, distract rivals (these will mount up as the campaign progresses) or hunt rivals down.

You then create the game from the job offer which says what, who, when, where, payment, bonuses, battlefield conditions, enemy numbers, equipment, specialists and their disposition.  The disposition describes how your enemy deploys and its approach to you being there.

Now all you need to do is tie it all together so the mission fits a story. I must admit I find this step fun but it can be a challenge trying to figure out. Then again you can always spend a Story point from your bank which will allow you to reroll a mission or enemy. Another option is to make up a scenario if it fits the story better or to use an enemy that fits better.

Off you go and good luck on your mission. The game is aimed at 28 to 32mm figures and a typical battlefield size is 3 x 3 foot although with smaller crews you might want to use a 2 x 2 foot board. The rules can be used with 15mm figures if you use cm rather than inches. There is also advice on how to populate your table with terrain. I tend to ignore that bit as I am lucky to have piles of terrain and I love a densely covered table, just to create headaches for everyone.

Then there is the after battle section where you get paid, figure out what has happened to your injured crew members, calculate experience and improve your characters. You can also go out trading for new kit or upgrade your ship. I think you can also recruit new crew members here. You also figure out if your opponent becomes a rival or if the planet is about to be invaded by Unity. I ignore this roll as I am using my own setting with many different factions.

Then you are back to the generation of the next turn.

The combat rules are D6 based pretty easy to learn and games seem to take 30 to 60 minutes to play. A player can burn through a few campaign turns in a evening. Or gamers like myself who find free time limited can work out a mission one day, set the table up on another and play the next day (or in my case a few weeks later).

One of the joys of 5 Parsecs is the additional rules available in the Trailblazers tool kit (which also has Ship and colony name generators and an introductory campaign), Freelancers Handbook, Fixers guidebook and Bug hunt (one for Aliens and Starship Troopers movies lovers) which all expand the game and the Unity universe (these four titles are available in the Five Parsecs Compendium). There is also plenty of player homebrew rules available online in various Face book groups.

So far I am really enjoying playing the rules and think it could be changed easily for many other Sci Fi game settings. Now all I need is for Ivan Sorensen & Modiphius Entertainment to give the Post Apocalyptic 5 Clicks from the Zone rules the same treatment….pretty pleeeaaassssseeee!

Thanks for reading and go give 5 Parsecs from home a whirl. It’s a blast.

 

 

 

 

 

Loops Heros Campaign pt 3 - the Iron Ladies

Welcome to the third installment of my 5 parsecs campaign. 

As usual, Captain Loops pays the crew and doles out jobs from his bed in the sick bay. 

Lem spends a couple of credits on parts to fix the battle visor found in the last campaign turn and succeds (allowing any 1s to be rerolled). 

T Bone and Shorty go out to look for some jobs. Joey is sent out try to distract anyone who might be tracking the crew down.

Twelvetree of the DCS corporation has a job with +2 Credits danger pay but it has to be done now. It's a hot job which increases the chance of getting a rival. There are no conditions to the job and private transport is available.

The Dockside association (a private organisation operating in the habitation zone built in what was appears to be Hangar) is also offering a job, with +1 Credit danger pay. It has to be this campaign turn or the next campaign turn. There are no benefits or conditions to the job. There is a hazard for this mission that 1 enemy is a VIP (+1 Toughness and combat of 2). 

While out looking for jobs, Shorty gets a tip off from a contact....this is the first quest mission for the crew.

There is a Brittannia criminal gang operating in Wreckage and the station authorities don't have the muscle to deal with them. Due to Wreckage Station being the size of a moon, it is easy to lose a army in a single sector. The criminal gang is known as the Iron Ladies, and they have managed to get a remote airlock operational. This could be how the Brittannia grunts encountered in the previous campaign turn, got in. 

The station authorities are concerned that the gang may be involved in smuggling, trickling information and possibly try to disrupt the station's economy. There is also concern that in the event of an invasion the gang may possibly carry out a little espionage. 

Wreckage Station is independent and lies in a forgtten (dark) system. It embodies the freedom that the crew desire. As many of the crew have had bad experiences from life in Brittannian colonies and love freedom, they feel that this gang is a danger to Wreckage's independence. Stopping the Brittannians feels like a good quest mission for the crew.

There is an AI controlling the airlock located in a next sector to the airlock. It is old bead type and disabling it will require just pulling the AI chip from the socket. Due to the age of the AI and it's encryption it cannot be bypassed or replaced. Removing it will disable that airlock permanently. 

As Captain Loops and Maya are out this turn it will be just the lads. Maya gives Joey her colony rifle to give him better range. 

After travelling down the station's core, the crew heads to the sector with the control panel. Like the crew's first mission, this sector is filled with steam vents causing visibility to be limited. That may work in thier favor (I hope). There is also something shiny worth 4 credits just over the other side of the Iron Ladies barricades. With the steam the crew might miss it unless they are close to it.

There are five Iron Ladies gang goons guarding the control panel. They are armed with scrap pistols and blades, including the leader. There is one Ganger armed with a shotgun. 

"Ready, guys? T Bone you grab the AI chip, the rest of us will cover you. The control panel is just ahead" Lem takes the lead in this fight.

 "Just us boys eh!" Joey grins as they prepare to move forward "The boys from the Problem Child!" he exclaims exictedly like they are some kind of special group. Eye rolls is the response from the three other team members. 

The feild of battle. 

The Iron Ladies are guarding the Airlock control panel.

Under the cover of the steam clouds the crew creep forwards. Joey climbs onto a shipping container trying to get a height advantage.

Spotting the Iron Ladies through the steam, Joey and Shorty open fire missing thier targets and alerting the Iron Ladies to thier presence. 

"Come out, little pigs!" the Iron Lady leader calls as she advances forwards trying to find a target in the swirling steam clouds. Meanwhile over the other side, Joey finds himself in the crosshairs of the shotgun wielding Ganger. The blast hits him without wounding him. It stuns him and pushes him backwards off the container without causing a further wound.

"You alright?" Shorty shouts.

"Yeah, I landed on my head!" Joey grunts back grimacing. 

Lem creeps forward in cover spotting the Gang leader in cover behind a pipe stack.

He takes aim and fires his hand laser, stunning the leader. 

T Bone finds some nice cover and lets rip with his plasma rifle at the Iron Ladies in cover missing them. A chorus of swearing and cat call come from behind then barricade.

The assault by the Problem Child's crew fire up the Iron Ladies with renewed effort (which means a random gang member gets to have a second activation at the end of the turn)

Lem continues to creep forwards in cover to try catch the Gang Leader in the open. 

Spotting her, he fires his hand laser again killing the leader.  

The Iron Ladies behind the barricade can now see Lem through the swirling steam mists. Screaming with vengence they fire thier scrap pistols at Lem. A single shot hits him and taking him out of the fight. 

The Crew and remaining Iron Ladies exchange fire, missing each other and just wasting ammo.

Joey fires wildly missing his target and charges forward. 

On seeing Joey closing the shotgunner screams in fury and charges forward to engage him in close combat. 

The Iron Lady lands a blow putting Joey out of the fight. 

Sensing the tide of battle turning, the rest of the Iron Ladies, leap the barricade and charge forwards to engage the remaining crew members.

Seeing the gangers approaching Shorty fires his Needle Rifle at the advancing figures in the mist, causing a hit but not wounding the Ganger. On becoming stunned she flees away to a safer distance.

The stunned Ganger feels the need to renew her effort, shakes off her suppression and charges back into the action. Meanwhile, T Bone takes the shotgunner out of the battle with his Plasma rifle (the steam from the vents prevented the security cameras from capturing this). 

Game event, the remaining gang members are losing heart in the fight and it won't be much longer until they flee the fight. 

Shorty gets into a hand scrap with the Iron Lady and to her surprise holds his own.

Meanwhile another Ganger moves towards T Bone, hoping the container gives her enough cover to engage him in close combat.

Multiple plasma bolts from T Bone's plasma rifle slam into the ganger, blowing her to bits. "Damn!" T Bone exclaims in shock.

Another ganger pushes herself to renew her efforts and leaps off the plasma housing to attack Shorty. The second attacker overwhelms Shorty, taking him out of the fight. 

Seeing thier leader killed and another gang mate blown to bits the two remaining Iron Ladies decide that they have had enough and flee the battle. 

T Bone makes it to the control panel to disable it, pulling the AI chip and dropping it into his pack. Despite the victory the Crew have taken heavy injuries in this fight. 

Post Battle:

The crew have gained the A&I chip. T Bone hopes to break its programming at some future point as it could be used in a beadbot. If Lem survives, he might be able to help as he has the Hacker skill. 

The Iron Ladies on having thier smuggling plans foiled are now Rivals of the crew. This will make future campaign turns more interesting. 

It turns out that this quest mission is a dead end as there is little information about Brittannia's interests in Wreckage Station. 

The crew gain 5 credits for this mission, donated straight into the ship's account from a unknown source. This event has gained some speculation that perhaps this is a reward from Wreckage's leadership. That takes the crew coffers upto 16 credits.

1 Shot of the drug Still was found on the battlefield and the crew also came across a Neural Optimisation Implant (character cannot be stunned). 

Lem makes a miraculous escape from the battle and is ready for the next fight. Sadly he has managed to lose all his kit and weapons (and his wallet!) during his escape. But he has gained a luck point. It seems Lem is being smiled upon. 

Shorty survives the fight with only minor bruising and will be able to take part in the next mission. Sadly Shorty's snooper bot got damaged and will need repair. Who knows how much that will cost? 

Joey was carried in by T-Bone, with a crippling wound. Captain Loops spends 2 creds getting Joey some surgical help and Joey should make a full recovery after one campaign turn in the Problem Child's sick bay. That takes the crew coffers down to 14 credits. 

The crew's actions has made them a freind amongst the locals (I am going to use the contact as a station offical) and gains them a story point. 

Lem reflects on his adventures so far, gaining another experience pointpoint then spends 7xp to upgrade his Combat skill, hopefully it will make him more useful in the next fight. Captain Loops gives Lem 3 credits to buy a replacement weapon and he picks up a Needle rifle from a pirate crew in the next docking bay (Wreckage Station sees a lot of criminals coming here to trade or fence goods as it is off the official radars of the Galactic powers). The crew coffers are down to 11 credits. Not a bad amount for a crew with no debts.

Next campaign turn will see most of the crew back in action apart from Joey who will be in the sick bay. 

This was a close fought fight. I did remember this time, to use the battlefield events chart which makes the game more interesting. The renewed effort event really helped the Iron Ladies stay in the fight & do some damage. I was thankful that in next event they lost heart in the fight as T Bone would have to take on two gangers and I don't think he was that lucky.

Thanks for reading.

Old 40K building rework.

Welcome back,

Back in the mists of time, fresh with enthusiasm and inspiration from the newly released 40K Rouge Trader book, I knocked together this bit of terrain for my Orks and Marines to fight over. Digging through some old boxes I stumbled upon it and thought it would be a good candidate for a rework.

It was made from a plastic tub (possible margarine) and had a sweet tub on top. The door was painted on. In the illustration I have cut part of the original door way out using a soldering iron. In my enthusiasm I forgot to take pictures of it unmolested.

Reviewing the model I decided to keep the lip at the bottom as a kind of step and to give it more of a hatch look. Keeping the rim and lip would also help keep the strength of the tub that forms the base of the model. But the doorway would need some height adding.

Carefully the door way was cut out using a soldering iron (ALWAYS melt plastics in a well ventilated area). The door is peice of cerial packet card cut with pinking shear scissors. I was glued to a larger peice of card which locates the door in place and adds bracing to the model. The doorway is made from xps foam and the data panel is also a scrap of xps foam with card to make the screen.

The rest of the model had all manner of bits added to spruce it up. There are stick on pearls, wires, scratch built steps, medical tubing gubbins and other assorted scrap added. 

I think I may have to rework more models in my collection.

Thanks for looking

Take care out there.

Old One Eye.

Hello and Welcome back, 

"One Eye" Odgie was originally from the town of Graceville in a territory known as the Freepeoples Wilds, which lies to the North of the Last City Wastes. Upon hearing the legends about the famous Baron Freedom, far to the south of the territory, the young Odgie set out to join the Baron's battle against the raiders seeking to destroy the settlements of the Wastelands. By the time he reached the City of Hamsterdam, the city joined Freedomville and the mutants of Doom Valley to form the Freepeoples Confederacy. Odgie signed up and served as a soldier for many years, battling many raiders and other threats, losing a eye in the process.

In this time many more settlements and towns signed up to the Confederacy, enjoying the mutual protection, peace and trade opportunities the alliance offered. In recent years the Hamsterdam council had decided to form the Freepeoples Rangers (just known as the Rangers) to patrol the Wilds between the settlements and help deal with threats to the Confederacy members. As a grizzled veteran with decades of experience Odgie was asked to lead the Rangers.

Although the Rangers HQ is Hamsterdam, Odgie decided to set up a base many days march away on the western coast of the Wilds, reusing a old abandoned legendary wasteland fortress known as "Vali's Fortress". This base is used for training and is a stronghold incase there is a major invasion of the wilds, such as the one made by the Kraptoidiots corporation back in the early days of Hamsterdam and Freedomville.

The Odgie figure is a old 40K RT pirate figure I found on ebay. 

Thanks for looking, stay safe out there.

A paint experiment.

Hello and welcome back, 

Time for a bit of terrain. My recent dealve into Wreckage Station as part of my 5Parsecs campaign has gotten me motivated to get some terrain finished. 

This piece is from the mantic's Industrial sets.

The paint is an experiment. Primed grey and painted with cheap acrylic paint markers. A seppia ink wash and a couple of brown washes tone and blend it all together. The downside to using markers rather than brushes is that it is difficult to get into the recessed detail.

Thanks for looking, take care out there.

Loops Heros Campaign pt 2.

Hello and Welcome back. Its another 5 Parsecs from home campaign batrep. It is campaign turn 2. 

The crew got their pay off Loops. Loops stared at his credits balance and realises he has enough to clear the ship's debt with a few credits to spare. Whoopee, it feels good to be out of debt!

Loops assigns some crew tasks. Loops is off to see Will Twelvetree about the DCS corporation job offered in the last campaign turn. 

Lem and T Bone are sent off to explore.

Maya, Shorty and Joey are sent off to act as decoys in case any rivals are tracking them.

While out exploring Lem finds a broken battle visor laying in a skip, he is a habitual bin dipper. It looks like it might have paid off this time. The combat visor will be useful if he manages to fix it next turn.

T Bone has decided that he likes Wreckage Station and wants to stay (I will have to spend 1 story point when the crew has to leave). It makes sense with T Bone's history and he enjoyed exploring last turn that he would want to hide out someplace that doesn't exist. 

Loops meets Twelvetree in his rather small office. Not what you would expect from a corporate bigwig. 

"I am glad you came back about the job Captain Lamik, my problem here is that Wreckage station does not officially exist, so I don't have the man power, or perks like other company executives. It does limit my abilities. So I have to hire freelancers like yourself to get results. If you are successful in this mission there will be further work"

"As you are aware Wreckage is huge. The station has thousands of sectors. Each around 6 miles cubed, give or take. Everyone here is claiming sectors and subsectors like wild fire in attempts to claim artifacts and old tech. Lots of our competitors are using hired muscle, many of whom should not be here, to grab sectors. I believe you recently had a run in with some Brittannia grunts on a mission. Any idea who they are working for?"

Loops shakes his head. 

"Nevermind, maybe you should have kept one alive to quiz. ha ha ha"

"Anyhoo, I need you to check out sector 020-101 and travel across the sector. I am interested in claiming the sector if it appears unclaimed. My private speeder will drop your crew off and collect them on the other side of the sector." 

This is a move through mission (again). Being a corporate employer there is danger pay offered. There is no deployment conditions to this mission. 

The enemies are feral muscle, as I don't have any suitable figures I am going to use the Tessor (old Urban War Junkers) as those ex convicts are nearly feral. They have a aggressive deployment. The are 8 well equipped enemies (military rilfes) including a lieutenant and a specialist with a hand flamer. This could be a tough assignment as my crew will be out numbered and out gunned. Two crew members need to make it off the table for it to be a success.

The feild of battle and initial deployment.

"Tessor? Here? What the hells! There is a fair amount of countries here considering this place doesnt exist!" growls Loops. "Right these guys are feral and will charge towards us. Split up and get them in a cross fire, they out number us, so we have to whittle them down quickly". The crew split up hoping to gain an advantage tactically.  

A couple of Tessor Ferals on seeing Lem in the distance, dodge into cover and open fire with their military rifles. So much for Loops plans.

"Ooh ya flunker!" Lem swears as a shot hits him but failing to wound him. Lem is stunned and pushed back. 

T Bone gets a bead on a Feral and opens fire. 

Scoring a hit but not wounding the Feral, stunning and knocking him backwards. 

Shorty moves to a better firing position. Maya fires on the distant Ferals missing them. 

Joey runs around to flank the ferals. 

A Feral has the same idea not seeing that Joey is nearby. 

Another Feral fires on Maya. 

Scoring a hit but not wounding Maya, stunning and knocking her back. "Ooh that smarts!" she snarls as she realises she isn't wounded.

The Feral Lieutenant spots T Bone screams "DIIIIEE!!" and shoots at him. 

The bullet hits T Bone but fails to wound him but stuns and knocks him back. 

Another Feral spots Captain Loops and fires on him, causing Loops to be wounded. 

Lem yells "Loops is down". Shorty raises his needler growling "Finally, a target" and fires on a Feral.  

Dropping the Feral. "Yeah! For Loops!" Shorty yells feeling some sort of revenge for the injuring of his friend.

"Oh, where has he gone?" Maya mutters in frustration. The kid Joey is proving to be a bit of a wild card. She moves to support Joey’s flanking move. 

Joey keeps advancing and spots the Feral closing. Joey fires wildly at him, missing the Tessor goon.

Joey gets a quick reaction in the next turn. He charges the Feral and wins the close combat. Joey puff his chest out in his victory.

Unfortunately for Joey, the Ferals in the distance spot him and open fire. A shot slams into the wannbe hero causing him to be knocked back and to be stunned. 

The other Ferals advance along the centre of the feild and pour fire on T Bone causing him to be knocked back and to be stunned. T Bone is starting to think that there is a target painted on his hat.

Lem spotting the Feral Lieutenant and fires his hand laser at him, killing him. 

Tired of being battered by weapon fire T Bone retreats to a better position.

Shorty fires on the Ferals missing while Maya plans her next move.

"I have to stop that dumb scruff from getting killed" Maya mutters to herself and moves to support Joey. She shoots at the feral, causing him to be knocked back and stunned. 

"Ooooh, hang on...no blood! I hope the crew didn't spot this.'" At this point Loops recovers, red faced and moves into close combat with a Feral (I forgot that he was supposed to ignore the first injury roll this campaign turn, DOH!). 

Unfortunately for Loops the Feral wins and Loops is back on the casualties list. 

"Crap, the boss cant fight for crud!" Lem growls. In revenge Lem shoots the Feral dead. 

T Bone advances and tries to shoot the Feral in cover, his shots slamming into the pipe stack. 

Maya takes another shot at the Feral missing him. 

The Feral returns fire taking Maya out of the battle. 

The remaining Feral moves into better cover.

T Bone rushes up to flank the Feral. 

Shorty moves to a better firing position. 

Joey moves into the ruin and yells "For Maya!"

Bullets from Joey’s gun taking down the Feral who gunned Maya down. 

The remaining Feral seeing the rest of his squad has had enough and flees. 

As the crew have held the feild this mission is a success. The crew find a starship part on the field (worth 2 creds once it is installed). 

Epilogue:

Twelvetree pays 4 creds to the team including danger pay (a bit tight!). He also rewards the crew with a data file (worth 2 rumours). 

Both Captain Loops and Maya have minor injuries and will be out for the next mission. It didn't seem worth using the Nano Doc for minor injuries.

Loops gains +1XP, allowing him to improve his Combat stat . 

Lem gains +3XP but hasn't enough XP to improve a stat.

T Bone gains +3XP allowing him to improve his Toughness stat.

Maya gains +1XP and she uses her XP bank to improve her Movement stat.

Shorty gains +4XP allowing him to improve his Toughness stat.

Joey gains +3XP allowing him to improve his Combat stat.

The crew spend the night drinking and gambling gaining the crew 1 story point.

Lem decides that he needs a make over and gets a new haircut. 

Footnote: 

The crew did better than I expected considering that they were outnumbered and outgunned. If the enemy had a tactical deployment the result may have been different. The crew also had plenty of bad dice rolls. It also didn't help that I forgot that Loops was supposed to ignore his first injury roll this game. I guess it took him a little longer to realise he wasn't wounded. It's a bad example for a Captain to roll about like he was injured in front of his crew. However if he had stayed in the game instead of rolling around going "ooh ooh I am shot in the wallet!" perhaps the battle would have turned in the crew's favor earlier.

The next mission will be interesting with only four crew members, unless I send some of the crew out to recruit some temporary bodies. The stat increases should make the crew a little more combat effective, dice gods permitting. There is also a chance I am going to come across a rival or end up on a quest mission soon. The crew Patron Twelvetree will always have jobs for the crew until they fail a mission. I also wonder if the patron Valchiria will have a mission or if he has discovered who his rival is. 

Thanks for reading, take care out there.