Loops Heroes Campaign Pt 4 - The Psychos

Hello and Welcome Back,

Time for the next installment of my 5 Parsecs from home campaign with Loops Heroes. I can't believe it has nearly been a year since my last game.

After paying the crew, Loops coffers stands at 10 Credits.  Loops decides to take on the Dockside Association job which was generated in the last campaign turn. 

In the in-between missions Lem Bulla goes training and gains 1XP. T- Bone and Maya go out to act as decoys in case the Iron Ladies gang are looking for the crew. Shorty decides to try and fix the snooper bot but fails. 

There are no battlefield conditions but only because I forgot to implement them.DOH! 

The Dockside Association is paying the Loops Heros to deliver some parts to a stranded work crew. The work crew became trapped in the dark zones when the transport tube they were using broke down. The primatives living in area have killed two of the work crew, trapping the others in the vicinity of the transport tube. When they fix the transport tube the work crew and Loops heros will return to the inhabited zones together. To get to the stranded work crew, Loops Hero's will have to move through the primitive occupied zone. This band of primitives call themselves "the Psychos". The Association has informed the team that a Psycho Chieftain may also be in the area and there is a 3 Credits bonus for taking the Chieftain out. 

The field of battle, deep in the dark zones of Wreckage Station.

Loops Hero's approach cautiously. Joey misses this mission as he is still in the sick bay. Maya and Shorty team up to the left, Captain Loops takes the centre while Lem and T-bone take the right side.

The Psychos notice the intruders on their turf. The Chieftain is the big guy in the centre and weilds a brutal melee weapon. The Psychos are all armed with rusty blades apart from the red mochican Psycho who also sports a brutal melee weapon. 

The Crew don't manage to gain the initiative over the Psychos. Loops is the only crew member to get a fast reaction. He moves ahead of the crew. Leading from the front has always been his style. 

"Raaahh! I am going to eat you!!" Screaming all manner of terrifying and sometimes just plain weird, threats and insults the Psychos rush towards the intruders. Psychotic primitives they may be but they split to stop being too bunched up. These guys have been shot at before. 

The rest of the crew move forward to meet the threat. Shorty rushes towards a place where he can get a height advantage. 

T-Bone gets behind some barricades and considers turning off the laser fence. "Come on man, we got Psychos to kill" Lem shouts as he rushes past. 

"Kill, Kill, Kill!" "I'm gonna mash you like a nana!" The Psychos keep moving eager for blood. 

"Wibble!" The Psychos on the other side are also getting closer. 

Loops moves behind a vent and takes a shot at the approaching Psychos with his Military Rifle, missing his targets. 

Lem rushes up a ramp, trying to get a height advantage. He takes a shot with his new needle rifle at the two approaching Psychos missing them. Freelancers they may be, but they wont make decent mercenaries.

"Aw kak, I am missing the fun". On hearing the shots T-Bone leaps the barricade and moves to support Lem. 

Maya moves to a barricade and fires at a psycho with her Colony Rifle, missing. 

Shorty finally gets into position. 

"Lampost! Banana!" "Kill!" The Psychos are starting to get uncomfortably close. 

Lem fires his needler at the Psychos missing. 

"Heerreees T-Bone!" T-Bone yells as he turns the corner of the laser fence firing his plasma rifle wildly. 

"Eat it!" T-Bone yells triumphantly as a Psycho drops to the ground screaming. 

"I am gonna chew on your innards!" The Psychos are getting too close for Maya's tastes. 

Maya's colony rifle barks and the Psycho falls to the ground screaming. 

Shorty spots two Psychos flanking Maya. 

A hail of needles pushes one of the Psychos backwards, the pins sticking obscenely out her body. 

Shorty triggers the needler again dropping the Psycho with the brutal melee weapon. 

Loops shoots at the Psycho Chieftain hitting him, pushing him back. 

With a roar the Chieftain rushes Loops, while the remaining Psycho dives into cover to avoid getting more piercings. 

"YYEEHHHAAA!" Over the other side a Psycho charges T-Bone. 

The Chieftain and Loops exchange blows. 

But the Chieftain is too strong and Loops drops to the ground injured. 

T-Bone's ripper sword makes short work of the Psycho trying to bite him. 

Before Maya can respond the Chieftain leaps at her and the two are locked in mortal combat. Maya has to use her colony rifle as a makeshift club to protect herself. The other Psycho leaps the wall and runs towards Shorty's position.

Shorty spots the other remaining Psycho rushing towards the vent riser he is standing on. A hail of needles forces her back. This nutter is starting to look like a pin cushion. 

"A little help!" yells Maya as she fights off the Chieftain. T- Bone and Lem rush to help her.

"Your gonna be my meat poppet!" The pin cushion Psycho makes it to the ramp. 

Maya and the Chieftain are still locked in deadly combat. 

A glancing blow pushes Maya backwards, stunned. 

"Ello pinhead!" Shorty chides the approaching Psycho.

Coolly Shorty triggers the needler. With a scream finally the Psycho drops. 

Maya staggers backwards trying to put space between her and the Chieftain. 

"Oi, ugly!" T-Bone yells at the Chieftain as Lem arrives to support him. 

A stream of plasma bolts smash into the Chieftain killing him. 

The team quickly apply first aid to their Captain, grab some loot and head onwards to find the trapped work crew. Soon they are all back in Wreckage Station's inhabited zone. 

Post Battle: 

The Psychos have not become rivals of the crew, without their leader they have fled deeper into the dark zones. The Dockside Association are pleased at the success of the crew and have become a new patron. 

The crew receive 5 credits for their mission success plus a further 3 credits for killing the Psycho's Chieftain. Not a bad payday. 

A brutal melee weapon was found on the battlefield and another was looted from the Chieftain. Lem and Maya received these weapons as they don't have any melee weapons. Hopefully it will make them more effective in future fights.

Loops has a serious injury, the crew deicide to utilise the Nano Doc in the ship's stores. Loops is fighting fit in a couple of hours. Sadly the Nano Doc is used up. 

Shorty uses his XP to boost his Toughness. 

This mission showed how poorly equipped the crew are for Melee. So a couple of blades were purchased and given to Shorty and Joey. 

The crew are making a name for themselves and a new patron has shown some interest in the crew. The Wreckage govt are asking if the crew can work for them. 

Joey has announced that he has business elsewhere and will be away from the crew for the next two campaign turns. Stay safe kid and don't get into too much trouble. 

Thoughts: 

This mission could have been a walk in the park, execpt the Psycho primitives have a much larger movement stat which makes up for the lack of ballistic weapons. Poor to hit rolls plagued the crew early on which allowed the Psychos to get too close. Maybe I should get them all training to improve their combat stats? T-Bone was the hero of the mission. He got first blood and accounted for three of the kills including the Chieftain. The plasma rifle and ripper sword is a good combo. 

Thanks for reading and stay safe out there.

Psychos!

Hello and Welcome Back!

Get ready for some crazy screaming, its psycho time! 

"Kill! Kill! KILL!! Ha HAA HAAA!!"

Here we have some psycho bandits the next episode of my 5 Parsecs campaign. Anyone familiar with the Borderlands Computer games, will know all about the Psychos.

 

"No One Kills my buddy but me!!"

 

The Psychos. These loons form the rank and file of the various Psycho Bandit gangs. 

"I wonder if I plant you into the ground, if you'll grow taller!"

 

The Psycho Badass. A huge brute who acts as the leader for psycho warbands.

 

"BOOM TIME!!"

 

A suicide psycho. These guys rush up holding a primed grenade blowing themselves up with it.

Captain Loops and the crew of the Problem Child are in for a surprise in their next mission. There are plenty more where these figures came from and offers me some scope for conversions. The figures are from the Borderlands boardgame which has quite a lot of figures and offers a good bang for your buck if you can find one a set cheaply.  I found mine on Amazon, I think the seller got bored of it laying on the shelf. The movie flopping probably didn’t help. The figures scale up okay with 28mm heroic or 32mm. 

Although I am using these figures for my Wild Galaxy games, they will be useful as Post Apocalyptic raiders. 

Thanks for looking and stay safe out there. 

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.