Five Parsecs: Campaign Turn One: The Adion Babysitting Club

Freshly arrived on the planet Adion, Randis wasted little time setting his crew about their various tasks.  Randis and Zav headed off to trade, Kultak and Oracle did a little exploring, and Vargoth and Aris... well, they managed to stir things up to keep any of their "friends" off their collective tail.

Randis managed to trade for an old military fuel cell, while Zav stayed with the fundamentals and rustled up some grub for the crew.  Meanwhile, Kultak meet an alien merchant and Oracle stumbled across a "retired" Unity arms merchant.  Credits are tight though, so both decided to pass on making any purchases.

Meeting up back at the Avadora, they found a message from Kultak's patron, Vertex.  One of his agents needs to be escorted to a data terminal in a questionable part of the city.  To make matters worse, a group of alien thugs from the a local trade union are making trouble there.  The information is time sensitive though, so Randis and the crew geared up and headed off for the meet up.

For this game, I grabbed the small 2' x 2' board that I'd boshed together for Deadzone and set up some of the Kaldstrom terrain to make a small urban center.  The thugs in this case are technically punks from the criminal element list.  Given my minis, reskinning them as unruly alien trouble makers just made more sense.  Some day I'll have a bunch of punk minis... but not today.

Next was the agent from Vertex.  Since its a data drop, I grabbed an old Rogue Trader era scientist mini that I had.  He has some kind of headset/implant thing so he just screamed at me when my eyes landed on him.

The last mini in the bunch was from the notable sights table, which I had skipped over when I first rolled up the mission.  In this case, I rolled up a "person of interest" and thankfully I have a mini that can fill the bill for this as well.

With the minis picked out, there was only one thing left to do... play the game!

As they moved into the sector, Oracle was able to interface with the local network and tap into the surveillance systems.  Having pin pointed the rabble rousers location, the crew quickly advanced towards their target.

The first step is rolling to seize the initiative, which Oracle was able to do quite handily!  Aris and Vargoth head to the left, while Zav uses his jump belt to go to the high ground!  The rest of the crew went to the right so they could get the data terminal in sight.

Round 1...

Hearing the cries of the thugs in the distance, the crew decided to hold position so they could respond to their opponents first move.

That's right; it wasn't bad dice, it was a personal choice to go last!  And if you believe that...   The thugs spread out into three groups.  One of the specialists headed to the left with two thugs, the leader went for high ground with the other specialist, and the remaining thugs cautiously moved to the right.  No shots were fired, but the one of the thugs was able to get line of sight to Kultak!

Kultak called out "Contact!" and sprinted across the narrow road to cover as the rest of the crew sprang into action.

While Kultak ran over to get back out of sight, Randis moved to a covered position while Oracle headed up to get to the high ground.  Meanwhile, Vargoth moved up to the cover of the building to keep an eye on the thugs, Aris sprinted across to make his way up the ladder to the landing platform, and Zav jumped again, ready to make contact with the person of interest they had heard about.

Round 2...

The dice were more favorable this round as the crew rolled three 1's!  I quickly assigned these and the crew sprang into action.  Randis set himself up for snap fire in case anyone got within range while Oracle scrambled up to the roof and got ready to start sniping.  Aris climbed onto the landing platform and rounded the air car, only to see the thug armed with a hunting rifle in the distance.

The hunter thug fires at Aris but the shot goes wide.  The other hunter heads up the stairs, prompting a snap shot from Randis which fails to connect.  Unfortunately for Randis, the hunter isn't rattled at all as it draws a bead and takes him out of action... or would have if I hadn't remembered about story points!  One point spent, and Randis was able to dodge back just in time.  The remaining thugs charge forward to close the gap.

Zav talks to the mysterious stranger... while shots are being fired... the way ya do, right?  And Vargoth crosses over the road in the hopes of setting up a shot at some point.  Curse the short range of scrap pistols!

Kultak peers around his cover but the thugs are still too far away, while the agent runs over to the same cover in the hopes of getting to the terminal quickly.

Round 3...

Aris and Oracle both get the drop on the thugs and choose the perfect target... the enemy leader.  The shot from Aris connects but only stuns the leader and Oracle... he shots the side of the building.

In response, Aris becomes the thugs number on priority!  Shots rain down on him from the leader, both of the hunters, and three of the thugs but nothing connects.  The rest of the thugs charge towards him... and then the shotgun blasts happened.

As the mysterious stranger leaves, Zav steps around the air car and fires on two of the thugs, killing both of them.  Randis and Kultak try to lend their own support but unfortunately their shots go wide.  Panic starts to run through the thugs and the leader and one of the hunters quickly exit stage right.

Round 4...

This time Vargoth feels his feral instincts burble up and he charges forward towards the thugs, but is still to far away to fire on them.

The closest thug to Aris charges him, beating him back but not taking Aris out of action.  The remaining hunter attempts a shot and the other two thugs run up to the bottom of the landing pad.

Regaining his wits, Aris levels his colony rifle at the thug that attacked him and gunned him down.  Zav runs over to the edge of the landing pad and lets loose two shots, taking out the two thugs at ground level.  The rest of the crew move up towards the center while the remaining hunter decides that he needs to make better life choices and gets out of dodge.  The agent retrieves the data, and the crew fades back into the shadows.

Post Battle Activities...

 The crew escorted the agent back to Vertex with the data safe and sound.  Thankfully there was enough confusion the that labor union don't know who broke up their demonstration so the crew won't have to worry about any future retribution (aka they didn't become yet another rival).  Vertex was generous with his appreciation as always, paying the crew handsomely for their help (5cr payment, taking them up to 13cr in the bank).  He had also been doing some digging and was able to get Randis more information about the Neknima sect that should help them track down the holy site referenced on their map.  Vertex also told them that he was already lining up another task for them and that he would be in touch soon.

Once the crew left, Zav told Randis about his encounter with the mysterious stranger and the information that they provided (plus one story point to take them back to four, and an additional rumor to take them up to two rumors for the Neknima quest).  Aris also revealed that he was able to "secure" some essential spare parts when the thugs withdrew (2cr worth of starship parts for future upgrades to the Avadora), while Vargoth found a damaged assault blade and bipod as they were leaving which were added to ship stores.  The battle looked sketchy at times, but overall the crew came out wiser for the experience (plus three XP each, except for Zav who earns four).  What will the future hold for the Avadora?  We will find out soon.  Until next time...

Five Parsecs From Home: Introducing The Crew Of The Avadora

Last week, I managed to get more paint onto my crew for Five Parsecs so I thought it was time to start introducing them.  First we have the feral of the group, Vargoth Mistrunner.

Vargoth is from the lower levels of the hive world of Tasoth.  An explorer by trade, Vargoth explored the lower levels of the hive looking for "treasures" that he could sell.  This went well enough until he stumbled into the territory of a group of fanatics known as the Sapphire Angels.  While Vargoth was able to escape, the Angels have been pursuing him since then.

Next we have Aris Salia, the resident agitator from the industrial moon Vilia N65M.

Aris managed to cross the Todov Consortium, the group that runs most of the operations on N65M.  With time running out and the goons closing in, Aris signed up to be part of trader Fol's crew.  This left his trouble behind for now, but the Consortium has a long arm.

We have the unlikely duo of our Engineer and Soulless up next.

Kultak ne Tenalu hails from the Tenalu enclave (hence the name... see what I did there?) located on Rivis.  While most Engineers focus on the technical, Kultak is actually a bounty hunter by trade.  His last contract was to track down a Soulless that had become severed from its hive mind and started calling itself Oracle.  Kultak found it on backwater trade hub and learned its true story.

Oracle had actually escaped from the Tenalu enclave and they were the ones to sever its link.  Kultak and Oracle quickly became companions and decided they would be better off forging their own path away from the enclave, which lead them to employment with trader Fol.

And finally we have the core of the crew, Zav Dezaran and trader Randis Fol himself.

Randis was a member of the Fehyn merchant family.  During one of his trade negotiations, he came across a text for the long dead Neknima sect which contained a damaged map to one of their lost holy sites.  Much to his family's chagrin, he decided to pursue this lead and struck out for the Wilds with his merchant cruiser, the Avadora, and his friend Zav Dezaram.

Randis met Zav when he was on one of the mining stations orbiting Sebunus.  The two quickly hit it off and Randis offered Zav a position on his merchant ship.  Since then, the two have been inseparable so it was no surprise when Zav helped Randis when he decided to head off to chart his own course.

I'm quite pleased with how my crew came out, and I'm glad that I've been able to churn my way through the boxes of Stargrave minis that I bought.  Between this bunch, my Zona Alfa crew, and my nameless heroes for Core Space, I've gone through sixteen of the sixty plastic minis so far... and that's without making up some targets... I mean opposition... for those two games.

And speaking of opposition, I started by first campaign turn for Five Parsecs!  I'm going to grab the board I'd done for Deadzone, throw together some opponents, a bit of quick terrain... and them we'll see how this ragtag bunch of ruffians fare!  Until next time...

Random Updates: Five Parsecs From WAAAAGH!!!

So short week in the field, but between last week and this I was able to get some stuff done.  First and foremost are my crew for Five Parsecs!

There will be a more "formal" introduction of them soon, but wanted to show what I'd been up to.  There is one more member that isn't present because I left him back home, so I'll grab him over the weekend.

On top of that there are a couple of more Orkz for da Waaaagh!!!

These two were my conversion for Kommandos.  In addition to the face mask, my Kommandos are all wearing backpacks just to make them a bit more distinctive.  Pretty minor changes, but they worked for me.  Oh yeah, and one of them isn't quite done but he's coming along nicely so that works for me.

And as you can see from the group shot, I'm really having fun playing with the various skin tones as well.  I first did this kind of thing with my Trollblood Frostgrave warband and love how it looks.  Just grabbing random shades of the base color and then hitting them with shades to add some depth.

And... speaking of the Trollbloods... they will be heading out into the field with me next week!  I want to try something crazy and put together a Warlords of Erehwon army for them using the Dwarf list.  Might work!  Might not but... we'll have to see.  Until next time...

Five Parsecs From Home: The New Phone Book's Here!!! The New Phone Book's Here!!!

 No, not really... BUT the hardcover copy of Five Parsecs From Home by Modiphius is!

It's a beautiful looking book, if a bit smaller than we usually have here in the States.  With full color throughout, with pictures that do a great job setting the tone for the games.  As with all rulebooks, there are a couple of nitpicks about the layout and such but overall I'm really pleased with it and I'm looking forward to diving back into it.  Of course that begs the question, what's taken me so long?  There in is the tale...

I ordered the physical copy way back in April, but Modiphius was awesome and sent me the PDF.  It took a little bit to cycle through my gamer ADHD but once I got back to Five Parsecs, I had a blast rolling up my first crew!  The random nature of the process seems like it would just create a chaotic mess, but it all just flowed together seamlessly because all of it was vague enough to act as prompts instead of locking you into anything specific.

So here I was with a crew of six malcontents to hit the spaceways... but how was I going to represent them in the game?  Some of them are pretty straightforward (aka da 'umans) but the more exotic ones were giving me some trouble.  In particular the swift just because how the heck was I going to represent that?!?  In the end, I just took the easy way out; the swift is now a feral... BAM!!!

And the next challenge was terrain... it's always terrain! Argh!!!  I was stressing about having a diverse selection of terrain to choose from so that I could cover any eventuality that the random charts could possibly throw in my direction... except it doesn't work that way.  The world traits table doesn't define the terrain, it gives you random traits associated with that world.  It could be a warzone, a bureaucratic mess, have import restrictions... nothing that defines the terrain.

Whoops!  And this, kids, is why you should always read all of the rules and not just make random assumptions!

With this revelation in mind, I'm setting a course to head back out Five Parsecs as I start assembling my crew so I can finally give this game a spin.  I distributed all their gear and so I've just got to piece them together from my Stargrave kits and then it will be go time!  Progress!  Yes, we have progress!!! Until next time...

Stargrave Miniatures: So Much Plastic Goodness!

I hopped onto the Stargrave nickstarter earlier this year, but I've gotta admit that I didn't do it for the game.  I did it for the miniatures.

I was really excited when I first heard about Stargrave, and could not wait to get my grubby little mitts on it!  A sci fi game that uses mechanics similar to Frostgrave?!? Heck yeah!  Then as it got closer I heard that it didn't use mechanics similar to Frostgrave, it basically was Frostgrave reskinned which really took the wind out of my sails.  I love playing the original, but why would I pay for exactly the same game with the names swapped out?

I will admit that I haven't looked at the book since it was actually released, and maybe... hopefully... this isn't entirely true but for now I'm in no rush to get this one which I why I went with the miniatures only option on the Nickstarter.

I've had the three boxes kicking around since they were released, but it wasn't until I started looking more into Zona Alfa and Five Parsecs that I broke them open and really looked at all the little gribbly bits that are in them.  With so much sitting around unpainted or even assembled, I really want to try to make use of my current collection before rushing out to add more, and these three sets look like they might be the key!

The first of the sets is the Crew, a sprue from which is shown below.

Of the three sets, these are the most day to day.  The bodies are clothed in more everyday wear than the other sets, and the weapons are a mix of handguns, SMGs, shotguns, and some basic rifles.  There are also a number of fun bits to add some flavor; backpacks, pouches, holsters, datapads, and a few more doohickeys ta boot.  And since this isn't enough variety, there are also the heads.  There are 20 of them on each of the four sprues, with a good mix of bare heads, alien heads, and even a couple of helmets for good measure.  An added plus is that the pairs of arms are all number coded on the flat that attaches to the shoulder, making it easy to get a matching set.

While it's good to have access to your "everyman" set, it's also handy to be able to bring in the bigger guns when you need them.  For this, you'll need to get yourself some mercenaries.

Where the crewmembers have everyday clothing, the mercenaries are ready for the rough and tumble with a mix of body armors.  This is a touch that I really like because each of the five bodies on the sprue are kitted out differently to give you a variety to choose from.  Their gear is much more businesslike as well, with most of the options being a bullpup configuration assault rifle.  Of course, that's not all since no self respecting merc would miss out on a machine gun, sniper rifle, or rocket launcher.  On top of this, there are a couple of backpacks, pouches, and even grenades, not to mention a whopping 22 heads per sprue!  Since merc are a bit more concerned about protecting their melon, a good number of these heads are helmeted, plus there are even more of the alien heads so you can keep spicing things up.

Last but not least, we have the men and women of the space force of your choosing.

These minis take the armor up another notch and are pretty uniform in style across the whole sprue, which is perfect for a bunch of troopers.  Their weapons step things up as well since most of the rifles on this sprue look to be some kind of bullpup combat rifles.  On top of these, they also have some more advanced looking SMGs, a scoped rifle, and a more advanced machine gun and missile launcher for good measure.  A majority of the 19 heads are helmeted, as you would expect from a military group, but this set is also the only one of the three that includes distinctly female heads.

All told, these sets give you a ton of options individually, and if you start combining them?  The sky is the limit!  I could see some people complaining about the leg/torso body configuration since that take away one modelling option, but when you compare that to all the bits and doodads that you get it seems like a fair trade!  I also love all of the options as far as the heads since those lend themselves to giving the minis even more character.

As for future developments on this line, I could see them introducing a box of female crew and/or mercs in the future, like they did with the Frostgrave plastics but even as is, there are the female heads in the trooper box to give you some options.

Now the question is which box is the best bet of the three?  I like all of them, and I'm glad that I have all three to mix and match with, but if I only bought one it would be the mercenaries.  I think that this set is versatile enough with the bits that are in it that you could easily slot them into a modern or sci-fi setting and not be out of place.  The outfits they are wearing are aren't crazily armored or over the top sci-fi looking, and I think this set has the most well rounded selection of weapons as well.

After that, I'd say the crew box and then the troopers, but this is just because of their versatility.  The crew have a more casual look to them with good options so I can see them fitting into a number of different situations, while the troopers are just straight up military.  They are equipped with more advanced combat weapons and body armor which limits their options a bit.  It's not like you can run out to the local store and pick up a set of military armor, right?  They are still good minis though, just as I said, slightly more limited in the application.

The next step for me will be perusing though these sets so I can start assembling my stalkers for Zona Alfa and my crew for Five Parsecs.  I'm going to try to only use minis on hand for these two systems instead of adding to the unpainted pile of shame.  It's going to be tricky in some cases, but my wallet and I are excited to see how I can do!  Until next time... 

Five Parsecs From Home: Beginning the Journey, Part Deux

It's time to finish what we started, and in this case I mean the crew of... well, the unnamed starship thingamabob. Heck, right now we don't even know what kind of ship it is, but have no fear!  There's a table for that too.

For our fourth crew member, we have another primary alien!  Cool!  And with another roll, we have a swift.  Swift are a race of small, winged reptilian humanoids and they earned their name from the jerky, quick movements.  Interesting...

For their class, they are from a lower megacity which earns them an extra low tech weapon.  Kind of gives me a Necromunda/Mega Ctiy One vibe which is cool.  These little tidbits don't just add to the characters, they also help develop the region of space that you are starting in.

Next comes their motivation, which is revenge!  This earns us yet another rival (because it's always fun to have yet another person messing with your plans!) and also earns this character 2 XP.  Unlike the other perks that you can get in character generation, XPs are for the individual character and not the group, and are used to increase ability scores or even get some special training to open up new skills.

Lastly is the class for our little lizardy friend, and they are an explorer.  This earns the crew another roll on the gear table, and earns the swift another 2 XPs!  Our little swift has already on the road to becoming the most competent member of the crew... as long as they can survive a couple of games!

Our fifth member of the crew is another alien, in this case what is known as a soulless.  Soulless are cybernetic beings that share a hive mind, making them kind of like Geth from Mass Effect.  And things got even more interesting when their background popped up another isolationist enclave.  So the engineer and the soulless are both from these enclaves... or maybe the same one?  Hmmm...

Next for their motivation we have freedom, earning them 2 XPs.  So maybe they wanted out of the enclave?  See how all the little prompts start getting the creative juices flowing?  Las but not least is their class, which is scientist.  This boosts up their savvy ability again (this was already improved from being a soulless) and earns the group an extra piece of gear.

The final member of the crew is another baseline human, but this time with a twist.  They grew up on a mining colony, which gives them a +1 to their toughness.  On top of that, their motivation is survival which gives another +1 to toughness.  This boosts their toughness all the way up to 5, one short of the max allowed and turning this character in the tank of the crew!  And speaking of crew, that happens to be their occupation as well; starship crew.  This gives them another +1 to savvy this time, making this character a brute that can take a hit while using their brain to figure things out.

This just leaves one more step to this whole process (well, other than rolling up the equipment which we can touch on as I get the minis done) and that is the ship.  Just what the heck are these people flitting about in?  One more roll and we have... an unreliable merchant cruiser.  Huh.  Not as dramatic as a retired scout ship or an old military patrol ship, but it will suffice I suppose.  Especially when you look back at the first character I rolled up who is from a wealthy merchant family.  Maybe they were given it to go make a name for themselves?  Or did they steal it, and maybe the family wants it back?  They are an agitator after all, and that would be a heck of a rival.

As you can see, even though these things were all randomly generated they have already gotten the creative juices flowing, trying connect them all together.  So just who are the crew of this merchant cruiser?  We'll find that out soon!  Until next time...

Five Parsecs From Home: Beginning The Journey, Part Uno...

I ordered a copy of Five Parsecs From Home, published by Modiphius, back when it was still in pre-order.  The great thing about this is that Modiphius provided a pdf copy of the game if you gave them proof of purchase, regardless of where you purchased it.  This was a brilliant idea for them, and I think it has really helped push the game to the fore, especially with solo gaming still being so common.

For me, the idea of a solo game fits in very nicely for once I get back into the field.  My real world job is as a field representative out of state, so I have more than a fair amount of time in a hotel room during the week.  The nice thing about this is that we have one hotel that we typically operate from, and since they have suites, you can really make yourself at home.  Well, as "at home" as you can get in a hotel.

This living arraignment had been one of the things that really drove me to get more into painting since it was an easy way to fill the downtime.  I dabbled with playing solo versions of Gates of Antares and Wrath of Kings, but since being recalled last year I've actually been working on expanding my solo gaming options which makes Five Parsecs perfect.

One of the innovative aspects of this game is the various tables that you use to flesh out every aspect of the campaign.  You can always just choose an option instead of rolling it, but the charts have got a good depth and breadth to them to keep things interesting, as I saw when I starting creating my first crew.

The character creation process is pretty straightforward.  The first thing you do is roll to determine your crew type.  This gives your character a baseline of stats that they will develop from and might also include some other characteristics or special rules.  Once you have determined that, you roll for their background, motivation, and finally their class.  Then you give them a name, pick a mini, and bam!  You're done!

While this might seem like it would be too random to work, it really just seems to boil down to an exercise in creative storytelling.

The first character I rolled up was a baseline human... how exciting, right?  They are also the most common crew type so it's not that surprising but I was hoping to hit some of the more unique types.  Moving on to their background, this character comes from a wealthy merchant family which gives them a bit of pocket money to start out their journey towards independent living.  Might come in handy.

Next was their motivation which is faith, earning them a story point and a rumor in the form of an old map.  Story points give you some control over the random nature of the game while rumors can lead to quests... though I can't seem to find out what exactly that means at the moment.  Hmmm... looks like that will be a bit of homework for me.

Finally I roll for their class which is kind of like their occupation?  In this case, they're an agitator which earns them a rival.  Rivals are enemies that want revenge and could interfere with your masterful plans as you journey among the stars!  Yeah, they are really a big bunch of jerks.

For the next member of the crew, things got a bit more interesting as the are aren't human, they are an engineer.  Engineers are slim humanoids with an innate gift for working with technology.  Think of the Quarians from Mass Effect and you've got the idea.  In fact, that image fits even better with this character because they are from an isolationist enclave which also earns another two rumors.

Their motivation that drives them is loyalty.  To their friends?  Their family? Dorritos maybe?  Who knows at this point, but I'm sure it will be part of their story.

And last but not least is their class which in this case is bounty hunter.  Boosting their movement rate, earning another rumor, and an extra piece of equipment are nice perks, but how did this slight humanoid become someone that tracks down others for a living?  Interesting...

For the third crew member, we've got another baseline human.  They're from an industrial world, which earns them an extra piece of gear, and also fits in nicely with their motivation, which is escape.  Mechanically, this gives them an extra point of movement but I like the idea that they are trying to escape from their past.

The last bit of this character is their class which is agitator again.  More rivals to mess up my finely crafted plans!  Yay!  But maybe that is why they are so good at escaping?  Always on the run from their rivals?  Could be why they left in the first place... interesting ideas...

So that is the first half of the crew rolled up, and I've already got some story ideas floating around in my brain.  We'll come back in the next installment and finish rolling them up before I get to the hard part of this process... figuring out the minis!  Until next time...

Random Update: Brush Fu In Color!

For the first time in literally weeks, I picked up the brushes and did some painting.  I've wanted to do something with the minis that I bought from BrushFu Studios on Etsy but time just hasn't been on my side until this weekend.

I'm really happy with house these minis turned out and I'm looking forward to tackling the other ones.  The details on them are very good and the prints are clean as well.  There were a couple of spots where there was the odd bump where the resin had been attached but it was easy peasy to clean them up.

From the left, we have a mini that I picked up to be an apprentice for a Frostgrave warband.  She has a fun vibe to her and I really want to build on that with the wizard (who I already picked up) and the rest of the warband.  They will probably be over the top but that's what makes it painting fun!

Next there is a hardened member of either my Core Space crew or my Five Parsecs from Home crew... or maybe both!  I was thinking that he would be the captain but I'm a little on the fence with it.  I mean he looks like he should be the captain, which makes me want to make him another crew member instead.  I've got more to go with him so I'll have to see who jumps out once the rest are done.

Finally there is a female civilian I picked up for Core Space.  I can see her as some kind of informant the crew needs to get information from, or possibly rescue before the Purge overrun the location.  Either way, I'm happy with how she turned out and I can't wait to paint up some more of the minis!  Until next time...