Five Parsecs campaign Byakhee

This is an introduction to my first campaign with Five Parsecs from Home, using second edition rules, started in 2019.

It was a long time ago, and a lot has changed since then.

You may ask why I bother to bring it out now, after all this time.  I'm not just planning to show how the story elements evolve in this particular campaign, but to discuss some of the changes in third edition and compare Five Parsecs with some of Ivan Sorensen's other games.

Setup

Log of the strange alien vessel Byakhee, captain Anton recording.

My crew is an accretion of starport scum, who recognised this ship as their best chance to get away from the gang boss Jax Smitheren.  As soon as we could afford the fuel and other costs, we made the hyper-leap to Garrideb-2.  Now we have to make enough credits to keep ourselves going.  There are six of us, which is a comfortable size crew to take care of local difficulties.

Franz was a bounty hunter who picked up a Wanted poster for one of Jax's gang.  He doesn't talk about the details, but Jax found out and Franz needed to put some distance between them.  Same story as my own, except that I was an agent working undercover.  Franz carries a rattle gun (kind of a squad machine gun) with a hand gun as backup and dazzle grenades (flash-bangs) in case he's outnumbered.

Erika was working on a research outpost, though it didn't pay enough for the life she wants.  She carries a shotgun and a maul for close-quarter work.  It's ironic that she had a decent salary but wanted more, while Dolly was working for peanuts on a frontier gang and only wants to get her hands on some high-tech kit like Erika was getting paid to use for research work.  Dolly has a similar weapon setup to Erika, with a blast rifle and a brutal melee weapon, plus a jump belt to get into the action.

Boris is an artist.  Seriously, you should see his paintings.  I think he only travels with us because he needs to see the sights and the action that he can paint later.  He's handy enough with a rifle, but nothing special.

Craig on the other hand is a proper soldier, with an auto-rifle and he reacts sharply when the shooting starts.  Could be because he grew up in a permanent war zone, so it's what he's used to.  Now he just craves more adventure.

Between us we have Cr 27

The crew - Anton, Boris, Craig, Dolly, Erika & Franz

Rules notes

Ivan loves to play with different systems for each aspect of the game.  Some of his games even include multiple options for a single rule in the same book.  Melee combat is a good example.  

In 5 Parsecs, each character rolls one d6, adjusts for combat skill and weapon type, then the winner scores a hit on the other.  Rolls of 1 or 6 cause additional hits.   For each hit, roll d6 + damage stat of the weapon vs toughness of the target to pushback or kill.

In 5 Leagues, a turn of melee contains 3 "exchanges" where each character  rolls one d6 and adjusts for combat skill, but one of them is the attacker and only the attacker can score a hit by beating the defender's total.  The defender can only seize the advantage and become the attacker.  For each hit, roll d6 with adjustments for the weapon vs the armour value fo the defender to cause harm; then roll again vs toughness of the target to stun, wound or kill.

Obviously 5 Leagues has a greater focus on melee, with an expectation of longer and more interesting sword fights, and also more focus on armour (in 5 Parsecs, armour simply increases toughness).

Campaign turn 1 - on Garrideb-2

Upkeep reduces the ship's treasury to Cr 21.

Anton hands out the assignments: he will get a job from the patron, Dolly will train, Boris & Erica trade, Craig & Franz explore

Anton's patron is a local pirate, Hakon Hardpoint, who wants the group to defend some guy called Istvan against zealots from the church of Jammu while he travels to a secret location across town.  Anton figures that should make some money for the crew.

Boris & Erica manage to buy a useless trinket and a repair kit (which can be used to prevent 1 item being destroyed).

Craig meets someone and has a nice chat. Franz eats some bad food and gets to spend the next turn in sick-bay.

Most of the party is fit to join Istvan and escort him to his hideout.

As the party sets off across town, they bump into ten zealots armed with rifles, apart from one with a cling-fire pistol (or hand flamer if you prefer, but that name's copyright is owned by another company), who is the leader.  They setup in a blob with 1" spacing.

Zealots have the "psycho" AI, so they will move as fast as possible towards the closest opponent and will always attempt to enter Brawling combat.

I took no pictures of this fight.  You can imagine a few streets of housing, using old cardboard boxes as buildings.  Your imagined scene probably looks better than any photographs would have done.

Anton uses his jump ability to get onto a house roof & establish a sniper post.  Dolly gets half-way to one.  The zealots approach.

Anton fires but misses.  Dolly take up position. Zealots advance (they can't be bothered to stop and shoot Dolly).

Anton & Dolly both miss with their next shots. Franz dashes up.  Zealots advance.

Anton scores a hit (but no kill). Dolly misses. Zealots advance.

Dolly blows one to pieces (6+1 damage). Zealts advance, their morale remains solid.

A zealot climbs onto the roof and brawls with Dolly. Dolly goes down. Anton takes out one zealot (remembering the "aim" rule). Both sides have good morale.

Zealots advance.

Anton scores a headshot on a zealot (6+1 damage). Zealots advance, their morale solid.

Anton stuns 1 zealot. Zealots advance and almost close with Anton.

Anton bugs out, using his jump to get clear. Craig & Erica both miss their targets. Zealots advance.

5 actions! Franz stuns one, Erica stuns one, Boris blows the leader's head off, Craig misses, Anton kills one. Zealots advance. Zealots lose 2 morale.

Anton bugs out again. Erica kills one. Zealots advance. One brawls Erica and is stunned. One brawls Craig and is stunned. One brawls Erica and stuns her.

Zealot morale breaks and they run. 

This was a surprisingly tense fight, always backing away from the advancing tide of enemies.  Breaking the morale of this particular opposition was particularly difficult. On average these zealots will only stop after 9 out of 10 of them are dead!

The zealot AI was baffling.  Armed with rifles they rush into a brawl and just use them as clubs - not a great strategy.  This has been fixed in the 3rd edition, where they use the Aggressive AI model, instead of Psycho.  Now they will stop and shoot when they see a target.

As my first play of Five Parsecs, there were some mistakes in play.  Most of the party were limited to standing still (not even acting late) while all the badguys moved every turn.  That's because the QRS didn't mention that any characters who don't get assigned a fast action will act in the Slow Action phase, and I forgot.

One rules quibble: how is a hunting rifle only accurate to the same 6" distance as a handgun? In effect, every weapon has a to-hit target for long range and an easier target for short range, but short range is the same for every weapon.  So a pistol always gets the easy to-hit target, while a rifle isn't accurate beyond pistol range.  This strange behaviour is still there in 3rd edition.

After the fight

The Jammu guys don't come after the crew as enemies, just because we helped Istvan make it across town, and Hakon pays 5 creds plus loot: an old droid "K2N4". It costs 3 Credits to repair him. Add a droid to the crew. He's straight out of the chapter on "odd-ball characters".

Dolly recovers after 1 turn in sick bay (#52) alongside Franz (with his stomach ache)

xps: Anton 3, Boris 4, Craig 3, Dolly 2, Erica 3, Franz 3

Shopping: a roll on the gear table comes up with a set of combat armour (+1 Tough & +1 React), which is a worthwhile investment in the survival of the crew

Campaign event: a tax audit costs 5 credits.  It seems Anton has been lax in 

Character event: Craig takes up an unusual hobby, poetry.  What is this, an artists' commune?  A painter and a poet on board, but not a medic.

Campaign turn 2 - on Garrideb-2

Upkeep costs Cr 4 (with 2 crew in sick bay), reducing ship's funds to Cr 16.  This is another difference between games, with upkeep in Five Leagues being free for small groups and only the excess members of the party needing to pay for their keep.

Anton hands out the crew assignments: he will find work, taking Boris with him, Craig & Erica will trade, Dolly & Franz are in sick bay

Hakon has another job for the crew, to patrol a farm and mind the animals.

Craig picked up some trade goods worth 1d6 credits at the next planet.  You know, the stuff they produce here on Garrideb-2 that could be in demand somewhere else.  Erica gets a "Fixer" (to repair something broken).

The crew shuffle some gear around and head over to the farm.

The farm.  Not all the animals appear tame

On patrol, they are attacked by 3 assassins with Blast pistols & a blast rifle for the leader

Once again it's an odd choice of weapon and behaviour pattern for the assassins.  Why do they rush in to close quarters?  At least they do all have pistols, so they face no penalty in brawling.

Also, I was confused about the mission.  It's a patrol, with a location of "farm animals", so are the assassins out to kill the animals, or us, or steal the animals, or are the livestock just in the way (like patrolling a building)?

I chose to assume the animals are just wandering scenery.

• 0-2" move each turn (d6/2-1) in a random direction.  They block line of sight and act as a walking hedge.
• Animals move at end of turn (after slow actions)
• Attempts to pass through an animal are hazardous.

The assassins arrive at the far side of the farm, outside the hedge.

Anton is on watch on the roof of the prefab-hab.  K2N4 has just started a perimeter patrol clockwise.  For some reason he looks like a space marine in this game; later on he gets replaced by a shiny metallic droid.  The others are resting inside the hab.

Anton spots movement outside the perimeter and the fight is on.  Erica & Craig deploy from the hab.

The assassins cross the hedge into the field of giant animals

K2 patrols around the pig field.  Boris deploys from the hab

Anton takes aim & shoots at the nearest assassin, rolls a 6 & hits for 3+1, taking him down!  Lucky start.

The livestock wanders about.  The Assassins make their morale roll & continue their attack

First blood to Anton

Anton waits for the other assassins to move out from behind the horse

Erica climbs over the hedge and moves up

With no clear shot past the horse, the assassins split up and go past the horse one on either side.  They don't have a target in range.

Anton reacts & shoots at the boss assassin, rolls 5 & hits for 4+1, taking him down too.  Anton is absolutely at his sharpest today.

Craig & K2 move up.

The remaining assassin fails the morale roll (a 2) - but it's irrelevant; this guy is never going to give up.

Anton takes aim & shoots at the last assassin, rolls a 6 & hits for 6+1.  Nice one!

Like shooting fish in a barrel

Post-battle

The Garrideb assassins bear no grudge for losing 3 of their number. Whoever took out the contract should have paid for a bigger team.

Hakon pays the crew Cr4 for keeping the farm safe.

Loot: we search the bodies & get 2 items off the Gear table: a 2nd fixer and some frakk grenades

xps: Anton 6, Boris 3, Craig 3, Dolly 0, Erica 3, Franz 0

Man of the match award goes to Anton for his flawless marksmanship. Bonus xp to Anton for defeating Tough enemies.

Shopping: not this turn.  The pay equals the cost of upkeep, so there's no spare cash to splash about.

Campaign event: Something's up, Hakon won't work with us any more.  If I were a fraction more paranoid, I'd wonder if he set us up with this job and hired the assassins to hit us...

Character event: Craig makes friends with Dolly. Both receive +1 XP

I guess he missed her while she was in sick bay and he was walking around some local farm.  Maybe he even wrote a poem for her.

Third Edition

This game was played with the older 2nd edition rules.  Since then Modiphius has published the 3rd edition.  There are a lot of tweaks to the rule details, and one of my gripes about these two scenarios is already addressed with new encounter tables.  On that basis alone, I'd like to recommend the new edition and switch over to it right away.  But...

There is a lot of new material in the new edition.  Specific alien races, special characters, ship upgrades, more details for space travel & creating new worlds, advanced training options for crew members, more background on the Unity setting, more options for adding a storyline to the campaign.  Mostly I welcome this, so long as it doesn't turn into the very specific setting and races that need specific models from one manufacturer.  An encounter with "renegade troops" can use any half-way military model, but if a future edition gets to cat-people in power armour with multi-barrelled pistols then I won't bother using those rules or collecting the official models.

The rulebook has had the attentions of a team of professional designers and artists, where the 2nd edition looks like it was written in a word processor package with a few of the author's photographs of games wherever a half-page at the end of a chapter would be blank paper.  On the flipside, the 2nd edition had easily readable type and didn't waste space having artwork on every page.  Here are a couple of pages from each edition to show what I mean.

2nd edition

3rd edition

The second edition combat section takes 2 pages, the third edition takes 5 pages, although the fifth page contains one illustrated example of combat and half a page of pictures of futuristic weapons (with no labels, so just eye-candy).  Overall the rules have grown from 59 pages to 182.

As a result I'll be moving grudgingly to 3rd edition, but re-typing all the important stuff like combat rules to make my own quick-reference sheets in a readable size and colour.

Until next time, health & happiness to you all.