Five Parsecs campaign Byakhee - turn 3

This is a continuation of my first campaign with Five Parsecs from Home [previous episode], using second edition rules, started in 2019.

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

Since we reached Garrideb-2, we've done a couple of jobs for my old acquaintance Hakon Hardpoint, but something went wrong and now he won't take my calls.  We gained a re-conditioned droid to swell our numbers and fitted it with a hunting rifle. Craig has taken up poetry and developed a crush on Dolly.  I really hope it won't affect his effectiveness in a firefight.

Between us we have Cr 20, just like we had when we started, and no useful contacts to put work our way.  I see tough times ahead.

Campaign turn 3 - on Garrideb-2

Upkeep costs Cr 4.  The two crew in sick bay recover after upkeep is paid, and they didn't need any fresh veg delivered last week.

Assignments: Anton goes to find work, taking Boris; Craig & Erica trade, Dolly & Franz are checked out from sick bay but aren't fit to take an assignment this turn, K2 explores the town

Anton meets Lana Lane, a traveller just visiting Garrideb-2.  She's trying to find someone called Mike Manton and would appreciate our help.  Her only clue is a self-store unit that Manton was renting.  I guess we'll speak nicely to the supervisor there.

Craig's trading efforts picked up some medical supplies to shorten a visit to sick bay.  Erica came back to the ship with a worthless novelty stuffed animal.

K2 meets an alien merchant, but doesn't have any alien gear to trade with him.

The backwater self-store was just a yard full of shipping containers with an office cabin and a parking area.  The whole lot is surrounded by a security fence.  This one has an ornamental pond in front of the fuel-storage tanks, but something in the environment has turned it the same rusty brown as the parking area and the footpaths.  Best not to go swimming.  Even wading is probably a bad idea.

It turns out that Garrideb-2 is home to the Macleans corporation and 90% of the surplus shipping containers carry their logo.  The minerals mined here make the cheapest toothpaste in the sector.

Anton went inside the office to talk to the supervisor about how much it would cost us to take a look in Manton's storage unit, while the rest of the crew (K2N4, Boris, Craig & Dolly) waited outside.  That's when trouble showed up, back at the main gate.

The storage depot, just as trouble arrives

Genetic renegades: geneered troopers, half as tall again as a normal man, with skin as green as their olive drab uniform, the renegades have deserted from the army and formed their own communities.  They loot and steal whatever they need to keep going.  Maybe there is something in the storage facility to draw them here and the crew are just in the way?

[as it happens, toothpaste comes in a box just the right size for a 40' container in 1/72 scale.  I just need to paint them.  The cheap army men are a different story, let's not talk about them, they cost a penny each, and they'll do for today.]

Five renegades armed with rifles split into two groups for a tactical advance.  One group can lay down suppressing fire while the other group moves.  The larger group probably includes a leader.

Boris has a clear shot at a renegade, but misses.  K2 does the same (and also misses).

The renegades run for cover behind the storage tanks and the vehicles in the parking area.

Erica sets off to circle around the pond and close with these guys. Craig follows her, looking for a clear shot on a renegade, but misses.

Anton steps out of the office to see what's going on.

Anton uses his jump belt to get onto the roof of the office, and takes a shot at a renegade, but misses.  Craig takes a second shot but misses again

The renegades manoeuvre around the tanks & containers.  One renegade shoots back at Craig.

Erica moves into cover between two containers. Boris & K2 move wide, to cover the parking area.

Craig prepares to snap fire as soon as a target moves into sight.

The renegades shift across toward the back of the containers.

Craig takes his shot as one of them dashes between cover. Misses again. Boris moves through the car park for a shot - misses.

Anton is cursing something about all this love poetry affecting Craig's ability to shoot straight..

Craig & Anton prepare snap fire. Boris takes another shot, hits a renegade but only stuns him.  The renegade returns fire, hits Boris and stuns him in return.

Another renegade crosses the gap to join the two in position behind the shipping containers. Craig snap fires at him and puts 1 stun marker on him. Anton snap fires too and adds a 2nd stun marker. K2 moves up into a firing position near Boris and takes out the stunned renegade.

Erica steps out at the back of the containers & takes down another renegade.

The renegades take 1 morale failure (their morale is 2)

Erica gets a clear shot on a renegade

K2 & Boris both fire at a renegade & both miss. The renegade returns fire at Boris but also misses.

Two renegades are pinned down behind the fuel tanks.  They can't move into a firing position without closing inside 12" and their rifles are no good as brawling weapons. Anton & Craig have no targets in sight & no clear action to take.  This is settling into a stand-off.

Meanwhile Erica continues to advance around the back of the containers

K2 hits another renegade & takes him down

Anton prepares snap fire in case the two renegades that are pinned down behind the fuel tanks decide to make a dash for it.

Erica moves up between the containers

Craig and Boris also advance

The renegades take another morale failure & run for it

K2N4 picks off another renegade

Post-battle

The renegades came looking for easy pickings and soon realised that they had chosen the wrong day to visit.

The self-store manager was so pleased we drove them away that he let us in to Manton's storage unit, where we found the rental papers for a farmhouse out in the wilds.  Job done here.  Lana Lane can go look for him on the farm.

The genetic renegades bear no grudge for losing 3 of their number. They just picked the wrong day to come scavenging.

Lana pays Cr4 for tracing Manton.

Loot: we search the bodies & get 3 items off the Trade table: an instruction manual (+1 XP), a repair kit and a load of fuel for the ship (which reduces the cost of the next journey by Cr2).  I didn't see the renegades carrying a huge fuel tank around, so maybe it was on their truck (clearly visible on the road outside the self-store depot).

Nobody got seriously hurt today, so sick bay will be empty for a change.

xps: Anton 3, Boris 3, Craig 3, Dolly 0, Erica 4, Franz 0

Although K2 scored the first casualty, Erica was the first who could claim experience points for it.  K2 is just a machine.

Anton decides to let Dolly read the instruction manual, even though she wasn't in the fight, to get her Combat skill up to 1.

Shopping: not this turn, the job paid just enough to cover upkeep. Again.

Campaign event: one of your crew seems to have had an adventure. Anton spends some time thinking about his recent adventures & earns +2 XP

Character event: Craig has a make over to look his best for Dolly.  Ditch the bomber jacket and pick out a new look.

As mentioned last time [link], this is probably a good moment to say goodbye to the crew of the Byakhee and start a new campaign with the 3rd edition rules.

Until next time, health & happiness to you all.

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.