Marcus takes off into deep space with his crew of ne’er-do-wells in the start of a new solo campaign.
According to the strapline, Five Parsecs from Home is “A solo adventure wargame of galactic trailblazing!”. Originally published amongst a host of other products from Nordic Weasel Games, I bought the original some years ago but never got it to the table as I often don’t with electronic products (but you can get it from Drive Thru RPG here). When Modiphius produced a lovely, updated physical version in 2021 I had to give it a try.
The game relies heavily on tables to generate characters and events each turn. It is hardly surprising that rolling up my characters was an activity redolent with memories of half-forgotten episodes of ‘80’s role playing.
Having had a couple of games which went well in terms of understanding, but very much not so in if judged by any standard of success, I regretfully decided to roll up a new crew and record the results for general edification.
Firstly, the Captain: Veyon Ostrova (human). While Veyon grew up on a Research Outpost which gave her some technical background, her family were artists. She has as a result a bit of savy and a slice of luck. She is motivated by wealth.
Pascal Xavier (human “bio-up”). Pascal is an unusual character. From a wealthy background he is bio-adjusted with cybernetics, (including the ability to avoid a stun on a D6 roll of 5+). Pascal has a political motivation (which I suspect gives him some revolutionary leanings) and a mysterious patron, a private organization with some as yet unspecified objectives. Nevertheless, he is also quite savvy. He is not short of a bit of cash and generated a story point, which can adjust matters in the player’s favour; a lucky break or perhaps a dramatic twist in the story…
San Holo (humanoid alien). San is particularly notable for his blueish skin tone and has innate engineering skills. Brought up on a space station, he is not as tough as the others, but he is fast. He is a bit of a scoundrel but is motivated by romance. Is he looking for a lost love? San also generated a story point.
Nira Tigg (human) grew up in with a ganger background. Whatever happened on that mining colony she grew up on, she is out for blood! She is motivated by revenge. As a result she is tough (+1), has two experience points and faster reactions (+1) than the norm, but also has a rival. Somebody is gunning for her too!
Kel Wyre. Not unlike Nira, Kel has an unhappy background. Escaping from some war-torn hell-hole of a planet with two experience points and (+1) quick reactions, he values his freedom above anything else. And what way to assure that than a ready supply of cash? Kel is a scavenger who has his ear to the ground (+1 rumour) and has managed to acquire a sniper rifle.
Finally, Wellington Duo (human) grew up in a wealthy merchant family and perhaps not surprisingly he is motivated by the acquisition of wealth himself. He has some experience in corporate espionage and a corporate patron who has provided the crew with their first job. He has a handy way with tech (he has a repair bot and knows how to use it with +1 to repairs)
Their ship is a lowly rust-bucket of a freighter. Its registration ends with the digits …31.4. San remarked on this and Veyon replied “Then it will be Pi in the Sky” and the name stuck.
Next time we’ll get stuck into some action…
Apparently these are two SOMUA MCG-1 half-tracks, two Laffley W15TCC tank destroyers (basically lightly armoured trucks with a 47mm AT gun in the rear bed) and two SOMUA S-35 fast tanks.
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