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| Pew! Pew! |
Five Parsecs From Home, Third Edition is tabletop sci-fi miniatures wargame designed for solo play. My interest in alternatives to face-to-face play rose dramatically over the past year and a half or so. I explored online play, used the time to press forward on various related projects, and encouraged my family's interest in tabletop games. Why not try a solo game at this point?
My personal experience with solo tabletop wargaming began with Star Fleet Battles. SFB single player scenarios frequently feature a "space monster" running on simplified rules - no energy allocation, attacks and movement determined by automatic processes, etc. SFB "space monsters" often present a tactical puzzle for the solo player - attacks that ignore the ship to kill the crew directly, a requirement to collect enough scientific data to find a way to stop it, etc. Playing these scenarios were not as memorable as an all-day fleet action or a starship duel with a skilled opponent, but they still offered an interesting challenge on a slow afternoon. I've tried solo games from time to time since then, but it's not something I've put any focus on until now.
The Concept
Five Parsecs From Home is built around campaign play. The player runs a spaceship crew doing odd jobs involving violence for people who don't ask questions about how the job got done. There are many persistent elements. Members of the crew acquire experience and better gear - if they survive. If not, then the crew may find themselves shorthanded for the next battle. Rumors can be tracked down, becoming Quests for the crew to follow. The opposition for one job may become Rivals and reappear looking to settle scores. There is no point system to balance the battles. One might be a milk run and the next may be a struggle that the crew barely escapes.
Production Quality
I purchased a physical copy out of personal preference. The book is a hardcover printed in full color on glossy paper. It measures roughly 9 1/2 x 6 1/4 inches. The compact size and sturdy cover make it ideal for my kind of tabletop gamer life - in other words, tossing it in a backpack on the way to a game or finding shelf space for it at home.
Scale, Measurements, Table Size, and Dice
Five Parsecs From Home works with a variety of scales. 28mm works as written with all measurements in inches. Using smaller scales in the game involves exchanging inches for centimeters. The recommended table sizes range from 3x3 feet (to allow for maneuvering) to 2x2 feet (for a more intense fight). The system uses six- and ten-sided die.
Currencies
The abstractions to track and spend in the game are credits, experience points, and story points. Credits are in-setting money used for expenses and purchases. Experience points are used to improve characters. Story points are handy when the dice aren't cooperating.
The Crew
Much like a roleplaying game, the book opens with a basic description of the game and then jumps into character generation. There are various methods of creating a crew, depending on the player's level of experience. Characters can have a variety of origins and classes. Equipment is generated as a pool and assigned to the characters at the player's discretion.
The Ship
The rules for the crew's ship handle it as an abstraction. The existence of the ship explains how the crew gets around. There are events that occur during interstellar journeys (including boarding actions), but there are no rules in the book for ship-to-ship combat. The ship supports the crew in various ways - injured characters go to sickbay, it provides secure storage for equipment, etc. However, the ship rarely appears on the battlefield and even then only as an objective for the opposition to capture.
Combat
This is a skirmish level game - the half-dozen members of the crew going up against opposition that may slightly outnumber them. Setting up a battle involves determining objectives, generating the opposition, and placing terrain. There is solid guidance on running the opposition. Different types of opponents will behave differently on the battlefield - some cautiously remaining behind cover while keeping the range open, others boldly advancing, and still others maneuvering tactically for advantage. The rules for fighting it out appear to be straightforward. I'll reserve judgment on how well the rules work until I get a few games in. However, the game seems to avoid the trap of adding complexity for the sake of covering every conceivable exception and edge case.
The Campaign
There are plenty of options for setting up and running a campaign. I'm tempted to borrow some of the rules for my next sci-fi roleplaying campaign. The campaign rules break things down into steps. There are world generation rules if the crew is trying their luck on another planet. The rules detail what each member of the crew is doing between battles - recovering from the last fight, getting into mischief on their own, training up, etc. Generating jobs may result in a crew having multiple offers on the table. Deciding which job to take is up to the player - unless a Rival catches up and ambushes the crew, causing them to miss the opportunity to get the job done.
Setting
There is enough setting presented to explain why spaceship crews are wondering around looking for the kind of work best depicted with miniatures, terrain, and dice. The eight pages of text conveys the feel of the setting without getting lost in the details. The idea of a spaceship crew operating on a frontier and being hired by various groups that would rather no get their own hands dirty should be familiar to most readers.
Layout
There is a table of contents, but no index. I'll have to see how easy it is to find things during actual play. However, the fact that each chapter is color coded should be helpful. The back of the book contains several handy appendixes - how to play the game on a grid, taking Red and Black Jobs if the campaign is getting too easy, adding more narrative elements, and various bits of advice.
Outro
My first reading of Five Parsecs From Home did what it was intended to do. I'm looking forward to starting a campaign. I just need to get enough miniatures and terrain assembled and painted to put on the table. I hope that you've found this quick look at the game useful.
Five Parsecs From Home works with a variety of scales. 28mm works as written with all measurements in inches. Using smaller scales in the game involves exchanging inches for centimeters. The recommended table sizes range from 3x3 feet (to allow for maneuvering) to 2x2 feet (for a more intense fight). The system uses six- and ten-sided die.
Currencies
The abstractions to track and spend in the game are credits, experience points, and story points. Credits are in-setting money used for expenses and purchases. Experience points are used to improve characters. Story points are handy when the dice aren't cooperating.
The Crew
Much like a roleplaying game, the book opens with a basic description of the game and then jumps into character generation. There are various methods of creating a crew, depending on the player's level of experience. Characters can have a variety of origins and classes. Equipment is generated as a pool and assigned to the characters at the player's discretion.
The Ship
The rules for the crew's ship handle it as an abstraction. The existence of the ship explains how the crew gets around. There are events that occur during interstellar journeys (including boarding actions), but there are no rules in the book for ship-to-ship combat. The ship supports the crew in various ways - injured characters go to sickbay, it provides secure storage for equipment, etc. However, the ship rarely appears on the battlefield and even then only as an objective for the opposition to capture.
Combat
This is a skirmish level game - the half-dozen members of the crew going up against opposition that may slightly outnumber them. Setting up a battle involves determining objectives, generating the opposition, and placing terrain. There is solid guidance on running the opposition. Different types of opponents will behave differently on the battlefield - some cautiously remaining behind cover while keeping the range open, others boldly advancing, and still others maneuvering tactically for advantage. The rules for fighting it out appear to be straightforward. I'll reserve judgment on how well the rules work until I get a few games in. However, the game seems to avoid the trap of adding complexity for the sake of covering every conceivable exception and edge case.
The Campaign
There are plenty of options for setting up and running a campaign. I'm tempted to borrow some of the rules for my next sci-fi roleplaying campaign. The campaign rules break things down into steps. There are world generation rules if the crew is trying their luck on another planet. The rules detail what each member of the crew is doing between battles - recovering from the last fight, getting into mischief on their own, training up, etc. Generating jobs may result in a crew having multiple offers on the table. Deciding which job to take is up to the player - unless a Rival catches up and ambushes the crew, causing them to miss the opportunity to get the job done.
Setting
There is enough setting presented to explain why spaceship crews are wondering around looking for the kind of work best depicted with miniatures, terrain, and dice. The eight pages of text conveys the feel of the setting without getting lost in the details. The idea of a spaceship crew operating on a frontier and being hired by various groups that would rather no get their own hands dirty should be familiar to most readers.
Layout
There is a table of contents, but no index. I'll have to see how easy it is to find things during actual play. However, the fact that each chapter is color coded should be helpful. The back of the book contains several handy appendixes - how to play the game on a grid, taking Red and Black Jobs if the campaign is getting too easy, adding more narrative elements, and various bits of advice.
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| Not long after I got my copy. I love that new book smell! |
Outro
My first reading of Five Parsecs From Home did what it was intended to do. I'm looking forward to starting a campaign. I just need to get enough miniatures and terrain assembled and painted to put on the table. I hope that you've found this quick look at the game useful.
Sounds interesting, thanks for the review.
ReplyDeleteYou're welcome!
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