The Last Call - Turn #1 Error Correction

This is a supplemental post to The Last Call Turn #1 Wrap Up. I made a rules error by having each crew member roll for a character event. The correct procedure is to randomly select a single crew member and roll on the character event table for that single crew member. Thanks to the folks on the Facebook Five Parsecs from Home Fan Group for pointing this out.

All still on the mend. At least I didn't mess that up!

I generally try to avoid rolling back events during play since the results aren't always worth the effort. The realization that I could have used Stim-Packs during the battle is a good example. Rolling that back would involve replaying the scenario - a significant investment in time and energy. Better to just live with results, learn from the experience, and use that time and energy to move on with the campaign. Here, I came up with a quick and simple fix, so why not learn the lesson and correct the mistake at the same time?

In this case, I determined which character event actually happened with a simple die roll. Updating the campaign records was straight forward. The character event description and revised end of turn totals are below.

Character Event

I rolled a D6 and went down the list published in the previous post.

"5" - Freyja overhears something at a local bar. It might be worth following up on. +1 Quest Rumor.

Story Point and Credit Totals are unchanged.

Corrected XP Totals at the End of Turn #1:
Mina 5 XP
Bill 3 XP
Rocky 3 XP
Yelena 4 XP
Freyja 5 XP
Lin 2 XP

In addition, the additional Patron that Bill came up with was removed. On the plus side, Rocky's negative effect was also negated.

The Last Call - Turn #1 Wrap Up

On the bright side, the crew of The Last Call won their first battle. Unfortunately, that silver lining had a cloud - half the crew became casualties. Let's figure out what happens next as I finish off Turn #1 of my first Five Parsecs From Home campaign.

Resolve Rival Status
This step deals with the possibility of the enemy the crew just fought holding a grudge and becoming a Rival. As Roving Threats, Large Bugs are not eligible for this. Alien creepy crawlies aren't the types to get mad, track down the crew, and ambush them in town. They prefer to establish themselves as franchises like their screen idols.

Voracious, not petty: "Sure, we'll bite somebody's leg off, but we're not the sorts to hold a grudge!"

Resolve Patron Status
The crew achieved the mission from their Patron, the Local Government. They get added to The Last Call's list of contacts at the Pandora Innovation Zone. This makes them useful as a prospect for future jobs.

Get Paid
Pay Roll (1D6): "1" modified to "3" since the crew completed the objective. The Local Government's Danger Pay adds 2 for a total of 5 credits earned.

Battlefield Finds
Since the crew Held the Field, they had the opportunity to poke around for anything profitable before hauling off their casualties. Battlefield Finds Roll (%): "31" - Curious Data Stick. Worth +1 credit for a running total of 6 credits earned on this turn.

Gather the Loot
A series of rolls on the Loot Table and various Subtables turned up an Assault Blade. This is a Gun Mod that adds a melee option to a rifle or other long arm. Since Gun Mods cannot be removed after being attached to a given weapon, I'll have to give where to put this a little thought.

Determine Injuries and Recovery
Bill, Rocky, and Lin became casualties during the battle. Had I remembered at the time, I could have used Stim-Packs to keep a couple of them from going down. But what's done is done. Here's how they did.

• Bill's Injury Roll (%): "40" - Crippling Wound. Bill's injuries required immediate surgery. He pulled through, but the surgery cost the crew 3 credits. Bill will be in Sickbay for 2 campaign turns.
• Rocky's Injury Roll (%): "68" - Minor Injuries. Rocky just needs a little time to heal and recover. 1 campaign turn in Sickbay.
• Lin's Injury Roll (%): "27" - Equipment Loss. Lin's biggest wrench (Brutal Melee Weapon) wasn't meant to be smashed repeatedly against the tough carapaces of Large Bugs. It's damaged and needs repair. Lin herself is fine and needs no time in Sickbay.

Rocky and Bill on the mend in sickbay. Lin on her way to fix her wrench after getting checked out.

Experience Points

• Survived and Won - Mina, Yelena, and Freyja (+3 XP each).
• Became a Casualty - Bill, Rocky, and Lin (+1 XP each).
• First Character to Inflict a Casualty - Bill (+1 XP).

None of the crew had enough XP to raise an Ability or take Advanced Training.

Purchase Items
This is an opportunity to either spend credits for the chance to roll for new stuff or directly purchase common weapons. I felt that the crew was lacking in firepower. If they had weapons with a little more range and stopping power, they might have knocked down more of the Large Bug swarm before they got into melee. Given the visibility limitations of the Pandora Innovation Zone, stocking up on Shotguns seemed like the way to go. To offset the cost, I sold off a couple of surplus weapons.

• Purchased 5 Shotguns at 1 credit each.
• Sold a Handgun and a Scrap Pistol for 1 credit each.

Net cost: 3 credits.

Campaign Event
This is something that occurs in between turns that has an effect on the overall campaign. Die Roll (%): "66" - "Recent events made for a good learning opportunity". I guess that half the crew getting chewed on by Large Bugs counts. The crew gets +1 XP each.

Character Events
Each character, including those in Sickbay, rolls to see what happens to them individually in between turns.

• Mina - Received a letter from her sister. +1 XP.
• Bill - An old contact checks in after Bill's surgery. Add a Patron.
• Rocky - Her poor showing during the Battle gets her down. Rocky will earn no XP during the next campaign turn.
• Yelena - She and Lin meet some local folks and strike up a few friendships. +1 XP.
• Freyja - She overhears something at a local bar. It might be worth following up on. +1 Quest Rumor.
• Lin - She and Yelena meet some local folks and strike up a few friendships. +1 XP.

Story Point Total at the End of Turn #1:
6 Story Points

Credit Total at the End of Turn #1:
12 Credits

Not much, but at the least the crew's not broke.

XP Totals at the End of Turn #1 (including pre-battle training):

• Mina 6 XP
• Bill 3 XP
• Rocky 3 XP
• Yelena 5 XP
• Freyja 5 XP
• Lin 3 XP

Things could have gone better this turn, but I think that the positives outweigh the negatives here. The post in this series will get things started for Turn #2!

Trash Bash Sci-Fi Quonset Workshop

This terrain piece is built around a part from some kind of office machine. The core part immediately brought a Quonset hut to mind when I first laid eyes on it. I previously painted up my other one during my still-incomplete Electrical Box Sci-Fi Shelter.

Preparation
The first step was to cut off the plastic protrusions on the bottom of the core part that kept it from sitting flat on the table. Next came the application of elbow grease in the form of sanding and cleaning. I don't know what kind of plastic the part is made of and preparing the surface seemed to be a reasonable measure.

Antenna Assembly
The antenna are used printer parts - basically plastic rods. The core part had four holes drilled out for screws that were just a little to small to fit the rods. I used a hobby knife to widen the holes and glued the rods in place.

Technical Looking Bits Assembly
The core part had various protrusions originally used as attachment points. I sorted through my bits collection for parts to disguise them. A couple of keyboard buttons and a flat bead did the trick. They represent equipment attached to the outside of the structure.

First Spray Coat
Krylon Fusion All-In-One Matte Black sprayed for complete coverage on all surfaces.

Second Spray Coat
Krylon ColorMaster Paint + Primer Metallic Aluminum spray to coat the antenna and technical bits.

Third Spray Coat
I masked off the areas I wanted to stay metallic and sprayed Krylon ColorMaxx Paint + Primer Flat White to achieve a zenithal effect on the upper areas.

Fourth Spray Coat
Krylon ColorMaster Paint + Primer Matte Poppy Red on all exposed surfaces. I kept the masking on the metallic areas and did not spray the underside of the piece. The zenithal effect showed through the red with the upper areas being noticeably brighter than the lower ones.

Wash Layers
Next I applied multiple coats of black wash. Although I wiped off the excess, I also allowed the wash to build up in some areas for a grimy effect.

Detailing
I used Silver and Black Sharpies to further weather the piece. The silver was applied to the edges to simulate wear marks and on some flat surfaces as scratches. The black worked to dirty up the piece a little more and to draw some graffiti on a couple of spots.

The piece represents a workshop built from prefabricated or repurposed components. Used with 15mm models, it could be a garage or modest hangar. It's a little small for vehicle maintenance at larger scales like 28mm, but still conveys the appearance of a utility building.

The Last Call - Turn #1 Battle

Here is the previous post of this series, where I started off this Five Parsecs From Home campaign.

Bug Busting at Toshi's

The Last Call's crew was tasked by the Local Government of the Pandora Innovation Zone to hunt down a Large Bug previously tagged by an exobiology survey. The monitor implant detected a spontaneous mutation in the animal that could prove problematic if it spreads to the general Large Bug population. The scientists running the survey preferred a living subject for analysis, but were overruled by the Pandora Innovation Zone Governing Council. The tagged Large Bug was targeted for destruction. The corpse will be retrieved by the survey team after the fighting has died down.

The monitor implant placed the Large Bug at Toshi's - a disused maintenance station at the outskirts of a minor settlement. A swarm of Large Bugs has been reported in the area. The tagged animal is likely part of that swarm.

Initial set up.

Special Rules

Smog
Visibility is reduced due to atmospheric pollution. I rolled a "3" on 1D6+8 for 11" visibility.

Caught Off Guard
All crew acts in the Slow Actions phase of Round 1.

Peculiar Item
An item worth 2 XP if a character stop on it and uses an action to pick it up. Placed during set up.

Dry Creek Bed
The dry creek bed modeled on the terrain tiles counts as Difficult terrain. Basically, all movement costs on the dry creek bed are doubled, so moving 1" requires 2" of movement.


Set Up

Five Parsecs From Home has guidelines for table sizes, what kinds of terrain to use, and how much terrain to put on the table. There are also rules for the initial placement of miniatures. Large Bugs are Rampaging enemies - they are placed within 1" of each other in a single group. I used a die roll to randomly determine which Large Bug to use as the objective and marked it with a token.

Large Bug initial placement.

Round Structure

Each Round is divided into Fast Actions, Enemy Actions, and Slow Actions phases. Characters assigned lucky Reaction Rolls might go during the Fast Actions phase. Otherwise, the enemies go before the crew. During each phase, a character or enemy can Move and then take an Action. Both are optional, but must take place in that order.

The Last Call crew initial placement. In retrospect, I could have spread them out a little more.

Round 1 - FIGHT!

I decided not to Seize the Initiative and the effects of "Caught Off Guard" made the Reaction Roll pointless for this round.

Large Bugs
Their movement boils down to "move as quickly as possible at the nearest enemy and engage in melee" due to their Rampaging enemies. Since melee wasn't a possibility during this round due to the distance involved, I had them Dash directly towards the crew. Dash grants more movement at the cost of giving up the ability to take an Action.

The Crew
I had the crew Dash forward. All of the Large Bugs were beyond the 11" of visibility generated by the Smog.

Summary
A quick round of movement. Having a straightforward opponent for my first battle made learning the game easier.

Here they come!

Round 2

Reaction Rolls - 1, 2, 2, 4, 4, 5.
I assigned the "1" to Mina and a "2" to Rocky. Nobody other than Rocky could use a "2" to get into the Fast Action phase. Both moved forward, but the Large Bugs would still be further than 11" until they moved. Both Mina and Rocky held their actions.

Large Bugs
They continued to Dash forward. This brought them into 11" of the crew.

Mina
I discovered that the closest Large Bug was just outside of Machine Pistol range. Disappointing. If I knew that, I would have used Dash to get her a couple of inches closer. Oh, well.

Rocky
Already in position, she opened fire at the objective Large Bug with her Auto Rifle. To Hit Rolls: "2" and "3" - both misses, even with the +1 bonus from Large Bugs having the Easy Target trait.

Bill
He moved up and fired his Hand Laser at the lead Large Bug. To Hit Roll: "5" - hit! Damage Roll: "4" - less than the Large Bug's Toughness of 5. Thus, the Large Bug was Stunned. I placed a marker on the Large Bug. Next round, it could either move or act, but not both. The marker would then be removed. Three Stunned markers on the same figure results in it becoming a causality and being removed from play.

Yelena
Moved up and found herself just out of range of her Machine Pistol.

Summary
More maneuvering punctuated with the first shots fired. I might have to look into longer ranged options for some of the crew.

Some inclusive results from the first shots fired.

Round 3

Reaction Rolls - 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 6.
The "1" was assigned to Bill and the "2" to Rocky, allowing them to go in the Fast Action phase.

Bill
Moved forward and tossed a Frakk Grenade at the nearest cluster of Large Bugs. Frakk Grenades use typical grenade rules - make an attack on a central target and follow up with attacks on surrounding targets within a certain range. To Hit Rolls: "1" and "5" - a hit on the initial target. Damage Roll: "4" - Stunned. To Hit Roll (second target): "5" - hit. Damage Roll (second target): "4" - Stunned. To Hit Roll (third target): "5" - hit. Damage Roll (third target): "2" - Stunned. To Hit Roll (fourth target): "6" - hit. Damage Roll (fourth target): "5" - removed from play! Bill's Frakk Grenade only generated one casualty, but bought The Last Call crew some time.

Rocky
Stayed in position and fired her Auto Rifle at the nearest Large Bug. To Hit Rolls: "1" and "1" - both misses.

Large Bugs
A Large Bug not in the cluster hit by Bill's Frakk Grenade moved into melee with him. The rest of the Large Bugs not under a Stunned effect used Dash to move forward. The Stunned Large Bugs moved forward, removing their Stunned markers. All of their movement was hampered by crossing the dry stream bed.

Large Bug v Bill (melee)
Both rolled a "3" - a tie before modifiers. Bill received a +2 modifier, +1 from his Combat skill and +1 from using a pistol in melee. The Large Bug received a +1 modifier from its Combat skill. Winning the melee, Bill's Damage Roll is "6" - the Large Bug is removed from play.

Mina
Moved forward slightly to get a better vantage point on top of the tower she started the round on. To Hit Rolls: "2" and "2" - both misses.

Yelena
Stayed in place and fired her Beam Pistol at the closest Large Bug. Since she didn't move, Yelena gets a +1 bonus to Aim. To Hit Roll - "4" - hit. Damage Roll: "3" - Stunned.

Freyja
Stayed in place and fired her Machine Pistol at a Large Bug. To Hit Rolls: "5" and "5" - hits. Damage Rolls: "5" and "4" - the Large Bug is removed from play.

Lin
Stayed in place and fired her Hand Laser at the closest Large Bug. To Hit Roll: "6" - hit. Damage Roll: "3" - Stunned.

Morale Check
Since the Large Bugs suffered losses, they check to see if any of their number chooses the better part of valor. Large Bugs have the "Stubborn" trait, meaning that they ignore the first casualty for this purpose. Morale Rolls: "2" and "4" - none of the Large Bugs choose to Bail.

Summary
Things heated up as the Large Bugs closed in. Bill earned his paycheck this round by taking down two Large Bugs and Stunning a few others. Still, I would have preferred to thin down the swarm a little more before they got into melee.

Bill's gonna have problems in Round 4.

Round 4

Reaction Rolls - 3, 5, 5, 5, 6, 6.
Well, crap. None of the crew got to go in the Fast Action phase.

Large Bugs
All pressed forward. However, many were Stunned at the start of the round. Only two Large Bugs could make attacks.

Large Bug v Bill (melee)
"5" v "2" - the Large Bug wins the melee. Damage Roll: "3" - Large Bugs get a +1 to damage with their Mandibles, bringing the total to "4" and Bill becomes The Last Call's first casualty of the campaign.

Large Bug v Rocky (melee)
"3" v "3" - a tie, so both roll for damage. Damage Rolls: "4" and "2" - Rocky becomes a casualty and is removed from play. The Large Bug moves closer to its next target.

Lin
Holsters her Hand Laser, hefts her biggest wrench, and moves into melee with the Large Bug marked as the objective. Her wrench is a Brutal Melee Weapon (+1 to damage), so it has the Clumsy trait (-1 penalty to hit against a faster target), but is still a melee weapon (+2 bonus to hit).

Lin v Large Bug (melee)
"3" v "2" - both miss. Not liking this result, I spent a Story Point. Reroll: "6" - Lin hits. Damage Roll: "4" modified to "5" - the objective Large Bug is removed from play. Lin moves back a bit.

Freyja
Fires her Machine Pistol at the Large Bug that took down Rocky. She benefits from staying in place, but doesn't have an unobstructed shot at the Large Bug. To Hit Rolls: "1" and "3" - both misses.

Yelena
Fires her Beam Pistol at the same Large Bug that Freyja just opened up on. To Hit Roll: "2" - miss.

Mina
Remains in position and tosses a Frakk Grenade at a nearby group of Large Bugs. To Hit Rolls: "3" and "3" - both hits due to the close range. Damage Rolls: "1" and "3" - I used another Story Point since I needed a kill. Reroll: "6" - the Large Bug is removed from play. To Hit Roll (second target): "2" - miss.

Morale Check
The Large Bugs suffered two casualties, forcing a check. (Crews never check Morale.) "1" and "3" - the Large Bug furthest from the action Bails and is removed from play.

Summary
Bill and Rocky become casualties as the Large Bugs get into melee. I had to burn a couple of Story Points to keep the crew's momentum going.

Just a couple more to go...

Round 5

Reactions Roll - 2, 3, 5, 6.
Again, none of the crew goes in the Fast Action phase.

Large Bugs
Both of the remaining Large Bugs closed into melee with the closest opponent - Lin.

Large Bug v Lin (melee)
"5" v "2" - the Large Bug bites Lin. Damage Roll: "5" - Lin becomes a casualty and is removed from play. The Large Bug moves closer to the nearest target. The other Large Bug stayed put.

Freyja
Fires her Machine Pistol at the closest Large Bug. To Hit Rolls: "2" and "3" - one hit due to the close range. Damage Roll: "2" - Stunned.

Mina
Jumps down, ignites to Glare Sword, and moves into melee with the closest Large Bug.

Mina v Large Bug (melee)
"6" v "6" - a tie before modifiers. Mina's Glare Sword gives her a +2 to hit. The Large Bug gets a +1 from its Combat skill. Mina wins the melee. Damage Roll: "5" - the Large Bug is removed from play.

Yelena
Shoots at the remaining Large Bug with her Beam Pistol. To Hit Roll: "6" - normally just a hit, but a Beam Pistol has the Critical trait. The natural "6" results in two hits to the target. Damage Rolls: "3" and "4" - a Beam Pistol grants +1 to damage, so the modified results of "4" and "5" cause the Large Bug to become a casualty and it is removed from play.

Summary
Lin becomes a casualty, but the crew pulls off a victory.

There's good news and there's bad news.

Overall Summary

The bad news is that half the crew became casualties. I wasn't able to recover the "Peculiar Item" since none of the crew could spare the action needed to pick it up. And I expended both Frakk Grenades and two Story Points. All to good effect, but they are still gone.

The good news is that the crew achieved the mission objective and Held the Field. Both will have benefits moving forward. Benefits like getting paid.


The next post in this series will wrap up Turn #1.