15mm Sci Fi - 5 Parsecs campaign turn 4 (12 Jul)

[Idle Doodler]

I find there to be quite a bit of swing with 5PfH 3e. Playing with the errata, so fewer credits from the off, but rolled up decent enough equipment that I don't feel too hard up. Not as bad as the early battles in Jagged Alliance 2, anyway! Got lucky with the post-battle rolls for credits (Carmele traded some cargo for more credits than the entire battle).

It's a very dependent upon enemies rolled up. Previous campaigns have gone south quickly when I forget that things are really adjusted for crew strength! I've learned that some battles aren't worth sticking around for. Worried about running up against large numbers of critters or groups of tough beasties. The 7cm visibility limit will make things tricky against brawlers!

[War Monkey]

The 7cm visibility limit will make things tricky against brawlers!

Doodler
You need a handheld scanning motion detector, like the ones in Alien and Aliens. You know the ones that didn't seem to work so well as to exactly where the motion was coming from, only a rough distance and direction and only on a flat plain reading maybe.

You could come up with some sort of house rule for something like this, like a roll of the die out to 14cm and another roll for direction. Of course, this could be a false reading too will not no until you are within 7cm then its' just another roll to find out. This would be great for creepy creatures. the false reading could be caused by a fly. I didn't say they were great detectors.

I am sure that this would keep your crew on its toes, and force decisions as to what they may do based on a reading whether it is false or not.

[zrunelord]

Quite a nice setup, report & read.
Thanks for sharing.

Wm - How about having counters to represent blips. you put them face down so that you won't know what they are ( add an element of surprise for solo ).
Then uncover them when & as  the need arises or do a die roll.

eg of counters can be - 

1- No of creatures/men,
2- Ghost return ( No of creatures/men not clear ) ,
3- Dud reading ( nothing there ),
4- Add another counter next to it ( scanner did not detect the second blip ) ,
5- Scanner malfunction ( cannot use scanner this turn ).
6- Hudson says Multiple readings ( add another counter or d3 counters in a random direction/s )

Etc.

Z

[War Monkey]

Quite a nice setup, report & read.
Thanks for sharing.

Wm - How about having counters to represent blips. you put them face down so that you won't know what they are ( add an element of surprise for solo ).
Then uncover them when & as  the need arises or do a die roll.

eg of counters can be - 

1- No of creatures/men,
2- Ghost return ( No of creatures/men not clear ) ,
3- Dud reading ( nothing there ),
4- Add another counter next to it ( scanner did not detect the second blip ) ,
5- Scanner malfunction ( cannot use scanner this turn ).
6- Hudson says Multiple readings ( add another counter or d3 counters in a random direction/s )

Etc.

Z

That is a great idea! I have to write it down!

[CookAndrewB]

5 Parsecs Salvage Team had rules like that for contacts. Off the top of my head, the contact would, each turn, have a chance to move, resolve into an enemy, or vanish. The kicker was that a contact was spawned every time you came within 6" of a new major terrain feature, so I would end up trying to navigate the board in a way as not to accidentally trigger multiple contacts in a turn. Dealing with small groups from a single contact was ok, but if you had 3-4 contacts resolve into small groups in a single turn... 

[Idle Doodler]

Sounds similar to the Contacts in Nordic Weasel's Bug Hunt. He has given some suggestions for transposing crews across games, but I don't think my intrepid trio are quite ready for that if a single vent crawler took two of them down in one turn!

[CookAndrewB]

I thought the newest print edition (Modiphius) combined all the old 5 Parsecs types into a single coherent rule set. Did that not happen? My understanding was that you could roll up missions that came from Salvage, Gang Wars, Bug Hunt, et al. It trimmed away some of the conflicting details about credits (each game had its own idea of how credits were applied, I believe), and created combined charts for between missions. That said, I haven't purchased the book yet so I'm not really sure how it turned out. It could be that so much was dropped from the spinoff games that you don't feel like they truly exist in a fully fleshed-out manner anymore.

[Cacique Caribe]

I was hoping to get my hands on their mission charts, from the first edition (which used to be online for sale as PDF.  Can’t find it now.

Dan

[War Monkey]

Dan
check your email, see if that is the one?

[Cacique Caribe]

WM

You da man!!!

Dan

[Ockman]

I thought the newest print edition (Modiphius) combined all the old 5 Parsecs types into a single coherent rule set. Did that not happen? My understanding was that you could roll up missions that came from Salvage, Gang Wars, Bug Hunt, et al. It trimmed away some of the conflicting details about credits (each game had its own idea of how credits were applied, I believe), and created combined charts for between missions. That said, I haven't purchased the book yet so I'm not really sure how it turned out. It could be that so much was dropped from the spinoff games that you don't feel like they truly exist in a fully fleshed-out manner anymore.

The latest edition of Five Parsecs of Home is more of a "proper commercial" rulebook (high standard artwork and layout, fleshed out and all), but it's not a compilation of earlier releases. Although I think there will be PDFs with new rules, where one is supposed to use the old blip mechanic.

That said, it's an excellent book, high value for the money!

[Idle Doodler]

Bittor – former ganger seeking fame (blast rifle, handgun)
Carmele – glory-hunting crew leader from a military outpost (plasma rifle, blade, screen generator)
Dornaka – technology-obsessed former member of a peaceful, high-tec colony (laser-sighted machine pistol, military rifle)

Carmele sent out Bittor to go looking for someone who might be able and willing to fill the late Argider’s bunk in their decrepit quarters, while she and Dornaka went looking for opportunities to earn credits. The ex-gang member returned with Ederne, a former petty thief with a suspiciously similar skillset to Dornaka, who remained on bad terms with Bittor, though not quite at the level with electronics. The fact that she’d gifted Bittor a jump belt clearly had no impact on his decision to recommend her to the others. For their part, the women had found the crew a potential patron in the sort of sleazy bar where wealthy patrons wishing for discretion are typically found.

Zubiald had a technical problem – a host of his worker bots had gone haywire with a virus, and he needed someone to slip past them and install a patch to override their protocols. He also had an eye out for effective troubleshooting teams, and with operations spanning multiple planets could prove to be a reliable employer.

Arming Ederne with Argider’s military rifle and machine pistol, the crew set off into the network of tunnels.



The bots were slow but our heroes wouldn’t be able to reach the terminal ahead of them. The gloom meant that there wouldn’t be many chances to blast the machines down at range.



Guns at the ready, Carmele, Bittor and Ederne pushed ahead. Dorkana loitered near a patch of organic material favoured for use in engineering, seeing what she could glean from it first hand.



Concerned with the more pressing matter, of heavy mechanical footsteps echoing down the corridor ahead, the advancing trio lined up and waited for the robots to emerge from the gloom.



As soon as they saw the gleam of eye sockets, the Carmele, Bittor and Ederne opened fire. In between shots came the sound of large metallic objects hitting the floor. The trio slowly retreated as more forms emerged, careful to maintain the distance between them. In a remarkable display of accuracy, they finished the machines off without a single one closing the distance. All that remained was for Dorkana to saunter up to the terminal and install the update to the network.



Zubiald was true to his word, paying up a full six credits for the assigned job and two more for salvaged materials from the machines themselves. Bittor kept hold of a ripper sword he’d found. He and Dornaka had had another shouting match over ‘times and places for hobbies’, and felt that such a weapon at his belt might prove to make him the better debater. Despite the disquiet amongst the crew, Carmele considered them all to be on the up and in the hands of good fortune. Or at least she felt luckier than before.

[has.been]

Another interesting mission.

[War Monkey]

That was a great mission! Nice work.

[War Monkey]

The latest edition of Five Parsecs of Home is more of a "proper commercial" rulebook (high standard artwork and layout, fleshed out and all), but it's not a compilation of earlier releases. Although I think there will be PDFs with new rules, where one is supposed to use the old blip mechanic.

That said, it's an excellent book, high value for the money!

There is an Expansion 1, Trailblazers Toolkit at Drivethru RPG https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/367539/Five-Parsecs-From-Home--Expansion-1--Trailblazers-Toolkit?src=also_purchased