Five Parsecs from Home campaign (3/12/25 Story arc concludes!)

[mikedemana]

I've been wanting to try out Five Parsecs from Home for awhile. I've read through the various threads of other LAF members and was intrigued, but was busy with other stuff. So, I never got around to painting anything up for it or giving it a go. Now that I am retired (which enabled me to chip away at the projects considered "more urgent"), perhaps it is time to officially give the game a try? Step one of that, of course, is painting up some figures for my crew! Doesn't step one always involve painting things (unless it involves buying things...!)?



The ostensible reason for purchasing the rules was to convert it from a solo game to something we could play as a running campaign on Sunday evenings. Each player could control a couple members of what would have to be a much larger crew, of course. Nothing wrong with that, though, as the tabletop fights with these rules are supposed to be fairly fast and fluid. We have played Galactic Heroes, from Wiley Games, and enjoyed them. However, Five Parsecs' strength is supposed to be how it threads everything together into a fun and interesting campaign narrative. Players make choices between games that affect what happens. They gain skills, improve their perhaps impoverished financial situation, gain clients, make enemies, and so on. The best idea to develop something like that for my friends is to test out a solo campaign myself, first. And now that I am retired, I should have time to do that!

The five figures that I chose as my starting crew were sourced from almost as many different places. Two, the captain Alistair Valentine and Cephvarx Hul, are from the Wiley Games line of 3D printed figures. Alistair is "Allister" (https://wiley-games.myshopify.com/collections/build-your-gang-miniatures/products/resin-28mm-miniature-scifi-allister) and Cephvarx is "Varx Blaxx" (https://wiley-games.myshopify.com/collections/build-your-gang-miniatures/products/resin-28mm-miniature-scifi-varxx-blaxx). The Wiley line is fairly tall, but I've found it is hefty and strong enough that you don't have to worry about limbs or weapons snapping like other 3D printed figures. Gunny MacBride is a Reaper plastic figures, aka IMEF Nick Stone. Doc Mecrosus is a listed as a Bounty Hunter from Battle Valor Games and their post-apocalyptic line. Finally, readers of my blog will recognize SAS B61 as a retro-looking 3-D printed robot from Thingiverse printed by my friend Joe.



As of writing this blog post, I have not "rolled up" these characters with the extensive background creation system in Five Parsecs. However, here's what I am thinking. The captain, Alistair Valentine, is a former commercial star pilot who put in his decades of service with the company. In a cost-cutting move, the bean counters in the corporation have found a way to cheat him out of his retirement pension. Unable to kick back and enjoy his old age in a pleasant, touristy star system, Alistair is thrown back into working for himself. It takes most of his savings to purchase his ship, and he's looking to make money quick and hopefully get to that retirement goal. I realize that this is going in backwards on the standard Fiver Parsecs way of doing things, but hopefully what I eventually roll up will match what I have in mind!



Alistair pulled a few favors with colleagues to get his trusty security droid, SAS B61 retired from company service and have it sold to him for use as his personal bodyguard. Doubtless, the life of a hardscrabble star pilot will involve dangers, and the droid has proved dependable and a surprisingly humorous companion over the years. As a prank, decades ago a friend in the IT department had a comedy program inserted into SAS B61's system. Now, the droid starts every conversation off with a joke from his extensive library. It has learned to analyze human conversations and what provokes laughter, so is attempting its best to be a witty companion.



Alistair's college friend, Gunny MacBride was also retiring from his career in the military when Alistair was forced from the starliner's rolls. Very sympathetic to his old friend's situation, he has volunteered to go along and watch Alistair's back on these potentially dangerous adventures. Gunny's military experience and familiarity with weapons will likely be useful in keeping Alistair and his crew alive. Once again, I'm hoping the backgrounds I roll on the Five Parsecs charts can be adapted/explained by these kernels of ideas that I have here.



When word got out that Alistair was looking for a crew, one of the first applications he received was from Cephvarx Hul. The tall, purple-skinned alien comes from a race known for their engineering skills. Alistair had flown routes in their system for decades, and had met many of them over the years. Perhaps it is a sign of respect, or perhaps Cephvarx Hul needed to change his career, but the alien was very persistent and would not relent contacting him and following up until Alistair agreed to hire him. He signed on for what Alistair would consider a very low salary for someone of Cephvarx Hul's skills. The captain was intrigued and a little worried that he might be a plant for someone with nefarious plans, so had asked Gunny to keep an eye on the alien and monitor his actions and communications whenever possible. I will be using one of the "Primary Alien" races in Five Parsecs as a stand-in for Cephvarx Hul.



The final member of the crew was the medic, Doc Mecrosus. The first thing anyone notices about the doctor is his sealed, beak-like mask which he wears over his head. He will explain through speakers hidden along the mask that he suffers from an extreme sensitivity to viruses and other airborne organisms. The mask filters all of these out and delivers scrubbed air to his mouth and nose. His dark outfit covers every inch of his body and is also designed to shield his skin from any germs or organisms that might overcome his fragile immune system. Many shake their head at the irony of someone with his condition going into the medical field, but Doc Mecrosus explains that the more he knows about the diseases that could overwhelm his system and kill him, the better prepared he is to deal with it. He also has a peculiar way of looking at life he encounters. Since so much of his energy is devoted to eliminating microscopic organisms, he feels little compunction with killing larger ones, as well. An avid hunter, Doc Mecrosus is no pacifist, and as such, Alistair felt he'd be a great one to take along. Not only would he help the crew stay healthy, he also had the ability to keep the safe!

I hope to get the various rolls made as early as this evening. I'll be back on this thread with more details as they arrive. My plan for a space ship is to peruse the aisles of a toy store and hopefully find something that I can repaint, weather, and convert. 

Any suggestions, ideas, or feedback from the extensive Five Parsecs community here on LAF is gratefully appreciated... 

Mike Demana

[zemjw]

Have a look at some of the Buzz Lightyear ships, particularly the Armadillo and Zurg's mothership. There should be several threads on here showing them, and Amazon UK still has them.

They're not as cheap as they were a few years ago, but still pretty reasonable.

The crew's looking good - not a bunch I would like to bump into in a dark alley

[ithoriel]

Good looking start, as far as I'm concerned. I look forward to seeing more of this crew and their adventures.

I'm doing my games in 20mm and picked up a slightly cartoonish "Millennium Falcon" for ten pounds including postage on EBay to act as my crew's ship, "Destiny's Child". It's now bright red with black detailing and white accents.

I also have the Zurg Mothership, bought for much the same price, but that's going to be an alien raider because the Falcon looked much more like a third hand trader.

Final ship is a Slave 1, picked up for .... about a tenner. Currently base coated yellow, must finish it sometime.

So, if you are patient and not too picky about all the bits being present acquiring a ship isn't too difficult, in my experience..

[Freddy]

Nice warband!

[Mellal]

I use this ruleset to play a two players campaign as well. Spliting the crew in two groups.

Have you already started to look at the ennemies your crew could face ?

[Khusru2]

They're not as cheap as they were a few years ago, but still pretty reasonable.

£13 on The Entertainer webstore. Down from £64

[mikedemana]

Have you already started to look at the ennemies your crew could face ?

Not specifically, but I have been painting up different factions of Sci-Fi figs for Xenos Rampant (much bigger game). I figured I could easily dip into those forces for my enemies. I'm painting up my first Five Parsecs specific enemy squad right now. Five "Gator Folks" fantasy figs that I converted to Sci-Fi by giving each a modern or futuristic weapon. They're looking pretty spiffy so far. I'll post pics of them on this thread next.

I also misread and painted only five crew instead of six. So, I am also working on the sixth crew figure, a female "retro" looking one from Hydra Miniatures. Stay tuned for her, too...

Thanks for the kind comments, everyone!

Mike Demana

[Mellal]

You can play a 5 member crew, that's an adaptation mentionned in the book if I remember correctly.

For the ennemies, you will indeed have somme goons to fight, the thing to remember is that it is usefull to have different/identifiable profiles to represent the different type of ennemies. That's why I asked, it may be easier to focus on one type of ennemy at the beginning. Good luck !

[mikedemana]

Good point! I must have read someone's AAR thread where they went with a 5-person crew and got that stuck in my mind. Never worry, though, the sixth crew members is in the flocking stages on my desk. Will add a picture of her as soon as she's finished.

Great idea on focusing on the enemies. Typically, how big a force would an enemy one be if I am a six person crew? Should I paint enemies of five? Six? Seven? Sorry for the silly questions -- I am new to the game and know a lot of you are well experienced.

Mike Demana

[Duncan McDane]

Very cool figs, Mike. Especially love the plague doctor!

[mikedemana]

I promised the sixth crew member, and here she is!



This single figure represents two "firsts" for me. The figure is from Hydra Miniatures "Retro Raygun" line of figures. It was sent to me as a freebie gift along with an order of their Valkeeri female soldiers I picked up for use with Xenos Rampant. It is the Astro Angel Engineer figure, which being female, fits well with the all-female Valkeeri force. I intend to paint them up as my next Xenos Rampant detachment...eventually. I did this one first because I found after I had painted my crew for Five Parsecs from Home that I was supposed to start with six (not five) characters. Serendipity, I guess!



The other first is my first real use of color shift paints. This is a relatively new concept (I first heard about from John Leahy at Cincycon 2024 in March, though I'm sure they'd been out longer). The paint is essentially a glaze that reflects the light shining on the figure in a prismatic effect. The bottle I bought was from Folk Art, and advertised itself as having a Violet-Blue-Red shift. When I look at the miniature under my painting lamp, it looks mostly blue. However, when you change the lighting (as I hope you can see in some of the photos), it looks more purple. I think you really have to work with some strange lighting (or lack of?) to get any red out of it, though.



I had a color scheme in mind for my Valkeeri detachment, so figured this was a great opportunity to test and see if it worked. Ostensibly, I don't need this figure for my 24-point detachment, so it is a great test subject. I went back and look at how one of my favorite miniature painters, Dr. Matthias from the Forum, painted it. Click on this link
(https://shop.hydraminiatures.com/product_info.php?cPath=2_32&products_id=232&osCsid=b46b575fc3601ce190635c7face5a9ac)
to see how much better a painter he is than me! Anyway, I decided to paint the unitard that goes from the boots to neck and gloves with the color shifting paints. I shook up the paint a little extra and then opened it up to see milky white. I figured that I hadn't shaken it up enough, so did it some more. When it was still milky white, I put an old brush in the bottle, stirred it up, and pulled it out. It was all the same color -- the paint was shaken up enough. It was then I noticed the tiny glitter-like flecks.



Okay, I thought, here goes! I researched beforehand how to prep the surface for a color shift paint. You are supposed to prime it black and then do a clear gloss on the black. As I brushed it on, I was thinking, "This isn't working." It looked the same milky white (and didn't appear to be covering the black at all). I came back about an hour later and said, "Wow!" It did indeed dry opaque, but what a color that was! It was very sparkly -- think of a gold lame dress. That's how I felt it sparkled. As I said, though, it looked blue under my paint lamp. I was planning on a purple and black color scheme -- which I felt would look cool with the light green skin I was going to give my Valkeeri. Now what to do for the rest of the figure?



I decided to give her purple boots and gloves, and make the flexible joints in the uniform black to see how that turned out. The helmet and metallic portions of the uniform I painted with a steel base coat and bright bronze highlights (also a Folk Art color). I thought this almost coppery tone would be a good accent and make it look suitably retro. I had decided my Valkeeri skin would be light green -- think of the Orion slave dancing girl that Capt. Kirk in Star Trek goes gaga over. Dr. Matthias paints his in a normal skin tone, but he is a master painter. I need something to make mine stand out...ha, ha!



So, how do I like my experiment? I do like it. I may change up the other uniform colors when I get around to doing my entire Xenos Rampant force of Valkeeri, though. In the meantime, the engineer will be my sixth crew for Five Parsecs from Home. Sorry about all the photos -- I wanted to show as many angles to hopefully illustrate the color shift effect.

Thanks in advance for any comments!

Mike Demana

[Spinal Tap]

Brilliant stuff. Look forward to some reports.

[hubbabubba]

Good colour scheme, I can't make up my mind about the colour shift paint; I like the way it works here with your scheme but it also seems to destroy the sense of scale a little.
Hmm, very intresting to see though.

[ithoriel]

Nice paint job! I like the colour changing effect, I think it works well with the rest of the colour scheme.

[mikedemana]

Thanks, guys! Now on to some potential enemies for my crew for Five Parsecs from Home!



One of my favorite finds in the Exhibit Hall at Origins 2024 was Beldolor Studios (https://beldolorstudios.com/).  They have created an imaginative line of 3D printed miniatures. Most are anthropomorphic animals, such as the "Gatorfolk" that I picked up. They have various other animals, including an abundant Fishman line with everything from salmon to bass to several types of sharkmen. I picked up only two poses, the Gatorfolk Gig armed with a primitive looking spear, and the Thagomizer, with a laced-on Stegosaurus looking spiked tail.



My intention from the beginning was to use them as aliens for my Sci-Fi miniatures, particularly as enemies in Five Parsecs from Home. The spear (or "gig") armed ones were bought from their "damaged" box that had the back half of the spear broken off. I was going to give them modern or Sci-Fi weapons anyway, so it was no big deal. I dug through my bits box back home and pulled out some large weapons to match their bigger size. Trimming the rest of the spear away was easy enough, but getting the weapon to settle realistically in their clawed grip was difficult. I'm sure someone more skilled at converting miniatures would have done a much better job!



My next dilemma was figuring out what color to paint them. I wasn't as concerned with the alligator aspect, as these were going to be aliens. The first one I painted had green scales on its topside and a faded yellow underneath. I liked how it looked, but decided that I wanted them to be all different. The animal kingdom has lizard-like creatures in all varieties of colors here on Earth. So, why not in space? So, I made each figure unique, adding in purple, blue, orange, and red scaled varieties. I decided to keep the underneath scales the same basic color for all five, thinking that would give them a unifying look, as well.



First, I primed the miniatures with spray acrylic black primer to give them more strength. Sometimes 3D printed figures can be a tad fragile, and I wanted to give the Gatorfolk the best chance at surviving handling during gaming sessions on the tabletop. I followed the spray up with my usual 50/50 mix of brush-on acrylic black paint and water. Now, the true dilemma: do I paint the scales individually, or attempt to dry brush them? I was worried that the detail of the scales might not be raised enough to avoid getting color in recesses between the individual scales (which I wanted to stay black).



Masochistically, I decided to paint each individual scale -- for all five figs! It was very time consuming. However, I did them one at a time and was very happy with the first one when I was finished. For the top scale color, I added in a lighter highlight in the areas that would be exposed to skylight the most. For the bottom scales, I did not do that, rationalizing that part would be hidden from the sun most of the time. I hand painted each of the claw nails a light tan, with white highlights. I also painted the insides of the mouth a dark, blood red and the teeth white. The 3D printings were very crisp, and the mouth, tongue and teeth had particularly fine detail and resolution. I did the eyes yellow, with a black gator-like slit.



The weapons were done in my usual Sci-Fi theme. First, the entire surface of the weapon was done in Folk Art Gunmetal Gray. I then picked out details in their metallic brown, pewter, and silver. I gave some bright bronze accents, too. After those were completed, the figures were mostly done. My next decision was whether to do a black wash on them. I wanted to, but was worried it would darken them up too much. I decided to take my current black wash and water it down even more. I tried to avoid the eyes and teeth, but otherwise hit the top and bottom scales with it. I was happy with how it looked, softening the edges between colors just a bit, I feel. I used my black wash full strength on the weapons, because I like the effect it has on metallic colors.

Last was the flocking, which I did in an identical style to my Five Parsecs crew. I paint the base medium gray, then paint it with white glue and swish it around in a tub of Woodland Scenics Blended Gray Fine Ballast. I did a spray coat, then a dark wash on the gray flocking. This was followed by some accent stones and darker colored grass tufts. I'm very happy with how my Beldolor Studies Gatorfolk turned out and am tempted to order some of their Fishmen...or Frogmen. They're all so cool, and I encourage everyone to check out their miniatures line!

Thanks in advance for any comments!

Mike Demana