Mission 3 (Five Parsecs From Home)

This is a Battle Report (or "BatRep" as the kids say) for Mission 3 of my 5 Parsecs From Home campaign. 5 Parsecs is a solitaire miniatures game, which I'm playing on Roll20 mostly because my gaming table is otherwise occupied at the moment. So instead of actual miniatures, I'm using little token images on a virtual tabletop.

As a refresher, the crew of the merchant ship The Rhapsody of Inanna have names starting with the letters G to L M. At various points in these posts, I will no doubt refer to them by just the first letter of a character's name.

G: GcViib, a standard Bot
H: H'Xex, a K'Erin soldier
I: Captain Inshubur Nastarastar, a Precursor hacker and spiritualist
J: Marshal Juniper Sasparillax, a Human enforcer
K: The Kid, a Human technican / "Hopeful Rookie"
L: Leonidas, a Human military brat and scavenger

Character Spotlight:

Juniper Sasparillax was orphaned at a young age, but luckily lived on a world with strong social safety nets. She was provided with a home, a job, and a mentor in the Orphan Utility Program. Said mentor was an old Enforcer-Detective. At times she chafed or rebelled under the tightness of his guidance and their focus on being a productive member of society, but she also felt genuinely lucky to have not been cast out on the street by the slings and arrows of misfortune. When she left the orphanage, she entered the academy. She served for a few years in the Enforcers of the world she grew up on, but eventually, just for fun, saved up enough money to take an off-world vacation. She didn't expect to fall in love with star travel, but once she'd gotten a taste for it, the idea of spending the rest of her life on a single planet seemed intolerable. So she quit the Enforcers, and applied for a Freelancer license instead.

She has a soft spot in her heart for children in danger, remembering how frightening much of her own childhood was, and what a godsend the mentorship she'd received was. That's why she's now taken The Kid under her wing.

 

After the second Mission, I rolled up a random Event that added a 7th character to our crew. 

M: Moreva Madu, of the species known as "the Engineers". She's got a lot of Savvy, but very little Toughness.

Pre-Battle Log:

Upkeep and Ship Repairs: - 7 characters now. so upkeep costs extra. 3 creds per turn between ship and crew. (That's 2 credits cover the crew's needs, and 1 credit paying down my debt on the ship.)

Crew Tasks: -

H'Xex trains to raise his Toughness.

GcViib & Inshubur go trading, and get a hand gun and some marketable trade goods, the later of which will be valuable when we eventually travel to another world. The current world, Aceso Menrva Prime, has tight laws about reselling. This was rolled up on a random planet chart, and it basically prevents us from doing any of the default "sell stuff" actions.

Juniper & Leonidas explore together. They meet someone interesting, learning a Quest Clue, and meet an Alien Merchant. Juniper gives him her Scrap Pistol, and gets 5 credits for it! (As just mentioned, this planet's rules are that you can't sell things here, but I figured in this case it was the random roll of a Table, not the general selling option, so I decided to allow it since it's a rare event beyond the player's ability to intentionally trigger, and could well represent some sort of shady dealings.)

Moreva repairs the damaged trade goods gained in a the previous Turn (not the ones Inshubur just traded for, which are in good shape).  So now we have enough sellable inventory to start thinking about maybe making a potentially profitable voyage off-world.

The Kid played Decoy to keep our Rivals from tracking us down.

Job Offers: - No new ones, but we still have some from the earlier Turn(s).

Battle:

Patron Job from Potential New Patron.  Mr Persi Manselli. 

Danger Pay is +1 Credit. 

Time Frame: must be completed this Turn (or, could have been completed the previous Turn, but I had other bugs to fry that time.)

Hazards is "Hot Job: After the Job, you will earn an enemy on 1-2 instead of just a roll of 1". 

Deployment Conditions:  - None

Notable Sights:  - REALLY Shiny Bits, 14" to the West of the center of the table. Value is 2 credits.

Objective: - Move Through: You Win the mission if at least 2 crew members move off the opposing battlefield edge. If you drive off all enemies, you Win as long as you have at least 2 crew members remaining.

Enemy Type: - Roving Threats - Large Bugs

Numbers: +2  Panic: 1   Speed: 5”     Combat: 1     Tough: 5     AI: R     Weapons: Mandibles

7 regulars with Mandibles (Melee Damage +1) , 1 pack leader with Combat 2

Easy Targets: +1 when firing at this enemy.

Stubborn: They ignore the first casualty of the battle when making a Morale check.

 

Deployment: We are in the North. They are rampaging, so they'll charge straight at us. I can only bring 6 models, so I leave GcViib back on the ship, since he can't get XP anyway. I forget to swap out his Plasma Rifle with Moreva's shotgun, so that's a mistake I should try to avoid in the future. Luckily, the slight downgrade in firepower didn't hose me too badly.

The movement arrows in the image above are approximate. I wasn't planning to blog the campaign when I played these first few Missions, so I didn't keep detailed notes on exactly where each Bug moved, nor the final position of H'Xex in the last turn, either.

Round 1: - Here they come! The Kid shoots one with his long-range Infantry Laser, but it just slows it down (stunned) for a second or two.

Round 2: - They continue rampaging towards us. The Kid and Inshubur hold their actions to interrupt. Kid misses, but Inshubur kills a bug. As the bugs bear down on him, H'Xex kills one with his shotgun. Juniper stuns one. Leonidas kills the pack leader.

Battle Event between Round 2 and 3 -  Possible reinforcements: Place 3 markers evenly spaced along the opposing battlefield edge. At the start of the Enemy Actions phase next round, select a random marker, and roll 1D6. On a 5-6, a new basic enemy figure is placed on the marker, otherwise it is removed. Roll for one marker per round until they are all gone. If a crew member moves within 3” of a marker, it is removed instantly.

Round 3: - One bug flees. (It's the one that the Kid had shot, so maybe the Kid did a better job than I thought.) Juniper is holding action to interrupt.   Possible bug reinforcements #1 doesn't show up.  Juniper hits a bug twice, but only double-stuns. Leonidas finishes it off.

H'Xex jump belts into one of them, and has an amazing battle. He wins, scores a natural 6, and the bug scores a natural 1. All three damage rolls are lower than its Toughness, so it is is triple stunned to death (plus, the knock-back slams it into the hedge, so it's technically a quadruple stun).

Round 4: - We totally fail initiative. Possible bug reinforcements #2 also doesn't show up. A bug rushes H'Xex, and he chops it in half. Juniper snipes the last one on the board... but since there's still a reinforcement token I decide to play out the turn.

Battle Event between Round 4 and 5: Tougher than expected: Select a random enemy figure. They receive +1 Toughness (to a maximum of 6) and remove all current stun markers on that figure. If one spawns from that reinforcement token, we'll assume it's Toughness 6.

Round 5: - H'Xex jumps towards the notable sight, but can't quite reach it. Possible bug reinforcements #3 also fails to spawn, ending the mission.

Analysis: - The large bugs aren't much of a threat, even on a map with a lot of hedges or similar features that give them cover but don't slow them down. At least not when I have multiple characters with Plasma Rifles, and one K'Erin with a Shatter Axe to stand out in front challenging them. But that's okay, they won't come up often, and there's always Black Zone and Red Zone options if they do show up again later in the campaign. 

Neither of my Battlefield Events made much of a difference this time, but I can see how they could have been a big deal in a longer battle, especially with more typical ranged opponents.

Now that the fight is over, I have to decide what to do about a notable sight that I was unable to reach. All the Objectives that require you to go somewhere and interact with something let you do it after the battle. Automatically if it would have been automatic during the fight. If it's the sort of thing you have to roll for during the battle, the only precedent I found in the rules is one where you get a single chance to roll after the battle, but can use any PC that's present and not KO'd. I don't completely want to just ignore the notable sights, as that would be boring, but I also don't want a situation where I intentionally don't shoot at targets out in the open for multiple Rounds because I'm trying to keep the battle running while we go after the treasure. A compromise that preserves the fun would be good. 

House Rule: I think I'm going to go with: if there's a Notable Sight on the board that wasn't picked up during the battle, each non-KO'd character can roll 1d6+Savvy. If any of them get a total of 6+, the Notable Sight is found. So it's best if I go after during the battle, but not a guaranteed failure if I am unable to do so but still win the fight, especially if most of my crew is intact. In this case, Inshubur and The Kid are Savvy 1, and Moreva is Savvy 2. So that's 1d6+0, 1d6+0, 1d6+0, 1d6+1, 1d6+1, 1d6+2, looking for at least one "6". Should be easy. Achieved on 2 of the 6 rolls. Feels about right: enough to make you want to take small risks to get the notable sight, but not so important that you'd be tempted to run into purely suicidal situations for it. If a lot of the crew gets KO'd you're less likely to find the thing, which feels reasonable, even if it is sort of kicking you while you're down. (Really, Co-Op and Solitaire games are usually more fun when they're challenging, any way.) It also gives a reason to invest in Savvy a bit, which is otherwise probably a dump stat for most characters.

Post-Battle:

Rival Status: - This was a Roving Threat, which never become Rivals. However, it was also a "Hot Job" Hazard, so it seemed like I should roll... which came up a "1". Apparently, somebody is upset that I killed the Large Bugs. I mark down an Unknown Rival... but decide I should roll for it now, because the rule about how unknown rivals work is really hard to find in the rulebook. For the record, it's on page 92, but not on either of the two pages that actually use the phrase "unknown rivals", so it doesn't come up easily in a search of the PDF.

For unknown rivals, you're supposed to roll twice on page 94, and choose whichever seems most interesting.  So my choices are Criminal Element - Skulker Brigands, or Interested Parties - Colonial Militia. Wow. It's my previous two battles come back to haunt me. (Technically the Skulkers had been Mercs, not Brigands, but that's still pretty cool since I'm Questing for The Strange Brain Of The Skulker).  I decide Skulker Brigands sounds like more fun. They are a group I've named the Ratlobe Kur, and they think themselves very clever.

Patron Status: -  Added Mr. Persi Manselli as a full Patron since the mission was successful

Pay and Benefits of Success: - 6 total: Base 3,  Really Shiny +2, and Danger Pay +1.

Battlefield Finds: - Debris worth 3 credits

Gather the Loot: - Teach-bot A character engaging in the Train crew task will earn 1D6 additional XP. Single-use.

XP and Upgrades:  G.0 H.4 I.3 J.3 K.4 L.3 M.3   - First Kill: - H     Rookie: K

Campaign Event: - "A bit of time on your hands" - The crew has a few days to do their own thing. Select two crew members at random and have each make a roll on the Exploration Table (p.80).

Leonidas decides he really likes it here on the planet Aceso Menrva Prime . This place is rather nice, really. When you are ready to leave this world, unless it is being Invaded, you must pay 1 story point or this crew member will decide to stay behind. If they do, you can keep their equipment, though.

Moreva picks up a delivery package and promises to bring it on to the next planet. 

That's an interesting tension, getting one thing that encourages me to move on to a new planet, and another result that discourages it. That's kind of cool.

Character Event: -  Moreva has a lot of time to burn. She can perform two Crew Actions next Campaign turn.

 

Thank you for reading!  See also the Index of my Five Parsecs articles for more content.