This is a step-by-step breakdown of the ninth Campaign Turn and Mission in my Five Parsecs From Home campaign.
Crew names below are often abbreviated G to M, as explained in: Crew Roster, which also tells you about my team and a bit about their ship. See also the Index of my Five Parsecs articles for a list of previous Missions and other content.
Pre-Battle:
1.1 Flee Invasion: - n/a
1.2 Decide Whether to Travel: - n/a
1.3 Starship Travel Event: - n/a
1.4 New World Arrival Steps: - n/a
1.5 Gain 1 story point if it's turn 3, 6, 9, 12, 15, 18, etc. - Yes! Back up to 7 Story Points.
2.1 Upkeep and Ship Repairs: -
Crew Upkeep - 2 Ship Debt - 0 Ship Repairs - 3 Medical Care - 0
2.2 Assign and Resolve Crew Tasks: -
- Find a Patron -
- Train -
- Trade - H, K
- Recruit -
- Explore - I, L
- Track -
- Repair Your Kit - M
- Decoy - G, J
Noteworthy results from Tasks: -
H trades for an instruction manual. (Read for +1 XP. Single use.)
K trades for a Beam Pistol. It's nasty up close.
I spends time talking to a tech fanatic, they mostly geek out about the Strange Brain of the Skulker, and accomplish nothing.
M fixes the Camo Cloak.
We're a little worried that all these Rivals we've accumulated will come looking for us, So G & J both cover our tracks. G by being spotted in public, J by spread false rumors (about our mission) with her many contacts.
2.3 Determine Job Offers: - We're trying for the Bail Bonds job on the Cultists that was offered last turn.
2.4 Assign Equipment: - Kid gets the Beam Pistol and the Camo Cloak. H'Xex gets the new suit of Combat Armor.
2.5 Resolve Rumors: - Quest not yet triggered, we just have that one tip from a contact.
2.6 Choose Your Battle - So we were going after this mission that Menrva Bail Bonds offered to Juniper. Supposed to raid a Cult. Moreva's real nervous about it, because she used to be in a Cult. This same Cult. The Radiant Quiver of Resheph. Not this branch compound, her sect of it was on another planet, but the same general kind of abusive bastards. Bagging one of their leaders and turning him over to justice sounds good, but she's also scared. We all talk about it. We decide to do a little recon on the group. As we're acting real casual, watching from down the street, a cultist drives by and does a double-take. He's from the other compound, and recognizes Moreva from years ago. Suddenly all hell breaks loose.
(Here's what happened mechanically to justify that tale. I roll up the Enemy when I'm handing out the jobs, as that makes it
more interesting and easier to work up a narrative if you know what the
opposition is before hand. So, we had an open multi-turn job offer that involved cultists. Last turn's character event revealed that an old Rival of Moreva's returns to trouble her. As is the standard for Unknown Rivals, I roll twice and get to pick which one I want. I rolled Cultists and Unity Grunts, and decided that Cultists implied the more interesting backstory for the character. I didn't really expect it to come up any time soon, cause in the first 8 Turns none of my Rivals have shown up. I even assigned 2 PCs to Decoy Actions this turn to reduce the chance of Rival interference. But wouldn't you know it, I rolled low enough to trigger a rival rumble, and then rolled a d4 to find out which Rival group it was and got a "4" so the most recent one on the list. And that just bloomed into a little story. It does mean there's a decent chance I'll be running back-to-back Cultist missions this turn and next, which is a little weird, but not really a problem.)
Job Description:
Menrva Bail Bonds calls us up with a Bounty on a Cultist. We get tangled up in some ancillary business, because Moreva has history with these jerks. Rival trouble.
Battle:
Deployment Conditions: - none
Notable Sights: - nothing special
Objective: - Just try to hold the field. Rival Mission Circumstances: Brought Friends (Add one additional enemy figure. If you flee from the battle before 4 rounds are up, a random crew member will lose a random item of equipment carried in your flight.)
Enemy: Criminal Elements Subtype: Cultists
Numbers+2 Panic 1 Speed 4" Combat Skill +0 Tou3 AI-A Weap1A
"Fringe Space is full of odd, para-religious groups, congregating around this or that principle. They are often heavily armed, and up to no good."
Intrigue: Roll 2D6 and add +1 if you killed a Lieutenant and/or Unique Individual. On a 9+, you obtain a Quest Rumor.
7 Cultists total:4 regulars with Colony Rifle and Blade,
2 specialists with Power Claw,
1 leader with Colony Rifle and Blade,
 |
| Starting Positions - Mission 8 |
Deploy: We're casually observing the cult from down the street, when they spot Moreva. So I decided to make Moreva was in Line-of-Sight to the enemy, and I didn't put any of my characters up on rooftops. This was partly for obvious story reasons, but mostly because 2 of the enemy only have Power Claws, and it seemed kinda cheaty to put my entire team up on rooftops where those melee-only enemies would have to run past us to the fire escape, then 3" or 4" up a ladder, and then backtracking across the roof. So instead, Moreva and Inshubur are near the beat-up old car we arrived in, Juniper is across the street getting a closer look, the Kid is out playing in traffic, and Leonidas and H'Xex are laying low in the alleyway.
Neutral Car House Rules: In a couple of my previous battles, I had fun placing neutral cars at roads on the edges of the map, and having them drive a random distance each turn. I'll be doing the same this time. I set up their speed in Roll20 as moving [[1d8!+1d4]] inches per turn. A d8 and a d4 together give a nice flat-topped bell curve, but exclamation mark in the die code means that if it rolls a natural 8 it adds another 1d8 to the movement. So the cars usually going a little faster than the humans, but have the potential to suddenly accelerate to much faster. If they would hit something, they brake suddenly and the person they'd hit takes a stun. They follow their lane, but if they have turning options they determine it randomly. If a car goes off a map edge it re-enters from a random lane. On this particular map there are 3 main lanes entering the map (1 southbound, 2 northbound) and two kind of inconvenient or uninteresting lanes (eastbound alleyway and eastbound half-off-the-map). So I numbered them "1-2", "3-4", "5-6", "7" and "8" and will roll a d8 each time. Initial car placement roll was a 6 and a 3. I'll move cars at the start of Enemy actions, for the maximum benefit to the NPCs and detriment of my crew. (Because the enemies will be able to rely on the cars for cover far better than I can.
Seize The Initiative was successful for once! Can't remember the last time that happened. M opens fire first, but misses with all her plasma. The Kid shoots a rooftop cultist, but only stuns them. L & I advance into cover. J just stays put. She's not got LOS to anyone, but if she moves she'll leave herself open to the Cultists. I want H to use his jump belt to the building roofs, but these are more than one story, so it's probably above the 3" height allowance. Instead I move him on to the fire escape in the alleyway, so next Round he'll get to the roof.
Round 1: - Inshubur and The Kid can act in the Quick Phase. I takes careful Aim through the Unity Battle Sight on her Plasma Rifle, and a cultist experiences the Rapture. K Aims at the cultist he'd shot before, and manages to stun her a second time and drive her back far enough from the edge that he can't see her.
The cars move 8" and 7" inches. None of the cultists have range to any of the PCs (the ones who did are either dead or knocked back and stunned), so the Cult Leader and one other cultist Dash out into the street to get closer. They keep the cars in front of them as a moving shield. I don't think the civilian drivers appreciate it.
The double-stunned cultist on the roof runs down the staircase to get in cover. The other cultist on a roof makes a running jump from one roof to the next building.
The Power Claw specialists move forward, taking cover behind a tree and mailbox.
L moves forward and gets an angle where he can stun the cultist behind the cars, and slow their advance.
M takes out the closer of the two Power Claw wielders.
J dashes forward and shelters behind the big metal base of a street lamp.
Leaping from the fire escape, H uses his Jump Belt to reach the roof of another building.
All the Cultists pass their Morale test.
Round 2: - Inshubur plasma-boils the other Power Claw cultist, and Leonidas kills the person he'd just stunned.
The car in the left lane slows down, the driver braking hard at the sight of gunfire up ahead. The car in the right lane continues forward at roughly the same velocity as before, because its view of the trouble was blocked by the first car. (That's how I interpret rolls of 5" and 8".)
The cult leader rushes to take cover behind the concrete barrier between lanes, and pegs Leonidas with his military rifle. Damage roll is a 6, so I spend a story point. The shot punches through the hood of the car he's sheltering behind, and he's hit by shrapnel instead of the slug, so he's merely stunned. (Rerolled damage is a "1".)
The cultist on the roof tries shooting Leonidas as well, but misses. The other other remaining cultist moves into better cover behind a mailbox, and shakes off their stun.
H misses the Cult leader. M misses the cultist. Juniper advances and ducks in to a small alleyway, but doesn't have a clear shot at anyone.
The cultist fail the panic test, so the one on the roof slinks away.
|
| Mission 8 Battle Map. This was the biggest, craziest battle thus far. |
Green lines on the map are the movements of my crew, with the shade of green just indicating which person it is for when their paths overlap. Blue lines are H'Xex using his Jump Belt, and it switches to green when he actually walks. Purple lines are neutral cars, essentially just moving cover. Red lines are the bad guys moving around. The two orange segments on the red path in the right hand side of the map are running jumps from one roof to the next. The pink lines at the bottom are all the reinforcements that arrive on the map later in the Mission.
Battle Event between Round 2 and 3 - Enemy Reinforcements. Another cultist rifle and cultist power claw coming running up the road. If the other one hadn't just bailed, this would get interesting.
Hmmm.... the rules say all the end of turn stuff can be done in whatever order you want, so I swap the order of them. Reinforcements first, then panic failure. So the new Claw runs away, as his weapon wouldn't get into range anytime soon anyway. Doing it this way makes the fight a tiny bit harder on myself.
Round 3: - The Kid moves out into the open, eager to end this. He burns a laser vent in the cult leader's head. Inshubur advances a few feet and takes cover behing a concrete bollard.
The driver who had slowed down realizes most of the fighting is behind him now, so he floors it. The cars move ahead 9" and 7".
Cultist reinforcement advances into cover, and shoots at H but misses. The other cultist on the ground moves, and shoots at Juniper. J's luck saves her. It's a classic "cat scare" in the narrow alley, but she has to head in deeper to make sure it's not a cultist sneaking up on her.
Roof cultist makes a running jump to the next section, then fires wild and wide. Bullets ricochet off the concrete near the Kid.
Moreva's plasma fire ignites the cultist that shot at Juniper.
Leonidas gets his wits back about him, and ducks behind the car.
H'Xex jumps down into cover behind a holobillboard, and fires ineffectually at the new cultist.
One failed panic test, so though can't seem to hit H'Xex, it is enough to make them run away.
Round 4: - Inshubur sits tight, ready for snap fire if the enemy shows herself.
Both cars slow down, moving 4" and 5". I think maybe they're worried Inshubur or The Kid are about to run out in front of them.
Cultist runs forward, and jumps down a floor to the lower roof. Dropping more than 1" ends her turn. She's far enough in from the edge that nobody on the ground can see or shoot her.
Most of my team huddles behind the divider, and talks about what to do. Juniper heads toward the fire escape in the alleyway. H'Xex gets up high enough to see the cultist, but not close enough for his shotgun to accomplish anything.
There's no panic test this round. This cultist is prepared to die on this hunt.
Battle Event between Round 4 and 5: 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 5: - K and I are ready to snapfire.
Both cars move off the map, so I roll to replace them. I roll a 1 and a 5, so one southbound and one northbound.
Roof Cultist moves forward, but doesn't quite have enough movement to get to the edge where they'd have Line Of Sight to Juniper. The smartest move would be to stay in cover, but they have Aggressive AI and are within 12", so they leave cover to get closer.
Reinforcements: Another cultist shows up in the middle of the board's southern edge. They take cover behind the median, and fail to hit H'Xex.
Since there's no target in range, K and I dash across the road instead. M and L maneuver in cover.
H jumps down into cover as well, and misses with the new cultist with his shotgun.
Juniper climbs the fire escape, and vaporizes at the cultist in the open.
Round 6: - I have lots of quick actions, but no enemies on the map. H, I, J and K advance in cover.
The new cars are moving much faster than the old ones. 10" south and 18" north, thanks to the exploding d8!"
A second new Cultist shows up to reinforce the first one. Both get in cover and fire shots past H'Xex's head.
H'Xex jumpbelts forward, swinging his his Shatter Axe. He gets to roll 2 dice, and choose the better roll. Both dice are natural 1's, augmented to 5's by his Combat Skill of +2 and the bonus for a Melee weapon. The cultist also has a Melee weapon, so their base 3 on the die is also augmented up to 5. On a tie, both sides take 1 Hit, and for rolling a natural "1", H will take a second hit. H gets yet another natural "1" on his damage, but the Shatter Axe has a high damage rating so he kills anyway. Both of the hits on him are low rolls as well, so he ends up double-stunned but still kicking.
Out of range, Leonidas and Moreva use a Dash to get closer.
The cultist does not panic.
Round 7: - K and I Dash for cover.
Both cars slow down a bit, as their drivers try to figure what's going on around them. 4" and 8".
All three reinforcement rolls have been 5+, and the last possible cultist steps out of a building in the southeast corner of the map.
The other Cultist moves forward and fires a slug at H'Xex. He's in the open, less than 6", so it's a hit on a 3+. The damage roll ends up being just a "1", but as he's got stuns on him already, that would be enough to take him out. I spend his Luck point, and he avoids the KO and bounces 2" southeast. That's basically scrambling into cover behind a concrete bollard. If he's only going to bounce 2", that's the probably the best direction, so it really is Luck.
The final cultist reinforcement moves out into the street, and joins in the "lets all shoot at H'Xex" plan. They roll a "1" on the attack, so he doesn't even get stunned.
M. J, and L move up. L can't shoot because M is blocking his LOS. J's just out of range. M lines up a shot, but just ends up melting the streetlight next to the cultist.
Since he's stunned, H'Xex isn't required to charge into Melee (thank you Ivan at Nordic Weasel for the clarification on how stunned K'Erin heroes work). He shotguns the cultist closest to him, and shrugs off 1 of his two stuns.
Round 8: A good initiative roll helps a lot here. Moreva adjusts her aim and obliterates the closer cultist. Inshubur takes cover behind the mailbox, and blasts the final cultist.
We hold the field! It cost us Story Points and Luck a plenty, but no PCs were KO'd this time.
Analysis:
That was a crazy battle! All those reinforcement waves made it epic, long and unpredictable. It was great! 10 cultist corpses, and 2 escaped enemies due to understandable panic. Had all 12 of them been on the board at the beginning I probably would have lost the fight.
I will say though that enemies without ranged attacks are kind of wasted. Maybe it's the maps I'm using, but it seems like that's always going to be the case. 3 of 12 adversaries were armed only with a Power Claw, and while that's a highly damaging weapon, it only matters if they can get in close, which none of them did. Also, per the rules, even Aggressive enemies like these aren't supposed to try to initiate a brawl if their Combat Skill is lower than the target PCs. With their CS of +0, there's a point in the mid-campaign where they may not ever have any legal brawling targets. It only takes 2 or 3 missions to get your entire team up to CS +1. Also, as experienced by the cultist on the roof in Round 5, things get a little awkward now that you can't Dash into Melee. You end up in situations were an enemy can technically reach you, but can't brawl you if they do, and that's a little weird that they end up moving less than their Dash distance, but stop just short of you entirely lined up for your point-blank bust-a-cap that can't miss. In second edition, moving into melee was done at running speed if I remember correctly, so it didn't really have this problem. I wonder why he changed it for 3rd?
Possible House-Rule to Fix it: Enemies with just a melee weapon like a PowerClaw probably need a weak pistol added to their armament to help when they're not quite in range, and when they are out-CS'ed.
About Cars - I am really enjoying the "mobile terrain" I've introduced with the neutral cars, as it really helps keep big open roadways from being boring sniper fests. Having the cars move right before the enemies does a good job of making sure the baddies can take advantage of it and the random movement amount keeps the player from planning too far ahead. That's all great. Having battles on city streets though does make me wonder about how long it takes the local police to respond to laserfire. Maybe some third-party Enforcers ought to show up if the battle goes too long? I'm in danger of making this too complex if I lean into realism. It is a tabletop miniatures game after all, not high-simulationist gritty RPG.
Post-Battle:
4.1 Resolve Rival Status: - They've had enough! I broke their spirit, and can remove them from my Rival list. Moreva won't be troubled by these jerks again.
4.2 Resolve Patron Status: - n/a - We still have one turn to go after the actual Bail Bonds Patron Mission.
4.3 Determine Quest Progress: - n/a
4.4 Get Paid and Benefits of Success: - Lots of modifiers here.
Criminal Elements: When setting up, roll 1D6. If the score is 1-3, that many bonus credits will be paid out as a bounty if you. Bounty = YES, +2 Credits if we Hold the Field after the battle.
Intrigue: Roll 2D6 and add +1 if you killed a Lieutenant and/or Unique Individual. On a 9+, you obtain a Quest Rumor.
Rival Battle: If you flee from the battle before 4 rounds are up, a random crew member will lose a random item of equipment carried in your flight.
I rolled a "1" for the pay, and a "7" on the intrigue, so it's a total of just 3 Credits in payment after all those modifiers.
4.5 Battlefield Finds: - Personal Trinket: On each planet you visit in the future, roll 2D6. On a 9+ you find the owner and receive a Loot roll (p.131) as payment.
4.6 Check for Invasion!: - n/a
4.7 Gather the Loot: - 2 doses of the consumable called "Still". I've had 1 dose for several Turns, and always forget to use it. Now I can forget 3 times as much. Yay!
4.8 Determine Injuries and Recovery: - n/a
4.9 Experience and Character Upgrades: G.0 H.3 I.4 J.3 K.4 L.3 M.3 - First Kill: - I Rookie: K
H'Xex trains Combat Skill from 2 to 3.
Inshubur trains Speed from 5 to 6.
4.10 Invest in Advanced Training: - not yet
4.11 Purchase Items: - none
4.12 Campaign Event: - You’ve managed to settle some old “business”. If you have any, you may remove one Rival of your choice. Inshubur manages to set things straight with the E'Rex K'Gal and end the enmity. This eliminates the chance of them trying to invade the planet, so that's pretty great.
4.13 Character Event: - Randomly selected Inshubur, and got: "You’ve made a real personal breakthrough. Select one ability score that has not been increased from its starting value when the character entered the campaign. It increases by +1 immediately." Because I just spent her XP on Speed, there was only 1 ability score she hadn't raised during the campaign: Savvy. So that goes up from her starting value of 1 to 2. Clearly, the Strange Brain has continued to open up new neuronal pathways, and expanded her consciousness.
4.14 Check for Galactic War Progress: - n/a
4.15 Tick Story Clock: - 0 (so in Turn 10 we have the second Story Track adventure)
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