5 Parsecs From Home: Turn 13 / Story Track Event 3

This is a step-by-step breakdown of the thirteenth Campaign Turn in my Five Parsecs From Home campaign. This Turn's mission is also the third "Event" in the "Story Track". The Story Track is an optional plot thread that (if you've elected to use it in your campaign) shows up about every fourth Turn or so, with a custom mission that shakes things up a bit. This time, it's a pretty brutal close-quarters combat, pistols in the fog from just inches away.

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: - no

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. - n/a

2.1 Upkeep and Ship Repairs: -
Crew Upkeep - 1    Ship Debt - 0    Ship Repairs - 0    Medical Care - H needs 5 turns of recovery, and I don't have enough credits to get him out this Turn.

2.2 Assign and Resolve Crew Tasks: -
Find a Patron -    Train -     Trade - M    Recruit -    Explore - J,L    Track -    Repair Your Kit -     Decoy - G,K
Noteworthy results from Tasks: -

    Inshubur plans the attack. From the Story Track for this Turn: "One crew member of choice must be assigned to plan the attack. This crew member cannot take any actions this campaign turn. If you are not ready, you can opt to delay for one more campaign turn, but after that, it’s go time!"
    Moreva trades for Local Maps that may prove useful for future Quests
    Leonidas trades away his old Blade for Combat Armor!

2.3 Determine Job Offers: - Doing the 3rd Story Track event. Thankfully, I didn't roll a "1" and trigger Rival interference.

2.4 Assign Equipment: - n/a

2.5 Resolve Rumors: - n/a

2.6 Choose Your Battle -
Job Description:
Story Track Event 3: Disrupting the Plan - Your old friend is up to something big, and it’s time to teach his people a little lesson. You’ve found out where his organization is storing contraband for sale off-world, and you’ve decided to pay them a visit.

 
Battle: Story Track Event #3


Deployment Conditions:  Set up like a camp, with crates and barrels all over. Scatter 5 Goons, 2 Bruisers, and 1 Leader around the map.

Select which battlefield edge you want to enter from, and roll to Seize the Initiative (at +3 because I captured a mercenary in Story Track #2).

Enemy within 12” of crew figures will act with Defensive AI. Enemy that are not within 12” of crew figures will first attempt to reach the center of the battlefield, then go Defensive.

Planetary Condition: - Planet-Wide Fog - All shots beyond 8" are -1 to Hit.

Notable Sights:  The mission clearly spells out unusual deployment and objectives, so obviously you don't roll on those charts. It doesn't mention whether or not Notable Sights are a thing, but I'm going to assume that since they aren't mentioned, they're not used this mission. If I ever play the story track a second time, with a new crew, maybe I would add one just to mix it up, but this time, there's nothing notable to see here. Move along.  

EDIT: My bad, it's actually spelled out on page 152 that there are no Deployment Conditions or Notable Sights in any Story Track Events. I somehow missed that on my first two reads of the chapter, having included Notable Sights in Story Track Missions #2 and #3. Including them did not seem to break anything, just for the record. So, if having a dynamic mission is more important to you than following the rulebook strictly, go for it. 

Objective: - Sabotage the AeroSpace Fighter that my old friend has just purchased before his techs can get it armed with the missile they just purchased.

To Win, you need to either Hold the Field, or fight your way to the center of the battlefield and plant a sabotage device. This takes a Combat Action and requires a 1D6+Savvy roll of 5+. If failed, the roll can be attempted again by other characters, or through future Actions. Once planted, the opposition will retreat from the battlefield at the end of the next round.
• If you drive off every opponent, you can just plant the device at your own leisure.
• If the battle drags on too long, reinforcements will show up. 2 Goons in each of Rounds 8 and 12 will arrive at the end of the round, in the center of a randomly selected battlefield edge.

Enemy Type: -  AbsuCorp Goons, Bruisers, and a Boss

Numbers: - 5/2/1   Panic: 1-2     Speed: 4”     Combat: +0 to +1     Tough: 3 to 4     AI: D*    

5 Goons with Machine Pistols, 2 Bruisers with Shotguns and Brutal Melee,  1 Leader w/ Blast Pistol and Blade

Deploy: Enemy are scattered around the camp. I'm entering from the North. Because they have a big missile, I'm not bringing my Shuttle or ship anywhere near this place, so I'll be scattering my people along that Northern Edge. One of the cool things about this Mission is that deployment is very atypical. Usually the enemy is really far away. Instead, we can get the drop on the ones near our table edge.

In this Mission, the villains have modified AI. It's mostly the Defensive AI, but with extra instructions to head toward my Mission Objective if there's not PCs nearby them. This has an interesting dynamic where the player is tempted to rush the Objective early, before it's swarming with baddies.

Round 1: - Seize the Initiative:  We've got +3 for capturing and interrogating a mercenary in the previous Story Track Mission. Presumably that stacks with the usual +1 for being outnumbered. So that means that if our 2d6 roll is a 6+, all my people will get to act once before the first turn. I get cocky, and roll a 4. So we've blown our early advantage, but there's still normal initiative.

Quick Actions - We open with Plasma fire! Moreva shoots the closest Goon, stunning him and knocking him back to where Juniper can see him. She fires, one stun and the second hit kill.

Inshubur moves into melee with the next closest Goon. He fumbles, but both damage rolls are low so he only ends up double-stunned.

Enemy Actions - The stunned Goon shoots Inshubur from point-blank with his Machine Pistol. She dives out of the way with her Luck. Then the nearby Bruiser opens fire with his Shotgun. Both shots miss, but one of the two dice rolls a "1", so he gets a reroll from Aiming, which is a hit. Inshubur is out of Luck, so I spend a Story Point to force a reroll on the shot. It's still a hit. Then the damage is enough to knock my Captain out, and probably still would be if I spend another Story Point. Her Combat Armor also fails her, so Inshubur goes down!  Rather than spend it on a long-shot, I hold on to the Story Point, in case I need it to help her during Recovery at the end of the Battle.

Slow Actions - Leonidas vaporizes the stunned Goon.

GcViib burns a hole through the head of the Bruiser that took out Inshubur.

The Kid moves south, and shoots at the Goon on the landing pad, driving him against the Flyer we want to sabotage.

Panic Test - The Goon furthest from the PCs runs away. There's no Enemy Table Edge in this scenario, so I probably could have chosen anyone, but since he'd have to move several Rounds to get into range, I figure he's still the best one to flee.

Enemy Ploy on a "1" - And I rolled it!   There is a Sniper in that tall radio tower to the South East of the landing pad.   In a previous game I rolled up a Sniper, and blasted them to bits before they got to activate. I decided then to implement a house-rule to make them more dangerous if they came up again: The sniper gets 1 free shot immediately upon being placed on the board, before the next Round starts.

Unfortunately for the bad guys, I made that rule before coming to a planet with Fog so bad every shot is at -1 if the target is 8" or more away. The sniper's shot skips off a rock near The Kid.

Image Key: Green lines are PC's movement. Purple lines are the enemies movement. Yellow lines are retreat when Stunned or random movement from Luck points being spent. Red X's mark places where people fell in battle.

Round 2: - Quick - The Kid returns fire, knocking the Sniper onto the supports between the tower and the radar beacon. Juniper moves forward and also shoots at the sniper, driving them further onto the walkway. They are double-stunned, but still in the game.

Enemy - The sniper shoots at Juniper, but she is saved by the Fog.

The Goon on the Landing Pad shoots at her as well, but only stuns her.

The other baddies advance. Most are heading towards the landing pad, but the Goon in the West circles around his hovertruck.

Slow - GcViib misses the sniper.

Leonidas stuns the Goon on the landing pad, who stumbles backwards into the open. Moreva flanks him, and finishes him off.

Panic Test - The goon in the west flees off the board.

Roll for Battle Events between Round 2 and 3 - 82 - Fog Cloud - The AeroSpace FIghter's engines start cycling up, causing the already dense air of Tiresias-3 to condense further. There's a cloud of opaque fog around the landing pad now, extending 6" from our Primary Objective. Line-Of-Sight is blocked by 2" of this, so there'll be some nasty close-quarters battle in our future.


Round 3: - Quick - The Kid puts another stun on the Sniper.

Enemy - The Sniper returns the favor. They hunt each other. The Leader and Bruiser move into the fog.

Slow - Everyone closes in on the fog cloud.

Panic Test - None.


Round 4: Quick - Moreva and Juniper enter the fog.

The Kid is right at the edge of the map, engaged in a sniper duel with the Corp Marksman on the scaffolding. If I keep shooting, he'll probably win, because he has Luck and a better equipment. However, I resolved in Turn 7 that I would never abuse the edge of the map to avoid being pushed back by stunned results. So, to stand by that conviction, the Kid runs for cover. (He was stunned, so he can't shoot if he moves, and can't move if he shoots.)

Enemy - The Bruiser moves up and stuns Juniper with his shotgun. The boss drops into a better position with cover on all sides, but can't get close enough to shoot through less than 2" of engine exhaust.

The sniper moves back into their original position, now obscured by exhaust. They couldn't line up a shot, so I have them shift far enough into the fog for protection.

Slow - Leonidas dashes into the exhaust. I'm gambling a bit on if I can roll at least a single "1" on initiative next turn. If I don't, he'll be burning his Luck.

Panic Test - None

Roll for Battle Events between Round 4 and 5:  "Snap shot: Select a figure in your crew. They may fire a weapon immediately. If the weapon is a Pistol, it Hits automatically, otherwise roll to Hit normally."

I choose Juniper because she has a cool pistol built-in to her cyberhand that I almost never get to use (because a gun built into a cyberhand has half normal range, and her Plasma Rifle usually crisps people from much further out). It's a machine pistol with a shock attachment, and it murders this Bruiser quite nicely.


Round 5: - Quick - I only get 1 good Initiative die this turn, and it's a 2, so it has to be Moreva (or no shot at all). She rushes up the ramp, and unloads hot plasma on the enemy Leader. His armor saves him, but he ends up double-stunned. His back is to rock, so he's not moved at all.

Enemy - Moreva is in the open, so the the Leader shoots her. A bullet strikes her square on, but he's saved by her Combat Armor. It's a good thing the Leader was stunned, because if he'd been able to Aim his second shot might have hit as well.

The sniper moves to the edge of the tower, sticking just far enough out of the exhaust to get a shot at The Kid. They roll a "1", and can't Aim this turn because they moved.

Slow - The Kid returns fire, and stuns the sniper. This pushes them enough to fall. Jumping down 3" would be a +0 damage hit, per the movement rules. I can't seem to find other falling rules, so I just go with that for now.  I roll low, so the sniper only ends up double-stunned.

Leonidas charges the enemy Leader and tries out his Glare Sword. Leon wins the fight, but the Leader rolls a "6".  Leo then rolls low damage, and the baddie rolls high. Thankfully, Leonidas' armor saves him and they are both stunned.

The fog and the placement of my other characters prevent either GcViib or Juniper from getting into a position to shoot.

Panic Test - Nope. These badasses fight on.

Round 6: - Quick - Leonidas opens up on the villain Leader, giving him a second stun.

The Kid moves and misses the sniper.

Enemy -  The leader double-stuns Leonidas. That was close.

The sniper misses The Kid because of the planet-wide Fog.

Slow - Moreva climbs back up on top of the fuel tank and fries the enemy Leader. Then she notices the flammable labels on the thing she's standing on, looks at the smoking Plasma Rifle in her hands, and counts her lucky stars.

Juniper's not Savvy enough to worth the sabotage effort, so she Dashes through the fog to try to flank the sniper next turn.

GcViib heads up onto the platform and gets into position for next Round's sabotage.

Panic Test - None, technically, because the sniper is immune to morale...

Round 7 - ...but since the next Round starts with only the sniper on the map, they automatically escape per the special rule in the Ploy write-up.

Since the Mission ends at the start of Round 7, I don't trigger the scenario-specific enemy reinforcements at the End of Rounds 8 and 12.

Yellow lines are paths of retreat, whether that's 1" of knockback from a Stun, 1d6" of random movement from a Luck spend, or the path off the edge of the board from a badguy failing a Panic test.

Analysis: -  That fight was a lot more challenging than I thought it was going to be! With mostly short-range weapons on the opposition, I expected to just plasma-burn through their ranks in short order.  That's "action economy" for you: losing a PC in Round 1 had a lot of ripple effects, and made every Round thereafter that much harder. Inshubur is my fastest character in terms of both Speed and Reactions, so I'd planned to have her race to the middle of the map and claim the Objective before things got too hot. Instead, she took a dirt nap in Turn 1.

I really enjoyed how this battle played out quite differently from the typical Mission. Having the enemy scattered about and shooting immediately, instead of tightly clustered and creeping up slowly, was pretty interesting. The two layers of Fog (a planet-wide fog that penalized all shots beyond 8", and a localized-fog that blocked all shots beyond 2" in the vicinity of my primary objective) really made me have to get up-close and personal. The only part where I didn't push in close was the long-range sniper match on the far Eastern flank, and that ended inconclusively as a result. If not for the fog, though, I would have been able to aim 2 or 3 Plasma Rifles at that sniper's tower, which probably would have wrapped that part up in a hurry.


Post-Battle:

4.1 Resolve Rival Status: - No, I rolled a 2. I'm happy with that, as I don't think a bunch of pistol-packing Goons would be much of a threat in a more typical deployment/scenario. They just don't have the range to be a serious threat in a normal mission, at least not against my team with all their plasma-rifles.

4.2 Resolve Patron Status: - N/A

4.3 Determine Quest Progress: - N/A

4.4 Get Paid and Benefits of Success: + 5 credits.

Planetary Condition - Booming Economy - When rolling for post-battle credit rewards, any 1 on the dice are rerolled until it shows a score other than a 1.

4.5 Battlefield Finds: -  Vital Info: I can turn this in for an automatic Corporate Patron on this world. Turns out AbsuCorp wasn't going to use those missiles on me, but on some other corporation. If I bring them Q'narr's targeting data and plans, his planned target will look on me favorably. I cash it in immediately, and roll up the new Patron just for fun. They have the usual Corporation rules of +1 on Danger Pay, and increased chance of jobs having Conditions. Their recurring benefit is "Connections" which means they pay in rumors. I name them Caduceus MultiMedia. One of their journalists is currently working on a hard-hitting exposé about Q'narr and AbsuCorp.


4.6 Check for Invasion!: - I don't have to roll this Turn, since these enemies aren't an Invasion Threat. That's good, since there have been rumors of war that would add +2 to any such roll on this planet.

4.7 Gather the Loot: -  The first roll gets me a Hunting Rifle and a Military Rifle, both Damaged. I get a second roll on the Loot table as specified by the Story Track's rewards section, and this rolls up a Unity Battle Sight, which is far more useful.

4.8 Determine Injuries and Recovery: -  I roll a 90, so it turns out Inshubur was merely knocked unconscious, with no lasting injuries.  H'Xex is envious, since he's still in Sick Bay from last Turn.

4.9 Experience and Character Upgrades:  G.0 H.0 I.1 J.4 K.4 L.3 M.3   - First Kill: - J    Rookie: K

The Kid is not happy about that sniper getting away, so they practice long-range shots in the fog. XP spent to bring Combat Skill to +3.

Leonidas raises Reactions to 2.

4.10 Invest in Advanced Training: -  Juniper uses her ex-Enforcer contacts to get enrolled in night classes at the local Academy, hits the books, and learns Security Training. (Total cost, including application, is 2 Credits, and 8 XP, and an Instruction Book.)  This will give us +1 on Seize The Initiative in the future, which I note would have been huge this Mission.

4.11 Purchase Items: - None

4.12 Campaign Event: - You renegotiate some old debts. (If you currently owe money, reduce your debt by 1D6+1 credits. If you owe nothing, earn 2 credits for being prudent with your money.)

Well, I'd just typed the meaningless phrase "Juniper uses her ex-Enforcer contacts" as how she arranged for her Security Training, and then the very next die roll recouped the costs of that Training. So yeah, some sort of favor called in by her Mentor/Partner from back during her old Enforcer days. I love it when story-dressing and randomized mechanics cooperate like that.

4.13 Character Event: - Leonidas discovers he likes the local cuisine, and gains an XP. I just hope he didn't eat H'Xex's delivery order -- a K'Erin's stomach is teflon-coated.

4.14 Check for Galactic War Progress: - N/A

4.15 Tick Story Clock: -  Set the Clock to 5 Ticks.  Based on that, I expect the next Story Event to be around Turn 19. Not that I'm complaining, as I enjoy the game quite a bit, but I hadn't realized when starting this just how long your Campaign has to run to get all the way through the Story Track.  I was planning on running this for about 20 Missions, but the Story Track will still be rolling strong at that point, so I'll probably keep going until it's done.

Planetary Travel and Turn 11 (5 Parsecs From Home)

This is a step-by-step breakdown of the eleventh Campaign Turn and Mission in my Five Parsecs From Home campaign. 

This Turn's battle was much less epic than the previous two Turns. That's not a complaint. I'm happy there's so much variety from one Turn to the next. Plus, as you'll see below, this Turn we made our first trip to a new planet, and that was a really compelling and interesting part of the game that I hadn't gotten to see yet. I'm very pleased with how the game builds stories organically and constantly serves up surprises.

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:

This is my first time relocating to a new planet. Buckle up and stow your tray tables, because the next few steps are going to be quite involved.

1.1 Flee Invasion: - n/a

1.2 Decide Whether to Travel: - Yes, we're headed to Tiresias-3, a planet also known as "The Soup". Fuel costs 5 of our 16 Credits, leaving us with 11.

Leonidas again announces his intention to stay behind, as he has decided space is not for him and Aceso Menrva Prime is pretty nice. This is from a character event that was rolled up for him several Turns ago. Per the event, I can spend a Story Point to make him change his mind, or I can let him go and I can keep his equipment.

In the end, I decide to spend the Story Point. Why? Because his listed Motivation (rolled up in character creation) is Loyalty. He'd rather stay on this cushy planet, but he'd feel like a cad if he ditched out on his crew while this whole Q'narr situation hanging over their heads. Per the Story Track, Q'narr has hired AbsuCorp and Blood Storm to hunt down the crew of the Rhapsody, and Leo can't walk away while that's standing.


1.3 Starship Travel Event: Down-time: It’s a long time to just sit here. Select a crew member of choice and add +1 XP. Well, if Leonidas is sticking with us, I might as well make his decision worth it.

The crew has time to do maintenance tasks, and can Repair 1 damaged item with no roll required. Moreva fixes H'Xex's Combat Armor.

1.4 New World Arrival Steps: -

I roll for all our Rivals, and it turns out The B'Lilu Gang of K'Erin Outlaws hate us enough to chase us all the way to The Soup.

The Fellowship of Temporal Philosophers are Persistent, so they have a branch office on Tiresias-3. All our other Patrons are left behind on Aceso Menrva Prime.

Licensing Requirements:

Freelancer License - Required, and will cost us 1 credit.

Salvage License Required (this is from the Salvage Jobs expansion, which is a 2nd Edition supplement, but is mostly compatible with 3rd Ed, and I'd like the challenge and mission variety, so I plan to use it before this campaign ends) - Salvage Laws roll is: Salvage Rich Environment.  Increased chance of Salvage Jobs being available. Local Salvage Licenses cost 5 Credits. Universal License is recognized, and would cost 30 Credits.

We spend 6 Credits on the two License types. We are now down to 5 credits, having started the Turn with 16.

I'm using the "Wild Galaxy" optional rule, where each World gets 2 World Traits, instead of just 1.  The World Traits here on Tiresias-3 are:

1. Planet-Wide Fog - All shots beyond 8" are -1 to Hit.
2. Booming Economy - When rolling for post-battle credit rewards, any 1 on the dice are rerolled until it shows a score other than a 1.

So now that we're actually on the planet, it's time to use my Cargo Bay and all the fun delivery items I've picked up in the first 10 Campaign Turns.

Cargo Hold - "The hold of the ship has been upgraded to be environmentally stable. When traveling to a new planet, you may take on cargo. Roll 2D6 and discard any 5-6. Select the highest remaining die and earn that many credits from delivering a shipment to the new world. If both dice are discarded, no shipments are available. If your ship is damaged in transit, the cargo is also lost."    - I roll a "6" and a "3", so we make +3 Credits with default Cargo, bringing us back up to 8.   

(Now, you could argue the Cargo Hold isn't worth the investment it takes to build one on your ship. Travel between planets happens rarely enough that you're only going to come out ahead in a really long campaign... but it's a fun element that just packs so much sci-fi flavor that I really wanted to give it a try. And now that I've got one, I may be tempted to planet-hop unnecessarily, just to fill out my corner of universe. During crew creation we'd rolled up "We are best characterized as: Living the dream!" so this seems like a good choice for Roleplaying reasons at the very least. I might also consider getting the Hidden Compartment installed at some point, as they have good synergy together.)

Inshubur and Moreva each have a Delivery Package gained from Character Events. These sell for 3 each, and then you roll a die for each. On 1-2 you gain 1 Rival and 1 Story Point.  - I roll a "1" and a "5". So we gain 1 Story Point, 1 new Rival, and 6 Credits (bringing us back up to 14). I roll twice on the Unknown Rivals chart and get my choice of Zealots or a Salvage Team. Both sound interesting, but since I just bought a Salvage License and am in the middle of unloading a huge load of cargo and scrap, it makes the most sense that some local Salvage Team sees us muscling in on their territory, and doesn't like it.

We also have  2 x Trade Goods: Every time you arrive on a new planet, you may roll 1D6 to see how many Credits the goods will sell for here. You can wait as long as you like, but if you roll a 1, they have perished or become damaged, and are now worthless.  - I roll double 5's!  That's 10 more credits (bringing us up to 24).

And we have 1 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.  - I roll "1" and "6", so this doesn't pay out just yet.

I have 3 credits worth of Debris and Scrap to sell as well. It came from a "Battlefield Finds" roll. Normally, you just mark it as Credits immediately, with the sale happening as part of the resolution of the end of the battle, but my previous planet had Import Restrictions that prevented selling it (or anything) there. So that's +3 Credits more (bringing us to 27.)

I also have some unused crew items I'd like to sell, but the rules indicate I have to wait until the Post-Battle Step "Purchase Items" to sell those.

Lastly, we have Vital info from a previous battle: "Turn in this information to get a Corporate Patron automatically". I roll up the possible standing Benefit for the Corporation, and get "Health Insurance", so I decide the company is Chariclo Cyberoptics. This info was taken off a Blood Storm Mercenary body, so it's probably some damning evidence that Blood Storm hit one of their CyberEye export vessels.

So, we started the Turn with 16 Credits, spent down to just 5 remaining between fuel and licenses, and then sold cargo of various sorts to get us back up to 27 credits. We spent a story point, then gained one. We ditched one rival, then picked up a new one. We did leave 5 of our 6 Patrons behind, which is going to sting a little, but overall it was a good start to the Turn. Most importantly, moving to another world means we can progress the Story Track, and it was fun to see all the transit rules and use our cargo bay.

1.5 Gain 1 story point if it's turn 3, 6, 9, 12, 15, 18, etc. -  not this time.

2.1 Upkeep and Ship Repairs: -
Crew Upkeep - Would be 2, but I have "Basic Supplies" I can spend instead.    Ship Debt - 0    Ship Repairs - 0    Medical Care - 0

2.2 Assign and Resolve Crew Tasks: -
Find a Patron - I,G    Train - L    Trade - H, K    Recruit -    Explore - M    Track -    Repair Your Kit -     Decoy -

Noteworthy results from Tasks: -

Leonidas trains, and buys his first point of Luck. Now five of my seven crew have Luck!

Trade for a Glare Sword, and some Spare Parts.

While exploring, Moreva meets a new Patron and is offered a Job.

Juniper can't perform a Crew Task this turn because she got into an argument with the crew late last Turn about people not being punctual and timely. We'll see how they like it!


2.3 Determine Job Offers: -

There's three Patron Jobs on offer this turn. Two from the usual route, and one from Exploration.

The first is from a Edmark Creon III, a Wealthy Individual. He would be potentially Persistent, but this missions Condition is a One-Time Contract, so we'll actually never see him again. Danger Pay is minimal. This Low-Priority job would be to Move Through some Black Dragon Mercs, and keep an eye open for notably Shiny Bits. It's only available this Turn.

The other, a mission from our old friends at the Fellowship of Temporal Philosophers, is a lot more appealing. Danger Pay is significant.  A Private Transport is offered so it can't be interrupted by Rivals. It's a straight-up combat mission against Warbots, with a Priority Target. (Given the Patron, it may be time-traveling warbots.) All in all this sounds much better. Unfortunately, it's got the Condition of "Reputation Required". I can't accept this Mission until I've successfully completed some other Patron Mission on this world. I may decide to pay a Story Point to waive that, given that I've done a Mission for the Fellowship of Temporal Philosophers on another world. The mission is available on a wider Time Frame, valid until Turn 13, so I might not have to spend it if I do the less sexy Creon mission first.

Later, while Exploring, Moreva learns that Cerberus Alarm Systems needs someone to Protect their Corporate VIP on a planned negotiations with a band of Skulker Brigands that have been giving them trouble.  Right up our alley, but unfortunately this job also Requires a Reputation. It's on an open-ended unlimited Time Frame, thankfully.

2.4 Assign Equipment: - As a reward for sticking around when he was sorely tempted to stay on the other planet, the crew gives Leonidas the new Glare Sword.

2.5 Resolve Rumors: - When I get to this step, I remember that we actually had a Quest chain start off at this step in the previous Turn, and I never really rolled up anything more about it than a random name. I'll roll up the first Quest Mission now:

We'd extracted a data file from the files in the Cultist compound that had been infiltrated by Q'narr's Blood Storm Mercs. The data talks about something called "The Xanthous Soul from the 5th Dimension". That fancy name is random nonsense I rolled up here... I mean, it's a totally legit meaningful Quest. That's it.

Quest Mission 1:  Objective: Search (Put a token on each medium or large terrain feature. A character in contact with, inside, or on the feature may search it as a Combat Action. Roll 1D6. A 5+ finds what you were looking for, and you Win. If the roll fails at every location, the item is not on the battlefield, and the mission cannot be Won. If you drive the enemy away, simply add up the remaining features and roll the dice all at once to see if the item was here.)   Deployment Condition: Poor visibility (Maximum visibility is 1D6+8”. Reroll at the start of each round.)  Enemy: Interested Parties: Corporate Security.


2.6 Choose Your Battle -  Rolled a 3, so neither of our 2 Rivals on this planet harass us just yet.

I'm hoping to launch into a Salvage Mission soon, but clearly the right call this Turn is to take Edmark Creon III up on his Job offer. If we can successfully complete it, it will open the door to the other Patron Missions available to us.


Job Description:
1. Potential Patron:  Edmark Creon III  Type: Wealthy Individual B5+ H8+ C8+   Benefits: not this time   Danger Pay: +1 Credit,   Time Frame: Turn 11 Only   Hazard: Low Priority (Reduce Enemy force numbers by -1.)   Condition: One-time Contract (This Patron cannot be retained as a contact.)    Enemy: Hired Muscle: Black Dragon Mercs

 
Battle:

Planetary Condition: - Planet-Wide Fog - All shots beyond 8" are -1 to Hit.

Notable Sights:  Shiny bits: Gain 1 credit.

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: - Black Dragon Mercs

Numbers: +1 (adjusted to +0 because of Low Priority mission hazard status)   Panic:1-2     Speed: 5”     Combat: +1     Tough: 5     AI: Tactical  

Hired Muscle: PCs are -1 to any attempt to Seize the Initiative.
Stubborn: They ignore the first casualty of the battle when making a Morale check.

2 regulars with Military Rifles , 1 specialists with Fury Rifle,  and 1 LT w/ Military Rifle + Blade


Deployment: We set up in the South, aiming to exit off the North end.
There's a bunch of water on the map, so wading through that will be difficult terrain. We'll assume the walkways are elevated on posts and pylons and have a railing on them. Anyone on or behind them is in cover against shots coming across. Climbing up on to a walkway from anywhere but a stairs will cost 2 inches (which is pretty cheap, actually, given that you're probably getting close to an inch of forward movement as well as the height boost).

Enemy sets up in the North. There's only 4 of them, and Tactical AI says to split them up into 3 teams. It also says they try to stay close to friendly figures, so I consider only splitting them into 2 teams of 2, which seems smarter. Then I remember my goal is to get past them, so it's more of a challenge if they're covering their entire table edge.

Green arrows are PC movement. Red arrows are Enemies maneuvering. The orange arrow is Enemy reinforcement that shows up after Round 2.  Note that the Sniper on top of the dome, and the warbot near the top show up mid-game, not at the start of the fight.

Round 1: -

Seize the Initiative:  Moreva's 3 in Savvy is enough to get the jump on them. (Rolled an 11 on 2d6+3-1.)

Quick Actions - Great initiative roll. All but 1 of my characters can advance. The Kid shoots, but misses because of the Planet-Wide Fog. Inshubur can't get a clear line of fire because of the bench on the platform by the western dome. H'Xex jump-belts forward the central ruin, and despite the fog manages to hit the Fury gunner, but only stuns him.

Enemy Actions - Fury gunner misses H'Xex, but the LT manages to stun him. Black Dragon regular advances on the west, and the one in the east shoots at the Kid but misses.

Slow Actions - Leonidas moves forward, and takes a shot at at the enemy LT. Despite the fog, and the intervening cover from the walkway, he gets a lucky roll and the Enemy LT goes down.

Panic Test - Because they are Stubborn, they fight on.

Enemy Ploy on a "1". It is triggered, so I roll on the Ploy table from the "Tricks and Guns" PDF (I got it through the game designer's patreon).  SNIPER!!! A new enemy with a Marksman's rifle is placed on top of the tallest piece of cover that no PCs are near. He's laying flat on the hex-frame of the northeast dome. The sniper's got special rules for morale.


Round 2: -

Quick - Another solid initiative roll. Inshubur advances around the west side. She shoots a Merc, but just stuns them and sends them over a railing.

L, K, and J all fire on the Sniper. Even with two of them Aiming, it still takes all three to shake the sniper loose. We score a single hit, and it's enough.

Enemy - The villains settle in to cover and open fire, but all miss. The fog makes long range shots pretty unreliable.

Slow - H'Xex shakes off his stun and gets into cover.

Panic Test - I roll a "3", so they hold firm.

Roll for Battle Events between Round 2 and 3 - "Enemy VIP: A Unique Individual immediately joins the enemy force. Place them on the center of their battlefield edge."  They've got a state-of-the-art Mark II Security Bot!

Numbers: +1 (adjusted to +0 because of Low Priority mission hazard status)   Panic: Fearless     Speed: 4”     Combat: +2     Tough: 5     AI: Guardian    
Targeting AI: May fire twice per round at the two closest visible targets. If only one target is visible, only one shot is taken.
Robot Body: 6+ Saving Throw.


Round 3: -

Quick - Juniper aims and lines up a shot with the bipod on her Plasma Rifle. She takes out the Fury gunner.  Inshubur also gets a lucky shot that frees up the western edge of the map

Enemy - The last Black Dragon Merc fires at the Kid and misses. The Security Bot heads towards the Merc to team up and Guard him. It takes 2 shots with its Fury Rifle (one at L, one at K) but both miss.

Slow - Moreva shoots at the bot, but misses due to fog. The Kid shoots at the last Merc, and kills him. H'Xex jump-belts up to the Bot and breaks it into pieces with his Shatter Axe.


Analysis: 

 The Planet-Wide Fog definitely made the fight a little longer, but ultimately my team has enough skill and equipment to overcome it. The Black Dragon Mercs did not, even with Aiming and Fury Rifles. We did miss more than normal, but still hit more often than the enemies.

The Sniper Ploy sounded scarier than it played out. The Ploy mechanic is cool overall, but it feels like maybe it needs to be a little more aggro to get the intended effect. At least in the case of the Sniper, it feels like they should shoot immediately upon be placed on the map. Instead, it follows the usual timing rules, which meant with a half-way decent Initiative roll you're likely to get half your crew shooting at it before the sniper acts. That seems backwards from the standard sniper narrative. I did get a good initiative roll that turn, but since Ploys are a mechanic you add mid-campaign as a way to boost difficulty, it seems likely that you'll usually have strong Reactions on several crewman by then. I pointed this out to the designer on his Discord. Since the current Ploy mechanics are playtest/patreon, not final version, who knows? Maybe we'll end up with something a little nastier when they officially see print? That would be cool.

There are some other optional rules (in the playtest files on patreon or discord) that I could use to enhance difficulty, and I think I will start utilizing those (especially the "Hit Me Harder" option) with the next mission.

My Bad: I didn't figure this out until after the battle, but I was actually playing the Merc's "Tactical AI" incorrectly. The wording is pretty subtle, but it turns out the statement "If they have a clear shot and are in Cover, they will remain in place to Aim" has a precise meaning for 'clear shot' in that context. For them to sit still requires both themselves in cover and the enemy to NOT be in cover. So the ones on the west and east flanks should have moved around more, instead of holding still and firing. It makes their behavior a bit more involved than Cautious or Defensive AI.  I'll have to remember that for next time I'm up against Tactical AI. I'd been using a cheat-sheet that just paraphrased the rulebook, which made it even obscured.  It's hard to say if doing this right would have made the mission harder or easier, it's probably a wash. Aiming gave them better odds to hit, but they never managed to land a wounding blow so it didn't really benefit them. Getting closer might have changed who their targets were, or eliminated the planet-wide fog penalty.


Post-Battle:

4.1 Resolve Rival Status: - I rolled high, so they do not become Rivals.

4.2 Resolve Patron Status: - This is a One-Time Contract, so I do NOT get to add the Wealthy Individual to my Patron list. It does however contribute to my "Reputation Required" Missions being unlocked on this world, so that's good.

4.3 Determine Quest Progress: - N/A

4.4 Get Paid and Benefits of Success: -  5 credits total (3 for winning, +1 for Danger pay, +1 from Notable Sight)

Planetary Condition - Booming Economy - When rolling for post-battle credit rewards, any 1 on the dice are rerolled until it shows a score other than a 1.

For notable sights that are unclaimed during the battle itself, I have a special house rule I use, where each surviving character can roll 1d6+Savvy, and if any of them get a 6+, we get the notable sight. That way, it's not 100% guaranteed if I ignore it to focus on the fighting. I took the gamble this time, and won.

4.5 Battlefield Finds: - My fourth dose of the consumable "Still". I always forget I have these. Still gives you a bonus for shooting, but costs you your movement. It's actually probably worth using on this foggy world.

4.6 Check for Invasion!: - N/A

4.7 Gather the Loot: - On the body of the Sniper, we find a Tracker Sight: "+1 to Hit if you fired at the same target during your previous round."

4.8 Determine Injuries and Recovery: - No one was KO'd.

4.9 Experience and Character Upgrades:  G.0 H.4 I.3 J.3 K.4 L.4 M.3   - First Kill: L    Rookie: K   Unique: H

Laboring in this thick atmosphere does a lot to toughen you up. Inshubur raises her Toughness to 4. Juniper cashes in one of our two single-use Instruction Books to get the final XP she needs to raise Toughness to 5.

The Kid continues to practice his quick-draw, raising his Reactions to a 4.

4.10 Invest in Advanced Training: - Some of these are really starting to look interesting. Soon.

4.11 Purchase Items: -  I sell a handgun, a shotgun, and a military rifle, for 1 credit each.  This brings our total to 34 credits.

Time to invest in a Starship Modification. We install a Shuttle and corresponding launch bay.  This will help with starship travel and escaping planetary invasions. Those are both pretty rare, so I mostly got it so that I can drop a shuttle onto the map during deployment. I sometimes struggle for how and where to set up my minis during the game. Deploying them in a way that's really tactical feels like easy mode and kind of against the spirit of the Seize the Initiative rules, so I've been considering placing my shuttle on the map at the start of each Mission, and deploying my people within a few inches of it. That seems like a good compromise, a thematic win that also helps keep me from making too much progress on Round 1 of a fight. The shuttle costs 15 credits, leaving me with 19 in my stash.


4.12 Campaign Event: - The sector news networks are awash with rumors of war. While you remain on this planet, any roll for Invasion is at +2.  (Suddenly, just like that, I'm feeling real good about buying that evac shuttle.)

4.13 Character Event: -  Juniper has had time to reflect on her adventures. Earns +1 XP.

4.14 Check for Galactic War Progress: - N/A

4.15 Tick Story Clock: - 1 (currently on track for the next Story encounter on Turn 13)

 

Five Parsecs, Mission 10, Story Track 2

This is a step-by-step breakdown of the tenth Campaign Turn and Mission in my Five Parsecs From Home campaign. 

This Turn my Crew is tackling Story Track Event #2. Much like the previous Turn, this battle is pretty epic. There's a ton of super aggressive mercenaries, with heavy weapon support.

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: - not yet, but soon

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. - not this time

2.1 Upkeep and Ship Repairs: -
Crew Upkeep - 1    Ship Debt - 0    Ship Repairs - 0    Medical Care - 0

2.2 Assign and Resolve Crew Tasks: -

Because of the Story Track, this Turn I cannot Track Rivals. Any encounter I do have is assumed to be related to the Story Track, regardless of if it's a Patron Job, Rival attack, etc. There's a old friend-turned-enemy, named Q'narr, who has hired the Blood Storm Mercenaries to get even with me.

Find a Patron -     Train - J    Trade - H, K    Recruit -    Explore - I, M    Track - Not Allowed    Repair Your Kit -     Decoy - L, G

Noteworthy results from Tasks: - Juniper trains Combat Skill to 3.

Trades get us a shotgun and a rumor (this is our 2nd rumor).

Explore gets us a rumor, and an information broker who sells up to 3 rumors for 2 each, but since I'm now at 3 I decide not to buy more.


2.3 Determine Job Offers: - I have a pre-existing Patron job. Whatever we do this Turn is now modified by the Story Track.

2.4 Assign Equipment: - No changes.

2.5 Resolve Rumors: - I rolled a "3", so we get a new Quest.  I roll a random name for it on a weird little Quest Item Name Table I've created, and I get: "The Xanthous Soul from the 5th Dimension".

2.6 Choose Your Battle / Job Description:
It's my last chance to go after the Menrva Bail Bonds job that the Cultist Rivals kept me from pursuing last turn.   - Menrva Bail Bonds calls us up with a Bounty.  Danger Pay: +1 Credit    Time Frame: Turn 8-10   Active Benefits: Provides a Rumor when I succeed.  Active Condition: Busy,  If the Mission is a success, the Patron offers a new job automatically next Turn.  Objective:  Secure - You must end 2 consecutive rounds with crew within 2” of the center of the table. A crew member with an enemy within 6” of them does not count. Once this is achieved, you Win. If you drive off the opposition, you can complete the objective at your leisure. Deployment Condition: Delayed: 2 random crew members won’t start on the table. At the end of each round, roll 1D6: If the roll is equal or below the round number, they may be placed at any point of your own battlefield edge.  Notable Sights: Really Shiny Bits: 2 credits, at 8" to the SouthEast.


However, that is now modified per the Story Track. I'm on Mission #2 of the Story Track, which reads in part: "If you pick up a Patron job this campaign turn, it’s assumed to be a job you took on to get closer to your quarry. If you get attacked by Rivals, they are attacking you en route. ...  Fight a standard battle against Blood Storm Mercs from the Hired Muscle Subtable. All normal rules apply, but minimum encounter size will be 4, even if the dice would otherwise indicate a smaller force.  ...  If you manage to defeat a mercenary by Brawling, you have captured him and can interrogate them for information. Add +1 story point."

Battle:

Deployment Conditions:  - Delayed: 2 random crew members won’t start on the table. At the end of each round, roll 1D6: If the roll is equal or below the round number, they may be placed at any point of your own battlefield edge.

Notable Sights:  - Really Shiny Bits: 2 credits, at 8" to the SouthEast. .

Objective: -  Secure - You must end 2 consecutive rounds with crew within 2” of the center of the table. A crew member with an enemy within 6” of them does not count. Once this is achieved, you Win. If you drive off the opposition, you can complete the objective at your leisure.


Enemy Type: - Hired Muscle. Sub-Type: Blood Storm Mercs

Outlawed in many systems, the Blood Storm merc company are cold-blooded killers. They will take any assignment that doesn’t involve an excessive amount of warcrimes.

Numbers: - +0 (but Minimum Encounter Size this Turn is 4)   Panic: 1     Speed: 4”     Combat: +1     Tough: 4     AI: A     Weapons: 2B

2 regulars with Hand Laser + Blade, 1 specialist with Rattlegun + Blade,  1 LT. w/ Hand Laser and Blade   

+ Unique: Enemy Bruiser  A particularly unpleasant-looking individual.  Panic: Fearless     Speed: 4”     Combat: +1     Tough: 5     AI: G     Weapons: Power Claw

Hired Muscle: Being paid professionals, you are -1 to any attempt to Seize the Initiative.

Ferocious: +1 to Brawling rolls when Blood Storm Mercs are initiating combat.

Mostly short range weapons, but the Rattle Gun's dangerous across most the table.

Initial Deployment - Mission 10 (Story Track Event #2)

Deploy: We are infiltrating the Cult Compound, which is a huge manor-like building. What we don't know is that it's a set up. Inshubur's old friend Q'narr has a team of Blood Storm Mercs hidden inside the manor. These Blood Storm Mercs are bad mamma-jamma's.

In our previous run-in with the cult, Moreva was recognized at a distance and everything went pear-shaped real quick. So as we approach the manor, she and The Kid stay a long distance back. (Mechanically, they are Delayed for the first few Rounds.)

To keep things simple, I only loaded the ground-level of the map. (It's a map I had from a D&D game I've been running, and just added a few computer screens, holograms, and technological devices.) H'Xex's jump belt only allows him to go 3" above the table, so we'll assume the upper floors are taller than that. The AI in 5 Parsecs is straight-forward enough, the Enemy won't go upstairs if I don't.


Round 1: -

Seize the Initiative: Is at -1 against Hired Guns, but that's canceled by the +1 for being outnumbered (a resulted of the Delayed Deployment). Our total is a 7, so we don't seize it.

Quick Actions - Inshubur approaches the manor.

Enemy Actions - The aggressive Blood Storm Mercs won't sit quiet in manor and wait for us to come to them, so they start moving across the courtyard in a hurry, trying to get to the closest PC.

Slow Actions - Leonidas and Juniper follow the Captain. H'Xex jump-belts along the side of the building and makes as much noise as he can in an effort to lure the Mercs away from our main objective.
 

Red lines are Enemy movements, Red X's are where they died. Blue/Green/Yellow lines are PC movements. (Blue is JumpBelt use, Yellow is characters delayed until later entry.) Question Marks indicate PCs that went missing. This was a pretty dynamic battle.

Panic Test - None.

Enemy Ploy on a "1" - I'm using the Enemy Ploys from the Guns and Tricks supplement for the first time ever. At the end of Turn 1, it has a 1 in 6 chance of triggering a Ploy, and I rolled a 1.  That triggers a roll on the Ploy table, which is a "100" so their ploy is Reinforcements.  3 more Mercs are deeper inside the building, one of them with a rattlegun. This means I won't roll for ploys in future Rounds, but it does also reduce their Panic Range from 1 to 0. Unless something else changes it, all the Blood Storm Mercs are now Fearless. And they outnumber me 2-to-1 now.  Not a single shot fired, and it's only the first round, but things look pretty dire already.

Delayed resolves on a "1" - I rolled a 2, so Moreva and The Kid are still delayed off map somewhere.


Round 2: -

Quick - Inshubur swings out wider from the building, and H'Xex continues in the other direction to distract the enemy.

Enemy - They can't get LOS to any targets, so most of the Blood Storm Mercs head towards H'Xex's distraction. One of them, however, is actually closer to Inshubur and him, and so goes that direction. The diversion is working.

Slow - Leonidas and Juniper head north. J doesn't Dash because she's lurking by a window where she might get a shot at Mercs inside the building next turn.

Roll for Battle Events between Round 2 and 3 - Looks valuable: Randomly select a crew member, then place a marker 1D6” from them in a random direction. The enemy will ignore it. If any crew member moves into contact and spends a non-Combat Action, obtain 1D3 credits.

Delayed resolves on a "1-2" - Nope, I rolled a "5". Still delayed.


Round 3: -

Quick - A really good initiative roll has 3 of my 4 characters going in the quick phase.  H'Xex moves to a window, and puts two tight clusters of shot in the head and torso of the first Merc into the room. Inshubur rushes the main gate, but completely blows what should have been a simple shot on a Merc in the open.

Juniper goes on overwatch at the front window, hoping for some lucky snapfire at any Mercs rushing H'Xex. It's a trap that wouldn't work against Cautious or Tactical AI, but the Aggressive AI of the Blood Storm Mercs means they'll rush right into the jaws of death if within 12" of a good brawl.

Enemy - The LT rushes towards H'Xex, but gets stunned by Juniper's withering plasma snapfire. The Bruiser goes over the table, and drives H'Xex back with frantic Hand Lasering of the window.

The Merc that Inshubur missed closes half the distance and returns the favor.

Slow - Since he can't get a clean shot no matter where he goes, Leonidas doubles back for the "Looks Valuable" and scores us 2 Credits.

Delayed resolves on a "1-3" - I roll a "6". Where's my back-up?


Round 4: -

Quick - Initiative is bad this turn. Only Inshubur gets to go, and only because her Reactions is a 4. She charges the Merc and they brawl. Both roll 1s, but Inshubur gets a reroll with her Elegant Boarding Saber, and wins the melee on the reroll.  So that's 2 hits on the Merc, who goes down.

Enemy - The group on the far East of the map move south, with the one in front getting a clear shot at H'Xex. He picks up a second Stun and falls back 1". The Enemy LT shakes off their stun and gets into position in a window. The Bruiser runs along side them, but doesn't have enough movement to crawl out the window and brawl H. So instead they rush to the window, fire a Hand Laser, and put the third Stun on my K'Erin crewman! This would take him out, but H'Xex spends his Luck instead, and ends up diving for cover just beneath the window where the LT is.

Unable to get LOS to H'Xex, the Rattlegunner moves across the room and opens up at Juniper. Cover and Heavy mean the manor walls eat up all 3 shots.

Slow -  Juniper returns fire, and the Rattlegunner eats plasma-heated death.  Inshubur can't quite get LOS on anyone, so instead she heads into the Manor towers to go after the Notable Sight and get ready for close quarters battle.

Here's the part where it would be really smart for H'Xex to bail with his Jump Belt. He could drop back 9" into cover. Normally, K'Erin don't get to run away, but if they are Stunned, then they are temporarily pacified and may do so (this was clarified by the game's designer on his Discord). That's what I had planned to have him do, as he'd served as a great distraction already. But then his Luck roll pushed him right up to the window, less than 1" from the enemy LT. Because he's stunned he can't crawl through the window and also Brawl, but he can stand his ground and shoot from point blank. There's 5 enemies bearing down on him, it's probably suicide, but it's in keeping with the personality, so what the hell?

2 Hits, and a "6" on one of the damage rolls, so the LT is out of the fight. Too bad the reinforcement Ploy made the baddies fearless, as I sure would love their morale to start cracking right about now.


Delayed resolves on a "1-4" - I roll a 3, so Moreva and Kid are no longer delayed. Just in the nick of time. I get to put them on the board touching my edge of the table.


Roll for Battle Events between Round 4 and 5: "99: You want me to check that out? Select a random crew member. They may opt to go check out something they insist they saw. If they do, they are removed from the battle. After the battle ends, they may roll once on the Loot table (p.131). If you opt not to go, you cannot send a different character, and the chance is lost."

I number off my characters and roll the die. Rolling H'Xex would be amazing, as it would likely save him from getting KO'd next round. Most of the characters leaving right now would actually be okay, and worth the Loot. About the only roll that would be bad would be Inshubur, as she's perfectly positioned for snagging objectives right now.

So, of course, that means I roll Inshubur.

It's a tough call, but I'm feeling like I can risk it now that backup has arrived. Inshubur drags off the captured Merc to interrogate.


Round 5: -

Quick - A good initiative roll saves H'Xex's bacon. He can't see the bruiser, and can't shoot if he moves, but he does have range to one of the other Mercs, whom he drops. Then his stun clears.

Moreva dashes. The Kid sits tight on sniper overwatch with his Infantry Laser, to fry the Bruiser if she goes out through the window.

Enemy - So I thought H'Xex was going to be okay, but that remaining Rattlegunner disagreed. She shot him twice. No longer having a target, the others move through the building.

Slow - With no opportunity for Snap Fire, The Kid advances into cover. He shoots at the Rattlegunner, but misses. Juniper crawls through the window (this takes +2" of movement, per the rulebook). Leonidas heads north.


Round 6

Quick - The Kid stuns the Rattlegunner.

Enemy - Rattlegunner is out of range, and the Kid's not the closest PC either, so they run inside. All three Mercs move closer to Juniper, but only the Bruiser is close enough to shoot. Hand Laser hits, but only stuns.

Slow - Leonidas heads to the gate. Moreva to a window. Juniper returns fire, double-stunning the bruiser.

Round 7

Quick - Juniper blasts the Bruiser. Plasma Rifles are deadly. The Kid moves up.

Enemy - The last 2 Mercs advance across the great hall. The Railgunner shoots at Juniper. It's a hail mary shot that can only hit on a 7+ (due to Cover and Heavy), but it scores 1 hit! Luckily damage roll is low and only stuns.

Slow -Moreva breaks a window and climbs in. Leonidas runs through the gate.

Round 8

Quick -Initiative bombs out. Only The Kid gets to go first. He'll hold off in hopes of snapfiring through the window.

Enemy - Hand Laser backtracks slightly to get closer to Leonidas since he's moved up. Rattlegunner stands and shoots. Both miss entirely.

Slow - Being stunned does not stop Juniper from setting the Rattlegunners head on fire with plasma. Moreva picks up the Really Shiny Bits. The Kid goes through a window, since all the adults did it first.

Leonidas kills the last Merc.


Analysis: 

This was a big crazy battle that made real good use of the terrain. Sending H'Xex as a diversion was a sound strategy, as it broke up the enemy advance and made them come into my other guns bit by bit. Assuming he doesn't die in the recovery step, it will definitely have been worth it.


Post-Battle:

4.1 Resolve Rival Status: - Rolled a 2, so there's no fallout from this fight.

4.2 Resolve Patron Status: - Menrva Bail Bonds continues as our Patron, and because of the Busy Condition offers us a new job automatically next Turn without us using a Find Patron Crew Task.

4.3 Determine Quest Progress: - n/a

4.4 Get Paid and Benefits of Success: -

Total of 8 Credits (Leonidas found a "Looks Valuable: +2 Credits", Moreva found - Really Shiny Bits: 2 credits, and Danger Pay: +1 Credit, all on top of a roll of 2, adjusted to 3 because we held the field)

Active Benefits: Provides a Rumor when I succeed.  We keep hearing mention of something called the  The Xanthous Soul from the 5th Dimension, and you can bet Inshubur will want to learn all about it.

Active Condition: Busy,  If the Mission is a success, the Patron offers a new job automatically next Turn.

Inshubur brawled a Merc and won. Per the Story Track: If you manage to defeat a mercenary by Brawling, you have captured him and can interrogate them for information. Add +1 story point. This brings me back up to 7 story points.

4.5 Battlefield Finds: - Vital info : Turn in this information to get a Corporate Patron automatically on this world.

4.6 Check for Invasion!: -n/a

4.7 Gather the Loot: -  Data Files worth 2 Rumors!

Inshubur went after a "You want me to check that out?" So we get 1 bonus Loot Check beyond normal. This becomes "Mysterious Items" worth 2 Story Points.

This bring my totals to 5 Quest Rumors and 9 Story Points.

4.8 Determine Injuries and Recovery: - I roll a "7" which means H'Xex is dead... but I just collected 3 Story Points, so naturally I spend 1. The reroll is a "30". No Turns lost in sick bay, but 1 piece of random equipment is damaged. His Combat Armor is Damaged, which is fine, as I'd forgotten he even had it, and I think I forgot to roll for it when he got hit.

4.9 Experience and Character Upgrades:  G.0 H.2 I.3 J.4 K.4 L.3 M.3   - First Kill: H    Rookie: K  Unique: J killed the Bruiser

Moreva raises her Reactions to 2.

4.10 Invest in Advanced Training: - Not yet.

4.11 Purchase Items: - None.

4.12 Campaign Event: - The life support system on the ship needs upgrading badly. Upgrading the life support system will cost 1D6 credits. The ship cannot be flown until this is paid. If your crew has an Engineer, modify the roll by -1. Moreva is an Engineer, and I rolled a 1, so that becomes a 0. Paid.

4.13 Character Event: - Juniper: You argue with the rest of the crew. During the next campaign turn, the crew member refuses to do any tasks but will participate in battle normally. Apparently, she wasn't happy about Inshubur buggering off, or Moreva and The Kid being late. Timeliness matters.

4.14 Check for Galactic War Progress: - N/A

4.15 Tick Story Clock: - Set the Clock to 2 Ticks, but the next Event cannot begin until you have traveled to a new world. Generate this as normal when you do.

 

Mission 7 (Five Parsecs From Home)

Step-by-step breakdown of the seventh Mission in my Five Parsecs From Home campaign. 

 This Turn my Crew is up against a band of K'Erin Outlaws as we close in on the final stage of our Quest for "The Strange Brain of the Skulker".

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:
. Flee Invasion: - n/a
. Decide Whether to Travel: - not yet
. Starship Travel Event: - n/a
. New World Arrival Steps: -n/a
. Gain 1 story point if it's turn 3, 6, 9, 12, 15, 18, etc. - Not this Turn

. Upkeep and Ship Repairs: - Crew Upkeep -2
    Ship Debt -0
    Ship Repairs -0
    Medical Care -0

. Assign and Resolve Crew Tasks: -
    Train -J
    Trade -H,K
    Explore -I,L
    Repair Your Kit -M
    Decoy - G

Noteworthy results from Tasks: - Juniper gains her first point of Luck.  H'Xex trades for Bipod.  Kid trades for Stim-pack. Arms Dealer takes Leonidas money but just gives him a Military Rifle that's not as good as his Plasma Gun. Inshubur trades for Basic Supplies.


. Determine Job Offers: - Going after the big Quest Finale. The Strange Brain of the Skulker shall be ours!

. Assign Equipment: - H'Xex gets Concealed Blade. Leonidas gets Seeker sight. Juniper gets Bipod.

. Resolve Rumors: - n/a



 
Battle:

Deployment Conditions:  - Toxic environment: Whenever a combatant is Stunned, roll 1D6+Savvy skill (0 for enemies). Failure to roll a 4+ becomes a casualty.

Criminal Element: When setting up, roll 1D6. If the score is 1-3, that many bonus credits will be paid out if you Hold the Field after the battle. Career criminals also tend to get even.

Notable Sights:  - Really shiny bits: Gain 2 credits. 13" NW of center.

Objective: - Straight-up Fight.


Enemy Type: - Criminal Elements   Subtype: K'Erin Outlaws

Very similar to the gang we fought in Turn 5, but somewhat better Equipped.

Numbers: +1    Panic: Fearless!     Speed: 4”     Combat: +1     Tough: 4     AI: A     Weapons: 2A

4 regulars with Infantry Lasers + Blade, 1 specialists with Hand Gun & Ripper Sword ,  1 LT. w/ Infantry Laser + Blade

and one Unique Individual:  K'Erin Warrior   Sp 5"  CS +2 T5 AI A  L1  Machine Pistol, Ripper Sword.  Let's name him Warlord Girt B'Lilu.

Deploy: Because of the toxic environment, I set up the map with grody pools of chemicals, and piles of scrap, like it's a contaminated industrial junkyard.  The small piles of scrap provide cover but don't block LOS. The larger cylinders do block LOS. The horizontal sheets of corrugated steel on the map are functionally just bridges across the muck, and provide no cover at all. Toxic environment: Whenever a combatant is Stunned, roll 1D6+Savvy skill (0 for enemies). Failure to roll a 4+ becomes a casualty.

These K'Erin Outlaws are aggressive, so they start in one large cluster and want to rush me, but they also have long-range weapons so they benefit from getting a turn or two of pot shots from outside my range. So there's no clear cut best place for them to deploy. Their side of the board is sort of divided into 3 areas by the toxic pools, so I rolled a d3 to decide.  To make the Unique Individual K'Erin Warrior feel more unique and independant (and to make the battle a little more complex) I rolled his starting position separately. So the main group is in the SouthEast corner, and he's scouting in the NorthEast corner trying to flank us.

On the map above, the red arrows are the movements of the K'Erin Outlaws. The green arrows are the movements of my crew. The blue arrows are the movements of one particular crewman, H'Xex, who has a jump belt that allows him to leap right over the toxic pools and most blocking terrain obstacles. The purple arrows are for some nasty critters that crawled up out of the muck between turns 4 and 5 due to a battlefield event.

Sieze the Initiative: Successful. The Kid shoots and misses, everyone else just gets into better position on the cover. H'Xex moves laterally, as I realize I might need him to go for the notable sight or to intercept the Warlord Girt B'Lilu.

Round 1: - K aims and still misses Warlord Girt B'Lilu.

The Warlord isn't in range of his pistol, so he dashes forward, advancing into cover. The Ripper Sword Specialist is way out of range, so Dashes forward as well. The others split up and spread out, as moving in a clump would cause them to block each other's line of fire. 4 of 5 shots miss, but one of lasers Juniper and she has to spend her Luck to survive. Since she spent Luck she's not Stunned, so she doesn't test for the toxic environment.

Leonidas shoots the Warlord. Girt spends his Luck to survive, and dives 5" NorthWest. It does leave him out in the open, but also got them basically a full movement closer to a target, so it's both good and bad.  (Edit: I just noticed I marked this wrong when I recreated the map, above. I think the text is correct, and the red arrow at the top is in error. The arrow should have moved NW, not W followed by NE. That's what I get for playing one day, drawing the arrows on a different day then I extracted the text out of my notepad on a third day.)

Feeling vulnerable on her pile of scrap, and out of range of her own gun, J dashes forward to the LOS-blocking larger hunks of metal.  Inshubur still has Luck, so she just sits tight.

Moreva and The Kid both shoot at the Warlord. M misses. K hits but only stuns. The Warlord makes his roll to not succumb to the Toxic Environment.

H'Xex jumps to the Notable Sight, and picks it up instead of shooting as the Warlord is just outside his Shotgun's range. The Notable Sight is on some jagged scrap in the middle of the toxic pools. Officially, that has no effect, but I think Jump-Belting to it should be a little dangerous. I have him make a roll for Toxic Environment as if he'd been stunned, but with a +1 bonus to the roll since it's just me arbitrarily imposing danger for the sake of realism.  He barely survives, had I not decided before the roll to give him the +1 it would have taken him out.


Round 2: -  I've got 3 characters acting in Quick Actions phase. The Kid shoots the Warlord, giving him a second stun. Girt saves vs the Environment again. H'Xex jumps closer to him, risking being in the open to get into shotgun range. He scores two hits, one doing enough damage to kill on it own, and the other putting a third stun marker and knocks him off the edge of the map, so the Warlord is at least double-eliminated. This raises the question of what happens when a model is knocked off the edge of the map? There's no rule for it, so I'm inclined to say that you just stop your movement on the map, and resolve that I will avoid intentionally abusing that. No creeping along the edge of the map so that I can't be knocked back by stuns, for example.

The rest of the K'Erin advance, and take long-range pot shots, all of which miss. Only the ripper sword specialist dashes, which brings him into Inshubur's LOS, but her plasma shots bounce off his cover.

L and M cannot get into range without both dashing and leaving themselves out in the open, so they just sit tight. J peeks out from around the cover and kills the enemy Lieutenant.

Battle Event between Round 2 and 3 -  Ammo fault: Select a random figure in your crew. If they fired a weapon last round, it cannot be used for the rest of the battle. If they did not, select a random carried weapon, which can be fired only once this battle. This effects Moreva. She did not fire in Round 2, so I flip a coin for which of her two guns can only be used once. Her hand-gun "wins" the flip, which is a lucky break for me. as she'll only need to use it if the enemy makes it all the way to brawling range.

Round 3: - As this is a Quest Finale, the enemy are Fearless and ignore their loses.

J kills the Ripper Sword Specialist. The only surviving K'Erin in that southern group stands over the body of his fallen friend, and shoots Juniper. Despite cover and a Flak Vest, she becomes a casualty. Guess she shot the wrong K'Erin! The rest of the K'Erin shoot at Inshubur, but all of them miss.

Inshubur misses, and most of my other characters continue to sit tight in cover.  The Kid clambers out onto the scaffolding over the toxic muck.

Round 4: - My initiative roll sucks, so the K'Erin advance firing. They miss Inshubur repeatedly, but one of them can't see her because of his comrades getting in the way. I look to see if there's another possible target from where he ended up, and sure enough, there's a potential shot against where Leonidas is in cover. Two 6's later, and Leonidas is out of action.  This is starting to look bad. I've won most of my previous battles without casualty, but my poor deployment choices and the K'Erin's extreme range lasers are making this fight exciting in a way that I haven't seen since the first mission of the campaign. Sucks for my team, even if it is a lot of fun for me.

From his position on the makeshift bridge, K takes an extreme-range shot with their laser, and eliminates the K'Erin that just shot his friend Juniper.  I moves forward to get into range, taking cover behind the rocky ridge. Unfortunately, both of her shots miss. Aware of their mortality, and out of range, H stays behind the blocking terrain, and M ducks behind some as well.


Battle Event between Round 4 and 5:  Critters! Place 1D3 Vent Crawlers (p.102) in the center of the table, and move each of them 1D6” in a random direction. At the beginning of the Enemy Actions phase, they will move towards the nearest figure and attack, regardless of which side the figure is on. If you are already fighting Vent Crawlers, this is bad news, as they are of course part of the enemy brood.

After random deployment, one of the three vent crawlers is in position to go after the K'Erin, but the other two are heading towards my PCs. This was already an exciting battle, and now it just got real scary.

Round 5: -  The tension spike from the Vent Crawlers resolves very quickly. Moreva climbs back up to her prior perch on the cylinder pile, and blasts a Vent Crawler into nothingness. Inshubur also falls back to her previous cover spot, and likewise kills a Vent Crawler.

The remaining Vent Crawler is closer to the K'Erin Outlaws than to my team, so it rushes them. However, it's just a smidge too far away to get to attack them. From such close range, the lead K'Erin burns a laser-hole in its carapace. The toxic environment does the rest.

This leaves 2 K'Erin to act. One advances behind cover and shoots at Inshubur. Her Luck saves her, but she has to dive 5" to the SouthEast to survive.  The other K'Erin fires at Moreva, and misses.

H'Xex jumps over the cylinder and a toxin pool, and opens up with his shotgun, but misses with both shots.

The Kid picks his way across the makeshift bridge, but can't line up a shot.

Round 6: - Inshubur moves to where Juniper fell. She cracks off a shot at the K'Erin, but it ricochets off a piece of intervening scrap and misses. The K'Erin returns fire just as ineffectively.

The other two go after H'Xex since he's closer. The laser of the closer one fails to penetrate the cover that H'Xex is in. The second K'Erin moves wider and leaves himself out in the open to get a clearer shot. It hits, and stuns, and K'Erin fails his Savvy test vs the Toxic Environment. This time, however, I remember I have Story Points, so I spend one to reroll the Savvy test. The reroll saves him.  H'Xex does get dunked in the toxic sludge, but he manages to keep his head above the goo, and his gasmask prevents the fumes from knocking him out.

Round 7: - I get a single "1" on my Initiative roll. Crap. I plan to activate H'Xex, and then realize that he's kind of stuck. He's stunned, so he can either move or attack, not both. But as a K'Erin, if he starts his activation within charging distance he has to move to attack them. If I don't activate him, they won't charge him because his Combat Skill is higher than theirs. So instead they'd shoot him from point blank, which probably means my story point to save him was a waste.  That's potentially a painful learning experience.

Looks like my best bet is to have Moreva aim and fire at one of the baddies that's going after him. She gets a lucky hit and high damage, dropping the villain closest to H'Xex.

The next one in line runs past his fallen comrade and burns H'Xex from up close. It only stuns, but H'Xex fails his environment toxin roll. I'm tempted to double-down on the Story Points, but since it would at best be a 50% chance to leave him in the same crappy situation he was in at the start of this turn, I decide to just let him fall.

The other K'Erin fires at Moreva and misses. The Kid picks him off immediately thereafter.

Inshubur advances behind the ridge and shoots at the last K'Erin, but sadly misses.

Round 7: - Moreva goes on overwatch. Inshubur advances and fires again. She hits, but rolls low on damage. The final enemy is stunned, but makes his roll vs the toxic environment.

He fires back, but misses due to the cover of the ridge I is sheltered behind. Since he doesn't move, Moreva is unable to use her overwatch. She's up high and in cover, so I leave her there instead of moving her during the slow actions phase.

K gets back on solid ground and advances behind cover.

Round 8: -  Inshubur acts first, and kills the last enemy.


Analysis: - Quest finales are no joke! This is the longest 5 Parsecs From Home mission I've ever played, largely because the quest made the NPCs Fearless. It was also the most exciting and dangerous, due to the combination of long range weaponry, toxic environment, and the mid-battle vent-crawler ambush.

That said, if I'd remembered I had Story Points and Stars Of The Show cards in the early turns when Juniper and Leonidas were in peril, it potentially might have been a much easier battle. Still, it's good to see that the solitaire game still has the ability to punish strategic mistakes, even after my crew has accumulated lots of Armor, Luck, and Combat Skill.

Overall, this was my most exciting and enjoyable game of 5 Parsecs thus far.


Post-Battle:

4.1 Resolve Rival Status: - Career criminals tend to get even.  I add the B'Lilu Gang to my list of Rivals on this planet.  Aceso Menrva is starting to heat up.

4.2 Resolve Patron Status: - n/a

4.3 Determine Quest Progress: - Yes! I have finished the finale!

4.4 Get Paid and Benefits of Success: -  6 Credits, plus H'Xex got the Really shiny bits:  2 credits. Total of +8 credits.

4.5 Battlefield Finds: -  An infantry laser and a blade.

4.6 Check for Invasion!: - n/a

4.7 Gather the Loot: -  Damaged Camo Cloak,  Damaged Communicator,   Teach-Bot,  Unity Battle Sight.   The Sight we take off the corpse of the war lord. The teach-bot is actually The Strange Brain of the Skulker itself. The two damaged items are things Moreva found in the junkyard while ducking for cover.

4.8 Determine Injuries and Recovery: -  I need to be more mindful of my options, and not just accept situations. I forgot that I had Story Points to spend to keep J & L in the action.  I also forgot I had a Stim-Pack that could have turned a KO into a stun.  Then I forgot that I had a nano-doc that cancels a post-battle injury roll until I'd already rolled a "Death or permanent injury" result for Juniper. So I spend my "Looked Worse Than It Was" card from the "Stars of the Show" deck to save her. That's a one-time-per-Campaign card, so I need to be more mindful next time.  I then spend the Nano-Doc so that I can skip rolling at all for H'Xex. That leaves a random roll for Leonidas... and luckily, he just gets "Knocked Out, no long-term effect". So several resources are burned, but all my characters survive and recover before the next mission.

4.9 Experience and Character Upgrades:  G.0 H.5 I.3 J.1 K.4 L.1 M.3   - First Kill: - H    Rookie: K  Unique: H (for downing Warlord Girt)

H'Xex bought a point of Luck, The Kid bought a point of Speed, Moreva bought a point of Combat Skill.

4.10 Invest in Advanced Training: - none

4.11 Purchase Items: - We add a Cargo Bay to the Rhapsody of Inanna (our spaceship). This takes 15 of our 18 credits, so it's a little risky, but I really want to able to explore the universe (for purely thematic / narrative reasons), and having a way to recoup expenses when I do so seems critical to making that a viable playstyle.

4.12 Campaign Event: - An alien merchant offers a random item, but we just spent nearly everything improving our ship, so we turn him down.

4.13 Character Event: - Leonidas is working on the installation of the atmospheric regulator of the cargo module, and a pressurization blowback pops a gasket and the blast cracks 2 of his ribs. L has to spend next turn in the Sick Bay, and the ship takes 1 point of damage to its environmental system. He was already having misgivings about the notion of leaving the planet of his birth, and this just solidifies those feelings. "Maybe I'm just not meant for outer space."

4.14 Check for Galactic War Progress: - n/a

4.15 Tick Story Clock: - 2

5 Parsecs Console

 I figured that if I'm playing this much Five Parsecs From Home, I might as well fancy-up the landing page for the campaign on Roll20. Didn't last more than a couple minutes before the Chief Engineer spilled engine oil all over the consoles. 

 

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.