1st Session of Feng Shui 2 - off to a solid start

Our first session of Feng Shui 2 went well! We started with basically the intro scenario from the rulebook. Using any "canned adventure" is pretty rare for me, but I wanted to make sure I had a good feel on fight dynamics before I start really tweaking things. I did rewrite the third encounter significantly, and we're already integrating little twists from the PC's various melodramatic hooks.

Everyone had a ton of fun and we were all impressed at how easily even a giant 25-character fight just zipped right along. The game engine is robust, elegant, and mostly intuitive. (I will also take a bit of the credit for it running so well, because I did a lot of custom-tuning of the Roll20 character sheet before the first session so that die rolls were automated and included reminders of relevant schticks.)

The 5 PCs we've got are a ton of fun:

• Xiong Weisheng is a Transformed Dragon, whose parents are big-deal badguys (probably Ascended) with their fingers in everything.
• Ruby Chase is a Driver with a criminal past she's trying to leave behind her.
• Myrtle Haney is a Drifter from 1850 - she's an actual Old West gunslinger type, trying to find her father or the gang of black hats who might have done him in.
• Thiegaro is a very fishy Supernatural Creature. Myrtle found him in her travels, and is the only person so far who can translate his fishy gurgles. Thiegaro is basically the Creature from the Black Lagoon, but with the personality and conversation skills of Chewbacca.
• Benjamin Dixon is a Ghost of a former policeman. 90% John McClane, 10% Kevin from Home Alone. He sacrificed himself to save a building full of civilians in the famous Christmas Massacre in 1987. Now, in 2021, he was finally set free when the city bought and developed the cursed property and turned into the new community center. (Which then got attacked by terrorists within minutes, because movie-logic.)
  

We swapped out a few Schticks and Skills that didn't match with character concepts:

Thiegaro being able to become a human seemed to go against the intended roleplaying challenge of "Chewbacca from the Black Lagoon":

• We swapped out "Transformation I" for "Flashback From The Hell of Knives". Meaning he can't turn into a human (or talk clearly), but he's very loyal and will mess you up if you hurt one of his friends.

Benjamin being a Ghost Cop meant the default Ghost template had a few things that didn't really work with his character concept:

• We swapped out the "Love Potion" power, in favor of the Sorcery Schtick "Exemplary Prostrations". Basically, he can flash his spectral badge, and any cops, paramedics, etc who see it forget he's a ghost and accept him as a fellow first responder for a few hours. Really helped when the HKPD arrived near the end of the opening fight.
• We swapped out the skill "Seduction" in favor of "Police" skill.
  
• We swapped out the skill "Info: Musicianship" a replaced it with "Info: Architecture".

When we were trying to decide why the cowgirl Drifter could understand the fishman, but no one else could, somebody said "what if it's like Cowboys vs Aliens, and you have some weird device on your arm that's translating for you". We realized that also solved the "we're in Hong Kong and your cowboy probably doesn't speak Chinese" problem as well, so we went with it. I'm probably going to say it has a built-in J-Meter as well, when we get to the Netherworld.

Like I said, everything went great, much fun was had, and we will be playing again in two weeks. Currently my only concern about the game has to do with Advancement. There are relatively few Creature Schticks, and two of our PCs (the fishman and the ghost) both have access to that list. The Ghost also has Sorcery powers, so if he leans into that a lot it won't be a problem, but if not, I may have to put some extra options on the Creature's list so that they don't end up too much alike after 10 or 20 sessions of play.

Ironsworn fixes Wushu, 7th Sea, etc

  Several years back, I used to play a lot of a rules-light RPG called Wushu. And two years ago, not long before the pandemic started, I was for a few months running the 2nd edition of the 7th Sea RPG. While I liked both of these games, I noticed that they had a flaw in common. (And I feel like I've played a few other indy RPG titles that had a similar flaw as well, back in the before-times when we'd get together for one-shots in Ballard every week.) 

This flaw (which I'll describe below) used to bug the crap out of me when it would manifest, but, I'm happy to say, there's a solution for it in Ironsworn, that can be relatively-easily ported over to other systems. 

The flaw in question is at times hidden, because it comes wrapped in a strength. Wushu and 7th Sea Second Ed use very light and flexible rules, with a single robust action-resolution mechanic, rather than the more fiddly mechanics and individualized monster stats of more traditional RPGs.  For the most part, that's great. Their systems are so elegant and flexible that you don't have different die-rolls for different types of actions. You're not really forced to narrate your actions in narrow ways. If we're playing a scene where the party needs to get 10 successful rolls to defeat this group of mooks and/or complete our scene goals of saving the magistrate, I get to contribute a roll toward that group goal regardless of whether I describe my action as killing a bunch of mooks, or as something more abstract and outside-the-box, such as swinging from a chandelier to escape the mooks, then rushing across the room and untying the magistrate. Not much of a problem, right? It sounds like it's all up-side. I get to narrate whatever sounds fun to me, and still chip in to the goal. On paper, that sounds great. Derring-do and narrative freedom for everyone!

Problem #1: The problem that gets entangled with it is that it's fairly common to have someone in the group who is either not goal-oriented, or not good at paying attention to how close we are to accomplishing the goal, or just not feel very inspired in this specific scene tonight. It's come up again and again with different groups. Someone will narrate their action as something that doesn't really move us closer to the goal. For example, maybe they are so focused on swinging on that chandelier that it's all they narrate for the turn or action. I swing across the room, but don't think to untie the magistrate or narrate any sort of attack against the mooks or even mention how swinging at least gets me out of their way. If this happens early in the scene, it's no big deal, but if this just happens to be the last roll we need to complete the scene goal of X successes, it's anticlimactic and a little weird. You do a totally unrelated thing, and suddenly the fight is over. There's potentially a huge disconnect between the narrative fiction and the scene progress.

Now systems like this often have some built-in advice on how to avoid this. Pay attention at the table, craft your actions and narrations to respect how close the goal is to completion, and try to avoid stating definitively how many henchmen you're fighting in the first place. All of which is good advice, but they only work if all of the following conditions are met: 

a) everyone's paying attention and no one's getting distracted between their turns, and 

b) everyone playing understands the mechanics and probabilities of the system well enough to know if this turn's roll is statistically likely to complete the goals of the scene, and

c) the dice cooperate by not giving you super rare results when you were banking on an average roll.

If any one of assumptions a, b, or c is wrong, then the flaw described above will rear-up and overturn your applecart.

Here's how Ironsworn fixes it: 

Ironsworn doesn't automatically end the fight when you've accomplished X successful rolls. Ending the fight is instead its own special Move, with the fate of the entire battle riding on it. In order to qualify to make that Move, the party has to have gotten X number of successful rolls first. 

This means goofy actions that don't really advance the narrative goal can't accidentally roll well and end the scene, at most they can unlock the ability to have someone else's next aggressive action end it.  So instead of counting down to "we win", you're counting down to "our next roll determines if we win or lose the whole thing". 

It's basically moving the goal-posts, and I feel it's surprising how well it works for being such a tiny shift. Instead of needing "10 successes to end the fight", you need "10 successes, and then one last successful roll, to end the fight." That single extra roll means you can't accidentally blunder into a win, you have to intentionally make it. This awareness will color your narration when the moment comes, and empower the person after you take some crazy big risk and narrate in an appropriately epic fashion.

Starting On The Surface (HTHAD2E House-Rule)

For the most part, I prefer the 2nd Edition of How To Host A Dungeon over the 1st edition. However, I feel one area that 2nd Edition is a little weaker than 1st Ed is in the lack of surface development. It's entirely possible to get to the end of the Age of Monsters without really having anything happening above the surface at all.

I liked how 1st Edition handled the Surface Kingdoms, but I also really love the new "Monster Group Cards" in 2nd Edition. So rather than trying to port over the fairly elaborate 1st Ed surface kingdoms rules, I'm just going to make one house-rule, that's effectively just stacking one card of the deck on Turn 1 to make sure you get something on the surface early on:

House Rule:  If the first two Monster Groups drawn in the Age of Monsters do not include a group with the Surface keyword (or the Miners group), roll 1d6 on this chart instead of drawing a random card for the 3rd group:

1. Your third group is Adventurers. In addition, add a small roadside inn or tavern to the map at the random point on the surface near where they spawn.
2. Your third group is Farmers.
3. Your third group is Knights. In addition, add a manor house or guard tower to the map at the random point on the surface near where they spawn. This building counts as "^", so it adds +1 to their Fight rolls when they are defending.
4. Your third group is Miners.
5. Your third group is Saltbury. (Feel free to give them a different name if you'd prefer.)
6. Your third group is Veterans. In addition, add the burned-out ruin of a small roadside inn or tavern to the map at the random point on the surface near where they spawn. You know how player characters love to burn things down.
   

Find the referenced surface-dwelling Group card in the deck and set it out just like you would have done with a randomly drawn Monster Group.

If you play a full game, you're likely to get a surface kingdom of some sort eventually, but depending on the situation and how late in the game they show up, they might not build anything. Starting with one increases the chance of them making a mark on the map. 

Another reason why I'm implementing this house-rule is because I really like the idea of using HTHAD maps for D&D later. In order for that to work, you have to have a reasonable way for the adventuring party to get down into the dungeon, and some reason why they would head to this region in the first place. Having some sort of village, city or even ruin on the surface is pretty important step toward making the map usable for D&D inspiration after you're done hosting. 

5 Parsecs alternate XP / Ability Increase table

Lately, I've been playing a lot of Five Parsecs From Home, and really loving it. One thing I've decided to house-rule about it is the rate of Ability Increase from XP spends. 

In my opinion, the system in the main rulebook is a little too kind to the player. It lets you unlock upgrades very fast, nearly every session. That rapid upgrade rate is great early on when your characters are using scrap pistols and pointy sticks and you need every advantage you can get. Before long, you'll end up in a situation where your team only misses on natural 1's, and after a while the play balance starts to take a hit from it. That's not in any way on knock on the game, or it's designer. Balancing co-op games is really tricky, especially when they have as much proceduraly-generated content as 5 Parsecs does. It's impossibly difficult to account for every situation that can come up in game, so you have to thread the needle between such-an-easy-cake-walk and so-hard-you're-not-having-fun-anymore. 

Fortunately, the first expansion was just released, the Trailblazers Toolkit, which has a ton of great options for adjusting difficulty as you level up. It's an amazing supplement to the game. 5 Parsecs is great right out of the main book, but this expansion goes a long way towards keeping the game exciting, fresh, and tense even repeated play with an ever-improving Crew of PCs. If you're 5 or 10 games in and starting to find it too easy, grab this expansion and adjust the knobs it provides.

Among the many optional changes the new Trailblazers Toolkit proposes is a new XP chart. This does two things.

1) it increases the cost of Reactions, Combat Skill, and Toughness by a point or two each, to slightly slow down the rate of increase in 3 of the 4 most important stats.

2) It lowers the maximum rating of most stats, so you can't get to the stage where you obliterate the opposition without trying.

These are both good changes, but I think they actually introduce a small problem for the longer-running campaign: that you can reach a point fairly quickly where all your characters have the identical maxed stats. 

Assuming you've had good luck, with relatively few long-term injuries, it only takes maybe 15 or 16 missions to get a most characters to the point where their Reactions, Combat Skill, Toughness (and Luck, if they aren't human) are all maxed out. That leaves Speed and Savvy, which have higher maximums, as the only stats you're spending on for a fairly long stretch of a campaign. There is the Advanced Training abilities, but you're limited to 1 of those per PC, and can be purchased with Credits or XP, so that's only a few more sessions tops. 

Now, this wouldn't be a problem if campaign length were intended to only be about 20 Missions or so... but it's definitely intended to go longer. Campaign Victory Conditions range from "Play 20 Campaign Turns" at the easiest benchmark, all the way up to "Win 100 Tabletop Battles", so at the longer 2/3rds of that spectrum you've hit a plateau and are basically not doing anything with XP any more. 

There's also the optional Story Track campaign narrative, which means you're unlocking the next chapter of the story in Missions 6, 10, 13, 19, 23, 24, and 27, with the possibility that events could cause that to take a little longer if you fail Missions, miss some Evidence, face an Invasion, or can't get Off-World on schedule. 

It's less than ideal if the level-up system conks out 10 or more Missions before the end of the campaign, which it currently does for most Campaign Goals.

And just to confirm that I'm not imagining a problem that doesn't exist, here's the stat bar of my Captain at the end of the 13th Mission:

Reactions 4,  Combat Skill +3,   Speed 7, Savvy 2, Toughness 4, Luck 1.

By the Trailblazer's Toolkit, she's 28 XP from maxed out, over half of which would be Savvy upgrades that she doesn't need (as I have an Engineer in my Crew with a higher Savvy than her already, and Savvy rolls happen less than once per Mission.) She'll probably hit the new (i.e.:Trailblazers Toolkit) Toughness cap after Mission 14, and Speed cap by Mission 15 or 16. 

The rest of my team is only shortly behind her, and I think they'll all hit the Trailblazers caps before Mission 20.

With that in mind, I brewed up the following alternate XP-spending chart a few weeks back  to keep the XP system working in the long-haul:

	1 (from 0 to 1)	2 (from 1 to 2)	3 (from 2 to 3)	4 (from 3 to 4)	5 (from 4 to 5)	6 (from 5 to 6)	7 (from 6 to 7)	8 (from 7 to 8)
Reactions	n/a	7	8	8	16	32	n/a	n/a
Combat Skill	7	8	8	16	32	n/a	n/a	n/a
Speed	n/a	5	5	5	5	5	8	10
Savvy	5	5	5	10	10	n/a	n/a	n/a
Toughness	n/a	6	8	8 (Engineer Max)	8	16	n/a	n/a
Luck	10	15 (Humans Only)	20 (Humans Only)	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a
	1 (from 0 to 1)	2 (from 1 to 2)	3 (from 2 to 3)	4 (from 3 to 4)	5 (from 4 to 5)	6 (from 5 to 6)	7 (from 6 to 7)	8 (from 7 to 8)

With this system, the lowest level of upgrade costs what it did in the main rules, so you usually get your first upgrade after just a mission or two, while you're still stumbling about with substandard weapons and gear. The second time you upgrade any particular stat (or if it started out above-default because of your character background), it costs what it does in the Trailblazers Toolkit. The abilities are capped at the levels established in the main book, but taking them above the cap from Trailblazers costs a premium, generally double.

The usual limits apply:  Only Humans can get Luck above 1. Engineers can't get Toughness above 4. Bots upgrade with Credits, not XP. 

The main downside of this system is that the sliding scale is harder to remember, so you'll need to refer to the chart more often. But it should keep XP meaningful for at least another dozen Missions or so. Not enough to carry you all the way to "Win 100 Battles", but enough to keep things interesting past the end of the Story Track at least. 

Another ripple-effect benefit from this chart is that the Advanced Training options seem like a comparatively better option, without adjusting their costs at all. Pilot Training's XP isn't just automatically a far-worse proposition than spending those exact same points on Savvy.

 

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)

 

Campaign Turn 9 (Five Parsecs From Home)

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

This Turn my Crew is up against Rivals who happen to be Cultists. The cultists get a ton of reinforcements during the battle events, and it's a pretty epic conflict.

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)

 

Crew Tasks: What's My Motivation?

I just had a crazy cool House-Rule / Expansion idea for Five Parsecs From Home.

What if there were twice as many possible Crew Tasks on the list, but which ones any given Crew member was willing and capable of performing were determined by their Background, Motivation, and Class. It would inject a little more roleplay into the Task system.

• He's motivated by Wealth, so he can Trade.  
• This guy grew up on a Primitive or Regressed World, so he can Explore but he can't Repair Kit or Upgrade the Ship. 
• If you're the Hacker class there's a special new Hack a Corp Mainframe action with a high-risk high-reward table otherwise something along the lines of Explore or Trade.  
• K'Erin are always happy to Decoy.  

Etc.

• You would probably want to break out Upgrade The Ship as a separate task
• Maybe do the same with Invest In Advanced Training. 
• The thing where you can look up new worlds in the Travel Step could be promoted to a Task as well: the Navigate A Route task. 
• And then add another 3 or 5 other Tasks to the master list, some with unique charts or minigames.

Captains would always have one extra Task unlocked: Recruit, so you're never locked out of getting more crew unless the Captain is in the sickbay this turn.  You might need to give Captains access to Find A Patron as well, so that you have the ability to pull a good job to get you out of a slump.

But now you're limited turn-by-turn (and sometimes by sickbay status) to what Tasks you can actually do, and you might actually have a reason for hiring on 8 or more Crew: to unlock some Task that no one on your team can currently do.

With that in mind, we'd want a guideline where you can spend a story point when Recruiting to be able to specify one of Background, Motivation or Class.  I really wanted access to the exclusive "Organize A Protest" action, so I spent a Story Point to Recruit an Agitator. That sort of thing.

I think it would make character backstories and personalities matter a lot more. 

I've been sort of roleplaying this already, having my Wealth-motivated K'Erin character take the Trade action fairly often, even though his racial immunities make him slightly better at the Explore task. It would be neat if the rules supported this and expanded on the Task section.

Mission 8 - Five Parsecs From Home

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

This Turn my Crew is up against Distorts, which are basically transporter accidents with a bad attitude. They have a lot of tricks: teleporting about, moving through walls, coming back from the dead, etc. In theme with that, I also fought the battle twice. I'll explain why below.

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. - Not this turn.

2.1 Upkeep and Ship Repairs: -
Crew Upkeep - 1 (because characters in sick bay don't count)    Ship Debt - 0    Ship Repairs - 0 (but I use the 1 free repair point per turn)    Medical Care - 0 (Leonidas is in Sick Bay, and I decide not to pay to speed up the process since I have excess crew)

2.2 Assign and Resolve Crew Tasks: -

• Find a Patron - Juniper    
• Train - Inshubur
• Trade - H'Xex   
  
• Recruit - none   
• Explore - The Kid   
  
• Track -  none 
  
• Repair Your Kit - Moreva   
  
• Decoy - GcViib

Inshubur interfaces with The Strange Brain of the Skulker that we recovered in Campaign Turn 7. Mechanically, it's the Teach-Bot that we got as Loot at the end of the previous Quest. So I roll 1d6 for her one-time XP boost, and get a 6! She already had 8 xp, so this bumps it up to 14. That's enough to get 2 upgrades of any sort she qualifies for (as a non-human, she can't buy a second point of Luck). I consider a Toughness and a Combat as that's probably what she needs the most, but decide instead that if the point is that this strange device modifies her brain or brings enlightenment, it's most thematic to have this be 2 advances both in Reactions.  

To match that, I added the following to her character description/story: "Update: After numerous missions, including 2 fights with K'Erin Outlaws of the B'Lilu Gang, she managed to get her hands on the Strange Brain of the Skulker, a remarkable positronic neural network of ancient origin. She hacked the interface, then meditated while jacked in to the Strange Brain, and it subtly altered her perception of time."

Other noteworthy results from Crew Tasks: 

H'Xex trades for Combat Armor with lots of blinking lights on it.

The Kid meets an Alien Merchant and trades our Stabilizer for his Documents that contain a  rumor. A stabilizer is a device you can put on a Heavy weapon to make it easier to move and fire. We don't have any heavy weapons, but we do have several really good non-heavy weapons, so it seemed a beneficial trade.

Moreva fixes the Damaged Communicator. (Side note: it's a little unclear in the rules if the Communicator is supposed to be carried into Battle by a specific character, or is a piece of shipboard equipment. I decide to envision it like a communication hub housed on the ship that facilitates contact between all the characters on an away mission.)

2.3 Determine Job Offers: -  I get 2 offers this turn, 1 from an existing Patron, and 1 from a new Potential Patron. Menrva Bail Bonds wants to secure a fugitive cultist, but are willing to wait a few turns for it. The Fellowship of Temporal Philosophers want us to secure a cellular sample of a weird creature called a Distort, and that's got a more urgent timeframe. Sounds like their facility might be overrun by the mutated accidents.

2.4 Assign Equipment: - Inshubur gets the new Unity Sight. GcViib picks up an Infantry Laser and a Blade, since he'll be filling in for Leonidas, who is in sick bay.

2.5 Resolve Rumors: - not this turn

2.6  Job Description: Fellowship of Temporal Philosophers wants us to get a cellular culture sample of a Distort. - Type: Private Organization.   Danger Pay: +1 Credit    Time Frame: Turn 8 only.   Active Benefits:  Persistent    Hazards & Conditions: None.


 
Battle:

Mission 8 Starting Positions

Notable Sights:  Priority target: Select a random enemy figure. Add +1 to their Toughness. If they are slain, gain 1D3 credits.

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: - Roving Threats: Subtype: Distorts

Numbers: +0    Panic: 0     Speed: 4”     Combat: +0     Tough: 4     AI: B     Weapons: Touch (Damage +3)

3 Distorts, 1 Distort Pack Leader, and 1 Distort Priority Target
Extra-dimensional horrors. It’s rumored they are the remnants of sapient beings who were lost in teleport accidents.

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

Shimmer: Move through terrain and solid obstacles. When slain, roll 1D6. On a 5-6, another Distort is placed 1D6” further away.

Deploy: The mission is at an underground facility where a research project got interrupted by Distorts warping in to the singularity experiment. The Distorts are deployed in 3 groupings deep within the facility. We ride two freight elevators down to the experiment level.

Round 1: - Everyone gets into position, including H'Xex taking point. The Distorts move up, and it's clear they're going reach us very quickly. I decide to interpret the Distort ability to move through terrain doesn't let them stop inside solid objects.

Situation at end of Round 2, version A

Round 2: - Inshubur, GcViib, and Juniper all go on overwatch. The first Distort melds through a computer panel and heads towards H'Xex. GcViib shoots at it and misses due to cover, but Inshubur kills it. Two more bust out of the wall at the other end of the chamber. J blasts the front one to bits (it's the priority target). It shimmers and reforms 4" back. Since this is the middle of enemy actions, I have that one rush forward as well. Moreva blasts it a moment later. 

Unfortunately, it spawns one... off the map, but I'm going allow it to move on next turn. The Kid shoots at the remaining one, but misses. H'Xex jumps across the room, and blasts it from point-blank.

Battle Event between Round 2 and 3 -  "Change of Plans", the last sentence of which is "Enemies with no ranged attacks are unaffected by this event." (As an aside, I must say that dislike that this Battle Event does nothing in this circumstance. In the analysis section below I will discuss a House-Rule that I plan to use if it comes up again.)

Round 3: - G, I and K go on snap fire. Distort comes out of the wall next to J, using her as cover so K can't make the shot. But Juniper gets lucky in the melee, and shoots it repeatedly with the gun in her cyberhand.

2 more burst out of the wall on the west. GcViib blasts the closer one, and Inshubur kills the pack leader.

That was way too easy.  Maybe, by forcing them to step out of the walls at the end of the movement, I'm missing what makes Distorts interesting and challenging in the first place. Luckily, I have pretty detailed notes turn by turn, so I rewind the game state to where it was at the time I made the decision on them waiting inside walls.

Round 1: - Again, we spread out a bit. H moves up. The enemy on the East side of the map stay inside solid wall at the end of their movement, so they get closer without drawing any fire. I decide to have the one in the middle do something similar, in that will shift laterally from its previous position to take better advantage of cover.

Round 2: - I'm starting over from the top of this round, so I reroll Initiative and everything. The same 3 characters end up on snap fire in the quick actions: G, I and J. The Distort in the middle heads towards H'Xex, and still can't reach him, but its new position has it in cover from all possible attackers. GcViib and Inshubur both miss it during snap fire.

Moreva steps out to the edge of the balcony, and blasts it to smithereens. Shimmering smithereens, which reform 2" further away. The Kid shoots the reformed version, and this time the death sticks.

Juniper steps backward in the elevator, and gets ready for the transdimensional beasts to rupture forth into our reality. H'Xex moves laterally across the research facility to prepare for the Eastern assault.

This is the map of the second play of the Mission. Note the "Fog Cloud".

Battle Event between Round 2 and 3 -   Fog cloud: A dense cloud of fog envelops the center of the table for the rest of the battle. It extends 6” in every direction and blocks all visibility past 2”. Some of this gunfire in the workshop has knocked over an alembic, the resulting chemical reaction immediately cuts the room in half with smoke.

Round 3: Only the Kid and Inshubur are on snap fire / overwatch. The Distorts advance but remain behind solid walls. The ones in the East erupt from the wall of the freight elevator. The Kid lases one. The other one struggles with Juniper for a bit, and she surprises it with the little friend in her cyberhand. It takes 2 stunned markers. For her action, Juniper presses the fight, and since the Distort has 2 stuns, she wins easily. With the situation on the East stabilized, H'Xex heads to the West end of the research lab.

Round 4: A good initiative roll sees all three PCs on the West end of the map ready to go in snap fire.  The remaining Distorts rush out of the wall at them. Inshubur vaporizes one of them. GcViib stuns the Pack Leader. H'Xex vaults over the work table to axe it, but it's faster and more distorted than it looks. H'Xex is hit hard, and only survives by his Luck. Because of the fog cloud and the reactor cutting the table in half, no one else can get shot in.

Battle Event between Round 4 and 5: Visibility Change. The big reactor cycles down, and everything gets so dark you can only see 8" away. The fog thins out, however, so it now takes 7" of fog to block LOS.

Round 5: - An even better initiative roll lets 5 PCs act before the Pack Leader. Inshubur blasts it. It would be game over, but there's a shimmer in the wall. GcViib and H'Xex sit on snap fire, just in case. The new Distort emerges next to H, positioned where G could theoretically shoot it too. H does though, and this time the mission really does end.

Analysis: - In the end, the results of both games are about the same. PCs win without any casualties. It does seem a little better earned the second time, as my victory is not because of arbitrarily assuming they can't stop inside a wall.

But was that really arbitrary? If my tabletop wasn't virtual, it would require some serious improvising with the rules to represent a monster inside a physical terrain feature like a wall. You'd either have to precariously balance some minis, or more likely replace minis with tokens. So while this second method seemed like the smarter thing for the NPCs to do, and is more satisfying in play, it's also clearly well outside the rules as written. The game intended the version in blue above, NOT the version in red.

Now, before I say this next bit, I want to first reiterate that I really enjoy Five Parsecs From Home. The battles are quick and exciting, and the campaign frame and events that happen during and between those battles is a ton of fun as well.

That said, I'm definitely finding that melee-only enemies, like Distorts or Large Bugs, don't feel very threatening. The Rampaging and Beast AIs are pretty easy to work around, baiting them out into the open by dropping your best melee fighter in an open area while the rest of the crew lines up to shoot. This seems worse in 3rd Ed than it was in 2nd Ed, because in 3rd Ed if you Dash you can't melee, but in 2nd Ed Dashing was how you initiated melee. Basically, this edition reduces the melee enemy's move by 2 in the turn of their actual assault, which can really leave them vulnerable. I've read that the first expansion for this edition will be including some alternate randomized AI variants that might help make foes of all types less predictable and exploitable, and some upgraded elite versions of enemies. I hope that releases soon.

I was also much happier with the Battle Event after Turn 2 of the second run of the mission. In particular, I don't like how "Change of Plans" does nothing when Melee-only Enemies roll it. I'm considering a house-rule for next time: If Change of Plans is rolled, all Melee-only Enemies immediately move a free full move closer to the nearest PC. That would not only make the event always meaningful, it would also potentially inject more danger and excitement. You might think you're lined up to pwn a monster with your whole crew shooting from 5" away without danger, only to have it unexpectedly nudge forward into charging range. 


Post-Battle:

4.1 Resolve Rival Status: - Distorts never become rivals

4.2 Resolve Patron Status: - Successful mission, so the Fellowship of Temporal Philosophers is added to my list of Patrons not just on Aceso Menrva Prime, but anywhere because they are Persistent.

4.3 Determine Quest Progress: - n/a

4.4 Get Paid and Benefits of Success: - 7 Credits total (3 for the mission, 1 for danger pay, and 3 for Priority Target)

4.5 Battlefield Finds: - I roll the "keep the weapons of 1 slain foe", which is one of the best results if you are fighting any enemy that actually uses weapons. Distorts don't.

4.6 Check for Invasion!: - n/a

4.7 Gather the Loot: - Combat Armor! That's a good roll.

4.8 Determine Injuries and Recovery: - no one was hurt

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

4.10 Invest in Advanced Training: - n/a

4.11 Purchase Items: - none

4.12 Campaign Event: - During routine maintenance, the gravitational adjuster got knocked out of alignment. Your ship suffers 1D6 points of Hull Point damage.  4 damage! So much for leaving the planet next Turn.

4.13 Character Event: - One of Moreva's old enemies shows up, causing trouble. They become a new Rival on this planet. Cultists called the Radiant Quiver of Resheph. Moreva used to be part of a splinter religious group, and when she left the compound, they were not happy about it.

4.14 Check for Galactic War Progress: -  n/a

4.15 Tick Story Clock: - 1 (So the Turn after next will see our next Story Track Mission)

1000 Random Quest Names

 In Five Parsecs From Home, along with all the Patron jobs, Rival ambushes, and the occasional cargo run to the next world over, you also some times end up with Quests. 

Quests are multiple missions loosely chained together, with a big treasure payout at the end. They're a fun concept, but they're a little underdeveloped in the rulebook. The intention is almost certainly to leave them open-ended and freeform so you can fill in your own fluff and flavor details. There is one fun little table on Page 36 that you can roll on to determine what form any Quest Rumors you gather come in, such as an intercepted transmission or an old treasure map. Beyond that, you're left to stitch-together your own narrative of what the overall Quest is, and make sense of it in your story. Which is great and all, but the rulebook gives zero examples or suggestions. It doesn't really provide you anything to kickstart your imagination (other than the table on page 36 that I mentioned), and it's particularly unclear in the early stages of your first Quest that there's not more story hidden in the rules somewhere. Like, I kept expecting the system to give me something for my Quest to be about, and it never really delivered. It was just track the number of Quest Rumors, and roll after each Battle to see if the next fight is the end of the Quest or not,  and then get extra Loot on the final fight. 

It wasn't bad nor broken, but I'm still kind of hoping some future expansion provides a little more razzle-dazzle there. I wanted something more to color my Quest, and maybe reinforce bits of the setting as well. A bit more of a framework over which to drape your narrative. I don't know if the game will ever give us that or not. So for starters, I made this:

Five Parsecs Quest Item Name Generator

It's three tables you roll on to assemble the Quest Item you are chasing after. This assumes you're after some artifact or collection of treasure, like it's an old pulp serial or Indiana Jones movie. You roll 1d10 three times below, and generate 1 of a 1,000 possible random names.

Die Roll	Column A	Column B	Column C
1	The Cerulean	Brain	-Eater
2	The Crystalline	Chariot	Entity
3	The Dark Matter	Egg	from the 5th Dimension
4	The Empathic	Firewall	from beyond the Fringe
5	The Impossible	Heart	of (insert the name of the planet you are on)
6	The Proto-	Laser	of the Engineers
7	The Non-Euclidean	Nova	of Hakshan
8	The Strange	Sabre	of the Manipulator
9	The Uplifted	Shield	of the Precursors
10	The Xanthous	Universe	of the Skulker

When you've completed the Quest and rolled up the extra Loot you get at the end, you pick the item that's the best match to the name and declare it the thing you'd been questing for. If all your Loot rolls fail to provide anything that feels like a good match, that would be a good time to spend a Story Point and pick an item from the book that is worthy of the name. (Maybe even make up your own item if you're feeling inspired and brave.) 

 

Example in Play: In my current campaign, the first quest I rolled up was for "The Strange Brain of the Skulker." I decided it may be some sort of Strange Matter matrix with computational powers but also religious significance... mostly decided because my Captain is motivated by Faith. It was also a lucky cosmic coincidence that I ended up facing Skulkers on my very first mission. If I'd gotten to the end of the Quest without Skulkers ever showing up, I may have considered spending a Story Point to force their appearance. At the end of the mission, my Loot rolls were for a Damaged Camo Cloak,  a Damaged Communicator,   a Teach-Bot,  and a Unity Battle Sight. They're all sort of "thinky" or "brain-like" items, so naming any of those as the Strange Brain would have been just fine, though perhaps it would be weird to have the Unity Battle Sight be a rare artifact since the name sounds like an off-the-shelf bit of kit routinely issued to Unity soldiers. If I'd wanted to go that route though, it'd be easy enough to say it's unique Skulker tech but has identical game effects to the Battle Sight, but achieves that effect via exotic Strange Matter. That was option. Instead, I decided the Teach-Bot was the best match for a "Brain". The single-use nature of the Teach-Bot meant that it would only benefit my Captain, which made sense that she was driven to pursue it because of Faith. So she interfaced with the Strange Brain, got a bunch of XP, and I spent it on Reactions to represent her mind quickening and broadening.