Five Parsecs From Home

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$iljanus
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Five Parsecs From Home

Post by $iljanus »

So I received the game book yesterday and started reading through it last night. It's 170+ pages but much of it filled with tables for gameplay. The concepts and rules were well written and organized and before I knew it I actually made it to page 42 before falling asleep (not out of boredom but because I'm getting old). I'm really excited to start rolling up characters and there are quite a few traits to choose from to flesh out your crew. I also like that the tabletop portion of the game is not the largest part of the game and the miniature combat rules are really simple so you're not getting too hung up on tabletop rule minutiae. But it's the pre and post tabletop turns where a lot is going on whether you're looking for jobs, chasing down rumors, getting into bar fights, attracting rivals, fixing your ship, hiring more crew, mediating crew member drama, fleeing the planet, and much much more! Again, the book is chock full of information and tables but I've never felt overwhelmed by the amount of information and it does a good job of holding your hand through the learning process.

The biggest draw for me is that I have a ton of minis I can use with this game. Core Space will be well represented in terms of figures and terrain but I also kickstarted Zombiecide:Invader a while ago and I have quite a few minis which can definitely fill all sorts of roles like merc crews, aliens, bounty hunters, spec ops soldiers, etc. And there's no reason why some miniatures from Star Wars: Imperial Assault can't make an appearance!

I'm using Core Space terrain and along with the base game I have the Zeb's bar terrain and some Galactic Cops terrain (a teleport pad I think) and I've ordered from Battle Systems a planetary outpost to add another multilevel structure. But if anyone would like to share other places to get terrain I'd appreciate it. Would probably want some outdoors stuff and I know Battle Systems has a nice desert like set.

To sum it up, if you just want to indulge your inner desire to scratch an RPG itch and play with minis then I think this is a good system to try out.
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Re: Five Parsecs From Home

Post by Smoove_B »

Awesome. I'm looking forward to seeing some photos. I really like the rules but I need to see if there's anything I can find on BGG or elsewhere to help with handouts or guides. Here I think having a wire-bound copy might have been better (made from a PDF) as I don't think the book lends itself to table referencing.
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Re: Five Parsecs From Home

Post by $iljanus »

I was thinking of making a players aid for some aspects of the game like for tabletop combat. The other non-combat stuff just involve going from table to table in the book. If there was a pdf of just the tables that I can staple together as a book that would be nice and someday I might scan the tables for that purpose but I think flipping through the rulebook will work pretty well.

I've washed a whole assortment of Zombicide:Invader minis for priming and future speed painting. But in the meantime I can actually start playing the game by creating and outfitting my crew and seeing if I can pick up some jobs.
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Re: Five Parsecs From Home

Post by $iljanus »

Well I rolled up six characters and that was rather fun as it all unfolded. Initially I was going to go with 4 humans, an alien and a bot but decided to see what the crew type table will give me. That table has four possible results: baseline human, primary alien, bot and “strange character”. It was the possibility of getting a strange character which made me take my chances…and I end up getting two of them!

So for the sake of brevity I’m leaving out a few things in character generation but here’s what I came up with. And with each character (except for a bot) you roll for their background, motivation and class which can alter your attributes and have other bonuses. When my crew is outfitted and organized I’ll give them a proper introduction with a short backstory. But until then…

Human#1
Background: Wasteland Nomads (bonus to reaction and an extra low-tech weapon roll which comes into play when rolling for weapons to outfit the crew)
Motivation: Romance! :wub: (1 rumor and +1 story point which I assume comes up when looking for jobs or moving a plot line along)
Class: Enforcer (+1 combat) Awww this character enjoys romantic vids, long walks along the methane oceans of some world with three moons and can beat the crap out of you.

Human#2
Background: War torn hellhole (+1 reaction) Gotta be quick to catch those rats scampering in the ruins or no dinner tonight
Motivation: Survival (+1 toughness) Nice how that fits well with the background
Class: Negotiator (patron, +1 story point) Interesting result but I’ll go with it and see what kind of backstory I can come up with

Human#3
Background: Religious cult (patron, +1 story point) Hmm, I can work with that
Motivation: Glory! :horse: (+1 combat skill, +1 military weapon) BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD!
Class: Petty criminal (+1 speed) Okay…STOLEN GOODS FOR THE BLOOD GOD!

Human#4
Background: Space station (+1 gear)
Motivation: Adventure! (+1d6 credits, +1 low tech weapon) Extra credits are good because “Adventure!” can be very expensive
Class: Nomad (+1 gear) Again I love how things just really go together since this fits the motivation well

Strange #1 A minor alien
Not one of the major alien races. Has a penalty where if the character rolls for credits or gets story points the value is reduced by one. On a positive note, one attribute costs one less XP when leveling.
Background: Tech Guild (1d6 credits minus 1, +1 high tech weapon)
Motivation: Glory! :horse: (+1 combat skill and military weapon) I’m happy to have such a motivated crew
Class: Soldier (+1 combat skill, 1d6 credits but knock off a credit because I guess they’re not good with money or space racism)

Strange#2 Hulker

This character is buff with a bonus to toughness but can’t shoot very well, getting no benefit from scopes or other shooting aids. On the other hand, no penalty for handling clumsy or heavy weapons like maybe a huge sonic hammer or some such weapon.
Background: Space station (+1 gear)
Motivation: Glory :horse:
Class: Scoundrel (+1 speed) Like Han Solo! But with fists or a big hammer!

So now I’m off to read more of the rulebook but can also proceed to outfit the crew and even see what kind of ship I’ll have which will be a used ship with perhaps some good features (efficient engines) or some very bad features (like gas guzzler, costing more to fuel up) and I’ll be paying off the ship with interest. So better get to earning! (especially since if you fall too far behind on payments your ship can get repoed :shock: )

Oh Smoove, just discovered that inside the back cover and the opposite page are two appendices which are reference aids and easy to refer too. They outline the tabletop battle round sequence, campaign turns and there’s a weapons chart.
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Re: Five Parsecs From Home

Post by $iljanus »

Rolled up some gear and a ship!

It’s interesting that even in the far future, “chemical propellant projectile weapons” aka pistols, rifles and shotguns still have their place either in front line planetary armies or in a Colonist Lv 3 Technology Starter Pack (adding in a little creative flavor). It does make sense since the technology is simple, reliable, and still does a reasonable job of killing. Cheap to manufacture as well and can be fitted with various high tech accessories or the humble bayonet. I have both military grade and low tech models which vary in terms of range, damage output or firing rate. But it wouldn’t be The Future without some lasers so I have a pair of infantry lasers that either go “pew pew” or “zap” depending on my mood.

Melee weapons also seem to have kept their place in the far future and I have a high tech “Glare Sword”. What makes it a “Glare” sword, I haven’t thought of yet but it’s perfect for my hulker who has good speed, combat and toughness stats. There’s a nice melee bonus and has the “elegant” trait allowing the user to reroll their attack die and “piercing” trait which ignores armor saving throws. Assuming that my hulker isn’t picked off by an opponent with a gun the hulker will be quite formidable.

Other gear:
Assault blade- Handy attachment that can be installed on a rifle so it can be stabby as well as shooty.
Booster pills- Big Pharma has its place in the game and these pills remove all stun effects and enable you to move at double speed. Essentially they’re bulked up “space uppers”.
Fixer- One piece of destroyed or damaged personal equipment can be repaired at no cost (single use)
AI Companion- This is a permanent personal implant that one character can receive. You get to roll twice when making checks using the Savvy trait. Here’s a bit of backstory I’ve created about this tech so thank you for indulging me…

AI entities would be quite dismissive, bordering on insulted when someone sticks the moniker “AI” in front of a piece of computing technology. Certainly the computing power of some of these implants can run the weather control system of a planet but in the end they are just looked upon as merely tools. A true AI would probably ask you in the most condescending manner if you consider the sonic spanner in your hand, intelligent? Now there have been extremely rare instances of such devices reaching the Stephenson Coefficient and achieving self awareness. Usually this ends in either the AI, user or both going insane and self-terminating soon after. That said, there are rumors of various corporate or government dark tech labs that illegally do research on attaining a stable organic/AI implant…

I’ll leave details on my new (well used off the used ship lot anyway) ship for another post since I have an interesting story for that as well. Meanwhile painting continues along with reading the rulebook. But the great thing about the game is that I can start playing a good chunk of it before the tabletop portion of the campaign turn.
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Re: Five Parsecs From Home

Post by malchior »

Out of curiosity is the book a lay flat binding? Like Smoove_B mentioned it'd probably influence the PDF vs. book purchase.
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Re: Five Parsecs From Home

Post by hepcat »

It’s like a smallish textbook. It has a hard spine.
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Re: Five Parsecs From Home

Post by malchior »

hepcat wrote: Fri Oct 22, 2021 11:00 pm It’s like a smallish textbook. It has a hard spine.
Gotcha - thanks. I was leaning PDF anyway. Physical is nice but only if it is functionally superior IMO. Pricing/availability for the physical book is an issue too. You can get it on Amazon relatively cheap but ... Amazon. The publisher sells it direct (and gives you a PDF to tide you over) but I'm guessing it comes from overseas because the shipping cost is about 75% of the book.
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Re: Five Parsecs From Home

Post by tylertoo »

How do I buy this? The physical book that is. This page isn't clear whether it is the book or the pdf:

https://foundrygameroom.com/products/fi ... aying-game

This is the publisher's page, strangely blank:

https://www.modiphius.net/products/five ... -from-home
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Re: Five Parsecs From Home

Post by hepcat »

You can just get it off Amazon as some of us did.

Also, you may want to try another browser as the link to the publisher's page wasn't blank when I just tried your link.
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Re: Five Parsecs From Home

Post by malchior »

Nice! I miraculously found this in a comic book store the next town over. I had never been there but heard they had a little games corner.
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Re: Five Parsecs From Home

Post by tylertoo »

hepcat wrote: Sun Oct 24, 2021 7:27 pm You can just get it off Amazon as some of us did.

Also, you may want to try another browser as the link to the publisher's page wasn't blank when I just tried your link.
Thanks, and yes, the publisher's page is working now.

So tempted....
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Re: Five Parsecs From Home

Post by hepcat »

Just have malchior pick you up and take you to the store near him.
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Re: Five Parsecs From Home

Post by tylertoo »

hepcat wrote: Wed Oct 27, 2021 8:37 pm Just have malchior pick you up and take you to the store near him.
I'm ready.
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Re: Five Parsecs From Home

Post by hepcat »

:D
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Re: Five Parsecs From Home

Post by malchior »

I doubt it is cheaper to get from wherever to NJ versus the $20+ shipping fee. :)
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Re: Five Parsecs From Home

Post by tylertoo »

malchior wrote: Wed Oct 27, 2021 9:36 pm I doubt it is cheaper to get from wherever to NJ versus the $20+ shipping fee. :)
Where in NJ? I’m in Philly.
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Re: Five Parsecs From Home

Post by malchior »

tylertoo wrote: Mon Nov 15, 2021 11:06 pm
malchior wrote: Wed Oct 27, 2021 9:36 pm I doubt it is cheaper to get from wherever to NJ versus the $20+ shipping fee. :)
Where in NJ? I’m in Philly.
About an hour and change away near New Brunswick. Before the world ended I was in Philly two times a week at least and haven't been back since. :(
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Re: Five Parsecs From Home

Post by tylertoo »

malchior wrote: Tue Nov 16, 2021 8:32 am About an hour and change away near New Brunswick.
So basically I'm about one-quarter parsec from your home.
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Re: Five Parsecs From Home

Post by tylertoo »

Despite the length of my current solo agenda, I'm still thinking about getting one of: Five Parsecs, Shadows of Ranger Deep, or Core Space. I own no minis other than what might be other games, and no terrain or objects. So I suppose Core Space would be the way to go? I can get the base game for about $100. But the first two, the books, seem more appealing. Can they be played without household items standing in for minis and terrain until I see whether this type of gaming is for me?
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Re: Five Parsecs From Home

Post by Smoove_B »

In case anyone wants to see a quick play through using Battle systems terrain and then random bits and pieces for a field battle, I was surprised to find One Stop Coop Shop posting a video.



The spaceship mini is from Xia and a few of the minis are Fallout Tactics. Not sure about the aliens at the end.
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Re: Five Parsecs From Home

Post by tylertoo »

On the youtube page, the author of Five Parsecs stopped by:

Image
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