Introduction
Playing a Five Parsecs From Home 1st edition campaign. Starting with one party member. No aliens, no psionics.
This post has the generation of the single character,
location and the first week (1 week will equal 1 campaign turn).
Initial party
5PfH 1st Edition has this paragraph in Character Creation “You could
even start a campaign with only a single character but note that “heroes” have
no special protections in Five Parsecs From Home. One shot and it could be all
over.”
Always up for a challenge, I am starting with one
character. Originally I was going to go
for 2, but why not go low?
I used the character creation from the rules but with my
modified talent, weapon and gear list.
Also I did use the background table from Starport Scum as that seemed
to be just a bit better than the one in Every Star an Opportunity.
Chirsu, the sole party member
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| Chirsu |
Chirsu, Soldier, Military outpost origin. Skills: Trader, leader. Gear: pistol, rifle, jump belt.
Trader skill: Roll twice on trade table and choose one or +1
to trade tasks.
Leader skill: When activated, all in 3" may recover, +1
to recovery checks.
Jump Belt: They permit the user to jump to the roof of a
building one story tall or to clear most obstacles. The wearer can't move in
the turn they use the belt. It can also be used to safely descend from any
heights present on a typical gaming table.
Motivation: Power. You dream of one day being on top,
legions at your beck and call.
Class: Soldier. “Professional Military” can mean anything
from government troops to local goons with (mostly) the same colour helmets. Game effect: on a roll of 6, begin the game
with a random Talent (this was Trader). Add a rifle to groups armoury (added).
Background: After growing up you got a decent job. Things
going great and finally you found true love. All was lost because of a system
wide market crash.
Location
I am playing this in a version of the Columbia Games High
Colonies setting – 200 years in the future, the solar system has lots of
nation-aligned colonies and space habitats.
Earth was rendered uninhabitable in a war about 70 years before the
current time. The setting may not have a
significant bearing on the game but we shall see.
Location: Dreamtime space colony at Mars GSO
League: Terran Commonwealth; nation Australia; climate
Moderate, atmosphere: Breathable, extensive, population: Single large city,
biosphere: Moderate biosphere, social: Bureaucratic democracy, main export:
Manufactured products.
Factions (strength): Local authorities (1), Corporation (4), Cultists
(6).
Problems: Ruthless corporation, Infiltration by external
force, Out of control tax collection.
Week 1
Chirsu chooses to trade and acquires another rifle. They also manage to get in a bit of training
but not enough to be skilled in anything.
Searching though the possible missions, there is an
opportunity to grab a local map from a mercenary.
Grab: Place an item in a terrain feature on the opposite half of the table. This item must be picked up and carried off your own table edge. Each side sets up within 6" of opposing sides. PCs go first.
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| Merc |
The enemy is a mercenary with an autorifle.
Terrain (generated as a 2x2 grid with a central zone as well)
Rough e.g. marsh, craters | LOS blocking hill or bushes
Rough
e.g. marsh, craters
Linear obstacles | Rough e.g. marsh, craters
Conditions are pretty gloomy: All fire above 18” range will
not score a KO.
The local map is behind a hedge in the bottom corner.
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| Battle board |
Playing on 2'x2' table so figures move on to the table in the first turn rather than setup on the table.
The mercenary is entering from the left, Chirsu from the right. Chirsu moves into the woods while the mercenary moves to guard the local map.
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| First moves |
Chrisi gets to the edge of the wood, is spotted and the mercenary reaction fires and suppresses Chirsu.
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| Mercenary firing at Chirsu |
The mercenary fires again and the gun jams (double 1!). Chirsu recovers from the suppression and fires at the mercenary but misses. The mercenary unjams their autorifle. Chirsu fires and misses, the mercenary reaction fires and Chirsu is KO.
Mission failed.
It was never going to end well. A rifle Vs an autorifle. And both are in
cover. Chirsu would need to be lucky to
win and just had normal dice.
The Mercenary does not seem to hold a grudge (didn’t make
them an enemy).
Chirsu comes to later and is all good. They check their equipment and no damage
there either.
There is an opportunity to sell and item. Chirsu chooses to sell a rifle and acquires a
nano-doc (one-use item curing ill effects from an Injury roll).
Faction changes: Local authorities (1) rolls 5; Corporation
(4) rolls 3; Cultists (5) rolls 2. The
Local Authorities as a faction is reduced to 0 and gone. New faction: Bandits
with strength 6! There is a story in
here that could be leveraged later where bandits have sprung form nowhere and
overtaken local authorities, corporation and the cultists to become the main
source of the underpinning power across the settlement.
After this initial setback, Chirsu embarks on some
self-reflection and their motivation changes from Power to Discovery (The
idea that there is uncharted space seems like a wrong that must be corrected).
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