5 Parsecs Chirsu campaign – Character generation and week 1

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

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.

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. 

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.

First moves

Chrisi gets to the edge of the wood, is spotted and the mercenary reaction fires and suppresses Chirsu.

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).