Five Parsecs Turn 4 - Anarchy in the Unity

Campaign Turn 4

The crew didn't travel.  They didn't need to pay for upkeep, using the last of their looted supplies (-1 supplies).

Reece  and Nathan went trading (gaining a gift (1XP), and an Enhancement implant worth +2D3 XP).  Anul went to see the sights.  Kari , Jack, Mila and our new crew member trained for 1XP each.  They paid to Fix the broken auto rifle (3 credits).

No quest, no enemy attacks

I rolled a new patron job, 'interfere with another group – anarchists attempting  to destroy something on someone’s turf'.

Nathaniel found Reece on the Envoy's bridge, "So, what do you think of the new kid?"
"Seems legit," Reece replied "Mila vouches for him.  Good enough for me".
"You don't find it a bit... convenient?  She joins us to hide out, then this guy from the her cult just turns up unannounced?  Nothing against the guy personally, but if he can find her..."
Reece looked thoughtful for a moment, before finishing Nathaniel's thought for him, "then who else might be able to?"
The intercom broke the silence that followed
"You guys up there?  It's Kari, just received an emergency transmission from that suit we babysat.  He's got intel that a bunch of locals are planning to trash some of his peoples goodies and would we kindly get in their way.  Guess he doesn't trust the local cops to do it."
"On our way, tell everyone to load up.  And yes, Jack can bring the big toys".  He got up to grab his gear, then paused at the hatch, turning to Nathaniel "between you and me? Let's just keep an eye on the new guy.."

The crew need to hustle down to the warehouse district, where they will face off against six anarchists, intent on destroying and looting to send a message to the corporations they accuse of 'infecting; Wavell's Settlement.  I decided they'd be armed as the models: a leader with shotgun, three with rifles and two with handguns.  They have move 5" and are Aggressive.  They will approach from the north.  If they get a chance to destroy any crates, it will affect the crew's payment (even if they win the overall encounter).

The Portside Crew ready for action 

The crew of the Envoy came in from the east.  Reece had his handgun, frag vest and jump belt; Jack had an auto rifle, shell gun with stabiliser, 2 grenades and flexi-armour; Anul his blast pistol, Mila a rifle; Kari and auto rifle; Nat an auto rifle, his blade and flexi armour, and 'New Guy (I'll name him soon) a hunting rifle.  The plan was to get in position to form a stop line with at least Jak, Kari and Nat, while the rest try to outflank the gang.

 Anarchists top left, crew to right

The Portside Crew's targets

Turn 1

The crew rolled one quick action, which went to Jak.  The crew moved up to take cover amongst the crates and containers, while the 'boys moved forwards.

Turn 2

(Four quick actions this time, going to Jak, Kari, Nat and Mila).

Jak moved up behind a crate, peered around, and took a shot with his shell gun [the stabiliser removes the normal 'Heavy' penalty]. The shell exploded with a satisfying thud, tossing three of the Portside boys aside.  Their leader staggered, but got back up, battered but not out.  Kari's rifle barked out as beside him, hitting the anarchist leader's scavenged armour but not getting past, she cursed under her breath with frustration.

Mila and Nat took move up into cover.

Boom!

 And then there were three...

Battered but not out of action, the 'Boys advanced, taking advantage of cover behind a nearby crate.

Anul and the new crew member took cover in case the 'Boys continued to push down the side, while Reece used the jump belt to get leap over a building and line up for a flank shot next turn.

The anarchists lost their first morale test.

Turn 3

(Four quick actions again, going to: Kari, Reece, Jak and Nat)

Frustrated at her failure to take down the gang's leader, Kari sprinted out of cover to get a line on the bad guys, ignoring Mila and Jack's shouts to keep in cover.  Bringing her rifle up, she let fly on full auto, taking great satisfaction as the two remaining gang members crumpled and fell. [CLICK], "shit" she muttered, reaching for a new magazine.

Leaning around the corner of a building, Reece saw the two 'Boys fall to Kari's hail of gunfire as he squeezed off several shots from his handgun.  He could have sworn he hit the gang leader but it seemed to have no effect as he turned and ran in the direction of the rifle fire behind him.

We need bigger guns...

Kari was still fumbling for a new magazine as the gang leader ran at her from behind the container, raising his sawn-off shotgun.  For a moment all she could see were those two dark holes pointing straight at her, before they were flung aside as their owner twisted and fell, taken in the side by a controlled burst of fire from Jak's Autogun [Jak (and Nat) used his fast action to wait and snap fire if the leader came into view, which he did, following the rules for 'Aggressive' opponents].  "Gods dammit!" she yelled. "I could have taken him!".

Caught in the crossfire

Another extremely short firefight ends in the crew's favour!  To be fair, the opposition were hampered by being rated Aggressive, which left them bunched up and a perfect target for Jak's Shell Gun, especially when he rolled a pretty much perfect set of attack rolls (having 'area' and 2 shots makes it pretty deadly, I may have to nerf it a bit); then led to the leader, as last man standing, having to charge at Kari and walk into a crossfire, rather than unloading his shotgun at her.

On the crew's side, no one got hurt, and nothing got destroyed, but Kari's pride is definitely smarting, after being 'saved' by Jak.

The Portside Boys were effectively wiped out, so the crew didn't gain another enemy. They got paid a whopping 7 credits (6 on a D6, +1 for a patron job, +1 as it was a Wealthy Benefactor).  They also looted an upgrade kit from the gang leader (+2 range for any weapon equipped).  Reece, Kari, Mila, Nat, Anul and New Guy all gain +3XP.  Jak gains a nice 5XP (+3 for winning, and +1 each for inflicting the first casualty and taking down the enemy leader).

Reece, Anul, Jak levelled up to Veteran Rank 1

Anul advanced his reaction score to 2 and Jak his Combat Score to 2

Unfortunately, after the encounter one of the suits of flexi armour was found to have failed (Campaign Event 'Equipment Malfunction')

Kari, brooding on what she saw as 'stealing' her kill, has developed a rivalry with Jak.  On his part, Jak has no time for glory hunters, so the feeling is mutual and the Crew's mess times become uncomfortable.

Five Parsecs - Upgrades!!!

"I jus' felt really... stable."

With the decision to use the Five Parsec's Compendium to add to the campaign, I need to take a look at the crew and see what changes might need to be made.

First up, Hero Characters:  Reece now becomes our main character, gaining the traits 'Hard to Kill', 'Personal Initiative', 'Daring Escape' and 'Just that Good'.

Next, Veteran Ranks: Each character has a number of veteran rank points (VRP), equivalent to the number of XPs gained in encounters.  This puts Nathaniel and Mila at Veteran Rank 1, so they gain +1 hit point and +0.5 speed.

Skills:  for each character, 3D6 are rolled with each 6 giving a skill.  This gave Reece two skills, Kari none (she really doesn't have much luck), and the rest of the crew one each.  The compendium gives some ideas, but not a list of skills, so you get to make them up, which can be fun!  So:

Reece: Trading and Pilot (representing his background and ownership of the Envoy)
Anul: Oratory
Jack: Gunsmithing (so I can try out the rules)
Nathaniel: Jack of All Trades (goes back to a skill in the Traveller RPG, I'll treat this as a chance that he can act as if he has a relevant skill when needed, it might be over-powered but lets see)
Mila: Agriculture (from her cult days, who knows when it might prove useful!)

Finally, we have the new stats: Personality and Agility.  The compendium recommends +0.5 to any of these stats if it's relevant to their background, so I gave Reece and Anul +1 to their personality traits.

There's also been an update that's added 'Personal Possessions' for one character.  I've gone for Nathaniel as I think his background has the most potential.  He rolled 'Favour in High Places'.

Five Parsecs - World Building

I like to have some context to my games, even when playing solo, or a one off scenario.  Perhaps that's one of the reasons I never got into competitive gaming (that and not being very good at it).

That story building is one of the things I like about Five Parsecs, and its brothers and sister games.  Now, as it happens, something else I remember fondly from my days playing traveller was spending time using the core rules and the 'Scouts' supplement to create worlds and what should there be to support Five Parsecs but a planetary generation supplement!  Admittedly it doesn't involve complex algebra and calculating the world's average temperature using its Albedo (that's the amount of solar energy reflected back into space by water, cloud cover and ice, in case you're interested), but I think I can cope with losing that...

I also realised that the crew of the Envoy currently don't know anything about the world they're trundling around on.  And that I was on a weekend away in Cardiff in a hotel room at 9pm trying not to wake the 4 year old (who'd exhausted herself playing with my family on her birthday) or the missus, with an ipad fully loaded with the rulebooks and a dice app...

I rolled up a handful of worlds using a combination of the Planetary Generation supplement, and the rules from the older  'Every Planet an Opportunity' rules (as the new ones don't have as much on population size, politics, etc.  What I found great was how quickly it inspired thinking about the backgrounds and possible scenarios.  Anyway, here are my first few worlds, first up, our crew's current home.

Wavell’s settlement
Average atmosphere
Moderate biosphere
Earth like gravity
Inefficient govt
Widespread population
Low tech terraforming
Factions:
● Bandits
● Popular movement
● Mining or other industry
Disinterested democracy
Problems:
● Raiders
● Political terrorists
● Infiltration by external force
Export- manufactured products

Wavell’s relatively benign Earth like planetary conditions led to it being colonised early in the Rift’s history.  As a result it now boasts a fairly widespread population, spread amongst cities and settlements across its main continents. Conditions meant that the need for terraforming was limited, although the most well populated areas have seen the gradual replacement of native species with earth or earth-like derivatives.

The planet suffers from weak government. A huge number of competing political parties, dominated by small special interest groups, have resulted in a government that is paralysed by inefficiency and inability to reach consensus , and a largely disinterested population.  As a consequence, the planet has seen a growth in domestic political terrorism from anti-government groups and criminal raiders, who face weak and demoralised law enforcement; and the spread in influence of off-world manufacturing conglomerates, exploiting weak regulation over working conditions and pay (and increasingly becoming the de-facto government in urban areas).

Sikorski's haven
Toxic atmosphere
Moderate biosphere
Noticeable gravity -1” dash
Primordial soup, speeds over 4” reduced by 1”
Free trade zone, re-roll one trade/barter roll a turn
Single large city
Planet in natural state
Factions
● Charismatic leader and followers
● Interest group
● Mercenary group
Regressive bureaucracy
Problems
● Raiders
● Unstable economy
● Dangerous cult
Exports
● Mercenaries

A relatively recent colony, the planet’s population is mostly concentrated in the hab domes of the Haven for protection from the inhospitable external environment.  Although residents are governed by a positively kafkaesque bureaucracy on everything from living space to lighting allocation, for trade it's a free for all where fortunes can be won or lost overnight, making it a hub for all kinds of shady business activities in the reach.  Increasingly, this activity has attracted the attention of raiders, targeting ships and warehouses outside the dome.  In response the planet has encouraged mercenary groups to set up their base of operations.  With mercenary work also offering better pay and a chance to escape the stultifying regulation of all aspects of life, it has also become the career of choice for many of the havens residents.

Amongst those who do not follow the mercenary life, an alarming number of residents and visitors have fallen under the sway of a charismatic demagogue pushing an insular and controlling cult of personality that increasingly clashes with the authorities and the mercenary cartels.

Zarkov’s frontier

Average atmosphere 

Moderate biosphere

Earth like gravity

Light footed natives

Pacified world

Small settlements

Extensive terraforming

Factions

● Popular movement

● Unity authority

Brutal dictator

Problems 

● Ruthless corporation

● Social disorder

● Loss of vital resource

Export - food

Zhukov’s relatively benign environment is far from natural, being the result of centuries of intensive terraforming to create a breadbasket world by the Rivecloud Tsushin Corporation and its predecessors. 

Recent decades of relative prosperity led to an increasing popular movement for more local control and population rights.  Facing a threat to the culmination of a centuries long investment plan, RcT Pushed the importance of the world for ‘food security’ in the reach with Unity authorities, persuading them to support a brutal crackdown.  The subsequent conflict effectively destroyed most of the planet’s indigenous manufacturing capability, leaving it reliant on imports for machinery and equipment, controlled by the corporation.  The planetary governor, whilst in name a representative of the Unity, in reality acts entirely in the corporation’s interests.

Despite the crackdowns, elements of the insurgency remain active, being well supported and hidden by the local population.  Attacks on corporate property still occur, alongside vicious reprisal and ‘disappearances’.

Five Parsecs Turn 3 - Breaking and Entering (and some more breaking)

(apologies for the poor quality photos, the decent cameras are broken!)

The crew did not travel

There was no upkeep cost as they used the last of the looted supplies (-1 supplies)

No quest was gained and no enemies attacked

Anul went exploring, finding an arms dealer

Jack and Mila trained, gaining 1 XP (Mila levelled up her combat stat)

Nathaniel went trading, finding an instruction manual (+1 XP) (levelling up tech)

Reece and Kari went looking for a patron.  Reece had no luck, but Kari made contact with an alien diplomat through her old unity links.  The patron wanted the crew to retrieve something, with four battledroids in opposition.

Reece didn't know what strings Kari had pulled to get this job, and frankly didn't care.  He'd come to the Reach to see what was out there and gain new experiences and this certainly counted; sat in front of a Prod Kett, basically a jellyfish in an armoured environment suit, and it's modded human interpreter.  He was struggling to concentrate on the job at hand.  "to summarise," continued the interpreter, in its unsettling flat monotone "this individual is in possession of a text of considerable cultural importance to my client.  We have exhausted all diplomatic means to retrieve it and must now turn to alternative means.  All the information you need is on this memory bubble.  Suffice to say, if caught, this meeting never happened".

A wealthy collector has ‘acquired’ an artifact of great cultural value to the Diplomat, and is holding it n the vault of his country estate.  Diplomatic means of re-acquiring the object have been exhausted, which is where our heroes step in.

The crew will need to infiltrate the estate whilst the owner is out, hack the lift down to the underground vault, locate the item and get it out again. Complicating the matter are the four ED class battle droids patrolling the grounds, one of which is always located in patrol in the vault complex.

The starting positions of the three above ground mechs were randomly determined (but not within 12” of the crew’s initial positions, even they can avoid scaling a wall while a big piece of machinery clanks by!).  Initially they were controlled by rolling a D20 on a clock face (to favour the existing direction of travel until reaching an obstacle).  Each mech had a search radius of 12” within which it would spot any of our crew, but once alerted they would be able to see any distance and engage as needed (think of it as searching with sensors on a wide sweep as opposed to concentrating them more effectively in one barrow band).  In the vault, I decided I would dice for the droid's location each time a character entered a new corridor section or room. If the result would be visible it would be placed, if not, I would roll again next turn.  If the team could reach the security room in the vault, another  'hard' tech roll would shut down all the mechs.

As well as their normal weapons, Jack equipped the Jump Belt and Reece a tactical visor.

The team’s infiltration went smoothly.  Jack used the belt to jump the wall straight into cover behind a building as lookout, while the remainder scrambled over the wall.  There were some tense moments as a couple of the droids started to approach, but they turned elsewhere before the team could be discovered.  Nathan successfully hacked the lift - hacking without alerting the mechs was a ‘hard’ task needing a 5+, just hacking it an ‘easy’ (3+). I used the character’s tech skill as a modifier, but Nathan rolled a natural 5 anyway.

Sneaking through the dark? Us? Certainly not! 

Better avoid these chaps...

Down in the vault, Reece took point with the tactical visor, allowing him to check the way ahead was clear.  Moving quickly, the crew moved up the central corridor, aiming for the security room, with Jack and Kari in the lead.

In the second turn in the vault, Reece spotted the mech in the parallel corridor using the visor. It couldn’t see any of the team yet but, depending which way it moved, it could be on the team in no time. Kari and Jack sprinted up the corridor in an attempt get around it’s flank.  Unfortunately the dice were cruel and the mech move straight at the team.  Rounding the corner, it opened up with its auto rifle on Reece and Mila.  Mila was saved as the rounds hit the corner she was hiding behind, but Reece wasn’t so lucky, taking a hit.  Knocked back by the blow, he was somewhat surprised to find he was still standing, having been saved by the frag vest he was wearing!  Deciding discretion was the better part of valour, he ducked around the corner (characters who take a hit that doesn’t wound can only move or fire, not both), clearing the line of fire for Anul and Nathan.

Busted!

(The corridors are many years old, assembled from thin card.  Unearthed them for this game but found they were in quite serious need of some repair!)

Despite towering over them, Nathan, Anul and Mila stood their ground and returned fire with calm, aimed shots.  All of them hit the target; Anul’s blast pistol glanced off the robot’s sloped armour, but both Mila and Nathan’s shots struck home – Mila’s handgun finding a weak spot in the right side sensor blister, and Nathan’s rifle penetrating the front plate with a square on hit.  With sparks and a shudder, the machine came to a grinding halt, before slowly toppling over.  With the way now clear,  the team headed straight for the vault to recover the artefact.  Along the way, Nathan attempted to shut down the bots above ground, but was frustrated by the bio-security measures.

Shoot it! Quick! Nathan, Mila and Anul pour on the fire

The team exited the vault by the service lift, only to find two of the mechs uncomfortably close, and between them and the perimeter wall.  Not wanting to get into an unnecessary firefight, they moved over to an outbuilding, popped the lock (getting good use of those task rolls) and waited.  A few tense turns followed as the mechs got closer.  Nathan was just considering hotwiring one of the collection of vehicles to make an escape attempt, when the mechs abruptly changed direction, creating an opportunity for the team to make a stealthy (and swift!) exit. 

Aftermath

Having made a clean exit, the collector was unable to identify the intruders on his return, saving the crew from making another enemy.

In payment they collected five credits and a stabiliser (handy for the shell gun, which no longer counts as heavy), plus two broken weapons (an auto rifle and suppression maul) looted from the destroyed mech.

XPs were distributed, With Reece and Mila levelling up a stat each.

More interestingly, on their return to the Envoy, a surprise was awaiting Mila, a message from an old friend, also looking to break out from the Faith and join her (I rolled a campaign event – 'add new character', and a 'character event – making friends').