INTRODUCTION
After playing Pathfinder for a while I wanted to give something a little different a go so I decided to have a look at some science fiction and so I decided to have a go a FiveCore and the excellent Five Parsecs from Home campaign system.
I rolled up 5 characters and their ship "The Gremlin" and played out an initial mission.
The results are below.
GAME WRITE UP
"All right, were here," flicking a series of switches and going through the shutdown routine quickly Hugo turns to Mikael, "alright. Let's go and pick up some supplies and see if we can find a little work. I just know there's someone around here that'll need our help."
"Willem you guard the ship, Mikael why don't you see if you can find us some work, Staff and I will go and do some trading and Torger, you do what ever you want, That's all you ever do anyway." Torger had joined the crew of the Gremlin three months ago and had never gotten along with Hugo. But still he was good in a fight and they needed the extra man power to run their old ship.
Willem snaps to attention and then immediately relaxes again. Turning to leave, his servers are clearly audible. As big, 7ft tall war bot ducks its head as it slowly leaves the mess. Lighting a cigar a blue ring of smoke trails behind the robot and Mikael wonders why it is that a robot gains so much enjoyment from smoking cigars.
Torger is the first out of the ship. After a week in hyper he's sick of the sight of Hugo. He decides to go and see the sights but finds nothing interesting to get too within the day or so and so settles into a bar. He hears a few rumors about ancient ruins and pokey religions but nothing solid to go on.
Staff and Hugo visit the local traders and are able to pick up a local map (get a free Scurry turn before the mission starts, discard after use) and a Concealed Blade.
The meet later that evening back at the ship. "I met this guy, Anton" Mikael begins. "Anyways we got to talking and he said that he needs this package delivered."
"Here we go" starts off Torger.
"Put a zip on it Torger" responds Hugo. "Not like you found anything useful."
"Anyways, as I was say'n. Anton need a package delivered but can't do it himself. Got too much heat on him at the moment."
"Yeah I don't know about this." Torger just can't help himself.
"Well why don't you sit this one out, we need someone to guard the ship in any case. But anyways, Anton said that if we do the delivery he's got some Bionic Parts for us. Apparently they enable you to move easier (Slither – may ignore obstacles and rough ground when moving). As a sweetener he said he'd throw in a Medical Kit as well. Nice eh?", Mikael finishes.
"What's the opposition?" asks Hugo.
"Ahh not much. Just some local punks." Answers Mikael.
"Yeah well I want in on that", Torger demands, "why doesn't Staff guard the ship."
Looking rather relieved Staff nods his head in agreement. "Yup I'm up for guarding the ship. Got some repairs to do in any case."
REVIEW
This is a great game fitting right in between roleplaying and skirmish level wargaming.
The character generation system is quick and gives you a lot of background from which to work with. There are plenty of weapons, all of which have an effect on the battlefield and this should keep any gun junky happy. It's a very adaptable system and could easily be used for Star Wars, Star Trek or any other sort of sci fi genre.
I only scratched the surface of the game and with more figures and more playing of the rules more sophisticated tactics will come through than what happened in my little mission.
There are solo rules and rule for progressing your characters which is great. There are also some vehicle rules.
DEW