I’ve written before how Five Parsecs From Home: Solo Adventure Wargaming, Third Edition by lead designer and writer Ivan Sorensen (Modiphius Entertainment, 2021) is the prototypical adventure wargame. Part wargame and part roleplaying game (RPG), in July that meant it qualified for sales as part of DriveThruRPG’s Christmas in July sale. That gave me the chance to pick up two expansions for the Five Parsecs Form Home game system: Expansion 1 – The Trailblazer’s Toolkit (2021) and Expansion 2 – The Freelancer’s Handbook (2023). While neither expansion is absolutely necessary for play both offer new options that keep Five Parsecs From Home battles and campaigns interesting and ever-changing.
Trailblazer Hotness
The Five Parsecs From Home rules are modular by design and the first expansion has optional rules that can be dropped in—or left out—according to your desires. The Trailblazer’s Toolkit includes:
- Introductory Campaign – “A gentle introduction to teach the core game rules a little bit at a time.”
- Name Generation Tables – “Random tables to name things in your campaign.”
- Progressive Difficulty Increases – “Options to ramp up the challenge of your campaign.”
- Difficulty Toggles – “Numerous options to toggle the exact level of challenge.”
- Player vs. Player Battles – “Take on your friend’s crew in a pitched battle.”
- Expanded Co-op Battles – “Two crews take on a determined enemy together.”
- AI Variations – “More random AI behaviors on the battlefield.”
- Enemy Deployment Variables – “Set up the enemy in unexpected ways.”
- Escalating Battles – “As a battle progresses, the opposition intensifies.”
- Elite-level Enemies – “Much tougher enemy tables to really make your battles a nail-biter.”
Of the options presented in The Trailblazer’s Toolkit, I found some essential, others very useful, and others not personally necessary but still welcome.
Essential. The “Introductory Campaign” in The Trailblazer’s Toolkit is very helpful to teach the game over the course of five Campaign Turns. No rules beyond the core rule book are needed. That said, I’m not sure how “gentle” it is but it does teach the game quite effectively…
Very useful. The most useful new options to me found in The Trailblazer’s Toolkit are those that deal with difficulty (“Progressive Difficulty Increases” and “Difficulty Toggles”) and enemies (“AI Variations,” “Enemy Deployment Variables,” “Escalating Battles,” and “Elite-level Enemies”).
Not necessary but useful. Personally, I don’t need the name generation tables found in The Trailblazer’s Toolkit but I can see how some might find them useful. Sure, I will likely use them when I’m lazy and just need a name for a battle or skirmish and am not building a campaign world. Likewise, given I bought Five Parsecs of Home to be a solo adventure wargame experience, I am not rushing off to use the “Player vs. Player Battles” or even the “Expanded Co-op Battles” sections.
Freeform Freelancer’s
Whereas The Trailblazer’s Toolkit for Five Parsecs From Home focuses on the battle, the second expansion, The Freelancer’s Handbook, focuses more on options to enhance a campaign by offering new character and game options as well as different scenarios and settings. The Freelancer’s Handbook presents:
- Character Options
- “Meet two new crew species – the Skulkers and the Krag – and discover how to integrate psionics into your campaign.“
- “New Kit – psionics, new Bot upgrades, new ship parts, and new training options.“
- Game Options
- “No-Mini Combat Resolution – Play Five Parsecs without miniatures or a map.“
- “Expanded Ways to Play – Expanded missions, expanded quest progression, and expanded connections.“
- “Dramatic Combat – including dramatic weapons.“
- Scenarios & Settings
- “Fringe World Strife – Add chaos and unpredictability to the worlds of the Fringe.“
- “Loans: Who Do You Owe? – Expanded detail for your ship loans.“
- “Salvage Jobs – A new type of mission.“
Muck like my approach to The Trailblazer’s Toolkit, some of the options in The Freelancer’s Guide are more essential than others to my personal campaign. The new scenario and setting options are the most welcome as well as the the new species. I am reserving judgement on the psionics rules for now as I want to explore them a bit more as I generally prefer a “no-magic” or “very-low magic” setting in my campaigns. The game options are a mixed bag; I generally welcome the “Expanded Ways to Play” but am not so hot on “Dramatic Combat.” “No-Mini Combat Resolution” frankly baffles me:
The battlefield is considered to be an open, abstract space, filled with terrain for combatants to lurk behind.
Most of the time, you do not need to track the positioning of characters using this system. Each combatant is assumed to be moving fluidly throughout the battle space. This applies even if two characters engage in a Brawl: They are assumed to fight briefly, and then run for cover. As such, characters are not assumed to be “near” each other at any specific point other than when the rules allow them to engage in Brawling combat.
The battlefield may have specific Locations present, such as objectives. A character can move to a Location during the battle using the rules below. The turn sequence is heavily modified, as explained below…
The Freelancer’s Handbook, p. 22
It is very unlikely that I will ever use the “No-Mini Combat Resolution”…at least as portrayed in The Freelancer’s Handbook. My version of “No-Mini Combat” is to use older Traveller RPG and FASA Star Trek RPG counters on my old wet-marker Battlemat. It’s not minis but it works!
Feature image courtesy Modiphius
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