Five Parsecs From Home: The Voyage of the Power Cruiser - Meet the Crew

 After watching some of the adventures of the Blackraven crew on the Joy of Wargaming, Number 2 son asked that we create our own starship crew for some good sci-fi adventuring.  Sensing an opportunity, I grabbed my copy of Five Parsecs from Home and got him rolling some dice.

Without further ado, may I introduce the crew of the Power Cruiser: 

Arel Warders is a human male.

Arel Warders

Orphan Utility Programme

Desires fame

Mercenary

Arel is a product of the Orphan Utility Programme, taken in by the state and given training and an education.  Having no parents, Arel feels compelled to seek approval from anyone that he can.  Becoming famous will give him the recognition he feels he deserves.  Lacking any particular talent for technical skills, performance or creative arts, Arel’s skill lay in fighting, and the OUP encouraged him towards military service.  Having mustered out of the Neo Colonial Commonwealth military, Arel set himself up as a mercenary, and likes to demonstrate his fighting prowess.  He has come to Lissen to seek employment.

XP 0; Reactions 1; Speed 4"; Combat Skill +1; Toughness 3; Savvy +0. 

Eandyne Rookson is a human male.

Eandyne Rookson

 

Religious Cult

Desires freedom

Mercenary

Eandyne belonged to The Kedrine Associative, a religious cult who train large numbers of their "associates" as mercenaries and hired him out to earn money to support the cult.  Having been exposed to different cultures and worlds during his time as a mercenary, Eandyne has realised the opportunities available and desires freedom from the constraints of the cult.  He is considering throwing his lot in with the people of Lissen, who he considers are as much prisoners of the Pactolan government as he was a prisoner of the Kedrine Associative.  His most recent employer was the Sector Government and Eandyne still has contact with them (patron).

XP 2; Reactions 1; Speed 4"; Combat Skill +1; Toughness 3; Savvy +0. 

Dennio Arciark is a human male empath.

Dennio Arciark

 

Military Brat

Desires revenge against Nagrican outlaws

Punk

As an empath, Dennio has low-level psychic abilities, and can read emotional states in others.  In theory, this should make him very good at dealing with others, but he has a deep-rooted anger that makes him deliberately rub others up the wrong way.  Moving around with his parents to various military postings, Dennio frequently relocated as soon as he had started to feel at home.  In his teen years, Dennio rebelled against the militaristic attitudes that pervaded his life, adopting a punk lifestyle.  His father was killed in action fighting against Nagrican pirates and now he desires revenge against them.  His punk lifestyle has sometimes brought him into conflict with others, most recently some Psychos with whom he had a run-in.  He believes that he has tracked the Nagricans to the planet Lissen.

XP 4; Reactions 1; Speed 4"; Combat Skill +1; Toughness 3; Savvy +0.  

Larry Tere is a human male.

Larry Tere

 

Low Tech Colony

Desires technology

Petty Criminal

Larry loves technology.  That’s unfortunate, because living on the low-tech colony agri-world Lissen means that he doesn’t get access to much.  Larry’s knack with technical equipment made him well-known in his village, and people would come from far and wide to ask him to fix broken items.  This led to requests for more unusual items, and Larry was soon the local “go-to” source for any illicit tech requirements.  Local enforcers would overlook his illegal activities in return for servicing of any items they might acquire to improve their own lives.  Larry is eager to get off-world to indulge his love of technology, get to grips with more complex machinery and take advantage of the improved lifestyle which it would bring.  Larry’s illegally acquired repair bot (+1 to repair rolls) will be coming with him.

XP 0; Reactions 1; Speed 5"; Combat Skill +0; Toughness 3; Savvy +1.  

 

 Gordi is a precursor female.

Gordi

Industrial World

Desires revenge against psychos

Scoundrel

Gordi hails from the industrial world Chindivrium.  She is something of a scoundrel.  She desires revenge against the same Psychos that dislike Dennio, they have left a trail of death and destruction across several planets, and Gordi has followed it to Lissen.

XP 2; Reactions 1; Speed 6"; Combat Skill +0; Toughness 2; Savvy +0.  

 

Hany Flemer is a human male.

Hany Flemer

Comfortable Mega-City on Pactolus

Desires truth

Agitator (trouble with pirates)

Citizen Flemer is comfortably well-off and brings some important financial backing (6 credits) to the crew.  He has also come by a rumour, in the form of a map which shows the location of an old smuggler base up in the foothills of the Iron Mountains, which may be worth a visit.  He is something of a crusader, seeking truth about the government on Pactolus, where the inhabitants are differentiated by height, "Tallers" being full citizens but "Shorters" being treated as little more than property, with severe restrictions on their lives, and minimal rights. He has also seen how the workers on Lissen are oppressed and forced to live in what he sees as primitive conditions.  Hany has been encouraging others to campaign for civil rights on Pactolus, and has just started rabble-rousing on Lissen, where he is seeking more information about how they are forced to live.  Recently his agitation has resulted in trouble, with some pirates taking an interest in him - presumably they have been paid off to "discourage" him, apparently in a fairly permanent way.  On a low-tech world like Lissen, accidents can easily happen...

XP 0; Reactions 1; Speed 4"; Combat Skill +0; Toughness 3; Savvy +0.  

 

The crew are "somewhat honourable bandits", who met through their dislike of the Pactolan government.  Between them they have 12 Credits and 8 story points.

 

The Power Cruiser

An unreliable merchant cruiser, 30 hull points, 21 Credits in debt.

 Crew names were chosen from a Sci-fi name generator, I was given the task of working out how the crew came together and how to explain their characteristics etc.  This was apparently the "boring" bit, and watching a few episodes of Go-Jetters drew his attention elsewhere...

Rock Hard 1977 Board Game

Graham came round again for a games evening and our next door neighbour Matthew joined us too.  Graham brought Rock Hard 1977 for us to play, where you play a 1970's wannabe rock star.  This game was designed by Jackie Fox of The Runaways, so has the insider's view of what might be involved.

Rock Hard 1977

There are a number of characters to choose from, drummers, guitarists (bass and lead) and so on.  This can make a difference, your career can affect what certain cards do.  You also get a set of counters including a demo tape, record deal, fame marker (star), little red cubes to mark your royalty level and certain objectives.

My character, Leo Love the bass guitarist..

The parts fit into one of the best character boards I've come across, disguised as an amp.  Dials at the top record your current level of "chops", "reputation" and "songs" (required at certain levels to perform at different venues, also to improve your career), amount of royalties you're earning, candy "craving" (more on that later...).

Character board.

The game board is double sided depending on whether you have 2-3 or 4-5 players.  It records your "fame" around the edge of the board, whoever has the highest fame at the end of the game wins.  The accumulates during the game and there are various end-game bonuses available too if you meet certain criteria.  The next row, on the left an event card is turned over each month, next to this there are production, performance and publicity bonuses and on the right is the calendar.  Each turn represents a single month.  Every few months, you have to pay your manager.  The guitar picks mark the play order for the current month, something which can become extremely important as the game progresses.

The bottom 3/4 of the board is taken up by the day (yellow), night (green) and after hours hang-out (red).  You need certain prerequisites to perform certain tasks, and the lower down the board you go, the more difficult/expensive the tasks are, but the greater the rewards.  All of them have a requirement (marked in blue), cost (marked in red) and a result (marked in black).

During the day, you might start off with a radio interview which requires and costs nothing but earns you 1 reputation point.  You'll probably want to rehearse, either in Studio A costing $1 and earning you 1 Chops, or Studio B costing $2 but earning you 2 Chops.  You'll need to hire some crew, the cost of which increases depending on how many crew you already have and which box you manage to occupy.  As you can see, there are varying numbers of spaces for each task, some have only a single spot available, others are unlimited.  This is where turn order becomes important, because if you really need to complete a certain task, you need to  ensure you are early in the turn order, but more on that later!  Your aim is to get a record deal, for which you need a demo tape, and a minimum of 3 chops, 3 reputation and 3 songs.  You can improve the record deal as the game goes on, earning you more royalties each turn.

At night, you can go to a rehearsal studio, or perform at a venue. The starting venues require either 3 reputation (Fox Den) or 3 chops (TJ's) and earn you a point of fame and either 1 point of chops or reputation.  The next level requires a higher reputation or chops, and you also need 3 songs and a crew member, but you earn 3 fame, 1 chops/reputation, and if you're there first, you earn $1 too!  This is where my manager comes in, he earns me an extra $ every time I play at Panda Palace or Yenser Arena.  Requirements increase until at the very end of the game, you might have enough to play at the Carter Stadium.  There will also be a Random Gig every month, could be playing a Bar Mitzvah, a college party, all sorts of things.  They tend to get better as the game progresses.

After hours, you can choose to hang out at one of a number of different clubs etc, gathering cards with various icons which may come in useful for victory points at the end of the game.  I can't remember what all the icons were but the yellow ones (two wine-glasses) were "fun", the red (lips) were "Romance".  You can also choose to record a demo tape or even "go to bed early".

Above the day/night/after hours section are 4 other options, all of which can have any number of players occupying them:  "Donate Blood" (earning you $1), "Write a Song" (earning you one song), "Work" (carry out your job as per your job card) and "Buy or Sell Candy" (earning/costing $1.  This seems a good time to talk about "Candy", which most readers will have guessed is a euphemism.  Everyone gets one piece of "Candy" at the start of the game, and you can acquire it through various card events (eg the college party).  You can take a piece of "Candy" during your turn to try and get an extra action.  There is a deck of cards for the "Candy", you draw one to find out whether you have "soft candy" (1 extra action), "hard candy" (2 extra actions) or "candy" that has been cut so it has no effect. Then you turn your "craving" dial up one point and roll a die to see if you have developed such a strong craving (if you roll under your current craving level) that you need to go into rehab "recovery" for the next daytime turn.  Certain activities can't be done when taking "Candy", such as working, playing a gig, going to bed early, going to the rehearsal studio (though curiously you can give blood when under the influence!).

You will see that some activies have a black and white guitar pick shape by them, containing a number.  This gives the turn order for the next month.  So, if you really want to bag that record deal, make sure you "Go to Bed Early" to be the first player on the next turn to ensure you get the only available spot!  The "After Hours" clubs have a random number, these are little counters that get shuffled at the start of each month.

The game board.

Ready to start... every character has a manager who has a special skill, in my instance I get an extra $ if I play at 2 venues.  Everyone also has a job, in my case I'm a veterinary assistant.  I earn $2 per day and have to work evenings, making it difficult for me to play a gig without missing work.  You also start with some life experience, giving you one of the "after hours" icons to start with.  Everyone has two secret objectives, mine were to earn more "romance" after hours cards that the one with the blue cameras icon (as received in my life experience) and also to earn more fun (yellow wine glasses) than any other single colour.

Ready to start!

Every month an Event Card is turned over.  These have very random effects.  They might mean a venue is unavailable one month.  Another reduced the cost of acquiring a crew member that month by $1 (meaning that someone actually got their first crew member free!).  For the last turn, we drew the "Bad Candy" card which meant that no-one could use Candy that turn, foiling a couple of players' plans!

Mid-game.  You can see that I've missed work once, earning the "missed work" counter on the left.  If you miss work 3 time, you lose your job.  My character worked evenings, meaning I had to miss work in order to perform at a venue.  Other players had characters who had the option to work late nights, or rolled a D6 to see what time of day they had to work each month (with variable pay depending on time of day).  One character was a waiter and rolled a D6 to determine how much they earned in tips each time they worked... they rolled badly and lost $2 two months in succession because the customers walked out without paying and it was docked from their earnings!  I have some "candy" (pink sweet) and a crew member (top right).  I've used my manager when playing a gig to earn my extra $1 (manager card turned sideways). I've also got a record deal, indicated by the little cardboard record token.  (To get the record deal, I needed a demo tape first, you can see that top right, next to the character board.)

Mid-game.

There are counters for candy, crew, and "missed work".

Candy, crew and "missed work" counters.

End of the game.  I missed work 3 time, so lost my job, but I'm earning enough that it doesn't matter.  I have 2 crew members and I've hung-out a lot.

End of the game.

You can see the results of some of the "After Hours" card here.  Some give you a straight benefit such as extra money or reputation, others provide candy.  Some give you a choice which may be two possible good options (earn $1 and a song, or 1 reputation), or varied options (earn 2 reputation but lose next daytime turn or lose 1 reputation but earn an extra daytime turn).  I also gained 4 red lipped romance cards, so gained extra victory points from one of my objectives.  I also earned extra for one of the production/performance/publicity bonuses along the top of the board.  These tended to give various levels of fame as a reward, 8 for having the most of something, then 5, 3, 1.

All the places I've hung out.

This was my favourite card, not one that I drew but definitely worth remembering!

Not one I got, but the best one I saw in the game!

 We also received bonus fame for every skill that had reached 11 on the amp (chops, reputation & songs) and I got extra bonus fame for having all 3 at maximum.  Some of the Production, Peformance and Publicity fame bonuses were picked up too, with points awarded 8 for the most, 5, 3, 1.  You also earn 1 fame point for every $3 that you still have at the end of the game.  I haven't mentioned the currency yet, the game comes with dollar bills which come "pre-used" with coffee-rings, stains, doodles, really great quality!

Graham won, I was second (thanks to a lot of end-of-game bonuses), Laura third and Matthew fourth (the bad luck with the pay really delayed him over a critical couple of turns).

 Not knowing much about rock (unlike Graham, who is a big fan), we weren't sure what we'd think, but we all really enjoyed the game.  It's all fairly easy to follow, no music knowledge is needed (though thinks make more sense if you know a bit, eg needing a demo tape before you can get a record deal etc), cards and tasks generally explain pretty clearly what they need and how they affect things.  Great fun!

Diceni 2025 - coming soon! Sunday 4th May

 Diceni is nearly upon us, well worth a look if you're in the vicinity of The Forum in Norwich next Sunday, 4th May!  Free entry, lots of demo and participation games, various retailers, some big, some small, see the map and advert below for more details.

 The Diceni Facebook page has lots of details on the demo/participation games that will be there this year, including miniaturised Warhammer Quest, Star Wars Shatterpoint, Moonstone, Legions Imperialis, Lord of the Rings and more.

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100064700951933

 A few pictures from last year...

Bloodbowl

Main Hall

1980's Afghanistan

Full Spectrum Dominance

ROK Minis