Five Parsecs From Home: The Final Frontier

By the mid 21st century humanity had stepped timidly into space, but had already lost it's way. Greed was good. Multinationals and the super wealthy owned the world. The planet suffered. Leaders had forgotten what it was to lead. War was inevitable, Then it came. In the aftermath The Long Winter reminded humanity what it was to be human. For survival of the species, against the odds we rose from the ice and ashes fostering an age of cooperation, for the good of all. We moved mountains, and made a new world, laying the foundations for the next steps in our incredible journey. In 2193 The orbital yards at Luna were completed, By 2250 a human colonist took their first breath of clean Martian air. In 2329 The first extrasolar colony was founded on Alpha Centauri 4. Then, In 2364 the Marconi Array on the edge of human space detected the first evidence there was intelligent life out there. So we went to meet the neighbors.

Some of the reference material for the campaign.

Welcome to part one of the preamble for my "Five Parsecs From Home" campaign.  In an earlier post sharing some terrain from the project I mentioned my appreciation for TOS Star Trek and my plan to use it as the inspiration for my campaign.  I've been digging through my collection and mining it for ideas.  If I had to pick a star player for this one I'd choose the compendium (behind Enterprise).  It's an episode to episode chronology of the original series (and the films up to V) that digs into the screenplays and the stories surrounding the production.  It gave me a feel for what I'd like to do in the "episodes" and refamiliarized me with the tropes that will be making appearances throughout the campaign.  For the most part I've been able to do what I wanted as far as characters and the setting were concerned within the framework of the rules with some exceptions.

Behind the curtain the props department are burning the midnight oil.

At the tail end of equipment generation I standardized equipment. The beam pistol is the ubiquitous phaser analog of the setting. My away team may suffer as a result of limited ranges, but it's likely that alien species will also have similar controls applied to their kit to keep them more uniform as well. I want to pick signature weapons and in some cases kit for particular groups of adversaries to give them character. Since this is going to be my first run through things may not work out as intended, but I can always switch things up on the way as I learn. I've since received a couple Time Tunnel specialists (fancy weapons) so I will be able to fake in one, or two.

Alien invaders demand resources, but they aren't even painted yet.

Resources in a Five Parsecs campaign are acquired as credits. To simulate a more Trek styled campaign the resource units are now tied to matter configuration on the ship. Those numbers can remain unchanged with the "price" of units constant across the board. For most practical purposes the upkeep of the ship and resources in reserve all translate without too much issue. I see the technology of the Five Light Years campaign not quite up to Trek standards of the 2360s. Where The Enterprise had matter fabrication our ship is reduced to advanced 3d printing technology and reclamation systems which can make items as required from a resource pool that is essentially standing in reserve on ship. More raw materials could be collected from local space which is the justification for the flow of credits required within the game mechanics.

A United Earth vessel passes through an asteroid field

There isn't much to the ship other than a resource hub/base within 5 Parsecs. For the first season I'm likely to keep it that way although ships should make appearances as sets or story devices in the narratives I present. I would love an excuse to break out some 1/7000 scale Trek starships and engage in some space battles, but I still haven't worked out how that will mesh with the surface campaign. I'm looking at a few rulesets and Star Fleet Battles: A Call to Arms is the most likely candidate. I think it captures the flavor of Trek, but isn't as cumbersome as SFB proper. I'll be using the Mongoose 1st edition because ADB's revisions mostly seem to turn back the clock on expediting the flow of the game.

.

Galactic map under construction.

Another concession is WYSIWYG. Since it's a solo game there isn't any misleading another player or causing confusion. The character card below is good example. It isn't very "Trek" to be waving a Shatter Axe around. The weapon is described as creating a field or current. I decided the effects of the act would be attributed to the strength of the robot and her ability to conduct energy into her hands. I think Robbie from Lost in Space could do something to this effect and it feels a little bit like a "Space Chi" trick, reminiscent of a Vulcan Nerve Pinch, albeit robot style.

Presentable vs. Notebook Scribbles

Another reason the project is taking a while to prepare is the additional effort required to present the games in a format that's attractive to the eye.  I wouldn't play if I didn't have miniatures and terrain that inspired me so I'm OK with bookkeeping in my notebooks.  Familiarity and the intended pictures in my head allow me to extropolate from those scrawled notes to self and turn them into a narrative.  That doesn't translate so well to a relatively polished blog post so it takes me back to mucking around with RPG gamemastering handouts which are another facet of this hobby I love.  As someone who has repeatedly failed to take my art from the sketch pad to digital format I still like mucking around with electronic design even if I'm limited to photographs and my own line art isn't on the menu. 

  

Ships on the line.

Those are the larger concerns for the project.  I'm sure there are all sorts of details that will crop up and confound me, but those can be tackled as they come up.  If I don't get at it soon I'll it could devolve into another abstract thought experiment for my own entertainment.  While I'm OK with that and the bulk of my "ImagiNations" do just that I'd like to have some content to share that will hopefully be better appreciated than that.