This is going to be the beginning of the very first campaign after action report (AAR) on this blog.
Unlike an ‘Actual Play’, where I go over (almost) every part of the game session as it happens, I’m only going to cover the more important events of the campaign. Sometimes that may mean a detailed look at a specific scenario, while at other times I might summarize several gaming sessions in a short blog post.
I chose this format because I want a distinct difference to my Solo RPG write-ups, and because I don’t like to constantly interrupt my wargaming sessions with meticulous note-keeping. Knowing which dice got rolled when doesn't really matter. The resulting narrative is the interesting part, and that's what I'm going to share with you.
I’m excited to see how this format is going to play out over the span of this campaign, and would love to hear your feedback on how easy it is to follow the story.
The Game
Five Parsecs from Home sounds like the perfect game for me. It’s designed for solo play, has a narrative focus, and has an enemy AI that isn’t just acting like braindead zombies.
I bought my physical copy together with the fantasy version Five Leagues from the Borderlands, and I’m really excited to see how these games play out on the table.
The core book has everything you need to run a complete campaign, but I chose to pick up the PDF version (I prefer physical books, but money is tight right now and the world is expensive) of The Trailblazer’s Toolkit as well. It offers a few additional tools to customize the game, and I was specifically interested in the introductory campaign, the name generators, elite enemies, and the difficulty variations.
The Plan
The introductory campaign from The Trailblazer’s Toolkit is designed to slowly introduce the game concepts to the player. This is my first time with this game, so it sounds like the perfect entry point. I looked it over, and it is very generic and should be easy to mold into a personalized story that will match my crew.
Speaking of my crew, the core book offers a few different methods of crew creation, but I’m always going to choose random creation if a game offers it. It’s just way too much fun to organically develop the character’s backstory through the dice, and it somehow always leads to interesting concepts.
Overall, my plan is very simple:
- Randomly generate a crew
- Pick or paint fitting miniatures
- Play the introductory campaign
- Paint terrain and minis as necessary
The core book recommends having a few groups of enemies ready to go, but I like to paint things as they come up during the game. I don’t mind the break between scenarios, and it gives me the opportunity to customize the minis/terrain for the specific scenario I need.
The Next Step
The next post is going to cover the crew, the minis I’ve chosen for them, and anything else that may come up during crew creation.
I might also use my Main Oracle to help me generate a more detailed backstory as necessary. The narrative is very important to my solo wargaming sessions, and even a basic foundation at the start does wonders for the long-term cohesion of the story.
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