DriveThruRPG.com
Narrow Results
$ to $















Back
pixel_trans.gif
Five Parsecs From Home - Solo Adventure Wargaming $21.00
Average Rating:4.7 / 5
Ratings Reviews Total
25 10
8 0
2 0
0 0
0 0
Five Parsecs From Home - Solo Adventure Wargaming
Click to view
You must be logged in to rate this
pixel_trans.gif
Five Parsecs From Home - Solo Adventure Wargaming
Publisher: Modiphius
by Thomas G. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 05/12/2022 12:29:49

Five Parsecs is the game I never knew I always wanted.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
pixel_trans.gif
Five Parsecs From Home - Solo Adventure Wargaming
Publisher: Modiphius
by Sigmund N. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 12/24/2021 07:20:47

Great solo game, and I'd think it'd be great for multiple players as well- both cooperative and going head-to-head. The campaign system is inspired, and it takes very little imagination to get a good story going in your head. If I were to complain about anything, it's that XP costs for upgrades is a bit low, as characters get very powerful very soon. And maybe it's a bit too easy to get patrons. Easily fixed with houserules though. If I could ask the author to fix just one thing, it would be to make a Crew Log sheet with space for an extra weapon for each crew members - they can carry 3 weapons (although one has to be a blade or pistol), and there's only room for two.

If you don't like playing with miniatures, just draw up random battlefields on a piece of grid paper and use a pencil to show positions. That's what I did, and it works great.

Best solo RPG/Miniatures game I've ever played.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
pixel_trans.gif
Five Parsecs From Home - Solo Adventure Wargaming
Publisher: Modiphius
by Sa R. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 12/16/2021 22:27:08

Ever feel like there's too many players at the table, and by the time it's your turn again all of your planned actions have come to nothing? This is the game for you. You control every character in battle, including your opponents. Action everywhere!

I've really loved the storytelling aspect of Five Parsecs. It doesn't seem to matter what you roll, you can always incorporate the result into the ongoing story in sometimes surprising ways. I've become very attached to my characters and actually went on a revenge rampage recently after the death of one of them (why? WHYYYYY?!).

There is a lot to this system - after five campaign turns I finally feel like I am consistently remembering to apply the rules correctly, although I still have a lot more to try just from this core rulebook. My husband did become a little frustrated, as the majority of battles have been tough. Whether it's poor rolls that knock a character out before they even make it to the field, or a great roll from the opponents that drop a character before they've had a chance to raise their weapon, or a post-battle roll that puts someone in sick bay for 6 turns, you always feel as if it is touch and go.

We have a battlemat and a few figures, but no landscape. I've been using markers on the mat, or cutting up cereal boxes. No fancy settings here but it still works. The hardest thing for me has been designing/researching the actual battlefield. I'm playing less now that lockdown has lifted, but I'm still putting time aside to play regularly.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
pixel_trans.gif
Five Parsecs From Home - Solo Adventure Wargaming
Publisher: Modiphius
by Luiz P. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 07/06/2021 12:20:39

This is a really good solo wargame.

I've tried Rangers of Shadowdeep (which I like quite a lot), but this one is very enjoyable because of how good it is a creating a story. The many tables, the many rolls you make outside of battle makes stories easy to come up with.

For instance, one of my crew clearly showcased himself as a troublemaker after exploring and causing a rival to show up, and then later getting into a fight. All of this because of character and campaign rolls.

Battle might be a slight contention for some folks because of how deadly everything is. Like straight up deadly, unless your character is wearing some special kind of armor (which after a few rolls in the loot table I realized how hard it is to find), the character can die with a single hit and wounded shot from an enemy. This does helps make the game a constant risk and battles may be one sided in some ways, but you should never kamikaze it, because your crew could straight up die. The AI system also plays quite well, so you are facing very disctinct enemies each time.

Also with the battle event tables, its very unlikely for battles to all be alike.

The game is quite worth its price in my opinion, best 20 bucks I spent this month.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
pixel_trans.gif
Five Parsecs From Home - Solo Adventure Wargaming
Publisher: Modiphius
by Chin K. L. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 07/03/2021 22:40:27

This edition takes an already good game, and added polish and smoothened the rough edges to make it a GREAT game.

If you have 2nd Edition, this is still a great edition to get as the additions and editing make it a wrothwhile buy. As an indication of how smoothly Modiphius and NWG managed the updating, I was able to transition my on-going 2nd Edition campign into the 3rd Edition without any difficulty.

If solo, RPG-lite sci0fi tabletop wargaming is your thing, you can't go wrong with this!

(Rating would be 4.5 as the game play aids provided are actually not as good as the fan-made ones done for 2nd Ed.)



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
pixel_trans.gif
Five Parsecs From Home - Solo Adventure Wargaming
Publisher: Modiphius
by Richard P. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 07/03/2021 11:50:54

I've been playing RPGs and wargames since the mid 80s. This is by far one of the best games I have ever played.

Do yourself a favor and grab this now. You will not be disappointed!



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
pixel_trans.gif
Five Parsecs From Home - Solo Adventure Wargaming
Publisher: Modiphius
by Lee S. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 06/06/2021 00:54:59

I immediately liked the game from what I saw in reviews, but I wanted to wait until I played at least one campaign turn to get a better grip on it.

So far, I'm really liking it.

I'm playing the battles on Tabletop Simulator so I have access to minis and terrain, and playing ther pre-battle and post-battle phases on my desk. I had mostly used TTS to play Castle Ravenloft, so my collected minis didn't quite fit the theme, but I think over time I'll build a better sci-fi collection to pull from. I'm even considering buying custom figures from Hero Forge. Entirely due to this game.

I like that on the first playthrough, I didn't have to read everything. A lot of the stuff only needs to be read if it's pertinent at the time. For example, my crew consists of three humans, a feral (felinoid) a precursor and a robot. So I could skip reading about the other aliens for now.

Combat is real simple to learn, but more thorough than it looks. Finally, a combat system that separates defense from the 'to hit' roll.

Five Parsecs really does have an X-Com or Heroclix feel to it as far as the tactics go. Another game it reminds me of is Avengers Alliance Tactics, a game I loved but flopped because it couldn't find its audience.

Something else Five Parsecs reminds me of is a little-known game that only appeared in a magazine - Star Wars: Corellian Smuggler. It was a solo game that had a Daily Activity chart and random events for traveling, arriving on a planet or just hanging around at the starport. I liked it a lot, but it faded out of view and barely made any impact. Likely due to its limited release.

The reason I bring these up is because I've been house-ruling most of these things from these different games into my rpgs, with varying results. Recently, I got Star Wars: Outer Rim and was working on adapting parts of Corellian Smuggler over to it.

Then I discovered Five Parsecs from Home. The price tag scared me off at first. I rarely buy anything on DTRPG over $10. Unless it's a physical product. But then I saw the in-depth review by TheSoloWargamingShow. Wow. After a day of pondering it, and realizing that I could've bought two $10 games on DTRPG that I'd crack open once then forget about, as opposed to a $20 game that I may really like... I finally dived in.

Five Parsecs is just elegant. It does what it sets out to do. Gameplay is really smooth. Once I finished reading the rules (ending at the weapon list), I was ready to start playing. Everything else I learned as I played the game.

One thing that should probably be mentioned sooner is to keep track of the first non-robot hero that takes out an enemy. For dealing out the XP later. Fortunately, I knew it was one of two heroes and one of them was a robot. So I figured it out after the fact.

I also don't mind that there's really no ship combat in the game. I was always more of a Wing Commander: Privateer player than an X-Wing Starfighter player, so I'll survive. I may house rule the modular combat from Corellian Smuggler over to it later.

Before I started playing, I was a bit disappointed that there wasn't a quickstart available for the game. Especially since it's $20. But once I started playing, I realized that a quickstart would be almost impossible to do without it giving away all the rules. And if you're going to play it, you really want all the charts that are in the book.

I tend to buy PDFs first, then if I really like the game, I'll buy a physical copy. However, with Five Parsecs, it shot itself in the foot by not only being $20 for the PDF, but alao being so much more expensive in print. Ordering from the Modiphius site, the physcal copy is $37. Plus shipping to the US for $32. A total of $69. After I've already spent $20 on the PDF to see if I liked it.

Make no mistake about it: I really, really do like this game. I love it, even. But spending $89 total would be a bit outrageous for me. You're still getting five stars, because it's an amazing system and I see myself playing for many years. I'll also be on the lookout for upcoming products for Five Parsecs, as well as any updated Five X from X games.

Congratulations on a job well done. And finally giving me the framework I needed for my homebrew games.

Detailed gameplay here: https://reprep.blogspot.com/2021/06/five-parsecs-from-home.html



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
pixel_trans.gif
Creator Reply:
Thanks for the great review! We actually give the PDF price as a discount on the hard copy if you decide to trade up - just contact support@modiphius.com We will have local shipping in the US from our webstore from the end of June, though copies won't be shipping there till August - hope that helps!
pixel_trans.gif
Five Parsecs From Home - Solo Adventure Wargaming
Publisher: Modiphius
by William E. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 05/29/2021 04:36:28

Excellent little solo skirmish campaign game. The combat might be simple compared to some crunchier games but that all helps facilitate rapid engagements and pushing your personal campaign forward. The various character creation options, equipment lists, enemy types, and objectives stimulate the imagination and make each turn interesting for the sake of seeing what will happen next. Sometimes some ill-equipped gangers ambush your crew and are wiped out in two turns, other times you're up against trained mercenaries, alien horrors, or overwhelming odds that push you to your limit and make retreat seem like an attractive option - this is truly a game where you'd rather live to fight another day.

The author has already announced continuing support to bring optional crunch in for players hungry for more, but the current difficulty options as well as the dangerous and deadly Red and Black Zone missions are enough to keep anyone going with this book alone for a long time. The built-in "prestige" system and ability to bring in characters from the related Five Parsecs: Bug Hunt game to join your crew feed into the core strength of this game: it wants you to play, play, and play, and you can't help but buy in just to see what will happen next.

This is THE solo sci-fi skirmish game if you want to find that balance between creativity, speed of play, and entertainment value.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
pixel_trans.gif
Five Parsecs From Home - Solo Adventure Wargaming
Publisher: Modiphius
by Christopher B. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 05/29/2021 02:35:46

I'll admit, I was skeptical of this new edition but I was just being a hipster. Once I actually took a look through the book I was glad I got it. The finishing and editing, all the polish sets this apart from other NWG titles. I hope to see more titles get the modiphius treatment.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
pixel_trans.gif
Five Parsecs From Home - Solo Adventure Wargaming
Publisher: Modiphius
by Erik R. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 05/28/2021 09:51:16

This is really a stellar game. It's a neat blend of wargaming, rpgs, campaign systems and solitaire play. For the uniniated, you take a band of heroes out into the far fringes of the galaxy and play out a story. It's something like Firefly meets Trigun meets Mass Effect, and you're the poor jerks just trying to make a living out there. The game really shines in its campaign system, with tables and events that don't feel random but rather like part of an evolving plot if you let your imagination run. The combat gameplay is fine, complexity wise it's well suited to solo play. Some players might find it a bit too simple for their tastes, but it's easy enough to tweak (or even outright replace).

To be fair, I've been a fan of Five Parsecs and Nordic Weasel for a long time, so my review is not without bias. But, that said, this is definitely the best version of the game that I've laid eyes on. For players of the second edition, there are some new surprises, but overall it's the same game. But it's clear that Modiphius has really stepped up to the plate and turned what was already a great game into an excellent product. The color and layouts are neat and the art is pretty good. A much appreciated section on the "Unity" universe has been added (though it will seem quite familiar to fans of Renegade Scout), and there are plenty of extras and goodies. It's well worth the price and I really look forward to seeing what else Nordic Weasel and Modiphius can do together.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
pixel_trans.gif
Displaying 1 to 10 (of 10 reviews) Result Pages:  1 
pixel_trans.gif
pixel_trans.gif Back pixel_trans.gif
0 items
 Gift Certificates