Five Parsecs From Home is a solo adventure wargame where you assemble a ragtag crew of galactic trailblazers and head out to explore the stars, pick up jobs, and every now and then — engage in some action-packed, sci-fi combat!

Battles are procedurally generated with huge combinations of enemies, weapons, battlefield circumstances and objectives whether fighting rivals or carrying out jobs.

With each encounter you earn experience and loot, progressing your crew and story as you send your crew to look for contacts, trade, explore the colony, recruit replacements or train up their skills.

The game is playable with any miniatures you have on hand and requires only a small number to get started, making it ideal for both experienced and new science fiction gamers. All you need is a few six-sided dice and a couple of ten-sided dice.

Check below for Unified Space Transmissions with bonus content!

Featuring everything you need for your very own galactic trailblazing campaign:

  • 184 page full-colour Royal Size (15.6cm x 23.4cm) hardback book perfect for the tabletop, packed full of full-colour art with Free PDF, or PDF only.
  • A fast-moving system, built for solo gaming from the ground up.
  • RPG-lite adventure wargame experience with miniatures.
  • Create a wide range of characters whether human, alien or robot.*
  • Miniatures agnostic - use whatever you have
  • After each battle, your crew may die from their injuries or level up and find new items and information.
  • Upgrade your starship with expansion modules *
  • Procedurally generate a huge array of possible missions, with more than 50 enemy types.
  • Random tables for towns, trade, character events and starship travel.
  • 5 difficulty settings and super-hard Black and Red Zone jobs*
  • Extensive options for Game Mastering scenarios, allowing complex RPG-like campaigns to be played with connected scenario plots, environmental hazards and factional conflict.*
  • 7 stage narrative solo campaign*

 

This is a full retail edition of the community favourite solo sci-fi wargame by Ivan Sorensen of Nordic Weasel games and comes with lots of new content (noted with a * on the right), full graphic layout design and lots of stunning full-colour art throughout.



Join the crew and get the latest news from the frontier!

Subscribe to UK/EU/ROW News

* indicates required

Subscribe to US/Canada News

* indicates required

Battle Reports & Reviews on Youtube


Me, Myself and Die!

CementSaul

Rob's Tabletop World


Owlbear Soup

Weight of Fire

The Solo Wargaming Show

Jaguars Den Games


Blogs


    Preview is not currently available for this section only on the live url page


Frequently Asked Questions

This is a running Q&A as questions come up, whether to clarify concepts people are confused by or catch mistakes for future printings. This will be updated as questions come in. Questions are paraphrased from emails and social media messages. All answers by Ivan Sorensen. 

Q: If I cant figure out a rule, what should I do?

A: The first thing to do is read the rule carefully. It is usually meant to be taken pretty literally.

If that doesn’t help, try to consider the general tone of the game and adopt the answer that seems to make the most sense. If something seems like an obvious exploit, it likely is. Of course if everything else fails, you can email Ivan at nordicweaselgames@icloud.com and get an answer!

 

QUESTIONS ABOUT GETTING STARTED

Q: How many miniatures should I plan on getting to start?

A: A typical starting crew is 6 characters, though there are options to play with a crew of only 4 or 5. You will typically face 5-8 enemy figures. As there are so many different enemy types, it would take a long time to collect and model all of them. I suggest starting with three general sets of figures: 8 or so figures suitable for criminals, 8 futuristic soldiers and 8 alien bug things. Then recycle those as you need.

 

Q: What kind of tokens do I need?

A: The main tokens are to track which figures are Stunned and which figures have already been Activated (if you are prone to forgetting, like me!). You will also need a way to mark mission objectives and Notable Sights.

 

Q: How big of a play space and how much terrain do I need?

A: The game plays great in a 3x3 foot space and is playable down to a 2x2 foot space.

 

Q: How much of a time commitment is one game?

A: With a bit of experience, you should be able to conduct all of the campaign activities, play a tabletop battle and conduct your post-game rolls in about an hour or so. The first couple of games will be a little slower of course, while you are still learning.

 

Q: How long is a campaign?

A: A campaign can be as long or as short as you like. The rulebook offers a number of goals you can set for yourself if you like.

 

QUESTIONS ABOUT BATTLE RULES

Q: Do characters with a Pistol and Melee weapon get a +3 bonus?

A: No, you use the highest bonus. (p.45 Add +2 if carrying a Melee weapon OR +1 if carrying a Pistol weapon) - Emphasis mine

Note that as written you can strike with any Melee or Pistol weapon carried. I suggest house-ruling that the strike must be carried out with the weapon bonus you used (i.e. if you used the +2 bonus from a Melee weapon, you must strike with the Melee weapon)

 

Q: Do enemies with built-in weapons like claws count as Melee weapons (+2 dice bonus)?

A: Yes.

 

Q: How does Luck work with multiple shot attacks?
A: Resolve shots one at a time. Once Luck would trigger, move the character as per the Luck rule. If the enemy can still see them, they can shoot at them again with their remaining shots.

 

QUESTIONS ABOUT SETTING UP A BATTLE

Q: How many guys am I fighting?

A: Specialists and Lieutenants are part of the total enemy number, not additional figures. For example if I encounter 6 villains, there'd be 4 basic opponents, 1 specialist and 1 lieutenant. Unique Individuals are added to the number encountered.

 

Q: Can you clarify Unique Individual profiles?

A: The first three Unique Individuals on the table (Enemy Bruiser, Enemy Heavy, Enemy Boss) use the base profile of the enemy type you are fight with a boost. For the rest, the table starting on p.105 lists their full profile.

 

Q: Can you clarify deployment? NEW JUNE 2021

A: While each side is assigned to a specific table edge, you are not forced to set up within a certain distance from that edge. This is important because player table sizes can vary.

Set up the enemy forces where it makes the most visual sense on their half of the table. When you set up, your forces cannot be within 18’ of the enemy.
An easy way of doing this quickly is to measure out an 18” “neutral zone” in the middle of the table and then setting up on each side of that.

 

QUESTIONS ABOUT CAMPAIGN RULES

Q: Can you clarify how Rumors work?

A: If you do not currently have an active Quest, Rumors are added to the roll in the "Resolve any Rumors" stage before a battle. This increases your chance of finding a Quest. Once you find a Quest, your Rumors are set to 0. If you have an active Quest, all Rumors are assumed to be pertaining to the quest you are currently on. Each rumor adds +1 to the "Determine Quest Progress" roll in the post-battle sequence, meaning they increase your chances of finding the final battle. Once you finish the Quest, your Rumors are set back to 0.

 

Q: How do starting Patrons work?

A: If you begin the game with a Patron, they will automatically offer you a job in the first turn of the campaign. Afterwards they add a bonus when taking the “Find a Patron” campaign action.

 

Q: Can you clarify how existing Patrons work?

A: Any Patron you either began the game with or which you have completed a job for is added to your list of contacts on that world. When you take the “Find a Patron” campaign action, you are seeing if there are any jobs available. For every Patron you know as a contact you get to add +1 to the roll, representing one of your old employers having something new they need done.

 

Q: How often do I roll for Patron benefits, danger pay etc.?

A: Benefits are rolled when the Patron is first acquired and will never change. All other factors are specific to the job on offer and are rolled each time.

 

Q: Do you have to fight a battle every turn?

A: As written yes. If you have nothing else going on, you would fight an Opportunity Mission. If you want to lay low, you can borrow the rule from Five Leagues and pay 1D6 Credits to spend another turn in port.

 

QUESTIONS ABOUT CHARACTERS

Q: Can I have more characters than my crew size?

A: Yes, but the crew size you selected for the campaign is the cap to how many you can bring into a battle. So if you are playing a "4 crew" campaign and have 6 characters currently, you'd have to pick 2 to stay behind.

 

Q: Can I change campaign crew size later?

A: Up to you. I'd pay a Story Point to do so.

 

Q: Some of the species specific rules differ between the species profiles when I create my character and when the rules are referenced later on, which is correct?

A: The species profile in the character creation chapter should always be the correct version.

 

Q: Bots and events

A: When rolling for exploration etc. events that do not affect Soulless generally do not affect Bots either. Apply your common sense here.

 

QUESTIONS ABOUT EQUIPMENT

Q: If I duplicate a gun with mods or sights, what do I get?

A: To avoid things getting out of hand, the duplicator copies ONE item. So a modded gun will produce either a gun or a mod, not a modded gun. Sorry.

 

Q: What does it mean when mods and sights cannot be added to "single shot" weapons?

A: It means they cannot be fitted to grenades or other disposable weapons (however much as a grenade with a laser sight seems appealing)

 

Q: Can you clarify how the Hand Flamer works?

A: First resolve all Shots in the weapon profile (2) against the selected target (Focus). Then resolve 1 Shot against each target within 2" (Area). A keen-eyed observer notes that technically the Area weapon rule already does this, without the need for the Focus trait.

 

Q: Do you have to fire an Area at a target model?

A: No, you can target a spot on the ground. In this case, any Shots from the weapon profile are wasted but you get to resolve the bonus shots from the Area trait normally.

 

Q: Does gambling with Lucky Loaded dice take an action?
A: No, it happens as a free action. Roll at any point while you are carrying out your crew actions.

 

QUESTIONS ABOUT AI

Q: What is an "adjacent terrain feature" for the purposes of defensive AI?

A: A terrain feature within roughly one move. The idea is that the defensive AI will view nearby characters as supporting the feature with counter attacks.

 

Q: What is "Psycho" AI?

A: It should read Rampaging AI.

 

Q: Is the enemy “aware” of my positions when I am not in sight?

A: Yes, whether due to motion scanners, psionic detection, pheromone tracers or that one guy in your squad that keeps eating snacks on mission, the enemy is always assumed to be aware of your positions. Future expansions will add stealth missions.

 

QUESTIONS ABOUT LORE

Q: Do Soulless and Bots have personalities?

A: Soulless emulate a personality in order for organic creatures to be more comfortable around them, but they all tend to be fairly similar. Bots are programmed with emotional emulation systems fitting their role.

 

Q: Are Soulless cyborgs or robots?

A: They are completely synthetic. A “snapshot” of a personality unit is downloaded into a physical shell to fit the task the collective mind has intended for it. In human space, these shells are typically humanoid to ease interaction.

 

Q: Can Soulless disconnect from their hivemind?
A: When out of range (which will be any player character) the Soulless are not in touch with their overmind. Upon returning to a ship or colony, they reconnect, any experiences are assessed by the collective and any updates to behavior are installed. Adventuring Soulless do develop quirks of personality from errors in the code. Potentially a Soulless could develop a quirk to “go rogue” though this would be very rare.

 

Q: Does the alien species have genders like humans?
A: Precursors, Ferals and K’Erin display the same range of gender characteristics as humans do. Swift lack any such identification.

 

Q: Does our own Earth exist in the Unified Space setting?

A: Yes, it is one of the Core worlds though by Unity regulations, it holds no specific significance.

 

Q: What year does the game take place?

A: Roughly 500 years in the future.

 

Q: What should Unity troops look like? - NEW JUNE 2021

A: Fully enclosed helmets, Uniforms and armor should be black or dark grey mixed with red. For example, black armor over red uniforms.

Looking For The Crew Log, Encounter, and World Record Sheet?