Five Klicks for as long as it'll go...

For the past year, I've been spending quite some time (and money!) collecting minis to use in my next 5 Parsecs campaign... mostly GW minis (hi, Necromunda!) and some 3D printed ones. 

However, with my minimal ADHD attention span, I decided to instead start a 5 Klicks from the Zone campaign. Mainly because the PDF has been sitting for too long in my laptop. And I suspect this might just be Ivan’s next venture for the Modiphius Overlords. (I think he sold off the 5 X From Y IP to them?) Time to get one campaign logged under the current rule set before it’s outdated.

Normally, the campaign starts with an 8-member squad and also a place of safety. A settlement of some sort and part of the game is to grow and improve your home settlement.

However, instead of starting with a war band and settlement, I decided to go loner. Right from the beginning before the beginning, so to speak. Let’s see how my PC can build a crew from scratch and organically grow the squad.

I’m also using Tiny Wastelands for some light RPG if the rules for 5 Klicks prove insufficient. I also made up a deck of cards from a standard poker deck. The idea came from Joe McCullough's games where he will often have events happening after you draw a pre-made deck of cards. I used this to also gauge the timing of travels. How far will my PCs need to go before finding a "home" settlement?

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Shuihua O’Brien was traveling the Outlands, seeking for someplace where she could call home. Her previous home - in what had been a pre-Collapse scientific base - had been attacked by raiders and she had to ran away. Vowing revenge, she joined a settlement where she enrolled in the militia to learn how to fight. She vowed death upon the raiders that had killed her parents and family and took away her home. 

Now, she trekked the Outlands searching for the raiders. It had taken 2 years, but she was close. But the Outlands was no place to be all alone. She needed a place that she could make her base. Safety. Shelter.

She travelled warily. A good thing too. Far off howls told her danger was headed her way!

Encounter: Battle!

No Condition.

Enemy: 4 x Infected Dogs.

Playing a solo character, I decided that Shuihua would always activate during the Quick Action Phase and again during the Slow Action Phase, giving her 2 guaranteed activations. I still rolled an initiative die to see if she would also gain a Bonus Activation and unlike the regular rules she could take any one action instead of one Non-combat action. This gave her potentially 3 activations per round if she rolled a 1. (Note the green patches are supposed to be toxic areas).

The battle was over pretty quickly. The 4 infected dogs attacked her, and she managed to kill two from afar before the remaining two got close.

Then she just backed off and shot at the remaining two until she managed to kill them. The dogs were running at max speed, of course. 9” when not engaging in combat and since they were using the Psycho AI rules they didn’t bother to run into cover, like more canny human attackers might.

After the battle, she found a sub-machine gun in the ruins of a house, underneath a skeleton. It was mute evidence of a failed defence against the dangers of the Outlands.

She prepared to settle in for the night. 

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That was a nice, light game that was just perfect to settle me back down into the Five X From Y universe and it feels like coming home!

The combat rules are slightly different compared to 5 Parsecs. Pinning is a thing but only outright wounds take you out. Maybe it's to account for using real-world weapons. This could be in 2026. Or 2300. It all depends, but having weapons like sub-machine guns etc. alongside experimental SF weapons indicates… 2055?

Anyway, that’s the first campaign turn. No NPC interactions. Hope I roll something other than 31-100 (which means Battle). There are also no settlement campaign actions until I actually reach a settlement.

I also realised that I'm severely lacking in suitable post-apocalyptic terrain and so my A1 Mini went to work and before long, I got this lot printed up (2 weeks later). 

I managed to get these three toxic areas painted up. Now to prime and paint the rest!