Welcome to Mynock Alley - The Crew & Campaign

"I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain."

- Roy Batty

It would be tremendously irresponsible of me to write about solo gaming without then demonstrating it to you! Probably. I once drank a purple Monster energy drink out of a champagne glass, so my calibration for what is and is not irresponsible is useless. I got not one but two degrees in English literature. Seriously, the responsibility meter is totally broken. Irredeemably lost.

The truth is I've already showcased some solo gaming on my Twitter feed in the occasional adventure of Captain Finlay Stuart. But those aren't rigorous battle reports, fit for the handsome eyes of you my dear and handsome reader. Further, they're sloppy. They're a narrative overlay hiding the fact that I was really just trying out Warlord's Black Seas gameplay to see if I liked them.

What I want to give you is a bottom-to-top look-see at some solo gaming. How I start, where I go with it, how it changes, and so on.

To that end--

Welcome to Mynock Alley

I've decided to play through a solo wargaming campaign of Nordic Weasel Games' Five Parsecs From Home: Gang Warfare. Nordic Weasel Games produces a bunch of games in this milieu-- small scale, solo and campaign-oriented wargames. Five Parsecs From Home is the "main" game, but each of the spin-offs (Bug Hunt, Gang Warfare, Salvage Crew) is self-contained in terms of playability. There's, additionally, a fantasy version (Five Leagues From The Borderland) that's functionally the same mechanical chassis.

I'll do an in-depth look at the system of Five Parsecs in another post. For now, I'm going to outline the basic premise of my campaign.

First off, I love Star Wars. So it's going to be set in the Star Wars universe. This is further influenced by the fact that I have a shit ton of Imperial Assault miniatures that have not been used in some time. So this little wargame campaign will be my excuse to finally use them.

The game will take place on Coruscant, in the lower levels during the reign of the Empire. So, technically Imperial Center instead of Coruscant if you want to get pedantic. I rolled a gang origin as a prompt and got 'Our hideout is an abandoned apartment block. We created the gang to take down a rival. Our reputation is professional.' which gives me plenty to work with.

I'm calling them the Scarlet Syndicate, and the territory they're fighting over is Mynock Alley. The group is based out of a run-down hab-unit called Scarlet Heights (hence their name); I imagine the Syndicate was a reaction to some previous criminal element that they wanted to force out.

While generating the characters I ended up with two "Enemies"; these are game-elements which serve two purposes. The first is to occasionally contextualize game-scenarios (usually by being the opposition in them), and the second is to act as benchmarks for becoming "Top Dog". Essentially, as you gain money and reputation, you can eventually try to take over territory-- but to do so you need to have final and definitive showdowns with some Enemies you've accrued.

In any case, I want one to act as a kind've background rivalry and one to be a more general threat for the neighborhood. For the former, we've got the Glitterguts Swoop Gang-- proper glitbiters and roughnecks who had been previously dealing spice out of Scarlet Heights. They're probably really salty that the Scarlet Syndicate kicked them out. For the latter, we've got the Mynock-Eaters. Hutt-affiliated in the worst way, who see the population of Mynock Alley as their cattle and prey.

But what about the Scarlet Syndicate? Let me introduce them to you, in brief (from left to right).

Reelo Reezan - A Rodian from modest working class origins, with a knack for prowling. Motivated their desire for a reputation as a proper Rodian hunter.

Terpfen Vebbar - A Mon Cal orphan, soft-spoken and light-footed. Motivated by a sense of found-family.

Kyla Bite - A Coruscanti Human from the destitute underclass. Talented at getting things that aren't legal, and motivated by a desire to escape Mynock Alley.

Kenthe Tene - A Coruscanti Human raised by under-level aescetics (who idolize what they think the Jedi were). A martial artist who wants to see the galaxy someday. Force-Sensitive? We'll see.

Adric "All-Smiles" - A charming guttersnipe, Coruscanti Human, who wants to buy and run his own ship. Second-in-command of the Scarlet Syndicate.

"Mister No" - A Coruscanti Human, the opposite of gregarious. Talented problem-solver (especially if the problem can be solved with violence). Jaded, and doesn't believe in anything in particular except for a supreme distaste for the Empire. Leader of the Scarlet Syndicate.

Keep an eye out, I should have my first game-scenario posted soon!

Edit: Campaign Turn 1