Five Leagues from the Borderlands - Part 1

 
Five Leagues from the Borderlands is a tactical skirmish game with rpg elements. It applies the game-play of Five Parsecs from Home to a fantasy setting.

In this first session, the group comes together and goes on their first adventure.

The gang, all together. The far-right
three are (l-r) Rehn, Myra and Saidar.

First thing I do is determine how many characters will be Heroes.
The rules state that four Heroes are to be used in a party of eight, with the rest being Followers.
I adjusted this for my campaign to have more of a less 'checkbox' approach to it.
I gave each of the eight characters a 1/3 chance of being a Hero, rolling a d6.
Doing this, I ended up with three Heroes. Which was perfect, as I had three characters in my most recent solo fantasy rpg, and I just ported them over as I rolled up their stats.

The Heroes:

Myra
Agility  2
Speed  4”
Combat  +0
Toughness  3
Will  1
Luck  1

Weapons: Crossbow, Dagger
Armor: Partial Armor (2)

Rehn
Agility  1 (2)
Speed  4”
Combat  +1
Toughness  3
Will  1
Luck  1

Weapons: Fencing Sword, Dagger
Armor: Light Armor (1)
Special: ‘Blessed by the Gods’

Saidar
Agility  1
Speed  4”
Combat  +0
Toughness  4
Will  2
Luck  1

Weapons: Bastard Sword
Armor: Full Armor (3), Shield (+1), Helmet

Five Followers
Agility  1
Speed  4”
Combat  +0
Toughness  3

Weapons: Short Sword or Bow & Dagger (one has a bow and dagger, the rest have swords)
Armor: Light Armor (1)
Skills - one follower has Foraging

Group Gold Marks - 11
Story Points - 5

Named the current followers:
Trevor - Archer. Skill: Foraging
Polo, Atrus, Thom, Arwyn - Melee.

With everyone set up now, I rolled for a Campaign Event and got Wandering Scholar, which allowed a free action for a training attempt.

Tasks I chose for this turn:

Study - not successful
Foraging - found 1 Medical Herb
Labor - gained 2 Gold Marks (new total: 13)

Then they’re off to their first adventure...

I rolled up a Border Combat Encounter
Enemy - Militia

I determine the number appearing to be 8.
And they’re led by a Personality- A Killer.

For a map idea, I roll and get ‘along the road’ and set out to make a map using TTS.

The road most traveled...

The Militia, led by the Killer were waiting just around the bend.

The dastardly Militia and its foul leader!

The battle was a vicious fight between the two parties.
The Heroes ended up having to retreat, as the Killer alone managed to take out several members.

After Saidar fell, Myra and Rehn, both wounded, made their way to the edge of the map and escaped the battle.

They'll live to fight another day...

After they escape, I check the after-battle results and find that:
Saidar, Polo and Atrus recovered right away
Thom is injured for two campaign turns

Trevor and Arwyn died

Myra and Rehn both get 1xp for surviving the battle.

That ends my first session of Five Leagues from the Borderlands.
Next turn, they’ll probably try to recruit someone.
Especially since I’m using the Consistent Threat optional rule.
The killer is still out there and regrouping the militia.
They're going to need all the help they can get!