I’ve been working on a closed-playtest project called Five Parsecs from the Heretic Stars.

It is my Warhammer 40,000 fan conversion for Five Parsecs from Home, built around small crews taking dangerous jobs in a galaxy where even surviving the mission does not mean you are safe.

This is not meant to replace Five Parsecs from Home. The original game is still doing the heavy lifting: the firefights, injuries, crew survival, campaign turns, post-battle fallout, and that dangerous little “one more job” rhythm that makes the game so good.

What I wanted to build was a campaign layer that makes the world around those fights feel more like 40K.

In other words:

What happens after the shooting stops?

Because in 40K, winning the battle is only part of the problem.

It matters who saw you fire the bolter.

It matters whether anyone recorded the psyker doing something very useful and very illegal in public.

It matters who thinks they already own the relic you just dragged out of the ruin.

It matters whether your patron is protecting you, using you, or quietly building a file for later.

That is the part I have been trying to capture.

A bolter is not just a better gun. It is a paperwork problem.

A psyker power is not just an ability. It is a witness event.

A patron is not just a quest giver. They remember what you did, what you owe them, and what they can prove.

The rulebook adds campaign frames, pressure tracks, legality and Evidence rules, relic custody, patron dossiers, rival intrusions, mission revelations, psykers and Perils, faith and zeal, corruption, 40K-flavored crew types, enemy packages, job tables, mission overlays, aftermath tools, printable worksheets, and a large expanded table packet.

But the short version of the campaign loop is this:

Take the job.
Hide the sin.
Survive the mission.
Salvage the prize.
Answer to someone worse.

That is the heart of Heretic Stars.

Five Parsecs from Home tells you whether the crew survives the fight.

Heretic Stars asks who saw it, who can prove it, who claims the prize, and what price comes due next.

This is still a closed-playtest draft, and it is being built as a private table-use fan project. The eventual rulebook will be presented as a PDF, but right now I’m focusing on whether the campaign loop feels good at the table: whether the pressure systems create better stories, whether the extra 40K layers add meaningful decisions, and whether the whole thing still stays playable instead of becoming paperwork for its own sake.

That last part matters a lot to me. I do not want this to become “Five Parsecs, but with 400 extra lore nouns.” The goal is that every 40K addition should create a decision, a consequence, or a memorable problem.

If it does not change play, it probably does not belong.

This is an unofficial, noncommercial Warhammer 40,000 fan conversion for private/closed playtest use. It is not endorsed by or affiliated with Games Workshop, Warhammer 40,000, Five Parsecs from Home, Modiphius, or Nordic Weasel Games.

I’m trying something new: a story-driven campaign episode for Five Parsecs from Alderaan.

Episode 01: Checkpoint at Vesh Gate is a linked three-part scenario packet built around a refugee route, Imperial checkpoint pressure, forged papers, informants, hard choices, and consequences that carry forward into later episodes.

The idea is to keep the normal campaign feel of Five Parsecs intact, while giving players a more structured story episode they can drop into their own campaign. You still play the battles, make the decisions, roll for outcomes, take the risks, and deal with the aftermath — but the packet gives you a focused narrative situation with recurring NPCs, mission-specific rewards, and an end-of-episode outcome reader that helps interpret what your crew’s version of the story means.

What’s inside

In this episode, your crew is drawn into the situation at Vesh Gate, an Imperial checkpoint controlling movement between a port district and an Alderaanian refugee quarter.

A small Rebel-aligned cell called Blue Lantern is trying to move people through the gate before the Empire closes the route. Someone has leaked names. The checkpoint commander is watching. The papers may not hold. And by the end, your crew has to decide what matters most: saving people, exposing the traitor, or breaking the gate.

The packet includes:

• A complete story-driven episode built as a linked mission chain.
• Three named scenario sections: Papers at the Customs Shed, The Blue Lantern Route, and The Gate Decision.
• Blue Lantern, Lieutenant Tesk, Olan Mev, Mij Sorna, and other NPCs who can become allies, rivals, or loose ends.
• Episode-specific rewards and unique finds.
• Flexible success, partial success, and failure outcomes.
• A campaign log and outcome reader so your table can see what kind of ending they created.
• A setup path for the next episode, The Detention Ledger, based on what happened in your game.

The goal

I want these to feel less like isolated scenarios and more like playable campaign television: each episode has a situation, a problem, a few key people, and several possible outcomes. Your crew’s choices determine what survives, what burns, who remembers, and who comes looking for them afterward.

No two runs should end exactly the same way.

One crew might quietly save the refugees and earn Blue Lantern’s trust. Another might blow the gate open, draw Imperial attention, and leave half the district in lockdown. Another might fail, lose the route, and have to chase the consequences into the next episode.

That’s the part I’m most interested in testing.

Feedback wanted

Since this is the first release in this format, I’d really like to hear what works and what doesn’t.

The most useful feedback would be:

• Was the episode easy to run at the table?
• Did the three-part structure feel natural?
• Did the story material help, or did it get in the way?
• Did the end-of-episode outcome reader make your result feel meaningful?
• Were the unique rewards interesting without feeling too strong?
• Did it make you want to play the next episode?

Comments, actual-play notes, screenshots, messy campaign outcomes, rules questions, and “here’s what my crew did” stories are all welcome.

If people enjoy this format, I’ll keep going and post more episodes. The next one is planned to follow the fallout from Vesh Gate into an Imperial records chain known as The Detention Ledger.

The Five Parsecs: Planetfall tracker has received a major campaign-flow pass focused on making the colony campaign easier to run from setup through endgame.

• Campaign setup is now more guided, with clearer crew creation, class coverage checks, landing mission tracking, Expedition Type benefits, starting map anchors, and a first-turn gate before the regular campaign turn begins.
• The 18-step campaign turn is now much stronger. Recovery, repairs, Scout Reports, Enemy Activity, Colony Events, mission selection, Lock and Load, tabletop handoff, post-mission closeout, development, Character Events, and final colony-sheet updates all have dedicated tracker support.
• Colony Events now do much more work for you. Common results can apply BP, RP, Ancient Signs, Morale, Integrity, Calamity Points, grunts, roster XP, bot status, map changes, and roster-target effects directly after review.
• Hostile virus, Scientific dead end, Gold Rush, Animal migrations, and Changing climate conditions now have saved state instead of loose reminders. The tracker can roll targets, save logs, update recovery timers, manage pending Research Point waste, update sectors, and print table blanks for offline play.
• Mission selection now checks active forced obligations. Rescue, Scout Down, colony defense, calamity response, and enemy-pressure obligations can unlock or warn about required missions so they are harder to overlook.
• Mission handoff and closeout are more rule-backed. Common mission results can now prefill rewards, map changes, closeout reminders, and special branches for Investigation, Scouting, Exploration, Science, Hunt, Patrol, Skirmish, Rescue, Scout Down, Pitched Battle, Strike, Assault, and Delve.
• Post-Mission Finds are now table-backed. Finds can queue RP, BP, Raw Materials, Story Points, Ancient Signs, Morale, and eligible Scout or Scientist bonuses. “By the Book” now creates a roster-backed cornerstone XP choice instead of a vague reminder.
• Lock and Load now uses Planetfall weapon data. The tracker can show weapon profiles, class permissions, tier/building requirements, weapon application readiness, per-character carried weapons, bot/grunt reminders, and printable mission loadouts.
• Morale and Crisis handling is much safer. The tracker now detects the -10 Morale Incident threshold, queues the Morale reset, adds Political Upheaval, rolls the Crisis check, applies Crisis Outcome state, and handles Crisis income penalties across later RP/BP/Raw Materials gains.
• Character Events now check saved campaign state. Minor illness, Excellent health, Personal conviction, Losing faith, Dispute, and Accident branches now respect Sick Bay, last mission result, roster targets, next-mission restrictions, and Planetfall’s Dead-as-recovery exception.
• Research, Buildings, and Augmentations now use named rulebook-backed choices. The tracker fills costs, prerequisites, effects, unlock notes, project progress, Milestone warnings, and approved track changes where possible.
• Calamities are now much more structured. Active Calamities have progress cards, pressure helpers, response obligations, ending conditions, print notes, and clearer reward handling. Virus recovery banking, Mega Predators resource boosts, and Enemy Super Weapon double Post-Mission Finds are now supported.
• Tactical Enemies and Lifeforms are now first-class campaign records. They can track linked sectors, Enemy Information, Boss state, Strongpoints, Bio-Analysis, Hunt samples, evolution, active effects, and mission focus notes.
• Endgame support is stronger. Final colony paths, Summit opinions, BP/RP readiness, defeated Strongpoint security, final-path notes, and endgame print coverage now save with the campaign.
• Print support has been expanded into a dedicated Planetfall packet with crew/support, colony/development, map/security, mission/turn, Tactical Enemy, Lifeform, Summit, and endgame references.