Five Parsecs on a 10×10 portable grid – looking for feedback
I've been experimenting with a way to play Five Parsecs from Home on a very small 10×10 grid, using the PlayGrid system.
The idea isn't to create a simplified version of Five Parsecs or change its combat system. I want to keep as much of the normal game as possible — crew, weapons, enemy AI, cover, line of sight, Brawling, objectives, campaign, etc. — and only replace the spatial/measurement layer so a battle can fit on a genuinely portable board.
After trying several conversions, the mnemonic I'm currently testing is:
“Half to move, thirds to measure.”
Movement
- Speed 3–4" → 2 squares
- Speed 5–6" → 3 squares
- Speed 7–8" → 4 squares
- Dash → +1 square
Distances / ranges
- Roughly 3" = 1 square
- 6" → 2 squares
- 9" → 3 squares
- 12" → 4 squares
- 18" → 6 squares
- 24" → 8 squares
- 30"+ → effectively Line of Sight
Grid rules
- Diagonal movement = 1 square
- Adjacent squares, including diagonals, count as being in Brawling range
- One miniature occupies one square
- Cover and LoS are still determined by the actual terrain
- Apart from things that explicitly depend on physical distance/deployment, the intention is to use the normal Five Parsecs rules
I'm deliberately using a different scale for movement and range. A straight mathematical reduction made long-range weapons cover almost the entire 10×10 board and compressed a lot of the positioning decisions. The current approach keeps normal troops moving around 2 squares while giving pistols, rifles and long-range weapons meaningfully different areas of influence.
Terrain density also seems particularly important. My current assumption is that a 10×10 battlefield should contain enough blocking terrain that you normally can't draw a completely clear LoS from one deployment side to the opposite side.
I've run a fair number of conceptual/simulated battles with different enemy behaviours, weapon ranges, objectives and terrain densities, and it looks surprisingly promising. But I haven't properly playtested it yet, which is why I'm posting here.
I'd especially appreciate feedback from experienced Five Parsecs players:
What do you think would break first?
Are there weapons, enemy types, deployment rules, missions or special situations where this conversion would cause a serious problem?
If the idea survives that criticism, I'll print the prototype and start doing actual campaign battles on it.
What do you think? Is it worth continuing to work on it?
