Background
Five Leagues from the Borderlands (5LB) is a solo (or cooperative) fantasy miniatures game. The player(s) create a warband of adventurers who go on missions, fight enemies, rest in towns, and try to fight against encroaching enemies.
The game is a sequel/companion to Five Parsecs from Home (5PH), which has a science fiction theme to it. I briefly attempted to play 5PH, but it wasn't my cup of tea. First, I don't have many SF miniatures, and more importantly, it just was more frustrating than fun to me. You randomly go on missions, and most missions are just too difficult for a starting crew. So, I'd get wiped out, not get any rewards, and ended up further and further in debt.
5LB may have many of the same problems, but you have a bit more agency in what you attempt. When starting out, you can go on simple patrols rather than seeking out much more difficult encounters. You can eventually fight abominable monsters, explore dungeons, and just in general have more choice as to what you're doing. There is also a more established goal: there are three major threats to civilization, and you're trying to prevent them from becoming too strong.
More importantly, I have many more fantasy miniatures than SF ones.
I don't know if it will be any less frustrating, but I'm going to give it a go.
Races
In 5LB, you have six choices of race for your characters. While most character attributes are determined randomly, race is one of the few things you can pick.
There are humans. They don't get many bonuses except that they are the only race that can have a "will" stat of more than 1. Also, of course, it is easy to find minis for human adventurers.
Fey-blood are somewhere between your typical fantasy elves and the trickster fey. They also have ties to "the endless winter," which gives them a frost power.
Just like in Dungeons & Dragons, halflings are a total rip-off of Tolkien's hobbits. About the only difference is that in 5LB they get bonuses to ranged weapons.
The other three races are a bit more unique to 5LB.
Dusklings are a warrior race that like the dark. I get a dwarven vibe from them, but that could just be my imagination.
Preen are bird-folk. I'm going to ignore them for now because I don't have any appropriate miniatures.
Ferals are animal-people, generally cats and wolves. I may eventually paint one of these up, but not at first.
For a starting warband, you have 4 heroes and 2 followers. I have some minis in mind, so I'm going to choose:
2 human heroes
1 fey-blood hero
1 halfling hero
2 human followers (initial followers must be human)
Human Hero 1: Garrick Thomson
Humans can be any of the following backgrounds: Townsfolk, Noble, Frontier, or Zealot. In addition, any race (but only 1 per warband) can be a Mystic. For this character, I have the image of a standard "town guardsman" in mind, so I'm going to go with Townsfolk.
Once your background is chosen, you roll a d20 for each of four different categories: capabilities, mentality, possessions, and training. There are charts for each to see what you get.
Capabilities (15): Speed and Combat Skill increase
This is fantastic. Any time you get two increases it is great, and it really fits with my image of him wanting to get into melee combat.
Mentality (15): +1 XP
The worst thing on the chart, but also by far the most likely.
Possessions (18): Item
The exact item will be determined later. I would rather have gotten a weapon or even some money, but hopefully it will be fine.
Training (15): +1 XP
What is with all the 15s? Again, I'd rather get anything else on the table, but with 2 xp Garrick will at least be very close to leveling up.
I'll also declare Garrick my "avatar." I don't like that name for it, but he is basically the warband leader. He gets a free will and luck point, and a d100 roll of 17 says that he is a veteran with the scars to prove it... +3 XP.
So, he has a total of 5 xp, which gives him an advancement roll! 67, which is another combat increase! Garrick is quite a powerhouse.
Human Hero 2: Wilfred the Wanderer
I want a mystic, and it is easy to find good human mage miniatures.
Capabilities (6): Casting increase
This is the most likely result on the table, which makes sense.
Mentality (9): +1 Will
Again, fits the character.
Possessions (5): Mystic Item
This isn't quite as cool as it sounds. There are only two choices, and they are both limited-use items. I can either get 2 items that let Wilfred cast an extra spell (you can normally only cast 3 spells in an encounter), or 3 items that let him cast two spells in a round. Both seem useful, but honestly to be really good you need both types.
Technically I choose later, but I'll go for the extra spells, since I expect that would be more useful than burning through the limited spells more quickly.
Training (5): Alchemy skill
Now this is nice. Basically, during down-time Wilfred can attempt to make more of the item that allows for extra spells.
Fey-blood Hero: Eleseth Morningfrost
Fey-blood heroes must be outsiders. I'm imagining this character to be a finesse melee fighter.
Capabilities (4): Agility increase
Not as good as a combat skill increase, but fits the character concept.
Mentality (16): +1 XP
Meh. Again, worst result but most likely.
Possessions (17): Item
I don't think I'm supposed to be getting this many items. Starting to get worried.
Training (2): 1 skill
A d100 roll comes up 31, which means that she has the "Expertise" skill, which makes her good at avoiding traps. She is starting to feel more like a rogue than a melee fighter, but close enough.
Halfling Hero: Dobbin Kingsley
Halflings must take the Frontier background. Given the natural bonuses to ranged weapons, I'm picturing an archer here.
Capabilities (17): Agility and Combat Skill increase
Fantastic, and probably the best roll for the character concept.
Mentality (18): +1 Luck
Luck helps when a character goes down in battle. Given how deadly combat is, it is likely to happen, and this can keep Dobbin around a little bit longer.
Possessions (4): 1 Gold Mark
Yay?
Training (9): 1 skill
The d100 here is 89, for Wilderness skill: hunting and foraging for herbs. Definitely makes this character sort of a mini-ranger.
Followers: Kurt and Campbell
Followers don't get to do all the interesting customization. It is just a simple roll to give them a bit of character.
Kurt (03) is an aspiring scholar.
Campbell (53) is an outcast drifter.
Weapons, Armor, and Items:
Without going too much into the details of how the game works, here is what the above characters end up with:
Garrick gets partial armor, a helmet, a shield, and a war spear
Wilfred gets light armor, a sling, and a light weapon. (He'll also get spells, but I'll select those in another blog entry.) He also has 2 "congealed strands," since he's the only one that can use them.
Eleseth gets partial armor and a fencing sword.
Dobbin takes light armor, a self bow, and a light weapon.
Kurt gets light armor and a standard weapon.
Campbell just gets a standard weapon, and no armor.
As a whole, the party gets 4 gold (3 base plus the 1 extra from Dobbin), two doses of silvertree leaf, 3 bandages, and 2 tonics. These will be divided up as needed.
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