Five Leagues from the Borderlands
By Ivan Sorensen (Modiphius Entertainment, 2022) £25.00
D6 and D10, initiative-based alternate turn
Imagine recreating the stories in The Fellowship of the Ring or from dozens of fantasy literature books, but on the tabletop and designed for solo or cooperative play. Like its companion game Five Parsecs from Home, this game is best described as an engine for creating stories on the tabletop through different scenarios.
The concept is similar to Rangers of Shadowdeep, although I’m not sure which one came first, the dragon or the egg … The player makes up four heroes and two companions who then venture into the world. The heroes’ race (including some options for feral and avian races) and background (frontiersman, noble, mage, etc) can be chosen. One of the heroes will be the avatar (the main hero, representing the player). Once equipped, the heroes will be ready to face the challenges ahead of them.
The game relies on random rolls for … well … pretty much everything! This is not a flaw but part of the beauty of the game – embrace the Kaos! Our heroes will then embark on a series of (partly) randomly generated adventures, earning experience, adventure points (which move the story along to a goal), and story points (which allow the player to change an event that doesn’t seem right).
The party will go on adventures, meet random encounters, and move towards their goal, earning adventuring milestones along the way. During their adventures, they may lose party members (to random events or through being killed), gain members, and find new equipment and valuables. Followers can also find themselves rising to the status of a hero; that young farmhand companion who tagged along might have some heroic qualities after all …
The combat system is simple and can be quite brutal; the adventuring party
