5 Parsecs From Home: PLANETFALL Pre-game prep

Jan 05, 2026

I absolutely adore the 5 Parsecs sci fi solo rpg games. If you want to play with minis and shoot aliens, weird animal things, mutated humans, augmented humans, cyborgs, androids, and replicants (or whatever minis you might have) I highly recommend picking up the first book, 5 Parsecs from Home and playing a few campaigns. I’ve had a ton of fun. I started using paper minis at first because I wasn’t sure if I was going to like this type of game that mostly focuses on battles. I didn’t have much sci fi terrain (most of my terrain is fantasy). So, I made some of my own and bought some stuff on Etsy as I don’t 3-D print my stuff on my own. By the time this volume came out, I was all set with terrain, minis, scatter, etc.

This is not a review. That might come later. What I want to show you is a few items that I am using to help enhance my game. Besides the usual, dice, dice tray, notebook, items like that, I am using three items. Those three items are what I want to talk about.

Item #1: Solo RPG Playing Cards by the Ravensridge Emporium. I love this deck of cards. It’s a regular deck of playing cards, but with names, spark words, dice rolls, oracles and more! I have a binder of oracles and random tables, not to mention a lot of PDFs on file too that I use, but I decided to try this out, and I am so pleased. I needed a YES/NO/AND/BUT kind of answer today in the game, and I opened the box, pulled out a random card, and didn’t get the answer I was hoping for, but hey, dice or cards, they don’t always go our way. One suggestion though, do not try to play Solitaire with this deck. I found the words too distracting to focus on my strategy. (Yes, sometimes I play good old fashioned Solitaire with a physical deck of cards. It’s comforting to me and reminds me of when I was a kid.) Here’s a few pictures…

Item #2 The Great Book of Random Tables Science Fiction by DiceGeeks.com. (Matt and Erin Davids) I’ve had this book for awhile and I use it all the time. There are over 138 D100 random tables included in one volume! The price is affordable and if you want, there are about 4-5 smaller separate sci fi books that make up this one volume to suit your needs. For any sci fi game, whether they include random tables or not, this book is by my side. We are talking over 200 pages of sci fi greatness! Pictures speak louder than words, so here’s some…

Item #3-The Terrain Set Book of Battlemats by Loke Battle Mats. Sometimes, war games call for a 4×4 mat, 3×3 or a 2×2. 5 Parsecs jumps between 3×3 and 2×2, so when I need a 2×2, I go for this set. The set came with two matching books of terrain mats and works perfectly for 2×2 if you combine the books. A lot of the maps are perfect for alien world terrain. So easy to set up too! See below!

That’s my top 3 go to items for a sci fi war game like 5 Parsecs. Let me know if you have other recommendations for sci fi stuff! I’m all ears! Thank you for reading and take care all.