Five Leagues from the Borderlands is a fantasy Solo and Cooperative wargame system from the people that brought you Five Parsecs from Home.
The book is a 233 page full colour hardback, smaller than the Osprey standard size and has a full index (which is useful). I bought mine from Orc's Nest in London, and they offer a Clicks and Mortar deal, email them details of your purchase and they will send you a link so you can download a PDF of the book.
Though I am a rather retro-person, much preferring a physical book to an e-book, it is much better to be able to print the quick reference sections from the PDF rather than transcribing the required bits.
Like Five Parsecs, the USP of these rules is the campaign system. Your party (starting with four heroic types and two followers) travel around a region, engaging in quests, meeting people and trying to maintain the peace. There are major over-arching threats (Foes Within and Foes Without) that will take multiple battles to defeat and the day to day encounters as you travel.
You set up a region by establishing the known settlements, define the threats and their levels and any additional points of interest. Just because it is on the map, does not mean you know what to expect. There are plenty of "here be dragons" areas where you will encounter many different things.
You also need to feed and equip your party - if you have not got the cash you can live off the land or work for the town guard - but this eats into your working time. If you do not pay your party, dissension will set in and they will find better paid work.
Rules
The game rules are simple, based on a D6.
During the initiative phase, each one of your figures provides a D6, roll them together and then assign them to each figure. If the die result is equal or below the figure's Agility score it acts in the Quick Action Phase. If it is greater than the Agility score it acts in the Slow Actions Phase. Between the Quick and the Slow Actions phase is where the enemy figures act. So if you want your leader to make it to cover before being barbecued by the enemy dragon, you want them to act in the Quick Action phase.
Each figure can perform a Movement action, followed by a Combat or Non-Combat action. The figure can miss out either, but cannot change the order.
Humans move four inches, though by making a Dash Non-Combat action, they can increase their movement.
Ranged combat is generally one D6, if you have not moved add your Combat score. There is a target number to beat based on the target's situation
Melee combat again uses a D6. There can be up to three exchanges. The figure that initiates the combat starts out as the Attacker, this status may change in each subsequent exchange. Each figure rolls a D6 and adds their Combat skill. If the Attacker has the higher value, they strike a blow and remain as Attacker. The Defender is forced back and the Attacker has the option to re-close and continue the attack If the Defender has the higher value, no blow is struck and they become the Attacker in the next exchange. This is repeated for up to three exchanges, at which point each figure is moved 1" back and the melee ends.
Hits have to overcome any Armour, and if they do, they have to overcome Toughness. There are Wounded and Stunned effects if a Hit is not inflicted.
There is a magic system, you can make one of your Heroes a Mystic. The Mystic chooses two spells and gets three rolls on the spell table.
