Date: Tue, 26 Jan 93 13:16:23 MST
Newsgroups: rec.games.board
From: $stephan@sasb.byu.edu (Stephan Fassmann, Software)
Subject: Re: Star Fleet Battles
Organization: BYU

In article <6361@rosie.NeXT.COM> robert_walton@next.com (Robert Walton) writes:
>From: robert_walton@next.com (Robert Walton)
>Subject: Star Fleet Battles
>Date: 26 Jan 93 00:20:29 GMT
>Some SFB Questions:
>
>1) How does one get started in SFB?  It seems everyone posting to the net  
>is an expert who started playing a decade ago.  I read one post the other  
>day so full of acronyms and jargon as to be meaningless to a potential  
>entrant!  Is this a game with high barriers to entry?

I've only been playing 4 years it's not so bad as long as you remember you 
don't have to use all the rules. The Cadet Training Manual is a good place 
to start, it even has a glossary (~50 pages @ $15). I gave it to my nephue, 
and we had fun with it. Whenever I look at A&A or ASL posts they are 
impossible to read as well since I've never played them so jargon is a 
problem in all cases.

>2) Why hasn't the game improved its graphics?  Seems like such a popular  
>game would have no trouble keeping up to date on graphics quality, but  
>this doesn't seem to be the case.  The current materials in the store look  
>to me like they're published out of a garage by amateur artists.  Is there  
>some war with Paramount over publishing rights?  To add insult to injury,  
>the games seem to rely on ships and equipment illustrations from the TV  
>version (hokey) rather than the movies (much improved).  Look at new  
>entrants like Battletech.  I have no real interest to play this game (the  
>whole premise seems pretty silly), but the graphics of some of the recent  
>stuff make the SFB stuff look pretty feeble.

They are trying to get better graphics they have hired some artists so that 
is nice, but they have been more concerned with the rules, which the players 
use, then the graphics which are just nice to look at, but they are working 
on it. They have some rights with Paramount and some of whoever did the Star 
Trek Technical Manual so all they can do is old series stuff. TFG did get 
the rights to make a Star Trek based RPG which is still in playtest. 

>3) Why hasn't there been an aggressive inclusion of the ST:TNG period?   
>Seems like this would be a hot item...

No rights to do this. Though there are plenty of ships to play with already, 
and more races to play with coming soon. 

>4) Weren't there some miniatures out for this awhile back?  What happened?   
>This seems like a natural for miniatures. God knows if people buy  
>miniatures of big robots for Battletech I'd think the Star Trek stuff  
>would go like gang busters.

Well the old mini- company isn't making them anymore. They are negociating 
with some companies but many of these talks have broken down, so it isn't 
like they aren't trying. Many people ask about minis but TFG can't do 
anything if they can't find someone to make them.

>Can anyone enlighten (as opposed to flame) me on these issues?  I'm a big  
>fan of the genre, and I've always been interested in the gaming concept,  
>but have been put off by the seeming complexity or rules, and the  
>amateurish execution of the materials (yes, I place a very high premium on  
>graphics quality -- it's a personal peeve).

I've never seen the rules as complex for the most part, just very detailed, 
this game has been around a long time and rules rapists have been a pain, so 
the rules are detailed to plug loopholes and contradictions and the like, 
trying to get a great product. Also you can't use all the rules at the same 
time, ie hypermass(black hole) and any other terrian. And unless you use 
combined race fleets you will only use 2-3 kinds of weapons, and besides 
them all you need are the movement rules. A typical game (open space map [no 
terrian], two ships) can use only 10 pages of rules or as many as 40, but I 
really doubt you could use more if you wanted to.
But I like to use more of the rules. Don't be put off by the shear mass of 
rules, use only as many as you want to, just let everyone know what rules 
you plan to use. 

As for your peeve, here is a counter-example. About 5 years ago I picked up 
FASA's Starship Combat Simulator, it has great graphics really great to look 
at but game play was terrible, I never could get it to flow well. After I 
found SFB I only looked back once and found that it still looks nice but 
plays awful, SFB plays much smoother and faster. My peeve is that it should 
play well, if it looks nice that is a bonus nothing more. I hate games that 
spent all their money on a graphics artist and none on playtesting.


Game Well and success.
Newsgroups: rec.games.board