Entry parameters

"Leave it open, leave it open"...

Can anyone answer me: Based on WHAT experience can a new player (no, everyone
does NOT have Internet access, nor do they belong to helpful gaming clubs) can
decide on reasonable parameters?

Mutual agreement is kinda nice, but if we could just agree on everything, what
would we need the rules for? Are we so unimaginative that we can't
think of our own rules :-/2

What's wrong with guidelines? No one says you HAVE TO use ANY of the rules in
the book. Lacking a tournament environment, they're all just guidelines
subject to mutual agreement.

I personally would rather have a rule I can choose to ignore than an empty
space I'd have to invent something to fill it with.

Besides, you can always make a scenario game out of a tournament game, but not
the other way around.

P.S. Kallistra's ships are nice, the fleet packs are good bargains, but
they are clearly gaming pieces -- the undersides are flat and
featureless.