Hi, I was wodering if anyone had rules or conversions for SFB(Star Fleet
Battles. I have found a few items on Mark's Unofficial page but was hoping
more stuff was out there somewhere.
I got into FT because SFB was to detailed and thus made it difficult to
perform fleet type battles.
Any help will be greatly apprecciated.
BTW: check out my web site. You can put graffiti on the wall, check my links
and read my monthly article. URL is below
Thanks
Kroy wrote,
> I was wodering if anyone had rules or conversions for SFB(Star
Check out Mark Siefert's Unofficial Full Thrust Page at:
http://www.uwm.edu/~cthulhu/FT/thrust.html
He's got 2 or 3 different sets of Trek background rules (including mine).
Most of them are geared towards TNG/DS9/Voyager rather than SFB, but I'm
sure you could convert them.
Scott
SFB to FT. A monster job indeed considering the vast amount of literature
produced by I think FASA. It may be possible to use a hybrid of the 2 systems
to get a new one. The time consuming part of SFB was the power
allocation system which is at the heart of the game. It would be possible to
still use the SFB sheets allocating damage from weapon hits taken in
FT style. When a shield colapses then USE the SFB critical hit system to
allocate the points internally. Well just some thoughts I haven't tried
any of these, but they may stimulate your imagination to write some!!
----------
From: FTGZG-L[SMTP:FTGZG-L@bolton.ac.uk]
Sent: 25 January 1997 12:08
To: FTGZG-L
Subject: Trek conversions
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Hi, I was wodering if anyone had rules or conversions for SFB(Star Fleet
Battles. I have found a few items on Mark's Unofficial page but was hoping
more stuff was out there somewhere.
I got into FT because SFB was to detailed and thus made it difficult to
perform fleet type battles.
Any help will be greatly apprecciated.
BTW: check out my web site. You can put graffiti on the wall, check my links
and read my monthly article. URL is below
Thanks Kroy
> Simon Campbell-Smith writes:
@:) SFB to FT. A monster job indeed considering the vast amount of @:)
literature produced by I think FASA.
^^^^!
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!
EVIL SIMON: SPAWN OF SATAN! Hangin's too good for ye! Burnin's too good for
ye!!
Whew! Sorry, just had to get that out of my system. Ah... much better now,
thanks very much. Ahem. SFB is published by Task Force Games (and written by
the Amarillo Design Bureau) (or is it the other way around?). FASA produces a
competing, and to my mind much inferior, Star Trek space combat game that
unfortunately has Paramount behind it and thus continues to exist despite the
fact that it isn't that great.
> At 02:57 PM 1/27/97 +0000, you wrote:
> systems to get a new one. The time consuming part of SFB was the power
> allocation system which is at the heart of the game. It would be
> FT style. When a shield colapses then USE the SFB critical hit system
> any of these, but they may stimulate your imagination to write some!!
SFB is produced by Task Force Games (URL: www.task-force-games.com)
In my personal experience was the power allowcation, and the turn sequence
that took so long. If any of the more complex rule sections were used, or more
than two ships on a side, the games were VERY long, just to play out a few
turns.
> hosford donald writes:
@:) Ahh excuse me. FASA HAD produced a Star Trek RPG with a space @:) combat
module. (I heard it was pretty good..) Anyway, what I @:) heard, was that they
got Paramount very mad. Mad enough for them @:) to yank FASA's Star Trek
licence.
!
Well this is certainly having less and less to do with FT but I must admit I'm
quite pleased to hear that FASA got dropped. As far as the quality of their
game, I played it once and found that it had some intriguing aspects mechanics
wise, but the only thing that really grabbed me was the fact that players
could each man one position on a starship (captain, engineering, helm, etc)
and then they had to work together to operate the ship. You could skip that,
of course. Anyway as far as game mechanics SFB is a lot more complex and has a
lot more
variety. True to the ever-evolving Star Trek universe it is not.
Perhaps I might be able to excuse myself for this digression if I were to ask
whether anyone has skipped the conversions of existing games and just come up
with FT versions of Star Trek ships? I do vaguely remember hearing someone
discuss photon torpedoes vs disruptors but I don't remember ever seeing any FT
SSDs turn up.
> At 11:10 AM 1/27/97 -0500, you wrote:
Ahh excuse me. FASA HAD produced a Star Trek RPG with a space combat module.
(I heard it was pretty good..) Anyway, what I heard, was that they got
Paramount very mad. Mad enough for them to yank FASA's Star Trek licence. FASA
had produced a produce called: The Triangle. It covered the sector of space
left over between the federation, klingon, and romulan empires that formed a
triangle. The official history says the the boarders of these nations come to
a point. There is no space left over! That module was written and published
without Paramount's permission. If they made that change, it makes me wonder
what else they changed without telling anyone.
I heard another company got the licence to do the Star Trek RPG and combat
module....I think the same one that did the recent Indana Jones
game/Star
Wars RPGs.
> At 10:20 AM -0800 1/27/97, hosford.donald wrote:
You just need to play SFB with people who can handle the energy allocation for
a cruiser in 5 minutes tops. Unfortunately, the engineering types who are good
at SFB also microanalyze tactics and possible enemy moves. That can happen
with any game, no matter how simple. Some people have to carefully analyze
every move and take their sweet time on every decision. SFB just has more
decisions to make and thus more opportunities to waste time.
Off Topic but interesting
The thing that FASA did to upset Paramount was the STTNG source book, full of
off the wall ship designs. Paramount made them pull it and issue a lesser
color marketing brochure. The original book is rare and sought after.
There was a web page with the Star Trek Tactical Combat Simulator conversions
to FT. No ones had the time or inclinantion to do an SFB conversion AFAIK.
http://www.protree.com/wilcox/Games/fasa.html
I'm waiting for the new Star Fleet Academy game - should be a gem
looking at the screen shots.
> At 06:46 PM 1/27/97 -0800, you wrote:
I got the feeling just from reading the nexus mag (Task force's old house
organ). They had a "term paper" section. Players would send in some neat
little tactic they had discovered. And half the time they would chew
a perfectly good tactic to peices! I came up with a good little tactic, but
after seeing that, I refused to send it in... I'd rather not play with rules
lawers.
> At 02:16 PM 1/27/97 -0500, you wrote:
I still have it. I remember it wasn't bad as an easy, introductory type game.
One version of it allowed each player to play a different bridge crew member.
I actually finished a couple of games of it, which is more than I could say
about SFB.
> Anyway, what I heard, was that they
That's not true. My contact (head librarian of the Merrill Collection of
Fantasy and Speculative Fiction) tells me that it was the OPPOSITE situation:
FASA dropped the Star Trek license. Every module released under the license
had to be approved by Paramount. There were a number of modules released after
The Triangle, so that wasn't the problem. In fact, some ST:TNG stuff was
released in the first season of the show. The problem was that Paramount made
up for past mistakes in Star Trek licensing and over priced the license for
the RPG. They submitted it to FASA and FASA dropped it as too expensive. ST
wasn't that big an RPG for them, anyway. It did alright but considering what
they were paying Paramount, Shadowrun and Battletech were far better for them.
Also, there were some problems with
Paramount wanting everything squeaky-clean in their universe. It took
forever to get a module approved, sometimes requiring small or frivilous
re-writes. They dropped the license as not being worth the cost and
pain. Paramount tried shopping it around, but they soon found that game
companies aren't made of money. Either the company couldn't afford the fee, or
the company was doing just fine with its own set of games.
> I heard another company got the licence to do the Star Trek RPG and
I haven't heard that. However, I don't think you've got this right, either.
TSR did the Indiana Jones roleplaying game (it's been out of print for years,
so I wouldn't call it recent) while West End Games does Star Wars (which is
still going strong, but it too was first released in the 80s).
There IS a second Star Trek RPG. It's called _Prime Directive_ and it's
put out by Task Force Games. Actually, its an RPG based on the SFB universe.
I've got it. It looks okay, but I doubt if I'll ever run it.
There isn't much in either game for FT fans (see, I tied it back to
FT!).
> At 02:13 PM 1/27/97 -0500, Joachim wrote:
Mark Siefert's web page has several ST conversions for FT. I mostly use ST
micromachines for FT due to the cost of the GZG figures. I started by doing my
own Star Trek adaptation, but eventually moved on to just using the ST ships
as generic starships. We lump the Romulan and Klingon ships together along
with the runabouts from DS9. We also put the Cardassians and Ferengi ships in
one fleet, usually as freighters (you think this sounds silly? put the
Cardassian ship beside the Ferengi ship, and then turn the Cardassian
around...). We then use the ships according to their actual figure size! The
Galaxy class ship becomes a light cruiser, the Enterprise C becomes a heavy
cruiser, and the Stargazer is either a carrier or a dreadnought. It works for
us.
> I heard another company got the licence to do the Star Trek RPG and
Actually, I believe you'll find that WEG did release an Indiana Jones
worldbook recently (in the past 5 years). I'm not sure which of their game
systems it was built for, but I definately remember seeing it with a WEG logo
on it.
> There IS a second Star Trek RPG. It's called _Prime Directive_ and it's
I've got it, too, and I was pretty disappointed. I didn't like the fact that
all the characters were pigeon holed into ONLY being Prime Team members, not
bridge crew, or merchants, or anything else. Kinda like if D & D only had the
Fighter class. The other problem is that it was an RPG designed by and for SFB
wargamers, which ment that every little detail was
munchkin-proofed to the point that the game is a rules nightmare (come
on, FOUR seperate Reputation ratings???) I also have the FASA rules, and I
liked what they did with their bridge simulator (if you have a really good GM,
it rocks), but I found the RPG system was cumbersome, so I suggest starting
with the GURPS Trek rules
and throw in a Mekton-like lifepath generator (the FASA rules had
something similar, but it wasn't as fun). Then, grab one of the sets of ST to
FT rules, add in Scott Field's FT RPG rules from a few months back on this
very list, and you've got a pretty workable set of ST RPG and Space Combat
rules.
I've already done a good deal of work on a non-playtested version of
these
rules, but I've always been partial to the time around the ST2-ST3
movies for role playing, so my ships are built to slightly different specs.
Take care,
> At 11:59 AM 1/28/97 -0500, you wrote:
My friend liked that system. Only got the basic rules (the ones covering the
junior officers) and the romulan recoqnition module.
> Anyway, what I heard, was that they
> That's not true. My contact (head librarian of the Merrill Collection
That is interesting...
> I heard another company got the licence to do the Star Trek RPG and
Prime Directive is for Task Force's SFB universe. The Indiana Jones RPG was
done by TSR, but it was a sham...you could only play indy or the other movie
charactors -- they claimed that if you wanted to play an indy like hero,
might as well play indy himself....
West End Games produced a new RPG system in addition to their Starwars RPG. I
think it is called The Master Book System. They produced an Indiana
Jones module, and a horror module (don't remember the name of it -- not
interested in that stuff anyway.) I haven't heard anything from that system
latly..
> There isn't much in either game for FT fans (see, I tied it back to
What I want to know is should I run out now and order FT/MT, or wait
for FT3....I won't have the money to do both. When is FT3 supposed to come
out?
If the wait is going to be a long one, I will buy FT/MT now....I am
impressed with this game....I "assembled" a crude version, and tried it with
my friend. Speedy play, easy control of your ships. I want to see the rest of
the game!!!
> Allan Goodall: agoodall@sympatico.ca
> At 09:30 AM 1/29/97 -0500, you wrote:
> West End Games produced a new RPG system in addition to their Starwars
Oh, wait a minute. That's right! My apologies to the original poster. I
remember this now.
> What I want to know is should I run out now and order FT/MT, or wait
I don't know when it will be out. I suggest buying FT/MT right now if
you plan to play it right away. If you are going to spend a couple of months
painting ships first, I'd suggest waiting until after the painting is done.
Maybe someone else has a better idea of when FT3 will be out.
> At 11:02 AM 1/29/97 -0500, you wrote:
Apologies accepted. I'm a nice guy. I enjoyed the conversation anyway...
> What I want to know is should I run out now and order FT/MT, or wait
Well I decided to scrap my Star General plans in favor of ordering FT/MT
from my favorite hobby store. As to painting mini's....I'm terribull at it. I
prefer to "make" my own ships anyway. (You see when I was a kid I didn't have
any money, and I made my own space ship toys...cardboard and glue mostly)
Star Fleet Academy will have one let down. They did away with the "sim"
nature of the combat and made it more of a "dogfight"/arcade style. Too
bad but should still be fun. Why have there been no computer games along
the lines of FT???????!!!!
Paul
I didn't write the below quoted message...by the way.
Paul
----------
From: Alan Brain[SMTP:aebrain@dynamite.com.au]
Sent: Tuesday, February 04, 1997 3:17 PM
To: FTGZG-L@bolton.ac.uk
Subject: Re: Trek conversions
> Paul Calvi wrote:
> There was a web page with the Star Trek Tactical Combat Simulator
I'm working on it... I must post v1.1 of the TOS conversion on the Unofficial
FT page. V1.0 is already there. v1.1 includes some details on sources of
miniatures plus Tholians (and why there are no Orions or Gorn in there), v1.2
will have both.BMPs for all ships and some links to piccies of painted ship
models that are VERY good, and should be in html format. Part 2 will have SFB
rules for Feds, Klingons for which ships are available. Part 3 will have the
rest of the SFB races.
1.1 is complete, and I've already sent a copy plus the.BMPs to someone on this
list. I can send more if people want. v1.2 is in progress, but is taking a
while.
---------------------- <> <> How doth the little Crocodile
| Alan & Carmel Brain| xxxxx Improve his shining tail?
| Canberra Australia | xxxxxHxHxxxxxx _MMMMMMMMM_MMMMMMMMM
---------------------- o OO*O^^^^O*OO o oo oo oo oo
By pulling MAERKLIN Wagons, in 1/220 Scale
> Paul Calvi wrote:
> There was a web page with the Star Trek Tactical Combat Simulator
I'm working on it... I must post v1.1 of the TOS conversion on the Unofficial
FT page. V1.0 is already there. v1.1 includes some details on sources of
miniatures plus Tholians (and why there are no Orions or Gorn