Web and Starship (On Topic! Honest!)

> At 11:05 AM 9/15/97 -0700, Donald wrote:

> There was a game a few years back called "Web and Starship". A board

> Never had the chance to pick it up though :(

It's been years since I played, but I still have it. _Web and Starship_
was a rare bird: a true, three player game. Designed by Greg Costikyan, there
were three factions: Humans, Gwynhyfarr, and the Pereen. One alien race had
FTL drives, and the other had the "web," a network of jump gates put in
place by slower-than-light ships. The humans had both technologies, but
weren't as good at either.

Three player games are rarely attempted and even more rarely succeed. This
is because three player games (more likely two/four player games with
three player options) usually fall into two standard configurations. In most
games all three forces are equal, leading two players to gang up on one and
then fight it out amongst themselves for the win; not much fun if you're the
odd man out. The other type of three player game is usually only a two player
game with one side split in two; since two people are never as
co-ordinated
as one, the split side is at a disadvantage. W&S was different. The Pereen
(web guys) took a long time to build up a network that was powerful enough to
be competitive. The other aliens are really powerful at the beginning of the
game. The Humans, then, are the swing vote. Added to the Pereen, they can hold
the Gwynhyfarr in check. Later in the game, the Pereen get powerful enough
that the Humans have to swing over into an alliance with the Gwynhyfarr to
keep the Pereen in check. The end is usually a horse race with all three
players strong enough to win and all out war ensues (or sometimes the other
aliens have to gang up on the humans!). It's quite an interesting game.

Okay, I promised this was on topic. First, the game has some merit as a
campaign game. One force has jump gates and the other has standard FTL drives.
You could use the game as a campaign game as is, using GZG games to resolve
combat. Or you can just canibalize the idea of the two types of tech. I'd give
the Pereen nothing but system defense boats, but we'd have to come up with
rules for the jump gates. I'd suggest turning the jump gate into some form of
installation, and let it take damage like a ship or a space station. An
assault on a jump gate constructor fleet could be an interesting scenario, as
well.

Second, there's a star map in the game. A 3D star map (okay, a 2D map of 3D
space). This was one of the more interesting aspects of the game. It was
fought in a 3D helix group of local, REAL stars. More than 50 of them,
actually, with Sol in the centre and Fomalhaut B at the approximate edge of
the spherical volume. There is no hex grid, either, so there is no need for
the map to conform to the grid (ala _Starforce: Alpha Centauri_).
Instead, you get a range ruler with the game and a pythagoran chart to figure
out actual distances. It takes a little time to figure out, but it is a nice
map of local stars.

If you see W&S on sale in a second hand store or in an auction I recommend
picking it up. It makes a good campaign setting for FT, and is a neat game
besides.