Archive through July 10, 2004
Star Fleet Universe Discussion Board: Star Fleet Battles: Star Fleet Universe Training Command:
Teaching Kids to play SFB:
Archive through July 10, 2004
My main SFB opponent has a 14 year old step son.
We have been trying to get him to play the game, (not presuring him mind you) just perswading him to accept what a great game it is and how challenging it can be. He is certainly smart enough to catch on to the game but has no desire to get to that "first game" stage. if he did I think we could get him to play it more from there.
I was thinking that if he had a friend his age that was willing to give it a try, then maybe he may just give it a go too.
just a thought.
Rus
I am fortunate, in that I have 2 sons ages 10, and 12. I taught them sfb using the cadet book and then moved them into the Y module. I found that the Y module was an ideal teaching tool as it covered almost all the rules of the game in a watered down form. That is, the ships have less power and the systems provide a less confusing amount of options.Being competive brothers they immediately chose races and started duking it out. Another bonus is that my wife also plays, and we all can battle each other and scenarios with more than two races are easier to handle. Their favorite races currently are, for the boys klingon and Carnivon, the wife prefers kzinti. I play whomever is left. The boys really enjoy competing and live for the day they can beat up on Dad ( the wife does too.) So I encourage you to keep trying to get that youngster to play.
Lucky bastard...
I have two boys that want to play the game, however they are still a bit on the young side and ask why more times to the same answer than can be bared. when they hit 12 or 13 I will consider teaching them to play.
We did finally get the youngster to play a game of SFC, (which he knows to be based on the Board game he sees us playing)
Unfortunatly he just is not comfortable enough with computers and the interface to have accepted it as a start to SFB (or to SFC for that matter as he hasnt played it since)
His attentions seem to be focused highly on his music. (he plays guitar and longs to be in a band)
But of course we wont give up on our invitations into the Gaming world.
Rus
Dwight,
By the way are you still into the PBEM game of what?
I never recieved a response from you when I was trying to reunite the Players for the WW5 PBEM game.
Rus
For any new players taking the time to color code the SSD and EA form can help alot. Just use thin tip magic markers and trace the inside of the ssd boxes.
Good idea.
Actually, you may want to go ahead and get a seperate DAC and color code important hits (Warp, Impulse, Torp, Drone, Phaser) in the same color as the corresponding boxes on the SSD.
I'm a long time lurker on this board, but I've only posted once or twice. I was introduced to SFB by my older cousin, Todd. He was actually trying to get another guy interested and decided to be nice to me. Todd took a Romulan Warbird with no refits and gave me a Gorn Destroyer and the other guy a Fed Police Cutter. We didn't play with many rules and I was hit by a R torp at range 8, basically because I thought my G could hit his R. After that I did my best impression of a Nova. About two turns later the other guy blew up Todd with Photons. The point is after this game I was hooked. I had lost through stupid mistakes and thought I could do better. Todd got my interest by being willing to be blown up by two newbies.
I'm only a relative newbie to this game (just _recently_ discovered that it's a bad idea to engage Fed's at point blank in the FA arc, lol), but I've introduce three of my younger siblings to the system. The oldest of them, a brother who is 16, has been playing SFC for over a year, but hasn't been interested since our first couple games. The younger two, however, ask me to play them just about every day. I started my brother Eric (a different one) on Hydran Stingers (the ones with just the phaser-G, whichever those are). He picked up ships well enough after this that I just started the other one (my sister Laura) on cruisers, and she's done more than fine. Still, I think that fighters, given their simplicity (sans dogfight rules, I'm assuming) might be a good place to introduce an interested younger child to the system. If using those basic Hydrans, they only need to understand basic movement, the ph-3 table, and the effects of crippling to play. Dwight, I would suggest this with your boys. Back to my brother and sister, I've taught them the mains of power allocation (how to read the SSD's and EAF, where it comes from, where to put it), a basic sequence of play, basic movement, sideslip, phasers, disruptors and photons (including overloads), drones, and shield reinforcement. I've tried once each to introduce HET's, DERFACS/UIM, and plasma (including wild weasels), but none of these attempts were very successful. For the time being, they seem comfortable and content to use only the above-mentioned rules, and have a lot of fun doing so. They've even picked their race (out of the three available, lol): Eric flies Kzinti and Laura flies Feds (which leaves me with Orions or Klinks).
Rus, with regards to your son, it seems that he just isn't interested in SFB. While parents tend to want to share their hobbies and interests with their children--and gamers tend to really want to share their hobby in general--I wouldn't hold out on this becoming a common ground between you. You've introduced him to the game, and if he ever comes up to you one day and says he wants to play, then great, but if he doesn't, you've done just about all you can that might have sparked his interest. About the only other thing I can suggest is take the time to take interest in his hobby--sit in and listen to him play, if he gets a band go to some of his shows--and maybe he'll take interest in yours.
Matt
Er, wait, that's your _opponent's_ son. I guess that advice would be more for him--
Matt
put that SFC disk in the computer but don't play it, instead open it in explorer, look for an SFB folder on it. You'll find the cadet manual. Print it out and use that to teach the kids.
I always thought that was a clever way to introduce SFB to the masses, introduce a fun comuter game based on the rules, and slip in the cadet version for free. I wonder how hard it was to convince paramount to do that.
Convicing Parmount to do it was nothing (Steve Cole has the contract)....convincing Steve to put any printed material on a disk media was the trick I'm sure.
Just managed to hook my kids on SFB. My 13 year old son received a copy of the Cadet Manual for his b'day on Jan 24th. Since then he has devoured it. He has played every scenario several times, with everyone from myself to his little sister and everyone in between. He has read my SFB rulebooks cover to cover, multiple times. He can recite most of the pertinent sections of the rules from memory, and plays very, very very well.
My gaming group (a group of 6 30+ year-olds...) found itself short a player last weekend and asked my son to fill in. He did so well, and had so much fun, the guys just emailed him to see if he wanted to pick-up a race in the new Fed and Empire campaign we're starting in a couple of weeks... (just as soon as we get AO).
Next thing you know, he'll be whoopin' the tar outta Dad, kinda brings tears to the eye, doesn't it.
I can only hope I'm so lucky.
My son is three. He is a major daddy's boy. Before he was born, we didn't have much in the way of kids toys around, so when we had my niece come over (who at the time was ~5), in an attempt to help her not be so bored I reluctantly broke out my stash of Playmates Star Trek toys.
After he was born, my niece would still want to play with my toys when she came over. Well, now the two of them get along great (He's 3, she's almost 8) but she introduced him to my toys. My wife didn’t want him learning about guns so early but just shakes her head when she sees him running around with a phaser. (I’ve convinced him they have a ‘tickle’ setting.)
A bit later, he heard me playing SFC in my office & knew what the phaser sound was. ZING!! Straight into dad's lap!
Now, SFC has become a dad & son thing. He likes to choose the races for the skirmish & the size of ships. He gets to run the mines, probes, and sometimes the fire button. SFB isn't far behind.
This week, while cleaning my office, I pulled my CapLogs down. Alex comes over and points at the cover of one and says, "What's that, dad?"
"That's a Klingon," I answer.
"No," he scowls, in the gently reprimanding way that only a three year old can, "that's a battle cruiser!"
I'll be surprised if he doesn't have his Rated Ace card before he has a driver's license. 
(No, I'm not a proud dad at all.)
Recently my 6 year old found my CapLogs. He's a big fan of the fiction, often requesting it for his bedtime story.
===
My daughter (14) regularly blows Daddy to
tiny bits, but then she's got photon dice
I can only dream about.. ;)
And I am hoping my 11 year old son will be able
to make the local tourney this weekend, and
finally beat someone with a different
last name...
I've really go to work on this procreation thing. You guys are having too much fun with offspring.
You can have a lot of fun. AFTER the diaper stage And until they reach the Teen years and start going that old Fart wouldn't know a good idea if it bit him on the (Insert Body part).
I do enjoy reading about the next generation of wargamers getting off to a good start!!
Keep it up folks.
My son is just about old enough to start doing SFB. I yhink for his 10th Bday I'll tell him that I'll teach him how to play.
And instead of grounding him, you can make him run a squadron of D6D's versus four Kzinti fighter squadrons, complete with twinkie drone loadouts, and make sure he gets all the drones in order.
==
Would that be punishment, or reward? ;)
Update on the 13 year old situation. My son accepted the offer to join the Fed and Empirecampaign... so I broke out the rule books and gave him aquick lesson using Lyran / Kzinti forces. He rapidly learned the basics of movement / combat / economics / and repair. After a few rounds of battle, explaining the importance of knwing when to push the attack and when to retreat from a losing proposition... he said he was comfortable with the rules... with this in mind, we got our the 601 Lyran set-up chart and began placing units. As I was doing the initial Luran set-up for turn one, he looked the map over, pointed to sevral units and said, something to the effect of... "wouldn't it be better to have these units here, this unit there, and those over in that hex? Then you could sweep in this way and..."
You get the picture, it rapidly went from Dad explaining what he was doing, to Dad and Son discussing strategies and tactics... Woo Hoo!! you gotta love it.
The other players are doing there initial set-up this weekend, and turn 1 starts March 1 at 9:00 a.m. I'll post another update after the game and let y'all know how my son does.
Next thing you know, I'll have to be ordering another full set of DF&E + exps. for him.
Can I get a frequent buyer discount on that Steve?
I am looking forward to teaching my son how to play. I remember learning from my dad and uncles when I was all of 9. I think if kids like sci-fi at an early age they will gravitate to SFB/F&E if it is played around them.
Yep. Just started with my 14 y-o nephew, combining the first Cadet manual (Intro to SFB circa 1986) and the CTM module from Nexus 12. Have gotten up to EA last week, he dang near took me down. He prefers the Fed cadet CA, so I've been taking the Klingon. Took down my #6 shield with phasers, I turned to mask it, and he slipped to keep in arc with his photons. Luckily, he rolled 5s to-hit. Well, lucky for me. After 3 impulses of Mizias, he conceded. I then spent 10 minutes explaining the Mizia to him. Good thing for me we're not playing this week...
Hey, does the 'new' CTM have Cadet versions of other races than Fed/Klin/Rom? I haven't gotten off my tail to grab a copy yet...
Yes. New CTM has ISC, Kzinti, Gorn, Romulan KR, Orion, Hydran, Lyran, Fed, Klinong, and Romulan WE Cadet Cruisers.
BTW, the CTM is out of print and won't be reprinted. We're going to put the file on the web site.
Must make my copy a collectors item. It even still has the 2 map sections in it with the counters uncut.
Hello. I thought this was intresting because I am 13 and want to know how to learn SFB more and actually I'm doing the the reverse trying to get adults I know to play it.
With my 5-year-old, I'm adopting a multi-track approach to turn him into a SFB player.
Step 1: introduce him to TOS at the age of 2 weeks. Get him to be a TOS fan. Result: SUCCESSFUL. He likes the old show more than the new ones and Captain Kirk is one of his heroes, right up there with Superman.
Step 2: show him how to play Star Fleet Command on the computer. This introduces the ideas of spaceships and the basics of game play and tactics. Started this at the age of 3. Result: SUCCESSFUL. We play a game of SFC every night before bed.
Step 3: show him how to play Star Fleet Missions, the old card game from the early 1990s. This introduces him to some of the SFB ships, as well as helping to teach basic math skills (addition) and some reading. Result: SUCCESSFUL. We're even making new homemade mission cards to keep things from getting too boring.
Step 4: introduce him to Star Fleet Battles proper. A simplified version similar to the cadet game, though with "cooperative" energy allocation. Focus on learning to manuever, concentration of fire, etc. RESULT: In progress, seems to be going as well as possible with a 5 year old.
Clark, good luck. Finding star trek fans or wargamers, or hopefully both(!) is your best bet. Adds at your local gamestore, boardgame nights, star trek cons (careful!) are typical traffic areas for such.