Hi Ginger,

[CORRECTION] They are done and in the PDF stores.

By Chris Seebacher (Valpurgius) on Friday, October 14, 2022 - 01:16 pm: Edit

This came about while reorganizing and consolidating my counters. My husky puppy thoughtfully alleviated me of having to deal with a number of my counters by eating about 80% of my general ships and andromedans as well as most of my Orion shuttles. These counters spanned Designers Edition, Commanders Edition and the most current. Forty years worth of counters just became ruffage. So I went looking for the reinforcement sets that were previously released. They were going for the insane amount of $75.00 bucks each. Do you have any plans of rereleasing these reinforcement packs or possibly doing a consolidated racial oriented counter set?

As a second question, since you do have most of your products on DriveThruRPG, have considered making ones like the core rules and G3 annex a "living" rulebook. Just add the new ships or rules to it when they are released or changed. This would relieve the need to do errata or updates as well as encourage sales of the electronic format.

By Dal Downing (Rambler) on Friday, October 14, 2022 - 03:49 pm: Edit

Chris Seebacher, check ADB's online store. Pretty much every currently produced counter sheet is sold on there for like $7 a sheet.

By Chris Seebacher (Valpurgius) on Sunday, October 16, 2022 - 09:27 am: Edit

The reinforcement packs extended the numbering of the original counters included in the core sets so you didn't have duplicate counters and could fight larger battles for those insane enough to do fleet level actions
I know I can buy the individual sheets, but that is a lot of sheets to buy to only use about 10% of the counters. Plus, since people tend to prefer one race I think there would be a market for a sheet of counters for all one race with consistent numbering. It is amazing how fast 280 counters can be consumed. Plus it would give them to the opportunity to do counters for Captains Log ships as well. I know they slipped a few into C3 when they redid it. I think you could do an entire sheet with just Fed fighters and bombers.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Sunday, October 16, 2022 - 06:41 pm: Edit

For SFB? No, there is no market for sheets of counters outside of products. We have tried and lost money. People almost universally say they just us another counter for what they want.

The F&E guys, yeah, they buy all kinds of counters all the time. But not SFB.

By Steve Stewart (Stevestewart) on Monday, October 17, 2022 - 05:54 am: Edit

I recently bought the new counter sheets for Basic Set, C1 and C3; the new counters look great (they even have shipping names on the freighters) and I'd recommend them.

I feel your pain with the dog - my Federation TG #2 has never looked the same since canine intervention...

By Shawn Gordon (Avrolancaster) on Tuesday, October 18, 2022 - 11:38 am: Edit

What's the next SFB module in the works?

By Alex Chobot (Alendrel) on Tuesday, October 18, 2022 - 03:53 pm: Edit

Shawn, revised editions of R1 and R6, and the General Unit (R1.0) MSSB are all items they have confirmed as being active projects SPP is working on.

As for new modules? Lot's of possibilities, but we won't know until ADB makes an announcement.

By Ginger McMurray (Gingermcmurray) on Wednesday, October 19, 2022 - 12:08 pm: Edit

What do folks like for training scenarios? We have someone joining our group. She played once a long time ago and is pretty quick on the uptake so we'll start off with a 2v2 battle instead of slogging through the basic cadet scenarios. There will be three of us there so teams is best.

I'm thinking 2x Fed CA vs 2x Klingon D7. It's a classic matchup with simple, standard weapons.

By Ted Fay (Catwhoeatsphoto) on Wednesday, October 19, 2022 - 12:17 pm: Edit

Outside of the Cadet's manual, the best training scenarios are tournament bouts. The number of rules are limited and the cruisers are all as balanced as tech mish-mash allows.

If you need teams, just have a senior partner pair with a junior partner so the senior can tell them what to do and give tactical advice - but the junior partner actually does the work (fills out EAF, rolls dice, records damage, etc.)

By Shawn Gordon (Avrolancaster) on Wednesday, October 19, 2022 - 03:39 pm: Edit

I have grown my group from two people who play SFB to nine people who play SFB.

I have tried two ways of introducing people. The first is to do a basic rundown of the rules, and how to play, and then do a non-competitive 1v1 to actually experience the game, and answer all questions as they come up.

The other way I've done it is to give that basic rundown of the rules, and how to play, and then give the new player control of a small ship within a larger scenario played by other people, be extremely forgiving, and answer any questions as they come up, but still have it be ostensibly a competitive game.

In my experience (n=1) the people who go through option 2 tend to stick around and want to play again, whereas option 1 is more mixed.

By John M. Williams (Jay) on Wednesday, October 19, 2022 - 04:53 pm: Edit

A lot depends on the person being trained. Would that person like a detailed walk through where I'm essentially playing both sides or would they prefer to learn through trial and error while taking on more responsibility themselves? In the latter case, I still offer pointers upon request, or might advise against a certain action and then explain why.

I often give the person a Tholian destroyer (telling them that we'll ignore the web boxes for now) and I take an F5. The thick shields on the destroyer allow the person to make a mistake or two without it being fatal while they learn how to line up a shot on the F5. I also keep the drones on the F5 simple: all type I, speed M. Plenty of time to learn about the many types of drones later. Then I might use a Gorn destroyer for the second match. Again, the thick shields on the Tholian ship can absorb multiple plasma G hits while the person learns how to attack during the plasma re-arming cycle.

By David Jannke (Bigslowtarget) on Thursday, October 20, 2022 - 01:48 am: Edit

I have done convention scenarios with each player getting 2 PFs. The mix of simplified EA, lots of guns, high speed, simplified damage resolution, easy turn modes, and no auxiliary systems really helps cut down on the instruction and keep people engaged.

Of course, for serious long-term play in a group, you need to add those things back in so you migrate toward full SFB. The point is to "set the hook" with something fast and fun to start.

By Kosta Michalopoulos (Kosmic) on Thursday, October 20, 2022 - 04:11 pm: Edit

PFs, the crack cocaine of SFB. 😁

By Jamey Johnston (Totino) on Thursday, October 20, 2022 - 07:08 pm: Edit

I thought that was Orion engine doubling...

It's amazing at first
But after a while you have to do it to feel normal
And eventually it kills you

By David Jannke (Bigslowtarget) on Friday, October 21, 2022 - 12:47 am: Edit

It is Orion PFs with engine doubling and photons or gats in the option mounts. Well, that is more the crystal meth of SFB I guess.

Never tried playing those - no point really.

By Mike West (Mjwest) on Friday, October 21, 2022 - 09:38 am: Edit

Orion PFs can only have a single photon each, and energy doubling is basically a one-time use thing. (You lose your entire WBP for doing it.) So it's not quite a ridiculous as it might otherwise seem.

It is quite overwhelming for that one turn, though.

By Chris Seebacher (Valpurgius) on Friday, October 21, 2022 - 10:44 am: Edit

Orion Engine Doubling is Speed you silly goose

By Jeff Anderson (Jga) on Friday, October 21, 2022 - 08:38 pm: Edit

Ever try INT with WBPs?

Tholian Scorpions can be fun!

By Johnny Casady (Phythalion) on Sunday, October 23, 2022 - 12:59 am: Edit

Will there be any tournaments held at conventions in the coming year?

By Ginger McMurray (Gingermcmurray) on Sunday, October 23, 2022 - 12:09 pm: Edit

Yesterday we taught a couple of people the basics. One of the guys had to leave so we showed him energy allocation and sent him home with the training manual, a mat, and some counters. The other, Vicky, stayed and played a game of Feds vs, Klingons. I didn't take full notes but here's what I recall. It was 2v1 with their 2 CAs vs. my 2 D7s.

Turn one was closing on each other and me firing 8 disruptors at range 15 for 18 damage to the #2. Bob sent Vicky out first because he knows I like to blow him up. :D

Turn 2 they sped up and I sped up. I turned in even though I knew they had overloaded photons. You don't learn how the DAC works without rolling some dice. I managed to do a bunch of internals to Vicky because she kept the weak shield to me. They did a bunch in return. Lesson #1: rolling on the DAC and blowing systems away.
I was able to mizia a little because she kept not turning a fresh shield. Lesson #2: you can usually tell the winner of a duel by who has the most damaged shields all around. They're there to protect you... Use them!

The next turn I was really hurt but they were running on empty. My mangled ship had 5 power left. Life Support, Shields, and speed 2 were all I could do. Vicky circled around to try and finish me off but was also hurt and only going 17. She couldn't get there before I was able to disengage by acceleration. Lesson #3: she who fights and runs away doesn't get bloweded upded.

My other ship went speed 7, HETed, and sent 4 overloads + a full salvo of phasers through Bob's rear shields for a smattering of internals. Lesson #4: you hurt your enemy more if you focus fire on a single ship.

We called it at that point. I wasn't wasn't about to be able to take on 6 overloaded photons at speed 7 with an already hurt D7.

It was great fun and we successfully lured her into coming back for more carnage in the future. :D

By Michael F Guntly (Ares) on Sunday, October 23, 2022 - 03:14 pm: Edit

Anyone, correct me if I am wrong, but,

Ginger, I thought (last looked at rules 10+ years ago) that a ship needed a minimum amount of warp power remaining (greater than what you had) to disengage by acceleration.

By Mike Erickson (Mike_Erickson) on Sunday, October 23, 2022 - 03:44 pm: Edit

(C7.11) PROCEDURE: On a given game turn, the starship wishing to disengage by acceleration must move (for the entire turn) at the maximum possible practical speed which it can, as restricted by available warp engine power (which may have been reduced by combat) and the game imposed speed limit of 31. At the end of that turn, if the starship in question still has total warp power available equal to either 50% of his original warp power (rounding fractions up) or fifteen points of warp power, whichever is lower, the owning player simply announces that he is “disengaging.” His ship is then removed from the board and presumed to return to its nearest base. If the disengaging ship is the only unit (on that side) of the scenario, the scenario is over. Note: Ships that do not have, or never had, warp engines cannot disengage by acceleration.

I think the ship needs either 50% or 15 points of warp?

--Mike

By Ginger McMurray (Gingermcmurray) on Sunday, October 23, 2022 - 04:00 pm: Edit

Oops. I guess I blowed up. :-D

By Mike Erickson (Mike_Erickson) on Sunday, October 23, 2022 - 09:28 pm: Edit

It happens! :-o

--Mike