I would like to propose a light faster version of SFB that one could play, say in a car on a long trip or the like.

By John Trauger (Vorlonagent) on Monday, October 20, 2003 - 09:19 pm: Edit

please do.

By Loren Knight (Loren) on Monday, October 20, 2003 - 09:20 pm: Edit

Star Fleet Aces...comming next year.

By michael john campbell (Michaelcampbell) on Monday, October 20, 2003 - 10:00 pm: Edit

Travel SFB

1 Preamble
The basic design of this system is to be lighter in it's requirements for EAFs, SSDs, pens and Dice but still be a game of starships fighting eachother and still retain the challenge of trying to out pilot your enemy.


2 Ships Descriptions
Listed below is a table of each race's ship (with the exception of the Tholians which is in fact a trio of Corvettes) and how many cards it may earn each turn to distribute to each basic system of the ship and the maximum ( although this number may be increased by special rules ) number of cards that may be devoted to each special system.


3 Mechanics
3.1 Energy allocation
Ships shall earn a number of cards which are delt to the player ( face side down ) and the player may form a hand with those cards and choose which card he shall allocate to which basic system.

There are three basic systems, which can be simply three imaginary ( but distinct ) rows infront of the player that both players agree on ( and should be explained as to which row is which if the opponents asks for an explaination ).
The Rows should always be in order and should be the order of, Offense first, Manouver in the middle and Defense last.

The cards shall be regular playing cards with the Jokers removed ( and when not otherwise stated the Jack, Queen, King and Ace shall all have a value of 10 ).

The cards shall be placed face side down and then revealled simatainiously, first the Movement which is resolved, then the Offenses and Defenses which are resolved.


4 Movement
When cards are placed in movement the cards are held face down in the movement row until they are called to be revealled.

When the cards are revealled they should be examinied.

If one player has more cards in movement then he shall resolve the movement question.
Except when the player with the Fewer cards in movemet has either an Ace or a King then he shall resolve movement ( unless the player with more cards in movement has a King or an Ace also in which case the player with more cards resolves first although an Ace beats a King ).
If both players have an equal number of cards in movement then the player with the highest total shall resolve movement.
If both totals are equal then the player with the highest maximum movement resolves movement.
If both maximum movements are equal then the player with the highest total power he may generate, resolves movement.
If both power generations are equal then nobody gains any advantage points.


4.1 Resolution of movement
The Player who resolves movement may place his movement cards against his opponent's and match pairs in any order of his choosing.

If the resolving player has a higher card in the comparison pair ( Queen beats Jack which in turn are beaten by Kings and then Aces ) then he gains an advantage point per matched pair. If the player who is resolving has more cards then the player who is not then the cards that can not be lined up in a comparison pairs automatically wins an Advantage point. Note that if the player resolving has fewer cards ( but is resolving because of a King or an Ace ) then the player with the most cards shall gain advantage points for each card that can not be placed in a comparison pair.

If both players earn an advantage point then the player resolving movement may choose to either keep both ships as having an advantage point or cancel the advantage points out with each other.

Advantage points are appled such that in the next turn cards are directly dealt ( by the dealer ) into the offense row of the player with the advantage ( one card per point ).
Except when an Ace was involved in the Movement resolution such that the advantage cards cause extra cards to be delt to the player such that he forms a hand with those cards and then adds to those cards the cards of his energy generation to form a very large hand.
In this way an Ace can be used to increase the number of cards in the Defense of the ship ( or to aid inb movement ) on the next turn.

Cards added to offenses ( or Defense or Movement thanks to an Ace ) do not count towards the maximum limit of the ship.


5 Damage Resolution
The next step is to resolve Damage ( note that Advantage points will increase the Offensive cards of the next turn ) by revealling the offensive cards of both ships and then revealing the Defensive cards of both ships.

The Players shall total their Offensive cards ( Jack, Queen, King and Ace all count as 10 ) and then total their enemy's defensive cards and then subtract out their opponents Defensive cards.
Then the Players shall divided the remainder ( if positive ) by ten and round that result down.
The result is the damage that each ship inflicts on eachother ( respectively ) and each "point of Damage" shall cause each ship to be able to generate ( permanantly ) 1 less point of power ( read shall be dealt one less card ).
If a ship can no longer generate any power then the ship explodes and the other player is the winner ( unless both ships explode in which case it is a Tie ).

After both players have resolved the damage they have inflicted and if no ship has won then the turn process repeats, with both players returning their cards to the bottom of the deck and are dealt new cards by the dealer ( the cards should be shuffled before each game begins ).


6 Ship Capasities
The table below list each race's ship and the maximum limits of cards that may be placed in each row of the ship's card allocation.

Ship	Offense	Movement	Defense	Generation
Federation	3	2	3	5
Klingon	2	3	3	5
Gorn	4	2	2	5
Romulan	4	1	4	4
Tholian Corvette Trio	2	3	2	6
Orion	2	3	2	6*
Kzinti	2	2	4	5
Lyran	3	3	3	4
Hydran Hellbore	3	3	3	4
Hydran Fusion	2	4	2	5
Hydran Fighter Squadron	4	4	1	4

7 Special Optional Rule
As an optional rule ( that players must agree to by mutual consent before play begins ) players may have a Reserve power component.
When Cards are being dealt to each ship a player may request to use his batteries in which case he has one extra card delt to him.
The player can only use this capasity once unless he recharges his batteries.

If a player has used his batteries ( this battle ) and wishes to recharge his batteries then he may choose to state that he is recharging his batteries and thus recieves one fewer card when cards are delt to him. After recharging he may use his BTTYs again latter by calling for them to be employed.

* Orions opperate on a slightly different system and may call to use his Engines ( he doesn't have a BTTY system substantial enough to allow him to have a BTTY option during play ), in which case the Orion player gains two extra cards but may not recharge this capasity during a battle.

By michael john campbell (Michaelcampbell) on Tuesday, October 21, 2003 - 05:33 am: Edit

8 Allocating Cards in secret
Players may allocate their card in secret by either placing a barrier between the vision of both players ( such as a suitcase or a sheet of power ) or by pulling out two cards ( re-pulling if there is a draw ) ( one each ) with the higher of the two chooing to place ( face down ) card in each row ( one at a time ) after the player with the lower total. If in any turn the player who had the lower original initiative card scores one or more points of internal damage the the player that one that original initiative card then roles are reversed until that same criteria is met again.

Correctly played there should be a barrier to stop prying eyes so that the full allocation shall be a surprise not just the values of the cards.

By Liam Reid (Blackclaw) on Saturday, May 31, 2008 - 10:51 am: Edit

Why couldn't you just make a miniature SFB board and magnetic counters? Include an abbreviated rulebook and half size, dry erase ssd/eaf combos for the basic races. This would provide a small, portable version that could be played in the car or plane, and would be simple enough to use as an intro set for the full version, all while retaining all the features of the real thing. I'd buy at least one.

By Tony L Thomas (Scoutdad) on Saturday, May 31, 2008 - 11:26 am: Edit

sounds almost like Federation Commander...

By Liam Reid (Blackclaw) on Thursday, June 12, 2008 - 05:54 pm: Edit

I meant just shrink the size and put it in a magnetic case.

By Glenn Hoepfner (Ikabar) on Friday, June 13, 2008 - 04:12 am: Edit

Or go on ebay and buy the ziplock bag version (the prototype).
It'd be a hoot to play by those rules again, just for kicks.

By Brodie Nyboer (Radiocyborg) on Friday, November 11, 2011 - 03:07 pm: Edit

I <3 this. Well, the 2008- part anyway.