William: You are being obtuse, and inventing nonsensical non-existant problems covered by existing laws and policies just to be a jerk. And yes, everybody here knows that your post IS deliberately inflamatory and argumentative. (Now, everybody can see why I just throw the nuke and move on.) You can make copies for your use (the SSD books all grant the owners and Kinko's the license) and your FTF opponent (being in your game) is covered.

Loren: Yes, it IS surprising that somebody smart enough to play SFB cannot grasp easily understood concepts. Ergo, he already knows the answer and is just being inflamatory because he likes making me jump through hoops. And people wonder why sometimes I just delete messages and ignore them.

Alan: You certainly ARE badgering, and the question is already answered. You can have paper copies made (license is granted for that) but NOT electronic copies. I said you cannot have an apple and you whined that I wasn't letting people have an orange. THAT is being badgering, argumentative, and rude. As for what I intend, this is clearly stated in black and white in the SSD books and it's also pretty clear that anybody who belabors the issue is just being argumentative to be a jerk. I'd suggest you take the answer I gave you (the printed one) and drop the subject, since you are not fooling anybody into thinking you are "just asking what I intend".

By Roger Rardain (Instigator) on Tuesday, January 20, 2004 - 04:13 pm: Edit

Richard,

A quick search on the web for "game counter magnets" came up with:

http://www.decisiongames.com/html/game_supplies.html

http://store.homergames.com/gameplayaids.html

http://www.thatgamestore.com/ACCESS.HTM

...and many more.
They appear to be a common item.

By Jessica Orsini (Jessica) on Tuesday, January 20, 2004 - 05:32 pm: Edit

Found the perfect thing for magnet bases:

http://www.officedepot.com/ddSKU.do?level=SK&id=451826

1" x 50" strip; easy as pie to cut into 1" hexes. I can just leave the backing on the glued side, attach any number of tack-mounted fighter/shuttles/whatever minis to the non-glued side, and plop it on the map. Woo-hoo!

By Garth L. Getgen (Sgt_G) on Tuesday, January 20, 2004 - 05:41 pm: Edit

Getting back to a different subject .... I mentioned the thought of an "SFB Monopoly" gave me some ideas. Mind you, these are VERY ROUGH ideas at this point:

Instead of doing laps around a square board, the "map" would be a hex-grid. It would be hexagon-shaped, perhaps 25 hexes across.

I'd have to draft it up to see how cluttered it looks, but perhaps 1/3 to 1/2 of the hexes will have planets / star systems or some other important feature (including Random Event Card and Alien Encounter Card spots).

Players would start at one of the corners at the edge of the map, with one single ship (they could buy more if they earn enough money). To move, they would roll two dice and must move one ship exactly that number of hexes IN A STRAIGHT LINE in any direction they choose (along a hex-row). A couple exceptions: ships may stop at any friendly planet even if the dice roll would take them past it. A ship may make a 60-deg turn at the map edge or when moving from one sector to another, that is when crossing the hex-row extending to the corner of the map.

To keep track of the ship's statis, the player would keep a peg-board (~3x3 inches) to mark cargo, combat damage, fuel, etc. Ship's can be upgraded from DD to CA to DN.

If the ship lands on a neutral planet, they can "buy" it. Friendly planets may generate income. If it lands on a friendly planet, it's "safe", just like landing on your ownproperty in Monopoly(tm). If it lands on another player's planet, the ship's player must either "pay rent" or do combat to attempt to capture the planet.

If the ship stops on an empty hex, in open space, it burns up some fuel. Ships can be refueled and/or repaired at any planet ... pay the "bank" for service at your own planet, but pay the other player for service (in addition to rent) at theirs.

If the ship lands on an enemy ship, do combat to attempt to destroy (or capture!) it.

To win the game, a player must do one of the following: build and maintain for three turns a seven-ship fleet, capture and hold X number of planets for three turns, or bank-role $$$ amount of money. A player can be forced out of the game if he loses all his ships and does not have enough money to build more or if their capital planet is lost.

Just some ideas. Comments?? Worth taking to its own topic???


Garth L. Getgen

By Dean Gundberg (Star_Ranger) on Tuesday, January 20, 2004 - 07:27 pm: Edit

Jessica,
This company makes pre-cut 1" magnetic hexes and lots of other sizes for base bottoms:

http://www.litkoaero.com/mag_bots.php

They also have flexable steel base bottoms that look like flexable magnets, but they stick to magnets.

By Jessica Orsini (Jessica) on Tuesday, January 20, 2004 - 08:10 pm: Edit

Dean,

That is a much better option, thanks! Just ordered a hundred 1" magnet bases for $16.09, including shipping. That's about half of what I would have paid for the cut-it-myself strip from Office Depot, which would have generated about 40 counters.

By Jeremy Gray (Gray) on Tuesday, January 20, 2004 - 11:39 pm: Edit

Yes indeed, those are cool. Definately got that website bookmarked. Thanks Dean.

By Jeff Tonglet (Blackbeard) on Tuesday, January 20, 2004 - 11:49 pm: Edit

Garth, any sort of "fill-in-the-blank-Opoly" game is going to get shut down. Hasbro has to protect THEIR copyrights. For an example, see the "ghettopoly" game's web site, which was recently sued by Hasbro, as explained in this news article.