Sean, first thank you for getting the SFU out there at Gen Con. I've been doing the same for SFB for a while now, as well.

I wanted to give feedback because I know what it's like to ask for it and get crickets, so take it for what it's worth.

I personally detest tournaments and see them as contrivances that bring out the worst in people. That is my opinion. That being said, I would never personally participate in one.

My games are typically multi-sided (read: free-for-all). Now, that does mean that sometimes a few players may band together to defeat a common foe, but I make sure that common foe is a monster (controlled by me) or Orion (somewhat more powerful, but controlled by a player).

I will admit total ignorance in the mechanics of FC, so I don't know if my scenario paradigm would work for you or not.

I do know that my Dilithium Crystal Entity scenario and Western/Eastern Plight scenarios usually bring a nice turnout in players (especially when published in the book - side note: it took me a while to realize that your event is only published in the book IF it has not been sold out from online registration...you probably already knew this, but I didn't until last year).

So, in a nutshell, find a common enemy for all to shoot at (dilithium monster scales for how many ships are in the game) and let players make/break alliances.

And again, thank you for what you do. One GM to another.

By Sean Johnson (Seanxor) on Monday, May 15, 2017 - 11:11 am: Edit

The event schedule for Gen Con became available yesterday, so I wanted to point out that I am running a Federation Commander event at Gen Con.

Game ID:BGM17104694
Title:The Klingon Death Dealer
Description:The Federation has detected the IKV Indestructible, the largest battleship ever built, alone in space. All available ships are sent to intercept. this is a 1 vs. all scenario.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Saturday, July 15, 2017 - 09:06 pm: Edit

Randy, I cannot do those counters you wanted for this year. I also cannot get you the graphics to do your own. Simone could not get to work today and I am out of time. Other projects now require my focus. Sorry, I should have never talked myself into the project. Too many things are too far more important. Sorry. I bet you can find some graphics somewhere.

By Randy Blair (Randyblair) on Sunday, July 16, 2017 - 01:28 am: Edit

No worries at all, SVC.
When things simmer down a bit, maybe you and I can work stuff out for next year's Gen Con?

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Sunday, July 16, 2017 - 10:55 am: Edit

Talk with you then.

By Terry O'Carroll (Terryoc) on Monday, August 14, 2017 - 10:09 am: Edit

I have just read a news item that Gen Con #50 has sold out of four-day passes for the first time in its history. Hotels in the area are reportedly pretty pleased with their booking rates.

Link to news article

By Michael F. Guntly (Ares) on Tuesday, August 15, 2017 - 02:11 pm: Edit

All single day passes for each of the 4 days are also sold out.

The last of the single day passes for Friday sold out last week.

By Michael F. Guntly (Ares) on Tuesday, August 15, 2017 - 02:41 pm: Edit

All single day passes for each of the 4 days are also sold out.

The last of the single day passes for Friday sold out last week.

By Randy Blair (Randyblair) on Tuesday, August 22, 2017 - 12:28 am: Edit

Gen Con After Action Report #1

17 AUG 2017 @ 11:00am
Thursday - Eastern Plight

After a bit of trouble finding my table, I got set up (which takes 10 minutes, max) and my players arrived.
Barry Cox and Dan Vahovick bought tickets for all of my events, and they were the only ones who signed up for this one. (Caveat: they are both personal friends of mine.)
Thursdays are generally slow, and signups are rather low. Maybe I'll switch around the Survivor! scenario to Thursday...we'll see.
Paul Cline (my best friend) paid with generic tickets, upping the player count to three.

The Eastern Plight scenario is basically, board and steal from an Orion base "cannisters" of information. They are essentially Macguffins to motivate the player to get them. In theory.
Because there were only 3 players, I had to play the base commander, who wins by default if the players don't achieve the scenario objective - Get your cannister (5 pts) and as many of the enemies as you can (10 pts). You lose 25 pts if you don't leave the map with your cannister.

Simple, right?

Many times players duke it out with each other and ignore the base. This time was not an exception.
Barry was the ISC, Dan was the Aracheo-Tholian and Paul was the Federation.

Turn 1
ISC charged the base, and both fired plasmas within range 10. I made a mistake and had the base have two Plasma-S torpedoes, which I forgot takes up two torp slots. Base fired enveloping S torps which blew away a lot of the ISC ship's shields. The base itself took a light spanking from a phasered down G torp (the other one was pseudo).
ISC PPD'd the base with all four pulses, but didn't knock down any shields.
Orions struck a "deal" with the Federation in exchange for their canister. Fire at the ISC, and we give you your stuff.
Moral of THAT story? Never trust an Orion pirate.
The Tholian ship, realizing that hanging back wasn't nearly as fun, sent some cast web to help the ISC ship escape.

Turn 2
ISC returned phaser fire to the Federation when an opportunity presented itself.
When it came about, it fired a Plasma F at the base, for posterity's sake, forcing the base to whack it down with phasers.
Orion base tractored Fed, ostensibly to give it a better turn mode to move around the web.
Federation made good use of shields.
Number 6 shield got crunched by the Orion base's suicide shuttle.
"An administrative error," the base commander shrugged innocently.
Base fired a Plasma D at the ISC.
Tholian fired phasers on the Federation.

Turn 3
Tholian "fisted" the Fed, who didn't like it at all.
Fed Alpha striked the Tholian for its rudeness.
Orion base commander lured Fed into lowering a facing shield to receive the goods, only to be Mizia'd in return.

Moral: never trust a pirate!

Tholian fired what it could back at the Fed, while the ISC charged the base...again.
Sadly, the ISC commander forgot that the PPD had a myopic zone and lost all of its pulses.
The ISC ship and base were "toe to toe" at one hex distance at the end of the turn.

Someone's about to get butthurt!

Turn 4
Plasmas were all recharged, and game time was almost over.
ISC and base were eyeball to eyeball, and much plasma was blinked.
Two enveloping S torps hit the ISC, nearly destroying it, while a pair of Gs and some phasers beat on the base, finally busting the shield and killing the armor. Sadly one hull box "Jerkin Bonefinger's House of Pleasure" was destroyed in the fracas.

The base technically won, but it was improper for me to award myself, so it went to the Federation who had the least amount of damage percentage wise.

By wayne douglas power (Wayne) on Tuesday, August 22, 2017 - 01:51 am: Edit

The Eastern Plight sounds like a good game. Moral: Never trust a pirate!

All good

By Sean Johnson (Seanxor) on Tuesday, August 22, 2017 - 01:14 pm: Edit

I ran a Federation Commander event at Gen Con this year. This was my fourth year to run an event. This year I was a little selfish. Instead of running a big battle royale con game, I did a smaller all vs. one scenario where I played the one.

A group of Federation light cruisers took on the B10 Battleship, but the B10 had some limitation so that it could only fire six weapons and two drones an impulse. This gave the Federation a fighting chance. What gave them a good chance is the fact that not a single photon torpedo shot missed. In the end, all of the Federation ships sustained heavy damage and two were crippled. They destroyed the B10 right before it disengaged.

The four Federation players who signed up for the event all really enjoyed it. Two were Federation Commander players were do not get to play very often. One was an old Star Fleet Battles/ Federation and Empire player, but he had not played a SFU for years. The fourth plays a lot of Full Thrust and wanted to check out a different starship combat system.

Every year when I run these events three different things happen and this year was no different:

1. Someone walking by stops, mis-identifies the game as Star Fleet Battles. They are surprised to learn that this is a more streamlined game in that same universe. They are more surprised to learn the game has been available for a decade.

2. Someone walking by stops, watches the game, asks questions, and ask if there will be any more Federation Commander events they can get in on.

3. Someone walking by stops, watches the game, and then ask me what booth they can buy the game at.

By Randy Blair (Randyblair) on Saturday, November 04, 2017 - 02:22 pm: Edit

Question for the SFB hive mind. (Reposted from Facebook, with some minor editing.)

I GM some SFB scenarios at Gen Con. By and large, there aren't any complaints, and folks love playing them. I've been doing the same scenarios for several years now.

Of primary interest is my "Survivor!" scenario, which is basically a "kill the monster, take its stuff, and whack anyone that gets in your way" scenario.

In this scenario, the ship captains know nothing about the monster, or the dead freighters floating in space around it, or anything about the dilithium crystals floating around.

Last Gen Con (and I apologize for waiting so long to ask this), the accusation was made that people who have played the scenario before had a significant advantage over those who did not. A heated debate followed between myself and the individual who stated this. (And I say "heated" a bit tongue in cheek...the individual was very gracious, but persistent in their arguments.)

To date, ADB has not published any of my Gen Con scenarios, so I know that the "rules" are a secret.

History has shown that people who have played the scenario before, have not won any more times than any other person who played it knowing nothing about it.

Now, I know we all are sticklers to fairness in the rules.
So, all that being said, does the accusation have any merit? Should I "randomize" the secrets of the monster so that what worked one scenario doesn't necessarily work for the next?
Can't that accusation hold true for any scenario that has been played by a person more than once?

Furthermore, the accuser said that if I put those same scenarios at Gen Con again, that they would publicly (on the internet) post the scenario "secrets" to make sure it was a level playing field for all. I told that person to let me handle it, since it's my game and all.
I was rather taken aback by this, and it has taken me months to sort it out in my head and work up the gumption to lay it out for my SFB peers.

What say y'all, and no need to hold back any punches.

Thank you.

P.S. I am *NOT* posting this to call out my accuser, and have left that person's name out of it. I want the accusation, not the one making it, to be the subject of consideration.

P.P.S. I have no idea if this is the right forum here to post this, so please move it to a better place if I have chosen incorrectly, and please accept my apology in advance for my error.

By A. David Merritt (Adm) on Saturday, November 04, 2017 - 02:43 pm: Edit

Honestly, I think if you are recycling unpublished scenarios with secrets, you should either come up with new secrets every year, or reveal them to people who show up to play, regardless of whether or not it makes a statistical difference in outcome, the perception of unfairness can sour people on the game.

By Stan Taylor (Stan) on Saturday, November 04, 2017 - 04:22 pm: Edit

I agree. Alter the rules a bit every year, and warn people that it's not the exact same scenario as before. That also makes it more interesting for repeat players.

By Eddie Crutchfield (Librarian101) on Saturday, November 04, 2017 - 10:32 pm: Edit

I for many years did the same thing except that I would alter the scenario or once the players picked the ships to be used explain to them the un orthodox items added to their ships. I did not warn previous players, so in that sense it was always new and surprising. Called it "what You Always Wanted but Could Not Have"

By Randy Blair (Randyblair) on Sunday, November 05, 2017 - 05:09 pm: Edit

Cool, the overall consensus seems to be more randomization to keep it fresh. Got it.
Thanks, guys!

By Randy Blair (Randyblair) on Tuesday, July 17, 2018 - 09:13 pm: Edit

Ok, here's the SFB schedule for Gen Con...

NMN18136253 Survivor! Thu @ 10:00 AM 5 hrs Location: ICC :: Hall B : Blue :: 4--6 Cost: $6

NMN18136254 Survivor! Thu @ 4:00 PM 5 hrs Location: ICC :: Hall B : Blue :: 4--6 Cost: $6

NMN18136255 Survivor! Fri @ 10:00 AM 5 hrs Location: ICC :: Hall B : Blue :: 4--6 Cost: $6

NMN18136256 Survivor! Fri @ 4:00 PM 5 hrs Location: ICC :: Hall B : Blue :: 4--6 Cost: $6

NMN18136257 Western Plight Sat @ 9:00 AM 6.5 hrs Location: ICC :: Hall B : Blue :: 5--6 Cost: $8

NMN18136258 Eastern Plight Sat @ 4:00 PM 6.5 hrs Location: ICC :: Hall B : Blue :: 5--6 Cost: $8

I don't have many seats filled, which is very unusual. If that persists, I won't see a need to do this anymore.

By Dennis Surdu (Aegis) on Wednesday, July 18, 2018 - 11:19 am: Edit

My group stopped going to GenCon some time ago. It really does not seem to be a wargame venue anymore. $110 4-Day pass this year is also a serious turnoff!

By Randy Blair (Randyblair) on Thursday, July 19, 2018 - 08:54 pm: Edit

Yeah.

Maybe I'll start doing Origins. I live fairly close to that, also.

By Ron Brimeyer (Captainron) on Friday, July 20, 2018 - 11:45 am: Edit

None of these games were listed when I bought my game tickets early on. When did you submit?

By Michael F. Guntly (Ares) on Friday, July 20, 2018 - 02:48 pm: Edit

I did not see them when I set up my wish list either.
After that, I did not check again; I purchased what was on my wish list.
So all my time is booked.

By Dennis Surdu (Aegis) on Friday, August 03, 2018 - 09:36 am: Edit

Apparently conservative blogger The Quartering was assaulted and beaten by a man who is running a booth at GenCon.

By Andrew J Koch (Droid) on Friday, August 03, 2018 - 09:51 am: Edit

Yeah I wonder what motivated that? Mystifying

By Dennis Surdu (Aegis) on Friday, August 03, 2018 - 10:15 am: Edit

There is plenty of information and explanation for it on the YouTube channels The Quartering and Unsleeved Media. I recommend going there so no mis-information is posted here. The police report is out there though, I hear.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Friday, August 03, 2018 - 10:42 am: Edit

Politics motivated it. Read the reports.

Gencon is reportedly deleting posts on the convention live chat system as the incident is upsetting people.