I bought and finally got my hands on the Captains Edition Basic set of SFB cause of your videos on it. and will most likely acquire alot more modules in the very near future. I actually got people to play with to!
Fantastic! :) I hope you and your fellow players have a great time with it! If you have any questions about the game as you dig into other modules, etc., feel free to ask. Eventually I hope to cover all the current SFB modules in a decent amount of detail, but there's so many that it will take me awhile :)
I also got a large backorder from Leisure Games last week, but for Federation Commander. Been waiting for six months for these to arrive, it mostly fills out my FC "Attack" collection. I think I have most of FC now. The Cadet Training Handbook for SFB looking an interesting addition. As usual, thanks for the video, interesting to see and hear a description for all the modules.
It's my opinion that SFB is used as a screening tool for law enforcement and national security careers, including military. My parents were key in seeding the primary character to Mister Roddenberry, who took the character and molded it into Spock and bult the old classic show around it. SFB was interesting when it hit the scene in 77 or 78. And got a little more interesting with the "deluxe" boxed version in 79, but both Commanders and so-called Captain's editions just soured me with seeking weapons and obvious variants. Like someone at BGG said, it went from being a Star Trek cruiser simulator to a monster of its own creation. Destroyers verse "war" destroyers and so forth. The attitudes of newer players seemed to shift from older players. I briefly thought of rebuying a lot of material, but I tossed my old Commander's and Captain's editions for a reason. I still love Car Wars, but I no longer love SFB.
Honestly your comments are 100% fair. It's completely true that SFB over the years has mutated into a bizarre world of its own, separated in many ways from the source material. There's a tension at the core of SFB between its origins as a Trek game and its desire to provide a complete simulation of an idiosyncratic vision of space combat. Seeking weapons are a good example of this, IMO; they serve a purpose for SFB as a game, namely providing a means of influencing enemy manouevre in the featureless void of space, but they also create a huge divergence from the source material. The way I personally get round this is by classifying SFB in my mind as a sort of alternate-universe Trek, a kind of dystopian vision where Starfleet is fully militarised and the galaxy is constantly beset by war. As a Star Trek fan I completely understand how this doesn't work for everyone though. If you enjoyed the system behind SFB, I wonder if you might like the Omega Sector stuff more? Omega is pretty much completely separated from any Trek connections, with the exception of the Federal Republic of Aurora, so the division between SFB-as-game/SFB-as-Trek is much less of a sticking point there.
@@djthorsilver Thanks for the reply. I purchased nearly all of the official ADB material, including the Omega sector, but rarely had a chance to play it, or any of the E-Modules or other R-Modules. Truth is I'm just burnt out on both Trek and SFB. Trek was a fun show, and SFBers tended to lean away from the source material that I always imagined when playing the game. It was fun when I could, but other times, notably during the expansion and Commander's Edition days, there were just too many arguments over rules. I'm kind of out of gaming now, but have good memories of some games, not so good about others. Trek was fun, well written, and SFB caught the space combat flavor for a time. Thanks again for the reply.
@@djthorsilver I just want to add that I'm not anti SFB nor anti-Trek, but I did try to contribute to both source material and game, but to no avail. I had a deep affection for both Trek and SFB, but for whatever reason I could never get a lot of games going, nor contribute beyond the forums, though I did offer some campaign rules. I liked Omega and all other addons. I think they added a lot of spice to the setting, but the game itself just became almost a career to keep up with, and I since I could rarely play and had other issues with that game specifically, I just got burnt out and tossed a lot of it to free up space. Good times, but life goes on.
I organized all my ship descriptions into its own binder, seperate from the rules and SSDs. I like to pull it off the shelf every now and then and peruse through it like a "Jane's Fighting Ships" so to speak!
That Cadet Training Handbook (with the counters printed on the map) has been like that since the 90s, so I don't think it's a recent decision in regards to counters.
Thanks for watching🙂. I'm considering showing my rules off, yes, especially since ADB doesn't seem interested in what I've added to Federation Commander... currently I've made over 900 ship cards and numerous rules, many of them focussed on fighters, improving plasma, and PFs. I just have to think about how best to present the stuff on video!
I bought and finally got my hands on the Captains Edition Basic set of SFB cause of your videos on it. and will most likely acquire alot more modules in the very near future. I actually got people to play with to!
Fantastic! :) I hope you and your fellow players have a great time with it!
If you have any questions about the game as you dig into other modules, etc., feel free to ask. Eventually I hope to cover all the current SFB modules in a decent amount of detail, but there's so many that it will take me awhile :)
I also got a large backorder from Leisure Games last week, but for Federation Commander. Been waiting for six months for these to arrive, it mostly fills out my FC "Attack" collection. I think I have most of FC now.
The Cadet Training Handbook for SFB looking an interesting addition.
As usual, thanks for the video, interesting to see and hear a description for all the modules.
It's my opinion that SFB is used as a screening tool for law enforcement and national security careers, including military. My parents were key in seeding the primary character to Mister Roddenberry, who took the character and molded it into Spock and bult the old classic show around it. SFB was interesting when it hit the scene in 77 or 78. And got a little more interesting with the "deluxe" boxed version in 79, but both Commanders and so-called Captain's editions just soured me with seeking weapons and obvious variants. Like someone at BGG said, it went from being a Star Trek cruiser simulator to a monster of its own creation. Destroyers verse "war" destroyers and so forth. The attitudes of newer players seemed to shift from older players. I briefly thought of rebuying a lot of material, but I tossed my old Commander's and Captain's editions for a reason. I still love Car Wars, but I no longer love SFB.
Honestly your comments are 100% fair. It's completely true that SFB over the years has mutated into a bizarre world of its own, separated in many ways from the source material.
There's a tension at the core of SFB between its origins as a Trek game and its desire to provide a complete simulation of an idiosyncratic vision of space combat. Seeking weapons are a good example of this, IMO; they serve a purpose for SFB as a game, namely providing a means of influencing enemy manouevre in the featureless void of space, but they also create a huge divergence from the source material.
The way I personally get round this is by classifying SFB in my mind as a sort of alternate-universe Trek, a kind of dystopian vision where Starfleet is fully militarised and the galaxy is constantly beset by war. As a Star Trek fan I completely understand how this doesn't work for everyone though.
If you enjoyed the system behind SFB, I wonder if you might like the Omega Sector stuff more? Omega is pretty much completely separated from any Trek connections, with the exception of the Federal Republic of Aurora, so the division between SFB-as-game/SFB-as-Trek is much less of a sticking point there.
@@djthorsilver Thanks for the reply. I purchased nearly all of the official ADB material, including the Omega sector, but rarely had a chance to play it, or any of the E-Modules or other R-Modules.
Truth is I'm just burnt out on both Trek and SFB. Trek was a fun show, and SFBers tended to lean away from the source material that I always imagined when playing the game. It was fun when I could, but other times, notably during the expansion and Commander's Edition days, there were just too many arguments over rules.
I'm kind of out of gaming now, but have good memories of some games, not so good about others. Trek was fun, well written, and SFB caught the space combat flavor for a time. Thanks again for the reply.
@@djthorsilver I just want to add that I'm not anti SFB nor anti-Trek, but I did try to contribute to both source material and game, but to no avail. I had a deep affection for both Trek and SFB, but for whatever reason I could never get a lot of games going, nor contribute beyond the forums, though I did offer some campaign rules. I liked Omega and all other addons. I think they added a lot of spice to the setting, but the game itself just became almost a career to keep up with, and I since I could rarely play and had other issues with that game specifically, I just got burnt out and tossed a lot of it to free up space. Good times, but life goes on.
I liked SFB most in the General War days with the carriers, pseudo fighters, destroyer variants, and so on.
I organized all my ship descriptions into its own binder, seperate from the rules and SSDs. I like to pull it off the shelf every now and then and peruse through it like a "Jane's Fighting Ships" so to speak!
That Cadet Training Handbook (with the counters printed on the map) has been like that since the 90s, so I don't think it's a recent decision in regards to counters.
BTW, are you thinking of showing off your "Rules Additions" on the channel?
Thanks for watching🙂. I'm considering showing my rules off, yes, especially since ADB doesn't seem interested in what I've added to Federation Commander... currently I've made over 900 ship cards and numerous rules, many of them focussed on fighters, improving plasma, and PFs. I just have to think about how best to present the stuff on video!
Have you ever posted photos of your entire SFB and FC collection anywhere?