Dramatic SFB: Buying Star Fleet Battles material

[Matthew]

What to get (for the campaign):

The campaign uses rules and SSDs gathered from most of the modules 
(there is a list near the beginning of the campaign rules.) In the worse 
case, that represents what your shopping trip should entail.

But it's actually much easier than that.

The "Core" modules, with the most bang for your buck and hold most of 
the rules you would use, is obviously the Basic Set and the Advanced 
Missions. As I recall, if they're dated 1999 or later, then they'd good. 
Most of the early R modules (up to and including about R4, off the top 
of my head) are needed enough for table top that they pretty much 
qualify as "Core". Module J, K, and M aren't technically needed much of 
the time (well, I could make a case for module J) but they contain 
several rules you will need if you do much of anything but a straight-up 
warship-to-warship battle. J2, X, and some of the later R modules would 
be good if you wanted to round out your rulebook. Getting the C modules 
are mostly a matter of taste in empires, but it's hard to go wrong with 
C1-3, and C6.

But wait! It gets simpler!

The Master Rule Book (MRB) contains the rules from all of the above 
modules (except what comes in the recent releases, such as Module C6 and 
J2) but excludes scenarios, the ship descriptions (section S and R in 
the rules), and the non-alpha-octant empires (Omega, Magellenic, 
Simulator, etc). If all you are doing is playing online (where SSDs are 
supplied), then this will cover 98% of what you need as long as you 
don't need carrier escort tables.

You might also note that the Module X stuff is not in the list of 
modules in the campaign rules. Support for X ships is relegated to the 
few that have been released in non-X modules. This is one reason why 
this iteration of the campaign began in Y174 with 4 turns per year: it 
means we have to go through more than 25 turns before X ships begin 
really showing up. That allows us to play with the late-war goodies 
without breaking the suspension of disbelief on X ships.


Where to get it:

I have done most of my purchases at ADB's website (the URL has already 
been noted). DriverthruRPG and Warehouse23 are resellers that ADB works 
with and releases through. You can get it from other places, such as 
Amazon, but the economic model for these places are more traditional and 
so you might see higher prices.

AFB is part of a class of game that has waned in popularity in the last 
couple of decades. As a result, it doesn't make much sense from a 
game-store perspective to devote shelf space to the game. I've asked 
around, and gotten about a 60% name recognition off of SFB from my 
FLGSs. That's pretty bad, since Magic The Gathering has a 100% name 
recognition, and is merely 13 years younger.


ISC refits:

When published, the ISC were a post-general-war empire. Therefore their 
SSDs represent the ships as they were in the post-Y175 timeframe. The 
Section R for them (R13.0) lists several "negative refits" - things to 
take away from the ships - to represent them before the pacification 
campaign.

I was the one to do the lion's share of the ISC's general-war hulls in 
the new SFBOL "shiny turd" format. I took pains to allow one to select 
the proper refits in the client. If there is a problem with any of the 
SSDs, you can either find the person who created them or post in the ADB 
BBS in "Star Fleet Battles: Star Fleet Battles Online: 3rd Generation 
SSD Upgrade Project: Verification Folder" somewhere. Although, there's 
about a 33% to 50% chance that I am the one who did any given "shiny 
turd" SSD.

So here's what the there is to say about the ISC refits:



As these ships effectively entered service after the date of most 
refits, it is assumed that they include all of the refits the ISC 
considered necessary for them. These refits are shown on the SSD as 
standard equipment; the SSD does not include shaded boxes or other 
distractions regarding these refits.
There are no further refits of these ships.
However, for those players who wish to experiment with earlier 
deployments of ISC ships, the 3 primary refits are described below.
(R13.R1) PHASER-3 REFIT: The LS/RS phaser-3s on ISC ships (size class 3 
and larger) were added during the period Y165-168 in response to the 
deployment of fighters by the Gorns, Romulans, and other races.
To use ISC ships prior to this period, delete the phaser-3s and reduce 
the BPV by one point per phaser.
(R13.R2) REAR PLASMA TORPEDO REFIT: The rear-firing plasma-F torpedoes 
on ISC ships (destroyers and larger) were added during the period 
Y179-181 in response to the deployment of PFs by the Gorns, Romulans, 
and other races. Some of these weapons were added as early as Y171 in 
response to advanced fighters. but the refit was accelerated after PFs 
appeared.
To use ISC ships prior to this refit, delete all of the rear plasma-Fs 
and reduce the BPV by two points per launcher. (These launchers are 
figured at 50% of their normal cost in the ship's BPV due to the 
restrictions on firing and the orientation of the firing arc.)
Some of the first ISC ships to receive this refit were heavy and light 
cruisers which received only one torpedo on each side. Players are 
welcome to experiment with this limited initial deployment.
(R13.R3) PLASMA-S REFIT: ISC ships built before Y170 had type-G 
torpedoes rather than type-S. These were converted to type-S in Y170, 
and all new production included this type of torpedo from that date. All 
SSDs show this type of torpedo. if using the ship prior to Y170, treat 
the type-S torpedoes as type-G and reduce the BPV of the ship by five 
points per torpedo. (It appears that the ISC ships always had swivel 
mounts.)
This does not apply to plasma-Gs on size-4 hulls (DDs, FFs) because 
size-4 hulls cannot have plasma-S.

(R1.R2) EARLY BASE WEAPONS: The bases shown in this and other products 
are those of the General War. In some cases, the owning race did not 
have access to all of the eventual weapons when the bases were first 
built, and some weapons must be deleted or changed prior to these 
various dates.
...
ISC bases: Prior to Y165, replace each plasma-D with a phaser-3-360° 
(reduce BPV by 4 points each) and PPD with plasma-G (reduce BPV by 10 
each); prior to Y170, replace plasma-S with plasma-G (reduce BPV by 5 
each).