Topic: SFB Manual Recommendations

[MajorRacal]

I found a horde of secondhand SFB gaming manuals in a shop while I was wandering today, but since they were all sealed I couldn't identify if they would be of interest to me or not.  Can someone recommend the titles I should look to pick up for the ship designs and specs?

MajorRacal

[J. Carney]

I found a horde of secondhand SFB gaming manuals in a shop while I was wandering today, but since they were all sealed I couldn't identify if they would be of interest to me or not.  Can someone recommend the titles I should look to pick up for the ship designs and specs?

MajorRacal

All of them.

All of the rule modules have some SSD's in them. THe C and R modules have the most different ships. Other modules- like J1, J2, K, Y1, X, etc are mostly new rules with a few pertenant SSD's.

[Rod ONeal]

The "Basic Set" and "Advanced Missions" will get you all of the core rules and SSDs.

Next the "C" modules. C2, C3, etc... They get you the rest of the predominent races. Most of which aren't in SFC though. It's best to get them in order. If you skip over any you'll miss some of the basic rules for the races.

The "R" modules will get you most of the variant ship SSDs. R1 is probably the least important as it gets you bases and auxiliary ship SSDs that you can simulate from Advanced Missions. (Hard to explain, but if you get Advanced Missions and look at R1 you'll see what I mean.) These you can get out of order as they don't add rules, just ships.

The "J" and "K" modules get you the fighter/PF rules and additional carriers/tenders. While fighters and PFs are in SFC, most of the "rules" for them are not, unfortunately. It's worth having though if you want to see how they are really supposed to work (and why they really don't).

[MajorRacal]

All of them??  Are you sure?  There were loads of the things!!
If I said 'it's only the ships I'm after', would it make a difference?
I reckon I could probably do without the Fed and Klingon ships - from what I've seen so far, they're pretty much of a muchness - but I'm really interested in seeing what the ancilliary races are like since I don't have a lot to work with for inspiration on them.  Given SFB's popularity amongst the SFC community, I'm surprised at the limited visual reference material that's available (or maybe I just don't know where to look?).

MajorRacal

[J. Carney]

All of them??  Are you sure?  There were loads of the things!!
If I said 'it's only the ships I'm after', would it make a difference?
I reckon I could probably do without the Fed and Klingon ships - from what I've seen so far, they're pretty much of a muchness - but I'm really interested in seeing what the ancilliary races are like since I don't have a lot to work with for inspiration on them.  Given SFB's popularity amongst the SFC community, I'm surprised at the limited visual reference material that's available (or maybe I just don't know where to look?).

MajorRacal

You see, that's the problem!

SFB isn't set up like D&D Major... all the ships are scattered throughout the products piecemeal. The Basic Set and Advanced Missions, along with the C -modules, as Rod said, have most of the basic ship types.

If all you want are the basic ships, those would be your minimum buy.


SFB is expensive to get into, man. I have at least $500 sunk in my collection- and my partner moved away not too long ago.

[MajorRacal]

Well, I was all keyed up to go'n buy some of them today... However, thanks to a more helpful member of staff, I was lucky enough to have a chance to browse through some of them... but I have to say that I'm not at all impressed with the layout.  All the manuals I pored through had ships in them, but a silhouette of the dorsal view is not entirely helpful.  Are they all like that?

MajorRacal  ???

[J. Carney]

Well, I was all keyed up to go'n buy some of them today... However, thanks to a more helpful member of staff, I was lucky enough to have a chance to browse through some of them... but I have to say that I'm not at all impressed with the layout.  All the manuals I pored through had ships in them, but a silhouette of the dorsal view is not entirely helpful.  Are they all like that?

MajorRacal  ???

Unfortunately, YES. That's all that they are. The only pictures are the ones on the cover. I don't know why there isn't more artwork, but unfortunately, thats the way that they did it.