RE: Starting a Demo?

Adam Delafield wrote:
>For FT, participation is the way to go. Use a bunch of 'cruiser' sized
>ships from any background. Obviously Star Trek would be a good choice
>as it is popular and well known. The ships should be designed to blow
>up relatively quickly (Maximum 1 shield) and have limited arc armament
>to encourage maneuvering. A thrust of 4 is usually sufficient. (2 is
too
>slow and 6 is too fast for beginners)

Sometimes a variety of ship sizes is best.  This way players can quickly
get
a taste of battle with some easy kills on small craft, yet still have
some
larger ships remaining through the game.  I found that most players are
eager to blow something up early on in the game, but do not want to find
their entire fleet vaporized in a short time.

I usually use build points of around 1500 per fleet making about 4-5
ships
with escorts, cruisers, and one capital ship.  For beginners, I use the
core
rules with some advanced rules like damage control, and some advanced
weapons(submunitions, pulse torpedo, megabatteries, and needle beams).
Multi-turn weapons are recommended only after the basic mechanics are
understood to help keep it simple.

>You'll also need a metal tape measure (for movement), a few 'clock
face'
>diagrams (for fire arcs and turning) and possibly a dowl rod marked off
>in 12" bands (range). Make sure the dice you have are colourful and
quite
>large.

I highly recommend using 1/4" tape measure since it's cheap and is
easier to
move between miniatures.  If you use cheat sheets(listing weapon ranges,
damage, etc.), the sheets themselves can be used to mark off the 90
degree
firing arcs.

>Oh. A nice black cloth and some 'scenery' (polystyrene asteroids.
Planet
>balls etc) wouldn't go amiss either.

This would greatly produce a more interesting terrain, but might be
difficult for beginners since it could affect game play.

Mike Miserendino