Re: An apology for the unwashed Re: Heard at The Local Game Store ...

No doubt about it, FT has some serious advantages over DS2 and SG2 for
teaching / demo purposes.

FT is easy to learn, easy to teach, and easy to play.  SG takes longer
to
learn and is harder to teach, but once learned is relatively quick to
play.

FT is clearly an SF game when you put those spaceship models on the
table.
SG troops may look all too much like Vietnam, Desert Storm, or Bosnia.

FT is a lot like its competitors; it's about the clash of hardware
closely
controlled by the players.  SG is a lot about the challenges of
controlling
troops who have strong survival instincts, are fallible, and a bit lazy,
too.  Quite frankly, I think the morale system is one of the biggest
differences in SG2 and it sets it apart from FT as well as from the
competition.

That said, lots of players want to play SF games so they can run
slavering
aliens, implacable aliens, remorseless hordes of bugs, and other outre
forces.  In FT, you can make your ships be flown by whatever aliens you
want, and the psychology of it is all played out in your head.	SG2 and
DS2,
so far, only offer players a chance to have neat zappers and bombs, but
no
strange opponents (rules-wise; there's always strange gamers out there).
With the emphasis on morale and psychology rules, you really need alien
psychology and morale rules to make an enemy force which is truly alien,
and
there aren't many of those.

I think Bugs Don't Surf or the scenario book could do a lot to bring
true SF
elements into SG2 and DS2, and make the game more appealing.