Quote of the Week from my gaming group...

[NestorDRod]

What turned me of SFB was the "Arms Race". I got the game in the original 'Deluxe' edition, which came with a box. And in that edition, the best cruiser was the Federation's CA. We spent many hours trying to match/beat it with the other races cruisers, and were just getting to the point of inventing (on our own) what would become known as the Klingon Sabre Dance and the Gorn Anchor when the first expansion came out and solved the problem for us by giving everyone else better ships. The better ships, PLUS the better tactics we had developed meant that the Federation was at a disadvantage... and when we figured out the tactics for that, they came out with the second expansion which made those tactics moot.
Every expansion, every issue of Captain's Log, every time we turned around, somebody got a new ship/refit/rule change that totally altered the balance of power.
Add in the poorly written rules, the poorly written addendum to the poorly written rules, the final "we're never going to change this again" commander's edition, the also final "we're absolutely never going to change this again, this time we mean it" captain's edition, and the series of errata for the captain's edition which they swore that they'd never do...
(Oh, and my pet peeve: the Nerfing of the Federation. Because humans can't be the best at anything. And the ISC: let's design the tactics that can beat anyone, then give them the weapons they need to carry it out.)

Heh. Change a few key words, and you can almost use that exact argument to explain what turned me off to Car Wars. Oh, the maniacal arena battles we had back in the day...

[Vulcan]

I used to play SFB back in high school. I was the Hydra and ended up cannibalizing some SPI modern aircraft combat game (I think it was Foxbat and Phantom) for counters (since they had various aircraft models all numbered 1-24). It was fun, but good lord, the Commander's Edition was way to complex for my tastes.

And apparently the Captain's Edition got worse... (Never had the Commander's Edition, but the Captain's Edition takes up a 5" 3-ring binder - before even getting to the vast inventory of ships... )

[Vulcan]

Sort of like Car Wars towards the end of its life.

Not even close. Car Wars, even with the Boat Wars, Aeroduel, Deathtrack, and Tanks! expansions, only comes up to about a fifth of the page count of rules. If that...

[Zed-F]

Hm, like many others, I enjoyed SFB back in the day, but gave up trying to find people to play it with long ago. These days I get my sci-fi-warfare fix from computer games instead. Games with tactical starship combat simulations are out there if you look for them! Some of them in the Star Trek universe, even a few in the SFB version thereof.

[Greywind]

Well, there's always SFBOnline...

[input.jack]

Which reminds me of the most suggestive line uttered by a character in Star Wars:

"Pull out, Wedge! You're not doing any good back there!"

I beg to differ.

"Just me, the boy, the two droids...and NO QUESTIONS"

[Ian Mackinder]

I beg to differ.

"Just me, the boy, the two droids...and NO QUESTIONS"

What about ...

"You're a little short for a storm trooper, aren't you?"

[Lucius]

People have such dirty minds.

It almost makes me feel normal.

Lucius Alexander

Palindromedary of the week.

[Klytus]

Oh there's mess of them...

Star Wars: A New Hope

10. "Get in there you big furry oaf, I don't care what you smell!"
9. "Luke, at that speed do you think you'll be able to pull out in time?"
8. "Put that thing away before you get us all killed."
7. "You've got something jammed in here real good."
6. "Aren't you a little short for a stormtrooper?"
5. "You came in that thing? You're braver than I thought."
4. "Sorry about the mess..."
3. "Look at the size of that thing!"
2. "Curse my metal body, I wasn't fast enough!"
1. "She may not look like much, but she's got it where it counts, kid."

The Empire Strikes Back

10. "I thought that hairy beast would be the end of me."
9. "Size matters not. Judge me by my size, do you?"
8. "There's an awful lot of moisture in here."
7. "But now we must eat. Come, good food, come..."
6. "That's okay, I'd like to keep it on manual control for a while."
5. "Hurry up, golden-rod..."
4. "I must've hit it pretty close to the mark to get her all riled up like that, huh kid?"
3. "Possible he came in through the south entrance."
2. "And I thought they smelled bad on the outside!"
1. "Control, control! You must learn control!"

Return of the Jedi

10. "Hey, point that thing someplace else."
9. "I look forward to completing your training. In time you will call me master."
8. "I never knew I had it in me."
7. "There is good in him, I've felt it."
6. "Grab me, Chewie. I'm slipping -- hold on. Grab it, almost... you almost got it. Gently now, all right, easy, easy, hold me Chewie."
5. "Hey, Luke, thanks for coming after me -- now I owe you one."
4. "Back door, huh? Good idea!"
3. "She's gonna blow!"
2. "I think you'll fit in nicely."
1. "Rise, my friend."

[Klytus]

Well, there's always SFBOnline...

Gah!! It's $60 a year?? I ain't that desperate to play.

[SSgt Baloo]

I beg to differ.

"Just me, the boy, the two droids...and NO QUESTIONS"

Reminds me of the Family Guy episode: Blue Harvest.

Obi-Wan Kenobi (Herbert): Hi. My sexy friend and I are looking for a ship to take us to Alderaan, and I'm willing to pay big money.

Han Solo (Peter): Well, you've come to the right place. I'm Han Solo, captain of the Millennium Falcon and the only actor whose career isn't destroyed by this movie.

Link to more Quotes.

[Drhoz]

Edge City 3D continues. As Barbara vdB put it "Don't worry, he's got more than enough quotes to make us all look bad"

Trawler's Player : "This doesn't make sense - I wish I could read my own handwriting. Apparently I have an international passport for a roll-up cyborg."

Confirming that this world's Imperial Russia were first into space -

Zero : So, did Fabergé do the Sputnik shell?
Weldun, GM : No - well there is the Fabergé Sputnik, but that's a scale model.

The smaller US of this world has a 40-star flag.

Zero : It's not like it's the Texan flag - the 'Easy-Read' version of the 'Stars & Stripes'.

Weldun, GM : It always brings Texans down to earth when you point out Western Australia has cattle stations larger than their state

Miss Chaos : The Texan metahuman interview - "Can you find oil?" "No" "Can you find cattle?" "No" "Can you move out of the state?"

Weldun, GM : Republic of Texas & California Office of Superhuman & Paranormal Affairs - ROSPA. Sounds like Scooby Doo saying DOSPA

The Confederate version is the Confederate Organisation for Superhuman Integration & Neutralization

Weldun, GM : Keep in mind that's the modern, soft & fuzzy 'neutralize'. It only used to be 'Integrate or Die'

Weldun, GM : Deseret doesn't have a superhuman department - after all, it's one state, with only a handful of supers.
Zero : "Let me guess - one of them is called Straight Arrow?"
Weldun, GM : "no, Orgasmo. 'I'm a bad, bad Mormon'"

Zero : "So... No Ku Klux Klan?"
Terminus : "Why would there be? No Reconstruction."
Trawler : "So, Birth of a Nation was never made
Weldun and others : Yay!!!
Zero : More importantly, did Intolerance make a profit?

Trawler: I'm optimistic
Terminus : Since when has that helped?
Trawler : Since I was dropped on my head from 10,000 feet

For reasons of public sanity, I forbear from including the conversation about circumsizing solar Avatars, and the link between sunspots and coronal mass ejections.

Miss Chaos' player : *consulting rule book* How do I do Laxative : Always On as a ranged attack?

We get involved in a nuclear heist by the local villain teams of SMASH, & GRAB - 10 various bricks, power suits, teleporters, speedsters and gadgeteers including Ankylosaur, Swift, Killer Shrike ( © Marvel ) and others ( it later turned out they had been hired as 'Deniable Assets' by unknown individuals in the Mormon nation of Deseret ).

Ankylosaur gets one-punched into unconciousness by our first shot.

Zero : Guess I have a new mental command for Chesire Cat - Panic.
Miss Chaos : Doing a good impression of a fossil, isn't he? Ankylosaur, buried in hill.

Avatar fries the hillside four of the others are on.

Weldun, GM : "There's a flash, like a bomb-pumped laser without the bomb"
Stentorian : "He is Da Bomb"

Trawler bemoans the lack of improvised weapons

Weldun, GM : Please don't use the thermonuclear weapons as clubs

Things go badly for the bad guys, especially with Stentorian's girlfriend doing one head-shot after another. Chesire Cat goes down

Weldun,GM : Well, at least it removes one possible complication "gee, better salvage something from this situation - I wonder why those new supers are carrying a suitcase [our Dimensional teleporter device]? YOINK!"
Terminus : But then the complication would be 'how fast can he run?'
Chesire Cat : Why are they all shooting at me??? This must be valuable!"

Slick is irradiated by Avatar

Zero : He was trying to steal a nuclear missile - the Cosmos has apportioned karma

Miss Chaos : I've just figured out why Terminus always sends me to get Trawler last - it gives him four seconds to shoot as many people as possible without the two people with police powers there.

Terminus : We're in hot pursuit of some villains from our dimension, but missed slightly
RoT&C officer : Now there's a concept
Stentorian : There's an Albuquerque everywhere

Me : Bet you weren't expecting us to take down all those bad guys in 4 seconds.
Weldun, GM : Ankylosaur didn't even see what hit him! One moment he was "Get those missiles" , the next it was "Wha... Where am I?... Why am I wearing handcuffs?"

[Ian Mackinder]

Oh there's mess of them...

You b****rd. I'll never be able to watch those movies again!

[bigbywolfe]

Oh there's mess of them...

Klytus, please correct the spelling of “come” where you quote Yoda. We all know what you’re implying without changing the spelling to a word with a different meaning.

[Barbara vdB]

For the evening, Council Of Shadows, we have the one character book and the viral base syndrome.

character + 4 alternate forms + 16 followers + dnpcs + vehicles + contacts .

Free base + 5 pts for 1 for Marshall + 5 pts for 2 for nightwalker + 5pts for more bases for Marshall + 5 pts for cave (later cave system ) for Li Lung (baby dragon) + 5pts for Crowd God's dimension.

Marshall- aeroplane hangar + work space
Nightwalker - seceret hideout + really secret hideout
Li Lung( not her actual name, misunderstanding between lack of english & lack of mandarin during DOSPA interview) - play area + 6 areas of library.
The Stranger- his own dimension