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Starfire is a game of space combat
created originally by Steve Cole, of Star
Fleet Battles fame, in 1976. It was published in a revised version by
Task Force Games in 1979. It was designed to be a quick playing game of fleet
combat in space, with an easy to use starship design system, and a progression
of technological development. This edition was expanded with two supplements,
the first adding fighters, while the second included a campaign system. Over
the years, the game has been expanded, but remains essentially the same
quick-playing space combat game that it began as. The edition released in 1992
as a boxed set is the most recent version of the system.
Starfire began as a purely tactical game, but with a simple
system for starship construction, it lent itself well to campaign play. The
Imperial Starfire game is a supplement to Starfire which allows for campaign
play, as well as new technologies.
Starfire as a space combat game began with an interesting
concept for interstellar travel called warp points. Rather than having
some type of faster than light drive, natural "wormholes" in space exist which
allow the slower than light ships to jump between star systems. Starships are
strictly slower than light, and no FTL technologies exist at all.
In part due to this, the game is able to present not just a
tactical and strategic (empire management) scale of play, but also operational.
While battles are always resolved on a tactical hex-grid map with counters
representing the units, they move to these battles on a level of play called
"system", which allows forces to be maneuvered within a single star system, or
through several star systems, prior to making contact, and allowing for
ambushes to be set, raids on supply units, etc.
Starfire may be played as a purely tactical game, whether
with units of the players design, or taken from the historical scenarios in
several published products. But it also can be played at the operational level,
in several types of mini-campaigns, or as a grand campaign game of interstellar
empire building, diplomacy, and war. All using the same simple combat system.
What previous editions exist, and can I get
them?
The first edition was published as a pocket game by Task
Force Games, ©1976, 1979. It was contained in a plastic bag, with a counter
sheet, hex grid map, and a small rulebook. This edition was a purely tactical
combat game, but it did have the ship design rules, repair rules, and thus was
usable for campaign play by players willing to set up rules for it. Three
interstellar empires were introduced in this game:
the Terran Federation:
a republic composed solely of humans, which had learned peace through a series
of hard lessons;
the Khanate of Orion;
a felinoid race ruled by an absolute aristocracy, headed by a single ruler
called the Khan, which had endured a self-imposed peace to avoid civil war
among their very warlike citizenry;
the Ophiuchi Association;
a relatively peaceful coalition of several species, who happened to be present
in a star system which fell on the border between the previous two empires at
the time of their second war.
Two supplements were published for this edition. Starfire II:
Strikefighter came out in 1980, was designed by Barry Jacobs, adding a new
tactical option with fast, powerful, tiny fighters which had to be carried
aboard carriers to reach other star systems. A new enemy race was introduced,
the Rigelians, who had perfected the
fighter before anyone else, and had a racial religious imperative to
exterminate all other sentient species. The Third Interstellar War (ISW3)
appeared in the product, and was the first genocidal war presented in the game.
Starfire III:Empires, introduced a simple campaign system of
empire building and exploration, created by David Weber. While admittedly
flawed (even by its designer), the system created an opportunity for players to
build empires and fight battles whose resources weren't limited to that given
in a scenario.
Two additional supplements were announced: Groundfire, a game
of ground combat based on the Starfire system, and Chameleons, a space combat
expansion introducing a new race. Neither was ever published, but the ideas
developed in them were carried over into the next edition.
About 1984, Task Force Games decided to revive the Starfire
series by republishing it in a boxed version, combining Starfire and Starfire
II into a single product, and improving the rules. Dave Crump and David Weber
collaborated on this revision, and also on its campaign supplement, New
Empires. The new campaign rules were greatly improved over those in its
predecessor, and included the concept of variable scale, which had been
published in Nexus magazine, also published by Task Force Games. Variable scale
allowed units to move on a "system" level which allowed a whole star system to
be placed on a table, while units entering the same hex would switch scales,
first to an "interception" scale on a smaller map, and finally to a "tactical"
scale allowing battles using the tactical combat rules. In this way, star
systems could be realistically presented, while allowing combat to remain at a
believable scale. Among the other changes in this edition, the concept of half
points of damage was dropped, hull types were made variable in size, and the
capability of fighters was considerably reduced.
One additional supplement to this edition of Starfire was
published: The Gorm-Khanate War. It introduced a new race and empire, the
Empire of Gormus, a relatively peaceful democratic state that
determined after contacting the Khanate of Orion shortly after their
demoralizing 2nd loss to the Terrans that the Khanate had to be attacked. By
making a quick and effective attack on the Khanate, the Gorm would be able to
make it too expensive for the Khanate to conquer them. In addition to this
campaign, several new rules were introduced, including crew grade and the drive
room rules.
Nexus magazine, which was published until 1986 with a total
of 18 issues, included many articles on the Starfire game system. After it was
discontinued, no official Starfire material was released again until the
publication of the current edition in 1992.
At about the same time as the release of this version, a
series of Starfire miniatures was produced by Task Force Games. They were of
small size, intended for use on a regular hex-grid map, and were available for
most of the ship types in the game. There were no empire-specific miniatures in
this line, and painting was needed to distinguish between them.
Availability of any of these older games is limited, but game
conventions and private sales are possible.
The 1992 edition made several major changes, including using
a 1d10 dice roll system rather than 2d6. The rule system was redesigned to
integrate the strategic rules directly into the tactical system. This edition
was designed by David Weber. In 1993, Imperial Starfire, the campaign system,
became available for purchase. In the next few years, all the 3rd edition
products available today were introduced. These include First Contact (1993),
Stars At War (1993), Alkelda Dawn (1994), and Sky Marshal #1 (1995).
Unfortunately, an event that shocked and shook the gaming world to its core
occured--the card game MAGIC THE GATHERING.
During the next 2 years, no Starfire product would appear as
Task Force Games was forced to cut staff and reevaluate their position in the
industry. In early 1997, TFG agreed to allow SDS to produce electronic Starfire
products. This allowed the long delayed Sky Marshal #2 (Feb 1997) and ISW-4:
Arachnids (Summer 1997) to be introduced. In Nov 1997, the Starfire Game system
was sold to Marvin Lamb (Starfire Design Studio).
With the SDS in charge, Starfire jumped fully into electronic
publishing and the Internet to generate and sustain interest. Electronic
Communique was born in late 1997 and continues today as the premier online
Starfire magazine. Also Marvin's personnal ship designer program was updated
and modified by Andy Blazel to be come the ShipYard Program and became
available in 1997 (I think).
1998 saw the introduction of Insurrection (INS), based on
David Weber's novel of the same name, and the release of 3rdR (the revised
tactical rules for the 3rd edition) in April. This allowed sales to
distributors and retailers. During the production of 3rdR and INS, it was clear
that there were a lot of problems with the 3rd edition of Starfire,
particularly in the weapons balance at higher tech levels. With the SDS's
committed and long-term focus on campaign gaming and the Internet, the 4th
edition project began.
Throughout the rest of 1998 and all of 1999, Galactic
Starfire was worked on (the name Galactic Starfire wasn't created until 2000).
Countless E-mails between the 7 original members of the SDS occured as each
game system was fully re-evaluated. By late spring 1999, two playtest campaigns
for Galactic Starfire were created and begun. By the end of 1999, it became
clear that one person working part time could never edit the mass of rules
being created for Galactic Starfire. Thus, Matthew Olson was hired in Dec 1999
to coordinate Galactic Starfire effort and to edit the rulebook into some sort
of intelligent form. By April 2000, Galactic Starfire was nearly ready for the
printers needing only Marvin's final run throughs. A major problem for the SDS
was a lack of available cash. Meanwhile, as his next project, Matthew took an
idea Marvin had been kicking around a while and turned it into Admiral's
Challenge, which became available in May 2000. Due to an interested Starfire
player willing to risk thousands of dollars in a loan to SDS, the rulebooks
were printed at great expense and risk but the counters and boxes were delayed
for 3 months due to cash flow problems. Solid sales online and at Origin and
GenCon 2000, helped generate the necessary capital to complete the production
of Galactic Starfire.
Unfortunately, by late 2000, SDS was unable to continue to
pay Matthew Olson for his time and Starfire products slowed down again.
Galactic Starfire continues to do rather well considering its limited
visiblity. This is of course due to a very strong and carefully balanced game
system and enormous player loyality. No one has yet determined the ultimated
path to victory, which is not surprising as the SDS carefully avoided making or
allowing such a path to exist.
{Insert information about 3rdR Design Group}
June 18th, 2002
Third Edition Starfire's UNIFIED TECH MANUAL (UTM) is now
complete. This manual (electronic PDF only) is now available from the ordering
page. This product is in final form and any updates will be free of charge.
This is the first product from the new 3rdR Design Group.
Thoughout the time that Starfire has been owned by SDS,
Marvin has been seeking a company willing to product a Computer based Starfire
product (or three). In July of 2002, SDS signed an agreement with
Digital Gamers. While Digital Gamers has been slow to deliver the first
product, due to a number of issues, 2005 looks to be a very exciting year for
Starfire enthusitises.
Just a couple of months after the announcement of the Digital
Gamers agreement, the newest Starfire Product -- ELITE -- was released. Elite
contains many pages of optional rules that we thought to be too big a headache
to use as official rules. Additionally, some areas of Galatic Starfire needed
major reworking and Elite provided the opportunity to do so. In particular, the
Small Craft section and Automated Weapons under went significant changes.
More Information
In Sept 2004, Starfire Design Studio worked out a deal with
CorbyNova and Digital Gamers to make the CorbyNova
Website the official Strategic Game support module. In the future,
CorbyNova will be able to export battle information directly into the coming
Digital Gamers Tactical Battle module.
In November of 2004, Starfire Design Studio released
ULTRA Starfire. ULTRA Starfire is the final edition of Starfire (other
than computer versions) that the Starfire Design Studio intends to produce.
With ULTRA Starfire, all rulebooks and documentation have been intergated into
PDF files with lots of cross reference links.
Because of the ease of editing and distributing these files,
it is intended that monthly updates directly to the core rules will be sent out
to players with any new editions, errata, and corrections. This saves players
the cost of buying a 350+ page set of rules every few years. It saves them the
hassle of writing errata in their rulebooks or trying to remember where that
errata was located at. Over time, crosslinked examples and lots of other things
that are helpful but consume lots of paper will be added to the ULTRA rulebook.
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