StarWeb Rules

7th edition Copyright 1976, 1977, 1978, 1981, 1988 by Flying Buffalo Inc
"Starweb" is a registered trademark of Flying Buffalo Inc and is not to be used without permission.

This game was specifically designed to be moderated/refereed by Flying Buffalo Inc, and these rules are provided only to assist players in games run by Flying Buffalo Inc. The right to run this game for others is reserved for Flying Buffalo Inc and no one else may do so without written permission from the publisher.

CONTENTS

  1. Historical Background
  2. Introduction
  3. How to Play the Game (Including a brief order of events)
  4. The Character Types
    1. The Empire Builder
    2. The Merchant
    3. The Pirate
    4. The Artifact Collector
    5. The Berserker
    6. The Apostle
  5. Details on Playing the Game
  6. Ships
  7. Keys
  8. Control of a World
  9. Building
  10. Population
  11. Moving
  12. Probes
  13. Cargo
  14. Artifacts
  15. Firing
  16. Ambush
  17. Allies
  18. Gifts
  19. Plundering
  20. At Peace
  21. PBBs (Planet Buster Bombs)
  22. Robots
  23. Metal Production (Mines) & the Turns Owned Number
  24. Loose Keys
  25. Black Holes
  26. Signs and Diplomatic Messages
  27. The Printout
  28. The Turn Sheet
  29. Mutually Exclusive Orders
  30. Victory Point Totals
  31. Miscellaneous
  32. Appendix -- Summary of Character Types

1. HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

You are the sole ruler of a planet of beings who have just started to explore space. The first landing on your nearest planetary neighbor has recently stirred up tremendous excitement. The exploration team discovered definite and extensive evidence of an ancient civilization. One area appears to have been a large spaceport, operated by a self-repairing computer.

After considerable effort, your scientists manage to communicate with the computer. It is determined that the space port is part of a large transportation network (called "The Web") which connects 255 star systems by means of an almost instantaneous transfer system. (Note: it has been determined that there is rarely more than one usable world in a star system. Therefore, for the rest of this description, "star system", "world", and "planet" should be considered interchangeable words.)

Within this space port, your scientists have found five devices, called "keys", which make transportation possible. When attached to a fleet of your multi-purpose spaceships, a key allows the whole fleet to travel through the "gate" to another star system. Unfortunately, the part of the computer which contained the map of the "Web" has been removed. The only star systems you know of are those which are directly connected to yours. In order to find out how to get to the other stars, you will have to send exploration fleets through the gates. You have noted that both the keys and the gates are indestructible, and that the race of beings which built the system has been gone for thousands of years.

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2. INTRODUCTION

Don't let the length of these rules scare you. Most of the final parts of the rules are devoted to finer points of strategy, which can be ignored for the time being. As a beginner, first concentrate on Section 3, "How to Play the Game", and Section 4, "The Character Types". Also, please don't be intimidated by all the codes which must be given in order to explain your moves to the computer. These are merely abbreviations to make it easier and quicker to explain EXACTLY what you wish to do. (W=World, F=Fleet, U=Unload, A=Attack, S=Scrap, and so on.)

The object of StarWeb is to accumulate the most "victory points" during the game. Each player will get victory points for different things, as described in Section 4, "The Character Types".

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3. HOW TO PLAY THE GAME

When you receive your first turn, you should find a copy of the latest "House Rules" (about two pages long) describing the latest procedures for making address changes, asking questions, paying for your game turns, and so forth. Please keep a copy of the House Rules with your game files, and if you receive one with a later date, read the new one and replace the old. We have thousands of turns coming in every two weeks, and we want to process them all with as few errors as possible. Therefore, it is very important that people follow the instructions. You should also find in your first turn a blank turn sheet and a short computer printout.

The first line of the computer printout will read: "ACCOUNT #9999". Your Flying Buffalo account number will appear within this space. Please mention this number in ALL transactions with us (payment to account, address changes, questions, resignations, errors, etc). You will also find the date the turn is due back to us stamped on the first line.

The next line on your printout will say: "Game SW-555". That means you are in game 555. Please mention the game number if you have any specific questions or problems with this game. You can be in more than one game if you wish, and we have many games going simultaneously. Your account number is always the same, but each different StarWeb game that you join will have a different game number.

The third line of your printout might say something like: [TERRAN]=Empire Builder. This means that your code name is TERRAN (and all the worlds and fleets that you own will be identified by the name TERRAN), that your character type is EMPIRE BUILDER (more about this later).

The next section will total up your current score, and all your assets (worlds, keys, ships, etc). This will be very useful later in the game.

The next line (or group of lines) might look something like this:

W75 (5,12,86) [TERRAN] (Industry=30, Metal=30, Mines=2, Population=50, Limit=100, Turns=1, I-Ships=1, P-Ships=1)

This all means that your homeworld is world number 75, that the three worlds directly adjacent to your homeworld are worlds #5, #12, and #86; that this world belongs to TERRAN (you); that you have 30 industry, 30 metal stockpiled, your mines produce 2 metal per turn, your current population is 50 and your maximum population is 100; the "Turns Owned Number" is one (more about this later); you have one I-SHIP and one P-SHIP guarding your planet; and that your five keys are numbered 3, 70, 102, 119, and 133. (There are two hundred and fifty five keys per game; each has a unique number from 1 to 255.)

The first thing you will want to do is build with your industry. The first part of a world's description is the number of industry on the world. Most worlds will have little or no industry. Each industry can build something every turn as long as there is a metal stockpiled and a population available to operate the industry. Notice that you have 30 industry, 30 metal, and 50 population. You always build with the SMALLEST of these three numbers. You cannot build with metal that is not already stockpiled. Later on in the game you will see worlds with TWO industry numbers such as: "Industry=30/2". This means that although the world has 30 industry, only two of them can build this turn. (Usually because there is not enough metal.) On Turn 1, you can build with all 30 industry. Let's say you want to put ten ships on Fleet 3, ten on Fleet 70, eight on Fleet 102, and one each on Fleet 119 and Fleet 133. Your orders would be as follows:

Now, you want to move your three large fleets to the three worlds adjacent to your homeworld. You would give the following orders: On Turn 2, your printout will tell you what is at these three worlds, and what worlds are adjacent to them. World 5 might look like this:

W5 (18,75,66,103) [TERRAN] (Captured, Metal=5, Mines=5, Population=10, Limit=20, Turns=1)

This means that from World 5 you can move to worlds 18, 75, 66, or 103. The owner is TERRAN (you), the world has no industry (since none was listed), has 5 metal available and produces 5 per turn, has a population of 10 and a max population of 20, and a turns owned number of 1. F17 is a new key that you can use because you just captured it, and at the moment it has zero ships.

Now you have two choices. You can have the keys explore two new worlds, or you can have one key carry the 5 metal back to your homeworld, and the other one explore a new world. It is probably better to explore (and most likely capture) two new worlds, but we'll also show you how to carry metal back to your home world. You will also notice that this turn at your home world you still have 30 industry, and now you have 55 population, but you only have 2 metal. (You produced them from your mines this turn.) Since you can build with the SMALLEST of the three numbers, you can only build 2 ships this turn. You would probably build two more ships onto one of the keys still at home: W75B2F119, and have that fleet go on to one of the unexplored worlds: F119W5W18. (This means that Fleet 119 is moving through World 5 to get to World 18.) Any fleet can move up to three worlds in one turn.

Now for the ships at World 5. First, you probably want to leave a ship behind to guard World 5 for you. The world belongs to you until someone else takes it away from you. If you do not leave a ship behind, all someone else has to do is show up on the world and he or she will capture it. If you leave a ship there, the other player must first destroy the ship, which takes an additional turn. You can leave a ship on the ground guarding population (called a PSHIP), or guarding industry (called an ISHIP). Since there is no industry on W5, you probably want to make a PSHIP. The order you should give is: F3T1P.

This means that Fleet 3 is transferring one ship to become a PSHIP. Since a key with no ships cannot move (and can also be captured by any other player who shows up), you should also transfer some ships to the new key with this order: F3T4F17.

You have caused Fleet 3 to transfer 4 ships to Fleet 17.

IMPORTANT: Keys belong to someone. Ships do not. If you transfer ships to someone else's key, you are giving ships to that player. Make sure that a key or world is ALREADY listed as belonging to YOU before you transfer any ships to it. Transferring ships does NOT capture it. If a key's owner is listed as [ ], that means NO ONE owns it, and if you transfer any ships to it, you will create a NEUTRAL fleet. This is a common mistake made by beginners. If the key is not ALREADY listed as yours on your printout NOW, do not transfer ships to it until NEXT turn.

To put the 5 metal from World 5 onto Fleet 3 and move back home with them, you would order: F3L and F3W75. The first order causes fleet 3 to pick up all the metal it can carry. Each ship can carry 1 metal (or two if you were a merchant). You could also have ordered: F3L5 which orders fleet 3 to pick up 5 metal. You cannot order a fleet to pick up more metal than it can carry, but you can order it to pick up less. The second order sends Fleet 3 back to your homeworld.

You could not order Fleet 3 to unload its cargo yet, because all unloading comes BEFORE movement. Please notice that the order in which you write your instructions makes NO difference. The computer will execute all load and unload orders before it executes any move orders, even though you might have written the load orders at the end of your turnsheet.

Now, you want the new fleet to explore a new world, so you order: F17W66.

You have already sent Fleet 119 to explore World 18, and World 75 is yours. Also, you will probably want to explore W103 as soon as possible. It is generally a good idea to explore as many worlds as possible, as soon as possible.

On Turn 3, you can have Fleet 3 unload the 5 metal it is carrying, by ordering: F3U5 or F3U. The second order tells F3 to unload all its cargo. You only need to tell the fleet how many cargo to unload if you have some reason for not wanting to unload it all. These metal will be unloaded at the beginning of the turn, before anything else happens. However, you cannot build with them until next turn, when they will be part of your Metal Stockpile.

Now you know how to build, move, and carry metal around. If an enemy fleet (for example, Fleet 98) waits at a world, and you want your Fleet 70 to fire at it, the order is: F70AF98. This orders Fleet 70 to attack Fleet 98. If you want to fire at Fleet 98 only if the owner of that fleet fires at you, you would order a conditional fire like this: F70CF98.

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BRIEF ORDER OF EVENTS: This is a short description of the order in which most major events happen:

  1. Unloading metal (you can't build with it this turn).
  2. Transfers of ships.
  3. Building
  4. Loading
  5. Combat
  6. Movement and ambushing
  7. Special combat (PBBs and robots)
  8. World and key capturing
  9. Pirate Fleet capture.
  10. Gifts.
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IV. THE CHARACTER TYPES

You are one of six possible types of beings. Each character type (being) gets points for doing different things, as described below.

A. THE EMPIRE BUILDER. Your people believe in manifest destiny. It is your goal to control as much of the universe as possible. You get one point per turn for each 10 population you control (except for converts - see Apostle). You get 1 point per turn for each industry you control (it makes no difference if the industry is able to build - if you own it, you get a point for it), and 1 point per turn for each MINE you control. In other words, a planet with 4 industry with 6 mines and a population of 10 will gain you 11 points per turn. SPECIAL POWER: Other players can build an industry by using 5 other industry , or by scrapping 6 ISHPS. You can build a new industry using only 4 other industry, or scrapping 4 ISHPS.

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B. THE MERCHANT. You are interested only in trade. You get 8 points for each metal which you unload on a planet owned by another player. (The other player can keep and use the metal which you unloaded.) You only get these points if there is INDUSTRY at the planet, and only up to twice the number of industry that is there. In other words, if you are unloading at another player's homeworld, where he or she has 30 industry, you can unload 60 metal per turn and get points for them. But at an outpost world where that player only has 1 industry, you can only get points for unloading 2 metal per turn. This is to keep you from dumping excess raw materials on worthless worlds. If you UNLOAD and LOAD metal at the same world on the same turn, you only get points for the NET amount that was UNLOADED. If you unload 10 metal, and load 6 metal back up on the same or different fleet, you only get points for 4 of them. Note that you do NOT get points for unloading onto a NEUTRAL world, or a world that you own either at the BEGINNING or at the END of the turn.

Merchants also get points for unloading CONSUMER GOODS on worlds. (Consumer goods are created merely by unloading metal and declaring that it is Consumer goods. They disappear when unloaded and cannot be used again.) The first time CGs are unloaded on a world, you get 10 points. You get 8 points the second time, 5 points the third time, 3 the fourth time, and after that you get 1 point each time. You get the points for unloading 1 CG. If you unload more than 1 CG on the same world at the same time, you do not get any extra points.

SPECIAL POWER: As a Merchant, you can carry twice as many metal as other players. Other players' ships can carry 1 metal each; your ships can carry 2 metal each. (However, ships carrying 2 metal cannot fire shots. or rather, they can fire shots but won't get any hits.)

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C. THE PIRATE. You are interested in plunder, and you get points for plundering worlds. To plunder a world, you must own it and declare that you are plundering it. The first time you plunder a particular world, you get 50 points. (Then 40, 30, 20, and thereafter 10.) A world can only be plundered once every four turns. During the three turns after a world has been plundered, it will produce no metal, it will not increase in population and the industry on that world (if any) will not be able to build. The "turns owned" number won't increase, either. If a player other than a Pirate plunders a world (for instance, to make it less valuable to an enemy), he or she loses 5 points.

Pirates also get 3 points per turn for each KEY that they own. SPECIAL POWER: If a Pirate is at a world where his or her ships on fleets NOT at peace, outnumber all other ships on all keys by MORE THAN THREE TO ONE, then the pirate captures all enemy fleets without firing a shot. This capture is automatic, and it happens at the END of the turn. When you get your printout from the computer, all captured fleets will be listed as belonging to you (along with a "captured from" notation). Note that although you do not capture fleets belonging to your allies (see "Allies"), you must outnumber their ships by more than 3 to 1 also in order to capture any enemy fleets in the area. You do not have to outnumber ISHPS or PSHPS, and you cannot capture those.

The computer checks for Pirate capture AFTER it checks to see if someone captures a world or an empty key (see "Control of a World). So if you captured an enemy fleet at a world, you are not the "only person there" and you can't capture the world on the same turn. You will have to wait until the next turn to capture the world. Any ships that are GIFTED to a pirate will count AGAINST him for capture, since the gift comes AFTER pirate capture. However, ships TRANSFERRED to a pirate's fleet will be included as his, since pirate capture comes AFTER transfers and movement.

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D. THE ARTIFACT COLLECTOR. As the richest person on a rich world, your jaded tastes are excited by the idea of owning unique things. On many of the worlds in the system, there are various indestructible artifacts left behind by that ancient race of beings. You get points for each of these artifacts that you own. (See "Artifacts".) You also get a bonus of 500 points at the end of the game for each world that you own which has 10 or more artifacts on it (including plastics); you have created a "museum". (The artifacts must be on the WORLD, not on a fleet.)

SPECIAL POWER: You are the only player who does not lose points for owning Plastic Artifacts. Also, you may transfer an artifact from one fleet to another (other players must unload the artifact onto a world on one turn, and then put it on another fleet on the next turn). And, other players may attach artifacts onto your fleets from their fleets or worlds. (A player may not put an artifact onto another player's fleet unless the receiving player is an artifact collector.)

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E. THE BERSERKER. You are a computer in charge of a race of robots. Your prime directive is to kill all life wherever you find it. (You have no idea who gave you that directive, or why, but you never question it.) You are allowed to make temporary alliances with living beings (people who help Berserkers are called "Goodlife") if it will further your prime directive (i.e. allow you to kill even more living beings). However, your robots and people cannot exist on the same world at the same time. They kill each other off - 1 robot kills 4 people, and 4 people kill 1 robot. Fractions of robots lost are rounded up. Thus, 1 person kills 1 robot, 4 people kill one robot, 5 people kill 2 robots, etc.

You may control worlds with living beings on them, but other players (except other Berserkers) cannot control your robots. They can drive a robot-populated world NEUTRAL, but a non-berserker can not control it until all the robots are destroyed. Your robots may ignore the population limits described later in the rules (you don't care how many people a world can support, since your robots are not people).

You get two points for each population you kill (normal or converted, but not robots) by shooting, by unloading robots on the world, or by destroying the world! You get 5 points per turn for each world you own that is populated by robots. If you destroy a fleet of ships, you get two points for each ship destroyed. (If you only damage a fleet, you don't get any points.) If you destroy an entire world (!) by dropping a Planet Buster Bomb (PBB) on it, you get 200 points for the bomb, plus the points for the population. (You can only PBB a particular world once for points.) If any other player drops a PBB (except an Apostle on a Jihad - see Apostle), he loses 50 points. If any other character type kills population (except for an Apostle on a Jihad), he loses 1 point for each population he kills. Note that if 2 or more players both fire at the population of the same world, each gains or loses the proper number of points for the TOTAL population that died there that turn.

SPECIAL POWER: A Berserker can convert some of his ships on keys to robots, and they immediately drop to the world below (robot attack). If a Berserker drops robots on a world, killing all the population, and leaves at least 1 robot on the world, he or she captures the world, including any PSHPS or ISHPS which are there. If two Berserkers make a robot attack at the same time, one or the other of them will capture the world and all the robots - the odds of a player being the winner are proportional to the number of robots that player used in the attack.

The Berserker character is adapted from stories written and copyrighted by Fred Saberhagen, and the name is used with his permission.

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F. THE APOSTLE. You are a religious fanatic (or political fanatic, if you prefer). Your purpose is to convert the entire galaxy to your particular point of view. Each of your converts on a world has a 10% chance of converting one normal population to a convert, each turn. If you have a fleet of ships "not at peace" at a world, each of those ships has a 10% chance of converting one normal population to a convert, each turn. (This does Not mean that if you have 10 ships at a world, you will always convert exactly one population. You could convert none, and you could conceivably convert as many as 10.)

The conversion takes place at the beginning of the turn, so if a fleet is moving, it will create converts at the world it just left. Other players may get rid of your converts by killing them, but you'll get one point for each one killed (they're Martyrs) and of course any non-berserker who shoots at population will lose 1 point for each one killed. Or, other players may get rid of your converts by converting them back to normal by unloading consumer goods on them (bribing them with material goods). Each CG unloaded on a world has a 50% chance of converting one convert back to "normal".

You WILL convert population at worlds belonging to your allies, but any of your ships "at peace" will not convert anyone (see "At Peace"). If you have any converts at a world, you will get a probe of that world as long as the converts survive.

Apostles get 5 points per turn for each world they control, and 1 point per turn for each 10 of their converts in the universe. They also get an additional 5 points per turn for each world they own which is completely populated by their converts. As an Apostle, you LOSE one point for each shot you fire - you are a pacifist. (For this purpose, ambushes are not "shots".)

Only one Apostle can have converts on a particular world at a time. If two Apostles try to convert at the same world, the computer will award all the converts to one or the other. The odds of being the winner will be proportional to the number of converts or ships the player has at that world.

At any time during the game you may declare a JIHAD (holy war) against any one player. You no longer get any points for martyrs (no matter who kills them), but you don't lose points when you fire at that one player, and you get two points for each of his or her population you kill. If you declare a Jihad against a Berserker, you don't get any points for killing robots, but you would only get points for killing normal population controlled by the Berserker. You cannot cancel the Jihad once it is declared, but you may change it to a different enemy (every turn, if you like). If you fire at population, you get the Jihad points if the world is controlled by your enemy either at the beginning, or the end of the turn, or both. (In other words, you CAN get points by giving the world to your Jihad victim on the turn you shoot at the world.) However you do NOT get points for killing your own converts, even if they are on a world controlled by your enemy. (You lose points for them.)

SPECIAL POWER: If you completely convert the entire population of a world, you gain control of that world, overriding the rules about control of a world listed elsewhere in these rules. Also, if you give away a world that has been completely converted, it will come right back to you on the next turn.

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5. DETAILS ON PLAYING THE GAME

You now know how to get started. Read through this section briefly, but don't worry if you don't understand or remember it all the first time. Most of these details won't be important until the later turns of the game, after you have become familiar with the general details.

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6. SHIPS. Ships must either be attached to a key, or be on a world. There can only be a maximum of 255 ships on any one key. If the ships are on a world, they must either defend industry (ISHPS) or defend population (PSHPS). ISHPS and PSHPS collectively are known as "Home Fleets". Note that ISHP and PSHP refer only to the position of the ship. All ships are identical.

ISHPS and PSHPS cannot fire at each other, or at industry or population. They CAN fire at converts on their world.

The only possible cargo of a ship is metal. Each ship can carry one metal (except merchants, who can carry two). Ships can be freely moved from fleet to fleet (at the same world) or to ISHPS or PSHPS and back at the beginning of the turn (before movement or firing or loading metal, but after unloading metal). This is called a "transfer" and is not considered movement. If you transfer from fleet to fleet, only SHIPS will transfer (not metal or artifacts). If you try to transfer loaded ships, the ships will transfer but the metal will disappear.

Six ISHPS which are at a world (as ISHPS) at the beginning of a turn may be scrapped and turned into one industry (4 ISHPS for Empire Builders). (If the ships are on a fleet, it will take two turns to create industry: one to transfer them to ISHPS and one more to scrap them.) This is the ONLY way to get industry at a world which does not already have industry.

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7. KEYS. Each player starts with five keys. "Fleet" and "Key" are the same thing; each of your fleets is a key. If your code name is TERRAN, then one of your fleets will look like this on your printout:

F85[TERRAN]=5 (Moved,Cargo=2)

That means your Fleet # 85 has 5 ships, is carrying 2 metal, and moved this turn. (If a fleet belongs to another player, you will NOT be told how many metal it is carrying.) Each key has a unique number, so there is only one Fleet #85 in your game. If your printout says:

F85[ ]=0

That means F85 is an UNOWNED or NEUTRAL key. You do NOT own it, so do not transfer ships to it. Please note that if you leave an empty key (one with no ships on it) at a world where there are no other ships (no other fleets, and no ISHPS or PSHPS), then the key will be listed as UNOWNED and if you BUILD a ship onto it on the next turn, you will NOT capture it. (See "Loose Keys"). A common error for beginners is to put all their ships onto some of their keys, moving all the ships away, and leaving one or more keys behind with NO ships. Then NEXT turn while these keys are NEUTRAL, the beginner builds ships onto the neutral keys and creates a NEUTRAL fleet at his homeworld, which cannot be used. NEVER leave keys around with no ships on them unless you are trying to let another player capture them!

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8. CONTROL OF A WORLD. You capture a world if you are the only player there with ships that are not at peace. Of course, there are exceptions. You will not capture a world from a player whom you have declared an "ally". If you are a Pirate and you have captured an enemy fleet this turn, the computer will NOT consider you the only player there this turn. If the world is populated by robots, you cannot capture it unless you are a Berserker. If the world is populated entirely by converts, you cannot capture it until you un-convert some of the population. A fleet belonging to the owner of the world, or to a player who has declared the owner his ally, will prevent capture, even if the fleet is at peace. A world with zero population cannot be owned.

Apostles can also capture a world by converting all of its population to their religion. Berserkers can also capture worlds by making a robot attack and destroying all the population (leaving at least one robot).

If you own a world, it remains yours until some other player meets the capture requirements, or until some other player forces it neutral by destroying all the ISHPS and PSHPS and firing at least two more shots than are necessary to destroy all the home fleets. You do not have to have any ships at a world to retain control, but if another player shows up and you do not have any ships there, you lose the world. If you show up at an unowned world which already has some ISHPS or PSHPS, you will not capture that world until you destroy the home fleets.

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9. BUILDING. You may build at any world where you have at least 1 industry, 1 population, and 1 metal. The amount you can build is equal to the SMALLEST of these three numbers (and the metal are used up when you build).

If there is an enemy fleet "not at peace" at your world, for each shot he has which outnumbers your defending ships, one industry will not build (your population is hiding inside bomb shelters). This is automatic, and is shown on your printout. If you have 30 industry, but only 25 are allowed to build because of enemy presence (or any other reason), your industry will be listed on your printout as 30/25. For this purpose only, ISHPS are counted as double. That is, if you have 4 ISHPS at the world, and the enemy has 10 ships, only 2 of your industry will be unable to build because of enemy presence. Also any ships present belonging to a player who has declared you "ally" will be counted as defending your industry.

"METAL" on your printout is how many raw materials you have stockpiled on that world. This is how many you can use to build this turn. You cannot use the ones which are going to be produced, nor can you use the ones that are being unloaded.

"MINES" tells you how many metal are going to be produced for NEXT turn. Note that all building must be done at the world where the industry is. You cannot build ships onto a fleet that is located somewhere else. Building comes before loading, movement, or firing. You cannot load the metal that is going to be used by the industry this turn. You can build onto a fleet that is moving away or firing, and the new ships count in the number of shots you get to fire.

Each industry can build 1 ship. Each 5 industry (4 for empire builders) can build 1 more industry using 5 metal and 5 population. Each 5 industry (4 for empire builders) can increase the population limit of the planet they are on by 1. Each industry can build 2 robots (but ONLY if the population of that world is already robots. Non-berserkers cannot build robots & berserkers cannot build robots at worlds populated by people.) Remember, in each case you must have 1 population to run each industry, and you use up one metal per industry. If a world does not have enough population to run BOTH the industry AND produce the metal from its mines, it will alternate. Example: if a world has 5 industry and 5 mines, but only 5 population, then one turn it will create METAL, and the next turn the industry will turn those 5 metal into ships or whatever.

You may also use your industry to move some of your population to an adjacent world. This is the only way to increase population at a world other than by normal growth. One industry, using 1 metal, moves 1 population to an adjacent world (which must be connected to that world by a gate). When you use this option, you are building a short- run colony ship which expends itself by moving to the next system. This is called Migrating Population. Robots are migrated using the same order as normal population. If you want to migrate CONVERTS, you must specify them with a special order. If you migrate population, you do NOT gain control of the adjacent system or even a report on that world. All you do is decrease the normal population of your world, and increase of population of the neighboring world. If you migrate CONVERTS or ROBOTS, however, you DO get a report on the world, and you can capture the world if you meet the capture requirements. (Assuming of course that they are YOUR converts. If you migrate someone else's converts, then HE gets the report on the new world.) If a berserker migrates robots to a world populated by people, he DOES get points for killing those people.

You can only migrate to ONE world from any given world on a single turn, and you cannot give away the world or fire with its PSHPS or ISHPS on the turn that you migrate. (You can migrate TO a world from all of its adjacent worlds, but you can only migrate FROM a world in one direction at a time.)

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10. POPULATION. Each world has a population and a population limit. The population of an owned world will grow approximately 10% per turn until it reaches the limit, and then it will stop growing. If the world is owned by an Apostle, the new population will be all converts. You cannot have more population than the population limit of the world. If you put extra people there (by migration), they will die. (However, they will have one turn in which to build before they die. This is an expensive way of increasing the population limit of a world whose limit is less than 5, and unless you are a Berserker, it is the only way. Berserker robots, of course, ignore the population limits.) Robots do not "grow". (They must be built.)

If your population is less than your MINES, you will not produce the full number of metal per turn. If you have 4 mines, but only 3 population, you will only produce 3 metal per turn. In addition, if you have an industry at that world, and you build something with that industry, it takes one population, so the next turn only TWO metal will be produced. Please remember that - people often call us and ask why their world with 2 industry and 2 mines and 3 population only produced 1 metal last turn.

If someone fires at population, or if robots are attacking a world, you will notice:

DEATHS=N

with "N" being the number of population killed that turn. Every Berserker (or Apostle on a Jihad) who killed population at that world, that turn, will receive 2 points for each, and every non-Berserker who fired at population at that world that turn will lose 1 point for each. Worlds which have no population will be neutral, and will not be controlled by anyone.

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11. MOVING. Each fleet may move up to three worlds per turn (with one single order). For all official purposes, you are only "on" the world you started on or the one you ended up on. You may be ambushed at any of the intervening worlds, and you will get reports of them, but you may not do anything at those worlds. Any player who ambushes you as you try to move gets double hits on you. If you make a move that is partly illegal, the fleet will NOT move AT ALL. (Example, if you are at world 1, which is adjacent to world 13, and you order a move "W2W31" instead of "W2W13", you fleet will NOT move to world 2 and stop. It will not move at all.)

Note that loading and unloading of fleets, and all transfers, come BEFORE movement. This means that you can NOT move and then transfer, nor can you move and then unload. It makes no difference in what order you write your instructions on the turn sheet. If you tell Fleet #1 to move from World 34 to World 46, and then you tell Fleet #1 to unload its 3 metal and its one artifact, it will unload them ON WORLD 34.

You may load and move. You may unload and move. You may transfer and move, or probe and move. You may NOT fire and move, or ambush and move, or move a fleet the turn you give it away.

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12. PROBES. You may send a probe to an adjacent world. This uses up one ship (which does not require a key), and tells you what is on that world and what its adjacent worlds are (as though you were there). You have sent a ship through a gate without a key - it gets through long enough to send back a report, and then burns up. It is not seen by any other player, and it cannot "carry" an artifact to that world. You cannot probe a world if you own it or have fleets or converts there, nor can you probe a world more than once per turn.

Probes are sent from the world you begin the turn at. You cannot probe with a ship on the turn it is built, or the turn you transfer it from one fleet to another. (There is no reason to transfer it if you are going to probe with it, but someone always makes that mistake.)

The world that you begin the game with is considered your "home world". You will always receive a report or probe of this world, even if you lose control of it. (There is no particular penalty for losing control of you "home" world.) You will get a report on every world where you have a fleet, where you have converts, where you own the world, where you had a fleet at the beginning of the turn, and where you passed through on the way to another world.

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13. CARGO. Each ship (except for those owned by Merchants) may carry ONE metal as cargo. If a fleet is carrying metal, it may unload them on a world, jettison them (destroy them), unload them as consumer goods (as a Merchant to get points, or as any player to get rid of converts). You may pick up metal from any world you own with any fleet at that world. If the world is not yours, then the player who owns the world must have declared you a "loader" (either this turn or on a previous turn). Once you have been declared a "loader" by a player, you remain that way until he changes his mind and gives a "non-loader" order for you. You will not be told by the computer that you are a "loader". You'll know if you succeed in picking up metal from his world.

You can specify a number of metal to pick up, or you can just say "load" and your fleet will pick up as many metal as it can find and carry. You cannot overload your ship, nor can you pick up metal that is going to be used for building that turn. If two players load at the same world, and there is not enough metal for both of them, the owner of the world gets preference. (His ship is filled before the other player gets any). If two or more players (both loaders) are at a world neither of them owns, and both try to load, the one with the smallest NUMBERED fleet will get preference. (i.e. fleet #1 gets loaded before fleet #5). (In certain variant games it will be a random numbered fleet).

If a Pirate captures a Merchant fleet which is carrying more than 1 metal per ship, the excess metal disappears (ditto if the merchant gives away the fleet). Jettisoning and unloading cargo come BEFORE firing, so you can avoid taking the extra damage caused by being loaded with cargo. (See"Firing"). Transferring from fleet to fleet and building new ships comes after unloading and before loading. Artifacts are NOT considered cargo. Remember that transferring loaded ships automatically jettisons the cargo. You can load metal that someone else is unloading that turn.

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14. ARTIFACTS. Any fleet may carry any number of artifacts. The artifacts are attached to the KEY and not the ships. If the fleet carrying the artifacts is destroyed, the artifacts remains neutral until there is only one player at that world with ships not at peace (in other words, until some player captures the key it is attached to). There are 90 standard artifacts, and 10 special artifacts. The standard artifacts will consist of two words. The first word can be any of these: Platinum, Ancient, Vegan, Blessed, Arcturian, Silver, Titanium, Gold, Radiant, Plastic. The second word can be any of these: Lodestar, Pyramid, Stardust, Shekel, Crown, Sword, Moonstone, Sepulchre, Sphinx.

Thus an artifact would be known as the SILVER SWORD, or the BLESSED STARDUST, or the PLASTIC CROWN. Each type of character would like to collect two distinct types of artifacts. Empire Builders, for instance, would like all PLATINUM items and all CROWNS. The PLATINUM CROWN is their "Greatest Treasure". Here is a chart of what each player wants:

  Empire Builder............Platinum, Crown
  Merchant.....................Gold, Shekel
  Pirate ..................Silver, Lodestar
  Apostle ...............Blessed, Sepulchre
  Berserker.................Titanium, Sword
  Artifact Collector.......Ancient, Pyramid
Note that there is some conflict here, as both the Empire Builder and the Merchant will want the "GOLDEN CROWN" and of course the Artifact Collector will want everything.

The special artifacts are the TREASURE OF POLARIS, the SLIPPERS OF VENUS, the RADIOACTIVE ISOTOPE, the LESSER OF TWO EVILS, the NEBULA SCROLLS (Volumes 1-5), and the BLACK BOX.

Players gain (or lose) points for holding certain artifacts. Character types other than Artifact Collectors are awarded points according to the following schedule:

The Artifact Collector gets more points for each item, as follows: The Black Box is special. If you own it, this artifact may do something to you or for you. Each game, the Black Box will do something different. We will decide when the game starts what that particular Black Box will do, and you will not be told what it is. If you find the Black Box, you will have to determine what it is doing (if anything). It may do something every turn (like produce one extra metal each turn) or it may do something every once in a while (like double the number of mines of the world it is on every 8th turn) or it may go in some kind of cycle (produces an industry every turn except on the 10th turn it blows up the world it is on!). The effect may be good, or bad, or mixed, or it may be nothing at all. The Black Box MAY tell you something (thus, it is illegal to sign the Black Box's name to a diplomatic message), but the Black Box will never answer questions, so please do not address questions to it.

Each artifact has a number which will appear with the artifact on your printout. (The "V" is NOT part of the number, and is just there to remind you that all artifact orders start with a "V").

An artifact may be hooked onto one of your fleets, unhooked from your fleet onto the world your fleet is located, or hooked onto the fleet of an Artifact Collector. You may NOT hook it onto a fleet of a player who is not an artifact collector, and you may NOT transfer it directly from one fleet to another fleet unless you are a collector, or the fleet you are transferring it to belongs to a collector. You are only allowed to give ONE order per artifact per turn. An artifact is attached to a fleet if it appears after that fleet on the printout. An artifact belongs to the player who owns the world or fleet it is on.

If you have a bad artifact you want to dispose of, you can unhook (unload) it on a world that does not belong to you, give it to an artifact collector, or attach it onto a fleet and fly the fleet into a black hole (see "Black Holes"). If you do not own the world that an artifact is on, you cannot hook that artifact onto a fleet.

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15. FIRING. Each ship gets one shot per turn (1 shot = 1 hit) except ISHPS, PSHPS, and overloaded merchant ships. ISHPS and PSHPS get 1/2 shot each (odd ship rounded up). Merchants can carry double cargo on their fleets, but each ship carrying a double cargo cannot fire. (If you have 5 ships carrying 6 metal, only 4 of the ships can fire.) Each fleet must fire all of its shots at one target. If the ISHPS fire, they must all fire at the same target; ditto for PSHPS. (That is, if you have 1 fleet, plus ISHPS and PSHPS at the same world, they can fire at 3 different targets, but not 4 different targets.)

Fleets may fire at another fleet at the world, or may fire at industry, population, or home fleets (ISHPS and PSHPS are known collectively as home fleets; this has nothing in particular to do with your home world). ISHPS and PSHPS can fire at fleets or at converts (and nothing else). Fleets can fire at population; if there are converts in the population, some of the casualties will be converts, but the fleet cannot specify that it is shooting only at converts. In order to fire at robots, you just fire at "population".

You must always specify which fleet you are firing at. If you destroy all ships attached to a key, that key becomes neutral until there is only one player at that world with ships not at peace. Each 2 shots destroys 1 unloaded ship or 2 loaded ships. (You cannot merely damage a ship. One shot will not harm an unloaded ship.) If the enemy fleet is leaving instead of firing back at you, you only get half as many hits. If you destroy all the ships on a fleet that is trying to move away, the key stays where you are. If a fleet moves, it cannot fire that turn. (You can NOT move to a world and fire at it on the same turn. If you write an order to move and an order to fire for the same fleet, whichever one we happen to type first will be executed, and the other one will be ignored.)

If you fire at industry, first you must destroy all ISHPS at 2 hits apiece. The remaining shots destroy industry at 2 hits for 1 industry. If you fire at population, you must first destroy the PSHPS at 2 hits apiece; the remaining shots will destroy population at 2 hits per 1 population.

If you fire at home fleets, you first destroy the ISHPS, then the PSHPS. Any remaining shots fired at home fleets do not destroy anything, but if there are at least 2 extra shots fired at a home fleet, the world becomes neutral until there is only one player there with ships not at peace. (Even if the owner of the world has fleets there. And if a world has no home fleets, you must fire at least 2 shots at it to force it neutral.) This is how you take a world away from your enemy when you are unable to capture it for yourself.

It is NOT necessary to force a world neutral if you are able to capture it. If you just want to destroy all the enemy ships guarding a world, but not the population or industry, you fire at home fleets. If you fire at converts (ISHPS and PSHPS only), each shot destroys one convert.

Each attack must be either conditional or unconditional. An unconditional attack fires, no matter what. A conditional attack means you fire at the specified target IF AND ONLY IF the owner of the target fires at YOU this turn AT THAT WORLD. If both players give only conditional fire orders, then neither will fire. An ambush will NOT trigger a conditional fire order, but a robot attack WILL trigger conditional fire. A conditional fire order IS AN ATTACK ORDER, and you cannot move or ambush or give away a fleet if you give a conditional fire order. (The conditional fire order is effective only for the turn you give it. It does not remain in effect on the next turn.)

When shooting at ships, hits are first taken by unloaded ships, then by loaded ships. You may only fire at a target which STARTS the turn at the same world as the firing unit.

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16. AMBUSH. Unless you specify not to ambush at all this turn, or not to ambush at this world this turn, any fleets that have not moved or fired, and all unfired home fleets will ambush any fleet (not belonging to an ally) which tries to move THROUGH that world. This only applies if that fleet moves through the world without stopping.

For example, Player A has F85 at World 1, and wants to move through Worlds 2 and 3 to get to World 4. He orders "F85W2W3W4". He can be ambushed by any player at World 2 or World 3. He can NOT be ambushed at World 1 or World 4 (Nor can a fleet at W4 fire at F85 until NEXT turn.)

This ambush order confuses a lot of players. They want to ambush anyone who appears at their world, and it is NOT possible. The ambush order exists to guard your inner circle of worlds by putting ambush ships on the outer fringes of your empire. An enemy must either stop and fire at your outer ships, or fly past them and let you ambush him. Note that any enemy ships which have not moved or fired will ambush you even if they are at one of your worlds. Fleets do not have to be at their own worlds to ambush.

When you are ambushing, ISHPS and PSHPS are not halved as they are when firing, AND all ships are doubled when ambushing. Thus, a fleet of 2 ships or 2 ISHPS will destroy two enemy ships (or four, if they are loaded with metal). Home fleets won't ambush if their world does a migration or is being given away.

If you only destroyed some of the ships, the remainder of the fleet will continue on to where it was headed. If you destroy all the ships, the empty key will remain at the world where it was ambushed. A ship ambushing will shoot at every enemy fleet that moves through. This is the only case where a ship may fire more than once per turn.

You will not ambush fleets belonging to players you have declared ALLY. A fleet will not ambush if it has given an a conditional fire order, or if it is making a robot attack or dropping a PBB. Fleets "At Peace" do ambush. Gifts do not ambush.

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17. ALLIES. You start the game with no allies. After you have met another player, you may declare him or her an ally, if you wish. That player will remain your ally until you subsequently declare him or her a non-ally. You will not ambush any allied ships, and you will not capture worlds belonging to your ally. (Your ships will help protect allied industry and even if they are "at peace" they will keep enemy fleets from capturing allied worlds.) If you are a Pirate, you will not capture your ally's ships. (But you do have to outnumber your ally's ships if they are at the same world where you are trying to capture enemy ships.) If you are an Apostle, you WILL convert an ally's population.

The word "Ally" has additional connotations which DO NOT APPLY in StarWeb. If YOU declare someone your ally, the only thing it means is that you will not ambush his fleets or capture his worlds. That player does not have to declare YOU an ally, and he or she can still ambush you and capture your worlds. You will not be told whether another player has declared you an ally or not. Being an ally has NOTHING to do with whether you can FIRE at another player. All it does is make sure you won't do any automatic nasties against the player who you think is your friend.

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18. GIFTS. At any time after you have met another player in the game, you may give a fleet or world to that player - but neither of you can move the fleet or fire its shots the turn it is given away. If you have given away a world, you can neither fire with its ISHPS or PSHPS nor plunder it the turn you give it away. You may build with industry on the turn a world is given away, and you can load or unload metal or artifacts. You may only make TWO gift orders per turn, and only to players who you have met at some point in the game. (i.e. one of their worlds or fleets or converts or robots has appeared on your printout at least once so far in the game.) The player who receives a gift is told who gave it to him.

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19. PLUNDERING. At any time you can plunder a world which you control. If the world is taken away from you that turn, or if you give it away, the plunder fails. While a world recovers from the plunder (the next 3 turns), it will not build with its industry, increase in population, or produce metal. You cannot plunder a world again while it is recovering from a previous plunder.

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20. AT PEACE. You may at any time declare any fleet "at peace". It will subsequently appear on the printout with "At-Peace" after it, until you declare it "not at peace". (All keys and fleets start out "not at peace"). This ONLY means that this fleet will not capture loose keys or worlds, nor will it prevent other players from capturing them. (However, a fleet "at peace" at one of your OWN or an ALLY'S worlds will prevent another player from capturing that world.)

You should order a fleet to be "at peace" if you want to move to a world without capturing it, or if you want to allow another player to capture a loose key or world without requiring you to leave.

Apostle fleets "at peace" do not convert. A fleet "at peace" will not prevent industry from building. Being "at peace" does NOT prevent you from firing or ambushing; it merely means you don't want to capture anything. (Pirate fleets "at peace" will not capture enemy fleets, either.) Most of the time you will want your fleets to be "not at peace".

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21. PLANET BUSTER BOMBS. Any time a fleet contains MORE than 25 ships, you can convert 25 of them into a PBB (Planet Buster Bomb). The fleet does not have to start the turn with the 25 ships -- you can be transferring them to the fleet on the turn you build the bomb. You may move or fire or drop a previously-built PBB on the turn that you build a PBB (but you can only have one PBB on a single fleet at a time). On any subsequent turn you may drop the bomb you just built (you cannot drop it the turn it is built).

Dropping a PBB is a FIRE order, and you cannot move on the turn you drop it. (See "Mutually Exclusive Orders") If you drop the bomb, and the fleet carrying it is not destroyed by some other player on the turn it attempts the drop, everything on that world (except artifacts) is destroyed. All population, industry, mines, metal, PSHPS, ISHPS, and robots are destroyed. The population limit is reduced to zero. Fleets are not affected. Attempting to drop a PBB DOES trigger "conditional fire".

You cannot fire with the fleet which is dropping the bomb. If the fleet is destroyed (or if you transfer all ships away from it), the PBB is destroyed. PBBs cannot be transferred from fleet to fleet, or jettisoned. The PBB will appear on the printout, and everyone who can see your fleet will know you have a PBB. Berserkers gain points for dropping PBBs, and everyone else loses 50 points (plus losing points for population killed) for dropping them, except an Apostle on a Jihad if he drops it on his Jihad victim.

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22. ROBOTS. In most cases, robot populations will act the same as regular populations. However, there are certain exceptions. Robots will not be converted by Apostles. Robot populations can ignore population limits (and can survive on worlds previously "planet busted"). Also, robot populations will not increase 10% like regular population. If you want to give an order regarding robot population (fire at population, or migrate population) you just give the same order you would give if it were regular population.

A Berserker may convert some of his ships to robots (1 ship = 2 robots) and the robots immediately land on the world where the fleet is, and start killing people. (This is a "robot attack". The fleet making the robot attack cannot move or fire.) Shots fired at fleets making a robot attack will kill the robots first. Thus, if a Berserker orders F7R2 (Fleet 7 convert 2 ships to robots) and at the same time an enemy fires 4 shots at F7 (enough to destroy 2 ships) then F7 will be noted on the printout as having made a robot attack, but no robots will get through to the planet below, and no damage will be done to population.

A berserker may make a robot attack on a world already populated with other robots. In this case, no population is killed; the new robots are just added to the previous ones. If the robots on the world are not owned by the player making the robot attack, one player or the other will randomly be chosen to own ALL the robots, with the odds being proportional to how many robots each player owns. (Example: A player makes a robot attack with 5 ships (10 robots) on a world populated by 90 neutral robots. The new population will be 100 robots, and the player has a 10% chance of capturing the world. There is a 90% chance that instead, all 100 robots will be neutral.)

A fleet may never convert ALL its ships to robots. At least one ship must be left behind on the key. If you make an error, the computer will automatically reduce your Robot Attack order enough to leave 1 ship behind. You can make a robot attack with ships which are being transferred to that fleet. A Berserker can move robots to an adjacent world using industry and metal (migrating), the same as other players can migrate population, and he will get a probe of the world and credit for killing any population. A berserker can capture a world this way. A robot attack WILL trigger a conditional fire order.

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23. METAL PRODUCTION (MINES) AND THE TURNS NUMBER. Each mine produces one metal per turn. It is stockpiled on the world unless picked up by a fleet. The maximum MINES for a world is 31. You can stockpile up to 255 metal at any one world. You must have population at the world not building with industry in order for the mine to produce its metal.

For example, if you have a world with 6 industry, 6 mines, and 10 population, and you build with all 6 industry, only 4 of the mines will produce metal for the next turn. (However, you can not voluntarily avoid building with the industry if there is enough metal at the world. A world with industry, metal, and population WILL build.)

Another example would be if you had a world with 5 mines, a population of 2, and a population limit of 3. That world will only produce 2 metal per turn until you put another population there by migration (or until the population increases, which might happen in about 5 turns). It will never produce more than 3 metal per turn unless you are a Berserker and you put 5 robots on the world. (Or if you increase the population limit by the expensive method mentioned earlier.)

There is only one way the MINES on a world can increase. Each world which already has at LEAST one mine, has a "Turns" number (Number of turns the world has been owned by its current owner). That number starts at 1 when you capture a world, and increases by 1 each turn unless interrupted by a plunder or capture of the world. The turn after the Turns number reaches 7, it goes back to 1, and the MINES on the world go up by 1. That means two things: First, a world which has no mines does not have a Turns number and will never have any mines. Second, if you own a world with mines for 7 consecutive turns, your MINES increase. If you plunder a world, the Turns number stops where it is until the world recovers from the plunder, and then continues. If a Berserker robotizes a world which he already owned, the Turns number starts over at 1, just as if he had captured it from another player.

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24. LOOSE KEYS. Any fleet with no ships on it is a loose key. Any loose key is captured by the only player there with ships not at peace. Home fleets are NEVER at peace. Keys are never destroyed. If you leave keys with no ships attached to them around on your worlds, those keys will belong to you as long as you are the only player there with ships. If another player shows up, the key will not be owned by anyone. (And note that if you don't have any ships at that world, you won't own the key either.) It is advisable, therefore, to attach at least one ship to every key you own.

To attach a ship to a key, transfer a ship from another fleet to that key, or build a ship onto the key with your industry which is at the same world. REMEMBER: If you do not ALREADY own the key, and you attach a ship to it, you STILL do not own the key. You have created a neutral fleet. Beginners do this often. If the name after the fleet number is your name, then you own the key. If the name after the fleet number is [ ], then no one owns the key. Players do not own SHIPS; they own KEYS and all the ships attached.

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25. BLACK HOLES. A few of the worlds on the map are black holes. If you move into or through a black hole, all the ships which move in are destroyed. The key will reappear at some random place in the galaxy, along with any artifacts which were carried. If you probe a black hole, you will discover what it is. However, there are only a few black holes in each game, so don't be paranoid.

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26. DIPLOMATIC MESSAGES and SIGNS - CONTACTING OTHER PLAYERS.

A SIGN is a short message (up to 2 lines of up to 78 characters each) that is posted on all of your worlds and fleets. When another player meets you for the first time, the text of your sign will appear on his printout. If you change to contents of your sign, anyone who has ever seen you will be given the text of your new sign. To add or change your sign, write the word SIGN below the orders on your turn sheet, and then 1 or 2 lines of text of up to 78 characters each. You can change your sign every turn if you like.

Once you have met another player (his name has appeared on your printout) or another player has introduced you to him, you may send him messages. Messages must be addressed to him by player name, and must be signed with your player name, or Anonymous. A diplomatic message should be written on a 3x5 card, or written on a piece of paper and folded to 3x5 size with the address (From and To) written on the OUTSIDE. Do NOT send messages SMALLER than 3x5 as they can easily get lost or delivered to the wrong player.

You may exchange addresses and/or phone numbers in diplomatic messages in order to contact each other directly. Please note that Flying Buffalo will NOT give you the name, address, or phone number of another player. If he wants you to have it, he will have to give it to you himself.

You may tell each other about other players you have met. Once you have been told about a player, you may send messages to him. However you cannot make GIFTS to another player until you actually see his name on your printout.

Cross-game alliances, threats, vendettas, and agreements cannot be totally prevented, but are frowned upon and are considered unethical. Each game should be played separately for itself alone. Note that Diplomatic Messages will be delivered the following turn after they are received. (They will NOT be delivered between turns.) They should be included with your turn.

DO NOT try to sign some other player's name or code name to a diplomatic message. This is considered CHEATING, and if you are caught you will be thrown out of ALL your games.

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27. THE PRINTOUT

Each turn you will get a computer printout of what you know currently in the game. The following is what will appear on the printouts (items marked with an asterisk may or may not appear on any given turn).

  1. World Number
  2. List of Connections
  3. Owner of this world, [ ] if no owner
  4. * Owner of converts: C[NAME]
  5. The number of industry, metal, mines, population, population limit, Iships, and Pships at the world. (If industry is two numbers with a "/", then the first number is actual industry, and the second number is the amount of industry usable this turn. If population is 25/5C for instance, that means that there are 25 population, of which 5 are converts. If population is followed by an "R", that means they are robots.)
  6. * If a PBB has been dropped at this world during the game so far, "BUSTED" will appear. If population (not robots) has died, "DEATHS=xx" will appear. If "Deaths" has two numbers, the one after the "/" is how many converts died. "Turns=" is the Turns number. If the world has been plundered so far this game, the word "Plunder=x" will appear with "x" being the number of times it has been plundered. If there are two numbers, the one after the "/" is how many turns before the world recovers from the plunder. "CG-Unloaded=x" tells you how many times Consumer Goods have been unloaded on this world. If the world was captured this turn, you are told who lost it and who captured it.
  7. * You are told what artifacts are on the world (they belong to the owner of the world.)
  8. * Next is a list of the fleets here. You are told the fleet number, who own it, how many ships are in the fleet, (how much cargo, if it is YOUR fleet), whether it is carrying a PBB, what artifacts it is carrying (an artifact that appears after a fleet number is being carried by the fleet and belongs to the player who owns that fleet), whether it dropped a PBB, made a robot attack, moved, unloaded consumer goods, or fired (and the target, if it fired).
  9. * Lastly you are given a list of fleets that left here this turn, or passed through here this turn. You are told the fleet number and the owner, and the immediate destination (where it went from this world, not necessarily its final destination). You are not told how many ships or cargo it had. If you see the same fleet with two different destinations, that means it left here, came back again, and left in a different direction all in the same turn. This is a cheap way to get a probe of an extra world, as long as you don't get ambushed along the way!
In the example below, World 2 is adjacent to Worlds 24, 37, and 161. TERRAN owns the world and it has 1 industry, 2 mines, 2 metal, 7 population, 10 maximum population, in two or more turns the number of mines will increase, there is one ISHP guarding the world, and that player JOVIAN moved his fleet #6 consisting of 1 ship into this world this turn. Also, Fleet #47 went from here to W161 this turn. Each turn you will get a report from every world which you own, where you have fleets or converts or robots, or where you have probed. You also get a report on a world the turn it is captured from you, or the turn you leave it. And you always get a report on the world you started with (your homeworld). You are also told which players you have as allies, which players are currently your loaders, which players you have met so far in the game, and which players you currently see on your printout. The current scores of the players you see THIS TURN will be listed on your printout, but not necessarily in the order that the players appear. (The scores will be listed in numerical order from lowest to highest. The player names will be listed in random order. You will have to try to figure out which player has which score, if you can see more than one player on a turn.)

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28. THE TURN SHEET. There are six spaces at the top of every turn sheet which are very important. You should fill them in before you do anything else.

The first space is labelled, STARWEB GAME #. This is your game number, and is the single most important space on the turn sheet. We are running many games of StarWeb simultaneously (usually well over 100) and we MUST know which game your turn sheet is for. The game number is the one which begins with "SW". If you put your account number, or the turn number, or some other number in the game number space, you may MISS YOUR TURN, as we may not be able to determine which game it is for.

The second space is the "TURN #". Please write the number that appears on your latest printout here. DO NOT ADD ONE TO THE TURN NUMBER. If you have received a printout that is labeled "Turn 5" then you should write "Turn 5" on the orders you are submitting, NOT "Turn 6".

The third space is labelled, "CODE NAME". This is your player name, the name that appears on all of your fleets and planets.

The fourth space is labelled, "ACCOUNT NUMBER". This is where you put your personal account number, which is confidential - don't tell anyone else what it is. (You have only one account even if you are playing in more than one game.)

The fifth space is labelled "DATE DUE". Please write in the date that is stamped on your printout as the due date. It may be helpful.

The sixth space says, "SIGNATURE". Here we want your REAL name. This is to make sure it is really you. And please make it readable. If you have accidentally written down the wrong game number, we MIGHT be able to figure out which game it is for, if we can read your signature.

About once a month we receive a turn sheet that has all of these spaces blank. If that's the case, it is highly unlikely that we will be able to figure out whose turn it is, and you will miss the turn.

Your turn will consist of a list of instructions, in any order you care to write them. If you list two orders which cannot both happen on the same turn (see "mutually exclusive orders"), whichever one we happen to type first will occur and the other will be ignored. This is the ONLY time the order in which you write your instructions will make a difference. Remember, all unloading and loading comes BEFORE movement in the game.

In the examples below, nnn or mmm is a world or fleet number, and qqq is a quantity. (To build 3 industry at world 205, order W205I3I.) Please note that if a number does not take up all three digits, DO NOT fill in the spaces with zeros. If you want fleet 5 to move to world 2, the order is F5W2, not F005W002 or F--5W--2.

TRANSFER SHIPS FROM PLACE TO PLACE

MAKE NEW INDUSTRY OUT OF SHIPS

(This is the only way to get industry at a world which does not already have 5 industry, or 4 industry for an empire builder.)

BUILDING MIGRATING POPULATION MOVE A FLEET ONE, TWO, OR THREE WORLDS TO PROBE AN ADJACENT WORLD TRANSFER CARGO (qqq is how many metal) TO HOOK AND UNHOOK ARTIFACTS FROM FLEETS TO FIRE SHOTS FROM FLEETS, ISHPS, OR PSHIPS CONDITIONAL FIRE ORDERS

Exactly the same as fire orders, above, except replace the "A" in the above orders with a "C" for "conditional". Example:

AMBUSH CONTROL ALLIANCES, JIHADS, AND GIFTS MISCELLANEOUS Please note that these are ALL the possible orders. Please do not write and ask us what the order is to do thus-and-so. If you cannot find it listed here, then it cannot be ordered.

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29. MUTUALLY EXCLUSIVE ORDERS.

The following orders are mutually exclusive; a fleet given one of these orders cannot be given any of the other orders listed here on the same turn.

A conditional fire order IS a firing order, and is also mutually exclusive. Note that if you fire with the ISHPS or PSHPS of a world, you cannot give that world away or migrate population from that world.

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30. VICTORY POINT TOTALS. On the first turn of your game, you should pick a number between 1000 and 10,000 (inclusive). Put it in the space at the bottom of the turn sheet marked "your choice for an ending score". We will take all the numbers given, and average them. We will not tell what this average is until the game is over. If you fail to give a number, we will not average in a "zero" for you, we just won't include you in the average.

As soon as at least one player has reached or exceeded this number, the game is over. At that time (after awarding bonuses for artifacts), the player with the most points wins. This way, you usually won't know for sure when the game is about to end. The average will probably be around 8,000 points or so, but you won't know for sure. You can tell other players what number you picked, or not, as you choose. (Or for that matter you can lie to them if you feel it necessary.)

Each turn you will be told your victory point total and the point total of all the players you can see this turn (you will not be told Which player has Which score. The final scores of each game and a rating system will be printed in our magazine, Flying Buffalo Quarterly, which comes out about four times a year. All players should either subscribe to this magazine or read a friend's copy, as it may have corrections, explanations, strategy notes, price increases, or procedure changes in it.

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31. MISCELLANEOUS. The maximum # of mines for a world is 31. For all other quantities of items, the maximum is 255.

When filling out your turn sheet, be sure you PRINT your orders neatly. Do not use red ink, or a felt-tip pen, or a pencil when you write your orders. If we type in the wrong orders because we can't read your writing, we will not go back and correct it for you. Count the total number of orders that you have written and put that total in the "total orders" box on the turn sheet. This way, if we accidentally don't type one of you orders, we will notice it and go back and fix it before processing the game. If we make an error partly because you failed to include an order count, or you have an incorrect count, we won't fix the error later.

If you think we made an error on your turn, let us know about it. But send in your next turn anyway. Describe exactly what error you think was made (don't say "I think my score is wrong, please add it up again"). If you wish, you may include two versions of your next turn: one to use if we fix the error, and one to be used if we don't. We ask you to do this because there may have been no error at all. No matter how certain you are that we made a mistake, there is about a 75% chance that you merely misinterpreted a rule. And if that happens, we will NOT hold up the game waiting for you to get your turn in. If it really was our mistake, we'll try to correct it if we can. But not every error can be corrected, so we reserve the right to declare the mistake an "Act of God" or "The Fog of War" and not change it. If we don't fix the mistake we will refund your turn fee for that turn. Please remember, you are not being discriminated against. We do not make errors on purpose. It is just as likely to happen to your enemy as it is to you. And errors will happen; if you are typing 100 turns a day, with 20 to 200 orders on each one, you can't get them all perfect.

Turns will be due here about two weeks from the day we mail the previous turns results to you. If your turn is not HERE by the day of the time limit, you may miss the turn. (That means HERE, not just postmarked by that day. Generally the mail averages 3 to 5 days from anywhere in the US, and 7 to 10 days from anywhere else in the world.) If your turn arrives after the due date, but we have not yet processed the game through the computer, we WILL include your turn. But if your turn arrives after we have processed the game, you are too late. We can't wait for you. It is your responsibility to get your turn in before the due date. Get a copy of our HOUSE RULES for more details on phoning in your orders or using ELECTRONIC MAIL or making changes to your turn or asking for corrections.

If you miss the turn, all your usable industry will build ISHPS. Some of your fleets MIGHT give a conditional fire order at some fleet which they can see which is NOT owned by an ally. None of your fleets will move or load or unload metal.

We will refund the balance of your account any time you ask for it. If you do not ask for it after your game is over, we will assume that you intend to play another game soon. (However, we will not start you in a new game unless you ASK for it.) If you only have a little bit of money in your account, and you won't be playing for a long time, you can leave it there if you like. We'll keep track of it and it will be there 5 years from now when you decide to play again.

You are welcome to join as many games as you like. Just send us the startup fee for each game and tell us what kind of character you would like to be and what name you want to use. Your character name can be up to nine letters long (letters only, no numbers, punctuation marks, or spaces). Please give us a second choice for code name and character type. You can use the same code name for all the games you are in, or you can use a different name for each game. If you don't choose a name or character, we will pick them for you.

If you want, you can reserve a particular code name exclusively for your own use. Send us your choice of name, and the fee for a StarWeb Reserved Name. If your choice has not already been reserved, we will put you on the list. Each issue of FBQ we try to list all the reserved names. You don't have to use your reserved name for every game you play, but only YOU can use it. You can reserve as many names as you can afford. If you allow us to pick a name for you, please do not try to later reserve that name, as it will likely be one of the "house" names that is reserved for "house" use.

If is recommended that on the first turn you move to all the worlds adjacent to your home world. You will not start out adjacent to another player, or to a black hole. It is also recommended that you do NOT build any more industry on the first couple of turns. On Turn One you will use up your stockpile of 30 metal, and for the next couple of turns (until you start carrying metal back from your new worlds) you will only produce 2 metal per turn. Therefore, if you build 5 new industry, you will have 33 industry that cannot produce anything, instead of only 28 industry which cannot produce anything!

What you find at the unexplored worlds, and the various possibilities of the map connections, may change from game to game. If you ask us a rules question, we will try to answer it for you. But if your question is particularly complicated, we do not promise to tell you exactly what will happen. The actual "rules" of the game world is the computer program, not what is written down here or what I may tell you over the phone. You may have to "try it and see". Remember that if there is no order listed in the rules for what you want to do, then it cannot be done. Please don't call and ask what the order is to fire at player B only if he enters your world through gate 5, or what the order is to convert robots back to ships. There is no order for them, and they cannot be done. If you do have a rules question, it speeds things up if you include a stamped self-addresses postcard or envelope.

If you are reading rules that belong to a friend, and you decide to sign up for a game, be sure and ORDER the rules also. A copy of these rules is NOT included in the first turn. They need to be purchased separately. Please allow 4 to 8 weeks for a game to start, as we have to wait until enough players have signed up. We have several variations of the regular game -- ask for our free catalog.

If you enjoy our games, tell your friends. If not, tell us! Send all entry fees, turns, questions, and comments to:

        Flying Buffalo Inc.
           P.O. Box 1467
        Scottsdale, AZ 85252
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32. APPENDIX - SUMMARY OF CHARACTER TYPES

EMPIRE BUILDER

MERCHANT PIRATE ARTIFACT COLLECTOR BERSERKER APOSTLE