STARWEB r
DIPLOMACY/INTERACTION: Lots
DIFFICULTY/COMPLEXITY: Moderate
GAME LENGTH: Fixed
NUMBER OF PLAYERS: 15

Starweb is a registered trademark of Flying Buffalo Inc.( now RickLoomisPBM>com) This page last changed June 10, 2004 and seldom needs changing

FLASH!!!Starweb won the Origins Award for best pbm game of the year July 4, 1998 at Columbus, Ohio during the Origins National Game Show. It was also nominated again in 1999, 2000k and 2001. You can read about the Origins Awards at the Origins Awards website

For a limited time, we are going to try offering a free sample game of Starweb. If you have never played Starweb before, you can sign up for the "Trial Game". It will only have 6 players (one of each character type) and fewer worlds, and will last exactly 12 turns and all the turns will be sent and received only by email. One of the 6 players will be an experienced player, who will try to help you out (a mentor). At the end of the 12 turns, the player with the highest score will win a coupon good for the setup fee ($5) in a regular game. If you would like to try the "Trial Game" we will need your name, email address, postal mailing address, and your preference in character type and code name (up to 9 letters). We don't guarantee you will get your preference in character type, as there is only one of each per game. And please understand that since everyone is playing for free, we might have some people sign up who never even play the game. Starweb is a game of diplomacy, so you may not get the FULL experience in the trial game. But it will give you an idea of whether play by mail is for you.

Starweb is a game of 15 stellar empires clashing over 255 worlds. Everyone starts out equally, each with one homeworld. The object of the game is to be the first to get approximately 10,000 victory points. When you sign up for a game, you get to pick one of 6 different "character types", each of which gets victory points for different things.

• The EMPIRE BUILDER gets points for owning worlds, industry, mines, and population.
• The APOSTLE gets points for converting population to his religion. Just by having a fleet at one of your worlds, he converts some of your population, and if he converts the entire population of the world, he captures the world without firing a shot! But if you shoot at the converted ones, he gets even more points for the `martyrs'!
• The PIRATE gets points for owning fleets and for plundering worlds. He is the only player who can capture your fleets from you instead of destroying them.
• The MERCHANT gets points for carrying metal for people to their homeworlds.
• The ARTIFACT COLLECTOR gets points for accumulating the various artifacts that are scattered throughout the game.
• The BERSERKER r gets points for killing things, and a bonus for destroying an entire planet! The idea for the robot Berserkers comes from stories written and copyrighted by Fred Saberhagen, and is used with his permission. "Berserker"r is a registered trademark of Fred Saberhagen.

Starweb has won five different awards.

• It was the first pbm game to be listed in the "Games 100" list in Games Magazine in 1981.
• In the summer of 1985, Starweb won the "Best Science Fiction PBM Game" award given by the Play By Mail Association and
• the "Best Play by Mail Game" award given away at the Origins game convention by the Game Manufacturers Association the first time each of these awards was given away.
• Then in the fall of 1985, Starweb won the "Best PBM Game" award given by Paper Mayhem magazine in their first annual awards.
• In August of 1987, Starweb won the Gamers Choice Award of 1987 for "Best Play By Mail Game" awarded at the Gencon game convention in Milwaukee the first time they added pbm to their list of categories.

STARWEB VARIANTS AVAILABLE:

• Regular starweb has "due dates" of two weeks. (When we mail your results to you, you have two weeks to get your next orders back to us).
• We also offer SLOW STARWEB = turns due once a month; recommended for overseas players,
• EMAIL STARWEB = turns due every two weeks & must be submitted by electronic mail (sometimes we start an email Starweb game where turns are due once a week),
• PARTNERS STARWEB =each player joins with a friend, so you know you have at least one friend in the game. Both players must include their request for this game at the same time,
• ANONYMOUS STARWEB =no communication of any kind allowed between players, strictly enforced,
• MULTI STARWEB = this is a special variant that costs more and is a lot more difficult. Each player plays three different positions in the same game. Ask for any 3 different character types. The lowest of your 3 scores is your current score in the game, and the player whose LOWEST score is higher than anyone elses at the end of the game is the winner. NOT recommended for beginners,
• SLOW MULTI STARWEB = same as Multi but moves once a month.
• SLOW MULTI ANONYMOUS STARWEB = same as the previous, except no communications between players is allowed.

IF YOU WIN: You are given a coupon which pays the setup fee for another game, plus you get an enamel "Starweb Victory" pin. (Note: we just recently [May 1997] got in a new version of the Starweb Victory pin. We gave away all the old pins, and since the original company who made them didn't keep our original artwork, we made a new one. So if you have one of the old pins, you might want to join a new game and try to win one of the new pins!)

Prices:

• Setup fee $5.
• Turn fee for all games except "Multi" games is $4.50 per turn for the first ten turns, and for "Multi" games, it is $8 per turn. Then the price increases by 50 cents per turn every tenth turn. (Starweb usually lasts about 15-20 turns).
• Rulebooks cost $2 each. Turn sheets are provided with the turns, but you can buy extra ones, 20 for $2.
• There's an extra charge of 75 cents per turn to send your turn by airmail if you are overseas.
• If you join a "regular" game that has snail mail customers, there is an extra charge of $1 per turn to get your printouts by email also. *

Note on pricing: please specify when you sign up whether you are asking for a "regular" game or an "all email" game. Just because you signed up by email does not necessarily mean you want to be in an "all email" game. Regular games generally start a lot more often than "all email" games. If you join an "anonymous" game or an "all email" game there is no extra charge for an email printout, as we won't send you a hardcopy by postal mail.

To copy the rules, go to Starweb PDF.

If you already copied the rules, send us an email to sign up for a Starweb game.

To read strategy articles about Starweb, see FBQ.

To see a list of the Starweb "reserved names" click here.

Several players have created programs to help you keep track of Starweb information. One of these players has a webpage at Flying Moose Technologies Note that we are not recommending this over the others available, only that he has a webpage describing it, and (as far as I know) the others don't. We don't really think you need to use a computer program to keep track of your Starweb game, but it does make certain recordkeeping a little easier.

For decades we have compiled "ratings" for players of Starweb, and published them in our magazine FBQ. We are now going to publish these ratings on our webpage, and update them every time a game ends. Click here for the Starweb Ratings.

RickLoomisPBM Homepage