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

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 MER-CHANT 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 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.)

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. Obviously a lot of different people agree that this is the best pbm game there is. If you have any interest in pbm, you should at least try this game.

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 (all players are on email & submit turns by email), 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 in the same envelope), ANONYMOUS STARWEB (no communication of any kind allowed between players, strictly enforced), MULTI STAR-WEB (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). IF YOU WIN: You are given a coupon which pays the setup fee for another game, plus you get an enamel "Starweb Victory" pin. Starweb is a registered trade-mark of Flying Buffalo Inc.

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.

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