The Pinwheel Galaxy

The Pinwheel Galaxy is a series of new races for SFB, created by R. A. Mulder and Timothy E. Janota. The races, previewed at Origins '96, had previously been available for mail-order in three modules. However, currently the creator and distributor (Ron Mulder) is in negotiations with ADB and thus the products cannot be sold.

What follows is a simple description of what the races are like, in case they do become available again.

The Races

The original PW-1 module had five basic races: each of which included complete rules and 6-9 SSD's each. The ships include the basic classes from frigates to heavy cruisers, plus a tournament cruiser for each race. The module includes a total of 39 SSD's, including 4 generic/civilian ships. It also has 33 pages of new rules, including background and ship descriptions.

Below are short descriptions of each of the new races:

The United Federation of Olthenia

This expansionist power is driven by the word of a prophet who brought knowledge from a distant galaxy. Their ships are radially symetric, with plasma-F's and phasers firing in all directions. More importantly, they have the Phase Device, which lets them disappear utterly from the board to reappear impulses or even turns later -- but they must predefine their movement and reappearance. It can be a rude shock phasing in wrong.

The Alhordian Confederation

A more peaceful union of races, the Alhordian fleet is built by a variety of contracters. They all use the Kinetic Energy Weapon, a mauler-like device which combines energy from many boxes. They are difficult to disarm, but limited to a single big shot per turn.

The Daalmari

A plasma-armed race, with the unique Plasma-Y and Plasma-Z which can arm in 2 turns or up to 5 turns with the plasma growing in power and cost as it goes. This gives them greater flexibility than traditional plasma races, but at a price.

The Velron

They are armed with the Warp Lance, which is a two-turn weapon (like a short-ranged photon) -- but rather than requiring pre-fire arming energy, it requires energy to stabilize after firing.

The Kakrea

These are an insectoid race, whose ships repair extremely quickly, aided by their Shield Regenerator devices. Their weapons are the short-ranged, multi-shot Magnetic Cannon, and the two-turn enveloping Magnetic Torpedo. To compare them to standard SFB, they are like Hydrans with less punch, but who keep coming back for more.