This is a long document. I present it in one piece, so that any interested players can save it as one file and refer to it if they like. All hyperlinks are absolute (apart from the one for Vampire Slayers), so you can save the file locally and the links will still work when you load it and are on-line. I hope it is of use. Any additions, corrections or other suggestions are very welcome.

The Stars! demo can be downloaded from the Stars! homepage over at http://www.webmap.com/stars . Unlike many demos of new games, this one is fully playable. It has only two limitations - after 80 turns it will effectively shut down or, if used in a longer game, will limit the player to less than half the technology available.

However, the Stars! community is a friendly place, peopled by gamers who have more intelligence and grace than your average individual. With the demo, you will find it possible not only to play games against the computer, but to join in multiplayer games via email. There are some hosts out there (notably Bluebear) who run games for new players which last only the 80 turns allowed in the demo version. Joining in one of these games will let you pit your wits against other humans and enjoy one of the reasons the game has survived this long in a market where titles come and go faster than Japanese bullet trains...

Built into the demo is a tutorial, which all new players should go through. It teaches all the basics of the game and is well built.

Having played the demo and several single-player games, you will probably reach a point where you want to know more. Your best bet is to read through a few articles written by some of the luminaries of the Stars! community, detailing the best race designs, growth methods and so on. Stars! is a complicated game, but there are a lot of people out there who have analysed the way things work and provided information that is indispensable.

Many useful articles are available on Bluebear's site for beginners, including information on how to play all the different race types and samples of such designs.

The most important articles for new players are:

"Basic Game Play" by Jason Cawley

"Beginner's Guide to Race Creation, v2.0" by Omonubi

"David Moen's Tips on Play" by David Moen

Having read these, players can refer to Omonubi's Article Library for lots of useful data and strategies. Another excellent resource is the official strategy guide, downloadable from the Stars! homepage.

So now you're used to the game and are ready to face some real opposition. There are a lot of e-mail hosts out in the Stars! community, offering everything from standard games to special setups. These basically break down into the following:

Standard games: Played within the normal parameters of Stars! games, these are the easiest to set up, run or play. Very little work is required by the host, apart from the regular generation of turns.

Theme games: The most popular of these is, of course, the 'Star Trek' theme. Races are often pre-generated by the host and the players take control of them in a familiar setting. Sometimes, special rules are in place (such as the Federation not being allowed to attack neutral worlds due to the Prime Directive, and so on). These games can often be more work for their host

Special games: Often the most difficult to host, these games do not use the standard victory conditions built in to Stars! - instead, players must achieve different goals, set by the host. Some examples of these games include "Capture the Flag", "King of the Hill" and setups such as hunting specific targets, destroying monster races and so on.

Scenario games: After a posting in the newsgroup, the idea of the scenario game was born. In these setups, the host prepares everything. The races, planet ownership and player goals are all pre-set and the players take over a position in the game. Scenarios include Star Trek games, Babylon 5 and others, such as my own Vampire Slayers. Steve Law has set up a scenario games site with lots of good ideas.

Finding new games is very simple. Many of the Stars! sites out on the web list games being started and you can also check the newsgroup regularly for postings. If you are an avid player looking for frequent updates, your best bet is to subscribe to the list run by "Mr. Stars". Glyn started his list a long time ago and has hundreds of subscribers (over 250 at last count!). To subscribe, you can visit his site or click here and simply send the message - don't write anything in the subject or body of the message. Glyn checks the newsgroup at least twice a day and also has a form on his site for new games, so you will not be short of new setups to join!

(As an aside, it's very rare for me to promote such things, but I've been on this list for more than a year and haven't been spammed once. Glyn's real careful and respectful with your address.)

One of the most common questions in the Stars! community is how to judge your own or others' experience level. This is a difficult question. Basically, players break down into four levels - Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced and Expert.

When it comes down to it, Beginners are normally players who have trouble beating the computer AI or have only played a couple of email games... and not won them!

Intermediates are the next level of player - they can regularly beat the computer and are capable individuals in a multiplayer setup. I myself rank below this level, but above beginner. Rising above Intermediate level normally requires an analytical or strategic mind.

Advanced players are dangerous individuals. They can beat an alliance of intermediate players, are masters of resource and economic management. Some game setups will pitch an advanced player against anything up to six or eight others *and* limit the advanced race. The advanced player will often win. Such players use many tools in their planning, store a lot of information and run test-bed setups of combats to ensure victory. Nasty stuff...

Expert players are a rare breed. This level of knowledge is scary - they know the guts of Stars! as well as, if not better than, the Jeffs (the authors). They can mount an assault against any empire, are masters of strategy and can only really compete against players of their own level unless they are badly handicapped.

So how can you gain experience? Several hosts have recently been running games for beginners or intermediate players where they are pitched against players of their own level, to share ideas and learn from each other. Some setups (such as those designed by Art Lathrop over at the Stars! Directory) pitch a higher level player against many lower, or team two or three beginners with a better individual so they can be mentored.

The Stars! community is a friendly place!

Many utilities are available for Stars! players - from mapping tools to notebooks, map re-drawing utils and calculators. These can help in a lot of ways, especially if you are playing several games at once or need to share data with allies. There is an excellent repository of Utility links that can be found at Stars-R-Us Utilities (now dormant). Others are advertised on other sites and in the newsgroup.

For starters, all players should grab the Information Trader, Notebook and Calculator. For the more numerically minded, Posey's spreadsheets are real food for thought.

One of the best things about Stars! is that it's a communal game. The players are also the hosts and set up scenarios for the community out of pure enjoyment of the game.

Hosting is a subject close to my heart. I'm not a very good player, so I host a lot of games. Omonubi wrote an excellent article on hosting some time ago, which Bluebear has posted on his site. Follow this link to read it.

There's a lot more to hosting than is in that article, however. I started to put together a huge document about the subject, the working copy of which is here. It's in Word 97 format, so if you can't read it get in touch. I'm always willing to try to help out with advice on potential setups and am lucky enough to know several good players with whom I can discuss new ideas: extra input on an idea can be the difference between it working or failing.

The Stars! community is a wonderful place, with many of the ideals that the Internet has held for a long time. No host will ever charge you for a game, players will happily discuss tactics and share information freely, utilities are normally freeware (and rarely shareware) and any players caught being insulting or abusive will normally be thrown out of the game they are in.

The best place to find out a lot more about Stars! is in the newsgroup. This can be found on many news servers - check for 'rec.games.computer.stars' on yours. Deja News carries the group if your local server doesn't, so you can access it through a web front-end.

The group has a lot of regular posters and (as with all good groups) a FAQ. Despite all the 'netiquette' articles you will undoubtedly read elsewhere, the Stars! newsgroup is more human than many others. You should still read the FAQ, of course, but feel free to ask questions, even dumb ones - I certainly have. You *might* even get a response from "Jeff^2", otherwise known as The Jeffs. Yes, they're the authors of Stars! and they frequent the group. They even pulled their beta-testing team for Stars! Supernova from the newsgroup posters!

Postings in the newsgroup will cover just about everything you could ever wish to know about the game, from strategies to technical data, calculations for all factors of the game and all sorts of other stuff.

Some of the people in the newsgroup are what might be called 'Luminaries' of the Stars! universe. Virtually anything they post there should be read by all players - whatever level you play at! A short time ago, I posted a request for names and the following list resulted. Watch for these authors - it's a long list (in no particular order), but they're all very knowledgable.

Jason Cawley (notorious for his views and renowned for his knowledge), Barry Kearns, David Moen, Chris Subich, John Stranart (author of Mapper), Art Lathrop (runs the Stars! Directory), Jeff 'Bluebear' Hudelson (for beginners especially), Bill Butler, Damon Domjan ('Orca'), William Butler, Ezequiel Martin, Scott Phelps, ElCabalero ('Mahrnskel'), Alex Hall, Alberto Barsella, Mike Lemon, Robert Lee, Leonard Dickens, Roger van Vugt ('Kornradius'), Walter Pullen, Scoop, Lex Young, Robert Ashcroft, Michael Martin, Thomas Tong, Jeff Keene, Stephen Posey (author of the spreadsheets), spike (the other one, not me!), Varn, Will Waggoner, 'martinl', Brian Price ('Omnivore')

Surprisingly, all of these people are incredibly approachable and willing to help. As good examples: I have always considered Jason Cawley as the head luminary and am now running a scenario game he designed. A very friendly chap, despite his immense knowledge. Art Lathrop recently edited a race for me to make it more usable. Chris Subich has helped me with a couple of game setups. John Stranart stays in touch regularly. Bluebear is in one of my games. You're getting the idea now? :o)

Welcome to the world of Stars! - it's a great place.

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