BSG

Billytea, I really appreciate your tactical knowledge of this game and offering suggestions, but you spent three posts basically telling three other players what to do, when they have not asked for advice.

Um. No. I spent three posts offering suggestions. In each case a broad range of options. I neither expect to be the only one with an opinion, nor to have people agree all the time. (Hopefully some of the time.)

This is a team game. I don't think it's out of line to act like we're on the same team, and that does mean discussing plans with each other.

That said, clearly I have committed a horrendous faux pas by not asking for more advice than I did.

Not at all, no apologies necessary. First, I'm the only one who's said anything, and frankly what I'm suggesting is more out of line with previous game plays than the way you've been doing it. For myself, I'm emphatically not making any comment on whether you're following some standard of etiquette. I encourage talking - even briefly - about one's plans, simply because (as noted) this is a team game. I think it's more fun (and more effective) to play it that way.

All that said: you folks seem to be pushing for a do-over. I'm used to a "no take backs" culture--I declared an action, I should stick with it, even if I forgot something.

I don't think anyone's asking for a do-over. I'm of the opinion that any order in bold is final. (Well, unless it's illegal, and just occasionally where the player's a newbie and missed an unambiguous rules issue.)

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BSG

Wow, it's just like the show. This is great.

:: pops popcorn ::

Aw crap, I gotta GM this thing. Dang it. How can you drive and watch at the same time??

Um. Ok.

DQ, Your move has been recorded, your action has not, since you asked for advice. No undo's. When asking advice, minds can be changed. I'll take that grenade as a newbie GM. I agree, no undo's unless playing stickball in the street and the ball goes down the storm sewer.

and I'm not sure I want a character who's got a better chance than most to be a Cylon to sit there with all the Yellow cards in hand.

This is a very good observation. When I played Boomer, it was rather frustrating because everyone assumed I was a Cylon. Miracle of Miracles I wasn't, but doesn't change one of the few well deserved paranoia in the game.

Forgive bt, for he's been locked in GM land for 3 games. He has excellent insight, but maybe a bit over-exuberant.

DQ, I observed that your fast action was very in character. Loved it. So, since you are sticking to your guns, we are back in action.

Move to Weapons Control. Fire on one of the basestars.

OK, first things first, before I forget, you interrupted yourself, and play a P4, so to do damage we need to roll a 5-8, but with the SP card, it makes it, basically 3-8 to damage. Here we go. Random dice roll is: 8+2!

Holy Frak! That's mega hit. Too bad it's not a d20 type of game where you get double damage for a critical roll. Oh well. Too bad. Now to figure out what damage you did. Hangar Disabled!

Sweet! Well, that's one less mother whale pumping out puppies.

Nice shooting Tex! Guess you aimed in between the two blury ones. Guess the damage to your booze stash really pissed you off.

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BSG

Crisis card time. Yes, after all that touchy-feeley-lovey-dovey stuff, it's time to get down to business. As a player, I hated these things. But as GM, I'm starting to like them. It's like cooking, and looking around the kitchen to see what I can put in the soup. OK, here we go.

Water Shortage (a)
Presidents Choice
Details to follow in the e-mail. I'll text Laga.

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BSG

I'm not sure I want a character who's got a better chance than most to be a Cylon to sit there with all the Yellow cards in hand.

Fair comment, and a discussion worth having. I will offer in my own defence:

1. I am more likely than anyone else to wind up being a Toaster; but I'm still more likely to remain human than not. Right now, of course, I'm as likely to be human as anyone.

2. For my own credentials, on my turn I scouted twice (postponinng increasing my own hand), and twice left a card with a jump icon on top. If I were a Cylon, I could've buried one or both of them, and no one would be any the wiser.

3. I agree, it's a worry to have any resource largely under the control of just one player. That's why I put myself forward for this gig. At the moment, our Politics supply is largely controlled by Zarek (whom I trust, but still). If I draw some Politics too, it spreads it out over more of the fleet and reduces our concentration risk.

It's fair to be cautious, which leads to another suggestion: XOs are good, but if there's any doubt about people's loyalties, don't XO the person directly after you. Doing so gives them three actions in a row. If they're a Cylon, that can easily lead to mayhem and wacky hijinks.

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BSG

I texted Laga. She doesn't have internet access quite yet. She will be at the library tomorrow around noon, board time, to use their computers. So, let's debate away so she can get good counsel on the choice.

I will make the following board observations. Food is actually +1 from the starting point. Current Player, Tigh, has 4 cards, so tossing 3 of them would be significant. President has 7 cards, so 2 less would be less of an impact.

Now. Discuss!

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BSG

I vote for saving the cards. Food's looking good, we can afford to lose 1; losing 5 cards would put a dent in our ability to meet more serious challenges.

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BSG

Obviously, it depends on the card values that our noble leaders hold, but, at this point, I'm leaning toward losing the food and keeping cards.

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BSG "That's it, take that ya motherfrakkin' Toasters! And you owe my wife a new negligee! There ain't a Victoria's Secret out here in space, ya know!"

Re: the crisis: I'll also note that if I lose three of my four cards, I'll lose my fourth card at the start of the next turn, due to Tigh's weakness. Glug glug glug. Mr. President, please take the Admiral's, erm... need for additional resources into account when you make your decision.

BTW, with all this talk of pirates: I'm doing a BSG rewatch, and we had several weeks ago nicknamed Tigh "Salty." I am seeing the increasing appropriateness of this name.

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bsg On an entirely different note:

This spreadsheet omnis and BT has... this is an excel sheet, yes? Is there any weird colors or graphicness or is it a pretty straightforward spreadsheet? Is this where the crisis card text comes from or do you have this in a separate text file?

Why I ask: two of the people I play this game with IRL are blind. We've brailled the skill cards (L1EO for Leadership 1 Executive Order) and the loyalty cards, but obviously the crisis and quorum cards have way too much text to recreate in braille. While we can play as is, it means the blind players can't be the President (they need to know what the Quorum cards say) and can't be Roslin or Boomer or scout the Crisis Deck because they can't secretly look at the cards--they need someone to read them to them.

They often keep their laptops with them for gaming, and have put the free rules on their computer, and I've sent them the BSG game skill card descriptions, etc. from the earlier game, so they have the rules text they need, and can access them while playing. Screenreader software does the rest of the work.

If the stuff you have is fairly plain texty, it's probably screenreader friendly. Do you think it would be, and would you be willing me to send me the files so I can send them to my friends?

If the spreadsheet is easy to use, they might be able to track the whole game that way, which would be awesome. Thanks.

PS: Also, do you have similar materials for Pegasus?

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bsg

It's an OpenOffice workbook. It has many tabs, buttons, and a ton of macros. I'm not sure how friendly it would be for a blind person to navigate. Visually impaired, maybe (aka "leagally blind"). But for a text to voice type of application, I think it would be challenging.

I'm not sure it's source. I'll let bt fill in those details.

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