Simon: Captain's a good fighter, he must know how to handle a sword. Zoe: I think he knows which end to hold.

'Shindig'


Gaming 1: You are likely to be eaten by a grue

A thread for the discussion of games: board, LARP, MMORPG, video, tabletop RPG, game theory etc. etc. and all attendant news, developments and ancillary subjects thereof, as well as coordinating/scheduling games either online or IRL. All are welcome to chime in, talk about their favorite games or learn about gaming of any sort.

PLEASE TO WHITEFONT SPOILERS for video games, RPG modules or anything for which foreknowledge of events might lessen one's enjoyment of whatever gaming experience.


megan walker - Nov 15, 2010 1:27:16 pm PST #8067 of 26134
"What kind of magical sunshine and lollipop world do you live in? Because you need to be medicated."-SFist

BSG

FYI, I've sent everyone playing the upcoming game the survey link for picking a character and choosing when we'll be starting after the Thanksgiving weekend. You don't need to rush, but "first-come, first-served" will be the rule for any tiebreakers.


Laga - Nov 15, 2010 3:03:51 pm PST #8068 of 26134
You should know I'm a big deal in the Resistance.

Yay, survey! Very shiny. I'm still choosing from the pool of characters I haven't played yet and three of the four of them are pilots.


billytea - Nov 15, 2010 3:14:54 pm PST #8069 of 26134
You were a wrong baby who grew up wrong. The wrong kind of wrong. It's better you hear it from a friend.

That reminds me - Fantasy Flight have announced a second expansion, Battlestar Galactica: Exodus. [link] Because BSG wasn't complicated enough with just Pegasus.

New features:

Conflicted Loyalties: New loyalty cards that give not-a-Cylons more to do than just be good team players, and the Final Five.

The Cylon Fleet: More dogfights! A pursuit track counts down to the Cylons finding the fleet. The pilots now have a title of their own; CAG joins Admiral and President.

The Ionian Nebula: NPCs like Romo Lampkin and Billy Keikeya are added to the game.


megan walker - Nov 15, 2010 4:01:03 pm PST #8070 of 26134
"What kind of magical sunshine and lollipop world do you live in? Because you need to be medicated."-SFist

BSG

Note: the character survey lists all the abilities and the card draw of each character, so don't feel you have to look them up beforehand.


megan walker - Nov 15, 2010 4:03:44 pm PST #8071 of 26134
"What kind of magical sunshine and lollipop world do you live in? Because you need to be medicated."-SFist

Romo Lampkin

Who the hell is that?

I like the idea of having a CAG.

BTW, how many times here have the President and/or Admiral turned out to be cylons?


billytea - Nov 15, 2010 4:11:57 pm PST #8072 of 26134
You were a wrong baby who grew up wrong. The wrong kind of wrong. It's better you hear it from a friend.

Who the hell is that?

That's the lawyer who defended Gaius Baltar, most hated man in the Fleet.

I've whitefonted just in case. Refers to events at the end of Season 3.

BTW, how many times here have the President and/or Admiral turned out to be cylons?

Game 1: President Roslin became a Cylon in the Sleeper Phase.
Game 2: Both clean, the toasters were B.J. and the Bear Apollo and the Chief.
Game 3: President Zarek was a Cylon from the start.
Game 4: The Cylon contingent was formed by the two pilots, Apollo and Boomer.

The President has a 50/50 chrome ratio. So far, the Admiral has always been human (in Tigh's case, all too human).


megan walker - Nov 15, 2010 4:16:52 pm PST #8073 of 26134
"What kind of magical sunshine and lollipop world do you live in? Because you need to be medicated."-SFist

Ah, right, Badger/Sterling.

I can't imagine the Prez being against the humans from the start. That's rough.


billytea - Nov 15, 2010 5:06:00 pm PST #8074 of 26134
You were a wrong baby who grew up wrong. The wrong kind of wrong. It's better you hear it from a friend.

I can't imagine the Prez being against the humans from the start. That's rough.

A Cylon President is particularly good at hurting Food - that game we just finished likely would've ended a lot faster if Zarek had been a Cylon. However, once they've tipped their hand, they'll usually lose the Presidency fairly quickly. They also need to build up the Quorum hand before they can do much damage, and eventually that'll be a plus for the humans.

A Cylon Admiral is bad news if your Fuel is low, and they can cause trouble just by picking slow jumps. It's less obvious too, since no one can be sure whether the other choice wasn't worse. They may keep the title for a while.

I think the Admiral might be more dangerous from the start. They can be working against humanity from the very first jump. A Cylon President can make quite a mess at some stage, but whether it's sooner or later probably doesn't matter too much.

I had a BGG game in which Admiral Tigh was a Cylon from the outset. We wanted a human sympathiser of course, so we'd got Morale into the Red. Just before the jump into the Sleeper Phase, I gave Tigh an XO. He used his first action to take the Presidency, and his second action to make an Inspirational Speech to try and push Morale back up. It failed, but that turn's Crisis Card jumped the Fleet, and he chose a bad Fuel destination. We spent the rest of the game desperately trying to get the titles back off him, then defending Fuel and Morale, both of which hit 1 at one stage. Great use of both the Presidency and the Admiralty to try and screw us over.


Volans - Nov 16, 2010 3:45:21 am PST #8075 of 26134
move out and draw fire

Yeah, they should've just named him Badger Crowley.


megan walker - Nov 19, 2010 7:59:46 pm PST #8076 of 26134
"What kind of magical sunshine and lollipop world do you live in? Because you need to be medicated."-SFist

BSG

Well, the results are in!

Following the survey tiebreaker rules, we get this character selection, which gives 4 first choices and 1 third choice:
William Adama: 3 Leadership (green), 2 Tactics (purple)
Helo: 2 Leadership (green), 2 Tactics (purple), 1 Piloting (red)
Baltar: 1 Engineering (blue), 1 Leadership (green), 2 Politics (yellow)
Starbuck: 1 Engineering (blue) or Leadership (green), 2 Tactics (purple), 2 Piloting (red)
Chief: 2 Engineering (blue), 2 Leadership (green), 1 Politics (yellow)

Adama would start as Admiral and Baltar as President.

Total draw for this group would be 3 (or 4) blue, 3 yellow, 3 red, 6 purple, (8 or) 9 green. Is that okay with everyone? I think it's a pretty good balance.

Note: Starbuck was the most popular character, with 4 votes, then Adama with 3, although Adama was the one with 2 first-choice votes. No one picked Tigh, Boomer, or Zarek as any of their choices.