BSG

With the fifth outing of the Battlestar Buffistica concluded, I'm offering to go back to moderating for game number six (assuming there's still sufficient interest). I have a proposal for this game: now that we've had some experience with the base game, I'm willing to try running a game including the Pegasus expansion.

Including Pegasus means some increase in complexity. Here's what it adds:

New Characters, Locations (including Pegasus itself), Crisis Cards, Super Crises, Destinations, Quorum Cards. These mostly don't make things more complex, just add some more variety.

New skill cards. These add a little complexity (as well as variety). There are now interrupts which can turn a skill check Reckless - it becomes easier to pass, but there may be consequences. There's also an entirely new category of skill card - Treachery.

Executions. Just what it sounds like. Characters can die during the game. (There's no player elimination - if a human character is executed, the player chooses a new character.) Vote Roslin/Airlock in '12!

Cylon Leaders. Cylons with their own agenda. They may favour either team, and have other conditions they want to fulfill as well.

New Caprica. This is the biggest jump in complexity. It changes victory conditions substantially - instead of heading to Kobol, the fleet stops at New Caprica after 7 Distance. They need to survive under the Cylon occupation (with a new deck of Crisis Cards) until Galactica's return, and then need to evacuate enough ships and personnel to be able to jump away safely.

Rule changes. Some locations, cards and rules have undergone some changes. (For instance, there's now a hand limit on Quorum cards, just like skill cards.) These are generally minor.

Here's the offer. I intend to run a Pegasus game. It will not include New Caprica - I think it's too much of a jump in difficulty. I'd also prefer to keep Cylon leaders out, for the same reason. However, if seven people want to play, we'll include one. All other new rules are in. If we wind up with six players, I will run the official no-sympathiser variant - the game will be 4 humans vs 2 Cylons, with some handicaps to balance the odds. I have one house rule, concerning a new character, Helena Cain (if she's chosen).

Everyone with an interest is welcome. This includes newbies and near-newbies. Bear in mind that the base game is already fairly involved, and Pegasus more so; but if you feel up to the challenge, rest assured that there's plenty of support. There's a hard limit of 7 on the number of players, first in best dressed.

Who's interested?

I'm in, but I'll happily cede my place to a new player if there's more than seven people interested.

I am!

BSG

Ah, I completely underestimated how long it would have taken the fleet to jump again. I think if Starbuck and I had decided to keep moving the Centurions, we could have pulled off a Cylon victory.

Still, good game. Thank you Megan, for running it.

I have to say, I was very disappointed to discover I was a Cylon in the Sleeper phase, but I made the best of it. Got some gleefull cackles out of tricking everyone into thinking I really was human after all, but I ended up trying to be too clever in the end and shot myself in the foot. I should have just revealed immediately after failing to help with the prior crisis. (I would have spiked it, but Starbuck had stolen the only card I had that would have counted negative on her previous turn.)

But all in all, I had fun. I'd be interested in playing in the next game, but as before, I'll bow out in favor of someone who hasn't had as many oppurtunities.

BSG

Hee, yeah, I think it was pretty close up there at the end. And you guys ended up with two on the track, so we could only have gone against one at a time.

I had Starbuck pegged (unlucky in how Destiny played so I could do the math pretty quickly, but only I could, because I also drew the offending colors, so I was the other viable suspect, and to point the finger would have made me look suspicious!) but I really was convinced Baltar wasn't, for a while. To the point where when I could have brigged someone, I was thinking about brigging Helo! But in the end, I decided that Baltar didn't lie about the Admiral, but he could have told the truth as a Cylon, so I didn't move against Helo. Lucky!

I played a couple of things wrong, like early on where I didn't really understand the benefit of DE, so I held it back thinking I could use it if we failed. But it was a check that took green, so I should have just played it because it was a higher value card than the two points it could recover after the fact. Valuable when I couldn't use the color, but it was a mistake to play it that way.

I think the Sleeper element makes it really interesting.

And yeah, I had to vent to the GM! I couldn't table talk with my teammates, of course, but I had to talk to someone about my suspicions!

BSG

Ah, I completely underestimated how long it would have taken the fleet to jump again. I think if Starbuck and I had decided to keep moving the Centurions, we could have pulled off a Cylon victory.

As it turned out, if Starbuck had activated them on turn 7.3, there were two Heavy activations on offer we'd have faced before your next turn. Could not have been predicted of course, but that would indeed have given you the win if we hadn't offed both Centurions within two turns. I held an Authorisation of Brutal Force, which could kill off one of them, but whether we could've taken out the other one in time is very much an open question.

I felt for you turning Cylon like that. You'd made such an effort for us in the first half. I really felt this game that we humans had a lot of breaks go our way, and it was still fairly tight at the end. Kudos to everyone - I think everyone played a good game. Right there at the end, the Cylons had to choose between the Centurions, the basestar attack and the Crisis Deck, and though your choice didn't pan out, it's what I would've chosen too.

And yeah, I had to vent to the GM! I couldn't table talk with my teammates, of course, but I had to talk to someone about my suspicions!

Hee. One of the great advantages to having a GM, there's an outlet for the ventage.

I played a couple of things wrong, like early on where I didn't really understand the benefit of DE, so I held it back thinking I could use it if we failed. But it was a check that took green, so I should have just played it because it was a higher value card than the two points it could recover after the fact. Valuable when I couldn't use the color, but it was a mistake to play it that way.

That can still be a sensible choice. It's worth more in the check, but sometimes there's a chance that you won't need it at all; you thus have a chance at saving it for next time, and can still probably salvage the situation if it's needed after all. On Baltar's Super Crisis too, I deliberately held one back to try and goad Baltar into playing a 5-value card (if he had one).

BSG

Yeah, we ended up losing that check only by three points, so even though I had the CO's in to play the DE if needed, it ended up being one point short of successful even if I had played it as a DE. So if I'd played it as a point card, we would have passed.

BSG

I feel I must note at this point that the number of times multiple humans were holding back a DE just in case was pretty high. You all had a lot of green.

BSG

I feel I must note at this point that the number of times multiple humans were holding back a DE just in case was pretty high. You all had a lot of green.

Yep, after the Cylons revealed (the two characters with the lowest Leadership draw), 47% of our regular card draw was Green. That's a huge amount in just one colour.

BSG

Can I just say how frustrating it is, as a Cylon, when there's that much Green among Team Human? "Yes, they finally failed a check! Crap. Someone played a DE. Yes, we got them this time! Frak, another DE!" Way to break a homocidal robot's heart.

Actually, I can't recall if we ever got you guys to fail a check you were actually attempting to pass.

I know we failed at least one pre-Sleeper check where Starbuck had offered help, and then played no cards, shortly before we realized she was a Cylon.

I felt for you turning Cylon like that. You'd made such an effort for us in the first half.

I realize it would be impossible (or at least incredibly messy) to do logistically, but my one real complaint about the game rules is that I wish there was some way loyalty cards were setup with "You are human" and "You may be a Cylon." and everyone gets more loyalty cards, but it takes two "You may be a Cylon" cards to actually be a Cylon. That way it's a bit less of a shock in the sleeper phase.

I realize, the game rules suggest that even human players shouldn't do their absolute best pre-sleeper phase, in case they become a Cylon, but I don't really like the idea of the humans intentionally handicapping themselves "just in case."