Hopefully not too strange question

By radmod, in Battlestar Galactica

I let one of my players borrow my game, so I don't have the rules handy. Tonight I enforced the secrecy rules as much as possible with my group. Particularly, I made sure that a) a choice, without discussion, on a Crisis Card had to be made before showing the card and b) when given a choice between two cards (i.e. crisis/destination) the choice had to be made without discussion and you couldn't say what the other one was. NB: we were mostly newbies who didn't know what the cards were so we fudged secrecy some.

That got me thinking. Certainly, it cannot be that you don't show the crisis/destination card you have (unless a skill check), that you simply say what it was, can it? For example, when given a choice between -1 morale or -1 pop (if such a card exists) you simply say "alright, guys, we lose a pop" or "we lose a morale" without actually showing the card. Likewise, the Admiral says "well, we lose 2 fuel and jump 2 spaces." I can see a lot of cheating going on, despite 'trust-worthy' players.

The secrey rules only apply to cards themselves, not choices on a card. So for example, if you are Roslin and you use your ability to look at two cards from the top of the crisis deck you have to choose between them secretly and you cannot reveal what was on the card you didn't choose. However, if the card you DO choose has a choice on it ("President Chooses", or whatever) then you can (and should) reveal it to all players and discuss your options.

The secrecy rules aren't there to prevent you from discussing your options with your fellow players. When a choice comes up on a card, we always talk about it and people tend to go with the consensus, but whoever the card says makes the actual choice (e.g. Current Player).