We've noticed in our play group that the Pegasus board tends to unbalance the game in favor of the humans. CIC and Batteries neuter basestars and raiders pretty hard and airlock makes discovering loyalty too easy - we're dealing with this seperately too - and no one use the engine room, but whatever.

So, I'm looking to test this rule: "Whenever a player takes an action on the Pegasus board, all skill checks for the rest of that turn are Reckless"

Thoughts?

Huh, interesting. On the one hand, the general consensus seems to be that Pegasus is overpowered solely because of CIC/Batteries and its ability to absorb damage (though executions are certainly a problem too, the airlock is a costly way of getting them), which is why most fixes involve increasing basestar damage or whatever. On the other hand, your solution appeals to me because it feels a lot more straightforward and intuitive than fiddling with attacks and executions and so on. Reasonably thematic, too.

Though you might want to limit it so that recklessness only applies to the crisis for that turn, or at least to skill checks other than the one for the Pegasus action (the airlock of course being the only location where it makes a difference, and a reckless green/orange check seems like it would almost never be a good idea)

AS far as a damage sink, we play where any damage dealt to Galactica/Pegasus is actaulyl chosen randomly (we roll a d12) so that we don't just assign damage to Pegasus.

I will agree with what you say about CIC and the MB, and Engine Room really makes a late game human win a little cheesy, but other than that I don't think Pegasus itself is all that dangerous. Perhaps your cylons need to be more sneaky so they don't get airlocked, or else reveal sooner and start hammering away at the humans.

Our biggest problem with executions is that killing the human makes the player auto-loyal, even though they're austentably becoming a new character. Our solution has been the following changes:

Pre-sleeper

After a human character who has been executed chooses their new character, they shuffle one of their You are not a Cylon cards into the Loyalty deck and draw a new card (Baltar draws 2)

Post Sleeper

Make a Post-Sleeper loyalty deck of 1 You are a Cylon and 1 You are not a Cylon card.

After a human character who has been executed chooses their new character, they shuffle one of their You are not a Cylon cards into the Loyalty deck and draw a new card (2 each for Baltar or Sharon)

This way, the new character is not automatically trustworthy, thus the power of the execution is ramped back, especailly if the Airlock check and that turn's crisis are also Reckless.

rowanalpha: Cylon speaking ... brig him out !!

Homerules are yours so you can play with them ... but anyway making the locations on pegasus useless is not the right way i think ... even we are better to send pilot to take care of whips rather than "roll a die and lose" but its your choice. remember that pegasus added a lot of nasty crisis cards into the crisis deck, and treachery cards, but i agree that destroying galactica is harder than before...

I have a question, can a revealed cylon be executed or send to brig ? location says "choose a character" ...

Rasiel said:

Explicitly counterindicated by the base rules, although they obviously don't mention execution. The unspoken meta-rule is that no effect can target a Cylon player unless it says it can.

An Infiltrating cylon could be executed or sent to the Brig (like a cylon leader that is infiltrating). A regular cylon could not.

Rasiel said:

I dont think that the changes make Pegasus useless (except Engine Room, which was already useless) but it makes these locations a harder decision to use. Right now, CIC and Main Batteries are no brainers, and nueter invasions badly. Rarely are their drawbacks even relevant.

rowanalpha said:

well, how often you execute people in a session? we only used that location one time, just because its expensive (1 skill check and that player restarts with no skill cards) and you will lose one moral in the case of a human. and especially when playing with new caprica, we found out, that moral (and population) couldn't be high enough for the humans (in the endgame)

rowanalpha said:

now you are really playing with the balance of the game......... with this rule, the chance of having two cylons in the pre-sleeper-phase is higher....

rowanalpha said:

do mean, that you now can have up to 3 cylons?!? (in a six player game) in that case, it would be really impossible to win as a human....

in our games it was hard enough to play as a human (i think that only about a quarter of all games has been won by humans)

rowanalpha said:

from my point of view, the game is hard enough for the humans..... maybe your cylons should strike harder

The issue is also partly to prevent the "strategic execution" option, (Executing the admiral at new caprica to be sure he doesn't screw the fleet, for instance). There are games where it comes executions come up, but it really doesn't make since that because Cain went out the airlock, Starbuck who showed up in her place is automatically not a cylon. Its a different character after all, just played by the same guy.

You're right, these changes do tilt the game in favor of the cylons, but pegasus itself swings the game hard in favor of the humans.