I have yet to play a single game of BSG but I've been put in charge of learning the rules and GM'ing our fist session tomorrow. We've decided to play with the Pegasus expansion because of the fundamental changes it makes to several of the core rules. Better to learn it the "right" way from the get-go instead of having to unlearn core rules later.

I do have a few quick questions:

1. Super Crisis cards. Due to the way the Ressurection Ship works with Pegasus, can a newly revealed or executed Cylon spend several turns in the hazard zone collecting Super Crisis cards? Though the executed Cylon does not draw a Super Crisis upon first moving to the Res Ship, can he/she remain there in later turns to use the action, collecting one or more?

2. Can a player nominate himself for President from the Administration space? I would assume so, nothing seems to indicate otherwise. Also, can a player decide to send himself to the Brig or where ever?

3. When a player is executed and forced to discard his Skill hand, can a revealed Cylon player choose to play "Sabotage"? Or not, as this is not a case of the player choosing to discard? What about when moving between ships? Can this result in a Sabotage?

4. There are several instances in the rulebooks where the word "may" is used, but it seems to indicate a definite course of action and not a choice. For instance, if a revealed Cylon receives the Sympathizer card, he may give it to another player. Do these instances indicate a choice? The Cylon player doesn't HAVE to pass the Sympathizer card? Or is it merely a case of poor wording?

I think that's all. I can't wait to play, the game looks great. There's a very good chance it'll become a favorite with my regular gaming group.

Thanks in advance!

You can stay in the ressurection ship area. You just get one skill card and spend time getting crisis cards that you could have used to do other things. Not that it's a bad thing, just don't spend the whole game there.

I'd say don't use the cylon leaders for a bit. Don't do New Caprica. Both add more complexity to the rules. Difficult enough just starting out.

Loyalty cards for revealed cylons are given to other people without revealing them. Same for if they become a cylon. Give all cards to one other player face down.

Thanks for the response.

Yeah, I found another post that detailed how the Resurrection Ship works and why it's not usually a good idea to linger there for too many turns.

Cylon Leaders will definitely NOT be part of our first game, nor will the Sympathetic Cylon; though I like the look of that mechanic better than the straight up Sympathizer, it's definitely more complicated.

Still trying to decide whether I'll mess with New Cap or stick with the Kobol objective. Might end up being moot. I'll be surprised if the humans do well our first time out of the gate.

1. You may in fact spend actions at the resurrection ship to draw more supercrises. However, with the Pegasus expansion, the supercrises are on average kinda crummy, so losing actions and skill card draws is perhaps not the best use of a revealed Cylon player's time.

2. Yes. I highly recommend it, after all, you can trust yourself, right?

3. I'd say yes. Similarly, when Lee is forced to discard at random, I'd allow Sabotage.

4. Yeah, the rulebook often uses the word 'may' when it should use 'must'.

Cheers. 30 mins and counting until my first game. Better go start setting up. Wish me luck!

Deek said:

Good luck! Though, I'd avoid looking at your loyalty card for too long.

Sinis said:

Heh, thanks. It went well, though we actually called the game just after the Sleeper phase on account of our President/Pilot realizing he had to be at a family BBQ.

Too bad, but the game was a foregone conclusion so no one cried foul. We decided to play with a Cylon Leader after all (me) as I really dislike both Sympathizer mechanics. I ended up with the weakest sympathetic agenda possible in a 4-player game ("Join the Colonials"), for all intents and purposes making me just another meatbag. Not a single failed skill check. Admiral Adama and Chief Tyrol were struggling to discard Skill cards to stay under 10 pretty much from start to finish. We didn't draw a single Cylon attack Crisis card prior to the Sleeper phase. Once the initial Cylon fleet placement was dealt with, space was quiet; so quiet that our President/Pilot had ample time to sit in his office collecting a buttload of Quorum cards, aided by a ton of surplus XOs and other nonsense. By the time Chief turned Cylon after the second jump, the situation was so pro-human that it would've been a minor mircale had he pulled off the win. In retrospect, it was a good scenario for our first game. It made for a nice, low anxiety learning experience ... but it was a little dull, to be honest.

I realize that most of our luck was just that, luck of the draw. However, are there any house rules we should consider, suggestions to guarantee a more exciting pace? Is it a good idea to ensure the Cylon attack cards are shuffled into the Crisis deck at regular intervals, for instance? Or is it best to leave everything to chance?

Despite an underwhelming first experience, the group is looking forward to our next BSG session. We play a lot of Arkham Horror, Ghost Stories, Shadows Over Camelot and other games in the same vein. We're well aware that the odd (bad) luckfest can result in a happy crappy cake walk (not to mention first turn devastation).

Deek said:

If it was a new box set then the Cylon attack card are in a block of ten cards together. If that deck is not shuffled very very well you get some odd extremes. We noticed this, not just on Cylon attacks either being present in vast numbers or totally absent, but also a run of three water crises and similar problems.

THe Destination deck can suffer like this as well. Both need extensive shuffling to try and randomise them up.

Oh, it was shuffled to death. I'm pretty OCD when it comes to shuffling brand new decks (I deal a deck into six different piles, shuffle each of those, combine them, shuffle, then do it all again). I scanned ahead to see what we would've run into moving toward the third jump and there were two back to back Cylon attack cards. We would've been swamped.

I almost wonder if it would be worth taking a Pandemic-ish approach to the Crisis deck. Separate out all the Cylon attack cards. Separate the remaining deck into individual piles numbering the total of Cylon attack cards. Add one random attack card to each pile, combine to create the Crisis deck (no additional shuffling). I dunno. That might take something away, making attacks too easy to predict, but at the same time it'll ensure a steady stream of Cylon ships. I might give it a try.

Also, playing Pegasus without New Caprica. Is it too easy for the humans? I prefer playing with the Kobol objective (at least for now), but is that too much to ask of the Cylons?

With Pegasus, there are 13 Cylon attack Crisis cards. If I deal out 13 separate piles from the remaining deck, I get no more than 7 cards per pile. I'm genuinely surprised we didn't see a single attack card prior to the Sleeper phase. Considering how well I shuffled prior to the first game, it really is a bit of an anomaly. I think I'll follow the same procedure for future games. Deal out 13 piles of 7 or less (this also has the added effect of shuffling the main deck). Add a random attack card. Quickly shuffle each pile. Combine all piles into a single deck. Then I'd give it a final, loose shuffle, maybe a few splits and a riffle or two. Seems to me that would guarantee a reasonable distribution, not taking into account any additional shuffles required by certain Crisis cards.

Compared to the amount of pre-game work that goes into a well-rounded Arkham Horror Mythos deck ...? No trouble at all.

We shuffle and encounter willy-nilly. We find that interspersed attack crises are often impotent; for example, if thirty-three shows up (one base-star, and no other cylon ships), and another attack crisis isn't drawn soon, the basestar is just going to get destroyed by the Main Batteries, or Pegasus CIC.

If you have shuffled the cards the way you say they should be well mixed. Some games are like that.

I always prefer to play Pegasus with the Kobol objective. New Caprica isnt so much difficult as it totally alters the game balance points, different things are more important to the base game as you are trying to do different things with different penalties. So for people used to the balance points of Kobol, its easy to make mistakes, small ones maybe but enough to slide the game away from you.

Many people have said that they prefer a Pandemic-like shuffle for their attack cards, so nothing wrong there.

The Cylon leader agendas are for the most part absolutely terrible. Most of them are well out of control of the Cylon leader's power, others are ridiculously easy, and the remaining ones completely unbalance the game. If you want to try alternate agendas, download the "Razor Cut" file you can see in my signature and check out the "Guess What's Coming to Dinner" variant contained within. It offers 10 new alternate agendas for Cylon leaders to use (though you may want to get a few more games under your belt first).

Thanks all.

We'll definitely give New Cap a shot at some point, but for now I'm happy with Kobol for the sake of simplicity and a shorter game. I only wonder if Kobol with Pegasus is an easy win for the humans, as Pegasus seems to slide the game in favor of the humans compared to the base game and there appears to be less time to run down resources compared to a game ending with the New Caprica/escape phase. I haven't played near enough games to make a determination, of course. Since so many people play Kobol w/ Pegasus, I have to assume it's relatively balanced compared to New Caprica.

Cheers, Bleached Lizard. I'll definitely take a look at your custom agendas for future consideration (you're right, we need more games before we can discuss agendas intelligently).

I'll be attempting a Pandemic-like Crisis preparation next time, with some additional post-prep shuffling to ensure it's not too predictable.

Unpredictable is good. We had a cylon found on turn 2. No cylon attacks before the sleeper phase. THen the next 4 or 5 draws were cylon attacks and the humans lost. Some games simply don't have a lot of cylon attacks. Lots of the agendas are odd ones. Once people know what they are they can become difficult to achieve. the skill of the cylon players is usually the indication of how the game goes.

Another note on Pandemic-like shuffling of attack crises: It can become problematic with mechanics like Launch Scout, Boomer's Recon and Laura Roslin's ability. If the human players are on top of their game, we usually devolve into launching scouts to avoid attack crises and tough skill checks. Similarly, Roslin will never flip two attack crises and be forced to pick one gaining the suspicion of the other players, and it will always be avoidable.

Just some things to consider if you're going to spread out attack crises.