As a revealed Cycle player, can you choose the Resurrection Ship action even if you don't have a Super Crisis Card, (to use the ability to give your unrevealed Loyalty Cards to another player)?

We played last night, and I was the Sympathizer-turned Cyclon. I had an unrevealed Loyalty card that I wanted to give to another human player (to seed some distrust), but the gaming group decided that since I was the Sympathizer and didn't have a Super Crisis card to discard (to draw a new one), then I couldn't use the Resurrection Ship location at all – even for the second part of the action’s text.

Any help is appreciated on this. Is there any official ruling? I was pretty outnumbered.

Thanks,

Nic

I have a rules question:

As a revealed Cycle player, can you choose the Resurrection Ship action even if you don't have a Super Crisis Card, (to use the ability to give your unrevealed Loyalty Cards to another player)?

We played last night, and I was the Sympathizer-turned Cyclon. I had an unrevealed Loyalty card that I wanted to give to another human player (to seed some distrust), but the gaming group decided that since I was the Sympathizer and didn't have a Super Crisis card to discard (to draw a new one), then I couldn't use the Resurrection Ship location at all – even for the second part of the action’s text.

Thanks!

Mez

Also, is there any official ruling on this? I checked the FAQ, but didn't see anything. I think its pretty obvious that you CAN use the location, but again, I was vastly outnumbered by the rest of the group. Thanks - Mez

As far as I'm concerned you could have passed on your cards. The location has two parts to it, with a specific order in which you must act. When you activate the location, you check each action in turn until you have performed them all. Since you had no Super Crisis card, you skipped the first action, but should still have been able to pass off a card (provided your jump was 7 or less).

Mezmaron said:

You can use the Resurrection ship to hand out your spare loyalty cards.

Having no supercrisis cards has nothing to do with whether or not you can use the resurrection ship.

The only location so-called "Sympathizer Cylons" are barred from using is the Cylon Fleet.

The Ressurection Ship location says "You may discard your Super Crisis card..." So discarding it is optional. Whether or not you can, or want to discard a Super Crisis card has nothing to do with whether you can use that location, as it isn't mandatory.

Nothing in the text requires you to have a Super Crisis card.

So you could have passed off your loyalty cards.

Also, what happens in a four player game and you are cylon that receives a symperthiser card in the sleeper phase?

You would not be able to give your "you are a Cylon" card to another player, thus you would be a pretty poor cylon and the humans should win, with three of them working together and they would not have to deal with a supercrisis card.

I would say that you can use the Ressurection ship to give your card to another player

If you had already revealed yourself, you are right, you wouldn't be able to give your card to anyone else and would be all alone.

However, instead of making a rule to remove penalties, I think you should just try to stay hidden as a Cylon until after the Sleeper phase. If you reveal yourself beforehand, you run a risk of getting the sympathizer card and being all alone.

I see the rule as forcing the Cylons to stay hidden for a while at least. If you make a house rule, then suddenly there is even less incentive to stay hidden than there otherwise would be.

So I think the rules are fine as they are now.

It's just my hazy memory - but doesn't the cylon give the Sympathizer card to a person he chooses?

Mike said:

That would depend on whether they were a revealed cylon or not. If they were already revealed, then they would give the sympathiser card to another player as stated on the card. It is where they are unrevealed that it gets interesting.

If they were unrevealed, then they would follow the Sympathiser card as normal, either go to the brig if any of the dials are in the red and continue playing as they were with the option to reveal themselves as a full Cylon in a later turn or they move to the Resurrection Ship and start playing as a cylon. However they would not get a super crisis card and if they want to bring in another cylon, give their "You are a Cylon" card to another player. It seems a bit odd, because the character, playing as a Cylon for the entire game, suddenly becomes only "Half Cylon"

Here's how my group plays it (right ot wrong)

If a Revealed Cylon receives the Sympathizer card he passes it on per the instructions on the card.

If a Un-Revealed Cylon receives the Sympathizer card and is sent to the Resurrection Ship he has two choices...

1. Use the Resurrection Ship to pass his "You Are A Cylon" card to another player at some point.

OR

2. Play as a sympathizer (Cylon with limitations) and reveal himself at a point of his choosing thereby gaining his Super Crisis Card and ability to use the Cylon Fleet location.

UhOh said:

Why would anybody do this? Removing a cylon player from the game (even if it's "only" a half-cylon) is suicidal and very, very stupid for the cylons. A super crisis card is not THAT good to justify such a sacrifice.

If the game has progressed to a point that I can beat everyone else on my own then I do it. Why would I pass the card and share the victory with others?

Mike said:

This is also incorrect.

The only way to use the second loyalty card is to pass it on to another player.

The rules clearly state that a revealed Cylon, can only activate his location as his action - no other actions allowed.

azuredarkness said:

That's why I included "this is how my group plays (right or wrong)". The problem is there is ambiguity in the rules. On one page it states that a player with a "You Are A Cylon" card may reveal and on another it states you may not perform other actions. It does not say you have to be on Colonial One or Galactica to reveal. It then goes on to list the actions you can't perform but does not include revealing in the list. Is the "Revealed Cylon" not a player?

So we decided that if the Sympathizer has a Cylon card down they can use it to become a full fledged Cylon if they like. If you've got two "You Are A Cylon" you can only use one. Its a house rule and that's why I prefaced it that way.

Playing the whole first half of the game as a Cylon and then drawing that Sympathizer card and getting neutered blows. Plus if the Sympathizer comes out on the human side they can still reveal themselves as a Cylon and gain all the abilities thereof.