Just in case anyone is interested, Myself and a few others have chucked together some additional character cards as a sort of "fan made free expansion"

Characters included are

Cally , Doc Cottle , Gaeta , Cain , Gina Invierre (aka pegasus six), Anders, Kat, Tory, Billy, Dualla and Kendra (From Razor).

Feel free to download and send me feedback, either by the forum or my email included with the download.

Enjoy

Low rez version (check out 1st)

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/file/info/37712

high rez version (24meg, high quality images)

http://uploading.com/files/X1H7G8J0/BSGalternatecharactersheetsv3.5%20(HIgh%20rez ).doc.html

I'm having problems downloading the high res version - page won't load.

Just downloaded cards ( since BGG is down). Overall I think they look great. I still need to playtest them. I would change two characters skill abilties.

Samuel T. Anders

he is a much better tactician than fighter pilot. So.....

2 Leadership, 2 Tactics, 1 Piloting / Tactics

Felix Gaeta

I know he was assistant to president on New Caprica, but his ability to work and fix bridge equipment is much better than his policical career.

2 Tactics, 2 Engineering, 1 Politics / leadership

one final observation. This boardgame is based on season 1 of Battlestar Galactica. some of these characters and/ or their abilties were not seen until later seasons. Seems kinda out of place for the time period of the game.

Crashdown would be a good pilot character for this time period instead of Anders. Hmmm.... Migt have to work on that.

All in all , great job. keep the ideas flowing

One other observation

Dualla is the one character that is ALMOST always not a cylon. Especially in larger games.

Dualla seem to be a great candidate for president. Very little worry that She is a Cylon. If it can be proven early enough in the gameThen she should be elected president.....Just to be sure that the Presidental office is not held be a cylon. Manipulating the admiral card to her would also be great if it can be pulled off. Then Both Titles are secure in a Human's protection.

Technician Gina Inviere

This character seems a little too powerful.

The ability to make one person play cards face up everytime seems alittle too powerful! It is a mini investigating committee every turn for FREE. Plus see has the abilty to " Be Intimate" with every character? This little cylon gets around May if she picked a player at the begining of the game and only she was able to look at ONE skill card played. Or if she was able to look at all of one person's skill cards played on "Gina's" turn That might be better.

Her Negative doesn't exactly fit in with the show. She wasn't suspected at all of being a Cylon. Also someone else already has this negative. It would be nice to have something original.

Not sure what would be a fitting Negative replacement.

I think an interesting negative ability would be to really hammer her when she goes into the brig. So maybe have to discard her hand, lose her advantages, and drops to only drawing one card per turn while in the brig.

I thought maybe instead of discarding her whole hand, you discard one each turn, to represent her being broken, but that seems too complicated.

While we are on this subject...

Does anyone know if there will be any future expansions on the game. Seems to me that leaving Kobol as a game req. for winning is too easy (though easier said than done at times).

I also think it's great that fan add ons take place here. A little variety in a game never hurt anyone (much)

As someone said, this is (mainly) about Season 1 - there will be an expansion.

though the "Caprica Survivers" isn't Season 1

...Idless

ANDERS

Resistance Leader - interesting power, not too broken

Pro Athlete - while on paper seems like a weaker version of starbucks passive power, this is insanely powerful (also name doesn't fit)

Hears Mysterious Music - weak disadvantage (also name doesn't fit)

BILLY

Attache - Crazy powerful...it breaks the curve on card drawing. To make matters worse, with his card draws he never needs to take an action that isn't consolidate power or executive action

Sacrifice - holy ******* **** powerful.

Innocent - this makes sense, and in theory could be a big disadvantage, however, with his card sets and powers, any centurion problem is better handled with him giving the character in the armory an EO then give the president a quorum card so he can better draw brutal force

CAIN

Inspires loyalty - interesting power

Ruthless - This is a poor man's zerrick power. More often then not you'll be losing a pop to raise something else, however losing a civie ship could result in losing TWO commodities and if it does not you're making it more likely to draw a double commoditie for a cylon fleet to destroy. Also, why does destroying a civvie ship result in fixing damaged spaces on galactica.

Arrogant - that's a nasty disadvantage. (when combined with her inability to be thrown in the brig, the ability to destroy a civilian ship, and now her crippling of EO she basicaly better be a ******* cylon because other wise shes cancer to the humans)

CALLY

First thoughts: I dont remember the Chiefs draws for engineering, but evidently she either is as good, or better an enginer than him

Team Player - I RESPECTFULLY DISAGREE

Vengeful - I RESPECTFULLY DISAGREE

Speaks her Mind - I RESPECTFULLY DISAGREE

DOC COTTLE

First thoughts: I dont remember the Chiefs draws for engineering, but evidently he either is as good, or better an enginer than him

Medical Officer - useless power, you're better off using an executive order, then that person can leave sick bay and take an action.

Emergency Action - Makes sense, interesting power

Cantankerous - so its worse than Adama's flaw?

DEE

Trusted - Bad mojo. the game should add MORE suspicion not reduce it

Communications Expert - Makes sense, intersting power

Bridge Officer - Thats an ugly disadvantage, but makes sense

(were it not for her passive power i would say this is the most balanced character in the lot)

FELIX

Scientific Training - Interesting, but it can really break the card curve.

FTL Expert - No. no. no. Any daily that **** with the jump track is awful. If they dont use the power on turn 1, first action the player is a cylon...there is no reason to ever not do it.

Self Preservation - interesting power

GINA

Intimate Knowledge - /CRY

Security Access Code - ugly

Suspicious - same as baltar, more likely to win

KAT

Brash - when you launch yourself in a viper you don't normally get to take an action, you can only move...regardless, this is a problematic power as so long as you're willing to sluff a card you can take 2 actions every turn...combine with EO and I weep. (EDIT, just read her disadvantage, which may curb people from trying to abuse the launching thing...however, if i were a cylon id do it all day long as no human can argue against extra actions, and if i crash im hurting the humans)

Determined - Great power, but makes sense for a daily.

Stim Junkie - That's pretty big disadvantage.

KENDRA

Efficent Officer - ZOMG

Desperate Measures - Thats huge. also, with her passive power, going to sick bay is a trivial matter

Razor - big disadvantage, not sure about the name.

TORY

Political Experience - That's nuts. If you're human you're breaking the quorum draw curve, if your a cylon you can be taking out of play cards like arrest order and presidential pardon (until you become president)

Backup Plan - No reeason she shouldn't be president, her power is insano

Conflicted - could be a problem, but depending on your hand it might never gome up (keep in mind you're only drawning 3 cards a turn, because you'd be out of your mind not too)

Something to keep in mind with these home brew characters weren't balanced with the line of succession in mind. Cancer Victim and Husker have more crippling disabilities and less spectacular powers because they start off as admiral and president for instance.

More importantly though: I think its great that you and your friends had a fun time coming up with new characters, but these are crazy unbalanced and are a great reminder to people why we should stand by and let Corey do his ******* job...it also reinforces my belief that the game is perfectly balanced and an expansion should be killed in the cradle as soon as possible, and just develop a different BSG game (trust me we all will buy whatever you put out because we're junkies)

MORAL OF THE STORY: leave BSG game design to fantasy flight

Hi,

First off I just want to say that I think it's awesome that you've created these extra characters. Some of them have really cool powers and abilities that I'm interested in trying out next time I play with my friends. I have a few suggestions that I thought I'd share:

Anders: personally, I think he's more of a tactician than a leader and he doesn't have nearly as much pilot experience as the others, so I'd consider giving him 1 leadership, 3 tactics and 1 piloting.

Billy: I don't think Billy is much of a 'leader' necessarily, I think he's probably more of a support character. While he does work for the president, I think he's no more a leader than dualla or gaeta (although I guess for game purposes the political characters could use another body).

I like his sacrifice ability in concept, but the ability to simply discard the character and take a new one doesn't seem too useful to me (unless you're a cylon and want to switch out for someone with better cards). Maybe instead, he could sacrifice himself to prevent one population loss?

Major "Doc" Cottle: I don't think the title Major should be included in his character sheet name (even though they refer to him as a major once or twice, I think his title as Doctor is more relevant). I would just refer to him as "Doc" Cottle.

Dualla: Her once per game power isn't quite powerful enough compared to say Baltar's. I think maybe she should be able to remove the civilian ships from the board (perhaps giving the ships FTL coordinates?) or allow up to 6 to move 2 spaces each? Since it can only be done once, it should have some impact and one adjacent space probably won't be THAT useful.

Gaeta: Gaeta has access to four different skill sets, which makes him unbalanced and a pretty dangerous cylon. I think he shouldn't have access to tactics and instead just have leadership, engineering and politics.

Inviere: Her normal ability is fairly powerful, if the group suspects one person of being a cylon, she could just use her ability every turn which could get annoying. Maybe she should have to discard a card to use that ability. Also, since this is an alternate BSG universe where she isn't necessarily a Six, I don't think she should have the politics ability. I think she should have 2 engineering, 2 tactics and 1 additional engineering/leadership.

Kat: Her disadvantage isn't that bad, I think the die roll should be harder to make, perhaps 4 or less and on a 1 her viper is destroyed.

Tory: Small typo in her disability; should read: "discard two skill cards" instead of "card"

Chain of Command:

Admiral: I think Kat should be beneath Boomer since she's a relatively new pilot and doesn't have a military background.

President: I think Apollo should probably be higher than Billy or Tory since they're only aides to the president (which in my opinion does not make them more qualified than someone older and more experienced).

These are just my suggestions, overall I think you've done a great job and I really like a lot of the abilities that the new characters have. I'm going to print these out before my next game and throw them into the mix. I understand the need for more political leaders (with the sudden influx of support characters) but I think that you should consider making Billy and Tory support since they were never really leaders in the same sense as Baltar, Tom Zarek or Roslin.

-J

Ok guys, thanks for the feedback. I hardly ever check this site, the baordgame geek forum is where i hang out.

Anyways, some of your feedback will be taken on board for the 4 edition of these character cards. I don't have time at the moment to address it all. What I will do is collate all the data from email, from here and from BGG and work on a 4th edition around February.

Oh and Melonball, . If you don't like the cards, thats fine, dont use them.

Your feedback however was childish and immature. I will not be paying any attention to it.

ithkrall said:

No harm no foul.

I'm sorry if I offended you, and feel free to disregard my comments.

You asked for feed back and I gave my gut reaction as I read through each power, I'm sorry it wasn't what you wanted.

However, if you really are doing a version 4 you need to reevaluate every single card card as they are woefully out of balance.

Your opinion is not matched by anyone else who has contacted me melonball.

Most feedback has been, "oh, tweak this and change that" or "How about X instead of Y". Your the only one so far who has gone "this all sucks"

I did edit an above post due to excessive vulgarity. We are all adults here, but lets play nice. We can handle a bit of strong language, within reason.

JeR

I'm with Melonball here. I did not find his response childish or immature - only not sugar-coated (the way I love it). See, criticism is all good and fine, but if you sugar-coat it too much, it will not enter the brains of some. The way he phrased his criticism shows you how strong the character abilities are/were you proposed. I'd say, give it another thought.

I'm just wondering how you print out the character cards so they are similar to the existing cards.

salcor

Melonball said:

Melonball said:

I didn't remember attache allowing the president to draw quorum cards, which does sound unbalanced, but otherwise I don't see how his skill set is that useful. Sacrifice is very good, however I don't know how it would play out.

Melonball said:

How exactly is that an inabillity to be thrown in the brig? Note that Ruthless can make you lose nothing as well (and you can KNOW that you will lose nothing via communcations), and can make a ship that you know you are going to lose help you. It is by no means a poor man's zerrick power. She is no less powerful than the other Millitary leaders in the game IMO.

Melonball said:

You don't care enough to type give reasons? That's respectful disagreement indeed (/sarcasm)...While I thought you were being very un-tactful and dismissive, this is what made me stop reading your post until I saw that Mike agreed (?!). As for chief being a better enginner? Actually chief *is* a better engineer in the game, as he can repair locations easily. I don't think she would do any "engineering" unless cheif turned evil. Also note that this makes thematic sense as she can stay in the hanger deck as much as she wants, while chief has other responsibillities, and can't be around as much. The extra engineering skill card is mostly to keep her wasting skill cards IMO. If you have coherent reasoing, please send it my way.

Melonball said:

Remeber he has a completely different skill-set and purpose than Adama, useless comparason. By the way, what makes an under-powered character a problem? Let someone who thinks he has a use choose him. IMO, he is not a horrible replacement for chief tyrol. He uses enginerring for medical equipment and analysis, of course he should be good at engineering. Thematically, I don't see why a comparison between the two is useful at all.

Melonball said:

Trusted -> ugly disadvantage. What is the problem here? Also, as I noted above, why do you think this character is more balanced than Anders or Cottle, or any other character?

Melonball said:

Same with starbuck's power, if she doesn't use it in the whole game, than she has either played badly or is a cylon! Oh noes, we have a balance problem (/rant). By the way, this is not a *daily* power in any sense of the word.

Melonball said:

Lack of reasoning again...Ok, what is ugly about security access? Remember, intimate knowldege is only on her turn, so she isn't much better than boomer. Also, I normally use the commitee to look at what the *loyalty deck* does, not what the people do. I don't see how this is unbalanced at all.

Melonball said:

Ok, so you would try to abuse this as a cylon because people aren't going to notice?! hmmm...I will omit a nasty comment here. You are also wrong that you normally don't get to take an action, you should read the board. Yes, Brash can be used to take two actions every turn, but they must be in space (not press room) and involevs a lot of die rolling. Not nearly as good as you make it out to be.

Melonball said:

This one I agree with you.

Melonball said:

Potentially very good, potentially very weak. The rules say that the quorum cards *must* be given to the president (the president controls the hand of quorum cards, didn't see this one eariler), and I'd accuse cylon if she didn't. The quorum card *might* need to be more expensive, but I wouldn't count on it, I think you really need to play this one.

Melonball said:

The line of succession is not a big deal, except initially, where this makes little to no difference.

F50 said:

Meh, I didn't read all of it. I agreed with the general opinion that almost all of those character abilities need second consideration. Case in point, if you take the time to critizise every single character's ability, you should provide a reason why those abilities are indeed badly chosen. So that's something Melongball should have done.

Me, I choose the easy way out and just generalize. But if that's not enough and anybody still cares: I personally think a lot fo those abilities lack in three distinct categories:

1. Game balance (some alter the way the game is played too drastically or inhibit the players of the characters too much or are simply beyond the concepts of the game mechanics as the game presents itself)
2. Wording (a lot of the abilities have titles and rules that don't match up and give the impression that the ability's titles have been chosen without any consideration as to what they actually do)
3. Theme (several if not most of the abilities don't fit the theme - be it globally or to the specific character, either highlighting unimportant facets or none at all)

Here´s my 2 cents. I don´t want to come off as mean, and I think some of those are really interesting, but some are just not balanced:

SAMUEL T. ANDERS:

Maybe he´d be better of as a Military Leader? He´s not much of a pilot, but one heck of a leader after all.

Skill Set: I don´t know if I´d let a character choose another card from a skill set he already possesses, non of the original characters can. If memory serves, there´s no one who can draw 3 cards from one set AND be able to choose from two skills. Just give him 2 Tactics, 2 Leadership and 1 Pilot (he´s still a rook after all).

Resistance Leader: This seems balanced, not to strong, not to weak.

Professional Athlete: I agree in that this is could be to powerful. No one else is allowed to just take two actions, it always comes with constraints attached (someone else plays XO, Chief needs to repair something, Apollo needs a Viper to launch, Kara needs to be in a Viper).

Hears Mysterious Music: He can easily be XO´d out of Sickbay, and if he plays his cards right, he won´t even have to discard. Give him a drawback that is actually a drawback! Maybe something like Raiders ignoring his Viper (like they do in the show)?

BILLY KEIKEIYA:

Skill Set: see Anders. Give him 3 Politics/1 Leadership/1 Tactics.

Attaché: I´d stay the frak away from additional skill card draws, let alone Quorum card draws.

Sacrifice: Very Interesting power, though it would probably need extensive playtesting to see if it was balanced. Maybe restrict it to Political Leaders?

Innocent: Why would he ever want to use the Armory himself when he can simply order someone else to do it? You might as well have left this one blank...

HELENA CAIN:

Skill Set: With her, I actually like the "choose Skills/3 cards from one Skill" - thing I complained about with Anders, since it puts her just slightly above Tigh and Adama, and her abilities are otherwise just slightly worse then those two´s.

Inspires Loyalty: Perfect counterpart to Thigh. Love it!

Ruthless: Nicely balanced with Zarek´s ability, actually. She can either take a risk and take a ship out blindly, or take more time for it. Also, there´s the risk of there not being any civilian ships around, or not any blanks. Plus, it makes the Communications location more useful, so yay!

Razor: Ouch, that drawback hurts A LOT! Then again, she has a better Skill Set then Tigh/Adama, is just nasty as a Cylon, and is the first in line for the Admiral title. I think she´s the best balanced character you´ve made, good job!

CALLY:

Skill Set: All my complaints about her go out the window if you change her Skills set to 1 Tactics/2 Engineering/1Politics or Leadership. Giving someone 3 Engineering cards scews the power of Scientific Research, especially if that someone gets a bonus to SR anyway.

Team Player: Overpowered as is. Works out fine if you give her only 2 Engineering cards. She only gets 4 Skill cards overall then, but Team Player is worth at least one (sometimes more) Skill cards. Change it to working on every SR (instead of just her own). That way she´s much better when teaming up with other Engineers, which makes taking more then one actually useful, and works thematically better both for Cally and and her Team Player-power.

Vengeful: Nice.

Speaks her Mind: Nice.

MAJOR "DOC" COTTLE

Skill Set: Tricky. I wouldn´t give him more then two Engineering cards, for reasons stated above. I´d probably give him 2 Politics/1 Leadership/2 Engineering.

Medical Officer: This isn´t very helpful. Make it cost no cards for those moments when he doesn´t want to play XO instead for some reason. Add to it the power to draw cards when in the sickbay maybe? That would also solve the problem with him starting the game there (man would it suck for him to go first .

Emergency Action: Nice.

Cantankerous: Worse the Adama´s, but then again, his once per game power is really good.

ANASTASIA "DEE" DUALLA

Skill Set: Fine.

Trusted: I agree that the game should have more suspicions, not less. I´d find something else...maybe she can move three civilian ships instead of two from Communications?

Communications Expert: Nice.

Bridge Officer: Nice, although I´d add the Brig to that list.

FELIX GAETA

Skill Set: Change it to 2 Tactics/2 Engineering/1 Politics. He´s neither much of a Leader, nor much of a Politician.

Scientific Training: This is pretty good...a bit to good maybe, as it screws up the carddrawing ratio of the game. It´s not as bad as Billy´s power, but I´d still stay the frak away from it if I where you.

FTL Expert: I have to agree, the only reason not to use this on the first game turn is because you´re hiding a "You are a Cylon" card. Not a good idea, sorry.

Self Preservation: A bit harmless. If you added "discards Skill cards" to the list it should be nasty enough.

TECHNICIAN GINA INVIERE

Skill Set: I´d change it to 2 Engineering/2 Tactics/1 Politics. She´s doesn´t seem like much of a Leader or Politician.

Intimate Knowledge: Since it only works on her Crisis cards, it seems fine to me.

Security Access Codes: Seems ok to me, although a bit boring: we´ve never even once had a Centurion on the Galactica, but maybe other people have had different experiences?

Suspicious: Same as Baltar, so it´s probably fine.

LOUANNE "KAT" KATRAINE

Skill Set: Fine.

Brash: This seems pretty powerful. Limit it by not letting her land on Galactica or Colonial One on that turn.

Determined: Nice.

Stim Junkie: Ouch. You better have Chief Tyrol with you if you play as Kat.

KENDRA SHAW

Skill Set: Fine.

Efficient Officer: This is insanity. I mean, I agree that kendra is made out of awsome, but come on...

Desperate Measures: I wouldn´t frak with the Nuke mechanic.

Razor: Nice.

TORY FOSTER

Skill Set: Fine.

Political Experience: Like I said, I wouldn´t frak with the Quorum mechanics. Maybe

Back-Up Plan for Victory: Maybe change it so that it doesn´t work when Tory is President? Otherwise it seems pretty strong...

Conflicted: Either pretty tough drawback or pretty weak, depending on wether there´s a lot of trust or distrust in the group. I think I like it.

F50 said:

Having a no-strings attached executive order on yourself is absolutely huge. Lets assume Anders is a cylon: a single turn he can brig someone (or get people to waste cards stopping a brigging) then reveal. He could brig two people. etc.

Now lets say if he is a human: If the centurians are boarding galactica en masse, he can break the EO curve and give himself two shots on the centurians, (which with his bonus is big money big prizes), at a critical point in the game he can scout twice to better ensure a jump track icon, or mill for planet control, when combined with EO you get 3 actions on a human turn (or with more synergy with some of these cards even more), etc.

F50 said:

Attache mos def allows for an extra quorum cards, but that is just the icing on the cake. His skill set is great, as just like Roslin he is built to consolodate power and give executive orders. On top of that he is breaking the card drawing curve by giving free cards to another player without having to waste an action.

Sacrifice is stupid good. If the cylons take your pilot, you become starbuck. If you want a position of power you take someone higher up in the line of succesison. if you want to brig someone, you take tigh, etc. You always get the ideal character you need for the situation at hand...AFTER you've been breaking the card drawing curve. To make matters worse i just relooked at the clarifications sheet, and it says you get to KEEP the once per game power (which at this point is just insult to injury. This power is amazing)

F50 said:

You totally misunderstand me. Not every character is over powered. Virtually every character presented isn't balanced well. As presented Cain is a character with no game breaking powers, however she isn't as well designed as the characters that were designed with the game in mind. Her daily power requires you to spend AT LEAST one action activating communications to use effectively. and her disadvantage is totally crippling as EOs is the key for humanity to win the game...this is why i maintain that if you're playing as cain you hope and pray to be a cylon because its really hard to be thrown in the brig, you can destroy a human ship, and before you blow your cover you're forcing humanity to discard 2 cards so you have the privialage to to take two actions. its absurd.

F50 said:

My original answer was more snarky and more offensive so the mods edited it down. It's probably for the best. Regardless, Cally is amazingly broken. it's insane. totally bat **** crazy.

Not only is her skill draw absurd (also virtually all of these homebrews all have a split skill choice which is mad powerful) lets take the time to look at everything and you'll see why typing a shot "you're crazy" saved me soooo much time

Team Player : To look at why this power is crazy we need to take a moment to look at Sci. Research. you're raising the probablity of Destiny Helping you (guarenteed from going from 40% to 60%, possibly from 60% to 80%) by adding another blue category. If you're playing with other characters who have blue cards you're also always giving them a way to help out in a challenge.

That being said; the balance of Sci. Research is that while it's awesome, you're losing a 3-5 drop that could help in another skill challenge. only now your sci research is raising probability on top of counting as a free 2 point card. Who needs Declare Emergency when Cally gets a free plus 2 that will also raise the probability of destiny helping you?

Vengeful: this card is written so you can send people to sick bay (which really works best if the person you're putting into sick bay is next to you so they cant be EOed out of there). However this power will always be a get out of jail free card. Are you a cylon? Get out of jail free. Are you a human? Get someone out of jail free.

Speaks her Mind: This is more of a merit than a flaw. Knowing what people are playing is only beneficial to the humans as people can guage what they need to play so they don't over shoot too much. Also, if she drops high point cards face up chances are teh cylons wont want to waste their cards. If played by a cylon player since Cally only really draws 1 card that can help in an election (possibly 2 for the brig actions) it's really easy to have plausable denyability that you dont have anything good, or only drop a 1 and let destiny do the deed. Chances are this is what a cylon would do anyway as high point blue cards will place suspicion (sp) on Cally no matter what.

F50 said:

This isn't a useless comparision at all. Adama has a crippling disadvantage because he is the highest in the line of succession, this is a character with a more limiting power with out the benny of being in the line of the succession. Much like Cain, the issue with Cottle isn't that he is over powered, its that he isn't balanced well at all. His passive power is a sh*tty version of the card he can draw anyway. Whats the problem with an under-powered character? Nothing aside from the fact it's underpowered. Hell if you want, play a game where none of the characters have ANY powers if you want. have a day. The point is that the other characters in the game were designed in a rock/paper/scissors fashion against each other, and with the line of succession and these people are designed totally willy nilly.

F50 said:

As i said before this is easily the closet thing to a balanced character. She has a great skill draw, but this is tempered by a negative that is harsh yet fair (and makes sense...she's really good at the bridge stuff, otherwise she isnt as crippled as ros, but it's still not ideal). Her daily is on par with Apollos, his is the equivilent of 3 activations of command, hers is the equivilent of 3 activations of communications. Were it not for a passive power that totally undercut the spirit of the game i'd say she'd be good to go.

F50 said:

In no way shape or form is this comparable to Starbuck's power. Her power is to situationally kill a crisis, the most "ideal" time to use this could be early game, late game, or never if you're really really lucky. Either way, unless the crisis will immediately cause you to lose the game (at which point the "cylon" accusation would be fair) its perfectly normal for people to sit on it.

At it's core Gaeta's power makes the game shorter for the humans. The length of the game is determined by the number of jump track icons that you draw (as thats what lets you draw the location cards). Gaeta's daily power immediately gives you a free jump draw, which is the win condition for the humans. this isn't subjective or a debateable call, there is only one play to make with Gaeta: use this power as soon as you can because it is how you win the game. Any situation where "one jump will auto get us out of trouble" would have already been avoided had Gaeta used his power earlier as you would be one jump ahead. It's the fundementals of the game.

F50 said:

What's ugly about Security Access? It's really powerful. Yes, it can make the humans instantly lose the game...but then again so can Zareck situationally, and so can Helo and Boomer. However what REALLY makes this powerful is that

A: unlike boomer and helo, gina can leave a centurian as parting gift before an EO reveal

and

B: even without an EO, the act of putting a centurian on the board immediately puts the humans on the clock, they have to waste actions killing the centurion before it causes them to lose the game.

Regardless, UNLIKE boomer or helo, her daily pretty much only helps her if shes a cylon. Yes, you could spend an action to move the centurion back a space. OR you could spend an executive order to give someone else 2 shots on the centurion which would remove them from the game (bonus points if you have helo or a strategic plan.

As far as Intimate Knowledge goes, i'd like to point out that Cally's "flaw" is Ginas power. Playing face up is always to your advantage, it's a free mini investigative comitee. This power would be slightly less silly if the player you called out had to show you the cards they were playing before they put them in the pile, in this way you could secretly modify your play without influencing everyone else.

Also: crazy powerful skill draw

F50 said:

You are totally right, I misread the board. When you're standing above the board the "more" looked like "move" that was totally my bad. Regardless, getting bonus actions is ALWAYS a good thing. If you're a human you want to do it, if you're a cylon and you have the chance to wreck a viper you REALLY want to do it. Also, if you're EOed and you're in the hanger bay you get 4 actions. It's really good.

F50 said:

There's nothing potential about it. Keep in mind that with her daily power she'll be president on turn 1, which as the player of Tory is what you want as you can better achieve your goals. Hording the quorum cards until the president has been vetted is a perfectly logical thing, and since you can give them to the president at any time there's no reason to give them any cards until they would need to use it. This power, combined with her being president virtually assures that her negative will be a trivial matter since you'll be sluffing cards so much.

F50 said:

You are very wrong here, sir. The characters are balanced with the line of succession in mind. Adama and Roslin are weaker characters because they start off with the titles. There placement in the line of succession is apart of the balace of the character design.

Like I said before, I think it's great that people had a fun time coming up with homebrew ideas for character cards but to try to defend them as balanced and playable is as silly as thinking that fan fic should be turned into movies or comic books.

Normally I wouldn't care enough to comment on this sort of thing but BSG is one of the most tightly deisgned games I've played. Adding more wacky characters makes sense for something like Decent. Want to come out with more scenarios for Last Night On Earth? Have a day. But since this a game was so carefully constructed with risk/reward and balance in mind any addition (even one concieved by FFG) is very very likely to muck it up.

This game deserves better.

There is potential for expansion in this game but like others have said balance is key.

This game is very very well thought out. The randomness of dice and shuffled decks can cause some lopsided balance but the design is very very well thought out.

Every action and the skill load outs. The amount of resources etc. Its very very tight. The fact that the game stays balanced with 3-5 players, even though it plays differently, is a testament to how well designed it is.

Each chracters strength and weakness and skills are carefully thought out.

I see room for more being added to the game but not in any hap-hazzard fashion.

My group has been playing with these new characters around 6 to 8 games so far mixed in with the standard characters. My wife went so far as to print them out, glue them to poster board, and cut the corners off.

End result: They've been a lot of fun.

Starting a new game with stacks of people to choose from is a welcome change. I've disagreed and made some suggestions to some of these characters since version 2, but still, we don't play without them now.

Several of the best moments came from these new characters. When the last cylon finally revealed themselves late in the game to everyone's surprise...and it was Dee. We couldn't believe it. They played her so well and the mechanics set her up to not be the cylon. Great fun. And then there was another game with Anders fighting off endless waves of Centurions/Heavies in space and onboard right to the end of the game. He worked his butt off using every ability and card at his disposal just focusing on the relentless centurions. It was great to see it come down to the wire, and they still vented us into space.

All in all, keep up the good work and please come back and visit us here on the FFG forums. Sadly, there are several posters across multiple games here that come across as arrogant with their "the rules are scripture!" attitude. There's still some encouraging people here too.

Thanks again,

Tom & Amanda

Hey all, i'm occasioanlly checking here but really I hang out on BGG.

In a week or so I'll post up the suggestions for v4 of the cards on that site and get some feedback there.

Thanks for the feedback, positive and negative, as long as its contructive i'll read it and take notice.

Thanks for your item-by-item response melonball. I see your point a lot better. I still wonder what you're thinking when critiquing Kat though.

Melonball said:

You're right, but that's not more powerful than any other character. Besides, you'd want to EO someone else for the scouting anyways.

Melonball said:

Thanks for clarifying. I see your point.

I disagree here. Perhaps it is just because I don't mind characters that seem less powerful (Tigh, Tyrol, Boomer). I don't think that making one harder to be tossed in the brig is that damaging to the humans, and personally I prefer not being able to be EO'ed effectively than not being able to EO someone else (ie. boomer). I guess it might be a bit harsh though.

Melonball said:

You are right that vengeful really should not be allowed to be used on people in the brig. Team player is fine IMO, the free points might be decreased to 1, but I still don't see how good that really is, after all, it only helps for less than half of the engineering deck, and only +2 at that. As for "speaks her mind", I think it is to prevent abuse of the cylon-useful cards that she draws (at least another player should have engineering if the humans are smart, and if cally is *not* the cylon, she's easy to frame by someone like baltar, boomer, or starbuck).

I do agree with your statment (not quoted) that the multi-skills are a bit too plentiful with these characters.

Melonball said:

I really do not think that Roslin or Adama have crippling disadvantages because of line of sucession, nor do I think cottle is as underpowered as you say he is. If he really is that underpowered, perhaps the passive power of cottle should allow him or the recipent of the medical attention to take another action as well.

Melonball said:

After hearing about that time when she *was* the cylon, I don't think that trusted is a good at it seems to be. I really wonder whether baltar and boomer are that much more likely to be the cylon as well. Oddly enough, trusted is a great abillity for cylons. I like it.

Ah I see. This power should involve some sort of risk then, say a chance of population loss, centurions boarding, or damage to galactica.

Melonball said:

That is a good change to intimate knowledge. IIRC, gina cannot put a centurion on the board, only move it, right? IMO, if a centurion is on the last square of the boarding track and I could choose between using a turn to allow for more future turns than take a chance (which also fails more often than not AFAIK) to blow it up, I would allow for extra turns.

Melonball said:

You are totally right, I misread the board. When you're standing above the board the "more" looked like "move" that was totally my bad. Regardless, getting bonus actions is ALWAYS a good thing. If you're a human you want to do it, if you're a cylon and you have the chance to wreck a viper you REALLY want to do it. Also, if you're EOed and you're in the hanger bay you get 4 actions. It's really good.

I'm sorry, but I still laugh when somone says that a human would do the *exact* same thing as a cylon, because it really helps the humans, and really helps the cylons...If you are EO'd in the hangar bay you still only get three actions, you spend one to get two, not get two for free. Just when would you be in the hangar bay on another persons turn though? Lets see: you can only land in the move step, so if you go to the hangar bay that means you are launching again. Does she get engineering so that she could repair and do this? Also, if you are to constantly land and launch, then you are always starting your turn in a viper...

Ironically, Roslin is made weaker by starting president, so that using the president's office action isn't very useful. Also, I don't think Roslin and Adama are weak characters at all. I prefer Roslin to Zarek and Adama to Tigh (assuming that the all players would start with their respective titles)

I think a point of yours that is worth saying again though is this: Multi-skills are very powerful, use sparingly.

EDIT: WOW, I managed to get the quote tags sorted out on the first try!

I think something you do need to think about is line of succession. Part of each of the characters' abilities is where they are in the line of succession. In the base game, Adama always starts as Admiral, and anytime another Admiral gets it sent into the brig, he gets it back. Apollo is first of the second tier for both Prez and Admiral, that is part of his ability. In a four player game, he's very likely to end up with one of these as someone else gets brigged or revealed.

You say that this isn't part of the characters, but it is. It's not worth arguing details, and for fun what you have is probably mostly fine, but if you want them to be good and balanced you need to understand that where characters are in the line of succession is huge.