Having played a game with the Sympathizer just last night, it still strikes some members of our group as a weird mechanic, and we can't even put our fingers on why. As we were discussing it, it occurred to us that it's strange how the Cylon-aligned Sympathizer and the Human-aligned Sympathizer were nerfed so differently. And that's when we had an idea. Please examine this for any mistakes in logic or missed game-breakings.

The idea that occurred to me was that if a Cylon-aligned Sympathizer is functionally a nerfed Cylon, why isn't a Human-aligned Sympathizer a nerfed Human? The Cylon-aligned Sympathizer hurts the humans by becoming a revealed Cylon, but can't hurt them too much because of his limitations. Why is a Human-aligned sympathizer so different? He hurts the humans by getting tossed in the brig (which wastes an action and maybe five skill cards or so to get him out), but doesn't hurt them too much because he still gets to play like a human.

We had three ideas for how to nerf a Human-aligned Sympathizer similarly to the way he would be nerfed were he Cylon-aligned. I've accompanied them with an attempt at a thematic explanation.

1. Disallow him from using certain locations. Humans probably wouldn't let a known Sympathizer be president (or admiral, for that matter), or fly vipers, so start with locations connected to those things.

2. Put a restriction on the number of cards he can play into skill checks. Humans wouldn't want him helping out too much, since he could be sabotaging the crises.

3. Disallow him from using cards for any purpose other than playing them into skill checks. Humans wouldn't take executive orders from Sympathizers, nor would they be able to scout, establish investigative committees, or help with tactics planning. Their scientific research certainly wouldn't be trusted.

4. Some combination of these three things.

Balance-wise, I feel that what the Sympathizer variant is trying to do is give the losing team an extra player while keeping that player from tipping the balance overwhelmingly to that side. Any rule to address that should be simple and thematic, which is what these ideas attempt to be. They also make the Sympathizer play similarly whichever way his loyalty falls.

Comments?

You've got the spirit of the mechanic right: If the humans are winning, there should be a weak cylon, and if the cylons are winning, there should be a weak human. But, you're right about not working quite right; if the humans are winning, the cylons get a pretty down-powered cylon, but is still useful in terms of the Caprica location, and if the cylons are winning, the humans get a... normal powered human, with a one action and difficulty 7 skill check tax.

I like your suggestions for making a nerfed human. The risk is that gameplay becomes too boring for the person saddled with the sympathizer. So, perhaps they should not have access to Command, Weapons Control, or the Weapons Locker, but they will need something else to do other than draw cards from the press room or research lab. Similarly, you may wish to consider stripping out abilities from some skill cards (like Executive Order, or Strategic planning), but not others.

I am not overly concerned about the game being less interesting for the human Sympathizer. I mean, a Cylon sympathizer has only three options. The fun of the game for him comes from reveling in his evil choice of crisis cards and lording it over the humans (mostly the latter). Even a nerfed human will have more options than that. I'm mostly concerned about maintaining an appropriate balance between factions, and simplicity of rules.

So. Extrapolating mechanics from those used for a Cylon Sympathizer, a Human Sympathizer should do the following:

1. Discard down to some number of cards. Probably 3 to start with.

2. Give up any titles, following line of succession. You may not hold titles for the remainder of the game.

3. You may not use the following locations: Weapons Control, Command, Armory.

4. You may not issue Executive Orders, Investigative Committees, Launch Scouts, or Scientific Research.

I thought about disallowing the player from piloting vipers, but I think that would really hurt if the only pilot became the sympathizer. Would any of these break the game, folks? I'll think about them more later, but I have to run right now.