I'm confused at one point of the Treachery Cards when adding them to skill checks. Does the effect on the treachery card (with the symbol) only pop when someone plays a Reckless card into the skill check? Or does it always activate when its revealed in a skill check?

If a "Reckless" skill card is played before the check (like Jury Rigged or Support the People) the skill check is considered Reckless. If a Treachery card with the Reckless skill check ability then appears in that skill check, then its ability triggers.

So the two conditions that must be met are:

1. A skill card must be played before cards are added to make the check Reckless.

2. A treachery card must appear in the revealed cards from the check with the reckless skill check ability.

Hm, that makes them super rare I suppose than. Especially since there's only a few Reckless cards.

Triggering Reckless Skill Check abilities is quite rare indeed. Early in the game it is pretty easy to keep count of Destiny Deck or players' hands to see if there is any risk involved. Also, unless there is plenty of Cylon ships on the main game board, the abilities themselves aren't always very dangerous. If playing with Cylon Fleet option from Exodus, you might even want Broadcast Location to trigger shortly after the jump to slow down Pursuit Track.

Support the People is a great card and should be used whenever at least two players benefit from it and the risk of Treachery Card appearing is low.

At Any Cost is the least played Reckless card. It should be played only when the possible Reckless Skill Check abilities on Treachery cards have non-significant effect. Even then, it is probably better used as high strength green card instead.

Guts and Initiative is great when combined with Investigative Committee, allowing to pass skill checks without overkill. It is best used when the Cylon players have not been revealed yet or are known to hold no Treachery Cards. The effect itself prevents Treachery from appearing from Destiny Deck

Jury Rigged is seen less with Exodus expansion, especially if Pass effect is No Effect. Previously it was used mostly to avoid Fail effect, but now the Fail can be avoided with Iron Will instead (without making the check Reckless).

Once the Cylons have been revealed and are known to have Treachery Cards, the Humans should not make any Skill Checks Reckless. If you play with Cylon Leaders who decide to draw Treachery, the risk is always there.

Interesting. So the mechanic essentially helps humans early on but makes it really difficult toward the end of the game. And even harder with a Cylon Leader playing.

Note that Crisis cards from Exodus that have the "Consequence" icon use the same icon as the "Skill-Check Ability" icon used in both some of Exodus's skill cards as well as some of Pegasus's Treachery cards. That means that those treachery cards and those specific skill cardsANY card that has that triangular symbolwill trigger a Consequence crisis result, even if the skill check is not Reckless.

Weird....this forum doesn't let you use dashes in your text.

jullevi said:

I have to disagree with a couple of things:

1) In our group, at least for me, At Any Cost tends to be one of the most commonly played Reckless cards. Humans generally end up with some Treachery, and it's a great way for them to use it without risking Galactica getting damaged or hsving to intentionally bomb a skill check. Also, if your cylons have been consistently drawing treachery (and they will), then it's a good way to shut down half of their hand for a key skill check. It's also incentive for cylons to help the humans on a critical skill check, since they may decide that they'd rather a reckless card on you then risk spending a card and still failing to stop the check.

2) "Once the Cylons have been revealed and are known to have Treachery Cards, the Humans should not make any Skill Checks Reckless" is waaaay too general of a statement. As with ANY reckless check you have to weigh the risks vs. the reward. The possible downsides of a reckless check are:

a) 1 basestar in front of galactica and 1 civvie behind it.
b) All raiders, heavy raiders, and occupation forces activate once.
c) Each player draws 1 treachery

Option a is a nonissue if you're anywhere near jumping and/or the skies are otherwise clear. (note: this may change with Exodus, as we haven't used those rules yet). B is likewise a nonissue if the skies are clear, though if they're full it's the #1 reason to not make a check reckless. C is only a problem in that it gives the cylons treachery cards to use for future checks. Giving them to humans is a nonissue since they get to decide when they're played, and can just wait for a chance to discard them en masse (avoiding multiple Sabotages) or play them when an At Any Cost shows up.

The upsides of reckless checks: more cards, making treachery positive, guaranteeing a check passes with IC and G&I, or even lowering the difficulty by 4 are all very useful things. The situation may be dire, and Recklessness might be the only way out of it. Alternatively, the situation may be tranquil, and Recklessness will let you save cards for later. In any case "don't do it" is myopic advice. "Don't do it without weighing the consequences" is what should have been said.

I agree with your disagreement. In fact, you put in more clearly what I was trying to say - you should always consider risk versus reward. That being said, my thoughts were bases mostly upon recent experiences using Exodus expansion. If you are using Cylon Fleet option, Cylon Ship activations always have an effect. In pre-Exodus games, activating Raiders and Heavy Raiders have no effect if the main board is empty. With Cylon Fleet, that is two additional activations, both of which add ships to the Cylon Fleet board, cause CAG to place civilian ships on the main board or launch a Cylon attack.

If there are already Raiders or Heavy Raiders on the main board, additional activation means that you have one turn less to deal with them. With Cylon Fleet option, the only way to get rid of Cylon ships is to destroy them. Jump is just a temporary solution.

Keithustus said:

Two things you may not have noticed (based upon your statement).

Number 1:

The Treachery Cards that have that skill check icon only activate if the skill check has been made reckless . Quoting from the Pegasus Rule Book, page 10, first paragraph: "... Reckless Skill Check abilities appear only on Treachery Cards, and are triggered when revealed as part of a Skill check that has been made Reckless through the use of a Reckless Skill Card. Unlike other Skill Cards, Reckless Skill Check card text is not ignored during a skill check."

From page 5 of the Exodus Rule Book: "The text on a Skill Check Ability icon is resolved only when that card is played into a skill check. The text is resolved regardless of whether the Skill Card was added to the skill check by a human player, by a Cylon player, or from the Destiny deck. Do not resolve the text on a Skill Card played into a skill check if it does not have a Skill Check Ability icon.

So- combining the rules from the Pegasus and Exodus expansions- only resolve cards with the Skill Check Ability icons when they are played into a Skill check; resolve Treachery/Reckless Skill Checks when the skill checks have been made Reckless.

-

Number 2:

Basegame has 70 Crisis Cards in the Crisis Deck (41 Skill Checks, 19 Events, 10 Cylon Attack cards.) Pegasus has 20 (11/6/3). Exodus, 40 total (23/17/0).

There are a total of 5 cards that have Consequences. Using BSG plus Exodus, that's 100 Crisis cards (assuming that the Cylon Attacks are discarded), of which 5 have Consequences (5% - or 4.5% if the Cylon Fleet board isn't in play). Using both expansions, that's 5 out of 117, or 130 Crisis cards if the Cylon Fleet board isn't in play- 4.2% and 3.8%.)

Of the 150/176 Skill Cards, only 15 have Skill Check Ability Icons, or 10% / 8.5%.

Players have the option of throwing in Skill Cards should the Crisis card show a Consequence (and those are relatively rare). Combine that with the 1-in-10 chance that the Destiny deck will contribute a Skill Check Ability Card that triggers that Consequence. Are you honestly that worried?

S.