What do you think about this?
*Everybody starts with 3 tokens (disasters are shuffled back), and one random gets assigned to each npcs.
*Brig and Sickbay doesn't give you trauma.
*When you encounter an ally and you get disaster, you roll a die:
1-2 executed, 3-4 brig, 5-7 sickbay, 8 nothing (the npc kills you, has you arrested, punches you out or nothing)
*When you draw a disaster by yourself that roll becomes:
1-4 executed, 5-8 sickbay (you get blown up and either survive or not)
*After encountering an ally you place one of your tokens on the newly drawn character.
*For damaged locations the cylon players place just as in the original rules.

At distance 8 (or when galactica returns to NC -- YES YOU CAN PLAY IT WITH NC) everyone shows their tokens and count them up: positive (benevolent for humans and the other for cylons) counts +1, the other counts -1.
Then:
-3 and lower: you are executed.
-1 and -2 : discard 2/4 skill cards from your hand
0: nothing
1 and 2: draw 2/4 skill cards of any color (may come outside of your skill set)
3 and higher: turn 1 resource by one in any direction.

(if a resource is reduced to 0, another player can move it up to 1, so humans only lose after everyone acted)

After that, allies are taken off the table and no new trauma can be gained.

PROs:
* No boxing at the end of the game (I HATE THAT)
* no stupid Crossroads cards (they are seriously worse then CL agendas...)
* Revealed cylons have less to worry about having to "shoot the npcs"
* you get to keep the NPCs, maybe even use them on NC

CONs:
* less trauma gained during the game (since no brig or sickbay trauma - so you won't get rewarded for sitting in the brig).

To balance this con, maybe the following can be implemented: after placing a token on a newly drawn npc draw a new trauma token from the token pool or discard a random skill card.

On a similiar note, I once had a game where the three initial npcs went to Administration, Armory and Brig, so we never met any of them during the game!!! So if I'm altering the npc rules I'll add this little tidbit: Anyone can discard two skill cards during his turn to discard an npc and draw a new one - BUT KEEP THE TOKEN on it.

Any downside or thematic imbalance I missed?

thanks

Seems solid! I read it carefully and don't have any concerns about balance issues or thematics. My only reservation would be that I don't share your misgivings about the Ionian Nebula. I like the big dogfight at the end, the low number of Crossroads cards and the presence of a few dud effects don't bug me greatly, and I don't feel it puts a player out too much to be boxed right at the end of the game. To me, Ionian Nebula makes for a better climax than either NC or Kobol, so it's become the only destination I play. Still, I'll slip this idea into my back pocket and potentially give it a try sometime. Thanks!

We tried it out today. It was fun, one public cylon was executed, one human managed 3 positive, and a cylon leader managed 3 antagonistic, but he was with us, so he turned a dial good way too. We missed the big battle at the end, but that was because of the humans incredible luck, not because the Cylon Fleet Board wasn't trying. (I've found there's really no need for an extra battle when you're constantly under preassure with CFB.) Nobody missed the crossroads cards, everything was well balanced, one disaster token was averted with a roll of seven, and the rules were clear simple every incident. We'll stick with this variant. (Pretty much Kobol + Allies)

I'll try your version out

Here is mine, also posted on BGG

Ionian Nebula/Allies simplified:

Battle at the Ionian Nebula (YES)
Crossroad cards (NO)
Trauma tokens earned or discarded (NO)
Player execution via disaster (YES) (but only if encountering allies in the brig or sickbay)
Player elimination (NO)
Trauma Tokens on hazards locations at set up (NO)

Replace 38 trauma tokens by using the 8 sided-die for simplicity's sake (EVEN numbered rolls being benevolent, ODD numbered rolls being antagonistic, numbers 1&2 being disaster.) Characters and skill cards cannot affect these die rolls as they are merely substitute for drawing trauma tokens from the pool.

Each time an ally is encountered, roll a die. And resolve.

4,6,8= Benevolent roll -potentially helpful effect
3,5,7= Antagonistic roll -potentially harmful effect
1,2= Disaster rolls result in no effect, unless Ally is in brig or sickbay (result= death)

Yes it's replacing the trauma mechanic for random luck, but essentially the starting 3 ally abilities triggered are a result of sheer randomness. And the 3 trauma tokens players are issued at the start of the game, and their endgame affiliation is luck based as well.

Both Humans and Cylons have the potential to get a great ability that helps their camp or waste a movement and end up rolling a disaster (null effect)

In normal circumstances you have 5.2% chance of random execution while playing Ionian Nebula from disaster tokens

With this variant, random execution via disasters has been reduced to a 2.8% chance.

Necessary Changes:

Do not place any trauma tokens on sickbay or the brig as no trauma tokens will be set up, earned or discarded during the game.

Some allies have abilities regarding drawing or discarding traumas, these would simply be changed to drawing or discarding skill cards

See: D'Anna or Gaeta as my reference point
Based on their abilities I recommend the following errata

Antagonistic effects
IF Draw 1 trauma tokens, THEN Discard 1 skill card randomly
If Draw 2 trauma tokens, THEN Discard 3 skill cards

Benevolent
IF Discard 1 trauma token+ 1 random trauma token, THEN Draw 3 skill cards [they may be from outside your skill set]
IF Discard 2 trauma tokens, THEN Draw 3 skill cards
IF Discard 3 trauma tokens, THEN Draw 3 skill cards [they may be from outside your skill set]

Daver said:

I like this, but two comments:

First, I'm not generally a fan of all the die rolls. It's just a matter of personal preference, so if you find it more lively or thematic that way, then go for it, but it feels needlessly fiddly, and I'm kinda of the opinion that house rules should be as streamlined as possible.

Second, one thing you might do about the brig/sickbay situation is give someone a trauma token immediately upon being sent there, but no more afterwards. This partially offsets the problem of players receiving less trauma, especially for reasons outside of their control, but it also gives being sent to sickbay some teeth (even in the face of the cheap "XO a player out of sickbay" tactic)

Necroing this thread because it may be important to the ongoing discussion about modifying CL Agendas. I havent actually tried this variant yet, but I hate the idea of someone being eliminated from the game and I don't particularly care for CrossRoads cards, though the battle is ok. The only issue I have with it is that at the end of the game it hurts the Human team a lot more if people are executed than it does the Cylons, who just resurrect. Do people still play this?
I ask because I think Crossroads cards can make a mess of a game; one of our more recent ones looked like definite Cylon victory until Crossroads cards gave a Cylon a whole bunch of Trauma and then that player got boxed, totally swinging the game to a Human win. Therefore the Crossroads cards could have a huge impact on CL Agendas we are trying to modify...