i have a family member who owns the bsg core game...he introduced it to my wife and i, so we immediately ordered the pegasus expansion last night, thinking it could be used as a stand-alone game...we were wrong, weren't we?

Unfortunately, yes. The Pegasus expansion doesn't work as a standalone. But if you do go back and get the core game, I bet you'll enjoy it and some of the components from Pegasus will be great additions. (Plastic basestars, anyone?)

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news. Hope you get what you want out of the game in the long run!

I would suggest you order both the expansions as well as the core game, or prehaps just the expansions and then your friend and your wife and you could have em together, and play with some more friends 6-7 is perfect if you ask me but works fine with only 5 too.