I've read about two player rules for Battlestar but I can't for the life of me find them. Can anyone tell me where they are?

I've got all editions of the game and really want this so my two children can play the game when they get back from school.

Thanks

Greetings!

Sorry to say, I have not heard of a two-player variant. I would have significant reservations about recommending such a variant but if you've got two kids who like the show, I understand that some kind of BSG is better than no BSG. But you're talking about overcoming *significant* mechanical challenges; it's hard to imagine how to do so without losing virtually all of the politics and intrigue. If there is such a variant, I'd be curious to see it.

http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/ffg_content/Battlestar_Galactica/BSG_optional_rules.pdf

Variant Rules. Located under the disclaimer. Copy and Pasted below if you can't view the PDF.

Two Player Game
In a two player game, each player chooses a single character.
During setup, Loyalty cards are not dealt out.
At the start of the sleeper phase, create a loyalty deck
consisting of 1x “You are a Cylon” and 2x “Not a Cylon” cards.
Then add a number of “Not a Cylon” cards to the Loyalty deck
equal to the number of resources that are half or lower (red).
Then shuffle this deck, and deal 1 Loyalty card to each player.

Note that the Sharon “Boomer” Valerii character may not be
chosen when playing this variant.

On BoardGameGeek there was a note that if you exclude Boomer from character selection, you may want to exclude Baltar also.

Thanks for posting that, Brandon. It's interesting. Yes, I'd say it's pretty important that Gaius be excluded. His ability to look at loyalty cards seems a little strong for this variant. I'd also make a case for banning "Release Cylon Mugshots" since loyalty will be 100% known during Loyalty phase and if an ability allows you to view even one loyalty card post-sleeper, you'll never have any doubt at all. Even then though, there should never really be any intrigue anyway. WIth the cylon not being outnumbered, there's no reason for him to lay low once he receives his loyalty. He should probably work from within (how do your five skill cards ever pass checks when I'm throwing my five to fail them all?) but I can see revealing if the reveal ability is right (It *is* an instant win if he's Caprica Six, after all).

Still, that probably is the closest you're going to come to a playable variant with at least a similar flavor to BSG. Thanks again for posting it!

Holy Outlaw said:

I don't know how playable the game is as a two player game.

Since you can't choose Cylon Leaders in a three player game, I would assume that holds true in a two player game as well.

Thanks Guys

Wilst waiting for the replies my kids were in such a hurry to play that I invented a two player game.

Basically each player has a character and both place in only three cards from the skill cards to resolve a skill test. At the same time they roll both a black and white D6.

The number on the white D6 shows how many more skill cards the player whose turn it is can put in, whilst the black shows how many more skill cards the game can put in.

After the ship has moved 4 in distance the cards are dealt with one "You are a cylon card" in 4.

Seemed to work ok

Hey, sounds like it did the trick. That's the important thing.

I have a theoretical question; if me and my friend A and his girlfriend V are playing BSG for…say 72 hours…and our friend J walks into the room and asks “Can I get in on this game?” Can you add players after the game starts?
Just add card to the Cylon/not Cylon mix?
Or vice-versa-if someone drops out of the game, can you keep laying but removing or redistributing the loyalty cards?

Whenever my buddy and I want to play a game of BSG, we just play as two characters each and we don't look at our Loyalty cards until the Sleeper Agent phase (or unless required to by a Crisis or Baltar's ability). That's about as simple as it gets. We do look at our Agenda card at the beginning if we're playing as a Cylon Leader.

As far as adding players to an ongoing game, I'd just treat it as the latter half of an execution. With Exodus, there are likely going to be extra Loyalty cards in the deck, anyway.

Brother Cavil said:

Well, I’d expect an answer like that from a Cylon (That’s a joke!)…I was referring to the very basic game w/o either expansion. But, I guess I’ll look into it. Thanks.

my wife and I are big fans of the game but let me tell you the 2 player variant is just boring you really need 3 people plus we were both very disappointed but the game itself is still awesome

Good to know, MuchoLatino. I admit I haven't tried it with 2 (or even 3, for that matter), but your impression sounds like a confirmation of what I'd expect to find. I just don't know how much of the game is left after you take out all the elements you'd have to remove. Like Roslin once said, survival isn't enough. What's left has to be worth preserving ... or something like that.