First off, Mattr0polis, thanks for answering my first question some days ago. This forum group seems great about helping out with any questions regarding gameplay.

Looks like I have another though. On page 20 of the rulebook, it plainly states that revealed Cylon's do not draw a Crisis Card- unless of course they use the Caprica location. My question is related to this, as the rulebook states that in the case of a Crisis card forcing a choice, "the current player" makes the choice.

We've been playing and following the rulebook literally....in other words, the revealed cylon who draws and chooses that Crisis card gets to make the choice on it. I'm hoping thi is correct, but am also curios as to if that's fair or not, and possibly imbalanced towards the Cylon's favor. Why would a revealed Cylon get to make that choice for the humans?

By the same token, is Helo's Moral Compass ability able to override the choice made on a crisis card by a revealed cylon player? (Assuming, of course, that the cylon is the one that gets to make the choice) His playersheet simply states "another player", without the qualifier of which team they're on.

Thanks for any help y'all cane give me!

Glad I could help! Let's see if I can do it again.

1. You have been playing correct. The revealed Cylon player does indeed get to make the choice on "Current Player Chooses" Crises cards faced on his turn. I don't really think this is unbalanced, as most of the other stuff that player could choose to do are all horrible for the humans. As to the in-story reason he gets to make the call on that card? I'm not sure, but I like to think it's because of some sabotage that character put forth.

2. Helo's ability I THINK can be used against the Cylon player like that. I'm not positive on this though.

I was just thinking it might be imbalanced because they already get to draw two Crisis cards and choose one. The fact they can also make the choice on the card, after choosing one of two to play, seems like it could be a little too powerful. I mean, I know there are a ton of painful things they can do, but my thinking was that drawing two and choosing one was already good enough.

Well, it's a tradeoff, because if they are choosing "Current Player Chooses" type Crises cards, then the humans are keeping a lot more cards in their hands for the other Crises they would face and/or actions they could take with those cards.

Same with if they are choosing those over the Cylon ship setup cards, as the humans save a ton of actions/etc that would be wasted on fighting the ships.

Powerful? Sometimes. Unbalanced? I don't think so, at least.

I'm pretty sure Helo CAN'T interfere with a cylon crisis card. I remember reading somewhere that cylon crises can't be affected by player abilities, but I'm too lazy to check the rules right now.

iceberg84 said:

That only applies to the Super Crises cards. I'm still not 100% that you can, but after skimming through the rulebook again I still can't find evidence that you can't yet.

Matt, you're line of reasoning seems to make sense to me. I wasn't thinking about how the Humans are saving cards via that route.

As far as Helo goes, I think we're gonna play it so that he can. A lot of the questions that come up about gamplay seem to revolve around being answered by literal reading of the rules. Thanks guys!

The cylon player makes the choice on the Crisis card - the rulebook clarifies this on page 20:

"When a revealed Cylon player draws a Crisis Card that poses a choice for the current player, that player makes the decision."

The rulebook does not state that revealed Cylons are not affected by character abilites, so Helo's power can be used.

Helo can change the choice of the Cylon player on a normal Crisis card, just like Chief can negate a color during a skill check on a normal Crisis card. Helo's ability refers to changing a "player's" choice, so it is allowed.