I've been asked to post this one:

Someone was Dee and used her "Fast Learner" OPG which allows her to take three cards and either add them to the skill check or into her hand. According to the BGG FAQ I've seen, the BSG people say her power comes into effect at the same time as Reckless cards are played. If she wants to add them to the Skill Check, they are "set aside for the moment" and then added after the destiny cards are added. In most cases, this is more or less right away. THEN all players play skill cards as usual. Now, some people argued that if Dee added the cards to her hand instead of the skill check, she should not be able to add any of those new cards to the skill set, that they should instead also be "set aside" until afterward. The reasoning seemed to be that Dee's OPG really makes no sense (to them) as written: Why would anyone ever not just add the cards to their hand and decide what to do in the later regular skill check contribution? No, they argued, this makes no sense, therefore, Dee must either add all three cards right away or keep them... "all or nothing." I argued that there was no reason to believe it was all or nothing and pretty clear that Dee just got three extra cards to decide what to do with - all three right up front or as many as she wished later in the skill check contribution. There could be many reasons to play them all right away (to make an early statement to other players about where you stand, because you're in the brig, etc).

Thoughts?

My thoughts are as follows: I've never heard the "all or nothing" suggestion, but as recounted here it sounds kind of like a player trying to write a new card that makes more sense to him or her than the one provided in the game box. A proficient reading of the card (not from a technical standpoint, just from a fluent reader of English standpoint) makes it pretty clear what the card does. It's true that 90% of the time, it makes more sense for the player to take them into hand and then decide. One clear exception to this would be if Dee is in the brig, in which case the value of the less common method of using the ability will become imminently and powerfully clear to her player.

Thanks for the response, Holy Outlaw. I was waiting to see if anyone had any other replies, but since time has passed I'll take this as the general consensus!

No sweat, Anacreon. Obviously if your group sees it differently then go with your reading. Dee's ability is obviously one of the weaker OPGs, so I understand the question of "Am I reading this right?" But since underpowered cards aren't really unbalancing, I'm not sure I'd put her high on the errata list. And an errata that actually makes her weaker (as the above seems to do if I'm reading it right) would strike me as undesirable for sure.

Your reading of the card is also my reading of the card, so unless a whole bunch of people jump in with different facts and opinions, I'll be passing on the gist of what you shared.

We play with a lot of "weak" characters because we blind draw our characters every game from the different piles (pilots, etc)... it makes sure we avoid choosing the same people over and over and the games are more challenging. On the other hand, there's a lot of swearing when we turn over our character sheets to find... Blanders... Tigh... Zarek... yet again.

You know, I used to nay say blind drawing, but I'm slowly coming around. I think I'd like to try it with my group next time. I'll let you know.