Edit:

---v2.2---

Here's the Version 2.2 link with some minor alterations to Caprica Six and Leoben after playtesting. Also a few spelling/grammar fixes on a few characters, including Anders.

http://uploading.com/files/5BC4HTQY/BSGEvenMoreAltCharactersv2.2.doc.html

---v2.0---

http://uploading.com/files/EJXOSQT2/BSGEvenMoreAltCharactersv2.0.doc.html

Some minor changes including Athena's Fire Chaff, Cavil's Weakness, and the addition of three new cards and the bonus card.

Cool additions with Hot Dog, Crashdown, etc. And of course GUY NORMAL!! Lol!

I'll try to get feedback as I try them out.

Thanks.

Now between the two homeade expansions we're only missing two cool people: Margaret "Racetrack" Edmondson and Captain Aaron Kelly.

yo just because photoshop exists doesn't mean you need to use it. Totally ruins the game by having so much versatility in choice. Plus someo f thos you created are like the lamest guys from the show. Tigh's wife, the mechanic they gave a bigger role because she'd been around since the pilot episode, the black cylon who tried to renegotiate his contract and got laughed at then written out of the show, xena warrior princess, Olmos's son in real life (one of the most annoying characters in the show), the bald guy who wigged out on Kobol and a SECOND SHARON! Seriously. How are you supposed to have two people who look the same and both not robots? Plus you have way too much text. How about tiny little sentences? And stop making your own rules to the game like delays and whatknot. Ridiculous. The only one I like that you did is the robot with the moustache and only because it was a cheap laugh. I hope nobody uses these for real.

This game is about the CREW fighting cylons NOT random people and cylons from the show just because you like the characters. How do you explain Leoben being the admiralty? Seriously. Think abuot it. So stupid. Make your own board game and then we'll play that and leave this one alone.

Or make more funny ones that aren't serious. Like Jesus or something. Make Jesus a character who can turn fuel into food or something.

That was totally uncalled for, rude, and very offensive.

I'm not sure I'm in favor of the new character (never used them myself, and think that some of them are somewhat overpowered), but you went totally over the line.

If I never read another post of yours, it will be too soon.

Quazimodem,

Glad you liked the cards! I hope using them in your own games brings you hours of enjoyment.

Quazimodem said:

Setting poor grammar aside I will translate this person's mess into some constructive criticism:

Hi,

I do not think that having so many characters to select from improves the game. I also do not appreciate the characters you have provided. Ellen Tigh, Simon, D'Anna Biers, Hot Dog, Crashdown and Athena are poor choices in my opinion because the actors give weak performances in the show. Regarding Boomer and Athena: It is illogical to me to allow two characters who are in effect the same person to co-exist in this setting considering the existence of cylons.

Furthermore, I believe that the character sheets you have created are too text-heavy. Perhaps you would benefit from fewer long-winded sentences and more direct information.

I also do not appreciate your creativity with regard to rule-creation to accompany your new characters.

The one character I did appreciate is Guy Normal. It made me laugh.

I believe the theme of this game relates to the crew of the Battlestar Galactica combatting the evil cylons; I do not think the creators' intention was to allow for civilians/cylons to be a part of the game as player characters.

I don't think Leoben Conoy has the training or merit to lead the Colonial Fleet.

See Quasi? If you just type in a clean polite way, people may listen to what you have to say. A message dripping with poor grammar, uncorrected spelling mistakes and lots of sarcasm and obvious rudeness is not the way to get a message across.

All in all I give your posting a C+

Please see me after class.

iceberg84 said:

Neeerrrrrrrrrdd

what a dumb response

Not helping your cause, there.

Love 'em or hate 'em, I have yet to see any game where the community has not come up with alternate rules, characters, events, whatever, so why should BSG be any different? I don't think any of these fan-based creations are meant to replace the game, but rather just some fan's attempt to expand the game. Some are funny, like Guy Normal. Some are well though out and balanced. Some are totally broken. Some change the scope of the game. If you don't like them, that's fine. But that doesn't mean you have to attack the creator. Or be attacked in return. Or that I am saying that either of these have taken place -- that's a matter of opinion.

I may never play with any of these fan creations, but that doesn't mean I'm not interested in seeing them. Or giving advice if someone asks for it. And I'm not endorsing them either. But I wouldn't be adverse to a BSG expansion, and who knows what track they will take with the game, if any.

JerusalemJones said:

The difference is the balance of the game.

For instance the Buffy board game was a ton of fun when people added their own homebrew rules.

Games like Descent offer a bunch of fun opportunity for creating new scenarios.

However BSG was developed with carefully crafted balance in mind, far more so than other games...and because of the mechanics of the game, the Clue Master Detective approach of expansions ("More rooms, more suspects, more weapons!") doesn't work.

To make matters worse, because BSG is a liscenced product with a rabid fan base, everyone is going to want to make sheets for their favorite character...sadly, not everyone is a game designer.

"But Melonball, who cares? If these guys make sheets, you don't have to use them! What's your damage, you fun sucking dirt bag!"

Most of the time I wouldn't care, and in fact would try to add some ideas...however BSG is different.

Not only is the balance so intricately designed that I get mildly offended when people look at wildly unbalanced sheets and think they are totally playable (easy solution would be not to look at them, or follow up posts, but i have this trainwreck fascination), but more importantly I live in perpetual fear that FFG will see these characters getting posted and think it's a good idea to make an expansion set beacuse "that's what people want"...games like Android and Descent beg for expansions...they're great fun. This game never should have one. Ever.

Melonball said:

Well, to each their own there. I for one can't wait for an expansion and see no reason why FFG would not capitalize on it. And I'm pretty sure we'd probably get a few more characters to play with, though I think we can both agree that FFG and Corey K. will make sure they are MUCH more balanced than the homebrew ones we have seen.

Melonball said:

They are overpowwerd and unbalanced. People just make characters who can do the things they want to do but can't with restrictted charecter classes (like a pilot with politics or whatever). It's like cheating and that's why it's dumb. Plus don't make new rules, that's also dumb. It's like something happens to you in a game like you argue with your friend or somethign stupid and to win the argument next time you make a character who can do whatever it is you wanted to do in the first place.

Why not make a character who can draw every skill card in the game and blow up galactica if you're a cylon because that's basically what you're doing anyway.

I will freak out if FFG sees these lame character sheets and makes them into playables.

Hey here's a thought: If the two Sharens are the same person, how come they don't ahve the same skill cards? It's not like they went to different schools or whatnot.

Don't ignore me just because I can't type as well as iceberg or mellonball

Quazimodem said:

Ok.

Quazimodem said:

That's hyperbole.

Quazimodem said:

So you're saying that cards with new rules came out of wanting to win arguments with friends about previous games? That's quite an assumption there.

Quazimodem said:

Athena and Boomer have led quite different lives, and therefore not only are they not the same person, it entirely makes sense that they could have different training, and therefore different skill cards.

Have you considered that perhaps the reason you're being ignored is not because of typing, but because of the combative and insulting nature of your posts?

Melonball said:

I think either the first fan expansion or this one would hardly qualify as wildly unbalanced. Certainly there are some cards that could be improved, but I heartily disagree with your take on the situation.

Melonball said:

Unfortunately, I think it does boil down to what people want. Personally I'd be sad if the opposite happened, and FFG felt that everyone didn't want to see an expansion, and never made one. I think the game could be fun with an expansion, perhaps not all the time, but as an added option. I don't think the game is perfect by any means, and some more variety could help, as could some new avenues of play.

In any case, if that's what most people want, and most people believe, then why should your opinion trump that?

Quazimodem said:

No. I, for one, did not make these cards because I wanted to play a character with more power or versatility than the game already allowed for (basically what you're saying here). I made them because I and my friends wanted a chance to play other characters from the series, and I thought a peppering of new abilities might lead to interesting situations in the game.

Your argument states that people who make new cards are the equivilant of power-gamers. How does that follow -at all-? Couldn't there -possibly- be another explanation?

EStick said:

To address your 2nd point first: I don't think my opinion should trump anyone's, but I do think that adding an expansion is a highly risky endevor (albeit as Matt pointed out, an almost certain one). And pointing that out on the forum is something that I think is fairly important. I know everyone gets excited about the "neat" possibilities but in their excitement they aren't stopping to think about what that means for the mechanics of the game. All I'm trying to do is raise awarness, not be the little black rain cloud that ruins everyone's parade.

I've been meaning to work on a longer post explaining why i'm riding the expansion hate train, and i'll try to get to it sooner than later...hopfully what I'm saying will make a hair more sense.

As for the thoughts that the sheets are wildly unbalanced...I don't want to sound mean but the fact you don't see that the characters are out of balance (either by being over or under powered) is indicitive of the problem.

I'll be posting up comments on all the characters for you since you asked for constructive critisim, but real quickly a large problem with several of the characters you're presenting here is that the daily powers for several characters are only helpful if they are human, not if they are cylon. This is woefully inconsistent with the way the original set of characters were designed.

Melonball said:

Perhaps I was out of line saying that. You, of course, are welcome to your opinion, and if you feel strongly about it, why shouldn't you be able to state it with fervor? You raise good points about the game changing drastically with an expansion, and about the careful balance already existing being difficult to preserve in its current state. If I was trying to quash those points, then I was in error - I may disagree that they're important enough to warrant stopping an expansion, but they certainly remain valid points nevertheless.

Melonball said:

In this game, I like abilities that can help or harm much better than those that can only help. I think changing some of the ones I wrote to allow for that would be a good idea.

To play devil's advocate though, don't you think some of the original cards have abilities that are very difficult to use -against- humans? For example, Starbuck's ability to take extra actions while in a viper usually means that she has to continue shooting (anything else is a sure give-away that she's not playing for the home-team). So even though the extra actions in a rare case could be used against the humans, perhaps once, by and large, they're a pro-human ability.

Lee Adama is an even better example. Jumping into a viper can only help the human's side, not hurt it. And Commander Adama's ability can only help skill checks, so therefore it is an entirely pro-human ability.

So in other words, don't you think that there are already original character cards whose daily abilities can only help the humans?

That's not true at all. Lees power is great as a cylon. When a fleet car is drawn you launch and take a free action. You use this action to reveal, now the humans are out a viper and you got to reveal out of turn, thus allowing you to take cylony actions as normal on your turn.

However I was talking specifically about the once a game powers

Lee- fly vipers away from protecting the fleet or send them into battle

Starbuck - can either bury a fleet card or force them to redraw a card that would help out the humans

Boomer - auto pass or fail is huge

Adama - worst daily in the game, but it helps him no matter what side hes on (also offset by the fact that he starts as admiral)

Saul - either you get the president away from someone you dont trust, place more power on yourself, or sow dissent

Helo - pretty straight forward like boomer

Zerick - can help or hurt the humans depending on the situation

Roslin - can draw for a pivitol pardon or brig card

Balatar - find out whos a cylon or sow dissent

Chief - help make a challenge easier or harder

Yes, you're right, Lee's each turn power was a bad example - but my points on Starbuck's common power and Commander Adama's common power still stand - they're almost completely human-plus powers.

Now if you're saying that doesn't matter, but the once a game powers should be able to be used for cylon and human alike, I suppose that could be a valid point. Certainly I'd prefer the once a game's to be usable both ways as well, so you can 'go out with a bang' as it were. However, there are certainly arguments for a character having a great common ability that is usable for good or evil, and a once a game that is only usable for good.

In the end, I'm not convinced that a one-sided once a game really kills balance.

Here's the link to the latest version of the files. I believe the only major differences from 2.0 are some small changes to Caprica Six, Anders, and Leoben after some of our playtesting on those characters.

http://uploading.com/files/5BC4HTQY/BSGEvenMoreAltCharactersv2.2.doc.html

no. Edit function not working. Aargh.

Technical problem-This link is telling me to wait until I've downloaded, even though my attempts at downloading never really started, no download. Then it says I can't try again, my IP address, until the download is done. Can this be put on somewhere alternate, maybe on the download site but another file, or do you have a webpage, or can I send an email address to you? I am interested in the characters. thanks

Or maybe as a ZIP file somewhere, Boardgame geek.com has a section for our beloved Game:)

I'll host the file here for a few days. Just let me know you've got it so I can take it down.

http://darkh.com/BSGEvenMoreAltCharactersv2.2.doc

Questions and comments.

I am not flaming anyone, OK? But remember to spell Hangar Deck and not Hanger Deck. I think that is D'Anna.

I think that the order on the skills on the character should reflect the order of the cards on the table, i.e. Gold first. It is easier when asking for SKill cards to take it in order. I think Brother Cavill can be improved there. maybe others

Ellen Tigh- When she uses an ability like an Admiral, is it on HER turn, or does she butt in anytime? I think it is very strong to let her use it anytime, better on her turn. Opinions?

Ellen Tigh. Can use a NUKE? I invite answers to that question. It seems too strong. But I like the idea of a butt-in, obnoxious character !

Leoben- Can replace a nuke, Is that within component limitations, i.e. one nuke is already gone for him to replace?

I like Athena's change

Why is Brother Cavill changed to drawing another loyalty card, instead of showing his if it isn't a Cylon? I played with the original version, it was balanced. I thought it was fun that there was one character in the game that it was possible to KNOW if he was a Cylon. Assuming the cards fell a certain way of course.

I know one can always say "if you don't like it, don't use it", but I am interested in being enlightened or convinced.

Thanks for the help with the download

Question about Athena

If the Cylon ships are moved two spaces and then put on their backs, does that last until they are ACTIVATED next, until the next person startsm, or finishes their turn, or is it when ATHENA gets her turn again. ? Thanks