wiegeabo
Omniposcient
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- Jul 13, 2002
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So....where to start?
Yes, there is a BSG boardgame. And, from what I've heard, people who've never watched the show, or don't even like it, end up loving this game. Honestly, I became addicted to it just watching a video of a group play it.
And I noticed, it could actually work as a forum game. And, after a little research, I found that it had been done on other boards. In fact, let mesteal borrow a snipit from one forum I found.
So...how does this play?
Basically, it depends what kind of character you are.
If you're a human, your goal is to get the Galactica and the human fleet to safety by making enough faster than light jumps that you finally leave the Cylons behind and arrive at the planet Kobal. In the expansion pack, you get another Battlestar, the Pegasus, to help you with things like fleet battles, and your goal is to reach, and then escape from, the new human colony. (Basically following the plot of the first 3 seasons of the show.)
But, if you're a Cylon, your goal is to make sure the Galactica and the fleet doesn't survive by either getting food, morale, or population to zero. The trick here is that, since Cylon's look like humans, they can be anyone. So the Cylon traitor is actually chosen at random and secret at the start of the game. It then becomes their task to sabotage everyone else's efforts without getting exposed as a Cylon (which makes screwing with the humans much harder).
And it's this secrecy about who's actually a Cylon that gets the paranoia rolling and the accusations flying. Who's trying to screw your chances of winning? Who should you trust? Who should you lock up in the brig or toss out the airlock? What if you're wrong?
So...let's get to some actual gameplay.
Every player chooses one of the characters from the show. Each character has unique abilities which can help the humans in different ways. And they get different amounts of different types of skill cards (I'll get into skill cards in a sec). There are also a few Cylon characters you can play. Picking one of these means you can't be a secret Cylon, everyone knows you're the bad guy, but you get special abilities to help compensate for that.
Skill cards are cards drawn at the start of your turn. There are different skill cards like Politics and Engineering, and based on your character, you get a certain amount of whatever cards. This is important because, in each turn, a crisis card is drawn. Each of these cards presents the players with a crisis to resolve, and it takes a certain number of certain types of cards to do so. So, if you have a political crisis to solve, but all the players are engineering heavy, you've got yourself a problem. Every player discards, face down, some of the skill cards in their hand, hoping to rack up enough points (cards have certain values) to pass the crisis. This is where being a secret Cylon is useful because you can slip in skill cards that will hurt the other player's chances of passing the crisis. And, if you're a human trying to get through the crisis, do you risk playing all your relevant skill cards now, or do you hold some in reserve for the future, hoping that the other players will also have enough to get through the current challenge?
Players can also move their tokens to different rooms on the ship that let them do different things. Like power up the engines, fire weapons at the Cylon fleet, or even eject suspected Cylon's (or innocent humans) out into space.
There's more gameplay that goes into this (like fighting if the Cylon fleet shows up), but these are the basics.
So...how would this all work?
Basically, I would be the game's GM, and wouldn't actually play in the game. I'd 'deal' everyone their cards through pm. Players would take their actions in the Game thread (think IC, but not necessarily with any RPing). I'd say what the next crisis is, and people would 'discard' their skill cards to me in pm, at which point I'd reveal the results in the Game thread while keeping track of where everyone is and what they're all doing. And that's how it would essentially work (unless I find better ways to play it).
So...other things you should know?
This isn't an actual application for the game. Right now, I'm just trying to gauge potential interest for it. Because, it would require the players to be fairly active (possibly needing to make at least a couple of Game posts a day, maybe less). Thereby seeing if it's worth my time to research how to manage a smooth game on a forum. Or, possibly gauge the interest in playing the game off-forum in a chat, or even Skype, session. (Typical games, without the expansion pack, run 2 or so hours.) I'd even be willing to buy the game so we can play it properly (although I think someone has put all the necessary tools online to play it, more research required).
Also, for the initial game, we would run without the Pegasus expansion pack to keep things as simple and straightforward as possible, unless everyone really wants to play with it. Something else to note, Cylons tend to win the game a lot. If you're at all familiar with the show, you know just how stacked against the humans the odds are. The game is the same way. Which makes a human victory all the more sweet.
The game is designed for 3-6 players, but, from what I've seen, probably works best with 5 or 6, rather than the recommended 4 (which should give the humans somewhat better odds). And, it can probably be played with more (I've heard of games with 10 players), but there are advantages and disadvantages to doing so.
Oh, and did I forget to mention that halfway through the game, the Cylon cards are dealt again, and one of the human players secretly becomes a Cylon and has to switch sides? ...
I've sort of skimmed through the basics of how the game is played. If you really want to see a real session of the game being played, I invite you to watch the same videos I did at TheSpoonyExperiment.
Parts I & II
Yes, I know, it's 3 hours long. But even if you only watch the first 20 or so minutes, you'll get the gist of how it's played since Spoony takes the viewers, and their newbie player, through the initial rules. And, through the course of the game, you see a lot of the other rules and how it's played. It actually doesn't feel like 3 hours, and you can easily just keep it playing in the background while doing other things (which is how I watched a good chunk of it).
Yes, there is a BSG boardgame. And, from what I've heard, people who've never watched the show, or don't even like it, end up loving this game. Honestly, I became addicted to it just watching a video of a group play it.
And I noticed, it could actually work as a forum game. And, after a little research, I found that it had been done on other boards. In fact, let me
Welcome to BSG: The Board Game, guaranteed to make you paranoid within 5 minutes or your money back.
After forty years passing without a single word from the Cylons, they returned, and all but eradicated the human race. In this time of strife, they must put aside the petty differences that once separated them and focus on one thing survival.
Humanity's only hope of a future is to find a new home; a place called Earth. The Cylons, however, are in constant and tireless pursuit. They now look, breathe and bleed exactly like humans. Cylons have infiltrated the Fleet, destroyed resources, and threaten to finish the extermination they have begun. The humans have no choice but to run, plagued by the paranoia of an indistinguishable enemy.
Are you a Cylon who will help to erase any memory of the human race? Or will your resilience and determination to survive prove to the Cylons that humanity is worth saving?
So...how does this play?
Basically, it depends what kind of character you are.
If you're a human, your goal is to get the Galactica and the human fleet to safety by making enough faster than light jumps that you finally leave the Cylons behind and arrive at the planet Kobal. In the expansion pack, you get another Battlestar, the Pegasus, to help you with things like fleet battles, and your goal is to reach, and then escape from, the new human colony. (Basically following the plot of the first 3 seasons of the show.)
But, if you're a Cylon, your goal is to make sure the Galactica and the fleet doesn't survive by either getting food, morale, or population to zero. The trick here is that, since Cylon's look like humans, they can be anyone. So the Cylon traitor is actually chosen at random and secret at the start of the game. It then becomes their task to sabotage everyone else's efforts without getting exposed as a Cylon (which makes screwing with the humans much harder).
And it's this secrecy about who's actually a Cylon that gets the paranoia rolling and the accusations flying. Who's trying to screw your chances of winning? Who should you trust? Who should you lock up in the brig or toss out the airlock? What if you're wrong?
So...let's get to some actual gameplay.
Every player chooses one of the characters from the show. Each character has unique abilities which can help the humans in different ways. And they get different amounts of different types of skill cards (I'll get into skill cards in a sec). There are also a few Cylon characters you can play. Picking one of these means you can't be a secret Cylon, everyone knows you're the bad guy, but you get special abilities to help compensate for that.
Skill cards are cards drawn at the start of your turn. There are different skill cards like Politics and Engineering, and based on your character, you get a certain amount of whatever cards. This is important because, in each turn, a crisis card is drawn. Each of these cards presents the players with a crisis to resolve, and it takes a certain number of certain types of cards to do so. So, if you have a political crisis to solve, but all the players are engineering heavy, you've got yourself a problem. Every player discards, face down, some of the skill cards in their hand, hoping to rack up enough points (cards have certain values) to pass the crisis. This is where being a secret Cylon is useful because you can slip in skill cards that will hurt the other player's chances of passing the crisis. And, if you're a human trying to get through the crisis, do you risk playing all your relevant skill cards now, or do you hold some in reserve for the future, hoping that the other players will also have enough to get through the current challenge?
Players can also move their tokens to different rooms on the ship that let them do different things. Like power up the engines, fire weapons at the Cylon fleet, or even eject suspected Cylon's (or innocent humans) out into space.
There's more gameplay that goes into this (like fighting if the Cylon fleet shows up), but these are the basics.
So...how would this all work?
Basically, I would be the game's GM, and wouldn't actually play in the game. I'd 'deal' everyone their cards through pm. Players would take their actions in the Game thread (think IC, but not necessarily with any RPing). I'd say what the next crisis is, and people would 'discard' their skill cards to me in pm, at which point I'd reveal the results in the Game thread while keeping track of where everyone is and what they're all doing. And that's how it would essentially work (unless I find better ways to play it).
So...other things you should know?
This isn't an actual application for the game. Right now, I'm just trying to gauge potential interest for it. Because, it would require the players to be fairly active (possibly needing to make at least a couple of Game posts a day, maybe less). Thereby seeing if it's worth my time to research how to manage a smooth game on a forum. Or, possibly gauge the interest in playing the game off-forum in a chat, or even Skype, session. (Typical games, without the expansion pack, run 2 or so hours.) I'd even be willing to buy the game so we can play it properly (although I think someone has put all the necessary tools online to play it, more research required).
Also, for the initial game, we would run without the Pegasus expansion pack to keep things as simple and straightforward as possible, unless everyone really wants to play with it. Something else to note, Cylons tend to win the game a lot. If you're at all familiar with the show, you know just how stacked against the humans the odds are. The game is the same way. Which makes a human victory all the more sweet.
The game is designed for 3-6 players, but, from what I've seen, probably works best with 5 or 6, rather than the recommended 4 (which should give the humans somewhat better odds). And, it can probably be played with more (I've heard of games with 10 players), but there are advantages and disadvantages to doing so.
Oh, and did I forget to mention that halfway through the game, the Cylon cards are dealt again, and one of the human players secretly becomes a Cylon and has to switch sides? ...
I've sort of skimmed through the basics of how the game is played. If you really want to see a real session of the game being played, I invite you to watch the same videos I did at TheSpoonyExperiment.
Parts I & II
Yes, I know, it's 3 hours long. But even if you only watch the first 20 or so minutes, you'll get the gist of how it's played since Spoony takes the viewers, and their newbie player, through the initial rules. And, through the course of the game, you see a lot of the other rules and how it's played. It actually doesn't feel like 3 hours, and you can easily just keep it playing in the background while doing other things (which is how I watched a good chunk of it).
