by Asahi
Variant: The Trojan ElephantIn many BSG games I played, I found two points quite annoying
1) How difficult the match is for the humans changes extremely if they have two presleeper or two postsleeper cylons.
2) Especially in PBF games with it's increased card counting very few hidden cylons dare to spike skill checks. Most cylons just play nice until a chance for a hard hit comes up and then reveal. But I think that hidden cylons with small sabotages here and there are much more fun for both sides. But revealed cylons are much more effective (with their strong cylon locations) than hidden cylons, which even have to help the humans to stay hidden.
Therefore I created a variant to solve these two problems. I would love to hear your critique.
Variant changes based on a BSG 6 player basegame:
1) First 4 YANAC + 2 YAAC are dealt to the players, afterwards everyone gets one YANAC (as a partial cover for Mugshots, ...). The player look at all their loyalty cards at the start of the game.
Reason: Avoiding the chance of a two postsleeper cylons game. There will be always two presleeper cylons, what should compensate for the 4 vs. 2 set up.
2) All discarded skill cards are mixed into destiny without showing them to the public.
Reason: Makes card counting pretty difficult and makes it easier for hidden cylons to lie about their cards. One of the biggest problems for a hidden cylons was always that a forced discard could show that the cylon had a card he claimed he wouldn't.
3) For all dice rolls for which a fail roll causes no negative effect (therefore no resource or Raptor is lost, ...) the following procedure is applied:
The rolling player is the only one seeing the dice. If it's a fail, he announces it without showing the dice and it counts as a fail. If it's a success, he can announce it as a success, show the dice and the success effect is taking place or he announces it as a fail without showing the dice and it counts as a fail.
Reason: In this way a cylon can manipulate some of his own actions (e.g. attack rolls) so that he doesn't have to help the humans.
4) Pegasus IC, Pegasus Caprica and Pegasus Human Fleet are used. The Human Fleet allows also revealed cylons to infiltrate back to Galactica. Infiltrated they are treated as humans (e.g. draw 5 skill cards, can play and be effected by skill cards, ...).
Reason: The Pegasus IC avoids too easy skill checks. The Peagsus Caprica weakens revealed cylons. The Pegasus Human Fleet makes it possible for cylons, who had to reveal (to escape from the brig), to come back to the fight on Galactica.
5) Mistrust token are introduced:
For every Morale point which is getting lost the President receives a Mistrust token and for every Population point the Admiral. If a Morale respective Population point is restored by any effect the President respective Admiral discards one Mistrust token. If a player has at least 2 Mistrust token and recceives another token, he has to give all his titles to the player(s) with a) the least Mistrust token and b) in the case of a tie of token to the player highest in the line of succession for this title.
Reason: This should mix the power distribution in the crew quite a bit and force a little bit more selfish play (the President will care more for Morale, while the Admiral will be more caring for the population).
6) If a player use a Launch Scout, he draws two cards of the crises or destination deck, puts one of them at the bottom of the deck and mix the other one together with the top two cards of the deck (thus the choosen card will be one of the three top cards of the deck).
Reason: With the original rules a Launch Scout basically could be only used pro-human or neutral. With the new rule a hidden cylon can hurt the humans.
7) Some smaller card changes
- Accept Prophecy: In addition to it's original effect, the President discards all his Mistrust token when this card is played. Discard Accept Prophecy if the President title is moved to another player.
- Assign Vice President: In addition to it's original effect, the target player has the highest position in line of succession for the President title. In addition he discards all his Mistrust token when this card is played. Discard this card after he received the President title.
- Encourage Mutiny: If the choosen player receives the Admiral title, he also discards all his Mistrust token.
- Research Lab: Action: draw one Tactic card or two Engineering cards.
Reason: The Research Lab is used very rarely.
- Repair: The repair of the location or Vipers is just happening on a dice roll of 3+.
Reason: In combination with the hidden dice roll rule it gives a hidden cylon the chance to avoid helping the humans.