Battlestar Galactica Boardgame, GMed, STARTING UP!

Turtle · Post by **Turtle** » Thu Oct 22, 2009 12:17 am

Anyone interested in trying to play a forum game of the Battlestar Galactica Boardgame? I'd be GMing it, not playing, basically running it based on the boardgame's rules and components and PMing or spoiler tagging things as needed.

Sean, Minister of KtSP · Thu Oct 22, 2009 2:51 am

I have played this game on other boards, and I'd love to play here.

Scoop20906 · Post by **Scoop20906** » Thu Oct 22, 2009 8:30 am

YES YES YES!!

Original game or also with the new expansion?

Chaosraven · Post by **Chaosraven** » Thu Oct 22, 2009 9:08 am

I'd be interested, but my current work schedule limits my computer time (don't want to hold the game up)

Remus West · Post by **Remus West** » Thu Oct 22, 2009 9:33 am

I'd give this a whirl.

Grundbegriff · Post by **Grundbegriff** » Thu Oct 22, 2009 9:40 am

I'd go for it, except that I've never played the boardgame and am not sure how I'd go about learning its ways.

Remus West · Post by **Remus West** » Thu Oct 22, 2009 9:42 am

Grundbegriff wrote:I'd go for it, except that I've never played the boardgame and am not sure how I'd go about learning its ways.

Just place your trust in me and you'll be fine.

stessier · Post by **stessier** » Thu Oct 22, 2009 9:53 am

I'd be up for it as well, but have the same issue as Grund as I've never played it before. Didn't Scoop try this a while back and link to the rules? I could have sworn I've read and been confused by them before.

Scoop20906 · Post by **Scoop20906** » Thu Oct 22, 2009 11:20 am

stessier wrote:I'd be up for it as well, but have the same issue as Grund as I've never played it before. Didn't Scoop try this a while back and link to the rules? I could have sworn I've read and been confused by them before.

Yeah: Here was the original thread - http://www.octopusoverlords.com/phpBB2/ ... 16&t=64936

The thread contains links to the rulez however this is for the original game and doesn't include the expansion if turtles decides to go that route.

I did try but realized that no one really had the time to commit to it.

Basically, it will involve a ton of PMs since we have secret cards and every turn involves a skill check which means we would need to secretly play cards to the mod by PM.

However, once everyone figures out how a basic round goes it should run very smoothly and be alot of fun. Thanks to turtle for running the game.

Turtle · Post by **Turtle** » Fri Oct 23, 2009 4:26 am

You can download the rules from the BSG page on the Fantasy Flight website. Alternatively, use these direct links:

BSG Boardgame site:
http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_ ... =18&esem=4" target="_blank

A rundown of the game
http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_ ... =18&esem=1" target="_blank

Main BSG Boardgame rules:
http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/ffg_c ... ok_web.pdf" target="_blank

Pegasus Expansion rules:
http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/ffg_c ... ok-web.pdf" target="_blank

I'm going to have a break a bit of copyright stuff by typing out and sending the text of the board locations and cards.

If people want to play with the expansion, we can. But I'd only include some of the expansion elements to keep things easier on the new players. We'd use some of the new characters, the new sympathetic cylon instead of the old sympathizer card, the cylon agendas, the new events, the treachery cards, the pegasus board, and a few more things. No cylon leader, no new caprica. The goal is to reach Kobol.

Looks like we have enough to play. Here's the list of players:

Sean, Minister of KtSP
Scoop20906
Chaosraven - maybe
Remus West
stessier

The game is better with the full 6 players so if you know someone else that wants in on the game. Also this will take a while to finish since I'll be running this on a more casual pace, meaning no real required turn times, just try to respond in less than a week.

If you need to bow out of the game, or just take a break, you can nominate someone to take your place and I'll give him all the needed info.

Thanks to the wonder of the board game geek site, I've got most of the components images and text already which I will post in the first post of the "BSG GAMEPLAY" topic later.

Finally, I know from reading the previous thread that some of you looked at the rules and went

then decided not to play. Well, I'll be handling the details and teaching you how to play, all you'll really be doing is just making decisions on what to do every turn, and each turn you just get a movement, and action. I'm here to guide you through the game as the GM. As such, we'll take things step by step starting with character selection and on through the first turn and beyond. No one learns a board game by just reading the rules, and seeing all those rules seem daunting at first, but in reality it's all broken down into pretty simple steps.

Here's how a forum turn will go:
Player A's turn comes up, I will try to post a turn reference number just in case.

Player A chooses a location to move to, following the movement rules, or uses a skill card's "Movement:..." ability.

Player A chooses an action to perform, either a skill card's "Action:..." ability, or the location's ability.

GM (me) resolves the effects of those actions, including prompting the players whenever a special case comes up.

GM draws a crisis card for Player A, and types out the text on the card or posts a scan. Each card has a different person deciding on how to resolve it, usually the current player, the president, or the admiral. That player then posts how he wants to resolve it.

If it's a skill check, players PM me the cards they want to play in secret. Likewise, anyone using skill cards post that they're playing it publicly.

GM resolves the skill check outcome and the other crisis card effects.

The next player's turn starts.

And that's it.

We'll have two threads going I think. One containing actual play decisions, actions, and outcomes, one containing conversation between players as they choose the next course of action.

Turtle · Post by **Turtle** » Fri Oct 23, 2009 6:24 am

We'll start out by selecting characters. Let's keep this simple, and if you're unfamiliar with the game, don't worry about what your character can do at first and just choose who you like.

To keep things going quickly, we'll have selection go by who posts first of the 5 that were interested. If someone else wants to join, you can select a character, but if someone from the original 5 wants it, you'll have to choose another.

There are some rules to follow and I'll describe the basics of the character sheet.

Above is a character sheet for William Adama, in the show he's the commander of the Battlestar Galactica. Game-wise you should note X things.

Character Type: it's the colored box towards the top right of the sheet. He's a Military Leader type. These mainly come into play when selecting characters, with the type letting you know what your character is generally good at.

Special Ability: This is the first block of text right under the character type. In this case, the ability is called "Inspirational Leader". The ability for a character is almost always a positive/beneficial ability. These can trigger at various times.

One Shot Ability: This is the second text block under the Special Ability, Adama's is called "Command Authority". These abilities can only be used once per game, and only while you are a human player, or an unrevealed cylon player. These are powerful so use them only when things get rough.

Flaws: Separated from the two positive abilities above by a line, every character has some kind of flaw, for Adama, which is "Emotionally Attached".

Setup Location: just under the Flaw is this character's setup location, which is simply the location this character starts when the game begins.

Skills: On the bottom right of the character's photo, you'll see colored bars with text in them, in this case it's "3 Leadership" and "2 Tactics" These represent the skills that the character has naturally. At the start of your turn, you will draw as many skill cards of each type as listed. So, Adama would draw 3 leadership skill cards, and 2 Tactics skill cards. Some characters have dual skills, in those cases you have to choose either one, but not both to draw. Usually each character will have 5 skill cards to draw. Only characters with the Piloting skill may pilot a Viper, which we'll get to later.

Don't worry if you don't understand all this yet, just pick one.

With that out of the way, when you choose your character, you cannot choose a character from a Character Type that has fewer characters left than the other types, excluding Support characters. To put this in another way, imagine each character sheet sorted by type and forming stacks. You have to choose from the largest stack, and cannot choose from the smallest. If stacks are even, you can choose from any of the higher even stacks. What this does is it tends to spread the character types around to that all the bases are covered. Support type characters can be chosen at any time though.

Below is a list of all the characters, sorted by type, and a link to their sheet:

Military Leaders
William Adama
Helena Cain
Karl "Helo" Agathon
Saul Tigh

Pilots
Sharon "Boomer" Valerii
Louanne "Kat" Katraine
Lee "Apollo" Adama
Kara "Starbuck" Thrace

Political Leaders
Gaius Baltar
Ellen Tigh
Laura Roslin
Tom Zarek

Support Characters
Anastasia "Dee" Dualla
"Chief" Galen Tyrol

Grundbegriff · Post by **Grundbegriff** » Fri Oct 23, 2009 10:15 am

Grundbegriff wrote:I'd go for it, except that I've never played the boardgame and am not sure how I'd go about learning its ways.

In?

Scoop20906 · Post by **Scoop20906** » Fri Oct 23, 2009 10:49 am

First come, first serve?

I would like to be Gaius Baltar.

Scoop20906 · Post by **Scoop20906** » Fri Oct 23, 2009 10:54 am

Also, 6 players is the optimal number so if anyone is interested, please join us.

Turtle, thanks for running this. I haven't played with any of the expansion so I agree its best to keep things simple. Maybe if this is a success we can integrate the other expansion pieces.

Grund, I really think you will enjoy this game. We the secret roles (cylon or not cylon) there can be alot of suspicion going on, not unlike a good werewolf game.

Turn progression is simple once you get the hang of it. I tend to think of each players turn as an episode of BSG which focuses on your character.

stessier · Post by **stessier** » Fri Oct 23, 2009 11:43 am

Tigh looks very interesting, but I just can't play as him.

I'll take goodie two-shoes Lee.

Turtle · Post by **Turtle** » Fri Oct 23, 2009 5:17 pm

To be honest, you basically make similar decisions as in Werewolf games, but with more added situations you can use to help ferret out cylons in the crisis cards and their resolution.

I love the politics and paranoia in the game, so even though I'm just running it, I'll still be enjoying being involved. I'll also keep a full log of the game that I'll release after the game is finished so people can see some of the sneakier moves made.

I'm willing to cross post this game on other forums if we can get players from them.

Scoop20906 · Post by **Scoop20906** » Fri Oct 23, 2009 5:40 pm

Any chance everyone could agree to role play their character?

Turtle · Post by **Turtle** » Sun Oct 25, 2009 1:08 am

I think that'd be a bit much.

I can start the game as soon as everyone picks their characters.

Chaosraven · Post by **Chaosraven** » Sun Oct 25, 2009 3:46 am

You'll need an order of players to pick, as the next player in line is required to choose from a pile with the most of that type remaining, unless choosing support character...

Sean, Minister of KtSP · Sun Oct 25, 2009 6:37 am

I'm definitely still in (I'm playing a game on another board). I have only played the basic game. I have not played any of the Pegasus expansion, so I don't know the rules at all, but I'm sure I can catch on quick. Also, I do not own a copy of the game or its expansion. I know the rules for the basic game very well at this point (I've played several games online), but the expansion rules are all new.

stessier · Post by **stessier** » Sun Oct 25, 2009 7:58 am

Chaosraven wrote:You'll need an order of players to pick, as the next player in line is required to choose from a pile with the most of that type remaining, unless choosing support character...

Order is first come, first served! You always try to make everything so complicated.

Scoop20906 · Post by **Scoop20906** » Sun Oct 25, 2009 9:32 am

Military Leaders
William Adama
Helena Cain
Karl "Helo" Agathon
Saul Tigh

Pilots
Sharon "Boomer" Valerii
Louanne "Kat" Katraine
Lee "Apollo" Adama - Stessier
Kara "Starbuck" Thrace

Political Leaders
Gaius Baltar - Scoop20906
Ellen Tigh
Laura Roslin
Tom Zarek

Support Characters
Anastasia "Dee" Dualla
"Chief" Galen Tyrol

Next player can choose a Military or Support Character.

Sean, Minister of KtSP · Sun Oct 25, 2009 1:20 pm

I'll take Helo.

Remus West · Post by **Remus West** » Sun Oct 25, 2009 2:07 pm

Boomer

Turtle · Post by **Turtle** » Sun Oct 25, 2009 5:17 pm

Military Leaders
William Adama
Helena Cain
Karl "Helo" Agathon - Sean
Saul Tigh

Pilots
Sharon "Boomer" Valerii - Remus West
Louanne "Kat" Katraine
Lee "Apollo" Adama - Stessier
Kara "Starbuck" Thrace

Political Leaders
Gaius Baltar - Scoop20906
Ellen Tigh
Laura Roslin
Tom Zarek

Support Characters
Anastasia "Dee" Dualla
"Chief" Galen Tyrol

Now open are Military, Political, and Support.

Grundbegriff · Post by **Grundbegriff** » Sun Oct 25, 2009 6:49 pm

I'll let Chaosraven choose before I choose.

Remus West · Post by **Remus West** » Sun Oct 25, 2009 8:24 pm

You may all be jealous as she will be my consultant on how to correctly play.
Plus, she promised to wear this outfit when we get together to "talk strategy"

If anyone needs us, we will be in her bunk.

sadly for me, none of the above is true.

Turtle · Post by **Turtle** » Sun Oct 25, 2009 8:31 pm

She's a little too done up in that, but yes, attractive.

Chaosraven, was there a particular character or type you wanted to play? If you just say what you want, if there's a conflict I'm sure someone can gladly try a different character or we can use one of the fan-made characters on BGG.

Lars · Post by **Lars** » Mon Oct 26, 2009 10:41 am

If you guys need another player, I'd be happy to join up.

edit: looks like you have 6 players, so you are full up. Unless you plan on adding the Pegasus expansion, then someone could play as the Cylon Leader.

Turtle · Post by **Turtle** » Mon Oct 26, 2009 5:23 pm

I've played with the cylon leader rules before so I know how they work. If you'd like to join in, it's not a big deal for you to join as one. This game only gets better with more players and the cylon leader with his agendas adds a nice bit of intrigue.

That said, we're still waiting on responses from the last few so there might be an opening in the 6.

Scoop20906 · Post by **Scoop20906** » Mon Oct 26, 2009 6:20 pm

Grund, Chaos?

Grundbegriff · Post by **Grundbegriff** » Mon Oct 26, 2009 8:13 pm

Scoop20906 wrote:Grund, Chaos?

I'm interested in Roslin or the Chief. But I want Chaosraven to have priority, since he IN'd before me.

Lars · Post by **Lars** » Tue Oct 27, 2009 2:32 am

Turtle wrote:I've played with the cylon leader rules before so I know how they work. If you'd like to join in, it's not a big deal for you to join as one. This game only gets better with more players and the cylon leader with his agendas adds a nice bit of intrigue.

That said, we're still waiting on responses from the last few so there might be an opening in the 6.

If everyone else is fine with the cylon leader being added in, I would be more then happy to participate. If someone drops out, I would be happy to take on one of the crew positions. I've played a few games with my local friends, and have yet to try a cylon leader, so that looks quite interesting to me. I'll even promise to try and roleplay it up a bit.

So, I guess I will give my choices based on what is available:

Cylon Leader: Cavill
Galactica crew: William Adama

Chaosraven · Post by **Chaosraven** » Wed Oct 28, 2009 1:22 pm

Helena Cain for me

Turtle · Post by **Turtle** » Wed Oct 28, 2009 1:52 pm

Alright, we have our crew. Grundbegriff needs to choose exactly who he wants to be, but all player slots are full.

Chaosraven as Helena Cain
Sean as Helo
Remus West as Boomer
Stessier as William Adama
Scoop20906 as Gaius Baltar
Grundbegriff as Laura Roslin
Lars as the Cylon Leader Cavil

Just so others know, the Cylon leader is a revealed cylon at the start, but can go into a special "infiltrate" mode where he can go and use galactica and colonial one locations like a human player. He has limits. Also, the Cylon Leader has an Agenda Card that determines his separate victory conditions, it's not just human or cylon wins. There are always two objectives in an Agenda, the first is usually if the Human or Cylon sides win, and some other condition like X number of resources must be in the Red Zone. For example, one agenda is that the humans must win, but 3 of their resources must be very low. Another is that the Cylons win, but the humans must make it a certain distance. So with the Agendas, you never quite know what they're trying to do.

I'll be starting a thread soon titled "BSG Boardgame Gameplay" that will contain actual board status, gameplay events, decisions, and card play. Meanwhile we'll keep this thread for discussion so everything is easier to filter through. I'll also be posting all the needed components in the gameplay thread, courtesy of BGG and will post how we'll handle certain mechanics.

Grundbegriff · Post by **Grundbegriff** » Wed Oct 28, 2009 2:00 pm

Grundbegriff as Laura Roslin

Scoop20906 · Post by **Scoop20906** » Wed Oct 28, 2009 2:18 pm

Yes! Can't wait to get started!

Turtle · Post by **Turtle** » Wed Oct 28, 2009 3:47 pm

Okay guys, I just found an excellent forum game of BSG being played on the Penny Arcade forums, and I got permission to use that format and the text he's written up here.

It's done by MrBlarney and you can find his current game here: http://forums.penny-arcade.com/showthread.php?t=100739" target="_blank

If you want an early start, just take a look at that first post and read through things, he does a good job of breaking down the rules into text blocks for easy reference. I'll be copying most of the information there into the Gameplay thread, where we'll actually handle everything, including discussion. I'm working on a board/status layout similar to the one he has that will give everyone a quick overview of all the information in the game, and can be easily updated.

This will be starting tonight as soon as I finish transcribing everything.

stessier · Post by **stessier** » Wed Oct 28, 2009 4:01 pm

Um - I actually didn't choose Adama - I chose Lee. Same family and all, but I think it probably makes a difference.

Turtle · Post by **Turtle** » Wed Oct 28, 2009 4:16 pm

I'll get that fixed in the full thread. I just posted the game thread, but hold off on posting to the game thread for just a bit. I'm still posting basic info and setup. I'll post the first turn for it when it's ready.