Darian wrote: »

Welcome to Battlestar Galactica: The Board Game!

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?

PRINT OUT THIS PLAYER AID AND KEEP IT HANDY
Rules are available online.
Latest FAQ also available.

Guidelines for this play-by-post game:

Any time you are playing or discarding an action card, it should be reported in the thread. The only secret plays are those made to skill checks. On skill checks, the rules state that submissions to the check are made beginning with the player after the active player then continuing in turn order, ending with the active player. Thus, if it is important you may request to know how many cards people coming before you in that order contributed before deciding on your own submission.

For example, on this latest skill check Helo could have requested to know how many cards Chief and Adama were putting any cards in before he made his own decision. Such requests should be in bold cyan to be official and may be answered either by the GM or by the players involved; any other discussions of cards submitted to a check will be considered provisional and non-binding. Final submission numbers will be given by the GM at the time of resolution.


For conditional cards:
Tactics 3-5: Strategic Planning must be played before a die roll and adds 2 to the result. Hasn't come up yet, since no one has attempted a good die roll
Engineering 3-5: Scientific Research is played before cards are added on a skill check; let's engineering cards be added for any check
Politics 3-5: Investigative Committee is played before cards are added on a skill check; all cards are played face up
I am going to require that Scientific Research and the Investigative Committee be declared BEFORE the person playing them submits their own cards on a skill check. Once you make a submission it will be too late for those.
On Strategic Planning, I advise you to consider circumstances when you might want to use it and PM me general guidelines. If an applicable situation comes up, I'll wait on the die roll for you to check in.

Then there are the conditional but AFTER effect cards:
Piloting 1-2: Evasive Maneuvers allows reroll after a viper is attacked
Leadership 3-5: Declare Emergency subtracts two from a skill check after cards are revealed and totaled.
For those, I would advise you to PM me instructions in advance detailing the circumstances in which you want to use them.

In addition to abilities listed on the character sheets, the Admiral and President gain additional abilities.

Admiral / President

Admiral

When the fleet jumps, you draw 2 Destination Cards and choose 1.

You control the nuke tokens. (There are 2 nuke tokens.)

Action: Launch 1 nuke at a Basestar (the nuke is removed from the game).

Nukes damage a Basestar twice on a roll of 1-2, automatically destroy a Basestar on a roll of 3-6, and automatically destroy a Basestar and 3 Raiders in the same area on a roll of 7-8.

Admiral
1. William Adama
2. Saul Tigh
3. Helo Agathon
4. Lee “Apollo” Adama
5. Kara “Starbuck” Thrace
6. Sharon “Boomer” Valerii
7. Galen Tyrol
8. Tom Zarek
9. Gaius Baltar
10. Laura Roslin

President

At the start of the game, draw 1 Quorum Card. You control the hand of Quorum Cards.

Action: Draw a Quorum Card into your hand.

Quorum cards can be played as an action and specialize in increasing resources and dealing with unrevealed Cylons.


President
1. Laura Roslin
2. Gaius Baltar
3. Tom Zarek
4. Lee “Apollo” Adama
5. William Adama
6. Karl “Helo” Agathon
7. Galen Tyrol
8. Sharon “Boomer” Valerii
9. Saul Tigh
10. Kara “Starbuck” Thrace
Note that if the President is in the “Brig,” he keeps the President
title and all associated abilities.

Locations

Galactica

FTL Control - Action: Jump the fleet if the Jump Preparation track is not in the red zone. Might lose population. (Population is lost on a 6 or lower.)
Weapons Control - Action: Attack 1 Cylon ship with Galactica.
Command - Action: Activate unmanned Vipers 2 times. These can be used on the same viper twice, or on two different vipers. Activated vipers can be ordered to launch, move, or fire on a cylon vessel.
Communications - Action: Look at the back of up to 2 civilian ships. You may then move them to adjacent area(s).
Admiral's Quarters - Action: Choose a character; then pass this skill check to send him to the "Brig". [Skill 7, Leadership, Tactics]
Research Lab - Action: Draw 1 engineering or 1 tactics Skill Card.
Hangar Deck - Action: Launch yourself in a viper. You may then take 1 more action. (Must have the Piloting skill.)
Armory - Action: Attack a centurion on the Boarding Party track (destroyed on a roll of 7+).
Sickbay - You may only draw 1 Skill Card during your Receive Skills step.
Brig - You may not move, draw Crisis Cards, or add more than 1 card to skill checks. Action: Pass this skill check to move to any location. [Skill 7, Politics, Tactics]

Colonial One

Press Room - Action: Draw 2 politics Skill Cards.
President's Office - Action: If you are the President, draw 1 Quorum Card. You may then draw 1 additional Quorum Card or play 1 from your hand.
Administration - Action: Choose a character, then pass this skill check to give him the President title. [Skill 5, Politics, Leadership]

Cylon Locations

Caprica - Action: Play your Super Crisis Card or draw 2 Crisis Cards, choose 1 to resolve, and discard the other. No Activate Cylon Ships or Prepare for Jump steps.
Cylon Fleet - Action: Activate all Cylon ships of one type, or launch 2 Raiders and 1 Heavy Raider from each Basestar.
Human Fleet - Action: Look at any player's hand, and steal 1 Skill Card (place it in your hand). Then roll a die, and if 5 or higher, damage Galactica.
Resurrection Ship - Action: You may discard your Super Crisis Card to draw a new one. Then, if you distance is 7 or less, give your unrevealed Loyalty Card(s) to any player.

Skill Cards - Your Hand! Each card has a number value used for skill checks, and an ability.

Point of Clarification: In each deck of skill cards, there are two types of cards. All the 1-2 cards are one type, and all the 3-5 are another. Each deck contains fourteen 1-2s and seven 3-5s.

Of these two types, one is an "Action:" card; these cards can be played only when you have an action available, but may be played at any location (subject to restrictions on the cards).

The other type of card may be played at any time when it is appropriate, whether it is your turn or not, and whether you have any actions or not. Most of these deal with skill checks:

Investigative Committee is played before a check to force cards to be put in face-up
Scientific Research is played before a check to allow engineering cards to count as positive.
Declare Emergency is played after a check to reduce its difficulty by two
Each of those can be played only once per skill check.
The tactics card, Strategic Planning, can be played before any die roll to increase it by 2. (Obviously, a non-cylon would usually NOT want to play this for Cylon rolls; all rolls succeed at higher numbers.) This can only be played once per roll.
The piloting card, Evasive Maneuvers, can be played after a viper is attacked, allowing a re-roll. As many Evasive Maneuvers as you have can be played on the same attack until you get a result you like.

I encourage you to PM me with circumstances in which you will automatically use your cards, so as to help keep the game moving as quickly as possible. If more than one character would be using the same card at the same time, only the next in action order will make the play.

Politics
1-2: Consolidate Power - Action: Draw 2 Skill Cards of any type(s). They may come from outside your skill set.
3-5: Investigative Committee - Play before cards are added to a skill check. All Skill Cards are played face up during this skill check (including from the Destiny deck).

Leadership
1-2: Executive Order - Action: Choose any other player. He may move his character and then take 1 action OR not move and take 2 actions.
3-5: Declare Emergency - Play after strength is totaled in a skill check to reduce its difficulty by 2. Limit of 1 "Declare Emergency" card used per skill check.

Tactics
1-2: Launch Scout - Action: Risk 1 Raptor to roll a die. If 3 or higher, look at the top card of the Crisis or Destination deck and place it on the top or the bottom. Otherwise, destroy 1 Raptor.
3-5: Strategic Planning - Play before any die roll to add 2 to the result. Limit of 1 "Strategic Planning" card used per die roll.

Piloting
1-2: Evasive Maneuvers - Play after any Viper is attacked to reroll the die. If the Viper is piloted, subtract 2 from the new roll.
3-5: Maximum Firepower - Action: Play while piloting a Viper to attack up to 4 times.

Engineering
1-2: Repair - Action: Repair your current location, or if you are in the "Hanger Deck" location, you may repair up to 2 damaged Vipers.
3-5: Scientific Research - Play before cards are added to a skill check. All engineering cards in the skill check count as positive strength.

Combat

Unit Attacked: Die Result
Raider: 3-8 = Destroyed
Heavy Raider: 7-8 = Destroyed
Centurion: 7-8 = Destroyed
Viper: 5-7 = Damaged
8 = Destroyed
If a piloted viper is damaged or destroyed, move the pilot to Sickbay.
Civilian Ship: Automatically Destroyed (no die roll)
Galactica attacked by Raider: 8 = Damaged
Galactica attacked by Basestar: 4-8 = Damaged
Basestar attacked by Viper: 8 = Damaged
Basestar attacked by Galactica: 5-8 = Damaged
Basestar attacked by Nuke: 1-2 = Damaged Twice
3-6 = Destroyed
7-8 = Destroyed and destroy 3 Raiders in the same area

Old OP Junk

The Board

The game starts like so. 1 Basestar and 3 Raiders in front of Galactica, 1 Viper in each space below Galactica, and 2 Civilian Ships behind Galactica.

Victory Conditions:

Humans - Reach Kobol. This is done by making one final jump after accumulating a Destination score of 8 or more (Every time you jump you will earn a Destination Card with a score of 1, 2, or 3).
Cylons - End humanity. This is done by destroying Galactica, dropping one of the fleets stats (Fuel, Food, Morale, Population) to 0, or getting a raiding party far enough into Galactica's innards.

Skill Checks

The main avenue for Cylon subterfuge is by sabotaging skill checks. This is because all players contribute skill cards anonymously. To make things easier, the skill types are color coded:

Politics: yellow. Leadership: green. Tactics: purple. Piloting: red. Engineering: blue.

A skill check will involve from 1 to 4 colors, and a number. A skill check always includes 2 cards from the Destinty Deck (which consists of random skill cards), and then each player may add as many cards as they like. After the skill cards are revealed, you ADD all of the numbers from the correctly colored skill cards, and then SUBTRACT all of the numbers from the non-matching skill cards. If you meet or beat the skill check number, the check is a pass. This usually does nothing but avoid negative results, but can sometimes yield positive results.

Human Players

Your goal is to reach Kobol. This is accomplished by making a series of jumps, each rewarding you with an amount of distance, from 1 to 3. When 4 distance is reached, the Sleeper Agent phase occurs and the second half of the Loyalty Deck is dealt out. When 8 distance is reached, one final jump wins the game for the humans.

Jumping

The game starts with the Jump Prep marker on Start. Each Crisis card drawn has a chance to advance the Jump Prep marker. When the Jump Prep marker reaches the -3 or -1 spots, any character can use the FTL Control location to initiate a jump, but will risk losing 3 or 1 population. If the Jump Prep marker advances to the Auto Jump spot, the fleet automatically jumps.

Jumping clears the board of all ships. All Vipers, unmanned or piloted, return to the reserves. Any characters piloting Vipers are moved to the Hangar Deck. While jumping does clear the board of all Cylon ships, and Centurions in a Boarding Party remain on Galactica.

Resources

The Human Fleet has four resources: Fuel, Food, Morale, Population. If any of these resources drop to 0, the Humans lose.

Fuel starts at 8 and goes "red" at 4. Food starts at 8 and goes "red" at 4. Morale starts at 10 and goes "red" at 5. Population starts at 12 and goes "red" at 6.

A resources going "red" has no inherent affect, but can sometimes trigger effects on other cards. It also means you're in trouble.

Cylon Players

Revealed Cylons and Crises
Although revealed Cylon players do not automatically draw a Crisis Card on their turn, they may draw and play a Crisis Card by using the "Caprica" Cylon location. When a revealed Cylon player draws a Crisis Card that poses a choice for the current player, that player makes the decision.

Revealed Cylon players are unaffected by abilities on Crisis Cards and skill checks. They cannot be sent to the "Brig" or "Sickbay" locations, and cannot be forced to discard Skill Cards.

Revealed Cylon Players' Skill Cards
Revealed Cylon players only draw two Skill Cards on their turns. A revealed Cylon player may - at his option- play one (and only one) Skill Card into each skill check that is resolved.

Revealed Cylon players may not use actions or abilities listed on Skill Cards. They must continue to obey the hand limit rule, and sicard down to 10 Skill Cards at the end of each player's turn.

The Destiny deck is still used after a Cylon player has been revealed.

Next, I will go over many of the various cards in the game. There are a lot, so I will be listing many here and referencing them by title in the future.

Game Turn

1. Receive Skills Step: The current player draws the number and types of Skill Cards listed on his character sheet.
2. Movement Step: The current player may move to a different location. If he moves to a different ship (from Galactica to Colonial One or vice versa), he must discard one Skill Card from his hand.
3. Action Step: The current player chooses one action to perform. Options include the actions listed on his location, character sheet, and Skill Cards.
4. Crisis Step: The top card of the Crisis deck is drawn and then resolved.
5. Activate Cylon Ships Step: If any are in play, Cylon ships are activated according to the Crisis Card drawn.
6. Prepare for Jump Step: If the Crisis Card has the "prepare for jump" icon on it, the fleet token advances one space on the Jump Preparation track. If the token reaches the end of this track, then the fleet jumps.

To be continued... My brain is ruined and I will add more rules as they come up. :P

Military Leaders
William Adama
Saul Tigh
Karl "Helo" Agathon

Political Leaders
Laura Roslin
Tom Zarek
Gaius Baltar

Pilots
Lee "Apollo" Adama
Kara "Starbuck" Thrace
Sharon "Boomer" Valerii

Support
"Chief" Galen Tyrol

Much of the OP is stolen from Akinos with my thanks. Any errors are mine.