Correct. Correct. Correct. (Hopefully this post is long enough now).

I'm actually more interested in Rachel after reading the article as well. I'm a sucker for the "almost human type", which is why I went for Floyd first, then Caprice second. Rachel may very well be in third place for me now (considering her cybernetics), followed by the corrupt cop and the PI now a distant last.

I do hope that the events on New Caprica are depicted by some sort of short mini-game that takes place at the end of a standard game featuring the "New Caprica" objective, the setup of which is determined by the performance of each side during the course of the main game. Any ideas how such a mini-game might be implemented?

Tim Kelly said: Bleached Lizard said: Corey has stated that you can. It goes against what the text on the location actually says, I know, but this is from the designer. It may go against the location text, but it does follow the rules on page 25, which say "Each Viper may be activated any number of times during a player's turn..." TK Yes, but that could simply be taken to mean that a Viper could be activated multple time by, say, multiple activations of the Command location through use of Executive Orders. The text on the command location itself (strongly) implies that two different Vipers must be activated when it is used.

Xandria said: Currently, I am working on some 20 RtL levels featuring expansion critters. I am willing to share them I'd be interested to see these too. Is there somewhere you can upload them to so we can all have a look? Otherwise, I think you already have my e-mail address, no?

jakimaru said: Mike said: JerusalemJones said: Also note that the rules allow for the same viper to be activated multiple times during a player's turn. Is that so? I was under the impression, that you can only activate up to two Vipers - not one Viper twice. The unmanned vipers can be activated more than once during a turn but not twice using the command location. You can activate the command area twice if exec ordered and choose to activate the same viper on both activations but i don't think you can activate one unmanned viper twice with a single activation of the command location. Corey has stated that you can. It goes against what the text on the location actually says, I know, but this is from the designer.

Floyd for me, closely followed by Caprice. The crooked cop also looks like he could be cool. The other two don't really interest me at all.

Normally in FFG games, if any effects resolve at the same time, it is at the discretion of the active player what order to resolve them in. So yes, I'd say that Boomer could look at the crisis card first before discarding.

Wild-Duck said: Hey , I was wondering in RtL what cost do you put on using Dark Glyphs?, I have not found a cost listed anywhere that I have looked. Thanks The same cost as in the normal game (2 treachery).

Mattr0polis said: Royaldoy said: Mattr0polis said: More loyalty cards (enough for maybe up to 8-10 players), especially more you are a cylon ones with new reveal actions. I can't think of something more boring. Playing a game with 8-10 people, you will quickly run out of skill cards to play prior to your turn coming around, which will be about 2 hours later. I am usually one for long epic games, but in those long epic games I want to be actively doing more than what I would be doing in an 8-10 player game. By the time it would get back to my turn, I think I would be asleep. True, you're probably correct there. I stand by the rest of my list though, especially the earth card then so at least the 6 players can play a more epic game. I doubt very much that an "Earth" objective card would lengthen the game any. I'm predicting that the expansions will each add a new objective that corresponds to the end of each season (so the first expansion will have a "New Caprica" objective, the second expansion will have an "Ionian Nebula" objective, and the final expansion will have an "Earth" objective). The objectives probably won't lengthen the game, but will instead adjust the game flow and introduce new "phases" (like the Sleeper Agent phase). For example, a New Caprica objective could read: 3: Sleeper Agent phase - deal out a second loyalty card to each player. 5: Pegasus phase - the Pegasus board is now accessible from Galactica. Shuffle the Pegasus crisis deck into the Galactica crisis deck. 8: New Caprica - if the fleet jumps once more, the humans win. If any objective cards *do* extend the required distance past 8, then I'm sure that there would also be new destination cards provided in the expansion that allow the fleet to jump 4 or more in a single jump. The designers wouldn't deliberately add anything that would make the game significantly longer than it already is.

bfkiller said: I plan on trying BSG as a straight-up 2-player co-op without the loyalty cards to see how that flies. I suspect the crisis cards will be nearly impossible to pass with so few skill cards being added to each skill check. Adding a Cylon into the mix would surely make the game completely futile for the humans. Any 2-player variant will need to come up with a system that prevents the skill checks from being insurmountable. Why would the skill checks be harder to pass with only two humans and no Cylon?

Here is a solo variant I have come up with. It's only partially tested so far and seemed to work well, though having a few more people test it and feedback would be excellent. Let me know how you go with it. Enjoy! SETUP Choose 5 characters to control. All skill cards are kept face up in front of the character's card. Deal the loyalty cards for a 5-player game face down to each character. You may not look at these cards except by the use of special game text (such as Baltar's ability). Seed the Destiny Deck with three of each type of skill card instead of two. Always replenish with three of each type whenever it is exhausted. Characters take their turns in turn order, as usual. The character currently taking their turn is referred to as the "active character". Only the active character may contribute cards to skill checks in the normal way (see "Skill Checks" below). However, any character may play a card for its special ability as in the normal game. You may also use character abilities of non-active characters at any time (providing they are not "action" abilities, of course). HIDDEN / REVEALING CYLONS At the start of each character's turn reveal the top two cards from the Destiny Deck and choose one (if the colour of either card matches the colour of the active character, then that card must be chosen. If both cards match the colour, then you must choose the highest-valued card). The current character randomly reveals one of their unrevealed Loyalty cards if the value of the chosen card with the following modifiers equals 7 or more (then discard both cards): +1 per distance travelled, +2 if the colour of the card matches the colour of the character (i.e, green leadership card for a green military leader), -4 per previously revealed Cylon If the revealed Loyalty card is You Are Not A Cylon, then nothing happens. Leave the card face up for the rest of the game. If the revealed Loyalty card is a You Are A Cylon card, the Cylon is revealed as usual and their reveal effect is carried out. A Cylon that is revealed keeps his three highest-valued cards, with priority going to cards from decks closest to the back of Galactica (i.e, Engineering first to Political last). SKILL CHECKS When making skill checks, only the active character may add cards to the skill check in the normal way. Cards added from other characters (including revealed Cylons) are instead first *discarded*, then a number of random cards from the matching skill deck are added to the skill check; for each 1-3 strength card you discarded add 1 card to the skill check, and for each 4-5 strength card you discarded add 2 random cards. Additonally, rules for the Destiny Deck change while there are hidden Cylons. These rules only apply before the Sleeper Agent phase while there are no revealed Cylons, and only after the Sleeper Agent phase while there is at least 1 hidden Cylon: for skill checks that only require *two* different types of skills add 1 extra card from the Destiny Deck into the skill check. For checks that require four different types of skills add 1 less card (this represents the hidden Cylon players interfering with the human's plans). Revealed Cylons will always add 1 negative card to skill checks if possible, which will always be their highest valued card of the type closest to the back of Galactica (remember, this card will be always be added using the discard/draw random method described above for non-active characters). CYLON PLAYER'S TURN When drawing skill cards for the Cylon player, always draw from either the Engineering or Piloting decks first. To determine which deck to draw from, look at the Cylon player's hand and draw from the deck in which the Cylon player's highest-valued card is lower in strength (for example, if his highest valued Engineering card was 4 and highest valued Piloting card was 2, he would draw a Piloting card). If there is a tie, then the Cylon player draws from the deck in which he holds the least number of cards. If still tied he draws a Politics card. At the start of each revealed Cylon player's turn, reveal and discard the top card from the destiny deck. The Cylon player's action is determined by the strength of the skill card drawn and if the Cylon player has a Super Crisis card available or not (if the action chosen by the Cylon player is not valid, i.e - Cylon Fleet when there are no Cylon ships on the board, then the Cylon player chooses the next Cylon location to the right, with the Resurrection ship "wrapping around" back to Caprica if the Res. Ship is not a valid choice): Cylon player has a Super Crisis card: 1 - Caprica (normal crisis) 2 - Caprica (super crisis) 3 - Cylon Fleet 4/5 - Human Fleet Cylon player does not have a Super Crisis card: 1 - Caprica (normal crisis) 2 - Cylon Fleet 3 - Human Fleet 4/5 - Resurrection Ship The rules for each location change as follows: Caprica (normal crisis) - flip the top card of the crisis deck and resolve it normally. Then flip the top card again - if it has a jump prep icon, place it at the bottom of the deck. Otherwise, replace it at the top of the deck. If ever a crisis card gives the current player a choice, roll a die - 1-4: the Cylon player chooses the first option, 5-8: the Cylon player chooses the second option. Cylon Fleet - flip and discard the top two cards of the crisis deck. Resolve the Cylon fleet activation icons on both cards. If both cards show the same icon, resolve only one of those icons. Human Fleet - the Cylon player will steal from the hand of the character with most cards in their hand (ties go to the character next in turn order). The Cylon player will steal the highest strength card the character holds, ties going in skill deck order from the back of Galactica. Resurrection Ship - the Cylon player gives an unrevealed Loyalty card he may still hold to a random character (if there is still a hidden Cylon) following the rules below for selecting random characters. He then draws a new Super Crisis card (which is kept face down until revealed). ADMIRAL When jumping the fleet, if any of the Admiral's Loyalty cards are still unrevealed do not draw two cards from the destination deck. Instead, simply flip the top card and resolve it normally. If all of the Admiral's Loyalty cards are currently revealed as You Are Not A Cylon cards, then you may draw two cards from the destination deck and choose between them, as normal. If ever the Admiral is revealed as a Cylon, immediately remove the highest-valued distance travelled card from the card row - the fleet hasn't travelled as far as you thought! PRESIDENT When drawing Quorum cards (including the President's starting Quorum card), do not look at them. Instead, place them in a face-down "Quorum stack" near the President's character card. Whenever the President wishes to play a Quorum card, draw a number of cards from the top of this stack dependant on the following conditions: If the President currently holds any unrevealed Loyalty cards, draw two cards. You may choose to play one of these cards. If all of the President's Loyalty cards are currently revealed as You Are Not A Cylon cards, draw three cards. You may choose to play one of these cards. Any cards drawn that you choose not to play may be placed either at the top or bottom of the Quorum stack. If the President is ever revealed as a Cylon, immediately discard all but the bottom three cards from the Quorum stack. OTHER RULES Whenever a card instructs any non-active character (i.e, non-active human characters or revealed Cylon players) to "choose a character", then this choice is made randomly. Roll the die and count that many characters forward in turn order to determine the target. Cards that allow you to look at another character's loyalty cards do not "reveal" that card for the purposes of these rules. However, they may give you a clue as to whose once-per-game ability you should use sooner rather than later, and who you should keep the Admiral and President titles away from! CARD CHANGES AND CLARIFICATIONS You Are A Cylon - May Damage Galactica: Draw the five damage tokens. The Cylon player will choose tokens in the following order (ties broken randomly): 1) Location with the most crew members present. 2) Resource token (fewest remaining first). 3) Empty locations. Investigative Committe: Allows to to play cards into skill checks directly from non-active characters' hands (without using the discard/draw random method described under "Skill Checks"). Assign Mission Specialist: As with the Admiral above, if the character chosen to receive AMS has any unrevealed Loyalty cards, draw only two destination cards instead of three. If the character's Loyalty cards are all revealed as You Are Not A Cylon cards, then draw all three destination cards. If the character is revealed to be a Cylon while AMS is in play, remove the highest-valued destination card from the card row. OPTIONAL (UNTESTED) RULE Instead of allowing any character to play a card for its special ability, use these rules instead: * Any card held by the active character may be played by *any* character, without restriction. For example, if the active character holds at least one Evasive Maneuvers card, then you may choose to play an Evasive Maneuvers card from any character's hand without restriction. * If you wish to play a card from a non-active chracter's hand of which the active character does *not* hold a copy, then that character must hold at least one additional copy of that card for each unrevealed loyalty card he holds (though still only one copy is played). For example, if Baltar is a non-active character with two unrevealed loyalty cards, and you wish to play Investigative Commitee from his hand (and the active character does not hold a copy of Investigative Committe), he must hold at least three copies of Investigative Committe to play one of them.

How are your human players getting stuck in the Brig in the first place?

KevinW said: Huh. I admit, I'm kind of sad. The Human preview has been up for a week or two now and not one person noticed the short description of its power... I noticed it, of course. It made me nostalgic for my old avatar.

It's just so that the investigators play a balance between their own light cards and other players' dark cards. You can play a coulpe of your own light cards, but then you have to play bad things on the other players before you can play your own light cards again.

BroLuk said: During 1 session of Descent there shows 1 problem for our group. I was study hard rule book after but I couldn't find any answer. It's involve event cards. Rule book says: "Only one event card may be played per trigering condition" and when Ogre was attacking 1 of heroes Overlord played 2 cards - Aim and Rage. I know all event cards have 1-shot effects (so Aim works only for first monster attack anyway). But can Overlord play 2 event cards during 1 monster attack as I wrote?? Or this can only be one card during 1 monster attack?? I'm not sure about it. It depends on what the cards say. If one says "play when you activate a monster" and the other says "play when you attack with a monster", then you can use both. If both cards say "play when you attack with a monster", then you can only use one.

There's no official update, but check out my loadout sheet (link in my signature).

MyNameSux said: I wasn't able to read the cards, but its a nice idea. You keep talking about a The Creeping Decay expansion in the rules. Where did you find out about this? No need to "find out" - I'm designing it. ;o) I'm developing a number of mods for Descent, two of which are published to BGG already - the level loadout sheet and the Craft cards. Soon to follow will be updated skill cards for RtL, alternate level layouts for the already-existing dungeon levels (though both of these are originally based on ideas by Inle Badger - I'll just be designing the physical sheets) as well as around 22 new monsters. Once they're all complete I'll re-publish them as a complete downloadable expansion entitled The Creeping Decay. Sorry to disappoint.

I think it just means that you cannot "un-hit" an already dead character. When the character is killed, you put all the tokens away as they are not needed any more. However, game effects that remove hit tokens cannot be used on this character to bring him back alive again (as that would just be silly).

Bohemond said: Bleached Lizard said: I was thinking about mechanics first, theme second. Like I said, the sympathiser is a sucky role to receive; you're basically a stunted Cylon, with no reveal power, no Super Crisis and no activating ships - three of the most interesting things a Cylon can do! Does the sympathiser really have no reason to keep his role secret? A sympathiser who allies with the humans would still need at least one resource to be in the red for him to *truely* ally with the humans, meaning dwindiling resources. And what if the sympathiser decides to ally with the Cylons? Do you really think he'd *tell* the rest of the players that he is doing so? So either the sympathiser can "come out" and say that he's allying with the humans (which the humans can't trust, 'cos that's what a Cylon-supporting sympathiser would say anyway) or he can remain secret and try to keep the trust of his fellow man. A sympathiser who draws a Cylon card deals with it in exactly the same way as a Cylon who draws a Cylon card. Forget the part about forcing a Cylon to reveal - I realised how dumb that was as soon as I posted it. It would give away the fact that all other players who were dealt a card *before* that player are obviously not Cylons. So scrap that idea. I won't give away any major spoilers here but... have you seen season 3? Anyway, I still think that this variant could make the sympathiser role more interesting (or at least less sucky than it is now) even if only because the player who receives it will be unsure about their role in the game for its entire first half... which is not only more interesting but also more thematically appropriate. The only thing I would add is that maybe one more thing that causes the sympathiser role to suck is that its effect is too deterministic and metagamey - the human players can engineer things too well so that the sympathiser doesn't turn Cylon, which is also very anti-thematic. Maybe this aspect needs to be worked on. I think a sympathizer would only publicaly announce his intentions if he allies with the humans, but even that is problematic. I agree with your basic premise the the role of the symapthizer is less fun than being either a human or a cylon. However, I think the way to make that more fun is to add unique mechanics and actions that the symapthizer can perform, without changing when you find out and your alliegence and allowing the player to proactively try to align themselves with the winning side (which, I think, disturbs the game balance). As for Sharon and Baltor, the fact that Baltor starts with two loyalty cards makes it very difficult to tell what side he is on. Even if you can see one of his cards, the fact that he has another unrevealed card means you can't be sure of his alligence. That works mechanically with his power to look at another player's loyalty cards. He holds the keys to the kingdom in determining alligence, and you can't be sure of him from the begining. It works both mechanically and thematically. Sharon, on the other hand, can't be sure of her own alligence. Is she a cylon or a human? She has a high probability of switiching sides mid game. That works perfectly well thematically. I don't think your arguments are valid; I don't see how the sympathiser could choose to "proactively" align themselves with the winning side - if they try to help the humans too much, they turn Cylon. If they try to help the Cylons too much, they remain human. The sympathiser will *always*, ultimately, ally themselves with the losing side - that's kind of the point of the card! And if something *does* come of it that means the sympathiser will ally with the winning side, well... that's Baltar down to a T! Your arguments regarding Baltar/Boomer's alligence are still valid even with this variant, so no problem there. In order to avoid meta-gaming I might (*might*) also add that *two* resources need to be in the red in order for the sympathiser to remain human... but this might upset game balance too much.

I think the Human Fleet location would be better if: 1) The resource damage tokens weren't removed from the game once encountered, and 2) There was a better chance of damaging Galactica than with a Basestar. Then the Human Fleet location would be the way to go if you wanted to run the humans down on Fuel or Food.

I was thinking about mechanics first, theme second. Like I said, the sympathiser is a sucky role to receive; you're basically a stunted Cylon, with no reveal power, no Super Crisis and no activating ships - three of the most interesting things a Cylon can do! Does the sympathiser really have no reason to keep his role secret? A sympathiser who allies with the humans would still need at least one resource to be in the red for him to *truely* ally with the humans, meaning dwindiling resources. And what if the sympathiser decides to ally with the Cylons? Do you really think he'd *tell* the rest of the players that he is doing so? So either the sympathiser can "come out" and say that he's allying with the humans (which the humans can't trust, 'cos that's what a Cylon-supporting sympathiser would say anyway) or he can remain secret and try to keep the trust of his fellow man. A sympathiser who draws a Cylon card deals with it in exactly the same way as a Cylon who draws a Cylon card. Forget the part about forcing a Cylon to reveal - I realised how dumb that was as soon as I posted it. It would give away the fact that all other players who were dealt a card *before* that player are obviously not Cylons. So scrap that idea. I won't give away any major spoilers here but... have you seen season 3? Anyway, I still think that this variant could make the sympathiser role more interesting (or at least less sucky than it is now) even if only because the player who receives it will be unsure about their role in the game for its entire first half... which is not only more interesting but also more thematically appropriate. The only thing I would add is that maybe one more thing that causes the sympathiser role to suck is that its effect is too deterministic and metagamey - the human players can engineer things too well so that the sympathiser doesn't turn Cylon, which is also very anti-thematic. Maybe this aspect needs to be worked on.

Well...? Do ya?

I think it's generally agreed that the sympathiser is a sucky role to be lumbered with. Not only that, but it seems to me that the negative abilities of both Boomer and Balter are backwards when it comes to how the sympathiser mechanic works - Balter has more chance of being a Cylon and Boomer more chance of being a sympathiser! So I was thinking of this as an alternate way of using the sympathiser (still for 4 and 6 player games only): In the initial loyalty deck setup, replace one Cylon card with the sympathiser (this means that in a 4-player game, there will *only* be the sympathiser card in the deck - no Cylon cards). After the initial cards have been dealt out, place the Cylon card back into the deck. The sympathiser remains hidden for the course of the game, just like a Cylon. During the Sleeper Agent phase, check to see if any resources are in the red. If so, then the sympathiser reveals and is sent to the brig. However, the sympathiser is now fully on the humans' side and will share their victory or defeat. If all dials are in the blue, then the sympathiser remains hidden and will share in the victory or defeat of the Cylon side. The sympathiser may reveal as an action, just like a Cylon. If so, they are moved to the Resurrection Ship, just like a Cylon, and are treated as a Cylon-allied sympathiser as in the normal game (i.e, no Super Crisis and may not activate the Cylon Fleet location). In this way, Baltar is now more likely to be a sympathiser, Boomer more likely a Cylon, and the sympathiser has to sit through the whole of the first half of the game thinking about which side he should support more! I'm also thinking that in a 6-player game, the first player to receive a Cylon card during the Sleeper Agent phase must *immediately* reveal (in the same way the sympathiser does in the normal game) in order to more closely mimic what happened in the show (Boomer "awoke" as a Cylon and immediately shot... well, you know who). Comments?

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