I can only speak to my experience with BSG, which I played for the first time less than 48 hours ago. In my opinion, this is a tremendous game. I have not watched the show. Additionally, I have not really had an adult gaming community for a long time now having moved a lot in recent years and raising a family. So, the game on Saturday evening was kind of a big deal for me.
Naturally, I was a little apprehensive about playing a licensed game like BSG, but I was more nervous about playing with people who I was meeting for the first time. Well, BSG did not disappoint! The game is *highly* interactive, and requires the group to act collectively to solve common problems while trying to achieve 5 successful "jumps" to bring the entire ship to safety. This is done through card play. The player skill cards are five suited - each with a color. Players draw from the 5 color-coded decks based on their character. I was the "support" guy - kind of an all- around mechanic. So, I drew green, blue and yellow cards. Other players had different roles and drew different colors accordingly. When a problem emerges, it too is color coded with two or three colors usually - requiring certain kinds of cards from the players to resolve the issue. The problem card has a numeric value that establishes how many points need to be achieved when players throw cards (face down) into a pile to address the specific problem. Frequently, failure to solve the problem jeopardizes some part of the ship (fuel, morale, population). Here is the kicker of the game. The players do not all represent a 'happy, human band'. At the beginning of the game, each player is secretly assigned a card which says either a)you are a human [which means they support the ship] or b)you are a cylon [which means that you are trying to sabotage the ship]. The crazy, wild fun begins when irregular cards start showing up in the problem-solving pile. Cards of the wrong color raise the difficulty value of solving the common problem, but nobody knows who threw them into the pile since they are tossed in face-down. Suspicion abounds. So, players kind of take on a "Sherlock Holmes" role trying to deduce who is the saboteur. Additionally, there is a light wargame element as Cylon Base Ships (kind of like battleships), fighters, and raider ships (think: landing craft) square off against the humans fighter ships. All in all, I was really impressed with this game. It is absolutely loaded with drama. Will the ship make a successful jump and get away from this batch of Cylon hordes? Will the saboteur reveal him/herself and create a crisis on the ship or will they continue to lurk in the game? Is that other player giving you good advice on how to address the latest disaster or are they persuading you to make a bad decision because they are a saboteur? In my opinion, BSG is a "people" game. If I could have an absolutely great time with strangers playing a game about a show that I never watched, it must be doing something right. Because the heart of the game is player interaction, I found that I liked it stresses the idea of enjoying each other's company over complex mechanics and elaborate stratagems. Wonderful stuff. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "BGG Down" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/BGG_down?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
