Mike McDonald
United States
Arizona
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OR 'HOW I LEARNED TO STOP WORRYING AND LOVE THE TREACHERY'
I've played BSG almost a dozen times and I love it. I would play it in the dark with a snark. I would play it in a park for a lark. I would play it...you get the picture. Why do I love thee BSG:The boardgame?
1. I love paranoia. Not knowing who is a Cylon, not knowing if there even is a cylon for the first half of the game grabs me. I love games with Trust issues. I love backstabbing and sneakery. I love not knowing who to trust. Because theres nothing like trusting someone and having them turn out to be the cylon. You feel violated. Actually nothing is worse than trusting yourself for the first half of the game and putting your all into getting the fleet to Kobol and then finding out *you* are the cylon. I was truly traumatised when this happened.
2. I love the show. This is one of the best uses of a license I've ever seen. Each character feels and plays like their character from the show. Starbuck kicks butt in a viper, Roslin is a political mastermind and Baltar is a sleezy suspicious guy. Just like the show! Frak, Helo's weakeness is that he isn't even in play during the first turn to represent him being stuck on Caprica!
3. I love simple mechanics. I have to say I love FFG games but one of their major failings is piling on complicated rule after complicated rule. The rules are quite simple here, the most complicated mechanic seems to how to interpret loyalty cards when wierd things happen. Once you've played this game once you'll barely need to look at the manual again.
4. The manual. FFGs other failing is their truly atrocious manuals for their games. The Arkham Horror manual is horrific (in theme with the game I guess). The manual for BSG is clear, concise and well written. Its pretty easy to find things, and rules are in a logical order.
5. FFG time actual equals real time! The play time on the box for FFG games is notoriously incorrect. I always refer to this as FFG time, which is usually half as long as real time. The number on the box is 2-3 hours, and what the frak they actually mean it! I have yet to play a game of this that lasted longer than three hours. One game was right on 3 hours and that was a six player game with three new players and an incredible amount of paranoia. Four of six players ended up in the brig (and incredibly one of the two remaining players was the cylon - I'm looking at you President Apollo!).
IS THERE SOMETHING YOU DON'T LOVE MIKE? ARE WE GOING TO HAVE TO WIPE THE BOARDGAME DOWN BEFORE WE PLAY?
1. No basestar figures. I'm up in the air on this one. At a $40.00 price point the game is dirt cheap by FFG standards. Including basestar figures instead of carboard representations would've likely raised this by $10-20.00.
2. FFG expansions. I personally don't think the game needs expansions (although the topic came up when we played it regularly). The goal of getting to Kobol obviously leaves it open to expand however with the quest for earth. I would be ok with a card only expansion adding new crisis cards and character cards (Admiral Caine, Doc Cottle etc) as well as new Cylon cards (I love Dean Stockwells Cylon and I gotta shout out to New Zealands own Cylon Lucy Lawless).
And frankly I don't have much more. I love this game. I fell in love with it the first time I played it and will play it every opportunity I get. I didn't realize that I was one of the 'lucky few' and that this game wasn't going to be released for a while. I certainly hope it gets into general circulation ASAP so everyone gets an opportunity.
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Steven Yackel
United States
Fridley
Minnesota
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Re: WHY BSG:THE BOARDGAME IS THE BEST THING FFG HAS EVER MADE
great to hear it. got my pre-ordered (cheap!) from amazon. 
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Matt Danuser
United States
Santa Clara
California
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Re: WHY BSG:THE BOARDGAME IS THE BEST THING FFG HAS EVER MADE
mtpoll wrote: Never seen the show (the most I know about it is that Dwight on The Office loves it), but I love "games with trust issues" too. To what extent will not being familiar with the license affect my enjoyment of play?
I can say that our first game included 2 fans, 2 who had never seen the show, and 1 person that flat out disliked the show, but everyone had a great time and everyone wanted to play again.
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Mike McDonald
United States
Arizona
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Re: WHY BSG:THE BOARDGAME IS THE BEST THING FFG HAS EVER MADE
I do want to apologise for the all caps in my subject line. Looks dorky and clutzy. It would be cool if the boardgame would actually inspire people to watch the show!
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Alex Rosenwald
United States
Freehold
New Jersey
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Absolutely not, but I will tell you that playing the game made the 2 non-viewers in my last session immediately go out and Netflix the first season. It really immerses you in the universe that the show has created.
But no, you only need to know that humans are good, Cylons are bad, and some Cylons look like humans.
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Peter Putnam
United States
New Freedom
Pennsylvania
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Sounds great. I like your list. I feel like a 16 year boy waiting to get laid waiting for my copy of BSG.
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Benjamin Parker
United States
Manchester
Connecticut
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They need Romo Lampkin...
There needs to be a Lampkin expansion...
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brdparker wrote: They need Romo Lampkin...
There needs to be a Lampkin expansion...
Second!
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Damon Mosier
United States
Tucson
Arizona
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brdparker wrote: They need Romo Lampkin...
There needs to be a Lampkin expansion...
Agreed. Since this game only lasts as long as events in the first/second seasons of the show, they could easily add an expansion later that is inspired by the rest of the series.
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Mosier wrote: brdparker wrote: They need Romo Lampkin...
There needs to be a Lampkin expansion... Agreed. Since this game only lasts as long as events in the first/second seasons of the show, they could easily add an expansion later that is inspired by the rest of the series.
It was hinted, at GenCon, that depending on the success of this set there could be a long line of expansions ala Descent.
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Dan
Canada
Alberta
Yeah... I see what you did there.
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I'd like them if they were small...
And added ship minis, like the Rising Star, Cloud 9.
Or the Pegasus!!! (Only expansion I can see.)
And if they have BASESTAR minis, I'm frackin' sold. 
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Corey Konieczka
United States
Minnesota
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hahnarama wrote:
It was hinted, at GenCon, that depending on the success of this set there could be a long line of expansions ala Descent.
We have not announced any plans for an expansion, although I suppose it could happen. If there were any expansions, I could not imagine there being as many as descent.
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Slyvanian Frog
United States
Lakeville
Minnesota
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hahnarama wrote: Mosier wrote: brdparker wrote: They need Romo Lampkin...
There needs to be a Lampkin expansion... Agreed. Since this game only lasts as long as events in the first/second seasons of the show, they could easily add an expansion later that is inspired by the rest of the series. It was hinted, at GenCon, that depending on the success of this set there could be a long line of expansions ala Descent.
One gets the feeling that most FFG games in the future will contain a long line of expansions. Not surprisingly, if people are willing to give them cash, they will take it.
FFG is the most "business-like" game company going now. That is not an epithet (it's America, not like there is anything wrong with running a business to part people from their money), just the way I see it.
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Dan
Canada
Alberta
Yeah... I see what you did there.
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Mendosa wrote: We have not announced any plans for an expansion, although I suppose it could happen. If there were any expansions, I could not imagine there being as many as descent. Thank Gods. Don't mess with perfection.
...
Perhaps just one (mail-order?), for more players?
And Basestars. 
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Mendosa wrote: hahnarama wrote:
It was hinted, at GenCon, that depending on the success of this set there could be a long line of expansions ala Descent.
We have not announced any plans for an expansion, although I suppose it could happen. If there were any expansions, I could not imagine there being as many as descent.
I'm not trying to spread false rumors but my post was almost exactly what we were told Sat morning @ GenCon. We were there to get a rules interpenetration that we had from the night before. As the current demo was wrapping up the players asked about expansions and one of the "Blue Shirts"  used those words.
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Dan Sulin
United States
Elmhurst
Illinois
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From what I have seen I think the only thing I would like to see in an expansion(and note I have not seen the game yet myself) is a way to play with more then 6 players.
I kinda see this as more of a Party game. Sure a much more complicated party game then say Werewolf, or Mafia or what not. But the whole trust dynamic and such seems to lend itself more to a large group and I would love to see an option to increase the game to 8 or 10 people. Again I have only read reviews so I might not have the full picture on how the game works.
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Calavera Hermosa
United States
Tucson
Arizona
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SWCrusader wrote: 2. I love the show. This is one of the best uses of a license I've ever seen. Each character feels and plays like their character from the show. Starbuck kicks butt in a viper, Roslin is a political mastermind and Baltar is a sleezy suspicious guy. Just like the show! Frak, Helo's weakeness is that he isn't even in play during the first turn to represent him being stuck on Caprica!
Well I love the show too, and even more amusingly, thanks to you Mike, and Damon (who lent us his DVDs), my wife Juliana does too. She's asked me now twice, "When we finally play Mike's Battlestar Galactica game, I can play Gaius Baltar, right?"
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Stephen Shaw
United States
Cleveland
Ohio
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SWCrusader wrote: I do want to apologise for the all caps in my subject line. Looks dorky and clutzy. It would be cool if the boardgame would actually inspire people to watch the show!
I just ordered the first 3 series at my local library in ANTICIPATION of eventually receiving my game from Amazon -- now is that worthy of supreme geek points, or what?!!! Come Wednesday, I will be neck-deep in "frackin" cylon madness.
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Mark B.
United States
Athol
Massachusetts
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spazard1 wrote: great to hear it. got my pre-ordered (cheap!) from amazon.
Thanks for posting this as I never thought about Amazon.com for any board games before. $26.37 with no shipping cost is a great deal, I pre-ordered one copy.
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Ryan W
United States
Reno
Nevada
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hahnarama wrote: We were there to get a rules interpenetration...
Yikes! Sounds painful. 
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It was!
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Posted Fri Aug 22, 2008 8:26 pm
