Battlestar Galactica Combined Variants v0.

9 2014-02-01

Battlestar Galactica:
the Boardgame
Variants

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 Battlestar Galactica Combined Variants v0.9 2014-02-01

Contents
Battlestar Galactica: the Variants........................................................................2
Introduction.......................................................................................................2
The Four Destinations Campaign ........................................................................2
Setup ....................................................................................................................2
Rules Changes.................................................................................................2
Reaching Kobol................................................................................................3
After Kobol ...............................................................................................3
Reaching New Caprica ................................................................................3
After New Caprica................................................................................3
Reaching the Ionian Nebula.......................................................................3
After the Ionian Nebula ......................................................................4
Reaching Earth ................................................................................................4
Double Sleeper Variant................................................................................4
Allies for All Seasons..................................................................................................4
Appendix: Version History........................................................................................5
Version 0.1........................................................................................................5
Credits...............................................................................................................................5

Battlestar Galactica: the

Variants
Introduction The point of these rules is to provide a few variants that can
be used if the players so desire. Note that in many cases
This is version 0.9 of a collection of variants for use with the these variants may make the game longer or affect the
Combined Rulebook for the Battlestar Galactica board game. normal balance of the game.
These variants are intended to be used together with version
0.9 of the Combined Rulebook.

The Four Destinations Campaign

Devised by Chris Malme, updated by Mattias Elfström and Objective Cards: Create a stack of Objective cards with
added to through various discussions on the BGG forums Kobol on top followed by New Caprica, the Ionian Nebula and
(http://boardgamegeek.com) this variant provides rules for Earth. All text on the Objective cards is ignored in favour of
playing a massive Battlestar Galactica campaign using all the information below.
four Objective cards from the base game and the Pegasus,
Allies and Trauma: Allies and Trauma are set up as if the
Exodus and Daybreak expansions. No claim is made as to the
Ionian Nebula is in play.
balance of this campaign.
The aim for the humans will be to cover 13 distance and Rules Changes
reach Earth.
The Sleeper Phase: The Sleeper Phase is no longer carried
Note that this campaign will take a long time to finish. out at distance four, but rather after the New Caprica Phase
as described below.
Setup Handing off Loyalty cards: Revealed Cylons will now hand off
The game is set up as normal with the following Loyalty Cards until Galactica has reached 8 distance (rather
modifications: than the standard 6).
Game Boards: Set up the game without the Pegasus, New Revealing Personal Goals: If a player reveals a Personal Goal
Caprica, Demetrius and the Rebel Basestar boards, but keep he now gets a new Loyalty Card until Galactica has travelled
them close to hand as they may be added later. 8 distance (rather than the standard 6).
Vipers: Add two basic vipers to the reserves (the game Ally Cards: The Ally card ”Gaius Baltar” should now refer to 9
starts with six basic vipers in the reserves instead of four). or less distance (rather than the 7 indicated on the card).
Crisis Deck: Divide the Crisis Deck into four piles depending Motive Cards: The Motive card "No Unnecessary Force" can
on which expansion the cards belong to. Only the Base Game now be played if 7 or more distance has been traveled
Crisis Cards are used at the start of the campaign. (rather than the 5 indicated on the card). The Motive card
"Savor their Demise" should now refer to 9 or more distance
Characters: The following characters cannot be selected as
(rather than the 7 indicated on the card).
starting characters. Unselectable characters are
nevertheless included when determining which type of Destruction of Pegasus: If there are basestars on the main
character is most plentiful: game board and the Pegasus is in play the admiral may, as
• Helena Cain an action, choose to destroy the Pegasus to also destroy one
or two basestars.
• Louis Hoshi
• Lee Adama (alternate version, political leader)
• Karl ”Helo” Agathon (alternate version, pilot)
• Gaius Baltar (alternate version, support)
• Tom Zarek (alternate version, military leader)

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 Battlestar Galactica Combined Variants v0.9 2014-02-01
Helena Cain Blind Jump: Helena Cain can now use her Blind
Jump if the distance is 8 or less.
Alternate Characters: As the alternate versions of
characters become available, a human player may swap an
original version character for the same alternate version
character. This may be done at the end of any turn of the
player of the original character. The alternate character
keeps any cards and miracle tokens the original may have.
The original character is then removed from the game.
Reaching Kobol
The Galactica will have reached Kobol at distance 3.
After Kobol
Immediately after the player turn on which Kobol was
reached the following applies:
New Characters: The following characters become available
as replacement characters:
• Helena Cain,
• Louis Hoshi
• Karl ”Helo” Agathon (alternate version, pilot)
The Pegasus: The Pegasus
board is now added.
Population increase: At this
point also add an additional 4
population and bring back one
destroyed civilian ship with 2
population. If no 2 population ship has
been destroyed bring back two civilian ships with 1 population
instead (or one, or none if there are less ships available).
Crisis Deck: Add the Pegasus Crisis Cards by shuffling them
into the Crisis Deck.
New Objective: Remove Kobol from the stack of Objective
Cards. New Caprica is now the objective.
Reaching New Caprica
New Caprica is reached at
distance 5. At this point play
moves to the New Caprica
board.
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Colony Ships: For the New
Caprica phase, only those civilian
ships in reserve are placed on the
planet, those on the Galactica
board stay with Galactica. In gameplay,
this gives the humans a choice - if they
use the Pilot's escort action to keep colony
ships off the Galactica board, then they will
have the whole colony fleet with them on New Caprica.
However, if they choose not to escort them to safety (thus
leaving them open to Cylon attack), any ships on the board
will stay with Galactica, and there will be less ships to ready
and launch, increasing the chance of surviving New Caprica.
After New Caprica
When the Admiral orders the fleet to jump away from New
Caprica the game does not end and a normal jump
procedure is instead carried out (as if the fleet had auto
jumped). Immediately after the jump the player turn ends
without any further steps and the following applies:
Sleeper Phase: Carry out the Sleeper Phase.
New Characters: The following characters become available
as replacement characters:
• Lee Adama (alternate version, political leader)
• Gaius Baltar (alternate version, support)
• Tom Zarek (alternate version, military leader)
Morale adjustment: Morale is now adjusted by subtracting
eight from the current population number. Add that figure to
the morale (e.g. Morale=4, Population = 11; New Morale = 4
+ (11 - 8) = 7). Thematically, the idea is that morale has
increased because the humans have survived with so many
of their population intact. If, on the other hand, population is
low, morale will suffer.
Food and Fuel replenishment: Count how many Destination
cards have been played since the start of the game. That is
how many points are available to add to either Food or Fuel
(or a bit of both) as the Admiral sees fit. Thematically, the
more places visited, the more chances of additional
resources/technologies to be discovered. In gameplay, the
players have a choice of choosing many short jumps for a
large Food/Fuel boost, or picking "2" or "3" distance jumps
(where available) but losing out on refuelling.
Crisis Deck: The New Caprica Crisis Deck is removed from
the game and the standard Crisis deck is again used. Add the
Exodus Crisis Cards by shuffling them into the Crisis Deck.
New Objective: Remove New Caprica from the stack of
Objective Cards. The Ionian Nebula is now the objective.
The Cylon pursuit track: Reset the Cylon pursuit track.
Reaching the Ionian
Nebula
After New Caprica, the fleet will head on towards the Ionian
Nebula with the Crossroads phase at 8 distance.
 Battlestar Galactica Combined Variants v0.9 2014-02-01
Crossroads Eliminations
Any player whose character was eliminated during
Crossroads is no longer out of the game. A human player will
instead choose a new character, while Cylon players discard
all skill cards and Super Crisis cards and move to the
”Resurrection ship” (or ”Hub Destroyed”) without being
boxed. Cylon Leaders choose a new Cylon Leader.
For every Cylon player who would have been boxed increase
human morale by one.
After the Ionian Nebula
Immediately after the player turn during which the
Crossroads phase was carried out the following applies:
Trauma and Allies: Remove Trauma tokens and Allies from
the game, they will not be used during the final part of the
game.
Alternate Basestar Damage Tokens: Remove the Alternate
Basestar Damage Tokens and replace them with the
standard tokens.
Allies for All Seasons
Devised by Alexander DeSouza ("bobby mcferrin" on
BoardGameGeek.com) and edited by Mattias Elfström this
variant provides an opportunity to use the Allies in games
where the Ionian Nebula is not the Objective.
This variant incorporates Allies and their effects (and thus
Trauma tokens as well) into games with Exodus, but omits
the Crossroads as well as the Battle of the Ionian Nebula.
The objective of this variant is to allow for the effects of Allies
in the game, with players retaining some role in the nature of
the effect to be resolved, while preserving secrecy regarding
players' Loyalty. Sans player elimination and the Battle of the
Ionian Nebula, this variant also allows for Allies to be
integrated seamlessly with both the Pegasus and Daybreak
expansions.
This variant draws on the ideas originally posted on the
Fantasy Flight Games communities.
Disaster Trauma tokens are not used in this variant, they
should be removed from the pool of available Trauma tokens
when playing this variant to eliminate the possibility of
random executions.
Setup
Place all of the available Trauma tokens in an opaque
container and set this beside the game board. At the start of
the game, each player draws four tokens at random, and
from these selects one to place facedown beside the game
board. These facedown tokens are the Mood Pool and
represent the overall atmosphere among the crew of the
Galactica.
Setup related to the Allies' cards themselves is the same as
outlined in the Exodus rulebook.
Interacting with
Allies
At the end of a player's Movement phase, when they occupy
the same location as an Ally, resolve that Ally's card by
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The Demetrius: Add the
Demetrius board.
Food and Fuel
replenishment: Count how
many Destination cards
have been played after New
Caprica. That is how many points are available
to add to either Food or Fuel (or a bit of both) as the Admiral
sees fit.
Crisis Deck: Add the Daybreak Crisis Cards by shuffling them
into the Crisis Deck.
New Objective: Remove the Ionian Nebula from the stack of
Objective Cards. Earth is now the objective.
Reaching Earth
Earth will finally be reached with one final jump after 13
distance at which point the game is over and the winning side
is determined.
selecting a Trauma token from the Mood Pool. After the card
is resolved, the drawn token is added to the player's hand of
Trauma tokens and she then selects one of her own Trauma
tokens (including the one just gained) to place back into the
Mood Pool facedown. Then, reshuffle the tokens in the Mood
Pool.
When an Ally card instructs a player to draw or discard
Trauma tokens, they do so into the container of unused
Trauma; never from, or into, the Mood Pool. Should a player
be required to draw Trauma tokens when none are available,
she draws only as many as are possible, even if this number
is zero.
A player that is sent to Sick Bay, the Brig, or a Cylon player
who is revealed and sent to the Resurrection Ship because of
an execution, draws one token from the container of unused
Trauma immediately upon being sent to that location.
Additional Trauma tokens are not gained for time spent in
these locations, but a player may receive multiple Trauma
tokens in this fashion if they are sent to one of these
locations on multiple occasions.
Ally cards are discarded in the usual fashion when a location
on Galactica is damaged in which an Ally had been present. If
there are any revealed Cylon players when this occurs, the
revealed Cylon player with the most Trauma tokens secretly
examines all of the tokens in the Mood Pool and then
exchanges one of these with one from her personal hand of
Trauma.
The Mood Pool thus always contains a number of Trauma
tokens equal to the number of players. Players can influence
the outcome of Ally interactions, however secrecy is
preserved regarding the number and type of each of the
Trauma tokens in the Mood Pool. Selfish Human players that
horde Benevolent tokens will see the Mood Pool become
Antagonistic, and vice versa for selfish Cylon players.
Distance 8
Once the Humans have travelled a distance of eight, instead
of the Crossroads phase and the Battle of the Ionian Nebula,
 Battlestar Galactica Combined Variants v0.9 2014-02-01

all players immediately reveal their hand of Trauma. Players
total their Trauma score, with each Benevolent token
counting as +1 or -1, for Human and Cylon players,
respectively; each Antagonistic token counts conversely as
either -1 or +1. Non-revealed Cylon players count their score
as Human players would. Each player then does the following
based on their final Trauma score:
-3 or less: The player is executed (but not eliminated)! The
player discards their hand of Skill Cards and moves their
character immediately to Sick Bay. This effect may reveal a
Cylon player that had remained hidden until this point. They
too discard their hand of Skill Cards, move their character to
the Resurrection Ship, but they do not gain a Super Crisis
Card. A revealed Cylon player that is executed discards only
their hand of Skill Cards and moves their character to the
Resurrection Ship. They retain any Super Crisis Cards they
had previously drawn.
-1/-2: The player discards 2/4 Skill Cards, respectively.
0: Nothing happens.
+1/+2: The player draws 2/4 Skill Cards, respectively; these
may come from outside their character's skill set.
+3 or more: The player may manipulate one resource dial, up
or down, by one.

Appendix: Version History

Version 0.9 The Allies for All Seasons variant by Alexander DeSouza was
added.
The Four Destinations Campaign was updated.

Credits
The Core Battlestar Galactica Game and the Pegasus and
Exodus Expansions were designed by Corey Konieczka, Daniel
Lovat Clark, James Kniffen and Tim Uren and published by
Christian T. Petersen and Fantasy Flight Publishing. The
board game mechanics and rules are © Fantasy Flight
Publishing.
These variants were edited and updated by Mattias Elfström
based on that original work and no permission to publish
them has been obtained. This is not to be seen as a challenge
to their copyright, but rather as a service to the players of
this excellent game.
If you have any comments or suggestions for these rules
contact the author: commanderkoenig@mac.com

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