The Boardgame ...

In Six Easy Steps

Man created sentient robots called cylons, who rebelled and destroyed human civilization.
We are the last survivors of the human race, trying to reach the lost colony of Earth.
1. This is the board.
a. This is Galactica, this is Colonial One, and these spaces are locations on each ship where we
can do stuff. The area around Galactica is also divided into spaces, for vipers, cylons,
and civilian ships. Civilian ships are always there, but we don’t actually put them on
the board unless they’re in danger.
b. These are our resources, this is the jump track, and this is the boarding track.
We win by making a series of FTL jumps, which I’ll explain in a minute. The
main idea is just to survive. We lose in any of three different ways:
i. We lose if any one resource drops to zero.
ii. We lose if a cylon reaches the end of the boarding track.
iii. We lose if six locations on Galactica are damaged.

2. On your turn you draw cards according to your character sheet; they are
unfortunately color-based. I’ll explain what the cards do in a minute. Then
you get to move:
a. You can move to any location on the same ship.
b. If you discard a card, you can move to any location on another ship.
c. If you’re in a viper you can move to an adjacent space, or discard a card
to move to any location on a ship.

3. After you move you get one action. Each location has an action you can do,
several cards have actions, and some characters have actions. If you’re in a
viper, you can spend your action to shoot or move.

4. After your action, you draw a crisis card. This is the engine that makes the game run.
a. Some crisis cards add more cylons to the board.
b. Some crisis cards include a skill check with a target number. One by one, face down, we
add any number of cards we want into a central pile, plus two random cards, and then we
flip them over and count them—we ignore the abilities, all we care about is the number. If
the card numbers add up to beat the target number, we pass. If the we get less than the
target number, we lose and bad stuff happens.
i. Here’s the trick: each skill check also includes a set of colors. Cards that match those
colors work toward our target number, but cards of other colors work against it.
ii. Some of the location actions require skill checks as well.
c. After you resolve the crisis, you look for two things: cylon activations, and the jump icon.
i. This icon tells you which cylons to activate, and there are specific rules for what they
do.
ii. This icon tells you to advance the jump track one space. When it gets to the end we
jump automatically, but when it’s on these spaces we can force an early jump at the
risk of losing population, because some ships get lost or left behind.
iii. When we jump, the first thing we do is clear the board of all ships, and return all
pilots to the hangar. Then the admiral draws two location cards and chooses one of
them. This builds up distance, and when our distance reaches 8 that means our next
jump wins the game. Most of the cards are 1 or 2 distance, but there are some 3’s.
5. Okay, now here’s the kicker to the whole thing. They cylons
have developed new androids so perfect that they look human,
which means any of could secretly be one. At the beginning of
the game we’re each dealt a loyalty card, and when our jump
distance gets to four we’re each dealt one more loyalty card.
So you might know you’re a cylon from the beginning, or
you might think you’re human and turn out to be a sleeper
agent.
a. If you’re a cylon you try to secretly work against us to
destroy the fleet. Cylons lose if the humans make their
final jump, but they win if the humans lose:
i. Any resource is reduced to zero.
ii. A cylon boarding party makes it to the end of the
boarding track.
iii. Six locations on Galactica are damaged at once.
b. Part of the fun of the game is trying to figure out who the cylons
are. Cylons can work against the humans in a number of ways:
i. They can make and encourage bad decisions. You have to be
careful not to make people suspicious.
ii. They can sabotage skill checks. Remember that off-color cards count
against the target number. If we flip over the cards and see a bunch of off-color cards
in there, we’ll know there’s at least one cylon aboard. That’s why we add two random
cards to the pile, because it makes it harder to tell if there’s a cylon or not.
iii. If you’re a cylon, you’re loyalty card has a special action you can use to really hurt the
humans, but you have to reveal yourself in order to use it. For example, on your turn
you can use your action to reveal your loyalty card and blow up a section of the ship.
From that point on you actually leave the ship and use these cylon locations instead.
Revealed cylons can do a lot of damage, but it’s often a lot more effective to stay
hidden and attack from within.

6. Now it’s time to choose characters. Each character has two good abilities and one bad ability,
and most of the good abilities are equally useful as both a human and a cylon. There are
military leaders, political leaders, and viper pilots, plus one support guy, and we need to take a
more or less equal spread of each.

7. We have an admiral and a president, who get special powers of their own. These characters
start with the titles, but they can change over the course of the game.

8. Now we set up the board, with each of us in our starting location and a handful of cylons and
civilian ships around us in space.

9. Now I’m going to give everyone their loyalty card. You are required to read them for at least
twenty seconds, without looking away, even if you’re not a cylon, because that way it won’t be
obvious who is. Ready, set, go.

10. Each player, except the first, draws three cards, based on the colors of your character’s skills.
I’ll go first to show you how a turn works. Now I draw my full five cards and take my turn.