Battlestar Galactica: The Board Game Has My Favorite Betrayal Mechanics
Some board games force players to distrust one another. In fact, if you're not backstabbing your friends when playing Avalon, Dead of Winter, or Monopoly, you're definitely doing it wrong.
The Battlestar Galactica board game takes hidden agendas and betrayal to another level.
Despite its flaws, Battlestar Galactica is in my top five. This isn't simply because the humans are doomed and the Cylons inevitably win, but because it captures the tension and paranoia from the television show accurately. Other, similar games make you question other players' motives, but Battlestar's the only one I've played that makes you question your own.
Someone Is A Cylon
The best way to describe Battlestar Galactica is to frame it as two teams competing against each other, except no one is really sure which team they or the other players are on. If you're not familiar with the franchise, Cylons are evil robots that are virtually indistinguishable from normal humans. Your Loyalty cards determine whether you're batting for Team Cylon or Team Human, and at least one player in every game is a Cylon. The other players, who are human, lose the game.
The game offers a hidden Cylon player multiple ways to secretly sabotage Team Human's pathetic attempts at survival. The most common are skill checks, which call for all players to contribute cards from their hands in order to pass. Cylon players can cause these checks to fail by throwing in cards that hinder the check, or use the opportunity to throw shade on players who willfully don't contribute to the check.
Not every skill check that fails is a result of Cylon sabotage. Sometimes, it's just bad luck. The beauty is that even in such cases, suspicion is aroused, and players are forced to think very carefully of where everyone's loyalties lie.
------
You Are A Cylon
Congrats on drawing a Cylon Loyalty card, meaning you've joined the winning team! You also get the benefit of having the most clear objective. Humans are usually bumbling around trying to keep their ship sailing toward inevitable defeat, and your only job is to help nature take its course. And in games with five or more players, there are two Cylons working toward that. Neat!
Cylon players start off hidden among the human players, but can be suspected or outright revealed as a traitor by certain player actions (including voluntarily). Once revealed, a Cylon player can still hinder humanity, but not through covert means.
Just like in real life, it's usually easier to do lasting damage while everyone still trusts you than when your motives and loyalties are fully revealed. Human players are at a distinct advantage if they can identify and neutralize hidden Cylon players early. They might even win the game if they do. And that's just embarrassing.
------
You Are Not A Cylon
Your Loyalty card shows that you're not a Cylon, which means survival will hinge on finding out who is. Get ready to work with your "friends" to repel automated Cylon attacks initiated by the game, solve crises, and navigate the ship toward an unlikely victory.
Although a single player can only perform one action during their turn, there are a ton of actions that a player could take. This level of complexity is both intimidating to new players (one of the flaws of the game) and mechanically necessary. If it's too easy to identify the ideal action to take, it's also easy to identify the betrayer. The large decision tree makes it difficult to figure out that ideal action, leading to differing opinions.
This opens the door to suspicion, a necessary element in a game about betrayal. All players, especially the humans, need to question if someone is purposefully avoiding making the best possible move. Similarly, they need to be ready to justify their own choices to the other players, either to prove their humanity or to fend off suspicion.
As a human player, you have the advantage of being able to openly play in accordance to your loyalty. You have nothing to hide, and in fact, identifying yourself as one of the "good guys" can help narrow down who isn't. Unfortunately, every player is trying to come off as human, so it might be a tough sell.
------
Just Kidding, You Totally Are A Cylon
Of course, it's not quite that simple. Just because your Loyalty card says you're not a Cylon doesn't mean you can't become one. Partways through the game, during the Sleeper Agent phase, everyone gets dealt a second Loyalty card, which can turn a human player into a Cylon (but not the other way around). Every human has the potential to be this Sleeper Agent, who then gets activated and switches sides.
If you're this player, then congrats on joining the winning team! Except, you probably spent the entirety of it up to this point helping the wrong team. You now have to undo all the good you've done, but with about half as much time to do it.
However, you're at an advantage. If you thought you were human, you were probably doing gross, sweaty human things that made the real humans trust you. Sleeper agents are usually the toughest Cylons to identify because they, for awhile, were even fooling themselves into thinking they were humans. You've still got a lot of work to do, though, because the Sleeper Agent phase kicks in when the humans are about halfway to victory.
Good on you for discovering yourself, though. It normally takes a degree in liberal arts or a midlife crisis for that.
The Battlestar Galactica board game takes hidden agendas and betrayal to another level.
Despite its flaws, Battlestar Galactica is in my top five. This isn't simply because the humans are doomed and the Cylons inevitably win, but because it captures the tension and paranoia from the television show accurately. Other, similar games make you question other players' motives, but Battlestar's the only one I've played that makes you question your own.
Someone Is A Cylon
 |
| Spoiler: No one on the box cover is a Cylon. |
The best way to describe Battlestar Galactica is to frame it as two teams competing against each other, except no one is really sure which team they or the other players are on. If you're not familiar with the franchise, Cylons are evil robots that are virtually indistinguishable from normal humans. Your Loyalty cards determine whether you're batting for Team Cylon or Team Human, and at least one player in every game is a Cylon. The other players, who are human, lose the game.
The game offers a hidden Cylon player multiple ways to secretly sabotage Team Human's pathetic attempts at survival. The most common are skill checks, which call for all players to contribute cards from their hands in order to pass. Cylon players can cause these checks to fail by throwing in cards that hinder the check, or use the opportunity to throw shade on players who willfully don't contribute to the check.
Not every skill check that fails is a result of Cylon sabotage. Sometimes, it's just bad luck. The beauty is that even in such cases, suspicion is aroused, and players are forced to think very carefully of where everyone's loyalties lie.
------
You Are A Cylon
 |
| A Cylon |
Cylon players start off hidden among the human players, but can be suspected or outright revealed as a traitor by certain player actions (including voluntarily). Once revealed, a Cylon player can still hinder humanity, but not through covert means.
Just like in real life, it's usually easier to do lasting damage while everyone still trusts you than when your motives and loyalties are fully revealed. Human players are at a distinct advantage if they can identify and neutralize hidden Cylon players early. They might even win the game if they do. And that's just embarrassing.
------
You Are Not A Cylon
Your Loyalty card shows that you're not a Cylon, which means survival will hinge on finding out who is. Get ready to work with your "friends" to repel automated Cylon attacks initiated by the game, solve crises, and navigate the ship toward an unlikely victory.
Although a single player can only perform one action during their turn, there are a ton of actions that a player could take. This level of complexity is both intimidating to new players (one of the flaws of the game) and mechanically necessary. If it's too easy to identify the ideal action to take, it's also easy to identify the betrayer. The large decision tree makes it difficult to figure out that ideal action, leading to differing opinions.
 |
| Not complex at all. |
This opens the door to suspicion, a necessary element in a game about betrayal. All players, especially the humans, need to question if someone is purposefully avoiding making the best possible move. Similarly, they need to be ready to justify their own choices to the other players, either to prove their humanity or to fend off suspicion.
As a human player, you have the advantage of being able to openly play in accordance to your loyalty. You have nothing to hide, and in fact, identifying yourself as one of the "good guys" can help narrow down who isn't. Unfortunately, every player is trying to come off as human, so it might be a tough sell.
------
Just Kidding, You Totally Are A Cylon
 |
| Probably the best reason to watch the show. |
Of course, it's not quite that simple. Just because your Loyalty card says you're not a Cylon doesn't mean you can't become one. Partways through the game, during the Sleeper Agent phase, everyone gets dealt a second Loyalty card, which can turn a human player into a Cylon (but not the other way around). Every human has the potential to be this Sleeper Agent, who then gets activated and switches sides.
If you're this player, then congrats on joining the winning team! Except, you probably spent the entirety of it up to this point helping the wrong team. You now have to undo all the good you've done, but with about half as much time to do it.
However, you're at an advantage. If you thought you were human, you were probably doing gross, sweaty human things that made the real humans trust you. Sleeper agents are usually the toughest Cylons to identify because they, for awhile, were even fooling themselves into thinking they were humans. You've still got a lot of work to do, though, because the Sleeper Agent phase kicks in when the humans are about halfway to victory.
Good on you for discovering yourself, though. It normally takes a degree in liberal arts or a midlife crisis for that.
Comments
Post a Comment