Designed by: Corey Konieczka
Battlestar Galactica is a game based on the TV show where players are working together to try and get their Battlestar – a spaceship, for those who are unaware – to a distant planet of Kobol. Except… some of the players will be Cylons (bad guys) and they’ll have two objectives – to try and sabotage the aims of the Galactica crew, and to keep their secret identities from being discovered.
The board shows the Galactica, floating in space. It also has four dials – tracking food, morale, fuel, and population. Each player is assigned a character who they ‘play’ for the game’s duration. Crucially, they are also told (secretly) whether they are a Cylon or not. On a given round the players all choose an action to take as they move around the Galactica, with not only the Cylon ships in pursuit of them, but also a series of mini-crises to manage (a new one each round). Listing the actions here would make this entry far too long, but essentially you’re fire-fighting: no matter what option you take, there will be a downside to it: the game has been cleverly engineered for each and every action you do to have the potential to cause suspicion: is this person a Cylon?! And the hidden identities and air of suspicion lingers over the board, making it a tense and claustrophobic experience.
Oh, and if any of the dials (food, morale, etc) reach zero the game is over, and the Cylons win.
It’s not a game for the faint-hearted in terms of rules, time, or immersive experience!
Yes. Yes yes yes. Even the people on your side will be accusing you of being a Cylon. It's a game that thrives on tension.
None. When it's not your turn, your job is to either advise, or potentially accuse, the other players.
There's a steep learning curve to your first play, but after that the brain-burning is a collective challenge (survival) and an individual one (who is a Cylon? If it's you, how can you avoid detection?)
The crises will always arise differently. Different players will be Cylons. Different behavior will arise...
3-6
Players
14+
Years
120+
Mins
Sam says
This is an epic in almost every sense: rule-heavy, a beast to learn, and to enjoy the play you need a streak of sado-masochism in order to put up with three or four hours of what amounts to a multi-directional interrogation. As such, it's not for me. That said, some people really, really love it, and from a safe distance I can appreciate the reasons why: it's immersive and tense and for a game that really resonates with theme it scores highly.