Battlestar Galactica: The FM 18 Reserve/Dead Chat Puzzle Game

[FM Ferengi]

Battlestar Galactica: The FM 18 Reserve/Dead Chat Puzzle Game

The Cylons were created to make life easier on the Twelve Colonies. And then the day came when the Cylons decided to kill their masters. After a long and bloody struggle, an armistice was declared and the Cylons left for another world to call their own.

Forty years later, they returned, and brought humanity to the brink of extinction. The remaining humans, led by the crew of the Battlestar Galactica, fled in hopes of finding a new home, one known by legend as Earth.

Humanity’s only hope lies in finding Earth’s location while fighting off the unrelenting Cylons. But as resources run low, it is discovered that the enemy can now appear human and has infiltrated the fleet from the inside.

Important Rules:
1 - Please no COM claiming.
2 - Do not discuss FM18 in this subforum, as there are reserve players in here.

Game Overview
Battlestar Galactica: The FM 18 Reserve/Dead Chat Puzzle Game is loosely inspired by Battlestar Galactica: The Board Game. This is a team game, with the added complication that which players are on which teams is kept secret.

Each player is secretly assigned a team at the start of the game. The two teams are the humans and the Cylons, and each team has a specific objective. The human players are trying to find the map to Earth, while the Cylon players simply want to annihilate the human race. Players win or lose with the other members of their team...but must figure out who they can trust in order to lead their team to victory.

Resources - The Resource meters are used to track the dwindling resources of the humans. (Morale, population, food, water). If any of these resource levels goes to 0, then the humans lose the game. Resources can be gained by the elected President and Vice President solving individual puzzles.
Fleet Marker - This marker is used to track progress on the Jump Preparation track. when this token reaches the end of the track, the fleet jumps to its next destination. (Showing approximate progress through the current round’s puzzle)
Loyalty Cards - Each player is dealt one Loyalty Card at the start of the game and another when 12 players have died in FM18. These cards are kept secret and inform each player whether or not he is a Cylon.

Human
You are a human aboard the Battlestar Galactica. Solve puzzles to help find the way to Earth.

Cylon
You are a cylon aboard the Battlestar Galactica. You may pretend to help the humans solve puzzles but commit acts of sabotage from within. It is your goal to submit correct answers to the puzzles via PM to Switzerland before the humans.

At any time you may PM Switzerland to -reveal as a Cylon. You will lose access to the Battlestar Galactica’s chat but obtain access to a Cylon-only chat in which you can collaborate with other revealed Cylons on solutions to the puzzles.

President, Vice President, and Admiral Title Cards - These positions are elected and grant the owner special actions during the course of the game.

President
You have been elected President of the Twelve Colonies. Each Setup Phase, you will be given a special solo puzzle that you alone can solve to regain fleet morale/population/food/water.

Vice President
You have been elected Vice President of the Twelve Colonies. Each Setup Phase, you will be given a special solo puzzle that you alone can solve to regain fleet morale/population/food/water.

Admiral
You are the Admiral of the Fleet. Each Setup Phase, you may -jail any player (except the President and Vice President), sending them to the Brig and rendering them unable to perform actions until let out by the Admiral or after completion of a jailbreak puzzle. The puzzle to get out of the Brig will change every game turn. A jailed player is unable to vote in the elections. A jailed Cylon is unable to submit answers for the Cylon faction or reveal as a cylon.

Win Conditions
Human players win the game if they jump the Battlestar 8 times. The ship can only jump once the players have solved puzzles that tell them their jump coordinates.

All Cylon players win the game if they prevent the human players from reaching their objective, usually by making the fleet run out resources.

Game Turn
1. Setup Phase (24 hours): Each player may use any of their granted actions (President and Admiral), or vote to elect a new President, Vice President, or Admiral.

The President will receive a special puzzle during this phase that he/she must solve on his/her own. If the President solves this puzzle, then the President can regain fleet morale/population/food/water.

The Vice President may be elected once 12 players have died in FM18. The Vice President will receive a special puzzle during this phase that he/she must solve on his/her own. If the Vice President solves this puzzle, then the Vice President can regain fleet morale/population/food/water.

The Admiral can:
-jail any player (except the President), sending them to the Brig and rendering them unable to perform actions until let out by the Admiral or after completion of a puzzle. The puzzle to get out of the Brig will change every game turn. A jailed player is unable to vote in the elections. A jailed Cylon is unable to submit answers for the Cylon faction or reveal as a cylon.

A new President, Vice President, or Admiral may be elected by majority of votes cast during this phase. In the case of a tie, the player who accrued his votes first is elected.

2. Crisis Step: The main puzzle of this turn begins.
Human players should collaborate on the solution of this puzzle.
Cylon players should work on the puzzle in secret while seeming to help the humans.

Every 24-48 hours (at the host’s discretion), there will be an additional clue to the puzzle’s solution given (but with each clue, some resources are deducted from the fleet). If the Cylons solve the puzzle a day before the humans, then the next day’s Setup Phase is skipped, as the Cylons have had time to coordinate a crisis at the new jump coordinates.

Certain words or phrases, such as identifying the type of puzzle or identifying how to solve part of the puzzle may trigger a free partial explanation of the portion of the puzzle solved at no cost of resources. This will help players know if they are on the right track with their puzzle solutions.

Special Mechanic: Cylon Reveal
When a Cylon reveals himself by PM’ing the host to -reveal, he is removed from the Battlestar, but gains the ability to talk to other revealed Cylons about puzzle solutions in a private chat. Revealed Cylons no longer have the ablility to see the chat aboard the Battlestar.

Special Mechanic: FM18 Player Deaths
FM 18 Player Deaths will be discovered on lost ship fleets and “rescued” by the Battlestar Galactica crew. They will obtain random loyalty cards (20% of the total loyalty cards that will be given out are Cylons). Each addition of FM 18 Player Deaths will increase the population by 1.

tl;dr
This is an optional puzzle game for dead/reserve players of FM18.
If you are a human, collaborate and solve puzzles.
If you are a Cylon, solve puzzles on your own, but appear to be a human so you don’t get jailed.


A few changes to the rules have been made to incentivize cooperation:

1. Crisis phases will be ~72 hours with pre-set-hints coming out every ~24 hours. Each pre-set-hint will cost the fleet 1 morale, 1 food, and 1 water.

2. If the answers provided in some of the pre-set-hints have been posted in daychat, then no resources are deducted from the fleet and the player who posted the solution will have the option to choose to regain +1 of any resource.

3. If a cylon PMs me with parts of the puzzle solution that are to be revealed in pre-set-hints before it is posted in daychat, the cylon will gain a charge of his ability to remove 24 hours from the upcoming crisis phase. Cylons can store up to 2 charges at a time, and a maximum of 48 hours may be removed from each crisis phase.

4. If a cylon -reveals as a cylon at the end of a setup phase (and he is not in the brig), he will gain an automatic +2 charge of the ability listed above in addition to entering a private chat with other cylons.

5. Not solving a puzzle will result in a -5 to morale, -4 to food, and -4 to water.