The Battlestar Galactica RPG is based off of the popular TV series and it does not disappoint. The mechanics should be familiar to those who have played the fan fave Serenity RPG so people familiar with that system should have no problem switching over to the BSG setting.
Speaking of the Serenity RPG, this time Margaret Weiss Productions actually learned from past mistakes. There is plenty of information for ships and characters from the show and most of all there are character sheets to copy in the book. I was a little disappointed that they didn’t at least give a nod to the old BSG, but I am sure they don’t want any association between the two shows. There are plenty of stats for characters from the show, some that I honestly forgot about. There is also an appendix for ranks and lingo used in the show. If you love the show and/or the cortex system used in Serenity you should definitely pick this game up.
My main fear with this game is that it will encounter the same problems as the Serenity RPG. There won't be much done after the core book and as of yet I haven't seen much. As of right now both the Serenity and BSG sites are down. There wasn't anything useful on the BSG site anyway, not even character sheets, it was just a link to the online store where you could buy the game. While I love the products put out my Margaret Weis and crew, I have don't think they have the best track record. So far there has been little to no support for Serenity or BSG and as I just mentioned the sites aren't even up. I don't know if this means they have lost the licenses or if they are being renovated.
Still the BSG rpg is a great game and I had a lot of fun with it. So if nothing else it will make a good addition to your RPG collection if you are a BSG fan.
3 comments:
There was talk about another source book or two, but the nice thing about the BSG RPG is that it's self contained enough to be able to run pretty much any storyline you wanted.
Rebels on Caprica? Intrigue among the fleet? A second lost fleet (like Pegasus) floating out among the wastes? Firefly-like pre-Cylon invasion? All doable with the core rules.
That said, I'm disappointed we're not seeing better support for the BSG and Serenity lines. Even just a simple blog for each game would have been great (hell, a web site that wasn't DOWN would be great).
I had the pleasure of playing the BSG Board Game at Gen Con. From that experience, it seems to me that you could get quite a bit of play out of "rebooting" the series, starting the campaign just before the Cylon attack, having everyone play the original characters, and proceeding from there... only change who the cylons are. Could be quite fun.
@ ken
while you are right and the game is self contained enough to do what you want, it would have been nice to at least see some character sheets on the now not even up and running site. I think the blogs would have been great for both BSG and Serenity. I continue to be disappointed by Weis and crew.
While the products are some of the best out there, they get piss poor support. I don't know if this has to do with licensing issues or what. It would be nice if they informed the fans about stuff like this.
@patricarh
I actually have been toying with doing a game in the Caprica era, before the attack. But I really want to run a lost Battlestar campaign. I think it would be great to have a Battlestar that hadn't reported in yet, they get home to find out what has happened and go searching for Earth. They find out about Galactica and Pegasus surviving the initial attack, try to track them down, etc....
I also want to run a BSG & Serenity hybrid, but I haven't gotten around to that one.
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