The Black Campbell

After about a month, I’m finally getting around to doing a new AAR for our Battlestar Galactica game. Originally, that’s because we had a couple of “let’s talk about our feelings” episodes that are great for the players, but don’t really work well for these posts (or a season of The Walking Dead, either…) But tucked in all that character development, there have been big doings that are driving the plot in a direction that both mirrors the show (RDM, not TOS) and breaks away from it.

When last we checked in, the Kobol mission had succeeded, the roadmap to Earth was recovered, and the team had brought back the Lord of Kobol, ATHENA, inhabiting the body of their CAG. The government and military are skeptical about revealing this to the fleet, but the word gets out and soon the priests are clamoring to have access to her. The crew is split between those who really need her to be their Goddess of War and Wisdom, right now, and those who either view her with suspicion — some kind of Cylon, maybe? — or view her as some kind of advanced being, maybe not a “god”, but certainly something greater than humans. Some of her acquaintances are trying to reach out, see if there’s any of their old comrade, others reject her outright. They don’t know how she fits — she’s not in the chain of command and is being careful not to interfere with the operation of the ship or the government; she’s not an officer (they declared her KIA), but has offered to fly with the air group, and they don’t know how to even refer to her — is “sir” really acceptable for this creature? The commander pushes this option, but quickly is dismayed that the crew are referring to Athena as “your holiness”, or “your divinity”, or “your grace.” They’re leaving offerings at her door. It’s annoying the shit out of her.

They discover that much of Evripidi (the character that was possessed by Athena) is still there, and the memories and personalities and memories of the two are often in conflict. Evripidi has made Athena understand humans like she never bothered to — she was always a creature of reason and kept herself apart from romantic interludes and real connections; now she has the memories of love, lust, sex to contend with. Evripidi sees a fellow spirit who has lost her whole race, and is now on a divine mission to aid not just humans, but “life.” In one cryptic conversation, she tells Pindarus, the commander, that she still instinctively is an atheist, but knows how terribly wrong she is.

The government is trying to use her to bolster the spirits of a people who lost everything, then were crammed into metal cans in space, with limited food, space, and no way to blow off steam or escape their reality. There’s elections coming up and the president was not running again. He was quickly succumbing to his cancer, but an experimental treatment using Cylon blood has put him into remission in a matter of a week. The doctor and veterinarian that came up with the idea are still claiming it was Colonial science, and not Cylon blood, that did the trick. They are trying to find ways to artificially create the “leukobots” in Cylon blood to start treating those they know will eventually be stricken with cancer after a protracted interstellar flight in ships designed for short-term radiation exposure. (We’ve already established that most Fleet servicepeople get cancer later in life; it’s part of “the life.”)

With the Cylons locked into a civil war between the centurions and other machines vs. the biologial or biomimetic Cylons, the fleet splits to try and increase their chances of success. Kobol is destroyed, and with it most of the Cylon industrial base. There know where the other Cylon outposts are, and have a good number on the remaining basestar groups. With hit and run attacks, Admiral Cain thinks it is possible to break the Cylon supply lines, confounded them, and distract them while the fleet slips away to Earth. In a best case scenario, Pegasus could carry the flight back to the Colonies, then follow the fleet with survivors they found.

There were some gang machinations that toppled one of the PCs from running the black market, and cost him his position as security minister after it was discovered his aide was a Cylon. This group — the Salamir Cartel — is one of the oldest, savviest criminal enterprises, and they are getting involved in politics, looking to set up an alternative party to the Pindarus “regime.” They get some traction when the fleet stumbles across a Cylon battle group running from the centurions. After some tough moments, they finally manage to cut a deal for prisoner exchanges, and a truce — at least with this group. The president manages to catch enough support in the fleet (it was a HEROIC leadership test) that it’s mostly stable. But the Cartel is working to undermine him, already, and they are getting traction when in a show of trust after her near death defending the Kobol mission, Boomer is put back in uniform.

The crew is, again, split. Most are distrustful and furious, they think the commander is losing it. Others, including ATHENA think this is a necessary step. The cycle of hatred that has played out across time hasn’t worked, maybe it’s time to try the hard road of redemption and forgiveness. Pindarus risks his credibility by putting the one other Cylon that chose not to be exchanged — a Three that had been a sleeper in the Colonies, and still has trouble separating her “human” cover identity of LT Ishtar Biroi from her Cylon side. The commander is gaining insight into this sort of struggle from Athena, and decides to give her a chance. But the sides are hardening toward a possible mutiny, and it’s even splitting families in the fleet.

Recently, in our Battlestar Galactica campaign, the characters made the trip to Kobol (the notes on the episode here) in which they “find” the Lady of Kobol, Athena, in addition to the map to Earth. Using her “coffin” — actually a highly sophisticated 3D printer for biotechnology — an injured and dying character was transformed into the Olympian goddess of war.

Genetically-engineered by the TITANs thousands of years ago, the Lords of Kobol had been modeled on the Greek myths of Old Earth. The idea was to capitalize on the archetypes as leaders for the human race that the Titans recreated on Kobol long after destroying the Earth (and those that inhabited it) they were created on.

ATHENA possesses all the “memories” of the stories and myths surrounding her namesake, as well as her various incarnations since she was created by the Titans. These were stored in the genetic code of robust virii that were stored in the Arrow of Apollo after the last living version committed suicide in shame over the Olympians’ inability to protect Mankind from the Blaze, and their own creeping dementia.

She was reactivated when the crew of Galactica found her tomb, and a security program identified them as friendly. She used the body mass of the critically injured Colonel Aeria Evripidi to remake herself. Pressed for time and under attack by Cylon forces, Athena chose not to remake herself, but rather “improve” on Evripidi so that she could be in action as quickly as possible. Once resurrected, she claims her purpose is to aid the Colonials in locating the Earth and the 13th Tribe, but also to get them past the “Guardians of Earth”, as they will know her.

Athena suffered intense pain as the virus used to rewrite Evripidi’s genetic code did its work. She still resembles the woman, although her appearance is expected to change slowly over time, but genetically she is a Lord of Kobol. Athena is preternaturally intelligent, a master of recursive thinking and strategic planning; and physically is strong, fast, and athletic. She possesses many of the memories and skills of Colonel Evripidi, but is a very different creature.

ATTRIBUTES: Agility d8, Strength d8, Vitality d8, Alertness d10, Intelligence d12+d4, Willpower d12; Initiative d8+d10, Life Points **22

ASSETS: **Goddess of War & Wisdom d6 (Adds to Perception-based tests), Immunity to Disease d8, **Physical Exemplar d10 (Adds to all physical tests, Quick Healer d8, So Say We All d6

COMPLICATIONS: Divine Purpose d12, Insatiable Curiosity d6, Multiple Personalities d6, Overconfident d4, Uncanny d4

SKILLS: Artistry d4, Athletics d6, Covert d4, Craft d6, Discipline d6 [Leadership d10], Guns d6, Influence d6, Knowledge d6, Mechanical Engineering d6, Melee Combat d6 [Spear d8], Perception d6 [Tactics d12], Perfrom d4, Pilot d6, Survival d4, Technical Engineering d6, Unarmed Combat d6 [Brawling d8]

AEGIS ARMOR: Move 4W to stun, ignore all stun. Design is lightweight with HUD in helmet.

SPEAR: Damage d6W, Range [thrown] 15 yards [18 for Athena]; Energy Weapon Damage: d10W, Range 200 yards, Ammo unknown

**These Assets are much wider in scope than traditional Cortex Assets to cover the supranatural nature of these creatures. Rather than using the scaling rules from the Cortex Core rulebook, I decided cribbing a page from Cortex Plus might work better here. I was on the fence about adding the Physical Exemplar to the Life Points, but decided to give her the same benefit as Tough d8.

Recall this is a “watered down” version of the original. Pressed for time, instead of remaking herself, Athena used what she could as a framework. We’ve already seen corpses of the Lords or at least their spawn through the campaign. they were often between 6’6″ and 7’2″ tall with muscle and bone mass half again that of a normal person. An actual Lord of Kobol would be (and should be) awe-inspiring to say the least.

After a session or two of buildup and planning, the characters finally popped the trigger on the mission to find the Tomb of Athena on Kobol they called Operation PARTHENON. They had the benefit of a ton of intelligence from the damaged basestar they had found a few sessions ago — PHOTINT of the area, some idea of disposition of forces, and they know that with the skin jobs and centurions fighting each other, the attention will be off of a possible Colonial incursion. That said, they knew the mission was going to be extremely dangerous. They have a secondary mission after recovery of the “roadmap to Earth” of destroying the Tower with a nuke delivered from Galactica.

The mission entailed four raptors doing a LAAI [Low Altitude Atmospheric Insertion] jump. Parthenon 1 & 2 were carrying the ground mission, Parthenon 3 & 4 were ECM raptorsthat immediately took off through the mountain passes, hoping to draw any Cylon attention away from the ground mission. I put together a series of PHOTINT pieces for the players to work with on my iPad. Example: here’s the basic layout of what’s left of Olympus, overlooing the “City of the Gods” in the valley below, which is dominated by the massive Tower of Dis — the “home” or headquarters of the Blaze on Kobol, and now either the HQ for the centurions or the skin jobs (they don’t know which…)

And the insertion…

In this case, the Deiopolis (City of the Gods) is in the valley in the upper left. There is another inhabited (or not due to the civil war) city to the north (off the pic to the right.) For these aids, I pulled up Maps on the computer, killed all the notations (set to satellite view), and then captured the window and added the rest with Seahorse. (I’m on a Mac.) I threw together a Keynote/Powerpoint presentation for the mission…because Powerpoint, once invented, is like the herpes of an organization; you can’t get rid of it. Standing in for Olympus/the City of the Gods is Telluride, Colorado. It was the closest I could get to my verbal description of the area.

The insertion is a close thing — they get the coordinates right, so no one winds up in a mountain, but going off of what was on screen and what we’ve established in the game, the jump effect creates a split second of vacuum around the raptors, which are moving at supersonic speeds, but that bubble collapses immediately. I rated the effect as a FORMIDABLE for the pilots. Parthenon 1 and 4 biff their rolls, lose control, but managed to make their recovery rolls at HARD. Had they missed, the raptors would have crashed.

The ground assault cuts through tight canyons and put down out of sight of the Tower of Dis, which can see much of the ridge that Oympus is on. One of the player’s characters did an excellent job with his ECM rolls and they go unobserved for almost 20 minutes while the ground team moves to Olympus and climbs a small rock face. Once in Olympus, however, they get spotted by strange boa snake meets lamprey meets robot sentries and the fight is on!

About this time, Parthenon 4 gets shot down, Parthenon 3 runs out of its decoys and other EW gear and jumps back to Galactica, which is waiting at about 30SU from Kobol (about the orbit of Neptune, if this were our solar system. They are 4 hours from knowing what is going on….

Except. The ground team gets aggressed by not just raiders, but directed energy weapons from the Tower that are destroying the ancient ruins around them. Heavy raiders bring in centurions and in a heavy exchange of fire, a few of the raiders and heavy raiders are destroyed. Unfortunately, Parthenon 2 is disabled and the crew injured; it is unable to make space. Parthenon 1 is damaged, but still in the game, but it is only a matter of minutes before the unarmed craft will be overrun.

In Olympus, the ground team loses four of their eleven members, and they finally move to rappel down to the Tomb of Athena. We cliffhangered (literally), with the group descending just as the Tower obliterates the buildings near them, possibly endangering the team. The raptor crews are either injured and about to be hit by a 12 man squad of centurions, and Parthenon 1 can’t stay on site much longer…

The session ran long — almost until 11pm, instead of the usual 930-1000 time. Only one of the (former) PCs had been killed, a few minor NPCs, and there was the chance of two major NPCs from the show (Starbuck and Helo) buying it.

Here’s a briefing sheet that went along with a briefing to the characters regarding the history of Kobol. This is, of course, specific to our campaign, so feel free to ignore it — but it also shows what can happen when youtake the bit and run in a different direction than “canon.”

History of Post-Exodus Kobol

Analysts: Gaius Baltar, PhD — Colonial Science Minister; Ambra Gallardo, PhD — Chief Astronomer, Galactica

Based on ELINT and SIGINT collected by the ships of the fleet, and the data recovered from Basestar 32, the intelligence compartment of Gaactica, in conjunction with the science ministry, has gleaned certain facts about the history of Kobol from the time of the Exodus of the 12 Colonies to current day.

BF is Before Fall, or the year of C Day.

~2200BF: The Thirteenth Tribe flees Kobol ahead of the War between Man and Gods. They settle on a place called Earth.

~2200-2100BF: War between Man (those rejecting the leadership of the Lords of Kobol) and the Gods. The population of Kobol is seriously reduced.

~2000BF: Arrival of “the Blaze” — an “angry, jealous god” — who we now believe to be the Lord of Kobol, Hades, returned from his efforts to find the Titans to aid in the war.

The Twelve Tribes of Man flee to the Colonies. The trip takes almost six months.

~2000-1500BF: Collapse of Kobol civilization and rise of the Blaze. Rules from the Tower of Dis.

Population of Kobol about 6 million — about 0.01% of pre-war levels. Pogroms of polytheists reduces this to a million or so. Tech level collapses to about TL2-3 (Iron Age.)

The Blaze was apparently not “present” through most of this period.

~1500-1000BF: Slow development of Kobol civilization to TL5 (industrial revolution). Humanism and religious schisms.

991BF: Creation of the Holy Kobolian Empire.

978-765BF: Religious wars between monotheists, polytheists, atheists, etc. Rise to TL6 (Advanced industrial revolution.)

789BF: Creation of the Republic of Cumae.

764-760BF: First World War. Destruction of HKE .

760BF: Establishment of multiple new countries in HKE territory.

760-700: Rise to TL8 (Information Age.) First spacecraft launched. Population rises to ~2 billion.

697BF: Small scale nuclear war between Soldiers of the One and Cumae. Destruction of most large political entities. Collapse of population to 500 million. Drop to TL5-6

509BF: Return of the Blaze and the Gift of “the Twelve”, also known as “Seraphs.”

508-500BF: Resistance to the Twelve. Population drops to 160 million. Establishment of the Rule of the Seraph (the Twelve.)

509-450: Rise to TL9 (Microscale engineering and early space travel.) Discovery of signals from The Twelve Colonies.

440BF: Development of the jump drive: TL10.

430-400BF: First of the Seeks — looking for other human settlements.

425BF: Discovery of the Twelve Colonies. The political situation is deemed too volatile to intervene.

401BF: Discovery of the remains of the Pleiades Colonies of Man. Recovery of the Aurelian Prophesies.

375BF: Rise to TL11. Development of the Cylons — cybernetic servants for the Seraph.

350-300BF: The Second Seek (for Earth.) Unsuccessful. All vessels lost.

299-200BF: The Third Seek.

299-250BF: First introduction of monotheism into the Colonies by Kobolian agents.

276BF: Discovery of New Ophiuchi — a small colony of the 13th Tribe.

275-200BF: “Recovery” of the Ophiuchi settlers.

250BF: Loss of Seekers to possible location of Earth.

120-55BF: Involvement in the establihsment of Soldiers of the One and other monotheist groups, including the Eleusinians, in the Twelve Colonies.

Seraph involvement in the development of the Cylon.

52-40BF: YR1947-59 — The First Cylon War.

40BF: Seraphs stop the First Cylon War to save Mankind.

39-30BF: Incorporation of the remaining Colonial Cylons into Kobolian society.

18-1BF: Third Recovery of the Twelve Tribes — influencing Colonial society and preparation for possible war.

17BF: Assassination of President Guderian before Cylon infiltration can be revealed.

5BF: Replacement of Lord Lucan and insertion of Seraphs into Colonial society in an attempt to prevent war.

1BF: Operation UNDERTOW and discovery of Cylon infiltration. Seraph realize war in imminent and decide to move early on “recovering” the Twelve Tribes, hoping to force them to Kobol and submission to the Blaze.

THE FALL OF MAN: Cylon attacks on the Twelve Colonies. Galactica leads a rag tag fleet to safety.

C+64: Battle of the Blaze. Major Crius Muir, an oracle and CAG of Galactica, leads two and ten vipers to strike at the Enemy through the fire. The Blaze disappears without warning after Muir rams the “Ship of Light” with his fighter. The Cylons flee the field and no contact is made until C+77.

C+66: Caprica 6 releases the centurions from behavioral control. 60-70% of the centurions revolt against the Seraph.

C+67-70: Spread of the Cylon Revolt in the fleet.

C+70…: Cylon Civil War (Second Resistance to the Seraph.)

C+77: Discovery of Basestar 32. Intelligence on Cylon strengths, location of the Tomb of Athena, and other important strategic finds in Colonial hands.

Battle of Kobol between Cylon fleets. At least 14 basestars engaged in combat with each other.

C+105: Operation PARTHENON — Colonial mission to find the “map to Earth” from the Tomb of Athena.

These are characters that are either tweaked from the reimagined show, or are specific to this campaign. The first thing I did was work from the hints of the first season and a half of the show, ditched the ancient Earth stuff, and concentrated on their link to the Blaze — the “angry god” from the cut scenes in Kobol’s Last Gleaming. This allowed me to create a Twelve that was allegory for the Lords of Kobol, a lesser version of them, just as the Lords were supposedly a lesser version of the Titans. I kept some of the actors for the characters, changed others, just to keep the players from thinking they knew what was what.

Some things you will see are ideas I had that didn’t particularly pan out, but might be useful for a GM looking to set up their own campaign. Additionally, I slapped together some rules on sleeper agents, etc. Hit the header below for a pdf.

Alternate Humanoid Cylons

Near the end of the First Cylon War, the machines decided to up the ante by creating androids that were hard to detect for infiltration and sabotage missions. The previous androids were close to lifelike, but could be identified by their silicon skin and slightly uncanny movement and responses. Rumors of Cylon POWs being used for experiments to create a hybrid Cylon model were squashed by the Colonial government as heresay and PTSD-induced hysteria.

[The italicized bits following here were originally part of my plan to mess with the players by having human Cylons agents that were completely indistinguishable, but I dropped it because I thought it would move the game too far away from the vision of the show.]

During the forty year, however, since the War, the Cylons were successful in creating biomechanical hybrids. Cylons can build an android “clone” of a person using 3D flesh printing and programming of the doppleganger’s cybernetic brain implants. They cannot scan the human brain yet, so they use publicly available information to create as deeply accurate a copy as they can. These can be tripped up by the gaps in their knowledge and mistakes in emulating behavior, but it’s subtle enough people might mistake it for the person “having an off day” or some such. Only with capture and heavy interrogation can the Cylons get a better picture of the person, and create a more lifelike copy. They are on the verge of being able to use destructive brain scanning to create a near perfect copy.

The one-offs and copies are not biomechanical, other than the cybernetics in the brain, so a DNA or blood test won’t reveal their nature; only a detailed scan or biopsy of the brain would do that. As they are essentially a clone assembled kit-like, they are not super strong or fast, but they have the following traits in common:

The first copy of the agent will still have the assets and complications, as well as the same attributes as the original, but their skill set will reduced to 40 skill points at creation to represent the gaps in their memories. However, any resurrected agent will be exactly the same as the deceased agent at the time of death.

CLONED CYLON OPERATIVE ASSET & COMPLICATION: COST d8

ELECTRONIC INTERFACE d6: This is an unconscious uplink to the Cylon handlers of the unit which allows the Cylons to access their senses, memories, thoughts, etc. without their knowledge.

BACK DOOR d10 complication: The mind of the agent can be hijacked by their handlers, forcing them to do as the Cylons wish. This is an imperfect control, however, and the agent can fight the commands with a successful WILLPOWER+DISCIPLINE/RESISTANCE test versus the WILLPOWER+DISCIPLINE of the Cylon.

VIRTUAL IMMORTALITY d12: The agent’s mind-state can be saved and reloaded into a clone at any time.

Instead of using these “cloned” agents, I wound up going with the ides of the “puppet” — people who had been caught or somehow disabled long enough for a short low-invasive process that injected a short-lived self-replicating group of molecular machines that build a cybernetic brain that runs parallel to the human brain, recording information and periodically transmitting it to their handler. The same operative package can be used, but the computer can be found with a CAT or MRI scan. I added a fail safe device on early ones where a small explosive charge would pop the brainstem and kill the puppet if discovered.

Much more dangerous are “the Twelve”…the command and control humanoid Cylons. How these creatures came to rule the Cylons when they were originally just another tool for the centurions to fight Mankind is unknown. They are biomechanical androids and gynoids who are good enough copies of humans that they cannot be detected save through a specific test for synthetic material through a biopsy or blood test. They share their memories through staggered data dumps to a resurrection ship or facility (they can do this willingly or schedule times to not distract [usually while they are asleep]) and can communicate wirelessly up to a half mile in urban environments, twice that in open areas. Their muscle fabric is dense and powerful, and run through with synthetic nerve tissue allowing for very fast perception and reaction. Their brains are augmented with biomechanical molecular computers that allow them to store vast amounts of data, recover information faster and with little loss, but their perceptive abilities are hardly better than a human — they see, hear, taste, feel along the same parameters as a person, with only slight improvement to their acuity.

The 12 all have the following assets and complications package:

HUMANOID CYLON PACKAGE: Total Cost d32

ELECTRONIC INTERFACE d8: Cylons can communicate wirelessly for up to half a mile in urban environments, a mile in open areas, or line of sight in space. They can also hardwire into a system through fiber optic interfaces.

IMMUNITY d12: Cylons are immune to most modern diseases, as well as most radiation signatures (although some can jam the communications of their Electronic Interface asset.)

PHYSICAL PUSH d8: Cylons can split d8 any way they want between their physical attributes for a minute’s duration. They need five minutes between each push, with an extra test requiring an EASY VITALITY+WILLPOWER test to gain the benefit, with each new test increasing the difficulty +3. Failure gives no push and gives a -1 shift to their attributes until they can rest for four hours.

VITUAL IMMORTALITY d12: If Cylons can upload a backup, they can be downloaded into a new copy. The range of these downloads is astronomical and might be some form of quantum entanglement. (This might explain why they don’t spawn their memories outside of their particular model.)

VULNERABILITY d8 complication: Cylons can be harmed by certain radiation signatures which cause degradation of their cybernetics. They must make an EASY WILLPOWER+VITALITY test after four hours, with the difficulty increasing each hour by +3. On a fail, they suffer d8W each hour afterwards.

Those of the Twelve that were programmed as sleeper agents have different skill sets and asset/complication combinations that match their cover legend. What follows are the typical statistics of the individual Twelve models:

Number 1

This model was rarely fielded in the Colonial infiltration operations of the Cylons. They are usually found aboard basestars, where they typically are the senior-most of the Cylon commanders. While all of the models participate in decision-making quorums, the Ones are considered to be a sort of “most equal among equals.”

This model is crafted to appear as a middle-aged man — tall, powerful, and intimidating in stature. They are charismatic and intelligent, but also overconfident, callous, and hedonistic. (We use an old Liam Neeson for the face.)

ATTRIBUTES: Agility d6, Strength d10, Vitality d10, Alertness d8, Intelligence d8, Willpower d8

SECONDARY ATTRIBUTES: Initiative d6+d8, Life Points 18

ASSETS: In addition to the Cylon package –Formidable Presence d4 is typical

COMPLICATIONS: Duty, Cylons d10; Lustful d4, Overconfident d4, Sadistic d4

SKILLS: Athletics d6, Covert d4, Discipline d6 (Intimidation d8, Leadership d10), Guns d2,  Influence d6, Knowledge d6, Perception d6, Pilot d6, Planetary Vehicles d4, Technical Engineering d4, Unarmed Combat d6

Number 2

Twos are used as command elements, but they also do well as infiltration units. As a middle-aged, pretty but matronly woman, they tend to blend well in large populations. They are cunning and petty, vain and self-conscious, and vindictive. They do not work and play well with the other female models. (We use a late 40s Rene Russo for the face.)

ATTRIBUTES: Agility d6, Strength d6, Vitality d8, Alertness d10, Intelligence d8, Willpower d10

SECONDARY ATTRIBUTES: Initiative d6+d10, Life Points 18

ASSETS: In addition to the Cylon package — Sly d4 (adds to Influence/Persuasion and Covert/Streetwise)

COMPLICATIONS: Duty, Cylons d6; Prejudice, Humans d4; Rivals d4

SKILLS: Covert d4, Discipline d4, Guns d2,  Influence d6 (Leadership d8, Politics d8), Perception d6 (Empathy d8), Performance d6, Pilot d4, Technical Engineering d6, Unarmed Combat d4

Number 3

These female Cylons are dangerous in the extreme. They look to be young, athletic women, and are highly intelligent, analytical, vicious, and combat capable. They have a rebellious streak and tend to buck the wishes of other Cylon models. Typically they command ground forces or are used as intelligence assets.

Nearly all of the sleeper agents functioned perfectly when “awakened” during the War. (We use a 30-ish Gabrielle Reece for the face/build.)

ATTRIBUTES: Agility d6, Strength d6, Vitality d6, Alertness d10, Intelligence d10, Willpower d10

SECONDARY ATTRIBUTES: Initiative d6+d10, Life Points 16

ASSETS: In addition to the Cylon package — Talented Fighter d4 (adds to unarmed and melee combat) or Talented Tactician d4 (adds to Perception/Tactics)

COMPLICATIONS: Duty, Cylons d10; Rebellious d4, Rivals d4, Sadistic d4

SKILLS: Athletics d6, Covert d6, Discipline d6, Guns d6,  Influence d2, Knowledge d6, Perception d6, Pilot d6, Planetary Vehicles d4, Survival d4, Technical Engineering d6, Unarmed Combat d6

Number 4

This Cylon model looks like a middle-aged dark-skinned man. They are smart, perceptive, and are typically used as doctors and scientists. Most are cold and professional, with little empathy or compassion, but they are highly curious. Those that were programmed with artificial memories and backgrounds tend to the exact opposite and about a quarter of them malfunctioned and could not resolve their differing personalities. They are usually found co-located with Farms and other humanoid Cylon populations. (Same guy — Rick Worthy.)

ATTRIBUTES: Agility d6, Strength d6, Vitality d8, Alertness d10, Intelligence d10, Willpower d6

SECONDARY ATTRIBUTES: Initiative d6+d10, Life Points 14

ASSETS: Cylon package

COMPLICATIONS: Curiosity d4

SKILLS: Discipline d6, Influence d6, Knowledge d4, Medical Expertise d6 (Surgery d8), Perception d4, Scientific Expertise d6 (Life Sciences d10)

Number 5

This model is a dark-skinned woman with a thin, athletic build and an indeterminate age. They are a combat model, excellent trackers and hunters with a bloodthirsty personality. They often act as scouts and command smaller units of centurions.

Many of these were undercover sleeper agents, programmed with alternate personalities. About a quarter of these models “malfunctioned” (were unable to resolve the difference between their programming and their actual nature.) We’re using gina Torres for the character.

ATTRIBUTES: Agility d10, Strength d6, Vitality d6, Alertness d10, Intelligence d6, Willpower d8

SECONDARY ATTRIBUTES: Initiative 2d10, Life Points 14

ASSETS: In addition to the Cylon package — Talented Hunter d4 (add to Perception/Tracking and Guns/Rifle)

COMPLICATIONS: Overconfident d4, Out for Blood d8, Prejudice, Humans d4; Sadistic d4

SKILLS: Athletics d6, Covert d6 (Camouflage d8, Stealth d8), Discipline d4, Guns d6 (Rifle d8), Influence d2, Knowledge d2, Perception d6 (Sight d8, Search d8), Pilot d4, Planetary Vehicles d4, Survival d6, Technical Engineering d4, Unarmed Combat d4

Number 6

This model is designed to be a shapely, attractive blonde of indeterminate age. She is an infiltration, sabotage, and assassination specialist. Many of these were seeded through the Colonies in the run up to the war. They have the most variable of personalities of any of the models, but all are vain, lovelorn or at the very least lusty, and self-involved to the point of narcissism. They can be vengeful, and sadistic.

Many of these were planted as sleeper agents and some had trouble breaking their programming when they are wakened for the War. (Same — Tricia Helfer.)

ATTRIBUTES: Agility d6, Strength d6, Vitality d6, Alertness d8, Intelligence d0, Willpower d10

SECONDARY ATTRIBUTES: Initiative d6+d8, Life Points 16

ASSETS: In addition to the Cylon package — Allure d4

COMPLICATIONS: Lustful d4, Memorable d4, Narcissist d4, Sadistic d4

SKILLS: Athletics d4, Covert d6 (Sabotage d8, Stealth d8), Discipline d6, Guns d2, Influence d6 (Persuasion d8, Seduction d8), Perception d6, Pilot d4, Performance d6, Technical Engineering d6 (Hacking d10, Programming d10), Unarmed Combat d6

Number 7

This Cylon is dangerous in the extreme, and so unstable that sleeper programming would not work. They are unrepentantly violent, vainglorious, overconfident. Their personality is so incendiary that many of the other models have considered boxing the entire line.

These monsters are tall, powerfully-built, and lead ground units with mindless fury. They frequently clash with the Threes over tactics (which the Sevens find pedantic.) We went with the Rock, but Vin Diesel would be a good choice, as well.

ATTRIBUTES: Agility d8, Strength d10, Vitality d12, Alertness d6, Intelligence d6, Willpower d6

SECONDARY ATTRIBUTES: Initiative d6+d8, Life Points 20

ASSETS: In addition to the Cylon package — Formidable Presence d4, Tough d4

COMPLICATIONS: Gloryhound d4, out for Blood d8, Rivals d4, Sadistic d4

SKILLS: Athletics d6, Covert d2, Discipline d4, Guns d6, Heavy Weaponry d6, Influence d4,Melee Combat d6, Perception d6, Pilot d6, Planetary Vehicles d4, Unarmed Combat d6 (Brawling d10)

Number 8

Dour, ambitious, and chafing at it’s middle management status, the Eights have shown themselves to have an abnormally high incident of “malfunction” when programmed with alternate personalities for sleeper missions — over half of them either committed suicide or went rogue. They are frequently commanding ground units and often squabble with the Threes and Sevens over hierarchy and tactics.

Eights are strong, swarthy, and usually bearded. They are handsome and charismatic, can be kind and compassionate, but also violent and impulsive. (This was our “Doral.”  We were using Oded Fehr)

ATTRIBUTES: Agility d6, Strength d10, Vitality d8, alertness d8, Intelligence d6, Willpower d10

SECONDARY ATTRIBUTES: Initiative d6+d8, Life Points 18

ASSETS: In addition to the Cylon package — Allure d4

COMPLICATIONS: Duty, Cylons d6; Gloryhound d4, Lustful d4, Rivals d4

SKILLS: Athletics d6, Covert d4, Discipline d6 (Intimidation d8, Leadership d8), Guns d4, Influence d6 (Seduction d8), Knowledge d4, Perception d6, Pilot d4, Planetary Vehicles d4, Survival d2, Technical Engineering d4, Unarmed Combat d6

Number 9

The Nines are a strange lot. They claim to have visions, to be able to “see the streams” of history and fate. They are highly religious (monotheists), clever tricksters who are used for psychological operations and intelligence gathering. These were one of the most active units before the War and were usually not programmed with sleeper identities; they lie so well they did not need to “believe” their legends…

They are blond, average-looking males with a tendency to dress slovenly. they have an intense quality to them and have been known to periodically work with the humans, if only to sow dissension in their ranks. (This is our “Leoben” — same guy, Callum Keith Rennie)

ATTRIBUTES: Agility d6, Strength d6, Vitality d6, alertness d10, Intelligence d10, Willpower d10

SECONDARY ATTRIBUTES: Initiative d6+d10, Life Points 16

ASSETS: In addition to the Cylon package — Faith d6, Intuition d8

COMPLICATIONS: Delusions of Grandeur d2, Duty, Cylon d6, Liar d4, Superstitious d4

SKILLS: Athletics d6, Covert d6 (Sabotage d10), Discipline d6, Guns d4, Influence d6 (Persuasion d10), Knowledge d6, Perception d6 (Intuition d10), Pilot d4, Planetary Vehicles d2, Technical Engineering d6, Unarmed Combat d4

Number 10

The Tens are rarely seen outside of the Cylon baseships or main bases of operations ashore. They are dark-skinned, taciturn, massively strong, and very intelligent. They are technicians and engineers who tend to fall in line with the other models in decision making, waiting for a trend to show in the voting, then siding with the majority. They stay out of the personal politics of the other Cylons, although they seem to have an affinity to the Threes. Few of these volunteered for sleeper agent duty and an alarmingly high number of them were turned by their programming — nearly half. (We went with Idris Elba on this one.)

ATTRIBUTES: Agility d6, Strength d10, vitality d8, Alertness d6, Intelligence d12, Willpower d6

SECONDARY ATTRIBUTES: Initiative 2d6, Life Points 14

ASSETS: Cylon package — Mechanically Inclined d6

COMPLICATIONS: Fixated d4 (They tend to tunnel vision on their projects.), Toes the Line d4

SKILLS: Athletics d6, Craft d6, Discipline d4, Guns d2, Mechanical Engineering d6 (Create d8, Repair d8), Technical Engineering d6 (Programming d8, Repair d8), Unarmed Combat d2

Number 11

This female model is also a scientist/technician type — mostly involved in the life sciences. they frequently work with the Fours. They are lovely, young women — their hair color varies more than any model — and are surprisingly non-violent for Cylons.  They were used extensively as sleeper agents with a high level of “malfunction” due to the memory overlays; they are, however, highly intelligence and take well to the alternate skill sets they are programmed with. (This is our Boomer — same actress, Grace Park.)

ATTRIBUTES: Agility d8, Strength d8, Vitality d10, Alertness d8, Intelligence d8, Willpower d8

SECONDARY ATTRIBUTES: Initiative d8+d8, Life Points 18

ASSETS: Cylon package

COMPLICATIONS: Combat Paralysis d2, Curiosity d4, Idealist d4

SKILLS: Craft d6, Influence d6, Knowledge d6, Mechanical Engineering d6 (Cybernetics d8), Scientific Expertise d6 (One specialty d8), Technical Engineering d6 (Programming d8)

Number 12

Twelves are infiltration and psychological operations units, much like the Nines. They are tall, often slightly overweight, but always charismatic and extroverted. Like the Nines, they are very good at weaving a yarn. Their sleeper programming made many of them bughouse crazy, alcoholic hedonists, but only a few malfunctioned. (We never got around to using these — Oliver Pratt.)

ATTRIBUTES: Agility d6, Strength d6, Vitality d10, Alertness d8, Intelligence d8, Willpower d8

SECONDARY ATTRIBUTES: Initiative d6+d8, Life Points 18

ASSETS: In addition to the Cylon package — Good Natured d4

COMPLICATIONS: Addiction d4 (Alcohol, drugs, whatever), Hedonist d4, Unstable d4

SKILLS: Artistry d6, Athletics d4, Covert d6 (Sabotage d8, Streetwise d8), Discipline d2, Guns d2,  Influence d6 (Persuasion d8, Seduction d8), Knowledge d6, Perception d6, Technical Engineering d4, Unarmed Combat d6

Waking Sleeper Agents

Cylon agents that have been programmed for sleeper operations with alternate personalities can be activated a number of ways — through a phone call or a direct communication to their cyberbrain using the Electronic Interface. Normally, however, it is face-to-face with another Cylon who will wake them with a code phrase. This is done to ease the sleeper out of their false personality and avoid malfunction.

The alternate personalities don’t always give up their “lives” without a fight — much like a schizophrenic or a multiple personality disorder, there can be conflict between the program and the Cylon identity, causing them to deny their real self, or to have the personalities collapse into each other. The Cylon, if a player character, can attempt to fight the takeover of their mind by the Cylon identity: they must make a FORMIDABLE WILLPOWER+DISCIPLINE test. Success means they might realize what they are and fight the urges of their real self; an extraordinary success and they can completely deny the Cylon personality to manifest…at least consciously.

Other members of their model can pick out a malfunctioning unit with a successful opposed ALERTNESS+PERCEPTION test versus the malfunctioning sleeper’s WILLPOWER+DISCIPLINE test. If they upload after dying, their nature cannot be hidden.

i noticed I hadn’t done one of these for almost four months! Between people being away on vacations, work travel, etc., and our Firefly/Serenity A/B test, I’ve been concentrating on other types of posts. However, the group has been playing through a few episodes of the campaign. So — SITREP time!

The first few sessions were mostly “talk about our feelings” episodes where the characters were coming to grips with the loss of a main character, and the players with one of the group leaving for San Francisco, and the addition of a new player. The characters tracked down a group of Cylon “puppets” — people who had been implanted with Cylon tech and were used by the agents in the fleet to do mischief. Other major points was the steadily deteriorating condition of the president (the NPC is father to the PC commander) from brain cancer; the integration of Pegasus and discovering the torture of the Six on board, as well as a rash of sexual harassment toward members of the crew by the men who had aided in the “interrogation” of the Cylon. Lastly, there was the sudden disappearance of the Cylons after the Blaze disappeared.

After a week of recon missions that found no Cylon activity in the systems surrounding them, one of the raptor missions stumbled on a badly damaged basestar that was still apparently under power, but unresponsive and missing its raider complement. Galactica was dispatched to investigate, and boarded the ship in force (or as best as they could do — about 150 people.) What they found: dead skin jobs and toasters. Who did this? They find a small group of skin jobs that are alive — the remnants of the crew — and learn that the centurions, raiders, and other machine life has revolted against the humanoid Cylons.

As in the show, Caprica Six reprogrammed the centurions and allowed them free will. The centurions had been just as impacted by the existential crisis of having their god decamp and leave them abandoned. But where Caprica had assumed their attacks on the Colonies were sinful, many (but not all) of the centurions placed blame on their former masters. There is a full blown civil war among the Cylons, and the skin jobs find themselves in the same boat as the Colonials…the centurions are likely to destroy all of the humans — Colonial or Cylon, humans on Kobol. The characters take the Cylons prisoner and in the middle of discovering the hybrid controlling the vessel then are aggressed by an old-style Cylon basestar.

The hybrid, overwhelmed by the “injuries” sustained to her spacecraft body, panics and jumps back to Kobol, where the boarding party and their captives find themselves smack in the middle of a massive space battle! I cliffhangered this for a while and turned focus to Galactica, which found themselves locked in combat with the old basestar. The air group and the characters managing them did very well — with a kill rate closing on 10-1 — but several heavy raiders landed and placed boarding parties on the battlestar.

The battle was pitched and several of the characters were in grave danger, including the commander, who was nearly taken out by a centurion. During the fight, the Six from Pegasus, who had been transferred to Galactica where they had more success with interrogating the creatures, escaped and had tried to take the CIC with the intent of returning to the fleet to destroy Pegasus (or more importantly, Cain.)

Eventually, the characters on the basestar manage to set a tap on the nerve clusters connecting the hybvrid to the damage control systems, and are able to jump back to meet up with the fleet. The skin jobs are taken into custody, and the ship is raided for the ample supplies, including all manner of luxury goods from the Colonies, ground combat vehicles, and even a few automobiles. they gain access to the ship’s computers and gather a wealth of intelligence on Kobol, the Tomb of Athena’s location, and the fleet disposition of the Cylons as of a week prior.

The last session saw several character elements come to a head for some of the players’ characters. Sikorsky, a vet that had been pressganged by Pegasus into medical service got herself involved with Baltar, who convinced her that his involvement with the Six that released the centurions had been unwitting, that he was terrified of being executed for treason for something he’d not done. The commander found himself overwhelmed by the news his father was not responding to his cancer treatment, and after a creepy dream of his wife coming back to “say goodbye”, finally directly interrogated some of the skin jobs.

During an interview with our version of One, he learned that the Cylon had been an agent in the Colonies, posing as a major politically connected financier (think George Soros), and had been running the commander’s wife as a puppet. This is how they knew the Colonies were starting to take the Cylon threat seriously, and caused them to jump the gun on their attacks. He also hints that it would be a shame for the commander to lose more family, and that in exchange for a guarantee of their safety, they might be able to help him.

The rest of the night were machinations by the commander and the vice president (both PCs) to hide the research  being done by Baltar and the vet character into how the Cylons could aid the president; as well as the beginnings of planning the mission to raid Kobol and get the map to Earth.

The science fiction end of the session dealt with the Cylon physiology — they are, in essence, humans with cybernetic modifications. They learn that the Cylons are unable to reproduce, despite having fully-functional gonads; their sterility is induced by their secondary immune system — microscopic “leucobots” that made the Cylons nearly immune to disease and poison. The Cylons have attempted to hack the system, but as they talk to the Cylons about it, there is a point where the skin jobs fugue and forget what they are doing. Even when exposed to recordings of what they were doing, this happened. The Blaze, their god, apparently buried deep seated psychological blocks to modifying themselves…but why?

Some of the player theories: 1) The Blaze wanted to control the ability of the skin jobs to breed and grow outside their purpose, 2) The Blaze was worried about the skin jobs breeding with the Kobolian humans and created a demigod-like race that might threaten the stability of the Cylon culture, 3) the Blaze, beign an angry and jealous god, wanted to keep the Cylons from developing other priorities that were outside loving their God.

They learned that Kobol was inhabited and had been since the Exodus. These humans had steadily grown and developed until they suffered some kind of large-scale civil war between the followers of the Blaze and other groups. The Blaze returned about 300 years ago and gave them the Twelve — the humanoid Cylons — to bring them back into the fold. After that, the Cylons turned their attention outward to find the last remnants of humanity and bring them home. This led to the Cylons inferring in Colonial society, starting about 100 years ago.

The population of Kobol has been kept artificially low to control the people. The center of this control is the Tower of Dis — a 3 mile high spire that was part of the Ship of Lights, standing on the ground of the City of the Gods and in sight of Mount Olympus, where the Lords of Kobol lived.

Toward the end of the night, the characters had made the decision to try and save the president using Cylon blood transfusions, but telling him the treatment is “based on” Cylon tech to prevent the old man from refusing treatment.