Alternatives to the Sympathiser in Battlestar Galactica

Question

I'm a big fan of Battlestar Galactica, but have an issue with games with an even number of players. For these games, the game recommends replacing a Cylon with a Sympathiser to help balance it.

For the unfamiliar, at the half-way point, the Sympathiser basically becomes a (weaker) Cylon if the humans are "winning" (i.e. all stats are above half-full) or remains a human (but is brigged) if the Cylons are winning (i.e. when any stat is below half-full). This helps to balance the game since having an extra full-privilege Cylon would be really tough on the humans, but having a human makes it a bit of a cake-walk.

It's not a bad mechanic, but in games my group plays with a Sympathiser, I find there's a lot of meta-think and the humans intentionally allow one stat to drop (normally one that's not too tough to raise or keep steady like Morale) to ensure that the Sympathiser is on their side.

Has anyone faced (and hopefully overcome) this issue before? Does anyone know of a good house-rule alternative to the Sympathiser?

I've been tempted to use a full Cylon but use some method to make things a little easier for the humans (e.g. have the second loyalty distribution come a little later, or ensure that at least one Cylon card has to wait until the halfway point), but I'd love to hear others' solutions.

Answer 1

FFG actually have a variants document posted on the Support Page for BSG: Optional Rules PDF

Whilst the humans do start with slightly reduced resources, it should be noted that this still makes it quite a bit easier for the humans to win. Your Cylons will have to be very good if they're to stand a chance!

Alternatively, you can pick up the Pegasus Expansion which provides a new "You are a Sympathetic Cylon" (that replaces the original Sympathiser loyalty card) and changes up the rules a little to keep things interesting for whomever happens to draw the Sympathiser card.

Answer 2

No sympathizer is FFG's official variant, but they warn it does make the game easier for the cylons http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/ffg_content/Battlestar_Galactica/BSG_optional_rules.pdf

If playing with Pegasus, you can use the Cylon Leader mechanic or Sympathetic Cylon (not to be confused with the base game's Cylon Sympathizer).

The CL starts off revealed, but has Agenda cards instead of Loyalty cards. They call for him to be "half and half", like you win if cylons win, but distance is 6 or more, tugging him in both directions rather than full blown you're either human or a cylon. Some of the Agendas are difficult, or rather easy, but FWIW, it's a game where you're at the mercy of card draws or die rolls. CL can also infiltrate into human locations Symp Cylon card gets dealt at sleeper, and that player effectively turns into a CL. However, unlike actual CL, the Symp-Cylon has no skill set (draw any 2 cards of different colors, 3 if infiltrating), no OPG, no special, nor weakness. Some say having only the 2nd half of the game to fulfill Agendas is just bad, but it's generally deemed to still ben an improvement over Cylon Symp

If you have Daybreak, you have 2 options over Cylon Sympathizer... use CL, where the Motive cards replace the Agendas, or the Mutineer.
Motive cards can still lead to some imbalanced games, but are overall improvement since the CL gets 2 of them in the beginning, and 2 more at sleeper phase. These combinations make the CL's goals more unpredictable, and also forces the CL to often keep the game going at least till Sleeper phase.
Mutineer must be revealed immediately, but forces more of Daybreak's Mutiny cards onto him, forcing him to spend more actions on dealing with them, lest he get brigged.