I promise to stop with the Disabling Cain series

After this one, I think I'm going to put up a poll for the actual pre-Exodus game we're going to play.

Here is another idea to balance Blind Jump; instead of "The admiral draws only one Destination card":

Roll a die. On a 4 or less, draw and destroy an additional Civilian Ship and the Fleet jumps a distance of 0. Otherwise, the Admiral draws one Destination card and resolves it.

Simple as that, sort of like a (modifiable) 50% chance of drawing a worse version of Misjump.

Is this too strong for a Cylon Cain, though?

Disabling Cain, one more suggestion based on incomplete info

Based on the spoiler information from the latest preview of Exodus, and specifically based on the Revised Execution Rules (and incidentally on the Revised Loyalty Deck), here is a brand new idea for balancing Cain:

Leave Cain's text alone.
But, at the beginning of the game, put her aside. She cannot be chosen.
When a human is Executed, you may choose Cain as normal, amongst all of your other choices of replacement character.

Simple as that; of course, it might lead to a whole category of "set aside at the beginning of the game" characters. But since the replacement for an executed character now gets a Loyalty Card, it's plausible.

Like I said, this might be moot because of other rules in Exodus that we haven't seen yet, or (less likely) this might actually be the rule.

(And of course, it wouldn't easily apply to our actual pre-Exodus-release game, but it is an idea set aside for the future)

What do you think about these particular apples?

Disabling Cain, part deux

Here is another simple Cain Balancing Suggestion, combining some ideas from the boardgamegeek thread (although I'm sure this one will also get stabbed in the face by BGG Trolls):

Blind Jump - Action: Once per game, if at 6 or less distance, draw 2 civilian ships and destroy them to immediately jump the fleet (even if the fleet marker is on a red space).
The Admiral puts the top card of the Destination Deck aside (without looking at it), and draws the next card from the Destination Deck. After resolving the jump, put the set-aside card onto the bottom of the Destination Deck (without looking).

How about that?

Disabling Cain

It makes me really sad when the consensus on a beloved game is that a certain house rule is absolutely necessary to maintain balance and/or fun.

The latest victim here is Battlestar Galactica and our dear Admiral Helena Cain.

I was trying to get a group of people together to play a game, with the Pegasus expansion, in an as-unmodified-as-possible state, but was met with resistance on the issue of Cain.

Her Once-per-Game ability is the "Blind Jump": Blow up 2 random Civilian Ships to jump the ship as an action, to whatever the top card of the destination deck is.
All other things being equal, it counterbalances her penalty, which is that she can't push the FTL button or use the Engine Room.

The imbalance arises because of the action "Launch Scout". It's a purple card, and she draws as many as 3 purple on her turn, so it's going to happen.
So, she can look at the top Destination Card, leave it there, and significantly lower the risk of the Blindness of the jump. It may still take a few actions to find the perfect destination, but as long as she's proven herself to be human, the rest of the group is probably going to be agreeable to cooperate in scanning for good places to go.

That's the background. Most BSG players are well-familiar with the issue.

In addition to the fact that she's top in the order of succession to be Admiral, it does kind of make her a no-brainer choice, compared to Adama and Tigh's abilities.
To be honest, I don't mind this being the case, but I can see why people demand balance.

It would make me happier to get Official Errata, or some sort of clever in-game fix in the Exodus rules, than to have to resort to choosing one's favorite house rule fix.

The commonly-accepted "fix" to Cain seems to be to shuffle the Destination Deck (possibly except for the bottom card, in order to keep another ability useful) when she uses her ability.
The thing I don't like about this is that the previously-skipped destinations go back into the mix and that's a larger change on the game.

I came up with a very simple fix of my own:
By nature of it being a Blind Jump, you simply don't let Cain Blind Jump while she knows what the top card of the deck is.
That is, when she looks at the top card, she gets a marker. When the top card goes away, she drops the marker. If she has the marker, she can't use this ability.
That seems to me like it would have the least impact on the rest of the game, and wouldn't affect Cylon Cain's decision to never use the ability, for example.

Does anyone have an opinion on this?
There may be a "part 2" to the post with more suggestions...