Battlestar Galactica Hero

[Chris Goodwin]

I've kinda been getting into the series repeats on Sci-Fi. Anyone know of any Hero resources for Battlestar Galactica?

[Herolover]

I absolutely love Battlestar Galactica. It amazes me that after all these years it is still popular and it is all based upon 19-20 hours of television.

Anyhoo... to answer your question there is no RPG information for BG HERO or non-HERO. Of course there are a variety of MUSH's and BG forums where you can get into "In-Character roleplaying."

That is not to say that there aren't several resouces around the internet that would aid in creating Battlestar Galactica HERO.

As soon as I get a couple of things done I might start trying to make this up. If I do I will post it to the boards.

[Ternaugh]

Actually, it is based upon a season and a half of episodes (and a better left forgotten Galactica: 1980). Whatever you do, don't watch any marathons straight, or you'll see just how much they recycled the special effects footage. Still, it was the most expensive series up until that time, with a budget of about $1 million an episode (ST:TNG was making due on about $800,000 an episode for its first several seasons almost ten years later). It was actually in the Top Ten when converted into the family-friendly (and much cheaper) spinoff, mainly because of the expense.

Though not Hero resources, you can get additional information at www.battlestargalactica.com (though it loads really slow and gave me a server too busy when I just tested it) and www.battlestarpegasus.com

There is an active fan base that is eagerly awaiting a movie, though who exactly would get to make it is still a matter of contention. Glen Larson (the creator) has one set of plans, Richard Hatch has another (and, from what I've read, a really good test reel), and apparently, Universal has yet other plans.

I must admit, when I saw the Star Hero rules, Battlestar: Galactica did come to mind. I just haven't had a chance to watch the episodes again, or to play around with the Star Hero book.

By Your Command...

Joe

[Chris Goodwin]

I did notice the FX thing. A shot of four Cylon Raiders splitting up, a shot of two Vipers swooping down and firing on a Raider, a shot of an exploding laser (?) blast seen through the side viewport of a Raider, etc.

For all that, they weren't bad FX.

I did happen to find a GURPS Battlestar Galactica page which may prove helpful. http://staff.bus.bton.ac.uk/fesg/bsgrpg/

Apropos of nothing, I have this vision of Colonel Starbuck taking some recruits through flight training.

Starbuck: "This button fires your lasers, and this button activates your high speed thrusters."

Recruit: "Colonel Starbuck, what does the third button do?"

Starbuck: "Oh, that button. Never push that button."

[Herolover]

I just looked at the Gurps: Battlestar Galactica website. Wow, I didn't even know about that site. Thanks for the link.

It has a lot of good information, but I there are parts of it I would have done differently. Still not bad and a good place to start if you are doing BG: HERO.

[Herolover]

I thought you would like this pictures. It is a drawing of a now probably dead new Battlestar Galactica production.

The drawing is of a Cylon :)

[MarkusDark]

The idea has been brought up many times by the actor who played Apollo (can't remember his name). However, the person who owns the rights to Battlestar Galactica refuses to do it. So the project was never really slated.

The pic is cool, but I would imagine that it would need to be a different style for the production. I'd imagine they'd go with major CGI so maybe having only one or two suits might work afterall... ;)

[Herolover]

So far there have been 3 groups that have tried to get Battlestar Galactica revival going.

1) Richard Hatch, Apollo, has tried for years to get something off the ground and has even paid for and shot some test footage/trailers. He can't seem to get any support though.

2) A group, I can't remember the name, proposed a movie with Brian Singer (X-Men and X-Men 2 director) as the agreed upon director. FOX was very interested, but Singer had to leave due to issues with X-Men 2 and the deal fell apart with FOX loosing interest after Singers departure. It is from this effort that I got the drawing.

3) Currently Sci-Fi channel is working on a 4-part miniseries that is a "re-imagining" (remake) of Battlestar Galactica. No word on how good or bad it will be. Many think it will be 90210 in space. I am waiting to see.

[Law Dog]

Originally posted by Herolover
So far there have been 3 groups that have tried to get Battlestar Galactica revival going.

1) Richard Hatch, Apollo, has tried for years to get something off the ground and has even paid for and shot some test footage/trailers. He can't seem to get any support though.



Which goes beyond bizarre because it's Glen Larson's intellectual property. I'd be like one of us producing Star Wars: Episode 7 "At Least My Movie Doesn't Suck" and expecting George Lucas to let us run with it. Let's face it, you can't just swipe somebody elses universe and start monkeying with it for profit. In some ways it a shame, because we all know we any one of us could have made a better movie than The Phantom Menace. :D

[Herolover]

You know the funny thing is of what I have seen the Richard Hatch stuff looks the best. He has written several good BG books and he seems to keep true to the series while updating it for today.

I have no idea why he doesn't get more backing.

[Ternaugh]

Originally posted by Herolover
You know the funny thing is of what I have seen the Richard Hatch stuff looks the best. He has written several good BG books and he seems to keep true to the series while updating it for today.

I have no idea why he doesn't get more backing.

Mainly because, as noted before, he doesn't own the intellectual property rights. Larson has another vision of what the Battlestar:Galactica setting should be, and it doesn't gel with what Richard Hatch wants. And, so far, neither of them seem to have the financial backing. :(

Joe

[Old Man]

Originally posted by archer

Apropos of nothing, I have this vision of Colonel Starbuck taking some recruits through flight training.

Didn't Starbuck wind up stranded and abandoned on some desert planet, left alone with some woman? Was that the last episode? I remember it was a real downer.

But somehow he wound up with the A Team so it all ended up okay.

[Herolover]

Originally posted by Old Man
Didn't Starbuck wind up stranded and abandoned on some desert planet, left alone with some woman? Was that the last episode? I remember it was a real downer.
But somehow he wound up with the A Team so it all ended up okay.

Yes there was an episode of which you speak. It was in the Battlestar Galactica: 1980 series. Saying Battlestar Galactica: 1980 to a BG fan is much the same as saying Fuzion to a Hero System fan. No one considers cannon. Even Glen Larson, creator of the show, no longer considers it cannon.

[Law Dog]

Originally posted by Herolover
Yes there was an episode of which you speak. It was in the Battlestar Galactica: 1980 series. Saying Battlestar Galactica: 1980 to a BG fan is much the same as saying Fuzion to a Hero System fan. No one considers cannon. Even Glen Larson, creator of the show, no longer considers it cannon.

Ah, C'mon, Dr. Zee was so cool.

Heh, I'll just go sit down now.

[Chris Goodwin]

Originally posted by Old Man
Didn't Starbuck wind up stranded and abandoned on some desert planet, left alone with some woman? Was that the last episode? I remember it was a real downer.

But somehow he wound up with the A Team so it all ended up okay.

It's an episodic series and Starbuck is one of the main characters. Next episode he's back onboard the Galactica, and if anyone asks he has a quick explanation for how he got back. "I located a damaged Cylon fighter and was able to jury rig some repairs on it. Quicker than you could say 'by your command' I was back on board the Galactica." The writing was just crappy enough that they would have bought it. :)

[MarkusDark]

Originally posted by archer
It's an episodic series and Starbuck is one of the main characters. Next episode he's back onboard the Galactica, and if anyone asks he has a quick explanation for how he got back. "I located a damaged Cylon fighter and was able to jury rig some repairs on it. Quicker than you could say 'by your command' I was back on board the Galactica." The writing was just crappy enough that they would have bought it. :)

Really? I remember him (or was it Apollo) who wound up stranded on a desolate planet for the rest of his life with a 'damaged' Cylon who didn't have the kill all humans programming. It was a "So, what happened to your father?" question turned historic flashback in the Galatica 1980 series. I actually can't remember if the Cylon survived the gunfight with two other Cylons or not but Starbuck and he became friends. :P

[Chris Goodwin]

Originally posted by MarkusDark
Really? I remember him (or was it Apollo) who wound up stranded on a desolate planet for the rest of his life with a 'damaged' Cylon who didn't have the kill all humans programming. It was a "So, what happened to your father?" question turned historic flashback in the Galatica 1980 series. I actually can't remember if the Cylon survived the gunfight with two other Cylons or not but Starbuck and he became friends. :P

Right. I remember hearing about that. G:1980 was the Highlander II of Battlestar Galactica, though.

And how many times did warriors from the Galactica get stranded somewhere, only to get rescued by weird coincidences?

[Syberdwarf2]

Originally posted by archer
I did notice the FX thing. A shot of four Cylon Raiders splitting up, a shot of two Vipers swooping down and firing on a Raider, a shot of an exploding laser (?) blast seen through the side viewport of a Raider, etc.

For all that, they weren't bad FX.

I did happen to find a GURPS Battlestar Galactica page which may prove helpful. http://staff.bus.bton.ac.uk/fesg/bsgrpg/

Apropos of nothing, I have this vision of Colonel Starbuck taking some recruits through flight training.

Starbuck: "This button fires your lasers, and this button activates your high speed thrusters."

Recruit: "Colonel Starbuck, what does the third button do?"

Starbuck: "Oh, that button. Never push that button."
I loved that website. Thank you, thank you, thank you. That site brought back a lot of memories. Now I suddenly feel an urge to writeup about 30 different ship types. Maybe a dozen or so bases........
:D

[Vondy]

Originally posted by MarkusDark
The idea has been brought up many times by the actor who played Apollo (can't remember his name). However, the person who owns the rights to Battlestar Galactica refuses to do it. So the project was never really slated.

The pic is cool, but I would imagine that it would need to be a different style for the production. I'd imagine they'd go with major CGI so maybe having only one or two suits might work afterall... ;)

Face Man, I mean Starbuck, was played by Dirk Benedict

[Chris Goodwin]

Does anybody know if, according to canon, the Galactica (or any other battlestar) has a main gun of some kind? It would make sense, but I don't know if one was ever shown, and I don't get to watch often enough to be able to catch it.

[Garet]

There was an episode where the Galactica fired some kind of beam at a planet and it destroyed all the nuclear missiles being fired at opposite sides. It was a multi-episode sorta like nazi's in space.

[Starwolf]

They had some point defense energy weapons, and some long range heavy energy weapons, but their heavyest weapons were shown to be some sort of missile (they looked like ICBMs). There was a great scene where the Pegasus takes on two base stars.

[Chris Goodwin]

That helps. Thanks for the info.

Just saw the G:1980 episode "The Return of Starbuck." At the very end, doesn't Starbuck have access to a Cylon fighter, the one the three centurions landed in? I'm going to ignore the 1980 continuity and have Colonel Starbuck as a flight instructor. :)

[MisterVimes]

Originally posted by MarkusDark
Really? I remember him (or was it Apollo) who wound up stranded on a desolate planet for the rest of his life with a 'damaged' Cylon who didn't have the kill all humans programming. It was a "So, what happened to your father?" question turned historic flashback in the Galatica 1980 series. I actually can't remember if the Cylon survived the gunfight with two other Cylons or not but Starbuck and he became friends. :P

The pregnant woman was the kid's (Dr. Zee?) mom I thought...
Anyway, not a horrible episode. I liked it better when it the short story "Enemy Mine"... you may recall they made a movie out of it.

[Herolover]

Sorry I have been away, but I went to a Convention. Yes, I gm'd HERO and it was a lot of fun.

First Starbuck.
One of the last 1980 Galactica episodes had Starbuck crash landing on a planet. He found a wrecked Cylon fighter and pieced together a cylon warrior. After a time he was able to convince the newly re-built cylon not to kill him.

Starbuck found the pregnant woman who was basically a higher form of being. They birthed the child and Starbuck sent the child in his own getaway ship.

Meanwhile a brand new cylon fighter landed to investigate the crashed cylon fighters distress beacon. CY, the cylon Starbuck built, went out to face them and drew his gun taking two out, but was shot himself. Starbuck got rid of the other one, but all 3 cylons, Cy, and the woman disappeared leaving Starbuck alone. Yes, the child was Dr. Zee.

There is some questions of wether or not the Galactica had shields such as in Star Wars and Star Trek. However, there was the episode were a planet had developed a cold war as ours and one side launched its ICBM's. The galactica used a force field to stop the missles from getting back into the atmosphere.

The galactica does not have a "main gun per say." What it does have is:
Missles, Small anit-fighter turbo lasers, and several "mega-lasers."

Note however, that what BG calls "lasers" we would call plasma weapons.

[Chris Goodwin]

Right. That happened in Galactica: 1980, which Glen Larson said was not canon for the BSG universe. Ergo, IMG it never happened, and in my BSG:TNG, Colonel Starbuck is the officer in charge of Galactica's flight operations (and he loves using that "don't ever push the third button" line on new recruits.)

[starblaze]

Galactia 80 was really bad stuff. In fact, about the only thing that was good in that series was the episode with Starbuck. The rest was galactically bad.

I do remember the dialogue that Starbuck and Cylon had. It went something like.

Starbuck: So why do you want to kill humans?
Cy: So we can win the battle.
Starbuck: And then what?
Cy: Bring order to the galaxy
Starbuck: And then what?
Cy: uhhhhhhhhhhh?

[Tim]

SO is there a Battlestar Galactica Hero yet?

[Tom Carman]

SO is there a Battlestar Galactica Hero yet?
You could start writing it...

In the (great!) new one, no laser handguns, they seem to be gyrojet rocket guns. Can't recall any energy weapons, actually. Missiles are the heavy weapons. The Vipers and Raiders seem to be armed with autocannon, though I haven't noticed any recoil effects. Possibly they are also gyrojet guns, with the rockets burning out before leaving the barrel.

[shadowcat1313]

just on a sidenote, somebody found dimensions for the new Galactica and figured her size over on the Traveller Mailing List

not quite 10.4 million displacement tons

so call it 21 million hexes

[tancred]

That would appear to be about Size 38, if I'm reading HD right.
Size 38 gives an area of 21,137,967.60".

[shadowcat1313]

i had it figured at size 40, so my math might be off

[Vanguard]

From the New BattleStar Galactica site ( http://www.scifi.com/battlestar/ships/ ):

BattleStar:

L: 4,460'
W: 1,820'
H: 580'

The above link also gives the stats for just about all the ships in the fleet.

[Starwolf]

Good site....

[Vanguard]

I thought so. :) Was actually glad to get some hard and fast "numbers" on the Battlestar and other ships. The Original was a bit . . . vague . . . about things.

Also, I'm rather impressed with the story line of the new show. I didn't think I would like it or would adapt to it but I think they did a very good job of it.

[Tim]

Good site....

It locked up my browser. :(

[Starwolf]

It locked up my browser. :(

Mine appeared to lock-up also, but I did get a partial screen. I was able to see/click on the ships link and a second page loaded that also appeared to lock-up, but on the bottom of the second page tiny ship icons appeared and when I clicked them they actually worked to load ship specific pages. I am using Firefox as a browser. IMHO while the info was nice, the page design itself was not very well done.

[Tim]

Mine appeared to lock-up also, but I did get a partial screen. I was able to see/click on the ships link and a second page loaded that also appeared to lock-up, but on the bottom of the second page tiny ship icons appeared and when I clicked them they actually worked to load ship specific pages. I am using Firefox as a browser. IMHO while the info was nice, the page design itself was not very well done.

I use Firefox as well. The page was probably targeted for IE. And won't work well for other browsers.

[keithcurtis]

It worked OK, albeit slowly, with Safari.

Keith "MacMan" Curtis

[CSgeekHero]

I just ran a test of the ships section with Firefox, Opera, and IE. My LInux box isn't hooked up at the moment, so I cannot test it with Konquerer.

Firefox loaded, but it seemed a little sluggish. IE worked okay, but the best performance on that site came from Opera.

If your using dialup, get Opera for a lot of those graphics intense sites.

There is one really good site on the web called www.merzo.net for comparing starship sizes. For that one, you must have IE. It has to do with the fact that it was created with Microsoft FrontPage 3.0.

I hope that helps somebody.