Battlestar Galactica and Spimatic Meaning in Games - Game Play: Paratextuality in Contemporary Board Games - page 92

food but gaining population makes sense in the context of “Rescue Caprica
Survivors”—when Starbuck went back to Caprica, she did expend food and fuel,
but did add to the population as well. If she had not gone, the crew would have
lost morale. he same type of narrative connection occurs in other games, like
the Game of hrones: he Card Game , when character attributes are drawn from
the television series.
he Cylon attack cards also reference speciic moments, but narratively
may not make sense in the context of the particular game as it is being played.
In this case, memories of the show (as well as memories players may have of
other elements within the game) may complicate the Spimatic connection
between the text—game player. For example, the Cylon attack card “hirty-
hree” references the episode “33,” which I mentioned earlier in this chapter
(Figure 4.4). In that episode, Galactica is being hotly pursued by the Cylon
leet. Despite using its Faster-than-Light (FTL) jump capabilities, which should
hypothetically allow it to escape, Galactica could not evade the Cylons. his
meant that the crew of Galactica had to reset the FTL and jump as quickly as
possible—and the fastest they could make it was 33 minutes. Of course, as the
FTL jumps are physiologically disruptive, the leet and crew could get no rest
during this light, leading to tension and drama.
he “hirty-hree” card illustrates this close narrative connection to the
show with its “special rule,” named Relentless Pursuit . Unlike other Cylon attack
cards, once this card is resolved, it is kept in play. his means that the Cylons,
as in the episode, would continue to attack as long as it was in play. However,
the other part of the special rule seemed to counter the very threat posed by the
episode: “If this card is in play when the leet jumps, shule it back into the Crisis
Deck.” For those in my game group who had never seen Battlestar Galactica ,
this statement made little diference: once we jumped to evade the Cylons, the
card was over. But for those in my game group with a memory of this episode,
this additional aspect of the rule made no sense. If the card was referencing a
particular narrative moment, why would it contradict that moment by having
the Cylons leave Galactica alone once the ship had jumped? hat was the whole
point of the attack, ater all.
he individual memory of the relationship between the game, the cult text,
and the player acts as a personal variant within the Spime of Battlestar Galactica.
In my group, two of us knew the show and were surprised at the card; two did
not know the show and played as if nothing was amiss. To resolve this, we turned
to another cyborgian aspect of the paratextual board game, the Internet forum.