/pic2320134.jpg)
Collection Status
Your Rating
Description
WELCOME TO DARK MOON. The Noguchi Masaki interplanetary mining corporation welcomes you to its outpost on Titan, the dark moon of Saturn! You will be joining an experienced crew of miners, technicians, and adventurous souls who live to experience all the wonders that our solar system has to offer. Purpose, loyalty, camaraderie, friendship, and sacrifice all await you as a new and valued member of the Noguchi Masaki family!
DARK MOON (formerly known as BSG Express), is a game of deception and betrayal at the cold edge of space.
You are a crew member on a deep space mining expedition to Titan, the dark moon of Saturn. During a routine excavation, an “incident” occurs whereby some of the crew become infected with an unknown virus, and become paranoid, deceitful, and violent, trying to destroy the others.
At the start of the game, players are divided into two teams: Uninfected and Infected. The Uninfected team simply needs to survive until the end of the game, while the Infected team secretly attempts to destroy them. Each player knows which team they are on, but does not know which team the other players are on! Who is your teammate and who is your enemy? Can you trust your best friend? And why doesn’t anyone trust you when you tell them you’re one of the good guys?!
Roll dice, overcome traumatic events, throw your friends in quarantine when you don’t believe them, and (if you’re Infected) betray everyone at just the right moment to secure victory!
Year Published
2011
Featured Videos
Review
Dark Moon Review
Transcript Analysis
Browse transcript mentions, sentiments, pros/cons, mechanics, topics, quotes, and references.
Total mentions: 4
This page: 4
Sentiment:
pos 4 ·
mix 0 ·
neu 0 ·
neg 0
Showing 1–4 of 4
Video tEc2djt0RLs
Drive-Through game_review at 0:23 sentiment: positive
video_pk 60279 · mention_pk 152693
Click to watch at 0:23 · YouTube ↗
Overall sentiment (raw)
positive
Pros
- Tight integration of traitor mechanics with fast, tense play
- Forced vote mechanic fuels discussion and misdirection in a strong thematic way
- Rich event system adds narrative depth beyond simple task resolution
- Flexible player count (3-7) with scalable complexity and pacing
- Improvements over the Battlestar Galactica Express lineage in tasks and flow
Cons
- Dice odds can tilt toward infected, potentially frustrating for some players
- Some components (in early releases) may have production quality issues
- Learning curve is non-trivial due to multiple intertwined systems (votes, quarantine, and sabotage)
Thematic elements
- hidden traitor, infection, crew survival, inter-player trust/distrust
- A space station on a distant moon where infection threatens the crew's survival
- Array
Comparison games
- Battlestar Galactica Express
- The Resistance
- Dead of Winter
- One Night Ultimate Werewolf
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- Commander's role — The commander draws events and can influence the board; a blue die provides alternative success paths.
- Event-driven tasks — Deck draws present malfunction and life-support style challenges that require teamwork or coercion.
- Events — Deck draws present malfunction and life-support style challenges that require teamwork or coercion.
- Hidden traitor / infection — Some players are infected and must operate covertly; revealed infected have new actions and objectives.
- Lone wolf — A costly action that allows one player to advance an event by committing to risky dice rolls.
- Participant in repairs — Players roll and submit dice to repair stations; global effects can hinder attempts based on the token layout.
- Shield and sabotage dynamics — Shields, sabotages, and fatigue tokens shape the risk/reward calculus during repairs.
- Voting — Players vote to quarantine others; quarantine reduces dice availability for the affected player.
- Voting / quarantine — Players vote to quarantine others; quarantine reduces dice availability for the affected player.
Video topics + discussion points
No key topics recorded for this video.
Quotes (from this video)
- I love that mechanic of the game. This is awesome.
- It's a really cool thing.
- This one's a little bit more consistent, I think.
- Dark Moon is better.
References (from this video)
No references stored for this video.
Video ARwNnN_KbqU
Actual top_10_list at 6:39 sentiment: positive
video_pk 11127 · mention_pk 32730
Click to watch at 6:39 · YouTube ↗
Overall sentiment (raw)
positive
Pros
- Excellent social interaction, tense ending
- Great for getting to know people at conventions
Cons
- Thematic fit may be niche for some players
Thematic elements
- Hidden traitors and sabotage within a crew
- Think of a Battle Star Galactica-like scenario on a Moon base
Comparison games
- Battlestar Galactica (lite)
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- social deduction and traitor mechanics — Players lie or assess truth to identify saboteurs.
Video topics + discussion points
No key topics recorded for this video.
Quotes (from this video)
- I can't wait to chat to you all again at next year's Expo or Essen in October
- this is easily the best game that I played all weekend and it wasn't even a board game
- meeting the actual viewers... I had so much fun chatting to you all about your favorite board games
- I make these videos in this flat on my own and it makes it so much better to get out there and meet people
References (from this video)
No references stored for this video.
Video hD49Iy9qfcM
Actual Ol Anjaan Purchase top_50_list at 6:10 sentiment: positive
video_pk 7654 · mention_pk 22650
Click to watch at 6:10 · YouTube ↗
Overall sentiment (raw)
positive
Pros
- murky tension and deception
- strong thematic fit with betrayal dynamics
Cons
none
Thematic elements
- cooperative survival with hidden traitors
- Mining outpost on the Moon
- murky and paranoid social deduction
Comparison games
none
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- dice-driven tasks — dice outcomes drive success/failure with negative bias
- hidden traitor — some players secretly work against the crew
Video topics + discussion points
No key topics recorded for this video.
Quotes (from this video)
- there are many different paths to happiness and nothing's necessarily the right or wrong answer
- the dice are weighted towards being negative
- this game tells a story unlike any other board game I've ever played
- you can't talk to each other during this game
- it's a simple clean auction game which you just come to expect from Ronnie comitia
References (from this video)
No references stored for this video.
Video K5xSPyZUxYU
Three Minute Board Games general_discussion at 11:29 sentiment: positive
video_pk 6062 · mention_pk 18035
Click to watch at 11:29 · YouTube ↗
Overall sentiment (raw)
positive
Pros
- Originally Battlestar Galactica Express fan mod
- Streamlined version of BSG
- Host curious about game
Cons
none
Thematic elements
- Traitor detection
- Space station
Comparison games
- Battlestar Galactica
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- hidden roles — Traitor/secret role game
Video topics + discussion points
No key topics recorded for this video.
Quotes (from this video)
- I used to call this a shelf of shame that was a pretty common thing to call it back in the day and I don't never really liked that term because I don't feel shame that I haven't got to these games
- this is mostly work like this is just a backload of things I probably should get to
- people will still be looking for it
- it doesn't matter if the game is like 20 years old people will still be looking for it
- I've painted this one and I spent a lot of time doing it
- there's no point putting them on the channel I think both of them have been out of print for like a decade
- one of the worst kickstarters by one of the worst studios in board gaming history
- Golden Bell Studios did everything wrong you could possibly think of
- purely toxic company run by incredibly terrible people
- it would be kind of a joke that I'd be able to do a three minute video of feudum
- this game has a tutorial video online that's like 40 minutes long
- The Rose explanation video feels like a parody but it's actually how the game is played
- nothing personally to me puts me off playing a game that then sitting down unboxing it and having a craft assignment
- stop making me spend hours assembling your damn games
- this is an uncontrollable mess right now
- I'm a full-time dad and I'm really doing this in the evenings
- I have a finite space and also it just puts pressure and stress on me having a whole bunch of crap there that I know I'm not going to get to
- I'm going to do a big cull
- I will be published by this company but that doesn't mean I'm going to be slavishly devoted to every single game they put out
- I am a sucker for cute animal games like I really am
References (from this video)
No references stored for this video.
Transcript Navigation
Showing 1–4 of 4