OK!
I finally had a chance to play a few rounds of the very popular BSG boardgame (rated No. 19 on BGG) at a gameclub meeting on Saturday. I am sure some of the info below is incorrect! You can read some more info on BSG game at the BGG site.
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/37111so...very basically, AIUI the BSG game is called a semi-cooperative game. The humans win by preserving the BSG, fuel, food, morale, population and reaching earth. The Cylon players win if the human players run out of any resource above before reaching earth. At the start each player is a human and part of the BSG and it's accompanying fleet. Early on, each player is given a loyalty card that tells the owner if they are a human or a cylon spy (IIRC, we played a basic game and 2 out of 6 players could end up as Cylons). This card/info is never revealed to other players during the game.
The fun part of the game for the human players is trying to avoid cylon attacks and to uncover the cylon spies onboard BSG (not an easy task against a good cylon player or terrible human players). Anyone can be a suspected Cylon spy! The fun part for the cylon players comes in trying sabotage the human efforts to reach earth while remaining undercover or by directing cylon attacks against the BSG if the player is revealed as a cylon.
Overall, all of us found the game mechanics rather clunky and confusing and felt the gameplay could be streamlined. However, this is outweighed by the game-induced paranoia in trying to uncover the cylon spies on BSG. Fortunately, for my sessions the games played out very well with good participants and very close game endings (2 wins to humans, 1 win to cylons).
Overall, I would rate the game a 7.0/10 (this may change as I become more familiar with the game). Check it out!