My personal observations about BSG:
As a traitor-mechanic game it suffers severely if the traitor doesn't know how to play well or if someone gets bored and isn't paying attention.
Again in particular with coop-with-traitor-mechanic games, it is very vulnerable to loud alpha-gamer quarterbacking ("Hey! Everyone needs to support this plan because it's clearly The Best Plan, and if you don't you're clearly the traitor because you're playing sub-optimally.")
It takes a long time, 2 hours minimum and I've been subjected to 4 hour games.
Put simply, it is generally not fun for a rookie gamer.
Recommendation:If this game of cooperative play with traitor mechanic sounds interesting to you, I recommend the game "The Resistance: Avalon", which has similar mechanics but plays in 20 minutes optimally and 50 minutes for a slow game. Compare with 120 minutes to 240 minutes in my experience for BSG.
Disclaimer:I've played BSG twice (same group), I've hated it twice, and I refuse to play it anymore. I do not consider myself a rookie, and I personally prefer shorter (120 minutes or less), simpler games.
