fen
Wales
Cardiff
The Vale of Glamorgan
-
Type of Game: Filler/Light
Number of Players: 4 - 7 (Best played with 5+, there is a 3 player variant possible as well)
Length of Game: 20 - 90 mins (Depending on group size and inclination towards talk)
Complexity: Simple to Middling
Similar Games: Shadow Hunters, Werewolf, The Resistance, Saboteur.
The Overview:
Bang! Is one of the grizzled old Grandpappies of hidden role games (like Werewolf), the game represents an extended shoot out taking place when the new sheriff has arrived in town (and not bothered to read the telegram informing him about who his deputies are and what outlaws are in town). It's a lightweight card game where players have varying powers and must use the cards they draw to eliminate the players that stand in the way of winning.
The Winning Conditions:
"You see, in this world there's two kinds of people, my friend: Those with loaded guns and those who dig. You dig."
This varies depending on the role you have drawn, but rest assured, every single one of them involved nailing some other guy (or gal) stone cold dead. The Sheriff wins when all the Outlaws and the Renegade are in pine boxes (I guess he's not big on prison reform), the Deputies win by keeping the Sheriff alive until he achieves his goal (and helping him along the way), the Outlaws win by killing the Sheriff and the Renegade wins by surviving until there is just him and the Sheriff left, then finishing off the Sheriff.
The Component Quality:
"When you have to shoot, shoot. Don't talk."
The daVinci edition of the game (which most of the newer versions are based on) is a decent production. The box is a small size and contains an inlay which almost, but doesn't quite, do the job. It holds the cards, but too loosely and as a consequence they rattle about a bit and can drift around inside the box, additionally one box doesn't quite hold all the cards and the bullets in a sorted manner, it's not a major issue but it can be a mild annoyance when setting up.
Don't you just love this board?
This particular edition comes with one of the best (and some feel most pointless) additions to the game, player boards and cardboard life tokens. Previously players would use the backs of the character cards to keep a track of their life total, in this edition they now have the option to use the boards and/or bullets. The boards themselves are quite fun, with classic western scenes painted on them and I think they are a great addition.
Three of basic card types and their backs (missing are the Summary cards and the blue bordered playing cards).
The rest of the game is on the cards (so to speak) and there are five different kinds of cards, Character cards (who you are), Role cards (what you are and how you win), Summary cards (text reminders of how the symbols function) and the deck of playing cards, split into the two types of cards 'one shot' (brown border) and 'remains in play' (blue border). The style and art of these cards hasn't changed in the entire time I've played Bang! and I'm not sure it needs to, although creating a redesign is tempting...
The Rules:
"There are two kinds of spurs, my friend. Those that come in by the door; those that come in by the window."
(If you don't require a summary of the rules, feel free to skip to the next section)
The rulebook is a bloated affair, but this is in part caused by a detailed explaination of all the characters and cards, it's not something you'll need after the first couple of plays, but it is very handy to for a new player to be able to find out what a card does without having to give away the details of their hand.
1 Character card and 1 role card (secretly) dealt to each player, starting life totals and starting hand sizes are the number of bullets printed on the character card. The player with the Sheriff role reveals it and gets an extra card plus bullet - no-one else reveals their roles at this time.
Play starts with the Sheriff and continues clockwise, first the player draws 2 cards, then they play cards from hand, they can play any number of cards - except for Bang! cards which they (normally) can only play one of. Cards are either 'one shot' cards that have an effect and then go into the discard pile, or 'remains in play' cards that stick around to have an influence on the game. These remains in play cards include items like better guns, horses, barrels to hide behind and even a slow burning stick of dynamite tossed around like a hot potato. Bang! cards can normally only be played on your neighbours and cause them to lose a life (or play a Missed card to avoid this loss) but certain blue bordered cards (the guns) can increase the range you can shoot at.
They then have to discard any cards they have over the number of lives they have left and the next player takes their turn.
Once a player is killed they must reveal their role, if they were an Outlaw then the killing player gets a 'bounty' of 3 new cards from the deck, if the player was a Deputy and the Sheriff killed him, the Sheriff must discard their entire hand and every card they have in play while also proclaiming some suitable authentic Western dribble/curse.
The Good Parts:
"..If you miss you had better miss very well. Whoever double-crosses me and leaves me alive, he understands nothing about Tuco. Nothing!"
Mechanically the game is simplistic and if played without interaction the game will stagnate quickly. However, when played with the right kind of people, people who accept that they could be eliminated quickly and that if they don't use the power of persuasion to deflect, deceive and divert then they have little defense against a hail of lead raining down from them.
It's this which is going to influence your judgement of the game more than anything else, if you're someone who loves lying through their teeth about how much they love the new Sheriff while storing up a Volcanic Gun and a handful of bullets for the opportunity to reveal your true colours as an Outlaw, then Bang! is going to be a game that will tickle your revolver. If you don't enjoy player elimination, or you dislike direct conflict (or being called a liar-liar-pants-on-fire) then Bang! might not be your cup of joe.
However, some of the most entertaining stories I've experienced board gaming come from the sessions of Bang! I used to take part in with roleplayers, this is not to say that roleplayers are better at Bang! than anyone else, but the groups I have played in are certainly very vocal, and that took the game to another level.
"I guess painting them cows pink makes me an outlaw then."
As an example; I'll share with you one of my favourite Bang! moments. We were playing a 6 player game of Bang which had come down to three remaining survivors. These were Matt (The Sheriff), Steve and myself - Matt knew from the eliminated players that he had his Deputy and one lone Outlaw out there in the two players, but due to both players acting like somewhat like Deputies all game (Steve had killed an Outlaw and I had killed the Renegade while helping kill another Outlaw) he had no idea what to do. Additionally he was dealing with the two most deceptive players at the table and accusations were flying faster than horse manure at a poop flinging contest. He decided to sit it out and let us shoot each other down rather than risk killing his deputy, only taking the odd pot shot to keep our life totals even.
Play flowed back and forth for a few rounds, with Steve dropping to one life and me sitting at two - unable to do much more than fire the odd rare bullet off at Steve. Now ever since one game of Twilight Imperium, Matt's adage has always been 'Never trust Fen', but I was adamant that I was his deputy, I cited numerous occasions I had helped him out and appealed to his sense of decency to end this as I wasn't drawing any bullets. He caved, took aim and shot Steve dead despite his protests. I think you can see where this is going, can't you? Steve flipped his role card over, revealed that he was the Deputy and Matt had to discard his entire hand plus all his hard earned gear.
I rode into town, plunked down a Volcanic (a gun which allows you to fire any number of Bang! cards in a turn), gave the Sheriff a cheeky wink as he sat there with his pants down and proceeded to reveal why I hadn't been able to play Bang! cards, there were five in my hand (three held onto, 2 drawn that turn)!
"So long Sheriff!"
It took quite a while for Matt to forgive me for that betrayal... It still warms me to think of it, especially the look on Steve's face when he was shot and Matt's when Steve revealed his Role card. Good times.
The Ugly Weak Parts:
"The way I figure, there's really not too much future with a sawed-off runt like you."
As mentioned earlier, Bang! is not a complex game, nor is there's not a lot strategy to the game beyond some simplistic moves backed with deception. It can be very frustrating to go out early and as a consequence I'd recommend having a two player game (like say YINSH) available for the earliest casualties to play if they don't fancy sitting and watching. Bang! also requires decisive players willing to make the first move, there's nothing forcing a player to attack another player and a lot of cautious players can drag a game out to an extreme length. In a similar fashion, I have played a game where one of the Deputies decided he was bored with the game and started to shoot the Sheriff, who retaliated, killed the Deputy and had to loose all his cards - needless to say that game was a hollow Outlaw victory and the Sheriff, other Deputy and Renegade were put out.
There is also an issue with the gun cards, they vary from being immensely useful when there is a large number of living players to becoming almost useless in small games (late in the game) as you can only have one gun in play and there is little benefit to having back ups (apart from maybe a second gun), then the is the chance that a player can spend their time drawing a lot of junk/dead cards. The expansions do help reduce the 'junk card' issue by diluting the card pool and adding in more useful cards, but there is always the chance - you can be screwed by the draw and if that happens, there's nothing you can do about it.
Also there are no mechanical ways of deducing a player's role within the cards (apart from the Sheriff) and as a consequence the early stages of the game are close to blind luck, with players being dropped for no reason other than 'I had to shoot someone'. This may not be to everyone's taste, but if you're seeking a hidden role game with deduction Shadow Hunters may be more to your liking.
Finally, the Renegade role is a tricky tightrope to walk and it may daunt or disappoint some players who feel it is too hard to play. I know I prefer to be a Deputy or Outlaw over the Renegade. However, this guide by Friman can make quite a difference if you're getting very frustrated as the Renegade. Short version, think like The Man with No Name, keep your head down, concentrate on staying alive and shoot to kill rather than just to injure.
The Summary:
"Every gun makes its own tune."
Bang! is a game you can either love or hate; it's simple, but chaotic and a great deal depends on the make up, attitude and experience of your playing group. It's a game which encourages grudges and lying and can be a wonderful 'cool down' game played at the end of a session, it also shines when played at a convention where eliminated players can join other games rather than have to wait, but the game itself is only a framework for the stories the players tell when playing the cards and this limitation can be either it's greatest strength or its Achilles spurs.
Still, there's nothing quite like cranking up some Ennio Morricone, putting on your hat and moseying on into town Pardner!
For Further Limelight Reviews check out this Geeklist.
-
|
|
Posted Wed Jan 25, 2012 3:02 pm