Robbers' Roost: 10-Day Release and Development News

After some long consideration, Robbers' Roost will be a smaller expansion than I initially planned. Several factors have come into to making this decision, including (1) easier testing/balancing, (2) easier fit into the traditional BANG! experience, (3) easier production as there are fewer cards to cut, (4) more focused gameplay change in the expansion, and (5) cheaper costs for myself, others, and potentially a POD.

The smaller expansion will feel much more like the Dodge City expansion (an excellent expansion I might add). The 100 or so characters I have developed, I have culled down to 16. Here, I have tried to focus on characters that either add a fun new angle to the game, or fit well with the game's core mechanics (Jack West or Flint Dixon for instance). In simplifying the amount of characters, I have changed around some of the artwork to include the drawings I liked best. Some names have been changed, and several abilities have undergone modification. Comparing the released Robbers' Roost characters with the prototypes will show drastic changes.

However, in terms of what I feel to be good news, I will be keeping all of the orange cards. There will be 32 of these orange playing cards added to the deck. They are the main focus of this expansion in terms of the new mechanic that they add to the game, as the green cards were in Dodge City. Dodge City also had the discard another card to play a card idea, but there will be some new blue, green, and brown cards in Robbers' Roost that should make things interesting. The "line of fire" idea of cannon and artillery I think is really fun, for instance. Nonetheless, I plan to only add 10 of these to the deck (sorry). The other 14 cards will include cards from the original game to help balance out the probabilities. So, as a total, the Robbers' Roost expansion will include 72 cards (16 characters + 56 playing cards). This is still a hefty expansion in my opinion.

Those who were really looking forward to the other cards and characters, do not completely dismay! I will likely create a bonus pack or other expansion that will include these cards. For now, I just want to keep Robbers' Roost a little cleaner and controlled, rather than containing every BANG! playing card idea that Martin Pulido ever had in his head. So if there is any card that you really think should be placed in Robbers' Roost or a bonus pack, please let me know.

Besides this mixed good/bad news on Robbers' Roost, I do have a clearly positive item to share: The Robbers' Roost expansion will be released over the next 10 days. Each day, I will release 1 of the 9 card sheets, and on the last day I will release the guidebook. At least that is the plan. As an indicator that this is actually happening, I release the first cardsheet today:



Download the first Robbers' Roost Cardsheet (Character Set 1)