BANG! Custom Expansions

BANG! is a great game not only for easy and fun variants, but for the custom cards that can be added to it. Many players have toyed with The Bullet's 2 blank cards, but many don't take it very far. DV-Giochi also sells more blank cards for purchase, but international is cost prohibitive. Players are left with 3 options:
  • Buy extra official BANG! cards and sleeve them all. Then print paper to slip inside the sleeves for the custom cards. This is a fantastic way to playtest.
  • Print out your own custom cards on card stock.
  • Leverage a printer on demand (POD) service, of which Death Mesa was the first to do so.

Because BANG! cards are an irritating European card size, cards aiming to stick cards into the playing deck were custom trimmed for years. This made most custom expansions, including Death Mesa, focus on a secondary deck where matching the card size wasn't an issue. Nowadays, POD's like The Game Crafter print cards that match BANG's size. This enables expansions like Robbers' Roost to be incorporated far easier into the playing deck.

I have created, collected, translated, critiqued, and modified many custom BANG! expansions. Both Death Mesa and Robbers' Roost are my own creations. I'll be examining recent ones -- if you know of one, feel free to notify me of it. I'm mostly interested in expansions with novel ideas, which aren't derivitive off of Robbers' Roost. Below I categorize the expansions, and for each expansion, I provide (1) a link to a more thorough explanation and review of the expansion with download links, (2) a short description of the expansion, and (3) an overall rating for the expansion.

Completed Custom Expansions.


Decks for Eliminated Players.
  1. Death Mesa (Martin Pulido): When players are eliminated they influence the game as ghosts. They draw and play cards from a custom 52-card deck. All roles can still achieve victory, with modified victory conditions. You can now use 18" x 12" card sheets with a printing service online. While I won't review my own work, I have had many positive responses. Death Mesa is still in Beta stage, working out the kinks of the Zombie Renegade.
Playing Card Expansions.
  1. Robbers' Roost (Martin Pulido): Robbers' Roost adds many new playing cards and 16 characters (with custom art) to BANG! But Robbers' Roost is not about "more cards", but adding new forms of gameplay. Interrupts allow players to play out-of-turn cards to break up long rounds, speed up the game, and coordinate team efforts. Windups have an initial effect when played, and a latent effect on the player's next turn.
  2. Director's Cuts (Django): Director's Cuts is a sizable expansion with gorgeous art. Original made in Spanish, I've translated it into English. It's mostly an event deck with characters, although there are some new brown and blue cards. Director's Cuts needs some balancing, and I've been adjusting character abilities to make them both unique and at the proper power level. Definitely worth checking out. 4/5.
Event Decks.
  1. O. K. Corral (Steve Elmore): In the vein of High Noon. Well-designed expansion with 24 new event cards that have good thematic value. Some cards are really fun such as Fatal shot (for a round, hit players must "draw!" On hearts, they lose another life point), while others like Search Warrant are poor (the Sheriff may choose to see one other player's role card). You may want to pick and choose which O. K. Corral cards you want to include in the event deck. 3.5/5.
  2. El Dorado (Jidan, Martin Pulido): In the vein of Wild West Show. Event cards can be ended by players discarding or playing Aces. Well-designed expansion (custom art even) with 18 new event cards that have good thematic value. El Dorado adds the new fascinating "Grave Digger" role. The new English edition has several card edits that dealt with balancing and interpretive issues from the past. Includes custom guidebook and tuckbox. 4/5.
  3. Peterson Pack (R. Peterson): In the vein of High Noon. Less pretty expansion, designed simply to be printed off on paper and cut out. However, it provides some excellent event cards like Green Flash (green cards can be played immediately) or Returning Fire (Each time you are hit, you draw—on hearts or diamonds, the player hitting you must play a Missed! card or lose 1 life point). Unfortunately, others are impractical like Quick Draw (you can play cards with the ‘add one more card symbol’ without having to add another card), or ruin the game's deception dynamic like Peeping Tom (at the start of your turn, you draw! If you get a 2-9 of hearts, you may take a peek at the role of any other player). As with O. K. Corral, you may wish to pull some of the cards from the deck. 3.5/5.

16 comments:

  1. La ostia... gracias por el bang!

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  2. Podeis subir WILD WEST SHOW y las demas expansiones?

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  3. Lo siento, pero no puedo subir estas expansiones oficiales. DV-Giochi tiene los derechos de autor, y no quiero violar estos derechos. Solemente subo las expansiones inoficiales. Gracias!

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  4. Wouldn't it be nice if they made Robbers Roost and Death Mesa Official expansions? Then they could compile it all into a new Bullet!

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  5. I appreciate the sentiment. It would be one big Bullet, though!

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  6. Martin, Are you planning on releasing tuck box designs for the expansions? It would be super!!

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  7. I'll keep your suggestion in mind. I'll also post tuckbox designs for El Dorado and BANG!/BANG!+DC that have already been made.

    If I do one for Death Mesa and Robbers' Roost, I will make designs for tuck boxes that can be used with a printing service.

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  8. Hi, rather than buying the blank cards and drawing out everything uglily, is there any service that i can send pictures, and ideas to and let them print out everything for me as a custom expansion? if you do pls let me know.

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    1. Hi Anonymous, I just printed out a custom copy of Robber's Roost using www.printerstudio.com. I made a custom "bridge sized" playing card deck and they came out pretty good! The color aren't perfect, and the cards might be 1/32" too large overall, but it didn't affect playing the game at all. I would recommend them. The interface is a little bit cumbersome, and it took quite some time to get them all uploaded, but i'm quite happy with the outcome.

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  9. There was a online card genorator but it seems defunct.
    Would be great to see it up and running again.

    it was here...http://www.bang.cz/cs/bcg.html

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    1. it is running again http://www.bang.cz/en/bcg.html

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  10. martin do you have a file pdf of "Bang! A Fistful of Cards" expansion?

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  11. Hi Martin,

    As I mentioned in my suggestion to a March 5, 2012 post, I just got a custom deck of cards printed out for Robbers Roost and I'm quite pleased with the expansion! Is there somewhere more appropriate than here on this blog for me to ask some specific questions about the expansion that I'm still a little foggy on?

    Thanks!!

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    1. if you want i can explain i have printed the expansion my self and i really like it

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  12. Has anyone ever simply printed off these cards onto some sort of printer-friendly labels and stuck them onto an existing deck of cards? Aesthetically, they'd match the rest of the sets where it matters most (the backs) and I could live with the capabilities of my printer. But my worry is shuffling them and simply handling them often would lead to them to peel off.

    I am most interested in Robber's Roost. The orange cards are awesome enough, but I realized I was looking at an outdated instruction manual and that there are purple cards! I need this expansion.

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  13. Nice work, thank you a lot.
    I have one problem - I don't know how to add on brown cards symbols under the picture. I guess it could be in a layer SYMBOLS: playing but I can't see it anywere. Could you please advise me? Thanks!!

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