Robbers' Roost: Handcut Cards Examples

I wanted to give a preview of handcut cards I made for a prototype of the Robbers' Roost expansion using the plaincards.com templates with printing on my Canon ip90 printer, cutting using the Fiskars Premium Paper Trimmer 12", and rounding the corners with a Paper Shapers' small Corner Adorner. Eventually, I will include a tutorial of how to do this in the productions section. I have already given a tutorial on how to create your own image for a custom BANG! character.

Here is an example of some prototype blue cards from the Robbers' Roost expansion with a Barrel from the original game to the left of them as a comparison.


You should notice some things right off. First, the blue border in my prototype cards is a little darker, but this isn't that important. The titles are much smaller on my cards, since I poorly assumed that the font size for the character cards was equivalent to the font size of the playing cards. I didn't recognize this problem until after I had printed the cards. Silly me. I have fixed this since, as you can tell in the card sheets I have realeased. To deal with the bigger font size on the playing cards, I also had to hack the text descriptions, which I think ended up being a good thing. The font for the card values in the left hand corner I never could identify, but I tried to find a similar scripty font. However, one playtester for Death Mesa said he had trouble reading the values in this font, so I changed to a more legible Microsoft Himalaya font. That is used in both the Death Mesa POD, and in the Robbers' Roost cardsheets now. Matching the colors for the backs ended up being more problematic:


While not terribly off, the woodgrain between the original card (the 3rd in the row) and the Robbers' Roost prototypes in clearly different. The discerning player could tell if a card on top of the deck was a Robbers' Roost card or not in good lighting. This could/could not be so bad, as that means he knows that it is one of 56 new cards in the deck, but since some of those cards are from the original game (BANG!, Missed!, Beer, etc. to balance out), he cannot infer too much. One way of dealing with the color management issue was for me to make the orange cards necessarily placed in front of other players. That way everyone would know that it is an orange card from the expansion anyway, so it undercuts that discerning knowledge.

Now for some tan and orange cards:



Nothing really new to explain about these cards beyond what I said about the blue cards. I apologize for the blurry/darker picture of the orange cards. Of note, I renamed "Old Nag" to "Wild Stallion" (tribute to Bill & Ted), and the values of these tan and orange cards I have mostly changed.

As for character cards:


Fanny Porter, the second character in the row (and now Maggie Mae in the official release), is the prototype character. Gary Looter from WWS is on her left, Uncle Will from the Bullet on her right, and Paul Regret from the original game is at the far right. I placed these characters in a row to show some of BANG!'s own variance in color throughout the expansions. Paul Regret's border is clearer the darkest, with Uncle Will lightening up some more, and Fanny Porter and Gary Looter are nearly the same hue. These borders have a lot more flux in them. Character images too: Uncle Will is far lighter than Gary or Paul, with Fanny somewhere in between. The strokes on Fanny Porter have a more magenta tint however. The font sizes are correct across the board. In terms of text, both use Palatino Linotype, but Fanny only includes an English description (also italicized as in the others). As for the backs:


The colors are closer here, but again the woodgrain is off, having more of a magenta than orangey tone to it. Getting this back right is less problematic for gameplay as the characters are all dealt at the beginning of the game. Nonetheless, it is aesthetically pleasing to get things as close as you can.

I hope this gives you a good feel for the custom cards you can make using the plaincards.com templates and your own printing/cutting tools. Mod on!

Robbers' Roost Characters: Chuck Parkhurst, Fannie Porter, & Big Nose Kat

NOTE: Now that RR has gone through significant revisions, all these characters have been eliminated. This post is kept here for historical purposes (tracking RR's development) alone. For the characters actually in the RR expansion, go the official page.

Today I thought it might be nice to take a break from the strategy guides and add some more Robbers' Roost characters. I am adding so many I will probably have to widdle them down, or I suppose I could just leave that up those who want to play with the characters. Anyway, I have three female characters to showcase now. I particularly like Chuck Parkhurst. You will have to let me know what you think. Oh, and the art used for these characters is borrowed; not my own.

Chuck Parkhurst. 4 Life Points. Once per round, she has a free BANG! that does not add to her card limit. Turn your character card sideways to indicate when you have this BANG! When it is used, turn the card back to its normal vertical position. These BANG! do not stockpile.

Fannie Porter. 4 Life Points. Anytime she is attacked by a card where she is the sole target, "draw!" On clubs, discard a card from the player who attacked her.

Big Nose Kat. 4 Life Points. Anytime she hits a player who was her sole target that player must discard a card from his hand.

Visit the Robber's Roost Expansion Page

El Dorado Expansion: Re-Released with New English Translation (Download Now!)

El Dorado was the first unofficial expansion for BANG!. It was designed by BANG! aficionado Jidan over at bang.cz in 2006, and has been mentioned here and there since. In many ways, El Dorado was the spiritual ancestor to Wild West Show. El Dorado already conceived of how the event cards could be altered by the actions of a player. Instead of playing a Wells Fargo or Stagecoach to flip over the next event card, El Dorado had players either play or discard an Ace. El Dorado also added a new role into BANG!, but not one that was permanently passed out with the rest at the beginning of the game. The “Grave Digger” was a role that could be adopted by the first player who died when it, as an event card, was in play. The Grave Digger was met with mixed reviews, but it was definitely a staple of El Dorado.

An English translation of El Dorado was put together by Rangi in 2006, and the expansion used art from the western film, Lemonade Joe. It even came with a classy tuck box! While it allowed English players to fiddle with El Dorado, much of the language was confusing, using terms such as “random distance” for instance. Some cards could not be understood, and others left huge holes in the gameplay. While Jidan answered a few of the questions English players had, many were not addressed, and he has long since abandoned updating El Dorado. However, before doing so he updated the Czech version with both new art and some new cards.

In an effort to make El Dorado more accessible to English speakers, I reinterpreted and rephrased the old El Dorado text. It should now be wasy to understand all the cards. Where there were conceptual holes in some of the event cards before, I have filled them in with my own interpretations and from what I have been able to garner from Jidan’s comments at www.bang.cz. I have also updated the English version with the updated art from Jidan’s czech version. Two examples of this are below: the old version is on the left, the revised version on the right.





Besides this, I have also taken the liberty to change certain cards. I felt that certain cards, such as Desperados and Cavalry, unacceptably allowed for players to flip their role cards over. I think that having to trust that your deductions are correct is crucial to the core of BANG! and so I altered them to no longer involve revealing roles. Nonetheless, I tried to capture the essence of such cards, providing ways in which the Sheriff still benefited from Cavalry, and players who shot at the Sheriff benefited from Desperados. While I would have removed Winifred from the El Dorado deck, Jidan already did so in the Czech version. Thus, I included “Hold Up” instead. I confess that I was not able to understand the Czech on this card the best, despite consulting dictionaries, but I think I came to an acceptable altenative to the original. Finally, on the forums there was some discussion of problems with “Grave Digger.” The first was the problem of players trying to die quickly to become the Grave Digger.

The second problem was the difficulty of determining what should occur when a Deputy, the Grave Digger, and the Sheriff remained in the game. Some have suggested removing Grave Digger from the game because of these problems, but I think he is a special element of El Dorado that should remain. I have tried to deal with this challenges in a satisfactory way in the rules below.

I hope that you will enjoy this re-release and retranslation of El Dorado. If you enjoyed Wild West Show, A Fistful of Cards, or High Noon, I am sure that you will find that El Dorado is up your alley! It is also easier to produce--it doesn’t really matter if event cards are on any nice card stock or not. If there are any improvements you think I can make to the English translation, or you note any other conceptual problems, feel free to contact me by leaving a comment here at The BANG! Blog or by writing me at martinpulido@gmail.com.

Download: El Dorado Guidebook El Dorado Card Sheet #1 El Dorado Card Sheet #2 El Dorado Backs Card Sheet

Robbers' Roost: More New Characters for the week

NOTE: Now that RR has gone through significant revisions, all these characters except Maggie Mae have been eliminated. This post is kept here for historical purposes (tracking RR's development) alone. For the characters actually in the RR expansion, go the official page.

As I mentioned that I probably would, I have some new characters to introduce this week. One is pretty different (Gunplay Maxwell), and I hope you will enjoy it: his ability is unlocked based on his gun range in comparison to another person's gun range. Besides him, the other 2 characters' art is not my own. I just found these sketches online (and I thought they fit the BANG! style enough), so don't give me credit for them! I hope you will notice that I have added a lot of female characters to BANG! They were a little lacking in the original game and its expansions. And the discerning reader to my Robbers' Roost characters may have noticed that all of my characters are actually based upon real historical outlaws, lawmen, horse stealers, etc., or on some pun (such as "Loan Arranger" for the Lone Ranger), or on some Western actor (Charleston Heston for Charlton Heston). I'll give their inspirations when I finally get to doing Robbers' Roost character guides, but Dodge City, Wild West Show, and the Bullet characters have precedence there (not to mention the original game characters that I am still plowing away on). Anyway, I hope you'll like these new characters.

Gunplay Maxwell. 4 Life Points. Whenever he plays a BANG! against a player who has a gun with a greater range than his, that player cannot play or use any spades or hearts to avoid his attack (this nullifies successful Barrel "draws!").

Bella Siddons. 3 Life Points. Whenever she has less than 2 cards in play in front of her, she may discard a card from her hand to draw the blue or green card from the discard deck that is closest to the bottom. This card can immediately be brought into play.

Maggie Mae. 3 Life Points. If the second card she draws is red, she may swap a card in play in front of her for a card in play in front of another player. She must show that the second card that she drew was red immediately if she wishes to use this ability (she does not need to show the card, only its suit).

Robbers' Roost: Additional Green Cards

NOTE: Now that RR has gone through significant revisions, most of these cards have been eliminated. Artillery remains as a green card, while Pay Day, On the House, and Show Time have become purple cards (with some changes). This post is kept here for historical purposes (tracking RR's development) alone. For the cards actually in the RR expansion, go the official page.

Robbers' Roost will add several new green cards to the deck (14 total). Many of these will already come from Dodge City, but half are new. Those I will introduce today.

Pay Day. Draw 2 cards from the deck. All other players draw 1 card.	Charm. Play this card to avoid any card played against you.	On the House. Gain 2 life points. All other players gain 1.
The Flop. Reveal 3 cards from the top of the deck. All players may choose 1 or 2 cards from their hand to complete the flop and make the best poker hand; these cards are to be placed face down in front of them. When all players have decide whether or not they are going to participate (and the participants have selected their cards), all participants reveal the 2 cards they selected. The player with the best hand wins the cards in the flop. The other cards are returned to each player's hand.	Show Time. Discard a card from all other players.	Artillery. BANG! all characters within a line of fire. In other words, select a player who you wish to be the end point of an attack. Select a direction from which to attack him (from your right or your left). All players up until that end point are banged! As you can imagine, Artillery can function as a Gatling as you wish: just select the end point to be the player immediately to your left or right, and then have the attack proceed from the opposite direction.
Face Off. Duel.

Robbers' Roost: Another Day for New Characters

NOTE: Now that RR has gone through significant revisions, all these characters have been eliminated. However, Madam Moustache may reappear late. This post is kept here for historical purposes (tracking RR's development) alone. For the characters actually in the RR expansion, go the official page.

I introduced some new characters to Robbers' Roost yesterday, and will do so again today (and perhaps later on this week). Behold 3 new ones! 1 (Eva Place) is based on an earlier Boot Hill character with some modifications.

Eva Place. 4 Life Points. Instead of "draw!" she may play a card in her hand as the effect of "draw!" She may also "draw!" first, and if the result is undesirable she can play a card in her hand as the effect of "draw!" but must discard another card with it (from her hand or in front of her).

James Reed. 4 Life Points. Once a round he may call the name of a card during another player's drawing phase. If that player has that card in his hand, he must give 1 to him.

Madam Mustache. 4 Life Points. When she is about to have card stolen or discarded from her hand, in play in front of her, or from amongst her orange cards, she chooses which card to lose, but it must be from the area originally selected (ie, from her hand, in play in front of her, or amongst her orange cards).

Robbers' Roost: Calamity Cards

NOTE: Now that RR has gone through significant revisions, all these cards have been eliminated. This post is kept here for historical purposes (tracking RR's development) alone. For the characters actually in the RR expansion, go the official page.

In the spirit of Jail/Prison in the original BANG!, Robbers' Roost will contain a series of "calamity" blue cards that can be played on other players to weaken them on their next turn (or the whole round). You play most as you would Jail, but many of them do not require any "draw!" Some of the "calamity cards" you can see below, and a few resemble event/scenario cards in A Fistful of Cards or High Noon.

Poison. Until your next turn, whenever the target player is the target of a card or ability that can increase his life points, "draw!" If black, no life points are regained.	Handcuffed. Play in front of another player. Until your next turn, this player cannot use or utilize cards in play in front of him.	Distracted. Play in front of another player. At the beginning of that player's next turn, "draw!" If hearts, discard Distracted and play normally. Else that player can only use and play cards that affect the player who laid Distracted. Discard Distracted at the end of this turn.
Bound. Until your next turn, a target player cannot put cards in play in front of them or use their orange cards. Discard on your next turn.	Drunken Haze. Until your next turn, a target player must lay 2 BANG! to shoot another player or to avoid Indians! Discard on your next turn.

Robbers' Roost: New Blue Cards to Enhance Gaining or Retaining Cards

NOTE: Now that RR has gone through significant revisions, all these cards have been eliminated. Too many blue cards were seen to bog down the game and benefit Mr. Delgado far too much. They may reappear sometime in the future as "accessory cards." This post is kept here for historical purposes (tracking RR's development) alone. For the characters actually in the RR expansion, go the official page.

Following up on my last post on new guns in Robbers' Roost, I thought I would introduce some of the other blue cards that will be introduced into Robber's Roost. I'll probably do this over three posts. Today, I will show blue cards that provide benefits in terms of gaining or retaining cards.

Ammo Belt. Increases the maximum amount of cards you can hold (your card limit) by 1. NOTE: There will be 2 of these in the Robbers' Roost expansion.	Cowboy Boots. All your Missed! count as Dodge (you draw a card from the deck whenever you play a Missed! card in response to an attack).	Hammock. If you don't play or use any cards during your turn, draw a card at the end of your discard phase.
Lucky Dice. If your second card drawn is a club, you may show it to draw another card.

Robbers' Roost: 4 New Guns

NOTE: Now that RR has gone through significant revisions, the Colt Lightning and Robert Wheeler have been eliminated. Only the Bulldog and James Dougall remain in a modifed form. This post is kept here for historical purposes (tracking RR's development) alone. For the cards actually in the RR expansion, go the official page.

Now that I have finished the Alpha release of Death Mesa, which I hope many will enjoy (as well as critique and improve), I can return to working on Robbers' Roost. I have already shown the orange cards that will be added, and many of the characters I am suggesting to add to the game, but I have not shown any of the blue, green, and brown cards I also think could be fun to add to the game. Today, I wanted to share the 4 guns I plan on adding to the BANG! deck. There would only be one of each of these guns in the deck. All but 1 have special abilities, while the 1 has a limitation that I think you might find interesting.

Colt Lightning. 2-5 Range. You cannot shoot any player you see at distance 1.	James Dougall. 1 Range. 2 Missed! must be played to avoid BANG! fired from this gun.	Bulldog. 2 Range. Discard 2 BANG! to Gatling.
Robert Wheeler. 1 Range. You may play 2 BANG!, but they must be shot at the same target.

Death Mesa (Alpha Version) Officially Released

As promised, Death Mesa (Alpha Version) is officially ready for release! I have updated the cards, the Death Mesa page, and Death Mesa Guidebook to incorporate new changes that I have made. The expansion is available in one large 8 megabyte zip file, or as a series of 9 PDFs. Download according to your preference. I recommend downloading the Guidebook first to determine your production method, and from thereon downloading the files that you need. Anyway, I hope you all enjoy this expansion, and I hope that the quality of it will gear you up for Robber's Roost!



Download the Death Mesa Expansion (Alpha Version) now.

For those who download and play with Death Mesa, please give me some feedback on the expansion, so that I can consider how to improve it for future releases. You can simply post your feedback on this post, or e-mail me.



While Death Mesa is currently only available in English, I am considering a Spanish translation (and perhaps an Italian translation) for the future. Devuelve en el futuro para la traducción!

Death Mesa Guidebook

Before releasing Death Mesa, I have provided the following Death Mesa Guidebook that contains:

• Expansion Instructions


• Card by card in-depth explanations


• Three ways of producing/printing the expansion

I encourage you to look it over to get familiar with the rules, and the way you may wish to produce the Death Mesa cards for the BANG! card game. The Alpha version for Death Mesa will be released soon.

Robbers' Roost: 15 New Characters and Updated Page

NOTE: Now that RR has gone through significant revisions, many of these characters have been eliminated. This post is kept here for historical purposes (tracking RR's development) alone. For the characters actually in the RR expansion, go the official page.

Next Clamton.	Porter Rockwell.	Lela Devere.	Maddie Silks.
Julie Bulette.	Charleston Heston.	Lilian Smythe.	Rosa Morgan.
Small Britches.	Sallie Skull.	Slick Stanhope.	Queen Ann Bassett.
Lil' Sure Shot.	Jimmer McKay.	Turd Ferguson.

I have added 15 new characters to the unofficial Robbers' Roost expansion and edited some of the abilities of those characters whom I have posted before. All characters that have thus been posted have been added to the Robbers' Roost page. Check out the characters and give me feedback if you get the chance.