New Variants and Custom Expansions Pages

I didn't add as much content this past week because I was busy on (1) preparing for the Robbers' Roost release, and (2) adding new pages on BANG! custom expansions and variants. The first you are already aware of, but the second I haven't mentioned yet. Before the top menu bar mostly led to collections of blog posts under certain labels. While this is certainly true for many still, I have slowly been phasing these out, adding custom pages for Robbers' Roost, Death Mesa, the BANG! character guides, and now the Variants and Custom Expansions pages. The Custom Expansions page gives a short description, overall review score, and link to several custom BANG! expansions. I only included in this page expansions that were vast and complete (except for the being-released Robbers' Roost). At the moment, this collection is limited to Death Mesa, El Dorado, O. K. Corral, the Peterson Pack, and Robbers' Roost. If you know of other complete custom expansions, please leave me a comment. So the 1-2 set of custom cards that you see floating online from time to time from various authors are not included. In the future, I will try to gather together a lot of these custom cards into a large "custom card pack" all placed in a zip file for you to download.

As for the Variants page, I have tried to collect both BANG! "alternate gameplays" (which give a far vaster change in how to play the game) and "house rules," which only affect a few cards or game elements. So far I have collected 40+ variants. I know there are many others, especially "alternate gameplays," to add. It will take me a while to both try these out and write reviews for them. If you know of any good variants or "alternate gameplays" please comment on the Variants page; I left comments open there.

I hope that these two pages will help organize some of the information available on this site better and give you cards or ideas that will enhance your fun while playing BANG!

Alternate Gameplay: Survival of the Fittest

In this alternate gameplay created by Tyler Ziegler, BANG! players absorb the character abilities of those they eliminate.

Object of the Game: Be the last man standing.

Set up: Get rid of the role cards (Sheriff, Deputy, Outlaw, and Renegade). Deal out the characters. Play as you normally would, with one rule change:

When you eliminate another player you absorb that player's character abilites.

Tyler Ziegler gave the following examples of how this works:

For example: Player A (Calamity Janet) eliminates Player B (Willy the Kid). Player A takes Player B's character card and places it next to his own. Player A can now use Calamity Janet's ability as well as Willy the Kid's!

Example 2: Player A (Calamity Janet/Willy the Kid) is eliminated by Player C (Slab the Killer). Player C gains control over both of Player A's character cards. Player C is now empowered with all three character abilities.

The game continues until only one player remains. Because there are no identity cards, players can feel free to kill whomever they wish. The last man standing wins!

I think this variant will only be fun if there are 2 changes made: (1) "Absorbing powers" is understood thus: the abilities of the two character cards do not function simultaneously, but at the beginning of each round (perhaps even each turn) a player chooses which ability is in effect. They symbolize this by playing that character card on top of the other(s) they player may have. If they do not make this change during the draw phase of the player who begins the round/turn, then they cannot swap abilities. This keeps the player from gaining ridiculous combos such as Suzy Lafayette + Elena Fuente (infinite Missed!), and provides order the ability swapping. (2) To keep players from getting targeted from the getgo without being able to build any cards up, I suggest playing this variant with the hidden characters house rule, or at least the early game elimination penalty rule.

Alternate Gameplay: Headhunter Role

News (8/19/11): Added in the role card and PDF of the rules kindly created by Nevofix. Download the picture below, and check the link at the bottom.

While toying around with alternate victory conditions for the Renegade, I thought it could possibly be neat to add in a new role, "The Headhunter." The idea is sketchy at the moment, and may need some cleaning up. In essence, the headhunter's only object is to kill a fixed amount of other players (2 or 3, depending on the amount of players in the game). While he can kill the Sheriff as his last kill, he cannot do so beforehand otherwise his victory condition is not fulfilled and the Outlaws' victory condition is (Outlaws win). When players are eliminated, they give 1 unused character card to the killer. This will provide the proof that the Headhunter has achieved victory when he declares it, but not reveal anything about his role during the game because unused character cards are given to any player that kills another. To accomodate event cards that bring players back to life, the Headhunter can only achieve his goal by killing players who have not died before. Finally, there is a 2/4 bonus for killing the Headhunter once he has eliminated 1/2 players.

I think this could create some fascinating mechanics. Renegades and Deputies will have to be careful in the amount of players they kill or other players will think they are the Headhunter, and get bloodthirsty to eliminate them. Of course, play testing will reveal all the interesting facets in bringing this to the game.

I would not recommend adding the Headhunter until 5-player, but he would be best in 7-8 player I think.

Thus, the following set up occurs:

5-player: 1 Sheriff, 1 Deputy, 2 Outlaws, 1 Headhunter (1 Renegade removed)

6-player (most difficult to balance): 1 Sheriff, 1 Deputy, 2 Outlaws, 1 Renegade, 1 Headhunter
OR 1 Sheriff, 1 Deputy, 3 Outlaws, 1 Headhunter
OR 1 Sheriff, 1 Deputy, 3 Outlaws, (1 Headhunter or 1 Renegade, randomly dealt in)

7-player: 1 Sheriff, 1 Deputy, 3 Outlaws, 1 Renegade, 1 Headhunter

8-player: 1 Sheriff, 2 Deputies, 3 Outlaws, 1 Renegade, 1 Headhunter

For 5-player, the Headhunter would have to eliminate 2 other players to win, and in 6-8 players, the Headhunter would have to eliminate 3 other players to win. If you wanted to include the Headhunter in 4-player, I would just remove the renegade again:

4-player: 1 Sheriff, 2 Outlaws, 1 Headhunter

As in 5-player, the Headhunter would have to eliminate 2 other players to win.

If you have any suggestions or comments, let me know what you think. I am sure it will be difficult to balance this role, but I think it could be interesting.

Download the rules for the Headhunter Role.

Alternate Gameplay: Dead Man's Hand

Dead Man's Hand is a BANG! variant, conceived by Kevin O'Hara in 2005, which keeps eliminated players entertained as they wait for the BANG! game to end. Essentially, dead players play a separate game similar to Knock Poker with the BANG! cards they draw each turn. O'Hara explains the rules, with some slight modifications, thus:

When a player dies, he discards all of his cards and reveals his role (as per the regular rules). He immediately draws seven new cards. He then declares who he thinks is next to die. The Dead Players continue playing in turn order, but now are playing a separate game similar to Knock Poker. They do not affect the main game.

Dead Player’s Turn:

The dead player’s turn are meant to go very quickly as all decision making should happen between, and not during, his turns. On the dead player’s turn, he:

• Draws his hand back up to seven cards from the draw deck.
• Declares who he thinks is next to die. As soon as another player dies, he gets a bonus card if he was right, otherwise he must wait until his next turn to make a new declaration.
• Discards his hand down to five cards.

Out of Turn:

Anytime between all dead players’ turns, they may play Bang! cards on each other. If the targeted dead player does not play a Missed! card, he must forfeit one card at random from his hand. This is done out of turn order so that it does not interfere with the living player’s game (in other words, try not to interrupt the living players while you shoot each other in the afterlife).

End of Game:

When the regular game ends, the Dead Man’s Hand ends as well. The last player to die draws seven cards. Dead players compare legal five card poker hands at this point and to see who wins the Dead Man’s Hand. Duplicate cards do not count; for example, if you have two Ace of Spades, one of them is a null card for the purpose of completing a poker hand. Sorry hombre, no having five Aces.

Notes:

• Dead Players do not have the character special abilities they had when they were living. Dead Players cannot play any card on a living player. The only cards that they can play are Bang! and Missed! cards on other Dead Players.
• Dead Players do not count in determining distance between Living Players. Dead Players are always within range of all other Dead Players.
• Dead Players are immune to all powers and cards played by Living Players except General Store (which they take part in as if they were a Living Player).
• Dead Players can still potentially win the Living Game under normal rules for Outlaws and Deputies. Renegades cannot win the main game.

High Noon Special Rule: if Ghost Town card comes up, Dead Players ignore their Dead Man’s Hand and play as per High Noon rules for that round.

While this variant does provide a way for dead players to entertain themselves while a game of BANG! ends, I find all of the card drawing from the regular BANG! deck disruptive to the living players' strategies (hurts Kit Carlson's set-up strategy if the next player is a ghost for instance), and it slows the game down. Why not just get out a deck of playing cards and play another game while BANG! finishes. The dead players will probably be more entertained and BANG! will finish quicker. I highly recommend using Death Mesa or Dead Reckonin' instead.