It’s a simple plot. One man wears a tin star. It’s his job to maintain order on the dirty frontier, to protect the innocent from bandits and injuns. He’s got a six-gun, his courage, and a pack of so-called deputies. That’s where the trouble begins. Some members of his posse are true deputies, willing to lay down their lives in the pursuit of justice. Others are vicious outlaws, scum planning to kill the sheriff and take the town for themselves. One among them is a renegade, a man who hates the outlaws as much as the sheriff — a cold-hearted loner who plans to be the last one standing.
This mystery is at the heart of Bang! The action of the game is simple enough, not unlike Family Business or Lunch Money. Players draw from a central deck of cards, which includes attacks, defenses, and special cards such as revitalizing Beer or the chance to throw a player in Jail. On your turn you draw two cards, then play as many cards as you can. The most common card is, not surprisingly, the BANG! card — a basic attack that knocks one wound off of your target. When someone takes enough damage, he dies.
But who do you shoot, when your turn comes up? At the start of the game, each player gets a role card, and with the exception of the sheriff, that goal is kept hidden. If you’re a deputy, you want to protect the sheriff and kill the outlaws. If you’re an outlaw, you win if the sheriff is killed, even if you die before it happens! If you’re the renegade, you need to play both sides against each other, drawing the conflict out until it’s just you and the sheriff, then finishing the job. While the rules of the game are simple, the hidden role card gives it unexpected depth. If you’re an outlaw, can you trick the sheriff into killing the deputies before you reveal your true motives? If you’re a deputy, can you correctly guess which of the others are the villains and convince the sheriff of your own loyalty? You can’t actually show anyone your role card, so your actions are the only real clues others have to your true goal. If someone shoots the sheriff, he’s branding himself as an outlaw and painting a target on his chest, but until the bandits are ready to strike, they’re sure to proclaim their loyalty and claim to be pure-hearted deputies. As the sheriff, who do you trust?
The game is further complicated by the mechanics of range. The players sit in a circle, and with your basic six-gun, you can only shoot the character next to you, whether to the right or the left. The deck of cards includes guns that increase your range, along with defenses — a Barrel you can hide behind to avoid attacks, or the Mustang, which lets you ride farther away from everyone. So you may know that Willy the Kid is an outlaw, since he’s taken a shot at the sheriff, but he may not be close enough for you to hit with your pistol. Who, then, do you shoot instead?
In addition to your secret role, you’re dealt a character card at the start of the game. This is revealed to all players, and has a name, a picture, and a special ability. Rose Doolan’s eagle eyes are as sharp as any scope, and she can hit her foes from farther away than normal. Vulture Sam is an undertaker, and he gets to strip the dead of their goodies. Slab the Killer never misses, and it takes two defense cards to dodge his bullets. Black Jack, Willy the Kid, Jesse Jones . . . names and pictures alone help to add color, while the special abilities alter the gameplay. When you combine these character identities with the role cards, it ensures that no two games will be exactly the same.
The mechanics are simple and solid, easy to learn and fun to play. It’s not a serious strategy game by any means; luck of the draw plays a major role, and if everyone decides to gang up on you, there’s not much you can do besides protest- ing your innocence. Yet I’ve found it to be one of those rare games that’s fun to play whether you win or lose. The blend of role and character helps to make Bang! extremely replayable, and as it can support up to seven players with the core set, it’s a great party game.
Beyond the mechanics, Bang! is a wonderful game for people who enjoy diving into the Spaghetti Western genre, made famous by Sergio Leone’s “Man with No Name” trilogy of films. The characters provide a touchstone for this sort of sto- rytelling, and the cards themselves add another twist. All the cards are bilingual, printed in both Italian and English. At my table, we love mixing up the terms when we play. When someone takes a shot at you, you can cancel it by playing a Missed! card. Simple enough. But it’s considerably more fun to shout “Mancato!” when you throw down that card. This is one of the few Italian words I now know by heart, along with birra (beer). The familiar elements and the game’s simple rules make it instantly accessible to anyone who’s ever enjoyed such Westerns as A Fistful of Dollars, and it’s easy to teach to new players.
So if you’ve got a few friends over and the birra is flowing, Bang! is an excel- lent game to throw on the table. Grab your cowboy hat, pour a shot of whiskey, and tell that low-down rustler El Gringo that he’ll be sleepin’ under Boot Hill tonight. It’s high noon, and it’s time for a showdown.
BANG!
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