This week in class another student and myself introduced our peers and professor to the card game Bang. Bang is a Wild West role playing card game. The purpose varies on which role you are assigned. The roles are, Sheriff, deputy, renegade and outlaw. The Sheriff's and deput(y's/ies) goal is to kill the renegade and the outlaws, the outlaws goal is to kill the Sheriff, and the renegade's goal is to kill everyone and have a final 1 on 1 show down with the sheriff.
Along with roles, players are also assigned characters. Each character has some ability that effects game play for them and others, as well as a "life" total. Each player takes one card for each life point they have, with the exception of one character card which has 9 life and only gets 5 cards to start the game. Play begins with the sheriff and proceeds clockwise from there. Each player has a draw step, and then may play any number of cards in had. Each player may only play one BANG card each turn unless their character attribute or a card in play states otherwise. Play continues until one of the players roles is achieved.
Players play bang cards to cause damage to other players. This can be prevented by using a miss card or a card in play with a similar effect. Players initially may only play bang cards against players seated directly to their right or left. This can be modified by playing other cards.
Bang has two expansions. One adds the "fist full of cards" cards to the game. These are revealed just before teh sheriff's turn, and affect gameplay for all players. These cards may even bring characters back to life. The second expansion adds the "Wild west show" cards. These are revealed one at a time each time any player plays a Wels Fargo or stagecoach card. These are 10 cards that also effect gamepley for all players. The 10th card which is always placed on the bottom of the wild west show deck, is the card, "The wild west show". This card suspends the reles of the role cards and the new rule is, be the last player alive.
In class we had time for one game with 6 players. One advantage was that 4 of us had played before, and one of the two who hadn't was the Professor. The game proceeded well as the two new players picked up the rules and mechanics fairly quickly. The game ended in a showdown between the Renegade, ( the Professor) and the Sherrif(one of the students) Which is an unusual, as the renegade's role is the most difficult to achieve.
