Bang! (card game)

For other uses, see Bang (disambiguation).

Bang!

Designers	Emiliano Sciarra
Illustrators	Alex Pierangelini
Publishers	DV Giochi Mayfair Games
Players	4–7 (3–8 with expansion sets)
Setup time	approx. 5–10 min.
Playing time	20–90 minutes
Chance	Card drawing
Skills	Card playing

Bang! is a Spaghetti Western-themed social deduction card game designed by Emiliano Sciarra and released by Italian publisher DV Giochi in 2002. In 2004, Bang! won the Origins Award for Best Traditional Card Game of 2003 and Best Graphic Design of a Card Game or Expansion.

The game is known worldwide as Bang!, except in France, where it was known as Wanted! until September 2009.

Overview

The game is played by four to seven players (up to eight players with variants and expansions). Each player receives a unique character card with special abilities and a number of 'bullets' (representing life points), and takes one of the four roles with different objectives:

• Sheriff (always one), whose objective is to kill all Outlaws and the Renegade(s); the player with this role has two extra bullets, which is also added to their max life point count, and reveals their role card to all players.
• Deputy (from zero to two), whose objective is the same as the Sheriff's.
• Outlaw (from two to three), whose objective is to kill the Sheriff.
• Renegade (one in the base game; an expansion can add an extra one), whose objective is to be the last player still in play, with the Sheriff being the last one dead.

The game is played in turns, in clockwise order, starting with the Sheriff. Each player's turn has three phases:

Draw: Draw cards from the draw pile, two by default.

Play: Play cards to heal or buff the player's character (any number can be played, although some have timing limitations), or attack other players in an attempt to eliminate them. When attacking, the player can only target other players within distance, based on the weapon they have in play.

Discard: Discard cards down to the hand size limit (equal to the number of bullets shown on the player's character card).

Each character comes with a set number of life points and a unique ability. For instance, in the base set, which has 16 character cards, "Bart Cassidy" (parodying Butch Cassidy) starts with 4 bullets and draws a card every time he loses a life point, while "Willy the Kid" (parodying Billy the Kid) starts with 4 bullets and can play any number of "Bang!" cards during his turn.

A player who loses their last bullet is considered dead; they are out of the game with their role card revealed. Penalties and rewards also apply to encourage the social deduction aspects of the game. For example, if the Sheriff eliminates a Deputy, the Sheriff must discard all the cards in hand and in play.

The game ends as soon as the Sheriff dies or the last Outlaw and/or Renegade dies, after which the winners are determined. Players who are already dead when the game ends are still considered to have won if their team's win condition is met.

Strategy

In 2002, designer Emiliano Sciarra posted strategy tips on BoardGameGeek.

As only the Sheriff is known, it is hard to know who has what role. Generally, a player's role is implied if they try to shoot, or otherwise harm, the Sheriff. Others' roles can be implied if they try to harm those who harmed the Sheriff. The advantage of keeping one's role hidden from enemies must be weighed against the need to accomplish one's goal.

Since the Renegade loses if the Sheriff dies when there are still others in the game, that player must defend the Sheriff to some extent. On the other hand, their ultimate goal is killing the Sheriff. This leads to a "two faced" nature of the Renegade, trying to weaken each side (Outlaws and Deputies) while keeping the Sheriff alive until the end. This also makes it harder to ascertain who is an Outlaw, who is a Deputy, and who is a Renegade, as their actions may be similar.

Expansions

• Bang! High Noon (2003): The expansion (referencing 1952 film High Noon) gives thirteen scenario cards to the Sheriff, who reveals one when starting each turn; it is effective until the next scenario has been revealed. Cards include "Shootout" (each player can play an extra "Bang!" attack on their turn), and the final scenario "High Noon" (each player loses 1 life when they start their turn for the remainder of the game).
• Bang! Dodge City (2004): The expansion (referencing 1939 film Dodge City) adds 15 new characters, 40 new play cards, and 8 "role" cards (7 duplicates) allowing up to 8 people to play. It features a new symbol, meaning "discard another card to play this card", and new green-bordered cards which take effect in the next opponent's turn (in case of a Missed! effect) or the owner's next turn (in all other cases).
• Bang! A Fistful Of Cards: The expansion (referencing 1964 film A Fistful of Dollars) contains fifteen new scenario cards which can be mixed with the High Noon expansion. These were designed by players and selected by the original author. The titular "Fistful of Cards" is used as an alternative to "High Noon" as the last scenario card, and makes each player the target of as many "Bang!" attacks as the number of cards in hand at the start of their turn.
• Bang! Wild West Show (2010): The expansion features characters that parody actors iconic to the western movie genre such as "Flint Westwood" (Clint Eastwood) and "John Pain" (John Wayne). 10 special cards play similarly to the scenario cards in High Noon and A Fistful of Cards, and are revealed every time a "Stagecoach" or "Wells Fargo" is played. With the titular "Wild West Show", killing the Sheriff no longer ends the game (although roles otherwise apply as normal), and the goal becomes to be the last player alive.
• Bang! Gold Rush (2011): The expansion introduced a new mechanic called the shadow-gunslinger. Players who are shadow-gunslingers may re-enter the game as if they were still alive. It includes 8 new characters, 24 equipment cards, and introduces the resource of gold nuggets, which are mainly used to purchase equipment.
• Bang! The Valley of Shadows (2014): The expansion adds 8 new characters, 5 new blue-bordered cards, and 10 new brown-bordered cards. It was first unofficially released in September 2011 in Czechia and Slovakia, and officially released on October 16, 2014 by the Czech editor ALBI.
• Bang! Armed & Dangerous (2017): The expansion introduces a new Load resource. It adds 8 characters, such as "Mexicali Kid" (who may pay 2 Loads to shoot an extra "Bang!"), and 13 orange-bordered cards which require Loads to be used, such as "Beer Keg" (which gives a life point for 3 Loads).
• Bang! Great Train Robbery (2021): The expansion introduces Station (14), Railcar (16), and Locomotive (1) cards to the game. It includes 8 new characters and 16 additional playing cards. Players must pay a station's cost (for instance, discarding a Spade at "Creepy Creek") to take a corresponding railcar from the train. Railcars provide benefits, such as "Circus Wagon" (which can be discarded to make each other player discard one of their cards in play) or "Private Car" (which provides immunity against being targeted with "Bang!" cards while empty-handed).
• Bang! Legends (2024): The expansion replaces the original base game characters with "Legendary" versions who have new abilities that can be used by completing feats. It includes 16 feat cards, and 35 wooden Fame tokens in 7 different shapes and colors.

Special releases

• Bang! The Bullet! (2007): This deluxe version included the base game (3rd ed) High Noon (2nd ed), Dodge City (2nd ed), and A Fistful of Cards (2nd edition), along two additional High Noon cards, and three special character cards: "Uncle Will" (referencing Will Niebling, former CEO of Mayfair Games which published the game in the USA until 2008); "Johnny Kisch" (referencing Jo Nikisch, CEO of Abacus Spiele, the German publisher of the game), and 'Claus "The Saint"' (who gives an extra card to other players each turn and which the author considers to be unbalanced and not suited for serious play; it was originally a bonus "unglued" card included in the online daVinci newsletter). The 2009 reprint, which follows the 4th edition rules of the basic game and the 3rd edition rules of Dodge City, does not include player boards or wooden bullets as found in the boxed version of BANG! 4th edition.
• Bang! 10th Anniversary Edition (2012): The set comes in a metal tin, and contained the complete most recent version of the base game with the original 16 characters. It also contains 30 wooden bullet markers for keeping track of health, 7 player boards with different artwork, and 10 extra characters — "Annie Versary", who may use any card as a "Bang!" card, and nine characters from previous expansions.
• Bang! Dynamite Box Standard Edition (2023): Released to celebrate the game's 20th Anniversary, it contains a storage box designed to store the BANG! base game and expansions (not included). It also contains a Stick of Dynamite used in a new game variant, 34 wooden bullet markers for keeping track of health, and 8 premium dual-layer player boards with different artwork and recessed slots to house cards and wooden bullets.
• Bang! Dynamite Box Collector's Edition (2023): The set contains the contents from the Standard Edition as well as the base game and expansions, and 9 promo cards including "Annie Versary", and a new "Emiliano" character named after BANG! designer Emiliano Sciarra

Bang! The Duel

This is a two-player standalone game. One player controls a team of law enforcers, while another player controls a team of bandits. It contains 12 enforcer and 12 bandit characters.

Computer versions

On October 29, 2009, Palzoun Entertainment (which acquired the official license from DaVinci Games) announced the development of a Bang! video game. The game was developed in partnership with SpinVector. It was published on the iTunes App Store on December 18, 2010. A console version was also expected to arrive in March 2011 but has been delayed.

BoardGameArena (BGA) is a real time board game online game system that allows to play Bang! along with some of its expansions. It was published on the 23 February 2022.

Some unofficial online versions of Bang! have been released during the years, however those using copyrighted assets have received DMCA takedown notices. Others have replaced the images.

Lawsuit

In 2014, DaVinci Editrice initiated a lawsuit against Ziko Games, the Chinese manufacturer that had published Legends of the Three Kingdoms, a game that DaVinci claimed was a clone of Bang!, simply changing the Wild West theme and art to that of ancient China. While the court found there was potential for copyright infringement on its initial hearing, it ultimately ruled in favor of Ziko Games and dismissed the case in 2016.

Reviews

• Pyramid
• Family Games: The 100 Best

See also

• Mafia (party game)

External links

• Bang! the Official Video Game (offline)
• dV Games (formerly daVinci Editrice) official website
• FAQ, editions, designer's notes and other info at the author's personal website
• Bang! at BoardGameGeek
• BANG!cz {en, cz}: Eldorado, MartinCity, Bang! Card Generator, Forum, Downloads and more
• The Bang! Blog: Death Mesa, Robbers' Roost, character strategy guides, card explanations, variants, modding, and more
• Bang! at Boardgaming.com