Bang! (card game)

Bang! is a Wild West-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 "" until September 2009.
Overview.
The game is played by four to seven players (four to eight players with variants and expansions). Each player takes one of the following roles:
Each player also receives a unique character card with special abilities and a certain number of 'bullets' (i.e. life-points).
The objective of the game is different for every role:
Game.
Set up.
Each player is randomly dealt a Character card and a Role card: there is always a Sheriff, two Outlaws and a Renegade. Roles depend on the number of players (for example, with 7 players there will be 1 Sheriff, 2 Deputies, 3 Outlaws and 1 Renegade). The Role cards are given face down to each player. The Sheriff shows his card. With the expansion, it is possible to play with only three players using a Deputy, an Outlaw and a Renegade.
Gameplay.
The game is played in turns, in clockwise order. The Sheriff begins. Each player's turn is divided into three phases.
"1. Draw two cards"
"2. Play any number of cards."
Each player can only have one weapon at a time. If a player wants to play a new weapon card when already having one, the player must discard the one already had. This is explicitly noted in page 3 of the rules.
When a card is played just follow the symbols on it. Cards can be played only during a player's turn (with the exception of "Beer", "Bang!" and "Missed!").
Normally a card has an effect which is immediately resolved, and then the card is discarded. However, blue-bordered cards, like weapons and horses, etc., have long-lasting effects, and are kept on the table face up in front of the player. In the Dodge City expansion, green-bordered cards are played face up and cannot be used until the following round, then are discarded.
The effects of these cards (in play) lasts until they are discarded or removed somehow (e.g. "Cat Balou" or "Panic") or a special event occurs (e.g. in the case of "Jail" or "Dynamite".)
3. "Discard excess cards."
Once the second phase is over (when the player does not want to or cannot play any more cards), then the player must discard from any cards exceeding the hand size limit. The hand size limit of a player (at the end of a turn) is equal to the number of bullets currently shown on the card that lies under the player's character card. Then it is the next player's turn, in clockwise order.
Game concepts.
Generally speaking (as there are exceptions):
Determining the winner.
Once the Sheriff is killed, the game is over. If the only player left is a Renegade, the Renegade wins. However, if two or more players are still alive or the only remaining player is an Outlaw, "all" the Outlaws win, dead or alive.
On the other hand, if all Outlaws and Renegades are dead before the Sheriff dies, the Sheriff and all the Deputies win, dead or alive.
Strategy.
As only the Sheriff is known, it is hard to know who has what role. Generally, a person's role is implied if he tries 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 he must defend the Sheriff to some extent. On the other hand, his 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.
Official tournament score.
An official scoring system can be found on daVinci web site, the official web site of the Italian editors of "Bang!". The scoring rules are as follows:
Character descriptions.
As the game constantly maintains an ironic point of view on the western clichés, some of the characters of "Bang!" are named after famous people.
There are 16 different characters in the basic set:
Official expansions.
"High Noon".
Released in 2003. A set of thirteen scenario cards that are given to the Sheriff, and revealed at the start of each of his turns – the card's scenario is effective until the next scenario card has been revealed. The name is inspired by the Western "High Noon".
The scenario cards have these effects:
"Dodge City".
Released in 2004. A set of fifteen new characters and 40 new play cards. There is also a set of 8 "role" cards (7 duplicates) allowing up to 8 people to play. The name is inspired by the Western, "Dodge City".
The new characters are:
"Dodge City" features also a new symbol, meaning "discard another card from your hand in order to play this card", and a new card type, the green-bordered cards: they are played like blue cards, cannot be used until the next opponent's turn (in case of a "Missed!" effect) or the owner's next turn (in all other cases) and are discarded immediately after they are used.
"A Fistful Of Cards".
Released in 2005. A set of fifteen new scenario cards, designed by players around the world selected by the original author, which can be mixed with the "High Noon" expansion. The name is inspired by the Western, "A Fistful of Dollars".
The cards include:
Player must choose either "High Noon" or "A Fistful of Cards" as the last scenario card when the two expansions are mixed together.
"Wild West Show".
"Bang! Wild West Show!" is an expansion released in August 2010 with characters that revolve not around historical figures but rather around actors iconic to the western movie genre. The expansion also includes cards and rules not seen in previous expansions.
The 8 new characters are:
The 10 special cards that come with "Wild West Show!" play similarly as the scenario cards in "High Noon" and "A Fistful of Cards". A special card is revealed every time a Stagecoach or Wells Fargo is played.
The 10 new special cards are:
"Gold Rush".
Bang! Gold Rush was released in 2011. It introduced some innovative gameplay mechanics: thanks to the shadow-gunslinger game variant, players are never really out of the game. During his turn, the shadow-gunslinger temporarily re-enters the game and he can play as if he was still alive. With Bang! Gold Rush, the outcome of the match can even be determined by an eliminated player.
– Players can collect gold nuggets to buy equipment. The purchase of an "equipment" card allows the player to selectively enhance his or her character and develop new strategies.
The box contains:
"The Valley of Shadows".
This expansion consists of 20 cards, mostly playing cards and several new character cards. First unofficial version was released in September 2011 in Czechia and Slovakia. It was officially released on October 16, 2014 by the Czech editor ALBI check ALBI webpage.
5 new characters:
3 bonus characters:
5 new blue border cards:
10 new brown border cards:
"Bang The Duel".
This is a standalone game, without any need for prior possession of Bang! Expansions. It is for 2 players only. One player controls a team of law enforcers, while another player controls a team of bandits.
12 law charactes:
12 bandits characters:
"Armed & Dangerous".
Released in 2017. New game mechanic with a new type of resource called Load.
Deluxe version: Bang! The Bullet!
A deluxe version of Bang!, called Bang! The Bullet!, was released in 2007.
This set included three of the official expansions, "High Noon" (second edition), "Dodge City", and "A Fistful of Cards" (second edition), along with several extras:
The 2007 release of Bang! the Bullet! game follows the 3rd edition rules of the basic game and the 2nd edition rules of "Dodge City".
The 2009 reprint of Bang! the Bullet! game follows the 4th edition rules of the basic game and the 3rd edition rules of "Dodge City". It does not include the player mats nor bullet tokens as found in the boxed version of Bang! 4th edition.
Bang! 10th Anniversary Edition.
This edition was released in 2012. It comes in a metal tin, and contains the complete most recent version of the base game with original 16 characters. It also contains 30 wooden bullet markers for keeping track of health, 7 player boards each with different artwork, and 10 bonus characters.
The 10 extra characters are as follows:
Video game.
On October 29, 2009, Palzoun entertainment (which acquired the official license from DaVinci Games) officially announced the development of Bang! The Card Game into a video game. The game will be developed in partnership with SpinVector.
During the Lucca Comics&Games 2010 Palzoun has announced that Bang! The Official Videogame would have been available on Christmas 2010 on different platforms, including iPhone, iPad, Samsung Wave (BADA), PC and Atom Netbook (APPUP). The iPhone App has been 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.
A live action trailer of the game was released on November 2, 2010.
Online Version.
On May 14, 2012, Christopher Gordon Carr's Software Developer Portfolio released Kraplow! an open source online Bang! clone. You can play this in your browser with AI or with other people. Kraplow! features all the rules from version 4.0 of Bang! and is free to use and open source.
The Starcraft II mod Barcraft is a copy of Bang! that replaces the wild west theme with themes and characters from the Warcraft, Starcraft and Diablo franchises.
There is a C++ client / server version https://kbang.weebly.com/ that requires a download available since 2008-03-05.
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.