Bang! Bang! you dead!

Keeping with the western theme (by pure chance) we played Bang! The Dice Game last thur

I’d plays a good bit of Bang! The card game. Truth be told I’d played a lot of it and it’s expansions. I was in fact over it. Quite a while back, so it was with morbid curiosity I approached the dice version. I was pleasantly surprised

Bang! The dice game (BtDG) is a filler game similar to the original but lighter and quicker. The game sees up to eight players duking it out with secret roles either helping the Sheriff or trying to bump him off.

Each player starts with a random character with terrible names like “Willy the kid” or “something else” each with a non imbalanced special ability such as immune to Gatling guns or able to regain health at below 4 and so on. They also start with a secret identity like bandit (wants to kill the sheriff), deputy (wants to help the sheriff), renegade (wants to be the last person standing) or just plain old bullet magnet sheriff who starts visible to everyone.

People then quickly roll dice and the shooting starts.

The sheriff who starts with two more life than normal needs to figure out who’s on his side and who’s out to get him. Here’s a top tip. If they’re shooting at you they’re not your friend

Each player takes it in turn to roll the half dozen dice which allows you to shoot someone either one or two players away, drink beer and recover health, explode by rolling three dynamite or dishing out damage to everyone else with a Gatling gun. Finally and here’s where it rises above the norm. You can roll and gain arrows from a central pile. Once the pile is exhausted the Indians attack and everyone holding arrows take that many wounds.

Games are snappy. The special ability means it’s quite varied and guessing who’s who is fun. Unlike Colt Express shooting someone means something and it’s the big roundup in the sky once you lose your dozen or less health points.

This game reminds me a bit of zombie dice. There’s a push your luck element and it will appeal to kids. Kids who like shooting each other.

Compared to the original bang it’s a shorter game and much simpler. Personally I prefer the original but this is a perfectly acceptable filler game. Plus it’s got Cowboys in it

Yehar!

Victor