Be the last one standing in this wild west shootout game with hidden roles.
"The Outlaws hunt the Sheriff. The Sheriff hunts the Outlaws. The Renegade plots secretly, ready to take one side or the other. Bullets fly. Who among the gunmen is a Deputy, ready to sacrifice himself for the Sheriff? And who is a merciless Outlaw, willing to kill him? If you want to find out, just draw (your cards)!"
— Back of box
Bang! is a social deduction card game with a Spaghetti Western theme. It was 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.
This game provides examples of:
- Bar Brawl: The Brawl card makes every other player discard a card.
- Booze-Based Buff: Taking a drink (by playing a Beer card or a Saloon card) heals damage. And the Dodge City expansion adds Tequila and Whiskey cards.
- Born Lucky: The special abilities of a few characters, in different ways:
- Black Jack has a 50% chance of drawing an extra card each turn.
- Jourdonnais has a 25% chance that a Bang! misses him (the same effect as a Barrel card).
- Lucky Duke draws 2 cards when required to draw one, and chooses the one most favorable to himself.
- Cool Horse: The Mustang card makes it harder for other players to shoot you (by increasing the effective distance from them to you).
- Deliberate Injury Gambit: A number of characters (as part of their special abilities) receive some sort of bonus when they lose a life point, which can lead to this.
- Drafting Mechanic: When you play a General Store card, draw as many cards (face-up) as there are players. Each player chooses one, starting with the player who played the General Store card, and moving clockwise around the table.
- Equipment Upgrade: Weapon cards can increase the range at which you can shoot other players, or in the case of the Volcanic, increase your rate of fire (allowing you to shoot multiple Bang! cards in a single turn).
- Everyone Has a Special Move: In addition to the randomly assigned roles, players receive randomly assigned Character cards, each of which has a special ability.
- Expansion Pack: Several:
- Dodge City: Adds new characters, new cards, and rules for playing with 3 players or with 8 players. (The base game plays with 4-7 players.)
- Gold Rush: Adds new characters, new cards, rules for gold nuggets, and rules for eliminated players remaining in the game as shadow-gunslingers.
- Armed & Dangerous: Adds new characters, new cards, and rules for Dangerous cards that require spending Load tokens to use.
- High Noon: An extra deck adds a rules twist each round, which remains in effect just for that round. (Now sold with A Fistful of Cards.)
- A Fistful of Cards: An extra deck adds a rules twist each round, which remains in effect just for that round. (Now sold with High Noon.)
- Wild West Show: Adds new characters, and an extra deck that adds a rules twist each time a Stagecoach card or a Wells Fargo card is played, which remains in effect until the next Stagecoach card or Wells Fargo card is played.
- The Valley of Shadows: Adds new characters and new cards.
- The Bullet: Includes the original Bang! game, plus the Dodge City, High Noon, and A Fistful of Cards expansions.
- Game of Chicken: The Duel card starts one. The player you challenge has to play a Bang! card, then you have to play a Bang! card, and so on. Whoever fails to play a Bang! card loses a life point.
- Gatling Good: The Gatling card makes every other player play a Missed card to avoid losing a life point.
- Grenade Hot Potato: The Dynamite card passes from one player to the next, until the player holding it is unlucky and loses 3 life points.
- Hat Damage: The symbol for the Missed cards is a bullet going through a cowboy hat.
- Heal It with Water: The Dodge City expansion has the Canteen card, which restores a life point if you've got it in front of you.
- Hit Points: Characters with more powerful special abilities start with 3 life points. Characters with less powerful special abilities start with 4 life points. The Sheriff starts with an extra life point by virtue of being the Sheriff.
- Home Base: The Hideout card makes it harder for other players to shoot you (by increasing the effective distance from them to you).
- Infinite Supplies: Suzy Lafayette's special ability is that she automatically draws another card whenever her hand is empty. As long as she can play the card drawn, she can draw another one to replace it, stopping only when she draws a card that for some reason she cannot play.
- Instant-Win Condition: The Outlaws win if the Sheriff dies. It doesn't matter who killed the Sheriff, or even if any of the Outlaws are still alive. note
- Last Chance Hit Point: If you have a Beer card in your hand when you lose your last life point, then you can play it out of turn to restore a single life point.
- Life Meter: The bullets on the back of an extra character card are revealed or covered to track how many life points you have left.
- The Mole: For much of the game, the Renegade will often play like a Deputy, killing Outlaws and protecting the Sheriff. A common endgame situation is for the Sheriff, a Deputy, and the Renegade to remain: the Deputy is trying to eliminate the Renegade, the Renegade is trying to eliminate the Deputy, and the Sheriff has no way to tell which is which. But the Deputy's ultimate goal is to protect the Sheriff by killing the Renegade, and the Renegade's ultimate goal is to kill the Sheriff after he's killed the Deputy. What's a Sheriff to do?
- Never Bring a Knife to a Gun Fight: Averted, in that the Dodge City expansion's Knife card does the same damage (one life point) as any of the guns. (And so does the expansion's Punch card!)
- No-Sell: From the Dodge City expansion, Belle Star's special ability is that cards in play in front of other players have no effect during her turn.
- One-Steve Limit: You cannot have two cards with the same name in front of you (and you cannot have more than one weapon card in front of you).
- One-Word Title: Well, one word and an exclamation point...
- Outlaw: The Outlaws want to kill the Sheriff. They claim victory if the sheriff is killed, and a single renegade is not the last one standing.
- Parody Names: Several character names are parodies of well-known old west characters, including Calamity Janet, Kit Carlson, and Willy the Kid.
- Pocket Protector: The Dodge City expansion includes the Bible card and the Iron Plate card, both of which can act as a Missed card if you've got them in front of you.
- Posthumous Villain Victory: If the Sheriff dies and anyone but the Renegade is still alive, then the Outlaws win, even if they are all dead. This can happen when the Sheriff, the Deputies, and the Renegade eliminate all the Outlaws, but then something (for example, the Dynamite card) kills the Sheriff. The outlaws may also win if there's two renegades remaining.
- Protection Mission: The goal of the Deputies is to protect the Sheriff. If the Sheriff dies, then any remaining Deputies also lose and the Outlaws win.
- Random Events Plot: The High Noon and A Fistful of Cards expansions add an extra deck that adds a random rules twist each round.
- Regenerating Health: Sid Ketchum's special ability is that he can discard 2 cards at any time to regain a life point.
- Robbing the Dead: Vulture Sam's special ability is that he receives all the cards (in hand and in play) of any player who is eliminated.
- The Savage Indian: The Indians! card makes every other player play a Bang! card to avoid losing a life point. In the dice game, the arrow identifies who is going to be attacked by the indians.
- The Sheriff: The Outlaws want to kill him, the Renegade wants to kill him last, and the Deputies want to keep him alive.
- Shout-Out: The Cat Ballou card, the Dodge City expansion's Iron Plate card, and several others.
- Showdown at High Noon: The Duel card allows you to challenge any player, and the loser will lose a life point.
- Social Deduction Game: A big part of the game is figuring out who is on which side, and whose goals align (at least temporarily) with your own.
- Sole Survivor: The Renegade's victory condition is to eliminate all other players, eliminating the Sheriff last (since the Outlaws win if the Sheriff dies before that). If there are multiple Renegades (8-player games, or Bang! The Dice Game), this includes eliminating other Renegades before eliminating the Sheriff.
- Spaghetti Western: The theme of the game.
- Spam Attack: The Volcanic lets you play as many Bang! cards as you want during your turn. This is also Willy the Kid's special ability.
- Themed Stock Board Game: There are two rethemed versions: a The Walking Dead (2010) version, and a Samurai version.
- Unblockable Attack:
- Slab the Killer's special ability is that his attacks are twice as hard to block as usual, requiring two Missed cards, or both a successful Barrel use and a Missed card.
- Cards that inflict damage without the Bang! symbol cannot be blocked. Dynamite and Duel are examples.
- Unfriendly Fire: Since roles aren't known, there's a chance outlaws may attack each other, or a Sheriff attacking their deputy (and killing them has a penalty of discarding all cards. In case of the dice game, the effects must be resolved even if it harms someone you know is on your team.
- Uniqueness Rule: allows a player to hold one piece of equipment of a given name and only one type of weapon. Playing a new weapon will discard the previous one. Additionally, only one Bang! card may be played per turn (outside of a special ability).
- Variable Player Goals: Players are randomly assigned roles, and with those roles come different victory conditions.
- We Win, Because You Didn't: A problem faced uniquely by the Renegade, whose objective is "be the last player standing." If the Sheriff dies before the Outlaws do, then the Outlaws win, as their objective is "kill the Sheriff"...which means the Renegade loses, even though they didn't die. Even if the Renegade made the killing shot, it's the Outlaws who win.
