Showdown

Full rules

1. Overview
2. Roles
3. Setup
4. The cards
5. Distance and range
6. Playing a turn
7. Going out
8. Winning the game
9. Tips for beginners
10. Variants

Overview

Showdown is a Wild West shootout for 4–7 players with secret roles. One player is the Sheriff and everybody knows it. The others secretly are Deputies who protect the Sheriff, Outlaws who want to bring the Sheriff down, or the lone Renegade who wants to be the last one standing. You shoot with spades, dodge with diamonds, drink with hearts and arm yourself with clubs – and you have to work out from the shots who is on whose side.

• Players: 4–7.
• You need: a standard 52-card deck with one joker, and about 25 chips, coins or matches for lives.

Showdown is a new game written for this site and not yet playtested – if something feels off, adjust it and tell us. It is inspired by the card game BANG! (Emiliano Sciarra, daVinci Games, 2002), but has its own cards and rules.

Roles

Take the role cards for your number of players out of the deck:

Shuffle the role cards and deal one to each player face down. Look at yours. The Sheriff turns the K♥ face up at once; everybody else keeps their role secret until they are out.

Goals:

• Sheriff and Deputies: take out all Outlaws and the Renegade.
• Outlaws: take out the Sheriff.
• Renegade: be the last player left. To do so, the Renegade usually has to help the Sheriff at first and fight him only at the end.

Setup

1. Lives. Everybody takes 3 chips – the Sheriff takes 4. A chip is one life; your starting number is also your maximum.
2. Play deck. All the cards that are not role cards (the rest of the 52, including any unused Queens and Jacks) form the play deck. Shuffle it.
3. Hands. Deal each player as many cards as they have lives (3, the Sheriff 4). Put the rest face down in the middle as the draw pile; next to it goes the discard pile.
4. The Sheriff starts; play goes clockwise.

The cards

The suit says what a card does. Only clubs also depend on the rank. Ranks go 2 (low) … 10, J, Q, K, A (high).

Equipment (clubs):

You may have one horse and one gun (revolver, rifle or twin revolvers) in front of you. If you play a new one of the same kind, the old one goes on the discard pile.

Distance and range

The distance between two players is the number of seats from one to the other, counted the shorter way round the table, counting only players still in the game. Your neighbours are at distance 1. If the other player has a horse, add 1.

Your range is 1 without a gun. You may shoot a player only if their distance is no more than your range.

Example: 5 players. Anna (the Sheriff), Ben, Carla, Dan, Emil sit clockwise. From Anna, Ben and Emil are at distance 1, Carla and Dan at distance 2. If Ben has a horse, Anna has to count him at distance 2 – without a gun, she can't shoot him.

Playing a turn

1. Draw 2 cards from the draw pile.
2. Play cards, in any order: - any equipment (♣) you like; - either one shot (♠) – up to two with the twin revolvers – or one drink (♥), never both. Diamonds cannot be played on your own turn.
3. Hand limit. At the end of your turn you may keep at most as many cards as you have lives. Put the rest on the discard pile.

Being shot. The player you shoot may play one ♦ of the same or higher rank to dodge. Otherwise they lose 1 life (put a chip back). A ♦ of lower rank doesn't help. An A♠ can only be dodged by the A♦.

Draw pile empty? Shuffle the discard pile to make a new draw pile. The second time this happens, it is High noon: from now on hearts and diamonds have no effect – no more drinking, no more dodging. You may only discard them.

Going out

When you lose your last life (and don't drink a ♥ to stay at 1), you are out. Turn your role card face up and put your hand and equipment on the discard pile.

• Bounty: whoever takes out an Outlaw draws 2 cards at once.
• Bad mistake: if the Sheriff takes out a Deputy, the Sheriff must discard all the cards in their hand (equipment stays).

Winning the game

The game ends at once when one of these happens:

• The Sheriff is out. If the Renegade is the only other player left, the Renegade wins. Otherwise the Outlaws win – all of them, even those already out.
• All Outlaws and the Renegade are out. The Sheriff and the Deputies win – including Deputies already out.

Example: Anna is the Sheriff with 4 lives. Ben – secretly an Outlaw – draws 2 cards, plays the 5♣ as a horse and shoots Anna, his neighbour, with the Q♠. Anna has only the 9♦; it is lower than the Queen, so she can't dodge and drops to 3 lives. Carla, a Deputy, now wants to shoot Ben. He sits next to her, but with his horse he counts as distance 2, so she first plays the 7♣ (revolver, range 2) and then shoots with the 4♠. Ben dodges with the 5♦. On Anna's next turn she decides not to shoot and drinks the 8♥ instead: back to 4 lives. She keeps 4 cards, the most she may hold.

Tips for beginners

• Watch who shoots at whom. Whoever fires at the Sheriff is almost certainly an Outlaw.
• Keep a high diamond if you can – a 10♦ or better stops most shots.
• High spades almost always hit: the J♦ is always a role card, so a Jack or Queen of spades can be dodged only by the few diamonds above it.
• Save a heart for your last life.
• Renegade: stay quiet, help the Sheriff against the Outlaws, and turn on him only when you are both nearly alone.
• Sheriff: don't shoot too early – hitting your own Deputy costs your whole hand.

Variants

• Quicker game: High noon starts the first time the draw pile runs out.
• Tougher Sheriff: in games with 4, 6 or 7 players, the Sheriff starts with 5 lives.
• No joker? Use the A♥ as the Renegade card.