Death Mesa (fan expansion for BANG!) Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Ghosts
• Conditions for Number of Players
• Role Victories
• Card by Card Explanations
• Four Methods of Production
• Card Identification Sheet

Ghosts

When a player is eliminated, the following occurs:

1. The cards in play in front of him and in his hand are not discarded, but rather are combined and placed in a pile faced down in front of him. This pile is known as a player's "buried goods," and the cards therein can later be used to aid teammates and other players. If Vulture Sam happens to be in play, he takes all of the eliminated player's cards like usual. Afterwards, the eliminated player draws the same number of cards from the draw pile as Vulture Sam picked up from him to add to his "buried goods."

2. Character cards are turned face down for the purpose of indicating that the dead player no longer possesses the special abilities of his character as a ghost. The role of the player, however, is flipped over and placed face up in front of him. Ghosts have no life points and cannot die.

3. The dead player as a ghost no long affects the distance between players, nor do living players affect the distance between him and other players. Ghosts will be able to play cards on any player regardless of distance considerations for the living.

4. The dead player has a turn (in the same order as before) just like when he was alive. His drawing phase is now altered, however. Instead of drawing from the normal BANG! deck, he draws from the specialized 52-card "Dead Men's Deck," which can easily be discerned by the different image on the backs of the cards. Instead of drawing 2 cards, ghosts only draw 1 card a turn. They have a card limit of 2, and so must discard down to 2 cards by the end of their turns. Discarded cards are placed in a separate discard pile from the normal BANG! deck cards.

5. Cards drawn from the Dead Man's Deck can have a variety of effects, from aiding teammates, weakening other players, and sometimes even allowing you to attack players or influence other dead players. Dead Man's Deck cards include Blood Juice, Hidden Stash, Spook, Terrify, Warn, Bad Moon Rising, Rob Grave, Desicrate Grave, Syphon, Dry Spell, Mirage, Proper Burial, Last Testament, In Memoriam, Death and Taxes, Poltergeist, Cemetary, Decay, Guilty Conscience, Seance, Unfinished Business, Nightmare, Possess, Ghost Stories, and The East Wind. These cards, unless it specifies otherwise, can be played solely during the ghost's own turn.

6. When a ghost plays a card, it is not guaranteed that the card's effect will occur because other ghosts can thwart their plans. The other ghosts may immediately discard cards that will negate this card's effect. A negation occurs if the sum value of the discarded cards of other ghosts (who may discard only 1 card each) is greater than the value of the played card AND the discarded cards are of the opposite color of the played card. Thus, if a black card is played, red cards must be discarded if the black card is to be negated. Take the following scenario:

A ghost plays a Spook! on his turn against a living player. The value of the spook is a king of spades (worth 10). Two other ghosts do not want this card to be played, so they discard a Curse that is an 8 of diamonds and a Syphon that is a 7 of diamonds. The cumulative value of the discarded cards is 15, and since they are both red and are greater than 10 (the value of the Spook!), the Spook!'s effect is negated. All these cards are discarded.

To help prevent negation, a ghost who plays a card may discard cards from his hand to add to the played card's value. Doing so will make the played card's value equal to the sum of the cards' (played card + discarded cards') values, a much more difficult value to negate. These discarded cards do not need to be the same color as the played card to add to the played card's value. So if a ghost played the Spook!, which had a value of 10 (being a king of spades), he could discard a Blood Juice that is a queen of hearts to increase the value of the Spook! to 20.

There is a special consideration for the Renegade. When another dead player plays a card, the dead Renegade may play cards from his hand, of the same color as the card played by the ghost whose turn it is, to add to the played card's value and help prevent its negation.

That explains all the dynamics of being a ghost and playing Dead Men's Deck cards. However, the interaction between ghosts and living players is not one way. Living players can influence dead players by being able to Cat Balou their "buried goods" and Dead Men's Deck cards. As one might expect then, Brawl also affects ghosts. "Buried goods" can also be directly stolen by a Panic (no distance considerations necessary), but stealing from "buried goods" is always at random. Dead Men's Deck cards can also be directly discarded by a BANG! (again, no distance considerations necessary), which does not count towards the 1 BANG! card limit. Only 1 BANG! may be used to discard a card from a ghost on a turn, however.

Optional: If ghosts are perceived as being too weak, you may remove the rule from the game, which allows living players to discard 1 card on their turns from ghosts by playing a BANG! I would recommend keeping this rule in play for at least the 4-player games.

Conditions for Number of Players

While Death Mesa could potentially be played for simple humor in 3-player, it is not clear how it would really help the game as such. It is more clearly designed for 4-8 player. However, even in these games, the different types and number of roles dictate some differences of gameplay with the Death Mesa cards.

The general standard for Death Mesa to insure that the first ghost is not too powerful is:

When there is only 1 dead player (or the dead players are all of 1 team, whether Outlaws, Deputies, or just a Renegade), to play any Dead Man's Deck card the played card must either (1) be an Ace, or (2) have another Dead Man's Deck card discarded with it.

Optional: If players deem that the 1 team of ghosts are too weak in this setup, an alternative is:

To play a Dead Man's Deck card the played card must either (1) be royal (J, Q, K or A), or (2) have another Dead Man's Deck card discarded with it.

Role Victories

Ghosts can win the game by helping their team mates eliminate other players, or by eliminating players directly themselves (the latter is much harder to do, but possible). Such victories should be obvious for Outlaws and Deputies.

Optional: If it is found that it is too difficult for a Renegade to win when a Sheriff and Renegade are the only players left alive, you may change the victory conditions for the Outlaws and Renegade. If the dead Outlaws happen to kill the living Sheriff during this situation (a show down between a living Sheriff and Renegade), then both the Outlaws and Renegade win. If the Renegade kills the Sheriff, then he alone has the ultimate victory.

The Renegade cannot obviously win as a ghost, and so his victory conditions have been altered. There are two ways the Renegade can win. First, the Renegade could play a card that eliminates all of the living. This is the "Vengence" victory. Second, if the dead Renegade kills the living Sheriff before any other players do, the dead Renegade resurrects his character with the same amount of life points as the living player with the most health (up to his character card's maximum health), draws 2 cards, and can "dig up" any of his buried goods (put them all back into play). He becomes the new Sheriff whom the Outlaws (and other Renegade) must now eliminate. If he survives, the Renegade-become-Sheriff wins. This is the "Scofflaw" victory. The dead Sheriff now becomes the new dead Renegade, and has the same victory conditions that the prior Renegade had. The Deputies must now protect the Renegade-become-Sheriff to win.

To make the Renegade more able to achieve a "Scofflaw" victory, dead Renegades can discard any 2 cards of the Dead Men's Deck to play a Spook! against a target character (the equivalent of a BANG!). However, dead Deputies can discard any 2 cards of the Dead Men's Deck to Warn a target character (the equivalent of a Missed! for that character) and protect the original Sheriff.

Card by Card Explanations

Cemetary. All dead players place their "buried goods" face up. Each living player will get to choose from these goods. You choose 1 player to draw 2 of the "buried goods," and then the other living players, starting to the left of the person you chose, draw 1 of the "buried goods."

Curse. Select 1 living player who must discard 1 card after his next discard phase. Thus, regardless of his limit, he still must discard a card if he has any in his hand. If he discards, take the last card he discarded and add it to your "buried goods." Thus, Gary Looter still gets the excess cards discarded by other players and you get the card below the excess.

Death and Taxes. Select 1 living player who must draw 1 less card on their next drawing phase (if he typically draws 2, he draws 1; 3, he draws 2; Black Jack does not get his potential drawing bonus; Kit Carlson picks up 3 and selects 1; Claus draws the same amount of cards as the number of players and only keeps 1 for himself, Pat Brennan may still draw his 1 card in front a player; Death and Taxes stack with Thirst). At that time, draw a card from the normal deck and add it to your "buried goods."

Decay. Similar to "Richochet." Play this card to attempt to discard a card in play in front of any living player. The living player may play a Missed! to avoid Decay.

Desicrate Grave. Select 2 cards at random from another dead player's "buried goods" to be discarded.

Dry Spell. A target living player cannot gain health by any alcoholic drink (this includes Beer, Whiskey, Tequila, Saloon, and Hard Liquor) until your next turn. They may still regain health from Blood Juice, The Doctor, and Blood Brothers.

In Memoriam. Select a living player who can now play any number of BANG! on his next turn as long as the target of the BANG! is your killer. If your killer is dead, then he can play 1 extra BANG! on his next turn.

Last Testament. Give 1 card of your choice from your "buried goods" to another living player.

Mirage. When a living player is directly attacked (Gatling, Howitzer, and Indians! do not count), play this card to redirect the attack to another living player (besides the attacker) who is immediately to the left or right of the player who was attacked.

Nightmare. Choose a living player to lose their character ability until your next turn.

Poltergeist. All living players must discard a blue or green card in play in front of them (excluding Dynamite and Prison), or lose 1 life point.

Possess. Select a card at random from a living player's hand. Play it as you wish, consistent with this player's distance constraints. Blue and green cards may be played in front of others, and brown cards on others. The possessed player can attack himself. Thus, he may be the target of his own BANG! or Cat Balou. He cannot start a duel with himself, but you can select a player whom he will initiate a duel with. If he plays Gatling or Indians!, he must also play a Missed! or BANG! to avoid taking a hit. He may play a Beer, Wells Fargo, or Stagecoach/Conestoga on another living player. On general store, you select which card the possessed player collects. If the card cannot be played (Missed!, Dodge) return the card to its owner.

Seance. Pick 2 cards at random from the hand of a living player. Look at them and then show them to another living player of your choice. The cards are passed face down to that player. No other players are to see the cards but that player you chose.

Terrify. Select 1 card from a living player's hand or in front of him. Reveal this card and place it face up in front of him in a horizontal position. They cannot use this card until your next turn, upon which they pick up the card and return it to their hand. The card may be stolen or discarded while it is out of this player's hand.

Spook! Like "Buffalo Rifle." BANG! any living player regardless of distance.

Syphon. Steal a card from any other dead player. This card may be from their "buried goods," or from their hand. Unlike other Dead Men's Deck cards, this card cannot be negated.

The East Wind. Select 2 living players. They must play 2 cards with bang symbols to successfully attack each another until your next turn. They choose which card occurs when they play 2. Since cards are required to have bang symbols, no Duels can be played amongst them.

Unfinished Business. The last player you attacked while alive must "draw!" On reds, steal 1 card from his hand and add it to your "buried goods." On blacks, he is the target of a BANG! If the player is already dead (or if the last attack you executed before your death targetted multiple players), choose another living player, which your role dictates you must kill, to "draw!" However, you must be able to deductively prove, based on the revealed roles and number of players, that this is a player that must be killed for you to achieve victory.

Blood Juice. Choose any living player to regain 1 life point. This card cannot be played like a last second Beer.

Hidden Stash. Select any living player to immediately draw 1 card from the deck.

Guilty Conscience. Select any living player that has killed someone to be unable to play or use any card that could inflict damage to another player on his next turn. He must be directly responsible for the death; death by Dynamite does not make the player who played it culpable.

Bad Moon Rising. "Draw!" On spades, all living players must discard 2 cards from their hand or in front of them, or lose 1 life. On clubs, they must discard 1 card from their hand or in front of them, or lose 1 life. On diamonds, nothing occurs. On hearts, they draw 1 card.

Ghost Stories. A living player of your choice may play or use only 1 card on his next turn. Thus, he may only do 1 action of his choice: play a card or use a card; he cannot do 1 of each.

Proper Burial. Play this card in front of a living player. If this player does not play or use any cards on his next turn (observing the burial), then he draws 2 cards at the end of his discard phase. Thus, he cannot do either action (play or use cards) on his turn to get the bonus.

Rob Grave. Steal 1 card at random from another dead player's "buried goods" and give it to a living player of your choice.

Warn. When another player is attacked, you may play this card to create 1 "Missed!" for that player. This card does work on Big Spencer. This card cannot be played in the middle of a duel to count as a converted-BANG! for Calamity Janet.

Card legend (symbols printed on the cards, as the guide labels them): a symbol that refers to a dead player; a symbol that refers to a living player.

Four Methods of Production

You might be looking at the Death Mesa expansion and be thinking, "Wow, this looks all very good and fun, but how can I possibly play with these cards?" Have no fear--Death Mesa was especially designed with this in mind. Since the Death Mesa expansion consists of 52 cards, each of which have their own unique playing card card value on the bottom left of the card, you can actually play Death Mesa with a normal Bicycle deck of playing cards from your local grocery store! Let me explain 4 ways to "produce" the Death Mesa cards.

1. Buy a Copy of Death Mesa!

This option was recently made available. You can now order your own copy of Death Mesa online for $8.99 + shipping. The cost is for production and processing fees alone. No money is made by Martin Pulido in making this option available to you.

2. Handmaking #1: Complete Bum Route.

If you want to do the absolute minimum of work, then this route is for you. Simply take (or buy) a normal deck of playing cards to serve as your Dead Men's Deck and place it next to your BANG! deck. Ghosts draw from this playing card deck as they would from the specialized Dead Men's Deck. To identify the cards drawn and played, consult the card identifier sheet I have provided on page 11. Use this bookley to understand and get familiar with the effects of these cards. In time, consultation will no longer be necessary.

3. Handmaking #2: Somehwat Lazy Route.

So you like the art I have selected and want the card descriptions to be on each card, but don't want to go about producing fully custom playing cards? Easy enough. Buy or take a normal deck of playing cards to serve as your Dead Men's Deck. Download and print off the PDFs of the Death Mesa cards that are available at the BANG! Blog, besides the card backs PDF. Cut out the individual card images, and then paste or tape them over the tops of the faces of the playing card deck that you have. Viola! You can now play Death Mesa this way. The quality of your job will determine how long the cards last. Sleeve protectors can always help things last longer.

4. Handmaking #3: Devout Follower Route.

If you really want your own custom deck of Death Mesa cards, then I have the long, arduous path available too. This is not for the faint of heart! The PDFs I have provided are specifically designed as a template for the plaincards.com custom playing card sheets. Buy these sheets (I recommend the kit that comes with the protective coating) that should cost you around $14, and then place then in an inkjet printer (not a laser, the cardsheets will get stuck--trust me!!!). Download the PDFs I have provided and print off the front faces first. In your printing settings, I would make sure that you turn off any bicubic downsampling, and up your print quality to the max. The cards will print slower, but they will also look a lot nicer. Set these sheets aside and give them a few minutes to dry. Next, flip the cardsheets over and align them properly with the card backs PDF. Print the backs off on these cards. Again, set the cards asode and let them dry. Then, if you have a protective coating, spray the cards with it according to the coating can's instructions. Make sure to give time for the coating to dry, and apply it to both sides. Don't overcoat or cards can curl; on the whole, the coating makes the cards a lot sturdier. When the coatings have dried, I recommend punching the cards out of their microperforated borders, edging them with an edger, and placing them in card sleeves, which you should be able to find easily online or at a local comic or gaming store. When you have done this, you have your custom Death Mesa deck ready to play with. You will probably notice that your Death Mesa cards are a different height and width from the typical BANG! cards, but remember this does not matter-it is a completely separate deck after all.

NOTE: I cannot understand why anybody would take this last handmade route when you could just buy a copy for $8.99. Look at method 1 please, before you do this.

Card Identification Sheet

Spades:

• 2. Spook!
• 3. In Memoriam
• 4. Possess
• 5. Poltergeist
• 6. Decay
• 7. Possess
• 8. Spook!
• 9. Possess
• 10. In Memoriam
• J. Poltergeist
• Q. Decay
• K. Spook!
• A. Bad Moon Rising

Clubs:

• 2. Ghost Stories
• 3. Unfinished Business
• 4. Terrify
• 5. Death and Taxes
• 6. Hidden Stash
• 7. Cemetary
• 8. Last Testament
• 9. Cemetary
• 10. Hidden Stash
• J. Ghost Stories
• Q. Last Testament
• K. Unfinished Business
• A. Terrify

Hearts:

• 2. Mirage
• 3. The East Wind
• 4. Blood Juice
• 5. Guilty Conscience
• 6. Warn
• 7. Mirage
• 8. The East Wind
• 9. Guilty Conscience
• 10. Death and Taxes
• J. Dry Spell
• Q. Blood Juice
• K. Warn
• A. Proper Burial

Diamonds:

• 2. Curse
• 3. Desicrate Grave
• 4. Rob Grave
• 5. Seance
• 6. Nightmare
• 7. Syphon
• 8. Curse
• 9. Rob Grave
• 10. Syphon
• J. Desicrate Grave
• Q. Mightmare
• K. Curse
• A. Seance