El Paso Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Idea and object of the game
• Game materials and set-up
• Course of the game
  • Laying out the stolen goods
  • Looting a town
  • The Dice
  • Leaving town
  • Continuing looting the town
  • Putting an end to looting the town
• End of the game

Idea and object of the game

Seven splendid towns "wait" to be looted by you. On each turn, you decide what target you're aiming at. However, all of you too often get in each other's way.

The longer an outlaw stays in a town, the more stolen goods he can take with him to the next town and turn into money there. But he who takes his time could fall into the sheriff's hands.

You get rich not only if you make a fat haul, but turn it into cold cash. The one who leaves the seventh town with the most money is the bandit who can't be beaten, and wins the game.

Game materials and set-up

• Put the gameboard in the middle of the table.
• Sort the 48 crime scene cards according to the six crime scenes (horse meadow, cattle pasture, saloon, hotel, bank, gold mine). Then shuffle the eight cards of each crime scene and place each stack as a draw pile at the matching markings at the edge of the gameboard. After that, every player takes one card from each kind of loot into his hand.
• Put the 36 loot tiles into the cotton sack.
• Place the 50 nuggets, worth 1 (brown), 5 (grey) and 10 (yellow), next to the gameboard.
• The game starts in DEADWOOD. Put Doc Holliday there.
• The player who was the last to go to a bank takes on the role of the guard and gets the 5 dice.

Course of the game

In the beginning of the game all players are in DEADWOOD. After DEADWOOD has been looted, the other towns (CHEYENNE, ABILENE, SANTA FE, etc.) follow in clockwise order.

Laying out the stolen goods

Before looting a town, you draw 18 loot tiles out of the cotton sack and place them (in piles) on the relevant crime scenes of this town.

Always put tiles of higher value underneath tiles of lower value. If you draw a tile of a kind of loot that does not exist in this town, you throw this tile back into the sack (but do not draw another tile).

Note: During the course of the game, each town gets loot tiles only once. That means that stolen loot tiles are not replaced any more after that.

Looting a town

Starting with the guard, each player, in turn, who is still in town decides whether he wants to take part in the looting or whether he wants to leave the town. If you leave the town, you cannot go back later.

If you want to loot, put a crime scene card from your hand face down in front of you. After that, all laid-out cards are turned over at the same time.

Then the guard rolls the dice (see box) and puts all dice showing the "sheriff's star" on the sheriff space.

If after this roll there is at least one die left that doesn't show a sheriff's star, the looters are lucky: in this case the sheriffs don't dare put themselves in the bandits' way. Therefore, the looters now steal the stolen goods.

In doing so there are two "special challenges": the SALOONS and CATTLE PASTURES.

• If no die shows a brand, NO CATTLE can be branded and stolen. Whoever played a cattle pasture card leaves empty-handed.
• If no die shows a 6, NO SALOON is looted. Whoever played a saloon card leaves empty-handed.

Aside from these restrictions, the following apply:

• Each looter takes the top loot tile from the space that corresponds to the crime scene card he played.
• If several players have played a crime scene card of the same kind, the player with the highest value card chooses first. After that, players with the lower values follow in descending order.
• If a player doesn't find a loot tile any more that corresponds to the crime scene card he played, he leaves empty-handed.

After that, you put the crime scene cards you played face up on discard piles, sorted by type, i.e., you form one discard pile for each kind (directly below the respective draw piles is best). As soon as a draw pile has been used up, you replace it with the discard pile of the same type. To do so, you just turn the discard pile over, without shuffling it.

Now, each player replenishes his hand up to 6 cards again. Since you are real gunslingers, there is no predetermined order of play; everybody draws as quickly as he can or wants to. In doing so, each player freely chooses which sort of cards he fills his hand with; that means you don't have to draw the same kind that you have laid out. The 6 cards on your hand can be composed in any way from the 6 kinds.

The Dice

The guard

• throws all dice that are not yet on the sheriff space. (At the first roll in a town, this means always all 5 dice.)
• puts all dice from his throw that show a sheriff's star on the sheriff space.

If, after the throw, all 5 dice are on the sheriff space, the bandits are in a fix: all players still in town (i.e., who have played a card) must throw all loot tiles they own back into the sack. They keep only their nuggets. (It doesn't matter what town the loot comes from.)

All players who have already left town (and therefore have not played a card in the current round) escape from the sheriff's reach. They keep everything they own.

As soon as all 5 dice are on the sheriff space, the looting of the town ends immediately. Loot tiles that are still lying in town are thrown back into the sack (see section, "Putting an end to looting the town").

Leaving town

If you have decided to leave town, you don't play a crime scene card. Instead, you get the loot tiles you have collected out of town or (partly) turn them into cold cash:

• You may take a certain part of your loot with you to the next town. What amount that is depends on whether players have left the town before you (see box below). Simply leave the loot tiles you are taking with you in front of you.
• Loot that you cannot or do not want to take with you, you immediately exchange for nuggets. In doing so, you get two different prices for this:
  • Loot tiles whose crime scenes exist in this town are sold at the current exchange rate for this town. First you add up the values of these loot tiles, then you convert this amount with the exchange rate valid in this town and take nuggets of this value from the stock.
    • Example: In Santa Fe, Little Joe exchanges horse pasture and saloon tiles with an overall value of 12, at an exchange rate of 3-to-1. Consequently, he gets nuggets worth 4.
  • Loot tiles whose crime scenes do not exist in this town are sold at the exchange rate of 1-to-1. Add up the values of the loot tiles surrendered and take nuggets of this amount from the stock.
    • Example: Since there is no bank in Santa Fe, Little Joe can exchange his bank tiles (value: 5) 1-to-1 and gets nuggets worth 5.

Whoever is the first to leave a town may take only (any) one piece of loot to the next town. Whoever is the second to leave a town may take (any) two pieces of loot to the next town, etc.

If several players leave the town in the same round, they are considered to have left the town at the same time.

Example: Since there are already three dice on the sheriff space, Jesse and Little Joe don't want to participate in looting any more in this round. They leave the town. Since they are the FIRST to do so, each of them may take ONE of his loot tiles. Bill, Jane and Joe continue looting. In the continued course of the game, another sheriff's star is rolled on the dice. For this reason, now Bill and Jane also decide to leave the town. Since they are the SECOND to do so, each of them may take TWO of his loot tiles. Only Joe goes on looting, since he wants to take three of his loot tiles to the next town. But if the fifth sheriff's star were rolled now, Joe would lose his entire stash.

Exception: If all players are still in a town after it has been emptied of all loot, each player may take two pieces of loot to the next town.

Continuing looting the town

All players still in town may go on looting. In turn, they choose again whether they want to take part in the looting (thereby playing a crime scene card), or leave the town.

The players who are not in the town any more observe the game out of action. They don't make any moves before the next town.

Note: It is entirely possible that there is only one player left in a town who goes on looting alone.

Putting an end to looting the town

A town is no longer being looted when

• all 5 dice are on the sheriff space or
• all players have moved on from this town or
• there are no longer any loot tiles left in this town (In this case, the players who have still been looting leave the town now. They may each take two pieces of loot to the next town.)

Loot tiles that are still in the town are thrown back into the sack. All players go to the next town; Doc Holliday is placed there and new loot tiles are laid out. The guard passes his official duties and, consequently, the 5 dice to his next neighbor.

End of the game

After all 7 towns have been looted, the game is over. Whoever still owns stolen goods exchanges them for nuggets at an exchange rate of 1-to-1.

The player with the highest total value of nuggets wins.