The Wild West… the small town of Dice Town. You’re the leader of a gang of Desperados. Except that all of your gang’s members have been imprisoned. From now on, you have only one goal - to be the first one to free all of their henchmen, AND be the richest!

While the game’s pitch takes us to the now familiar world of Dice Town, it was in the bar of a small French village lost in the middle of the mountains that it saw the light of day.

Indeed, every noon, my friends from when I had a "real" job and I went out for coffee. And we like to take jabs at each other and organize competitions between us. So, for years, we played foosball. And then the Foosball table was removed. Not profitable enough, took too much space. So an electronic dart board was installed. At first, it left me cold. I saw darts as a pure skill game, and I really didn’t feel all that competent in that domain. It felt more like a trial than a game. So then, someone introduced a special rule to me: the Cricket!

What’s nice about Cricket, is that we don’t play over the entire target: the only sectors used are sectors 20-19-18-17-16-15 and the bullseye. You need three hits in a sector to “close” it, and as soon as it’s closed, if you land in it again, all opponents for whom that sector is still “open” get penalty points. That’s fun. And as the useful sectors are spread over the target, players can play off against the more skillful players, make temporary alliances to take down the better players, etc., etc ... it becomes exciting, tactical, with collateral damage, and the most skillful isn’t necessarily whoever deals best with what’s happening. In short, it’s a real gaming principle which immediately caught my attention.

And then they removed the dart board. So I thought it’d be cool to take up the same gaming principle and adapt it to a board game. And that’s how the first prototype was made. Simple. We’ll just replace skill with luck. (That said, seeing how I play darts, it pretty much comes down to the same thing). In short, we replaced the darts with dice. The useful sectors are the 2-3-4-5-6 sides. And the last side is a dart side. Three darts = three die rolls on your turn. We added a dash of funny cards which allow for planned strategies, and choices about which dice are kept or discarded, and the trick’s done. The game worked well, I had to make prototypes for all my friends, who play in the evening at home. The name of the game makes sense: Dice & Darts! It’s time to show it to publishers…

And it was Matagot who, finally, were the most interested in the project. Talks are happening. And the publisher puts forward an interesting idea: as it’ll be a nice and clever dice game for Matagot, why not focus on the Dice Town “license”. It’s a good way for the game to be seen, considering the success of its big brother. I like the idea. But there’s no way that I’ll join in on a Dice Town project without my partner-in-crime Ludovic Maublanc, whom I immediately asked to join me on the project. And then the two of us wound up working together again to tweak it into our Dice Town world. In a few weeks, the adaptation work was finished, and the far-west theme sticks perfectly to the mechanics.

The main fuel for war is money – what else could interest bandits, so you’ll start the game with $50. A fortune at the time.

Gone are the round cards shaped like targets from a dart game. Each player will now be leading a Gang of five Desperados, each represented by a round card, which will be placed in from of them, “prison” side up. On that side, the card have “notches” which represent the difficulty to break them out. At the start of the game, you’ll put the maximum notch of each character up. Yes: some Desperados will be harder to break out than others, but these will be more powerful once freed. So, each gang is made up of The Brain, The Ugly, The Bad, The Lady, and The Boss. These archetypes are represented by symbols, which will be found on the dice to be rolled.

On their turn, a player will roll four dice. As standard, you’ll be able to roll 1 to 3 times in order to try and get the combination which works for you. You’ll then be able to reroll some or all of the dice. A bit of tactic, a dash of chance, some opportunism, this is what we offer. Once the rolls are made, we move on to effects, as otherwise what’s the point of all that trouble – might as well go have a decent beer while your horse is resting in the stable.

At this point, you’ll have normally obtained a set of symbols, and these are what you’ll be using to get your Desperados to act and/or draw “Wild West” cards, which add spice to the game, as what would the Wild West be without spice? Then the next player rolls the dice… And so on.

To “play” one of your bandits, one of your dice must be showing the corresponding symbol. Only one is enough. But that’s not all – you also need to roll “Action” symbols. Your characters can be either in prison or free. When they’re in prison, they can’t really act. The only possible course of action is to get them closer to being freed. So for each “Action” you give the character die, you’ll turn your Desperado card one notch toward the exit. And if they get free, they’ll be able to cause a ruckus. They’ll even be able to raise a ruckus right away if you give them enough actions.

When a Desperado is on their free side, he or she makes all the other players who have the same Desperado still in prison lose money. On the “freed” side, there’s their ruckus ability, written as follows: a number of “Action” symbols and a number. For example, the Bad Girl will make players lose either $5 for 1 symbol, $10 for 2 symbols, or $15 for 3 symbols from all players whose Bad Girl is still in prison. A freed character protects you from enemy attacks from characters with the same symbol!

Each set of Desperados contains a Brain. These are somewhat special – they don’t quite attack like the others. Because they’re cheats. And in each gang, the power of the Brain is different. For example, in the Mavericks Gang, Wilson – who is the Cheat – will draw “Wild West” cards instead of stealing some $. And believe me, that’s powerful! In the Oleson Clan, brave old Uncle Pat – who is the Cheat – will help you speed up the liberation of his confederates. And believe me, that’s powerful!

At this point, if you’re clever (and I have no doubt of that), you’ll start to get the combos which can be setup and chained together, as well as the subtle feeling of not always be playing the same game by changing Gang and/or tactics.

And then there’s the “Wild West” cards - these are classic-sized cards. The idea is for them to offer twists and surprises. You’ll draw them in specific circumstances; if you roll a three-of-a-kind, a four-of-a-kind, or if you’re the victim of a “Misery”.

These cards have effects as diverse as they are varied. The effect is written on it. Simply. Clearly. As well as when the card can be played. As many cards can be played on a player’s turn as they want, except for the card(s) just drawn. These cards give a little more oomph to the game, bringing the fun through threats, dirty revenge, and other backstabbing moments. They allow players to reroll dice, speed up the liberation of gang members, regain some $, make others pay double what they should pay, to make a player reroll a die… and, of course, to cancel the effect of a card played by a player who could cancel the cancellation, if they also have such a card.

There are two ways to win:

Right off, when a player no longer has any money, they’re eliminated. That player will not be able to claim victory. Blam! Done! The game ends when all players but one are eliminated, which is rare. That last player of course wins the game, ruling with no competition over Dice Town.

Otherwise, as soon as a player has freed all of their Desperados, that player checks to see if they’re the richest. If they are, then they immediately win the game. Otherwise, the game continues until they become the richest (whether by robbing their opponents or by making them lose money). If they manage, they win. The trouble is that if another player manages to free all of their Desperados before then while being the richest, then that player will be the “Big Winner”.

The game is fast, violent, funny. And while it assumes its link with its bigger brother, Desperados is really a different game, independent (no need to know or own the first game to appreciate the second). And for the artwork, Pierô will be behind the pencils, for sure, and that’s good news too, as his work matches the fun ambiance of our game perfectly.

And there… the game is now available. And seeing the success it’s getting at various gaming events where it’s been presented in Europe, I’m glad for the publishing gamble Matagot took.

So now it's up to you to let the bullets talk!