BANG! The Great Train Robbery
BANG! The Great Train Robbery Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Contents and Setup
- 41 cards:
- 16 Railcar cards
- 1 Locomotive card (front: Ironhorse, back: Leland)
- 16 new playing cards: 12 brown-bordered cards, 4 blue-bordered cards
- 8 characters
- 13 Station tiles
- 1 extra customizable Station tile
This expansion features 8 new characters (which are shuffled together with the original ones) and 16 new playing cards (to be shuffled with the basic playing cards).
Shuffle the Railcar card deck and place it face down on the table. Then, shuffle the 13 Station tiles in a face down pile and put them near the Railcar deck. Turn over as many Station tiles as the number of players and put them on the table as a line, running from left to right. To form the train, put the Locomotive card below the first Station (the leftmost), with a random side up, followed by 3 random Railcar cards to the left, drawn from the respective deck.
Moving the Train
During the game, the Railcar cards will be paired with Station tiles. As the train advances, the pairs will change. For example, in the picture on p. 1, at the start of the game, the Locomotive is paired with the Boom Town Station.
The rules of the game remain the same as the original BANG! game, with the following additions.
At the beginning of each Sheriff's turn, the Locomotive advances to the right one Station, "pulling" the Railcar cards with it. So, when the Sheriff starts their first turn, the situation will be something like the example on the right.
Taking Railcars from the Train
Once during each of your turns, you may pay the cost shown on a Station tile to take the paired Railcar. In the example above, to obtain the Caboose, you would have to pay the cost shown on the Boom Town Station. The other Railcars could not be taken yet since they are not paired.
To pay the cost, discard the required cards from your hand and/or in front of you. When a specific card is depicted, you need exactly that card, not another one with a similar (or identical) effect.
Note: You cannot take the Locomotive card for any reason.
Before taking a Railcar, you may advance the train 1 Station for free: move the Locomotive one Station to the right and trail all the Railcars with it. If you choose to advance the train in this way, then you MUST pay the cost shown on one Station and take the corresponding Railcar. Advancing the train is not mandatory.
Note: You can play additional cards or effects that advance the train (e.g., Zippy Roy), before or after this whole action. Unless it states otherwise differently, put the acquired Railcar in play in front of you. If a Railcar is taken other Railcars on the tail (if any) slide up to fill the gap (1), and a new Railcar is added to the end of the train from the Railcar deck (2). In our example to the right, if you take the Caboose Railcar, this is how the train might look afterwards.
A Train is composed of a Locomotive and 3 Railcars. If there are not enough Railcars to create a whole train, use all the ones available. If there are none, the Locomotive will start with no Railcars at all (even if there will be other ones available later on), but its effects will still apply when it reaches the End of the Line. Add Railcars to the train as soon as they become available again until the train is full once more.
Some railcars have a permanent effect that stays active while you have it in front of you. Meanwhile, other railcars must be discarded to activate their effect. When a Railcar is discarded, put it on the bottom of the Railcar deck, face down.
Railcars are treated like blue-bordered cards for all effects—they can be the target of Panic!, Cat Balou, and other cards or effects that target blue-bordered cards (unless otherwise stated)—but they can never be taken into your hand: if for any reason you have to take a Railcar card into your hand, put it in play in front of you immediately instead.
The End of the Line
As soon as the Locomotive is moved to the right of the last Station (in our example, beyond Tombrock, see left), the train reaches the "End of the Line": after your chance to pay and take a Railcar, follow the instructions on the Locomotive card, starting with the player whose turn it is and proceeding clockwise. After resolving this effect, reshuffle all the Station tiles and create a new line, then reshuffle all the Railcars in the train with the ones in the Railcar deck and create a new train in the starting position as seen in the first example. Flip the Locomotive to the other side (Ironhorse if it was on the Leland side, and vice versa).
The Locomotives
Ironhorse: Each player, including the one who triggered the effect, is the target of a BANG! Any damage is not considered to be caused by any player. If all players are eliminated at the same time, the Outlaws win.
Leland: Play the effect of a General Store, starting with the player whose turn it is and proceeding clockwise.
The Railcars
Circus Wagon: The other players discard cards in clockwise order starting from your left.
Express Car: You can not have another extra turn after the one granted from this effect, even if you manage to play again Express Car.
Ghost Car: Play on any player (including you), even if they have already been eliminated, except for the Sheriff. If that player is eliminated, they stay in play (or return to play) with no life points instead. They cannot gain nor lose life, and count as a character in play for all purposes (victory conditions, distance, characters' abilities, etc.). Having no life, they must discard their whole hand at the end of their turn, but they may keep any cards in play in front of them, including the Ghost Car. However, they are knocked out of the game as soon as they lose the Ghost Car: no rewards are assigned if they were an Outlaw, and character abilities (e.g., Vulture Sam) are not triggered.
Lounge Car: The Railcars you draw do not count towards the normal limit of 1 Railcar per turn. If you are the Sheriff and you draw the Ghost Car, you must give it to another player.
Lumber Flatcar: Play on any player of your choice (including you). While this card is in play, that player sees all other players at a distance increased by 1.
Private Car: This does not protect against Gatling, Knife Revolver, Evan Babbit's ability, and so on.
Sleeper Car: Note that you may also use this once against Indians!, Duel, etc.
The Stations
Boom Town: Discard a BANG! card.
Catico: Discard a Cat Balou or a Panic! card.
Creepy Creek: Discard a card of Spades.
Crown's Hole: Discard a Beer card.
Deathwood: Discard a blue-bordered card.
Dodgeville: Discard a Missed! card.
Fort Wroth: Discard a card with value 10, J, Q, K, or A.
Frisco: Discard a card of Clubs.
Miner's Oath: Discard a card of Diamonds.
San Tafe: Discard a card of Hearts.
Tombrock: Lose 1 life (you cannot give up your last one).
Yooma: Discard a card with value 2 through 9 (inclusive).
Virginia Town: Discard any two cards.
The Playing Cards
Evaded!: If you Missed! an ability or an effect with no actual card being played (e.g., Ironhorse arriving at the End of the Line), you can't use this to draw a card. If you use it against a Knife Revolver, you get the latter only if it does not go back into the hand of its original owner.
Full Steam: Move the train to the End of the Line, then ignore or double the Locomotive effect (this holds for all players), your choice. In case of doubling the effect, simply play the two effects one after the other.
Knife Revolver: It cannot be used against Indians! or Duel.
Map: Before drawing cards in your Phase 1, look at the first 2 cards of the deck: you may discard one of them. This happens after all "draw!" effects for Dynamite, Jail, etc. and before any character abilities.
Money Bag: You cannot play this card when it is not your turn.
Most Wanted: If all players are eliminated at the same time, the Outlaws win.
Next Stop: Draw the card before resolving the End of the Line effect, if it occurs.
Refund: When another player discards or draws another card from you (either from your hand or from play), draw a card. It does not work against Train Robbery.
Strongbox: Remember that you cannot play the card you draw in the same turn. You draw 1 card even if you are in Jail.
Switch: If you pick a new weapon, discard any previous one you may have. Remember that you cannot have in play a card with the same name as a card you already have. If you get the Ghost Car this way, the player who had it previously is immediately out of the game, if they have no life points. As Sheriff, you cannot switch Ghost Car or a Jail card. Note: The cards that form the train are not considered to be "in play" so they cannot be switched.
Train Robbery: Choose any one target player. That player must choose the effect for each card they have in front of them, and may choose differently for each card. If they choose to be the target of a BANG!, they can avoid it like a normal BANG! (e.g., by playing a Missed! Card). Each BANG! counts separately.
Water Tower: You cannot advance the train before taking the Railcar. The Railcar does not count towards your normal limit of 1 Railcar per turn.
The Characters
Benny Brawler: You must pay for each Railcar you get with this ability. However, you may still advance the train for free only once during your turn.
Evan Babbit: The card you discard must be of the same suit as the BANG! card targeting you. The player you choose as the new target of the original BANG! card must be at distance 1 from you. You cannot choose the player who played the BANG! card as the target. If there are only 2 players left in the game, you cannot use this ability. The BANG! is still considered to come from the player who played it, NOT from Evan Babbit.
Jimmy Texas: At the end of your turn (after discarding any excess cards), draw 1 card. You cannot play this card in the same turn that you draw it. This ability works even if you are in Jail.
Manuelita: Draw 2 cards immediately when the Locomotive is moved to the End of the Line, before resolving the End of the Line effect.
Sancho: You can advance the train before taking the Railcar. This Railcar does count towards your normal limit of one Railcar per turn.
Shade O'Connor: If the train reaches the End of the Line, discard and draw the card before resolving any End of the Line effect.
Sgt. Blaze: When targeting multiple players with a card or an effect, you may exempt 1 player. If you use this ability with a General Store, reveal 1 card less than the number of players: the exempt player does not draw. This ability works even with the End of the Line effects if they happen during your turn.
Zippy Roy: You only advance the train, you don't get any extra Railcars directly from this ability.
Notes on Base Game Characters
Vulture Sam: You take the Railcars from an eliminated player and put them in play in front of you immediately, as if they were blue-bordered cards.