Deadwood Studios USA
Deadwood Studios USA Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
About the Game
Deadwood is a fast-paced board game about actors, acting, and the thrill-filled life of a wandering bit player. It's perfect for 2 to 6 players, still decent with 7 or 8. Play time is about 60 minutes.
Using a 6-sided die to represent your talent, you will move from scene to scene across the backlot, taking the best roles that your rank will allow. After four days of acting, the most successful actor (measured by money, credits, and rank) is the winner!
This is a completely updated version of Deadwood, so if you have played older versions, you are in for a few surprises. Read these rules even more carefully than you would with a new game. Many rules that you may remember from previous editions are simply not here.
Components
To play Deadwood, you will need to print the Boards and Cards files (these are separate PDFs) and assemble them.
- Players: Best with 2 to 6. Handles up to 8.
- Boards: There are four one-page board sections that can be rearranged in many configurations.
- Cards: There are four pages of business card-sized cards (40 cards). These cards are the same size as the cards in the original game, and the original cards are still completely compatible with the new rules.
- Player Dice: A different 6-sided die to represent each player.
- Other Dice: Six or more less-awesome 6-sided dice for rolling. It helps if these dice are smaller and plainer than the player dice, to prevent party fouls.
- Money: Paper money in denominations of $1 and larger, up to about $50.
- Credits: The other currency in the game is "credits." You can use the 100 and 500 dollar bills from the same block of paper money to represent 1 and 5 credits. Or colored chips.
- Counters: You need about 40 small counters to act as both "shot counters" and "practice chips."
Setting Up
The Deadwood backlot is represented by four rearrangeable board sections. Before you get creative, it is suggested that you play your first game using the "basic" arrangement shown. There are icons on the board to remind you how to arrange them in this default configuration.
Each player is represented by a 6-sided die, which shows that player's rank. Place each player's die in the Trailers. Everyone starts with a rank of 1.
Shuffle the deck and deal one card to each set on the board, face down. Each card is a scene. There are ten sets on the board and 40 scene cards, so you have exactly enough cards to play through 4 days.
Depending on where each scene is shooting, it might require 1, 2, or 3 shots to finish. On each set, place a "shot marker" on each of the numbered circles. You will remove these markers as you complete shots.
Determine randomly who goes first. Play will proceed to the left. Also, choose someone to handle the bank.
Setup for Different Group Sizes
These alterations are also mentioned on the Trailers:
- If there are 2 or 3 players, play only 3 days.
- If there are 4 players, there are no changes.
- If there are 5 players, start each player with 2 credits.
- If there are 6 players, start each player with 4 credits.
- If there are 7 or 8 players, rather than the credits listed above, start everyone with a rank of 2. The game is a little longer with 8 players, roughly 90 minutes.
Your Goal
The game lasts for four "days." The object is to score the most points at the end. Your score will be a combination of your money, your credits, and five times your rank. This is explained in detail in the Scoring section.
On Your Turn
On your turn, you can do different things depending on where you are.
- Move: If you are not working on a role, you can move one step and/or take a role. Both of these actions are optional.
- Work: If you are working on a role, you must either act (roll a die), or rehearse (take a rehearsal chip). You must either act or rehearse, because you can't walk off a role once you are on it.
- Upgrade: At the Casting Office, you can pay to raise your rank. You may do this before or after you move.
Moving and Taking Roles
Moving: If you are not working, you can move. Move from one area to any adjacent area, through any connection, such as stepping from the Trailers to the Saloon. You can take a role on the same turn, but you don't work on it yet.
If you are the first player to move into a set with a face-down scene card, turn that card face up.
Moving is optional.
Taking a Role: Taking a role just means placing your die directly on that role. If you don't want to take a role, stand in a blank area of the set. Multiple players can work on the same scene, but not on the same role.
There are two types of roles. Roles printed on the board are extras, who are working "for scale." Roles printed on the cards are starring roles, who are working for a "piece of the action." The two types of roles are similar in some ways, and different in others, as described below.
You can only work on roles that are equal to or lower than your rank. As a general rule, high-numbered roles pay better than lower ones. But not always. Sometimes it's better to work on scenes with other players, and sometimes it's better to work alone.
Working on a Role
Working on roles is how you earn credits and money.
Every film has a budget between 2 and 6 million dollars. This number dictates two things: how difficult the scene will be to complete, and how much money the movie will pay out. It turns out that big-budget movies are harder to complete.
When working on a role, you have two choices: you can act, or rehearse. (Again, you can't leave until the scene is done.)
Acting
Acting means performing your role, or at least trying to. For this, you earn money and/or credits.
To act, roll one 6-sided die and compare it to the budget of the movie. If you roll equal to or higher than the budget of the movie, you succeed. If you roll lower than the budget of the movie, you fail.
The rewards for success and failure depend on whether you are working on or off the card.
- On the Card: When you succeed, remove a shot counter and take two credits. When you fail, you get nothing.
- Off the Card: When you succeed, remove a shot counter and take one dollar and one credit. When you fail, you still take a dollar. Usually, extras earn more while they work, but less when the scene finally wraps.
Moving Along: Every set has one, two, or three shots. These shots must be completed before the scene is wrapped. When you succeed, remove one shot counter from the set; when you remove the last one, you have wrapped the scene.
Rehearsing
Instead of acting, you can rehearse. In this case, you do not roll and you do not earn anything.
To rehearse, add one "practice chip" to your die, stacking it on top or to the side. A practice chip gives you +1 to all die rolls that you make while acting on this role.
You can accumulate several practice chips if you want, one with each rehearsal, until you reach a point of guaranteed success. At this point, you have to act.
Hint: Because you have +1 for every chip, acting gets easier if you rehearse first. The chips remain through multiple shots, so rehearsal is extra-powerful on multi-shot sets.
It's a Wrap!
When the last shot in a scene is finished, the scene wraps and you remove the card. You also pay out bonus money, but only if there was at least one player working on the card.
Bonuses for On-Card Roles: The active player rolls a number of dice equal to the budget of the movie (for example, 4 dice for a $4 million movie). These dice are distributed among the roles on the card, with the highest die going to the top role, the next die going to the next role, and so on.
This wraps around so, for example, on a $6M card with three roles, the fourth highest die goes to the top role, the fifth to the second role, and the sixth to the third role.
The players who were working on these roles receive dollars equal to the dice assigned to those roles.
Bonuses for Off-Card Roles: When money dice are rolled, all extras on that scene receive a bonus equal to the size of the role they are on. So, an extra working on a rank-2 role (regardless of his own rank) makes a bonus of $2.
If there was no one on the card, there is no bonus payment when the scene wraps. This means that extras will only earn their bonus cash when there was someone on the card.
Example payout: For a $5M movie, roll five dice. They are distributed from largest to smallest. Start with the highest role and go down, wrapping back to the top. In this example, the top role makes $8, the middle role makes $6, and the lowest role makes $3.
Upgrading
At the Casting Office, you can pay to improve your rank. You can do this at the beginning or end of your turn (that is, before or after you move). The cost to upgrade is shown below, and can be paid in either dollars or credits.
Pay dollars OR credits to upgrade.
| Rank | Dollars | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| 2 | 4 | 5 |
| 3 | 10 | 10 |
| 4 | 18 | 15 |
| 5 | 28 | 20 |
| 6 | 40 | 25 |
Note that the price to reach any particular rank is the same no matter what rank you are now. You do not have to pay for the intervening ranks. This means that becoming a 6 is the same price whether you are a 1 or a 5. You may find, however, that waiting to make a bigger jump is not always cost-effective, because you can often earn more in the meantime by taking an intervening rank.
Ending the Day
The day is over when there is only one scene left. This last scene does not finish, and there is no further payment to anyone who was still working on it. Players return to the trailers to play the next day.
After the fourth day, the game is over.
At the end of the day, to get ready for the next day, do the following:
- Return everyone's die to the Trailers.
- Remove the last scene card from the board.
- Deal ten new scenes onto the board, face down.
- Replace all the shot counters.
If there is another day, play continues with the next player. If this was the last day of the game, proceed to scoring.
Scoring
Your score is calculated as follows: score one point for every dollar, one point for every credit, and five points multiplied by your rank.
For example, if you have $35, 10 credits, and you are rank 6, you have 35 + 10 + (5 x 6) points, or 75 points.
Hint: to make it easier to calculate your score, you can "sell" your credits and your rank, thus converting all your points to dollars.
Variants
The only variant included in this package is the shifting boards. Feel free to experiment with different layouts for Deadwood Studios. But don't be surprised if the game gets a little weird.
Expansions
There were four expansions for the original Deadwood, each called "Another Day, Another Dollar." They had themes of Horror, Space, Musicals, and Kung Fu. If you can still find those, feel free to mix them in, but some of their special rules no longer make sense.
There was an expansion called "Deadwood: On Location." This game has a cute but painful "waiting for the bus" mechanic that all-too-accurately simulates the frustration of waiting for a bus. It is recommended for historians only.