Knock Down, Drag Out: The Wild West Fighting Game
Knock Down, Drag Out: The Wild West Fighting Game Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Contents
10 character cards, 44 game cards, 2 rules cards, 1 six sided die
Getting Started
- Each player chooses a character. Place the character in front of you, Healthy side up. Set the unused character cards off to the side, out of play.
- Setting the two rules cards aside, shuffle the remaining cards to form a draw deck. Re-shuffle the discard pile as needed to form a new draw deck throughout the game.
- Each player draws three cards to form a starting hand.
- Roll the die to see who goes first (highest wins), then play progresses to the left.
Setup
The center of the playing surface is the "floor". This is where items go when they are dropped, and where unlucky characters go when they are knocked out.
Object of the Game
Knock Down, Drag Out recreates the hectic free-for-all of a Wild West bar fight in an old saloon. The goal is to knock out your opponents, then pitch them out of the saloon and into the dusty street (out of play). The game ends when a single character remains in the saloon.
Game Play
On your turn, you may do one of the following things:
- Attack as many different characters as you'd like, but you may only attack each character once per turn.
- Draw three more cards
- Try to improve your health*
- Put an item into play, either from your hand or from the floor. You may use the item immediately.
- Pick up an unconscious character from the floor.
- Toss a held character out.
*NOTE: This is the only action an unconscious character can take.
Condition
All characters start out Healthy (with the Healthy side of the character card facing up). If you get Hurt, flip your character card over, so the Hurt side faces up. If you are already Hurt and you get hurt again, you are knocked out! Push your character card into the center of the play area -- you have dropped to the floor and are a step closer to being tossed out!
Knocked Out
When your character is knocked out, they drop everything. Lay the cards in your hand face up on the table. Any Item cards remain on the floor for others to grab. The rest of the cards are discarded.
Improving Health
A Hurt or Unconscious character can spend their turn trying to improve their health. Roll a die. On a 5+, your health improves. Hurt characters shake off the pain and are Healthy, unconscious characters wake up and are now considered Hurt.
Items
Each character can hold a single Item or unconscious character at a time. A held Item is placed in front of you, next to your character card. If you are already holding an Item or unconscious character, you have to drop them back to the floor in order to pick up something (or someone!) else. If your character is knocked out, any held Items (or held unconscious characters) fall back to the floor.
Toss Out!
The goal of the game is to pitch unconscious characters out the swinging front doors of the saloon (or through the plate glass window). Once a character has been successfully tossed out, they are out of the game. The "Toss Out!" card is discarded, and the eliminated player's character card is kept as a scoring marker. To toss a character out:
- The character must initially be on the floor, unconscious.
- You must spend a turn picking the character up (and dropping whatever Item or unconscious character you are currently holding).
- On some later turn, before the unconscious held character wakes up, you must play a "Toss Out!" card from your hand to remove the character from play (and score a point)*
*NOTE: If the target of your "Toss Out!" attempt wakes up between steps 2 & 3, then they cannot be tossed out and are back in the game (give them their character card back!). If you are knocked out between steps 2 & 3, then both you and the held character drop to the floor, unconscious.
To Win
Have the most points when the game ends. You get 1 point for each person you toss out, and 3 points for being the last character standing.
Optional Rules
TKO variant: In this variant of the game, each player gets three tokens (poker chips or similar). Each time a player is knocked unconscious, they discard one token. Lose all your tokens and you are out of the game (by Technical Knock Out!), and nobody can score a point for tossing you out!
Wandering Geek variant: This optional rule makes it easier to toss people out. You can attempt to toss a held, unconscious character out with a die roll of 5+ (you don't need the "Toss Out!" card). This action counts as your entire turn.