“A wild west elimination dice game with secret teams.”

Link: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/143741/bang-the-dice-game
Playing Time: 15 minutes
Weight: Light
Genre: Dice-based Social Deduction
Designer: Michael Palm, Lukas Zach
Players: 3-8

Image from boardgamegeek.com

A dice-based social deduction game. Each player is dealt a secret role facedown. Among those roles are a sheriff, a horde of outlaws trying to kill the sheriff, a deputy trying to help him, and a renegade trying to kill everyone. And no one knows who is who. On your turn, you’ll roll dice, and from the results, and deal damage to players within range. Hopefully, the person you’re shooting at is someone you actually WANT dead, but a huge part of the game is to lie to people about whether or not that’se the case. At any rate, if you lose all your health, you flip over your role card, and the table erupts as your role – and all of your lies – are exposed.

There aren’t a lot of party games on my list – I’ve always preferred smaller, cozier game nights with 3-4 people than bigger, more social-oriented games. Still, Bang: the Dice Game is definitely the source of some of the most hilarious nights of gaming I’ve ever had, so it remains stubbornly on the list as a reminder that I really should play more of these.