my post on this from the other night also vanished by not hitting submit - I will try to remember what I said.

Tens of Clubs have been a design challenge from the initial Reloaded set, even with my split up of the abilities on Unprepared, it is almost universally useful. It is rare that there is a game without a shootout, and that card really shines.

But that doesn't mean that I give up on designing for the value. Swagger is great for folks that want more chess game, and Too Much Attention is great for Law Dog Control or just booting a troublesome deed.

And now Unexpected Allies wants a piece of that action. In some ways similar to the on value Recruitment Drive, this is good for getting a dude out of your discard pile, whether she went by in lowball or suffered the indignity of being kidnapped. And since that can all happen on an uncontrolled lowball cheatin', that makes it pretty safe.

But then there is the shootout - While this does not punish your opponent's hand, per se, adding a dude to your side and getting two hand ranks is a reward for you instead of a punishment for them. On the cheapest end, Rob Wilby, Bobo, or El Anonimo are a 1 cost hand rank boost. And if that is not enough hand ranks, they can be casualties. Or this can give you an unbooted dude for a Point Blank, or enough bullets for Outgunned. Or a dude with a built in resolution like "Dynamite" Jacc.

(alas I didn't submit the review I did days ago).

Pianogeist is a bit of a challenge. a 2 influence stud dude, so a solid starter as long as you can back him up with extra dudes.

But - that 2 influence is no good to you camped out in the opposing home. And unfortunately the austerity on this dude is LESS, so no good when you both have zero money.

but this can combine nicely as an excuse to trigger Epitaph Branch Office.

and with the higher value it would be a decent slot in a Miracle deck so you can retreat with Walk the Path.

With a rousing speech an influencial dude can unboot a couple of your other dudes in a fight.

maybe this sets them up to use a Shootout, Boot: ability of their own.

maybe this sets up your stud to play Point Blank. or a couple of dudes to participate in Strength of Fellowship.

or just one more dude to be a moving piece on the chessboard once the dust settles. I know that sometimes I force fights just to get dudes to boot, but I play dirty.

The way that casualties work in Doomtown, the board position can get to a point where you have an uphill fight against superior numbers. The "few against many" trope is part of our western fantasy shared mythology, and it needed a card.

on a King value, this is not going to be mixed with the Jade Rabbit Kung Fu package.

Defensively, if you have one or more of these in your hand, you can use the size of the aggressor's posse to decide how many of your dudes choose to be involved - a case of less being more.

In the later stages of designing a set, we get together and try to find existing Deadlands art that fits what a card I have designed does. Sometimes the word "fits" is a stretch.

After Debt of Blood, our Layout / Art Director and I were discussing this topic where I said "if you have pieces of art you want to use, I will make cards to fit.

enter STAMPEDE!

as a veteran of Classic Doomtown, we had an event (Stampede) that would, during Lowball, send all dudes in Town Square home, and no dudes could go to Town Square that turn.

Reloaded does not have events, but much like how A Coach Comes to Town turned the Classic Event into a Job, I used that as my inspiration.

Like other Town Square Jobs, STAMPEDE! is not simple. How many dudes to commit to a Job that does not directly make a negative impact on your opponent? If your job is successful, how do you plan on capitalizing on the opportunities that it creates? Extra Shootout movement (like Pinto) can let you undercommit to the job and then later bring more forces to bear.

once a STAMPEDE! is in place, Horses can get you to places without booting, or dude abilities like Asakichi Cooke - or have a job like Kidnappin' ready to go once your opponent boots dudes around to cover deeds.

Do you need more bullets before the pivotal fight? Then grab that Shotgun and get to business.

Is it late in the turn and you want your call outs to be harder to refuse? Maybe mixed with a Hustings?

you could hold on to this, trade your goods to another dude (prompting confusion), then trade them back on the next turn after looking the Demon in the eye.

Or just a versatile Noon action Jack that you can usually find a dude to play on.

Sometimes shootouts just don't go your way. It has to happen to someone on one side or the other.

this will let one of your dudes play the hero and allow two others to escape. (especially handy after a Bottom Dealin' has turned your hand into a pair or worse).

and we are back to Grit - one of the saved can be unbooted if the hero in question has the right stuff. Someone like Jacqueline Isham is excellent in this role with 15 Grit, but the gritty and disposable El Anonimo has a 12 Grit in this role.

once at home and unbooted, your dude can make the most of the sacrifice and make them pay for what they did!

When curating the card choices that would become Weird West Edition, I did regret that Run 'Em Down! had to be cut. Kidnappin' was what 7 of clubs would get for a Noon action and fight instigator.

but sometimes you are Booted. Or you want to avoid the mandatory going home at the completion of a job.

And sometimes your horse is meaner than you are.

Get some poor fool booted at home, walk in riding your Guide Horse or Cavalry Escort - then let the horse do what the horse is going to do.

or recharge the horse first with Vida Azul or Jon Longstride.

I don't think the Law Dog players are going to like me.

On the Lam is a great way for them to make a dude wanted - free even. Sure, you give them a free movement, but is there anywhere truly safe from the LAW?

So why are they going to hate me? As part of my design tradition of ALL HARD DECISIONS, those Law Dog players now have to decide between this and Faster on the Draw. Sure, they can mix them, and the breakdown of that mix (2/2 or 3/1) is going to plague them.

Run a couple of out of town deeds to create the illusion of safety, hit an already wanted dude with On the Lam, and if they take the bait out of town, follow up with Ol' Fashioned Hangin'.

This can also be a relatively low cost investment in wanted tricks for folks that are not Law Dogs. Combine with a Bounty Hunter for violence. Or mix with The Gomorra Gazette for money generation.

Outlaws might also throw this on their own dude to generate bounty tricks, and optional movement.

Another Card where I have to give 100% of the credit to my excellent playtest Team.

My original version was a headline involving wanted dudes, as the harrowed hickock passed around his Justice. - then, because of the card name and that legendary hand of cards, I attached a rider bonus / alternate use to save you from an opposing Dead Man's Hand. That bonus ability became the focus, and after a number of changes the headline was lost and the DMH response rose from the ashes.

in a non-DMH situation, this gives you 2 "free" casualty soaking for 2 ghost rock. (Note that if the fight is in your opponent's private location, the gunslinger gains a bounty). This can also push your posse over the top on bullets count for an Outgunned

against a Dead Man's Hand, the damage is dropped down - coming out unscathed if you have a four of a kind, and with a 4 stud token to boot. And considering that your opponent just revealed a DMH, odds are that they will push another round because they foolishly believe that they will do it again.

Designer Diary time.

I was not totally excited that Inner Struggle was chosen as a comeback card.

I had been hit with it a few times - even in multiples, and languished under the reduced hand ranks that would result.

Since the Weird West Environment only has one way to get rid of Inner Struggle, HERE I was worried about creating a negative play experience.

There were several iterations, some with innate ways to go to therapy and resolve your Inner Struggle. Some got rather complex and wordy. In the end, my play test team put forth the idea of all of the aspects of the original card, just without the ongoing effect triggering on lowball.

The initial play of the card does still give the player a 1 rank advantage for a turn if played on lowball. One rank is not much on the original play, but if it is enough to weather the pain, you then want to force multiple shootout rounds.

Combining with other Cheatin' Resolutions or in-play Cheatin' Resolutions (Goods, because you do not want aces when you are casting spells) makes this card extra oppressive.

under normal circumstances, conventional wisdom is that a Full House is the expectation in a shootout - under the effects of an Inner Struggle you now lose to that floor level. To combat this, you may need to cheat to four or five of a kind. When an additional layer of cheatin' punishment is then added on ... bad things happen. Or just avoid fights on a Struggle turn.

If you are tired of your key dude being sent home with a Pistol Whip, Bones of the Earth is the Totem that you should honor.

of course, if Bones of the Earth is your plan, then you probably shouldn't be running Pistol Whip or Mariel Lewis yourself.

The Shootout action is always your choice (or I guess Either player's choice, if both have a Shaman). If the gains outweigh the losses, hit all of the non-shaman dudes for -1 bullets. Or just wait until after you entreat the Spirits to use a shootout action like Black Hills Guardians to bring your non-shaman shooter into the firefight.

Low value and low difficulty, but it does not pass itself, so you will want some shaman skill and maybe only splash the fours to limit your risk of failure.

The First Peoples like sidekicks, and they like spirits.

in the ideal world for the Vengeful pack, you only have one casualty to absorb (tie or one rank loss) - cast this during resolutions, use the Sidekick to Take the Lumps, and now you have a Gunslinger to help swing round two in your favor (or the Gunslinger soaks another two hits).

That extra 2 stud might chase the other player away. As well they should run away from a Vengeful Pack.

We all know that, when it comes to shootouts, studs are better. Miracle of miracles, this spell can make ALL of your dudes into studs (provided that they can boot).

Downside of course is that, after this fight, your faithful dudes will be unable to do much else this turn. So make this shootout count.

on the Flip side, dudes turned into Studs this way are automatically valid targets for Suppressing Fire, and when you see this on the table, just save your stud removers until after the Strength of Fellowship is summoned.

I may have crossed the line with Chastise. Obviously I am hoping not.

Much like the similar Blood Curse, Chastise will lower an opposing dude's bullets and influence. This is a bit more restrictive on the targeting, as you will have to make them Wanted first (unless they are Outlaws, then they might just do that for you).

This will take more actions and require investment in Blessed resources on top of the Law Dog usual "Punish the criminals" resources.

Anarchists can also engage in miracle working, but that is likely going to require some Private deeds to fight within.

if you are thinking about the dangerous intersection of Hexes and Miracles, yes, you can combine this and Blood Curse in the same deck. Two drifter Blessed exist for interested Outlaws and Fearmongers, but that extra 5 or 6 cost dude might leave you without anyone to properly defend. Anarchists or Law Dogs might consider starting Wilber Crowley (Carmilla, Nicodemus, and Valeria add upkeep to an already tight equation.)

if I was facing off against such an atrocity, the best answer would be to send someone to hold down Town Square and avoid letting the Chastise / Blood Curse player the opportunity to cast those spells on your dudes at home. Easier said than done, but starting two different skill dudes is a red flag looking for a Kidnappin' like a matador's cape.

what is this? TWO cards using Grit?

Immediately Alone in the Dark has two uses in a shootout.

1 - hurt their hand. If you can make the Grit, sending a low value / high impact shooter like "Thunder Boy" Nabbe into a pocket dimension bodes well for inflicting casualties on the rest of the dudes, who may not have a plan B.

2 - make losing hurt more. If the obvious shooter on the other side is out of your range (like a Jacqueline Isham) - then you can take the higher percentage spell shot at Grit 3 Rob Wilby and make sure that the casualties that you do inflict ignore the dudes intended to take the bullet.

that option number 1 also goes well with an on value Ricochet, since assembling a hand with weaker bullets might lead to more cheating.

the prevailing wisdom on Noon hex control is to run high value, Blood Curse for influence, Phantasm to move them, and Shadow Walk to move you.

maybe there is room for Clear Out!, either as a splash for the above deck (and with high pulls that might boot dudes) or in a more mid range, hitting the base grit on a dude that got booted by other efforts.

many starting dudes, regardless of faction, have low grit, and when you reach the end game, with dudes booting everywhere, sending one of those home can secure the victory.

Airships are the wave of the future - right?

there are times when you need to get everyone from point A to point B, now. As long as you are comfortable with your level of risk in taking a rough landing.

Did you send everyone to protect your New Town Hall, and now there are a mess of booted enemies in Town Square?

Are you suffering from the aftereffects of running an All-In job, but now you desperately need to be somewhere other than home?

and it probably won't blow up.

Cheating is always against the rules. Officially. Only more like a guideline when it comes to Doomtown.

This annotated edition of the storied book of games emphasizes what to do with those who break the rules.

Like many goods with Cheatin' Resolutions, The Royals' Hoyle might be considered weak in a shootout, minus One card and One less casualty? best in a cheating, but tied situation.

if you are not using all of your hearts slots on hexes for your hucksters, you can also probe the deeper secrets of the text and draw a card.

Where this card really shines is as Lowball punishment. Even if it is discarding a card of choice, one less card is one less card - and I can interpret a variety of things from the card that you discard, except a Joker, all I can divine from that is that you had a Joker in your hand and are happy to get rid of it. But even then I now know that your deck has one fewer Joker in it.

shades of the Miasmatic Purifier, only as a Goods.

they can certainly help you win the game as long as you "CONSTRUCT MORE PYLONS!"

Kind of like a game of capture the flag, you need to get this into the other base.

and now four of the Entrepreneur Mad Scientists interact with the Experimental keyword.

if just the existence of the Negentropic Pylon keeps one dude at home to chase you away, then the mission is accomplished - get two or more of these on one dude and they will focus on protecting their base.

ah the "High Horse" from play test.

as a cheap horse, there is an additional cost to wander around town (discarding a card) - although sometimes when you are looking for more end of the turn card draw, discarding a card is a good thing.

I see this having a role in both Outlaw and First Peoples plans that focus on holding town square - cheap influence to keep you from losing - maybe extra influence for Mariel or Zac.

or combine with something like a Ranger's Bible for a serious weaponization of influence.

the second part of things with the Law Dog Nat Wright.

and another melee Weapon Gadget.

This chain sword doesn't lose its bullets for bringing a "knife" to a gunfight.

The trick will be to convince an opponent to extend a shootout into a second round. Might I suggest Forsaken Hound?

Stacking any number of miracle or similar casualty reductions in the first round can also encourage an opponent to stick around for more - then surprise them with a second round Pinned Down.

If you are being crafty and trying a clubless Experimental plan, the various cheatin' resolutions on goods are needed. Consider these for that role.

On lowball cheatin' your opponent has to boot a dude. Sure, it is their choice, but one less moving piece.

Or, if you save this for a shootout you get your choice of the dude to boot, and save a couple casualties - or three, if you need to make use of the Sidekick trait.

this (and all of the on board cheatin' punishment) can also serve as a decoy for a more powerful Cheatin' resolution from your hand - if they think they will just cheat through the Steel Swarm only to be surprised by any variety of more robust repercussions.

it is just a simple stick - more or less.

but for the select few Kung Fu dudes that start out as Draws, a FREE option for gaining stud cannot be overlooked. FREE!

Even if you are not a Kung Fu practitioner, a good, solid stick can help you BONK harder.

a nice add on for Law Dog Melee Weapon builds (depending on values).

or the Cheapest bypass of the Andrew Lane downside. Even better, get into a fight with this, gain the bullet, and then Andrew Lane a better weapon onto the +1 bullet dude.

Sunday Best is back. Did you miss it?

With the split up of the Production and Upkeep into separate phases, we needed to update the wording.

And we needed more Attire in the game.

I really like these for making sure that I get the production on the deeds adjacent to my home with very little risk.

Or use with a dude in Town Square to hop on an opposing deed to stymie production. - extra bonus if you can then steal tempo on the noon action of said deed.

Last set we had Carson's Cantina with a psuedo-cheatin' effect.

Now Wong's Bazaar is our first full on Cheatin' Resolution on a deed.

This means that it can be used in the Gambling phase to swing money during lowball cheatin'.

you cannot take money that they do not have, so you can always choose to draw a card instead.

Two 2 CP deeds in the same set? Carter, are you nuts?

at 4 cost and 4 production, the upsides of the Iron Dragon Regional Office demand respect.

Not only is it public, but controlling this operation carries hidden costs - you lose a card every turn, hopefully not a card that you were counting on.

as a jack of diamonds, this probably slots into a number of Dead Man's Hand decks looking for CP to close the game out.

For those First Peoples looking for a Holy Ground that they do not have to consecrate on their own.

Now how do we convince an Abomination player to bring the fight here to me?

Competition on the 10 of diamonds can be tough though, and Public, so you don't get to fight for bounty.

Sometimes all that you need is a way to get your dude back home, unbooted, so that they can walk around town a little more. Maybe trade a goods first.

While this Ranch does require that the dude have a horse, and horses do usually come with movement - not all of them are helpful. in the final chess of the game, a Pinto or Calvary Escort cannot get you where you want, and a Yagn's doesn't have movement at all.

Enter the Scout's Rest, catch your breath, and get on home.

Things are going to get messy at Dr. Babcock's.

As a 2 control point deed, this is going to draw attention. And being private means that the owner is extra incentivized to keep it.

The React can allow the controller to be a little more cavalier with a wounded casualty, being able to put it back into play if they have the money.

Welcome to Doc Babcock's house of pain - take a number.