When Is It Okay To Shoot Your Kids ?

It's not often you can find a board or card game that can easily accommodate an odd number of players.  It is also not easy to find a game that can accommodate 6 or 7 players - at least not one that I have the patience for.

I forget exactly who we learned about the game "Bang" from, but as soon as they remind me I will thank them.  It's been a great game to play with our family of 9 - yes, those keeping track will realize that the youngest two (ages 2 and 4 at the moment) can't really comprehend the game ... but I also mentioned in the first paragraph that I was referring to game for 6 to 7 players so do the math.

The concept of the game is fairly straightforward: try to be the last person alive.
The Sheriff may have a deputy (in games with 6 or more players).
The Outlaws (at least 2 are in play with games of 4 or more) just want the Sheriff dead.
The Renegade can only win if the Outlaws are dead before the Sheriff.

The twist is that no one knows for sure who anyone is - except everyone knows who the Sheriff is ... but he gets an extra life (bullet) as compensation.

Best of all, there's no rhyme or reason to winning every time.  It is equally difficult to win regardless of which role you draw.  There are certainly strategies that are more effective, but there's a decent amount of luck involved ... and the games play pretty quickly (30-45 minutes at most).


Song Of The Day:
You might be thinking I'd use the song "I Shot The Sheriff" by Eric Clapton, but I'm actually featuring the recent pop hit "Bang Bang" by Nicki Minaj, Jessie J, and Ariana Grande - for two reasons: the song is quite catchy and the title just works with this post.  Please refrain from pointing out the obvious non-family nature of the lyrics in that song.  I never said I listened to it while playing games with my kids!

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