Designer Diary: Vigilante Posse & Arrows

I have never written one of these designer diaries for any game I have ever designed! I wondered if it might help my design process, so I'm giving it a go. There is a topic I thought worth addressing, which is how arrows are used in Vigilante Posse. They work very differently, for both criminals and vigilantes, compared to the original Bang! The Dice Game.

In the original game whenever an arrow is rolled by anybody, that player's character gains an arrow. This works well in the original partly because there is more of a push-your-luck element to the game, and also because it ties in with tactics. This aspect combines well with the fact that there are hidden roles because you can disguise your intentions to some extent. Depending on who has arrows, you might push your luck if a particular player (whom you suspect to be a particular role) has a lot of arrows: you might be willing to risk yourself to eliminate the sheriff, for example.

I did not feel that this mechanic worked so well in my game because I am trying to make more of a puzzly, strategic thinker (with a fair amount of luck, admittedly). Personally I find this more interesting when it comes to solo games.

I found through play testing that having arrows affect the player immediately makes you much more at the whim of the dice, and made me less likely to try to aim for a specific result (yahtzee style); both of these result in fewer tactical choices for the player. That said, I still had to have arrows be a negative for the person/AI that rolled them, because of the thematic ties of the original game (i.e, you are incurring the wrath of the Indians).

For the vigilante player, then, it worked well having the arrows only affect your character at the end of your three rolls. Otherwise it means that the dice results are extremely swingy, and you are quite likely to have to stick with your first roll. With the original game, the hidden roles (and the way these roles interact) will play into your decisions about whether to reroll. While testing, I enjoyed times when you had to consider: there are already two dynamites, but should I risk rolling again in order to remove the arrow I have already rolled? Sometimes it is a good idea to take the arrow, rather than risk blowing up the bank. Essentially, having it like this made the game less swingy for the player. It is fun for it to be swingy for the criminals, but much less so for the human player.

However, it did not work well using this same system for the criminals. Firstly it would require the human player to make judgement calls for the criminals, and I wanted to avoid this where possible. The other big issue was that there were not enough arrows being given out: often I would get through a whole game without the "Indians" effect being triggered more than once. I then tried reducing the number of arrows in the pool at the start (from 9 in the original game). However, this was less fun: having fewer arrows out each time the effect triggered made less of an impact. This also (by itself) does nothing to increase the amount of “arrow damage” in a game. Parallel to this, I wanted all of the criminals' locations to pose a problem for the player; I did not want any of the locations to benefit the player. If arrows rolled by the criminal only affect the criminals themselves (as per the original game), then the player can just leave the criminal at that location to destroy themselves. However, I did not want the arrows to only affect the vigilante at that location: this felt like too much of a departure from the original, and it felt like it was the criminal that was shooting these arrows. Having arrows rolled by the criminal affect both characters there worked well for a few reasons. Thematically, I felt it makes sense to me: the fight at that location is what is offending the Indians, and both the criminal and the vigilante involved are the ones that should pay. Mechanically it worked too: arrows get dealt out at a quick enough rate; they affect the player first, so it is a negative effect overall for the player; and it allows for some interesting decisions for the player (when the Indians visit it often results in one criminal and one vigilante getting hit hard, rather than potentially wiping out all the criminals, or all the vigilantes).

Overall I know that the effect of arrows in this variant is a big departure from the original, and some people will not be behind that change (understandably). However, arrows probably presented the biggest problem to fix while designing the game. I am sure there must be other viable solutions out there, but this one seemed to work well.