Players: 4-6
Playing Time: 30 minutes
The Components
Cash 'n Guns comes with some cool components:
The Guns: And this is the heart of them. With Cash 'n Guns you get six foam guns. They're actually a game component, as you'll spend much of the game pointing them at each other! They're very cool and pretty much make the game.
The guns are orange, which I'm told is a US regulation regarding toy guns. I've played a previous iteration of the game where the guns were instead black, and I'm quite happy with the change, because I was never 100% comfortable waving around gun-colored, gun-shaped objects. People who complain about the change either don't live in a country which not only has an unfortunate level of gun violence, but also an unfortunate level of accidental shootings of people with toy guns, or else are blissfully ignorant.
Cardboard Bits: Much of the rest of the game consists of cardboard bits. There are: 40 banknotes in three different denominations, clearly marked by color differences; 6 stand-up character which go in little plastic bases; 14 wound markers; and 14 shame markers. These are all good quality glossy cardboard with various humorous drawings on them.
Cards: Finally, there's a whole deck of cards that serve a variety of purposes. There are: 8 bullet cards for each of 6 players; 1 helpful quick reference card; 10 super power cards; and 10 cards related to the advanced "cop" game including 3 telephone switchboards, 6 secret roles, and 1 telephone. All of the cards are medium weight, glossy and again feature cute, cartoonish art.
On whole the components are good quality and fairly attractive. However those foam guns really put it over the top. I've thus let it eke in a "5" out of "5" for Style: top rate!
The Gameplay
The object of Cash 'n Guns is to be the gangster with the most money--or else the last one standing.
Setup: Each players takes the stand-up figure for one character and the eight bullet cards that go with him. Then each player secretly draws a secret super power card, which may or may not come into play. The game now begins.
Order of Play: On a turn, the following events occur:
- Reveal Money
- Choose Bullets
- Point Guns
- Duck!
- Bang!
- Divide Spoils
Reveal Money: Five new banknotes are revealed. These are each valued at $5k, $10k, or $20k. They're the loot that is to be divided.
Choose Bullets: Each player secretly chooses one of his bullet cards and places it face down in front of him. At the start of the game he has five "clicks", two "Bang!s" and one "Bang! Bang! Bang!".
Point Guns: All the players simultaneously point their guns, each at one other player.
Duck!: The players next must decide whether to duck out or not. Simultaneously any cowards knock over their stand-up figures and drop their guns to denote the fact that they're out of the round. Each player who chickens out takes a shame marker.
Bang!: Any players still standing now fire. First anyone with a "Bang! Bang! Bang!" fires, knocking down their target before he can respond. Then remaining "Bang!s" fire, taking those opponents down as well. Any player wounded takes a wound marker for each player that shot him. When a player takes his third wound his character dies and he's out of the game.
Divide Spoils: Finally, any players still standing (because they didn't cower and they didn't get shot) divide the loot. The loot must be divided evenly, and there's no making change, so players probably won't be able to take all the money out of the supply. The rest remains, and will have five more banknotes added to it on the next turn.
Ending the Game: The game ends after eight rounds of play. Each player counts up his loot and subtracts $5k for each shame marker. The player with the highest total wins.
The Super Powers Variant: The game can be played as described above, but the "basic game" adds on super powers. Each player has a secret card which he can reveal at some time to do something extra. For example the "6 feet under" card gives its player $10k extra at the end of the game for each player who was killed, the "dragon skin" card lets you take multiple hits once in a round but only take one wound, and "the kid" lets you point your gun after everyone else has. These all add nice variety to the game.
The Cop Variant: There's also a second variant called "a cop in the mafia". Here one player is secretly a cop who is trying to turn everyone in. Each turn the people who stayed to divide the loot pass a phone around and the cop has the opportunity to secretly turn it face-up to note it being used. If he can do this three times by turn 6, stay alive, and not chicken out too much at the end, he wins and everyone else loses. It adds a fair amount of complexity to the game--probably more than it needs.
Relationship to Other Games
Mechanically Cash 'n Guns is a blind bidding game with heavy elements of brinkmanship. However, that really only tells part of the story. Cash 'n Guns distinguishes itself by embracing the tactile side of gaming. Having guns that you wave around and point at each other elevates the game above its pure mechanics and puts it into a totally different dimension of gameplay.
The Gameplay
On the whole Cash 'n Guns is a pretty light game. There's a lot of chaos and the winner can be pretty random. Still, it's entirely fun too. The decisions about who to point your gun at and whether to duck out both seem meaningful, and all the decisions are enjoyable. There's not a whole lot of depth to it, but for a light filler it's an entirely fun game.
I was a bit less enamored of the cop variant which was really too complex for this sort of game. We tried it out and I doubt I'll play it again, but it's no huge loss.
On the whole Cash 'n Guns is entirely unique and a very fun light game. As such I've given it a full "5" out of "5" for Substance.
Conclusion
Cash 'n Guns is a filler game that's made all the more enjoyable by the foam guns you get to wave around. There's nothing deep here, but it's one of the more interesting and innovative fillers I've seen in quite some time.
