#94: Ca$h'n'Gun$

Ca$h'n'Gun$

• designer: Ludovic Maublanc
• publisher: Asmodee
• date: 2005
• BoardGameGeek rank/rating: 357/6.80
• position on my top 100 in 2005: did not appear
• age: 10+
• # of players: 4-6
• print status: in print
• cost: $28.99 (Gateplay)

Following the heist, the crooks gather in some seedy little bar to divide the loot... but all of them are armed & greedy, if not dangerous. Oddly enough, though, their weapons are made out of foam.

And that's the premise behind one of the more enjoyable "let's be the bad guys" games out there - players point foam handguns at each other that may or may not be loaded (denoted by playing cards) in an attempt to get other crooks to give up their share of the loot. There's bluffing, laughter, wild interaction of various special powers & a general good time if & only if you can get past the whole "threatening other people with fake weapons" vibe.

The base game is every man for himself... but when you add in the Yakuzas expansion, the number of possible players expands (up to 9) as does the craziness, as you play in teams. (The expansion also adds a foam shotgun as well as foam swords & shuriken.) There's also a Europe-only Uzi expansion, but it's pretty expensive for a single foam gun & a card. (Yes, I own it... I'm a sad, sad expansion addict - expect to find me slumped against a building in your city with a tin cup & a hand-lettered sign that says "Will Work For Expansions.")

For larger groups, there's also a Ca$h'n'Gun$: Live card game - which is really more of a mini-LARP kind of event for 12-20 players. (I will say that the designers managed to get the feel of the original game packed into the card game... while making it easy enough to teach & learn for large groups.)