Prototype Wild West

[Randell Magtoto]

WilliamCody, born in Scott County, lowa, and raised on a farm, served briefly in the Civil War. Hunting buffalo for construction crews of the Kansas Pacific Railroad, he was dubbed "Buffalo Bill" because of his proficiency. He also served as civilian scout for U.S. generals Sheridan and Carr. Though he went east to begin a stage career in 1873, he returned west in 1876 to avenge Gen. Custer's defeat. Claiming to have killed Chief Tall Bull, he later brought the Wild West indoors and toured widely with his Wild West Show. Clever publicists, like Ned Buntline, Prentiss Ingraham, and John Burke, billed him as "Prince of the Plains" and made him the hero of countless stories and novels.

Often in trouble and always in debt, Buffalo Bill toured Europe to recoup his fortunes. He became the darling of Queen Victoria's Jubilee in England and went on to France, Spain, and Italy, spreading the legend of the American West, depicting the wild yet romantic life which Europeans liked to think of as uniquely American, and paving the way for the 20th-century cowboy movie. The name Buffalo Bill was magic; in Victorian days he personified the American dream.

But triumph turned to ashes. Tired of sham hero worship, Buffalo Bill drank heavily and involved himself in many foolish liaisons. Women doted on him, but his wife wanted a divorce. Sick children sought his touch, but his only son died in his arms. Manipulated by shrewd men, he had to perform his Wild West act daily to avoid bankruptcy. Finally, disillusioned, he petitioned the Federal governmentfor the $10 monthly Congressional Medal-holders' dole. All his dreams had become nightmares.

In 1910 Sam Goldberg released a slide series showing Buffalo Bill in action, and Harry Powers made the first moving picture of the Wild West Show, "300 thrills in 300 reels." But Bill himself was not able to utilize the new mass-media opportunities. Instead, the old man watched William S. Hart, Harry Carey, and Tom Mix fill the heroic void. When he died he was buried in Cody, Wyo.; since citizens of Denver plotted to steal the body, tons of concrete were poured over it. Thus the man whose life revolved in frantic motion had found his resting place.

Buffalo Bill epitomized a whole phase of the American western movement and the final winning of the Great West. His reputation had been contrived and half-fictitious, but to his own code and image he remained faithful.

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Wanted: Rich or Dead, a fast-paced and addictive game published by Galakta and distributed by Ares Games in North America, is due to release in early 2018. In October, the author of the game, Dariusz Kułak, posted its Design Diary on BoardGameGeek, and we are now sharing it here:

"Hello! My name is Dariusz Kułak, and I am the designer of Wanted: Rich or Dead, a Western-themed party game scheduled to debut from Galakta at SPIEL '17. I wish to tell you a little about my newest game and how I created it.

Anyway, the first version of the game was called "Acreage", and it was supposed to be a rather simple strategic game of Small World weight. Different races controlled by players would fight for resources, land, and food. The thing that would make this title stand out was its theme: birds, with tomtits that specialized in quick food collection, combat-oriented grackles, and the sparrows who are builders extraordinaire. Most of the mechanisms were based on action cards being played simultaneously and used to create paths to resources, build nests and storages, or expand to new territories. However, a hexagonal board and units with unique statistics resulted in many similarities with Neuroshima Hex!, and in the end I stopped on an early-prototype level.

Some time later, one of the Polish game publishers proposed that I create a strategic game that would consist of only 55 cards. Although it seemed like a tough task, I returned to the idea of "Acreage" and started making serious cuts. After some time, I was left with a number of areas presented on cards, simultaneous actions, and a deck of items providing certain bonuses.

I also created a more sophisticated background to strengthen the theme; the game was still about birds, but they turned into bird gangs trying to prepare for the coming winter by gathering sunflower seeds. Each bird species became a different organized crime group such as Yakuza or Cosa Nostra. I even drew my own art so that playtesters would be immersed even deeper in this brutal world of bird-eat-bird. (Plus, it's quite hard to find gangster bird artwork...) In this way, "In Your beak!" (more commonly known as "Birdies") was born.

In "Birdies", each player controlled one of five different bird gangs. Five areas were placed on the table, and players simultaneously played one of six action cards to move their pawn to a certain area. If a player was alone, they got their resources. Otherwise, a quarrel had to be settled. It can't be simpler than that, right?

The things that people liked were very quick gameplay, practically no downtime, and a light, amusing theme. One of the unique mechanisms was based on the birds getting "fat" with sunflower seeds; the more a player had, the weaker they became, which is the opposite of a snowball effect. By doing this, players who were short on victory points at the beginning could quickly catch up with the leaders. Effectively, this led to an exciting game finale as everyone had a strong chance to win. The playtesters liked it very much, and I knew the development was going well. At some point I even added a neutral bird, a kind of a swallow "Robin Hood" controlled by the poorest player. That bird could steal seeds from rich birds to give them to the poor, which resulted in even more balance.

At some point, another company (which also refused to cooperate with me on this project) stated that the bird theme is too narrow and the target group too small and I couldn't hope to publish the game with anyone until I changed it. I had to consider some other ideas for the setting, and after giving it some thought I chose to go for the Old West.

The playtesters immediately got to like the game. Some of them even compared it to a better and less random BANG!, which is a great review to hear considering that both games have the same setting and BANG! is a worldwide bestseller.

The meeting was more than fruitful. Aside from some minor changes, we reached a conclusion that the very unintuitive D4 die should be changed to a D3 (which meant more balancing and tackling numbers), then we were ready to send the game to a wider group. The game was scheduled for the 2017 SPIEL game fair in Essen, which meant we had about half a year left to work with it.

While I was perfecting the game, Galakta was working on game components. It came as a great surprise that the game originally based on 55 cards swelled to much bigger dimensions. First, the great comic book artist Rafał Szłapa was hired to prepare the front cover and the characters. Michał Lechowski was responsible for items and the general layout, and together they created a really impressive piece of work. Second, the game attained its 3D aspect with thick cardboard buildings and stagecoach tiles. Finally, the dice were custom made to feature bullets and resemble in color real dice used in the Wild West, while the pawns actually started to look like cowboys!

Its not unusual to see dazed-looking visitors on the benches outside the Buffalo Bill Historical Center. The experience of touring five distinct museums in one day can be as overwhelming as it is satisfying.

The Whitney Gallery of Western Art, dedicated in 1959, houses paintings and sculpture that capture the sweep of Western history, including masterworks by Thomas Moran, Frederic Remington and Charles Russell. Of particular note is Edgar Paxsons monumental 1899 painting, Custers Last Stand.

The Buffalo Bill Museum celebrates the life and legend of the man who epitomized the West. It features vintage posters advertising Buffalo Bills Wild West, nearly century-old film footage of the show, his signature jacket and gifts presented to him by European royalty.

The Plains Indian Museum captures the stories, art and traditions of the diverse peoples of the Great Plains. The Buffalo and the People gallery highlights the importance of the bison to American Indians. Other galleries include Adversity and Renewal, Honor and Celebration, Cheyenne Migration and Land of Many Gifts.

The Cody Firearms Museum is fascinating for gun enthusiasts and those interested in firearms history. The museums basis is the former Winchester corporate collection, but its 6,000 items include everything from muzzle-loading rifles mountain men used to a set of Remington handguns that belonged to Czar Nicholas. One of the treasures on view in the Colt: Legacy of a Legend exhibit is made entirely of wood a prototype of the modern revolver Samuel Colt carved while aboard a ship in the 1830s. (This piece was on loan from another museum.)

The Draper Museum of Natural History is the newest of the centers museums. Through exhibits such as Greater Yellowstone Adventure, spread across three interconnected galleries, the Draper displays the natural history of Yellowstone country. In addition to a marvelous mosaic of the Big Horn Basin area of northwest Wyoming, extensive displays use sound, lighting and please touch exhibits to highlight the regions geology and wildlife. K.M.

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