Post originally by Creel at 2003-09-26 17:29:41
Converted from Phorums BB System

The reviewer has made a fine effort and I applaud the attempt, but ultimately this review is a failure.

We play card games when the roleplaying games don't work out or we have some extra time at the end of a one shot. We've played a fair number of Cheapass Games ("Kill Dr Lucky" and "Give me the Brain" being favorites), Atlas Games "Lunch Money," and SJG's "Munchkin." Our favorite game of all though, is by far the classic "GANGLAND!"

But then we're enthusiastic about the concept, so we went to the trouble of learning the rules. The book *is* a little confusing and the rules are spread out, but if you make the effort it's worth it.

We made a small table that listed the main attack cards (bomb, massacre and drive by hit), what works against them and what doesn't. This all but eliminated rulebook references during play.

The reviewer made a number of mistakes, so I am not surprised that the playtesters only wanted to play once. The biggest was allowing only one action per turn. That completely changes the nature of the game. The book clearly says: "All active characters are limited to one action per turn." Note that it doesn't say "player." That means that each member of your gang may perform an action each turn. Normally a gang doesn't have enough cards or money to have each gang member perform an action, so the end result is that each player can perform as many actions as he can manage (ie has the cards and money for) each turn.

To allow only one action per turn is akin to disallowing combos in a fighting game.

In a typical turn I have thrown a shooter in jail, recruited a new gang member, set up a business, dropped several thousand business bucks into the business, used those business bucks to attempt to bribe an opposing gangleader, failing that I assasinated his body guard (which he attempted to save via bulletproof vest), and then hired some out of town goons to do a drive-by on the now exposed gang leader.

That's pretty busy, but not unusual. Once the players are familiar with the game, which doesn't take that long if you have gone to the effort to learn the rules first, the game flows quickly.

Why assasinate your own boss? To put a better one in his place, like Scarface, that's why. Simple strategy.

Does the randomness suck? Sometimes, but usually the way it works is that the player having all the luck is the #1 target on everyone's hit list. So if your card draws are poor, just do what you can and bide your time because things turn around in a hurry.

Frankly, we never noticed the bad draws much because when you don't limit yourself to one action per turn, you go through the deck much faster. Consequently, any bad luck you may have has more than enough chances to turn around.

The bottom line is that if you have any enthusiasm for the genre at all, then GANGLAND! has tremendous replay value. It has remained a favorite with my basement gaming group for years.

As far as the rules go, even if well written, they would be more extensive than most, but then so are the possibilities in this game.

Unfortunately I can't compare this with other gangster type card games, but I do know that this game is a gem. A rough gem in places, but a gem none the less.