3…2…1…Wait, wait, wait, stop, hold on. I’m not ready! Are we actually starting now?
I only scream this as a distraction to potentially stall the deadly actions of my gun slinging peers sitting around the table with me. Also, I’m still debating internally whether or not I’m going to regret power shooting my wife in the face.
Hold on, is she really about to hit me with dynamite? I’m her husband! I’m going to go for health instead.
All of these thoughts are running through my head at a pace that is causing me so much apprehension and confusion. I have no idea what to do. Suddenly, someone yells “3, 2, 1 DRAW!” I look down, my hands are positioned hovering around my mid-section, my fingers crooked and looking paralyzed. I have a very concerned look on my face. I was caught with my hand on my holster and my weapon was stuck.
As I gaze back up and across the table, I see that my beloved wife has shot me, and not only her, but the entire table…and I am dead. The game, is Finger Guns At High Noon, and I am now a ghost.
Finger Guns At High Noon from Indie Boards and Cards has become the perfect party game at my board gaming nights to get everyone talking, laughing, screaming and just generally fired up in all the right ways. This is John Velgus’ rookie design and boy did he hit a homerun. Finger Guns At High Noon is so simple to teach and super accessible at the table. There has not been one single instance of me playing this game where someone does not say, let’s play that again.
Get Those Digits Ready
Finger Guns At High Noon has six actions you can take. Once everyone has decided the game is actually started, this decision can have hilarious results as dictated in my opening paragraph, anyone is able to call “3, 2, 1 DRAW!” This is where you would decide to throw up hand signals signifying one of the following actions.
If you would like to form a Posse, when drawing you will throw a thumbs up. This is good to damage multiple player’s health as long as you can actually get half of the people on the table to throw the thumbs up as well. You may shoot someone, by pointing your finger at them with your thumb upwards to mimic a pistol. This will cause two damage to your target. You can throw up 2, 3 or 4 fingers to recover health, but be careful if someone else throws up the same number to gain health as well, you will cancel each other out.
You can even throw dynamite, but you will take some collateral damage for that one. There is also a deck of Ally cards that offer some really helpful immediate or persistent abilities which may modify some of the existing available actions in your benefit. You can gain these cards by making a lasso motion after someone yells draw.
The most powerful move in the game is the power shot. If successful you will damage the person you are targeting for 6 health. You start out the game with 20 health, so taking 6 damage is tremendously painful, but there are ways to recover.
After all actions have been resolved there is a deliberation period. It’s at this point where you can talk freely with each other, yell at one another or sneakily plan to form a posse by signaling some of your gang on the table. That is, until someone decides to yell “3, 2, 1 DRAW!” During the deliberation period anyone may yell that at any time and you had better be ready to throw what you had planned, or you will be left in the dust! If you are the one who yelled to draw you receive a sheriff’s badge to put in front of you, this keeps the same person from constantly calling to draw as you cannot call for a draw if you have the sheriff’s badge.
Ghosts with Guns
So you may be thinking at this point, hey this sounds cool, but I’m not really into player elimination games. That’s great because neither is Mr. Velgus and he designed Finger Guns specifically with that intent. Once you are eliminated or dead, to stay thematic, you will now be playing the game as a ghost! As a ghost you will be playing only three actions, shooting, throwing health to block survivors from getting health and the lasso action to block survivors from retrieving allies.
Let me tell you, it doesn’t feel great being ganged up on and shot by a posse full of ghosts, but as long as I can join them and we win, I’m okay with it. The game will eventually end in one of two ways, with 2 survivors (1 survivor in a 4 player game) left standing as the winners or all remaining survivors killed simultaneously by the ghosts. In the latter scenario the ghosts have won and the last killed survivors have lost.
This game goes off with a bang! It kills at every party I’ve been too! All of your friends will explode into laughter! So take your shot with Finger Guns At High Noon, every single pun intended!
Do yourself a favor and pick up Finger Guns at High Noon at your local game store or order it online on Amazon today.
Highs
- Tons of player interaction
- High intensity
- Lots of laughs
- No player elimination
Lows
- Could be overwhelming for people who don’t enjoy this level of player interaction
