Gangland

Review: CCG

Reviewed by Jim Pinto

Corglenburg, inc.
$19.95

"Hey! Hey, Rocco! Hand me dat dere box o' goods.
"Yeah! Da one dat sez Gangland!
"Rocco? If I gotz ta yell, youse gonna get whacked.
"Don't makes me getz ugly."

Ganglan! by Corglenburg is a "new" idea in card games. The basic box comes with a rulebook (a big honkin' rulebook), a stack of cards (two types -- Gangsters and Events), and a six sided die (a big honkin' six sided die; it's friggin' huge) all for the low, low price of 20 samolians (minus a nickel is some states). Did I mention that they're coming out with booster packs for this thing later? That's right, a non-collectable, customizable card game, designed for 3 to 8 players.

Gangland! is not revolutionary, but that doesn't mean that it's bad, either. This 3+ player card game is sort of a mix of Family Business, On The Edge, and Starship Command, but the similarities are not superficial. In fact, the game seems to be designed to go as fast as you can think. There are very little "turn" rules, which is to say that it lacks an upkeep phase and a flowchart of activities that can/must be performed. Each character gets an action and that's about it. When they're done they're done (kinda zen). The characters can do a myriad of things, but most of them require the play of a card, so unless you have a drive-by shooting card, ya can't do it.

The extortion of money or the rubbing out of a bodyguard are perfomed by saying that you're doing it, paying for it, and then doing it. The game ends when the deck has been used twice or all of your enemies are dead. The die is used every once in a while to work out fights and such; and that's about it. Personally, I hate the d6 approach to gaming, but they are easy to come by (although they give you a die for free, so why not make it a d10 or d20 system?).

This game has a structured, sensible (did I mention honkin'?) rule-book and a set of "core" rules that have a lot of expandable possibilities. However, once you begin playing you will notice many "interpretable" rules (i.e. argument catalysts), and a few rules that you have to intergrate youself (i.e. instigators). During play, we came up with a list of questions about the game that perhaps gamers should address before shuffling the cards:

    If a character is bribed to join the other side, can he act the turn he comes over to your side? We said no, but you decide!

    We decided that in a three player game it is impossible to finish the deck, so you can do one of two things. Go through the deck once to end the game or discard a free card every turn so that you may cycle through your hand and the deck quicker.

    The IRS card is super powerful and can ruin gameplay. Use it to make the game fun, not bloody. I recommend throwing it out, if it comes up early.

    There are many different kinds of turn loss cards. Do they take effect simultaneously or consecutively.

    The number of harassment cards and arrest cards in the deck should be equal to the number of players in the game (8 in the deck in a three player game is silly).

I would have to give this game a big thumbs up, a B+, an 8, three and a half stars -- whatever grade scale works for you. As a role-player first, I love bringing goofy voices and characters to my board and card games (you should see me play Slasher). This game had enough moxie to keep me in stupid voices for several hours. I recommend playing through once or twice to try to get down the idea behind the game. After that, most of the situations that will arise already have, and you can address them with a little more authority.

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