The history of Bang!~Bang!誕生的故事 - 桌遊

原文資料出處：Bang!設計者Emiliano Sciarra的部落格
http://emilianosciarra.net/en/bang/history

這篇是作者回憶當初設計這款遊戲時的回憶錄，
看著看著覺得有趣便試著翻譯了一下，
看完之後覺得一款好遊戲的誕生真的得來不易。
玩到好遊戲的時候，更能夠體會到作者創意的可貴。

這是一篇很不錯的文章。
部落格裡還有很多有趣的內容。
可惜英文程度不足，翻得謬誤或是可以更通順的地方
請版上高手們指正討論。





One of the really frequently asked question I hear from players as well from
whoever happens to know my job is:
"How did you think of creating such a game?".Well, here is the story.

每每來自玩家，以及誰碰巧知道我的工作的人們，經常會問我這個問題：
“你是怎麼創造出這樣的遊戲呢？”
那麼，為大家說個故事。

In late 90s I discovered again the board games thanks to my links with
Domenico Di Giorgio,who was the man behind the Mucca Games convention, to
which I attended as referee and game author. In the summer of 1999, took by
a creativity raptus, I designed the basis of no less than twenty board games,
including Invader (which eventually was published on the PowerKaos Italian
game magazine).

在90年代後期，我要感謝Mucca Games convention的Domenico Di Giorgio，
引導我作為裁判和遊戲作者加入了桌遊界。
在1999年夏天，由創意raptus注意到，我設計了一些棋盤遊戲，
包括Invader（最終出版在PowerKaos義大利遊戲雜誌）。

Actually, in the previous 15 years I was involved more in videogames than in
board games, but at time electronic games seemed really down -- a situation
still happening, but that's another story. So I should have been not very
proficient with board- nor card-game design, even if I never fully abandoned
the board game world.

事實上，在過去15年中，我投注於電子遊戲的心力比桌上遊戲來得多，
但直至今日，電子遊戲的風潮正面臨著下滑的趨勢，這又是另一個故事了。
總之，我並不非常精通桌遊，也不精通於設計卡片遊戲，
即使我從來沒有完全離開過遊戲界。

In Semptember 1999 the idea of creating a game for a quite large group of
persons (7 or more, but less than 10), suitable for family gatherings where
the same games used to hit the table again and again, came up into my mind.
The game should be so easy to learn and to play, as well as fast and funny.

1999年的九月，我正在構思一個遊戲點子。
它能多人遊玩（七至十人），適合家庭聚會用來同樂。
這遊戲必須易學易玩，節奏快又有趣，能夠讓玩家們一場接一場樂此不疲。

I chose the Wild West background precisely for this aim: because everyone
knows it more or less well. In addition, the Wild West is very good for
incite players into lightly "role-playing" their characters, while injecting
a right amount of "nastiness" into every game of BANG!.

我選擇了西部荒野作為遊戲背景正是為了這個目的：
因為大家都或多或少地對西部荒野有所了解。此外，
西部荒野的故事有助於玩家們置入於每一場Bang!的遊戲情境中並扮演這些角色。

Meanwhile, my strong passion for collectible card games was almost over,
fueled by the Magic: The Gathering masterpiece. During the last gaming
sessions, due to the ever increasing amount of resources requested to have a
chance to win even a somewhat important Magic tournament, we played in our
local Chess Club (founded by me and others two years before) with 4 or 5
players arranged in teams: but when there was an odd number of players it
was always a problem to balance teams.

同時，我對集換式卡牌遊戲的熱度慢慢降溫。例如：
即使只為了打贏俱樂部（由我和其他人在兩年之前所成立)裡面的魔法風雲會比賽，
持續投資在買新卡片的成本也越來越多，而且常常因為報名人數而造成分隊困難。

These two thought flows merged together when I added to the first draft of
the game, which was a simple shootout among Cowboys already with the distance
idea, a Sheriff and above all a Renegade who, with an odd number of players,
served as the "third team" to balance the game.Originally the Renegade was
requested with an odd number of players only, but daVinci insisted that it
was the most fascinating role of all, adding a considerable amount of
uncertainity (depriving the game of a perfect balance, especially with 4 or
6 players), and so now he is always present, replacing an original Deputy
with an even number of players. The game reached the unfinished prototype
stage quickly, about half of September, but stayed untouched for three
months. With the Christmas approaching, I finished the project in slightly
more than a week, completing rules, characters and cards.

將這兩個思維合併在一起，
而後我加入到遊戲的第一個要素，就是牛仔槍戰中關於距離的想法。
接著是警長和叛徒的概念：在玩家人數為奇數時，
叛徒擔任“第三隊”加入遊戲，以平衡戰局。
最初的設計中，只有玩家人數奇數時才加入叛徒，
但daVinci公司堅持，叛徒是最迷人的角色，為遊戲增加了不確定度
（尤其是在4個或6個玩家時，破壞了兩隊的完美平衡性），
所以，現在的版本裡叛徒始終存在著。
時間到了九月，遊戲很快達成未完成的原型階段，接著進度卻停滯了3個月。
隨著聖誕節的接近，我花了一個多星期，完成了規則，角色和卡片。

The game was very entertaining to play with myself, but of course it
required a serious test with other people, due to the importance of
interaction and bluff among players. So I took the prototype with me at a
family gathering, testing it for the first time with 6 players on January 6,
2000. The playtest went very well. However, when I took the game to my local
Chess Club, it has been an instant hit: they was literally crazy about the
game, playing it continuously from 5 p.m. to 5 a.m.! It is quite remembered
that players sent SMS saying "BANG!" and "Missed!" the day after the gaming
nights. I had to make other prototypes because players kept asking me all
the time.

我認為這個遊戲將會非常有趣，當然，它需要一個嚴謹的測試。
由於它著重於玩家之間的互動和虛張聲勢。
所以在2000年1月6日的一個家庭聚會中，我帶著遊戲的原型和6名玩家首次試玩。
試玩進行得非常順利。之後我便把它和西洋棋俱樂部的成員們分享。
它立刻一炮而紅：成員們瘋狂地愛上這個遊戲，從下午5點一直玩到持續到凌晨5點！
還記得玩家們玩過之後還特別發短信“Bang！”“Missed！”
當晚遊戲過後。我不得不趕製出這遊戲的原型，
因為玩過的朋友們不停地詢問我這遊戲的消息。

This convinced me to search for a publisher.I was in touch with a U.S. Game
Agency, but it rejected the game saying it was too similar to Family Business
-- probably one of the worst decision in the game history!

看到這樣的反應，我堅信這會是一個很受歡迎的遊戲。
於是我積極為這遊戲尋找出版商，最後找上一個美國遊戲代理商，
但它們拒絕出版遊戲，理由說是這遊戲和Family Business太相似了 -
以結果來看，這可能是遊戲史上最失策的一個決定！

註1.
"Family Business"(1989)
為美國的喜劇犯罪電影
http://www.hudong.com/wiki/%E5%AE%B6%E6%97%8F%E7%94%9F%E6%84%8F

Meanwhile, the same friends behind Mucca Games convention (Domenico Di
Giorgio, Roberto Corbelli, Andrés J. Voicu among others) eventually decided
to make their own Game Company: daVinci (now dV Games). At first, they
planned to release very cheap games like the Cheapassones, and the first
titles scheduled was Ostrakon by Silvano Sorrentino, followed by Lupus in
Tabula. But when I showed them BANG! they changed their plans: my game was
shooted on top of the schedule, with top class materials (the cards being
printed by Carta Mundi, one of the most important press in the world,
printing Magic cards as well).

同時，Mucca Games convention的一些朋友
(Domenico Di Giorgio, Roberto Corbelli, Andrés J.
Voicu among others)，決定組成屬於自己的遊戲公司：daVinci（現在的dV遊戲）。
起初，他們計劃出版像Cheapass那樣的遊戲。
但是，當我在他們面前展示了BANG！他們便改變了預定計劃。
將Bang!的發行排在首位。

We worked on the game for few months to make a version suitable for the
market (and for daVinci itself). The game worked well, but daVinci suggested
some changes, most of them improving the game, for various reasons
(not excluding the cost):

>>draw 2 cards instead of one each turn: this is maybe the best suggestion
to date!

>>use the back of the character cards to keep track of the life points;

>>use the cards to make the "draw!", which was previously done with a coin
flip (or two, or three for the Dynamite) and then with a 8-sided die;

>>limit the deck to 110 cards, excluding the one-of-a-kind cards and about
half of the characters (most of them appearing in Dodge City);

>>replacing the text on the cards with symbols. This modification was made to
reduce costs for international versions, but has been often criticized: as
it goes, in latest versions the text reappeared on the cards, at least
partially.

The first run of the game was 2000 copies, rounded to 2400, first seen in
Italy in July 2002.Since I was almost nobody in the games industry as well
as daVinci, it was planned to sell the whole first run in about 3 years:
instead after less than 3 months it sold out.

經過幾個月的努力，我們將這個遊戲做了許多改進，讓它更適合遊戲市場。
而為了遊戲的流暢性、成本、及其他原因，daVinci出版社提出了一些改進，例如：
每回合開始時抽2張卡代替抽一張卡：這也許是迄今為止最好的建議！

使用角色卡的背面來記錄角色生命值;

使用"卡片符號"來代表"判定"，原先的版本是以"硬幣符號"來代表"判定"。

卡片總張數減少至110張，同樣效果的卡片只單純地保留一種。
原先設計的角色只保留一半（保留的部分大多收錄於道奇市擴充中）;

卡片上以符號代替說明文字。這個做法在印製國際版本時有效地降低了成本。
但這些符號對某幾張卡片實在太過簡略以致常常受到批評，
於是在最新版本中適當補上了些許說明文字。

本遊戲的第一刷是2000份，增至2400刷，2002年7月首次在義大利發行。
因為當時在遊戲業還沒有名氣，原本出版社計畫用3年將第一刷賣完，
沒想到大受歡迎，不到3個月就售罄了。

The rest is another story...

之後，就是另一個故事了......

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