Hey Man, well this is Babylon

I have some ideas for changing the flow of the Showdown mechanic for this game. Instead of a continuous round-the-table flow of back-and-forth smack-talking, I want something with more of an “eyes-over-the-cards” tension feel. I want there to be a bit of “What’s she got up her sleeve?” questioning on all sides of the conflict. To better enable that, my current idea is to change the flow to one more suspenseful.

Here’s the idea. After all sides of the conflict have drawn their cards, each side then picks a number of cards from their hand equal to the number of players involved in the conflict, and then lays those cards face down on the table. The first player then narrates their involvement in the conflict, followed by the second player, and the third, and so on. Once all have narrated, each player reveals one of their cards at the same time. Whoever got the lowest is removed from the conflict – their removal from the conflict must now be narrated by the player with the highest card. If this does not end the conflict, then the higher-card player then narrates their further involvement in the conflict, followed by the next-highest, and so on again. Again a card is revealed from each side, and the results are handled as before. This repeats until the conflict is resolved.

When it is finally over, I’d like to be able to somehow involve an assessment of all the cards played. I want the “ultimate winner” to be able to make some kind of mechanical use for any pairs, straights, sets, and so on that might arise from the revealed cards. I have had more than one player of Cannibal Contagion state that they would like to see some use for matches and pairs in the final Showdown results. I intend on introducing such a rules extension in a planned future expansion to that game, but for this one, I’d like to involve something like that right from the start.

While the proposed above procedural change remains to be tested, I think it could add a lot more suspense and strategy to the flow of the game.