Deadeye Dinah (2022)

Overview

Bounty hunter “Deadeye” Dinah Reeves never gets mail, and certainly not from her little brother turned-Deputy-Marshal. But sure enough, the letter in your hands ain’t no lie:

Dear Dinah, I need your help finding these men. They been making hell for me all over the Arkansas Territory, and now I hear they done run to Texas. I can’t keep chasing these cusses. So I’m asking you, just this once. There ain’t nobody you can’t catch. You know I don’t beg, but I can’t do nothing else now. Just this once, Dinah. Please. Love, Bass

Again you check the stack of wanted posters stuffed in his envelope. No mention of a bounty. Twelve years since you last heard from him, and the great Bass Reeves can’t spare a dime. Well, you reckon, he’s still kin. May-hap you can do your dear brother a favor—just this once.

As bounty hunter “Deadeye” Dinah Reeves, track down each crime boss through a stack of scene cards. A scene may be a peril or shootout. Use your kit cards to overcome each scene card and add it to your kit. You can play a kit card as a bullet to shoot other folk’s hats. Or you can play the same card as an item for a special benefit. But outlaws can shoot the hat of any kit card you play, losing you that card. If you ever run out of kit cards, you fail and star t the job over. Reach the boss card to duel the boss. Shoot their hat before they slip away, and you capture them, earning reputation that grows your legend. If you fail, try again. You win the entire campaign by completing all 8 jobs: capture all 8 bosses and bring them to Bass.

—description from the publisher

In this in-hand solitaire Western campaign game, bounty hunter "Deadeye" Dinah Reeves is taking down a ring of crime bosses as a favor for her lawman little brother. Aim impossible shots, brave fearsome perils, and stretch scant supplies in your hunt to bring in each crime boss, dead or alive (most likely dead). As you progress, your legend will grow, striking fear into your enemies and granting you an edge...which you'll need, 'cause you've set your sights on the toughest, meanest pack of varmints this side o' the Wild West. Good thing you never miss.

Deadeye Dinah features an in-hand, cards-only microgame campaign with 8 unique missions, each lasting 4-6 encounters, and persistent character progression through each mission. Each mission, or "job," is hunting down 1 crime boss.

Players start a job by setting up the deck for the boss they want to pursue. To track down the boss, they play kit cards (Dinah's equipment) to overcome each scene card (the trials she faces) stacked on top of the boss card. A scene card can be an environmental peril or a shootout with hired thugs. Each kit card is played as either a bullet to shoot or an item to use for special effects, but playing kit cards also leaves Dinah open to being shot and losing cards. If Dinah overcomes a scene, the player adds the scene card to Dinah's kit cards. If she can't overcome the scene, she must escape and lose cards. If Dinah ever runs out of kit cards, and the player can't add any more, she fails the job and must start over.

If Dinah overcomes all the scenes and reaches the boss, she must duel the boss by playing a bullet to shoot the boss while avoiding getting shot herself. If she doesn't fulfill both those conditions, the boss slips away and Dinah fails the job. But if both conditions are fulfilled, Dinah wins the duel, captures the boss, and completes the job, earning reputation in the crime ring's new territory. As Dinah earns reputation, the player upgrades her legend effect, a passive benefit she carries into each job.

This game was first published as an entry in the 2021 9-Card Nanogame Print and Play Design Contest, where it won several awards:

#1 Best Solitaire Game #1 Best Original Artwork #1 Best Cards-Only Game #2 Most Innovative Mechanism #3 Best Overall Game

-description from designer