Pinned Down: comment ça marche

Hey all,

In our efforts to keep the rules for Doomtown as clear and consistent as possible we sometimes come across additional information that causes us to reevaluate and update prior rulings. We know you don't want the rules changing all the time so we don't do this lightly, but it's important for us to consider all the information and issue the correct rulings, changing rulings if appropriate.

We're making a change to the prior ruling on the card "Pinned Down"

Pinned Down wrote:
Shootout: Choose a dude. They must be selected as the first casualty. If that dude is chosen as the shooter, they get –3 bullets (minimum 0).


Specifically we're changing the ruling on what happens when you play multiple "Pinned Down" in the same shootout. Previously it was ruled that if you pinned down two dudes, they would both suffer -3 if chosen as shooter, but it would be the second Pinned Down that determines who you must select as your first casualty.

The new ruling (which will be included in the updated FAQ) is that if you "pin down" two (or more) of your opponents dudes, both (all) effects will persist and when your opponent selects his first casualty he can choose which of the "pinned down" dudes is his first casualty. There is no change to the part of the card that gives -3 bullets to the dude if he is selected as shooter.

I'll attempt to pre-answer some questions regarding the ruling:

If I "pin down" two of my opponents dudes and he takes multiple casualties I understand he must select one of the two pinned down dudes as his first casualty, but what about the other one? Does he have to be picked next?

No, Pinned Down specifically says "first", there is no requirement for other pinned down dudes to be selected as the second or subsequent casualties.

What about Holy Wheel Gun?

Holy Wheel Gun is treated the same way as Pinned Down, if you Pin Down an opponent's dude and then Holy Wheel Gun an abomination, your opponent must select one of those two dudes as his first casualty, after which he can select freely.

How does that even work? If they both "Must be selected" that's impossible!

Since both requirements exist, the controller of those dudes must try to meet as many of the requirements as possible, in this case he'll only be able to meet one and it is his choice which he meets. This is how we intend to handle mutually exclusive "must" requirements in future.

Ok, I think I get it. Why did you bother changing it though?

There were issues with the old ruling when the dude with the most recent (the active) Pinned Down dude left the shootout, was the dude pinned down prior to him now required to be selected as the first casualty again? It also clears up interaction between multiple Pinned Downs and "cannot" effects such as Mario Crane.

I hope this makes sense to everyone

Moi ce qui me plaît c'est qu'AEG n'a pas honte de revenir sur ses précédents rulings car ça fait avancer le jeu. Contrairement à d'autres éditeurs qui n'aiment pas se dédire et finissent par s'empêtrer.

Là on a un ruling clair et qui sert pour tous les effets "first" et "must". J'aime!

Yep. Je pense que c'est surtout du à l'expérience de la Team de design, qui a de l'expérience sur ce et d'autres jeux, ils ont un peu bourlingué et ont pu un peu naviguer sur les design.