In 2013, Heartland Consumer Products, the makers of the patented Square Shooters Dice, decided to run a contest to find a new game featuring their signature product. There were dozens of entries and the judges whittled them down over three rounds to find the game that best leveraged the dice in a fun new way. That winner was 9-Shooter Quick Draw by Ryan Strong.

As you might expect with a game about a gunfight in the dusty streets of an old west town, the rules for 9-Shooter Quick Draw (9SQD) are dead-simple.

Each player gets 3 gunslingers, 3 action cards, and 1 set of Square Shooters® dice.

Both players reveal a gunslinger and face it so their opponent can see the poker hand printed on the card.

Both players pick up their dice and shake them in their fists until one player shouts "DRAW!" They both roll their dice and the gunfight begins.

You're trying to roll the poker hand on your opponent's gunslinger card and you can lock in any of your matching dice at any time, but after that first big roll, you can only re-roll unlocked dice that have...

The same number (Aces, 4's, Kings, etc...)

The same suit (Hearts, Clubs, etc...)

If you have no matching dice, you can only re-roll a single die of your choice.

If your opponent catches you rolling mismatched dice, you have to stop, give him a hard look, and re-roll a single random die to re-set.

BTW, Jokers are wild so they can be any number and suit you like.

That's it. You both keep rolling as fast as you can until one of you locks in all of the dice to match the other's gunslinger card. That player shouts "BANG!" and your gunslinger is dead! Lose all three of your gunslingers and the town's undertaker is gonna be one busy man.

Hey, quiet down, I hear ya. What about those action cards? Well, if you think you're ready for them I'll clue you in, but these cards are for the experts. It ain't easy dividing your attention between rollin' dice and readin' cards.

Each action card says when it can be used and what the effect is when it's played. You flip out the card and call out the name, then your opponent has to stop everything and do what the card says. That might mean waiting for you to get in some extra rollin', or maybe having to unlock one die. Ouch!

Some of the cards are there to help you, too, like letting you re-roll mismatched dice or canceling the card your opponent just played on you.

They don't call it the Wild West for nuthin'!

Games