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I come in the name of Oy the brave, he of Mid World!
I come in the name of Eddie Dean, he of New York!
I come in the name of Sister Susannah, she of New York!
I come in the name of Jake Chambers, he of New York and other worlds!
I am Roland of Gilead and I come as myself.
You will open to me!
...Okay, maybe I'm being a bit dramatic but I've been questing for “The Good, The Bad, and the Handsome” expansion for what seems like roughly the same amount of time that Roland was searching for the Dark Tower. I was finally able to find it for the MSRP of $10.00 via the Kolossal Game's website.
The Good, The Band, and the Handsome Expansion consists solely of cards. There are three new characters (and goal cards for each of those characters), sixteen new Story Cards, and twelve Legendary Item cards. The twelve Legendary Items are directly linked to the new Story cards. When players finish one of the new story cards, one of the rewards can be that they have access to a one-of-a-kind Legendary Item.
All of the new story cards have the same trigger: “Initiate a fight with another player.” I love this because the more interaction between players, the better Western Legends plays. This key also doesn't generally favor one type of player over another. Both Outlaws and Lawmen benefit from it equally. The only player type who truly comes out on the wrong end of the gun is someone who focuses solely on the mining/gold nugget/cattle aspect of the game. And being able to add a story card called “The Quick and The Dead” to Western Legends just makes me happy.
The Three new characters included in this expansion are Butch Cassidy, Judge Roy Bean, and Joaquin Murrieta. It's kind of strange that Butch Cassidy makes an appearance in this expansion but The Sundance Kid doesn't appear until the Ante Up expansion. Chalk that up to Kolossal spreading out the characters into multiple expansions to make sure that you want to buy them all.
Butch Cassidy's player power allows him to take a Miscellaneous item from another player instead of half of their money/gold nuggets when he robs them. Not exactly the strongest power but, if another player has hit the Legendary Item lottery, it pairs well with that. It's also added incentive to rob a player who made it to town and deposited their money before you had a chance to relieve them of that added weight in their saddle bags. However, his “law abiding” power that allows you to steal half of another players money or gold nuggets when you arrest them adds insult to incarnation.
Judge Roy Bean's power is that when, in a fight with a Bandit, Guard or Sheriff the other player must choose and reveal their Card first. And that in any fights with Bandits, Guards, or the Sheriff, you win all ties. While this does give you a chance to yell “Appeal Denied!” repeatedly throughout the game, Two of the three characters you have an advantage over are law enforcement, which doesn't quite seem to fit “The Only Law West of the Pecos.” Or, if you look into some of his real life exploits, is probably dead on.
Joaquin Murrieta's power is that If you are a wanted player, gain 1 LP for fighting a Marshall Player and if you are a Marshall Player, you gain 1 LP if you fight a wanted player. It's certainly not the worst player power but relies heavily on what the other players are doing..and having plenty of players to interact with. At a smaller player count, it's easy for the other players to shut this power down by altering their direction from law abiding to outlaw and visa versa. And taking on other players head-to-head is a much more difficult proposition than taking out a guard or a bandit.
The twelve legendary items that are included in this release are: Black Coat, Bowie Knife, Companion, Dynamite, Lasso, Lightning, Marshal’s Badge, Mesa Deed, Outlaw’s Mask, Silver Flask, Thunder, Tomahawk. All of them are good for at least one LP, be it at the end of the game or when discarded.
As with the other western legends expansions, there is nothing on the cards to indicate which expansion they came from. If you think you might want to remove these from the base game, my I suggest you mark the front side of the cards with a dot or two...or three to indicate The Good, The Bad and The Handsome.
The Good, The Bad and The Handsome is a notch above the typical “More Stuff” expansion with the addition of the Legendary Item mechanism. Combining that with three new characters and the added player interaction from the story cards, it makes an excellent addition to your Western Legends experience.
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