BUCKSHOT
ROULETTE.
One shotgun. Unmarked shells. Two players who take turns deciding whether to trust the odds. This is the manual for the eight-item, one-bad-decision game — rules, item math, and the probability calls that actually separate a win from a headstone.
How the table works
The rules are simple on paper — that's what makes the decisions hard. Here's the mechanical skeleton before you touch a single item.
Live & blank shells
Before each round, the dealer racks a random mix of live and blank shells into the shotgun and states how many of each — for example, "3 live, 2 blank." You never know the order, only the ratio, until an item or a fired shot reveals more.
Fire at yourself or them
On your turn you choose a target: yourself or your opponent. Shoot the opponent with a live round and you deal damage. Shoot yourself with a blank and nothing happens — but the turn passes to your opponent either way, unless a blank on yourself grants you another turn.
Blanks on yourself repeat your turn
Firing a blank into your own head doesn't cost you your turn — you go again. This is the core risk/reward loop: shooting yourself is a bet that the shell is blank, and if you're right, you get a free extra action.
Items refresh every round
Before most rounds, both sides draw a small, random hand of items from the pool of nine. Items can be used at any point on your turn, before you decide who to shoot — and most can be used more than once if you hold duplicates.
Health & rounds
Each side has a health pool that resets and grows across rounds. Run out of health and you lose the round; lose enough rounds and the match ends. Damage is normally one point per live shell, doubled if the shooter used a saw first.
The Dealer plays the same game
Your opponent — the Dealer, or another player in multiplayer — follows the same rules and has access to the same items. Nothing is hidden from the mechanics; the only real fog is which shell is actually chambered.
All nine items
Every item type in the game, what it actually does, when to reach for it, and the mistake most people make with it.
Should you pull the trigger on yourself?
Set what you know is left in the chamber — from the dealer's callout, a magnifying glass, or a burner phone read — and get the raw math behind the decision.
Blanks favored — shooting yourself is the statistically sound play, and a correct guess earns you another turn.
Below ~40% live, lean on yourself
When blanks clearly outnumber live rounds, shooting yourself is the higher-expected-value play — you likely survive and get a free extra turn instead of passing initiative to the dealer.
Above ~60% live, shoot the dealer
Once live rounds dominate the remaining shells, firing at yourself is just volunteering for damage. Take the shot at the dealer and bank the likely hit.
Near 50/50, spend an item before you decide
A magnifying glass or burner phone read is worth far more in a coin-flip chamber than in a lopsided one — that's exactly when a guess is most likely to be wrong.
The knife rule: don't gamble into extra damage
If the dealer has already used a saw and it's a 1:1 shell situation, players generally recommend shooting yourself over the dealer — a wrong guess against you costs 1 HP, a wrong guess that lets the dealer fire back at you with a saw already primed costs more.
Use items every turn — they don't carry real value sitting still
Fresh items arrive most rounds, so hoarding rarely pays off, and a full item rack just gives an opponent's adrenaline more to steal. Play information items — magnifying glass, burner phone — first, before you're forced to guess.
Double or Nothing mode
A standalone mode where you bet cash instead of just health. Win a set of rounds, and you can cash out or double down and go again — for exponentially higher stakes and exponentially worse odds of walking away clean.
Press your luck, on the clock
- You play a set of rounds against the Dealer just like the main game, but each win adds to a running payout.
- After clearing a set, you choose: cash out and bank your winnings, or continue and risk it all on the next set for a bigger multiplier.
- Winnings scale fast — clearing sets quickly matters, since payout math rewards speed as much as survival.
- Items and leftover shells can carry over between sets, so a bad item deficit at the end of one set can haunt the start of the next.
Playing the long game
- Don't burn every game-changing item just to close out a set early if you're already guaranteed the win — banking items into the next set can save you later.
- If you're in a strong item position, let the dealer waste its magnifying glasses and beers rather than rushing to end the round.
- Cashing out early is always the safe play — it's a guaranteed, if smaller, payout instead of a bet on your next set surviving intact.
- Because both sides' items and shell knowledge can roll over, the odds math from the calculator above still applies every single turn — the stakes just get heavier.
Achievements worth chasing
A selection of the game's achievements with confirmed unlock conditions. Several others in the list remain deliberately cryptic — that's the game being the game.
Player logs
Notes left by other players — close calls, dumb deaths, and the odd piece of strategy nobody asked for. No account needed to add your own.
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