Smoke Break
The score is how deep into the night you got.
Buckshot Roulette is the game where the gun is loaded in front of you. It tells you how many live rounds and how many blanks went in, it does not tell you the order, and then it asks whether you would like to point it at yourself — because a blank costs you nothing and hands you another turn. It came out in 2023 and the whole of it fits on one table.
This is that shape, re-fitted for a hive: the gun is a beekeeper's smoker, a live charge is a lungful that costs a breath, and the dealer is a hornet. Nobody dies on this cabinet. It is an homage and it says so. Nothing is lifted — every item, every noise and every rule here was written from scratch — and it is not connected to Mike Klubnika or Critical Reflex in any way.
S point it at yourself · H point it at the hornet · 1–8 use one of your things · Enter carries on between rounds · P pause · M sound · on a phone, tap the two buttons and the chips
- Lens look at the charge in the nozzle
- Royal jelly one breath back
- Bellows blow the nozzle clear — the turn stays yours
- Resin the hornet sits its next turn out
- Hive tool the next charge counts double
- Waggle names a charge further down the load
- Wick turns a charge you have looked at
- Sting take one of the hornet's things and use it now
The only thing hidden is the order#
The smoker is packed in front of you and the count is announced. Five charges, three of them live: you know that, the hornet knows that, and every charge that leaves the nozzle is seen by both of you. The tally at the top of the screen is that count, and it is the number both of you are playing against.
- Point it at the hornet and it takes a breath if the charge was live. Either way the turn passes.
- Point it at yourself and a dud costs you nothing and the nozzle stays yours. A live one costs you a breath and the turn.
That second line is the whole cabinet. When two of the five left are live, pointing it at yourself is a 60% chance of a free turn — and a free turn is how you get two charges into the hornet before it ever holds the thing. When four of the five are live, it is how you lose.
When the smoker runs dry it is packed again, with a fresh count and fresh things for both sides, and the round carries on from wherever the breath is.
The eight things#
From the first round both sides are dealt something, and by round four it is four apiece. They are the difference between reading the odds and knowing the answer. The key is under the screen, and the two worth learning first are the lens and the bellows.
Lens
Look at the charge in the nozzle. Turns a coin flip into a decision, which is why it is the commonest thing in the deal.
Bellows
Blows the nozzle clear — the charge is named on its way out, and the turn stays yours. It is the only move on the table that does not hand the smoker over, which is what makes it the thing to be holding on your last breath.
Royal jelly
One breath back, up to what you started the round with.
Resin
The hornet sits its next turn out. Worth the most immediately before you land one on it, because then you get to do it twice.
Hive tool
The next charge to leave the nozzle counts double. Fitted blind it is a coin flip; fitted after a lens has said live it is two breath in one go.
Waggle
Names a charge further down the load — not the one in the nozzle, one behind it. Worth more early in a long load than late in a short one.
Wick
Turns a charge live for dud or dud for live. It only works on a charge you have already looked at, and it turns it in front of the hornet, so the tally moves and the hornet learns what is in there too.
Sting
Take one of the hornet's things and use it on the spot. It cannot take another sting.
The wick is the one rule here that is not in the game this is an homage to, and it is deliberate: the count at the top of the screen has to stay true, and a charge turned in the dark would put it out of step with the smoker. Being able to see it is the price, and being seen doing it is the cost.
The hornet#
It is not cheating. It knows exactly what you know — the count, and everything that has been fired — plus whatever its own things have told it, and nothing else. Where it does have an edge, the edge is on the table where you can see it:
- You always take the first nozzle of a round.
- It plays loose early. In the first round it is barely paying attention; by round five it plays the odds every time.
- From round five it sits down with more breath than you, and its row of pips is longer than yours to prove it. That is the wall, and it is where most runs end.
Posting a run#
There is no ending. The rounds keep coming with more breath on the far side of the table, and the run ends when yours is gone. Clearing round N scores N × 250 — so the rounds pile up on themselves and a run is worth exactly how deep into the night it got — with a little for each load survived and each breath taken off the hornet.
Sign in with Discord and the run posts itself the moment you are out of breath; play as a guest and it is kept as a personal best on this device instead. The board ranks on score and shows the round you reached beside it. The arcade page has the longer version of how the boards work, and the other cabinets.