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In BANG! Dodge City the Conestoga card has some ambiguous symbols.

Conestoga

The first symbol is draw a card, and the second refers to any player at the table. This seems to have two possible meanings:

  • Take a card from any player (i.e. a long range Cat Balou; Cat Balou uses the same draw symbol)
  • Draw a card [from the deck] for any player (like Tequila but a card instead of health; Stagecoach and Wells Fargo use the draw symbol in this way)

The first interpretation seems quite powerful (maybe too powerful), and the second seems pretty useless (unless you're a really generous Deputy).

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There's an official answer in the Bang! Dodge City FAQ:

Q11. How Conestoga and Rag Time work?

A. Just read the symbols. They both allow you to draw a card (from the hand of among “in play” cards) from any one player, regardless of the distance.

Adding this to the base rules of Bang! regarding the "draw!" symbol:

Draw a card. If “any player” is specified (see that symbol), then you can draw a random card from his hand, or you can choose one in play in front of him. If no player is specified, draw the top card of the deck. In any case, cards drawn are added to your hand.

EDIT: making an assumption about a potential typo in the Dodge City FAQ.

The wording from the FAQ is a bit iffy, so it might be possible the intended interpretation is "from the hand or among 'in play cards'". If this is, in fact the case, Conestoga can be read as:

Take a card from any opponent at random, or take one at your discretion from the "in play" cards in front of any opponent.

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  • That is wrong, what the rag time and conestoga do is copy a panic card but to allow you to do it any range instead of the limited range of a panic. They allow you draw from either the hand (random) or a card in front of the player.
    – Joe W
    Commented May 1, 2017 at 21:26
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    The faq you cite is a direct contradiction of the base rules. If you look at the rules for a panic it lets you draw one card from a players hand or in front of them at range one. It does this because it has both a draw and a range symbol on it. Looking at both the conestoga and rag time cards you will see they both have a draw card and a range symbol(distance one) on it. With the only difference being it is not impacted by the distance to that player. It should be remembered that this game was written in Italian and there are a lot of translation errors.
    – Joe W
    Commented May 1, 2017 at 21:36
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Both cards work exactly like a panic works with the difference being that they can be used against players of any range.

Unless there is a rule change in a different rule book that changes the way the draw a card symbol works it will be the same in the base game as it is in the expansions.

One thing that should be remembered is that these rules where all written in Italian and there are many issues with translations that lead to confusion in the rules. Not to mention there are many rules that are not fully clarified for new abilities in future expansions and how they interact with existing ones.

If you look at a panic card you will notice it has two symbols on it.

Rules

Draw a Card:1

Draw a card. If “any player” is specified (see that symbol), then you can draw a random card from his hand, or you can choose one in play in front of him. If no player is specified, draw the top card of the deck. In any case, c

Range One:

It specifies that the effect applies to any one player at a distance of the number or less. Note: Mustang and Scope can alter this distance, but weapons in play do not

Panic card:

The symbols state: “Draw a card” from “a player at distance 1”. Remember that this distance is not modified by weapons, but only by cards such as Mustang and/or Scope.

Now if you look at conestoga card you will notice it has the same draw symbol but a different range symbol

Any Player:

It specifies that you can apply the effect to any chosen player, regardless of the distance.

The ragtime has an additional symbol that means you must discard an additional card to play it but otherwise operates the same.

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