Game Rules Part 1: Game Set Up

This is no simple game to pick up. There are many rules, explicit and ambiguous, which require a fair bit of playing to really get the hang of. Up till today there are many rules and character abilities that I'm still grasping (and it's been about 5 months since I've been playing this game). But once you do, this game has great replay value!

Here's what this section will NOT do. This section will not throw you the entire suitcase of information for you to read, 'cause you'd definitely get lost within 5 minutes! Instead, I'll give you a run-through. It's best that you have the game with you and follow along as you read. So here goes!

Step 1: How many players?

As different number of players will have different number of role cards, it is critical that you know how many are playing for that round. Note that if someone else wants to join in halfway through the round, the entire round has to be reset! You'll see why as we go along.

Use the following table to pick out the number of "Role cards". The role cards look like these below and I shall refer to them by colour for now.

3 players (minimum) = 1 red, 1 blue, 1 green

4 players = 1 red, 1 yellow, 1 blue, 1 green

5 players = 1 red, 1 yellow, 1 blue, 2 green

6 players (option A) = 1 red, 1 yellow, 1 blue, 3 green

6 players (option B) = 1 red, 1 yellow, 2 blue, 2 green

7 players = 1 red, 2 yellow, 1 blue, 3 green

8 players (option A) = 1 red, 2 yellow, 1 blue, 4 green

8 players (option B) = 1 red, 2 yellow, 2 blue, 3 green

9 players = 1 red, 3 yellow, 1 blue, 4 green

10 players (maximum) = 1 red, 3 yellow, 2 blue, 4 green

Note: You can choose not to follow these number of role cards. In fact when we play, we regularly create our own role options. 

As an example, let's pretend that there are 4 players. I shall use this number of players throughout my run-through.

Step 2: Pick your Role

Turn the role cards face down and mix them up well on the table. Have every player pick 1 role card each. DO NOT EXPOSE YOUR ROLE CARD! Keep your role secret! Take a peek at your role card. If it is the red card (and only if it is the red card), turn yours over so everyone knows you have the red card. Therefore only 1 role is exposed, the others are all unknown.

Everyone needs to know the objective for their role. Here's what each role needs to do:

Red Card = RULER 主公 (zhǔ gōng)

Classification: Good guy!

Objective:

1. Survive!

2. Kill all the REBELS and all the DEFECTORS and your team (the good guys) win!

If you die... the game is over and the bad guys win!!

Yellow Card = LOYALIST 忠臣 (zhōng chén)

Classification: Good guy!

Objective:

1. Protect the RULER at all costs!

2. Kill all the REBELS and all the DEFECTORS and your team (the good guys) win!

If you die... it depends on who killed you.

(a) If the bad guys kill you, the game simply goes on without you. Your killer gets no bonus for killing you.

(b) If your RULER kills you, the RULER loses ALL the cards in possession. This includes on-hand cards as well as equipped cards.

Green Card = REBEL 反贼 (fǎn zéi)

Classification: Bad guy!

Objective:

1. Kill the RULER! Kill the RULER! Kill the RULER!!!

If you die... your killer gets to draw 3 cards from the deck, regardless of what role your killer is! Fratricide anyone?

Blue Card = DEFECTOR 内奸 (nèi jiān)

Classification: Super bad guy!

Objective:

1. Kill everyone else first before personally killing the RULER.

2. Confuse the RULER by pretending to be LOYALIST. Mind games!!

If you die... the game goes on without you. Nobody gets to draw any cards for killing you. Awwww!!!!

Step 3: Pick your character

Next every player needs to pick a character to use. Character cards look like these below.

3 important things to pay attention to on the character cards. I have circled them in red circles above.

(A) Allegiance - The chinese word here depicts the character's allegiance. The background surrounding the portrait picture also tells you the allegiance. There are 4 "kingdoms" where all characters belong.

蜀 (red backing) - Kingdom of "Shu" (Shu Han 蜀汉)

魏 (blue backing) - Kingdom of "Wei" (Cao Wei 曹魏)

吴 (green backing) - Kingdom of "Wu" (Sun Wu 孙吴)

群 (grey backing) - Heroes without allegiance (hereafter referred to as "Heroes" 群雄 (qún xióng))

(B) Number of units of health - Most combat characters have 4 units while strategists have 3 units. Grab a health card that corresponds to your character's health limit. The health card looks like this:

Important note: the RULER player gets one extra unit of health if there are 5 or more players!

Tip: If you cannot find the health card that has number of health that you need, flip over a few of them. You will find that they are printed on the reverse side other health cards.

(C) Character abilities - Every character has different abilities. If the chinese words confuddle you, look up my english translations for every character in this blog! The player gets to use ALL of the abilities listed.

Now that you are familiar with the 3 important items of every character, it is time to select characters!

[RULER picks first]

The first player to select a character is the RULER. He gets to choose 2 ways to select a character:

Option A - Pick one of the "RULER characters" of his choice. As of this moment, there are 7 "RULER characters", Liu Bei 刘备, Cao Cao 曹操, Sun Quan 孙权, Yuan Shao* 袁绍, Zhang Jiao* 张角, Cao Pi* 曹丕, and Dong Zhuo* 董卓.

* These 4 characters are only available if you purchased the Fire, Wind and Woods Expansion packs.

Option B - Have someone give the RULER player X** number of character cards, and the RULER player picks one out of those cards.

** X can be any number agreed upon by everyone. This number can change depending on how many players and how many character cards there are in total. Typically, X is between 3 to 8.

Once the RULER has selected the character, announce to everyone the character selected. This character will influence the character choices of the other players!

[Everyone else selects their characters]

Have someone deal out X number of character cards to every player (excluding the RULER). Every player will select 1 character to use out of these X number of cards. Do not expose the character selected yet! Keep the selected character card faced down on the table. This is because other experienced players will choose characters to counter yours! Discard the other character cards that were not selected.

Tip: You should consider your role carefully when selecting your character. This is why you need to pay attention to the character selected by the RULER before selecting your own.

When everyone has selected their character cards and placed them face down on the table, no further changing of characters shall be made. Have every player flip over their character cards.

Now that everyone has a role and has selected a character, it is time to go into the game play! Click here to go to Game Rules Part 2: Game Play.