Behind the Great Firewall

Hi everyone,

I'll be making my bi-annual trip to China tomorrow, and will be there for 2 weeks (back on 10th April). I'm still learning how to access blogger from there, then i'll continue putting up the posts.

If not, there probably will not be any posts here till i'm back. Anyone knows how to jump over the firewall, i'll be more than happy to hear from you!

Keep on 杀-ing!

New Products on BlogShop

Check out these two new items on the BlogShop. I love the compact case!

Click on image to visit the item page.

Wraith Ji Ping 妖吉平 (yāo jí píng)

Translated Description:
The Royal Physician of Han Dyntasty 汉之太医 (hàn zhī tài yī)

Why is he a Wraith:
This guy will forever be remembered as a martyr. He came incredibly close to assassinating Cao Cao 曹操, probably the closest anybody else ever did. In the earlier half of Cao Cao's career, Cao Cao managed to take control of the young Han Emperor and utilize the emperor's power to achieve his goals. Ji Ping, along with the other Han loyalists, was understandably disgusted at Cao Cao. Ji Ping was a physician that had already been regularly treating Cao Cao's headaches. His assassination plan was to simply mix poison into Cao Cao's medicine. Since Cao Cao had already been regularly taking Ji Ping's medication, Cao Cao would not suspect a thing.

But as with most things dramatic, shit happens. Cao Cao learnt about the assassination attempt from a disgruntled servant of the loyalists. Cao Cao then pretended to be ill and called for Ji Ping and his medication, but this time he made a special request for Ji Ping to drink the concoction first. Knowing that the ploy has been seen through, Ji Ping made a last ditch effort to force the poison into Cao Cao's mouth, but was promptly seized by Cao Cao's bodyguards. And boy did Ji Ping suffer a terrible death. With the cruelty that he endured before taking his last breath, it is justifiable that he becomes a Wraith to haunt Cao Cao for all eternity. Just how did he die? Read on to find out.

Downloadable Version of the SGS Guidebook

You know what? I'm fed-up of making you wait for the printed version of the SGS English Guidebook.

Follow this link to get your PDF version of the guidebook. No waiting for months before printing. No waiting for days before it arrives in the mail.

[Update: The hardcopy printed version is still going to happen. It should be available in April. This download PDF version is for those who hate waiting longer than necessary (like myself).]

http://sanguoshablogshop.blogspot.com/2011/03/sgs-english-guide-book-downloadable.html

杀!

Wraith Zhou Tai 妖周泰

Translated Description:
Skin like a carved artwork 肤如刻画 (fū rú kè huà)

Why is he a Wraith:
The bravery of Zhou Tai and his threshold for injury is his calling card, but nothing else about him seems to suggest that he is deserving of immortality. This game changed that. I dare say this: when you ask an experienced SGS player what is his impression of Zhou Tai, that person will likely say "Zhou Tai just can't die!" Ask a chinese speaker and the words will more likely be something like "周泰是他妈的死不了!", which loosely translates to "Zhou Tai just can't f**king die." You get the picture.

So I guess in order to further romanticize Zhou Tai, the unofficial version decided to bring him to a whole new level. His ability practically renders useless the most basic mechanism of the game. Now THAT is deserving of Wraith-like status!

Wraith Si Ma Yi 妖司马懿

Translated Description:
Shadowy Tiger 冢虎 (zhǒng hǔ)

Why is he a Wraith:
The tide of time has not been very kind to Si Ma Yi, particularly when folk tales are passed via word-of-mouth without corroborated facts. We all know of the two "great ones" as described by ROTK: 卧龙 (Hidden Dragon) describing Zhu Ge Liang 诸葛亮 and 凤雏 (Rising Phoenix) describing Pang Tong 庞统. However, lesser known but factual, there were a total of four "great ones". The third was none other than Si Ma Yi the Shadowy Tiger 冢虎.

Even though ROTK was written with an obvious slant, painting the Wei Kingdom as the antagonist, you still have to admit that Si Ma Yi was a brilliant person. So brilliant that he took over the Kingdom for himself and eventually ended the Three Kingdoms era. Perhaps that is why people will never come to view him in a good light. The cunning. The scheming. The usurper. Should he be immortalized as a Wraith? Justly so.

In case you are wondering who the fourth "great one" is, the title bestowed is 幼麒 (Young Unicorn) and it is still unclear exactly who it refers to. Some say Zhou Yu 周瑜, some say Jiang Wei 姜维 (Zhu Ge Liang's protege).

Wraith Xiao Qiao 妖小乔

Translated Description:
Eternal Spring at the Bronze Phoenix Towers 铜雀春深 (tóng qǜe chūn shēn)

Why is she a Wraith:
One of the most exotic stories that spun off ROTK is that of Cao Cao 曹操's desire to acquire Da Qiao 大乔 and Xiao Qiao for himself. After hearing about the unrivaled beauty of the Qiao sisters, acquiring them from the hands of Sun Quan 孙权 and Zhou Yu 周瑜 became one of his motivations for attacking the Kingdom of Wu. In a sense, Cao Cao's obsession with Xiao Qiao in particular bestows upon her the unflattering description of succubus. Perhaps that justifies her joining the ranks of the Wraiths.

On a more personal note, Xiao Qiao is indeed wraith-like in terms of the relentless questions and bugs caused by her character card. Check out the original Xiao Qiao character card and just see the number of questions that have appeared!

Plastic Borders

A new contender for the World's Tallest building?

Let me put it right in the open. Laminated cards stack up REALLY high. The picture below shows how thick the complete set of playing cards are after lamination.

Mind you, this is inclusive of the Battle Expansion 军争包 but without all the Unofficial playing cards.

Despite the height of this tower of cards that puts the Big Mac to shame, I am drooling to replace all my cards with the laminated version! Why? Read on!

Wraith Zhang Jiao 妖张角

Translated Description:
The Great Virtuous Master 大贤良师 (dà xián liáng shī)

Why is he a Wraith?
By now you probably realize that the classifications of "Wraith", "Demons" and "Saints" etc are completely arbitrary. They are just another reason to soup-up the most popular characters to the point of being silly. Wraith Zhang Jiao is one good example of a souped-up character that went from "incredible" to "incredulous". Seriously, this guy's ability exceed the Demi-God's by such a magnitude that you should be questioning, "how could anyone (bar noobs) lose with such a character?!"

The answer is, obviously, when the other players are all using unofficial characters as well. Ho-hum.

BlogShop Mini-revamp

Here's to helping you save money and for a (hopefully) more customer-oriented BlogShop!

The analogy of what has changed is this:

Previously: 
With the Paypal button directly on each page, the distance between browsing and purchasing is nearly zero. There is hardly space to ask or ponder. The cash register is always next to you! This probably makes some customers apprehensive.

Also, the shipping rates were calculated into the product. With multiple purchases, the savings on postage were not passed on to you. The prices were just too rigid!

SGS Guidebook: The first prints

You would call me an idiot for the price I paid for these booklets. Each of these booklets costs me nearly SGD$10.00 to print!

This is the trial print, so I only have very very few copies. With a price that exorbitant, no way i'm going to print 100 pieces!

But it just feels so incredibly special to hold the finished product in my hand. Maybe this is what fatherhood will feel like too?

View the full post to see all the pictures.

Character guide on the left, Cards guide on the right.

Game Rules Part 8: Official Points-Scoring System

You must be wondering why this was never written up here before. The short answer is the points calculation is overly complicated. It's not something that you can easily remember without using a reference. Best of all, its completely arbitrary! It only adds that teeny tiny little bit of kick into an already awesome game.

However, an email by Norman from Sydney made me decide to post this up. I've never thought about a league system where points will carry over multiple sessions. What an awesome idea!

So here is the official points-scoring system from YOKA. Enjoy!!