Preview: SGS English Plugin

Here's a preview of the improved Translation Plugin. It's going to be a card format printed on both sides that serves as a reference. The size is going to be identical to the character card size, so it will fit nicely with your other cards in the box.  Front Back Feedback welcom...

Disaster!!

It's one thing to translate every card from Chinese to English, but it's quite another to want to squeeze all the long english words into 2cm x 4cm space and still be legible. In a disastrous last minute crash-out, I found to my heart-wrenching horror that my english-plugins contain words that are too damn small to be readable! NOOOOOOOO!!!!! After all those hours of work!!!!!! ROAR~~!!!!!! No matter!! I shall find a way around it! I am determined...

Auxiliary Rules Part 1: One Versus One game

Welcome to the new mini-series on Auxiliary Rules! In this series, there will be a mix of official rules and some unorthodox suggestions. For those of you who are getting sick of the usual game style, here are a few interesting variations to this already very complex game. So, are you ready? Here we go into Part ...

Launching soon!!! A few more days!!

Hi everyone, there have been a lack of posts recently because i have been busying myself with an original SGS-English product for the card game! I'm incredibly excited about it and i cannot wait to show it to all you readers and make it available! It would take me a few more days of work, but trust me... ITS GOING TO BE WORTH IT!! In the meantime, i'll do my best to put up the alternative rules and FAQ disambiguations. :) Have fun and...

SGS in Australia: The Perth Mystery

A big Hello to the readers from Australia!  Something has been puzzling me since i began tracking readership. Australian readers are the 4th most active in reading this blog (behind USA, Singapore and Canada), and to my surprise, the location of these readers are exclusively from the Eastern half of Australia! There's Sydney with the highest readership and Melbourne at second... but not a single reader from Perth?! Isn't that where the highest...

Guān Yǔ 关羽

Translated description: "Bearded Gentleman 美髯公 (měi rán gōng)" Who is he: He is a god. No kidding. The legend of Guan Yu and his strong sense of chivalry and brotherhood has transcended two millenia and is still widely revered today in Chinese culture. Mention his deity name "Guan Gong 关公" and most elder chinese would relate to you legendary stories of Guan Yu's strong sense fairness, justice and brotherhood. The 2nd eldest among the three sworn...

Zhào Yún 赵云

Translated description: "The young general 少年将军 (shào nián jiāng jūn)" Who is he: The hunk in Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Zhao Yun is portrayed like the Antonio Banderas of ancient China, complete with sword wielding abilities equal to Zorro (or probably better?). Always the general of Shu Han 蜀汉 that appears to save the day when their need is crucial, Zhao Yun is arguably one of the most well-liked characters in the entire story. If you expect...

Game Rules Part 7: Reincarnation 转世

Welcome to Part 7! In this section, i'm going to talk about one of my favorite auxiliary rules known as the Reincarnation Rule. Simply put, it allows a player to remain in the game despite being killed and after his or her role card has been exposed. The original logic of this rule was to minimize the amount of waiting time for the dead players before the next round starts, especially when there are more than 7 players in the round. Quite...

Thinking of buying the ROTK full story in English?

I must admit, I knew NOTHING about the Romance of Three Kingdoms story before I played SanGuoSha. Although my Dad is a Chinese history buff who constantly promoted the story to me, I always felt those were for the graying population like him. Then came along SGS and my world change...

The Gods are seated + Errata for Flip Character Cards

I'm happy to report that the Demi-Gods are up, which means that all the official characters are up on this blog! WOO HOO!! Now for an update on every character to include the FAQs and other stuff i missed out. That would REALLY fatten up the content here. Also, look out for the alternate rules to the game that i shall be putting up soon. One important thing, i realized that the Flip Character Card rules i put up are incorrect. My initial research plus original plays were inline with what i wrote, but within the past 2 weeks there have been...

Demi-God Zhōu Yú 神周瑜

Translated description: "The God of Fire at Red Cliffs 赤壁的火神 (chì bì dè huǒ shén)" Why is he a Demi-God: People familiar with the Romance of the Three Kingdoms story would know that Zhu Ge Liang 诸葛亮 and Zhou Yu were both instrumental in defeating Cao Cao 曹操 at the Red Cliffs. However the historians that distilled out the "Romance" from the story found that Zhou Yu was the main architect of the victory, while Zhu Ge Liang had far less involvement....

Demi-God Zhū Gě Liàng 神诸葛亮

Translated description: "The Sorcerer at the Red Cliffs 赤壁的妖术师 (chì bì dè yāo shù shī)" Why is he a Demi-God: In an act of mischief, Zhu Ge Liang decides to fool Zhou Yu 周瑜 into thinking he has the ability to control the weather. At an elaborately set up altar, Zhu Ge Liang performs a mysterious rite that he says will help change the wind direction, which was necessary in order for their fire strategy to work against the ships of Cao Cao 曹操. True...

Demi-God Lǚ Méng 神吕蒙

Translated description: "The Minister with Divine Enlightenment 圣光之国士 (shèng guāng zhī guó shì)" Why is he a Demi-God: I wish I had an answer to this question that I am whole-heartedly convinced with. Unfortunately, I do not. "Divine Enlightenment" is an exaggeration of Lu Meng's studious discipline, where he turns from a military brute into a learned minister. His remarkable improvements are due to his own hard work and there was nothing divine...

Demi-God Lǚ Bù 神吕布

Translated description: "The Way of the Asura 修罗之道 (xiū luó zhī dào)" (Asuras are mythical Demi-Gods in Buddhist mythology that are wrathful, prideful, arrogant, and love to fight. Click here for Asuras Wiki.) Why is he a Demi-God: Let's list out a couple adjectives to describe Lu Bu - 1. Arrogant (Striking his halberd with an arrow to win a truce between Yuan Shu 袁术 and Liu Bei 刘备) 2. Wrathful (Killing Dong Zhuo 董卓 over Diao Chan 貂蝉) 3. Loves...

Demi-God Guān Yǔ 神关羽

Translated description: "The Return of the Ultimate Ghost 鬼神再临 (gǔi shén zài lín)" Why is he a Demi-God: There is no ghost quite like the ghost of Guan Yu in the Romance of Three Kingdoms story. No doubt he is not the only supernatural character to re-appear after death (Yu Ji 于吉 also came back to haunt Sun Ce 孙策), but the ghost of Guan Yu did more than spook the mortals. No, that would belittle him! The ghost of Guan Yu possessed his killer,...

Demi-God Cáo Cāo 神曹操

Translated description: "A Hero that transcends time 超世之英杰 (chāo shì zhī yīng jié)" Why is he a Demi-God: Nearly every Chinese in the world would have heard of his name. It is not just his achievements that are spectacular, his use of military tactics and his overall leadership ability is legendary. The description is no exaggeration; Cao Cao truly is a hero that has transcended time.  That fact that we are playing a card game that is built-upon...

Out of the Woods!! + Demi-Gods VS Demons 神鬼大战

Alright!! Woods Expansion done!! Now only 6 more characters left before i'm done with all the official characters... THE 6 DEMI-GODS ARE UP NEXT!! MUAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! AAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! ... Anyways yesterday was another marathon session of SGS and we decided to go crazy with the super characters again. This time, on top of the 6 Demi-Gods, we mixed up 4 of the unofficial Demon cards into play: They are...

Jiǎ Xǔ 贾诩

Translated description: "Cold-blooded Advocate for Murder 冷酷的毒士 (lěng kù dè dú shì)" Wikipedia link: Jia Xu Wiki Who is he: His description portrays him as a mass-murderer, and history seems to back that up. After the death of Dong Zhuo 董卓, Jia Xu adviced Li Jue 李催 to take advantage of the chaos in Chang An 长安 and grab the Imperial power for himself. This would prove to be the biggest black mark on Jia Xu's life as Li Jue and Guo Si 郭汜 went on...

From which country are you reading this blog?

Many thanks to the readers of this blog for visiting, commenting, correcting my mistakes, and spreading the word. When I started this blog, I expected my target audience to be confined to the tiny red dot called Singapore. I really did not expect the worldwide audience that now reads this blog. Here are the top countries that visit this blog as compiled by Blogger Stats. Are you surprised to find your country's ranking on this list? So from...

Xú Huǎng 徐晃

Translated description: "Reminiscence of Zhou Ya Fu 周亚夫之风 (zhōu yǎ fū zhī fēng)" (Zhou Ya Fu was a general during the Han Dynasty that died about 60 years before the start of the Three Kingdoms era. He is regarded as the epitome of military discipline and integrity.) Wikipedia link: Xu Huang Wiki Who is he: One of the 5 most important generals to Cao Cao 曹操, Xu Huang is a man of righteousness. He first came to Cao Cao's attention as a general...

Dǒng Zhuó 董卓

Translated description: "Demon King 魔王 (mó wáng)" Wikipedia link: Dong Zhuo Wiki Who is he: Despite the unpopularity of Cao Cao 曹操 or Si Ma Yi 司马懿, people give due credit to their accomplishments. Dong Zhuo, on the other hand, is unpopular to the point of hatred. He was a general with a bad name before he answered the call to rid the Emperor of the corrupt officials. In the ensuing chaos, the young Emperor and his half-brother was separated from...

Zhù Róng 祝融

Translated description: "The Savage Queen 野性的女王 (yě xìng dè nǚ wáng)" Wikipedia link: Zhu Rong Wiki Who is she: The only female in the entire Romance of Three Kingdoms story to ever take part in battle, Zhu Rong is one fearsome woman. Not only was she brave, she was also capable in combat and intelligent. Wife of the Barbarian King, Meng Huo 孟获, she led an army to invade Shu Han 蜀汉 after her husband was cowed by Zhu Ge Liang 诸葛亮's advancing troops....

Mèng Huò 孟获

Translated description: "King of the Southern Barbarians 南蛮王 (nán mán wáng)" Wikipedia link: Meng Huo Wiki Who is he: After the Kingdom of Shu Han 蜀汉 had been established in the west for several years, Meng Huo invaded Shu Han from the south. By this time, Liu Bei 刘备 had died and Zhu Ge Liang 诸葛亮 made all the major decisions as Prime Minister. Meng Huo sarcastically commented that the occupation of Shu Han over the western lands was a barbaric...