Wraith Bian Shi 妖卞氏 (yāo biàn shì)

Translated description:
"Queen of the Yellow Turban Rebels 黄巾女将 (huáng jīn nǚ jiàng)"

Who is she:
The above question is one I wish I had the answer to! This character has been abuzz in many SGS threads in China: Who the hell is Bian Shi?! And why is she Queen of the Yellow Turbans?!

Let me tell you what i do know. There IS a Bian Shi in ROTK. In fact she is a true historical figure. Bian Shi was one of the wives of Cao Cao 曹操, and none other than the mother of Cao Pi 曹丕. She was highly respected and arguably Cao Cao's favorite wife (out of more than 15 wives/concubines).

But there was never any mention that Bian Shi had anything to do with Zhang Jiao 张角 and his Yellow Turban Army 黄巾军. This is probably where myths and fantasy combined. Do a quick Google cross reference of Bian Shi and Zhang Jiao and suddenly some interesting articles pop out. These articles appear to be fantasy novels of some sort (of which I am, unfortunately, not familiar with). In these articles, Bian Shi seems to refer to Zhang Jiao as 师兄 or "Senior", and they both seem to have some kind of god-like superpower to bring about Armageddon. The language in which they are written are modern, thus are probably fictional creations of modern day authors. In fact, the backdrop of these stories appear to be similar to the Final Fantasy franchise!

Perhaps these stories are the link between Bian Shi and the Yellow Turban Army?? Anyhow, do take this particular character with a pinch of salt, as she appears to be completely fictional (as a party to Zhang Jiao). Unofficial cards tend to have such issues, I guess? Sigh.

White Buffalo 碧眼白水牛 (bì yǎn bái shǔi níu)

Description:
Yes, yes, yes. It is a buffalo! How could an animal that moves as quickly as a shopping cart be given a "-2" distance rating?? Well... this is no ordinary buffalo. This is the king of all buffalo! The literal translation for its Chinese name is "Jade-eyed Three-horned White Buffalo 碧眼三角白水牛". Unfortunately, that does not help in visualizing how speedy this beast can be... if it is even speedy at all.

Historical basis:
This White Buffalo was Sha Mo Ke 沙摩柯's steed. It does not seem to stem from the ROTK storyline, but rather spin-off stories from ROTK. A ferocious animal that was known as the "King of all Buffalo". It was said that this beast could run pretty darn quickly, but only "almost as fast as a horse".

Yes, I feel pretty cheated. It's not even quick enough for a normal horse! And they're giving it a "-2"?! That's like faster than the Red Hare 赤兔! Oh well... this IS the unofficial pack. *shrug*

Tsk!... a buffalo?! Come on. Seriously.

Spiked Mace 铁蒺藜骨朵 (tiě jí lí gǔ duǒ)

Description:
Pain on a stick. It's a simple weapon: spikes on ball on rod, bash with enthusiasm. The only difficult thing about this weapon is pronouncing its proper Chinese name. I must admit, before I did any research on this weapon, I only recognized two of characters in its traditional form (铁 which means metal, 骨 which means bone).

The Spiked Mace is a weapon that actually belonged to a character in the ROTK story. Can you make a guess which character owns this?

Wanted: SGS Meet-up Task Force

Dear Readers,

Let's meet up and play SanGuoSha! It's about time the readers of this blog come together for a game.

For the meet-up to work well, Task Forces need to be set up in the respective regions that you are at.

Are you the sort that loves to organise gatherings? 

Well volunteer yourself! I can't do this on my own!

Interested to just help out? Leave a comment below!

Here's what we probably need for each region:

1. An overall Person-in-charge

2, A venue to play for at least 3 hours. Cheap.

3. Transport recommendations and "How to go there" guidelines.

4. Ready the logistics (How many sets of SGS? With unofficial? Any food and drinks?)

5. Keep track of how many are coming for the event.

6. Any plans afterwards (dinner? tea?)

If you would like to be the person-in-charge for your area, do drop me an email at sg.rockstar@gmail.com. I will help you publicize your meet-up on this blog!

Come on! Give me a hand here will ya? Hope to see you all soon!

来！快来杀一下！(Come! Let's SHA!)

Atlas of Shu 蜀道图 (shǔ dào tú)

Description:
Imagine this scenario. A scholarly male with an ugly not-so-pleasant-looking face approaches you, walking with a limp. He claims he can show you the way into a bank vault that is wide open, literally inviting you to plunder it to your heart's content. And he isn't kidding. You know there is some truth to his claim.

Would you take up his offer?

Cao Cao 曹操 did not. He was not interested in talking with the fuglies and showed this scholar little respect.

Big mistake. Cao Cao had hit the biggest jackpot of his career and he threw it away. Liu Bei 刘备 seizes the opportunity and took up the offer. It was thence, the Kingdom of Shu 蜀国 was born. Who was this ugly scholar? And what was the "bank vault"? Read on the find out.