魏 Generals and 群 Generals

魏 Generals

曹操 Caocao – You may choose to obtain the card that deals damage to you. Emperor skill: Anytime during game play when needed, you may request for any 魏 general to help you play 闪.

夏侯顿 XiahouDun – Whenever you take damage from a source, you may pass judgement on the source, opening the top card from the top of the deck. If card is not hearts, the source which dealt you the damage must choose to discard 2 cards from his hand or take 1 damage. If Hearts, he is safe.

司马懿 SimaYi – Whenever you take damage, you may choose to obtain a card from the source which dealt you the damage from his hand or equipment slots. When a player is having judgement passed on him, before the card takes effect, you may choose to play a card from your hand to overwrite the judgement card.

张辽 ZhangLiao – During your draw phase, you may choose to forsake your draw phase and instead draw 1 card each from up to 2 players.

许诸 Xu Zhu– During your draw phase, you may choose to draw 1 less card. If you do, during your play phase, the 杀 and 决斗 you play when dealing damage, deals 2 damage instead of 1.

甄姬 ZhenJi – At the of your turn, you may pass judgement on yourself. If black suit card(spade or clubs), you keep the card. Can be used multiple times until a red suit card appears. Then proceed to draw to cards and begin play phase. Black suit cards can be played as 闪.

郭嘉 Guo Jia – After your judgement card takes effect, you may obtain it. Whenever you take damage, you may draw 2 cards.

群 Generals

吕布 LuBu– Whenever you use 杀 on a target, the target must play 2 闪 in order to not take damage. Whenever you are in 决斗, your opponent must reciprocate with 2 杀 while you play 1 杀.

貂蝉 DiaoChan– During your play phase, you may discard a card and force two male generals to 角斗. The ability cannot be dispelled. Use only once during your turn. At the end of your turn, draw a card.

華佗 HuaTuo – Outside your turn, you may play any red colour suit(hearts or diamonds) as 桃. During your play phase, you may discard a card and heal 1 health to any player even yourself.

吴 Generals

孙权 SunQuan – Discard any amount of cards from your hand or equipment slots then draw that amount of cards. Use only once during your turn. Emperor skill: When your health drops to 0, if any 吴 general uses 桃 on you, u gain 2 health instead of 1.

周瑜 ZhouYu – Draw 3 cards instead of 2 during your draw phase. Force target player to choose a suit. After which he picks a card from your hand and reveals it, if it is not from the suit he chose, he takes one damage. If it is from the suit he chose, he does not take damage. Target player obtains the card in both cases.

孙尚香 SunShangXiang – During your play phase, you may discard 2 cards from your hand and choose a male general to both heal 1 health together. Whenever equipment is removed from your equipment slots, you may draw 2 cards. (even when u on purpose replace your equipment, it is consider valid.)

甘宁 GanNing – Any black suit cards(spades or clubs) may be played as 过河裁桥.

陆逊 LuXun – You cannot be the target of 顺手牵羊or 乐不思蜀. When you lose the last card in your hand, draw a card.

黄盖 HuangGai – During your play phase, you may choose to take 1 damage. If you do, draw 2 cards. Can be used multiple times.

吕蒙 LuMeng – If during your play phase you did not play 杀, you may skip the discard phase.

大桥 DaQiao – Diamond suit cards may be played as 乐不思蜀. Whenever you become the target of 杀, you may choose to discard a card from your hand or equipment slots to redirect the attack at another player within your attack range. ( The redirection cannot be towards the user of the 杀)

蜀 Generals

刘备Liubei – During your turn you may choose to transfer any amount of cards in your hand to players. If the amount of cards is not less than 2, you gain 1 health. Emperor skill: Anytime during game play when needed, you may request for any 蜀 general to help you play 杀.

关羽 GuanYu – Red colour suit cards(hearts or diamonds) may be used as 杀.

张飞 ZhangFei – May use any amount of 杀 during your play phase.

赵云 ZhaoYun – 杀and 闪may be played interchangeably.

马超 MaChao – When calculating distance between other players, always -1. After targeting a player with 杀, you may choose to do a judgement. If judgement is red colour suit cards(hearts or diamonds) your attack is unblockable.

诸葛亮 ZhugeLiang– At the start of the your turn, you may choose to view X number of cards from the top of the deck. X being the number of players in play up to a maximum of 5 cards. Then rearrange them in any order to be place at the top or bottom of the deck or together. (eg 3 cards top of deck, 2 cards bottom of deck) When you have no cards in your hand, you cannot be the target of 杀or 决斗.

黄月英 HuangYueYing – Whenever you play non-time consuming spells(ie. Spells other than 闪电and 乐不思蜀), you draw a card. Spells you cast are not limited by distance.

Play Flow & Selection of Generals

Play flow

Start of turn - Judgement phase – Draw phase (Draw 2 cards) – Play phase – Discard phase – End of turn

Play is in anti-clockwise motion starting from the emperor.
Before the end of the any player’s turn, the maximum number of cards in his hand can only be equals to his health. If holding cards more than amount of health after play phase, discard number of cards accordingly during discard phase.

Selection of Generals

In this game, there are 25 generals in the basic set with more from expansions up to about 40. The choosing of generals is after the choosing of role cards with the emperor choosing his general first. From the General pile isolate the 3 main generals, 刘备，孙权，曹操 first. Then shuffle the general pile and pass 2 general cards faced down to the emperor for him to choose. Once he has chosen, place the remaining 4 general cards into the main general pile. Shuffle then distribute 3 to each player. Players will choose one general faced down and return the other unchosen generals faced down. Once all players are done, players will open their general card face up together. Emperor will then start the game following a anti-clockwise motion round the table.

Spells

Spells 井囊

南蛮入侵 – Players other than caster has to play 杀, if not take 1 damage.

万箭齐发 – Players other than caster has to play 闪，if not take 1 damage.

过河裁桥 – Caster choose one card from target’s hand(faced down) or equipment or status and make him discard it. Not limited by distance.

顺手牵羊 – Caster choose one card from target’s hand(faced down) or equipment or status and transfer to your hand. Use on targets with distance up to 1.

决斗- Challenge targets to a duel. When used on target, target and caster will take turns to play 杀 with the target starting first. Whoever unable to play 杀, take 1 damage. (Duel)

借刀杀人 – Use on target with a weapon on another target. Force him to use 杀 towards the other target. If not used, the weapon becomes yours.

五谷丰登 – Open amount of card equivalent to number of players faced up. Take turns to choose card starting from caster in anti-clockwise direction. (Emporium)

桃园结义 – Targets all players. Heals 1 health.

无懈可击 – Counter spell or dispel. (Just say no)

闪电 – 1 round after casting, Judgement is passed onto the player at the start of the round by opening the top card of the deck. If judgement is 2-9 Spades, take 3 damage. If not 2-9 spades, pass the card to the next player. Once judgement is successful discard card into the play pile. (Dynamite)

乐不思蜀 – Cast on target player whom you want to miss his turn. During the start of his turn, judgement is to be passed. If card opened from the top of the deck is not Hearts, causes player to miss his play phase. If hearts, he continues his turn.

Three Basic cards and Equipment Slots

Three Basic cards

杀 – Kill/Bang( Subjected to distance with your left and right as 1. Deals 1 damage to target’s health if not missed. Use only once during your turn unless u got 诸葛连弓 weapon or play as 张飞.)

闪 – Miss( dodges kill)

桃 – Peach (heals 1 life on yourself or to be used on someone else only when his life reachs 0)

Equipment 装备 slots

Each play is entitled to 4 equipment slots specific to only 4 types of equipment.

Weapon – Each weapon has different abilities and ranges. Weapon generally increases your attack distance so that you will be able to reach people far away from you.

Shield – Shields basically reduces the chance of you taking damage due to 杀.

+1 Horse – For your defence, makes it harder for people to attack you by increasing your distance from others.

-1 Horse – For your offense, makes it easier for you to attack people by decreasing their distance from you.

Welcome welcome! 4 roles

For a start, 三国杀 is very similar to the English card game Bang! With 三国杀 containing 25 generals in the basic set and near to 40 with expansion sets. And the best thing is that unlike trading card games which you have to buy continually, this game only requires 1 purchase to last you for a long time. The bad thing about the game is that it is only in the chinese language. What i will try to do is to translate the game to the best of my ability to all players interested to learn.

In this first entry, I will be talking about the roles of the game for a start. So here goes.

4 Roles

All players will have their roles chosen with role cards facing down. Only the emperor will have his role card opened face up. The explanations for the roles are as follows;

Emperor – Kill all rebels and spy to win. If you kill your loyal subject, you will discard all cards in your hand and equipment slots.

Loyal Subject – Help the emperor kill all rebels and spy to win. When the emperor win, you win.

Rebels – Kill emperor to win. Do not necessary have to kill loyal subject. Whoever kills a rebel, draw 3 cards.

Spy – Must have a one on one showdown with emperor to win. Everyone else must die before that.