Explorer by Day, Nerd by Night

Saturday’s adventure was a bit short, but still something that I’ve wanted to do for a while. Heather, Rachel and I walked through the South gate of the apartments and headed towards People’s Square, venturing there to view the city from the top of the tower. Flashing our passports, we were shot 19 floors up to walk all the way around the tower, gazing down and out at the 9 million people of Weifang. There have not been many moments when I’ve felt so tiny, but that was definitely one of them: buildings in ruin, multiple look-alike apartments that spanned a few miles, people on bikes that were so tiny I could’ve squished them with a finger, cars lining the streets that could’ve been plucked from a toy box. It was pretty cool to see.

Afterwards, Heather suggested we eat at the Business Hotel,  a restaurant that serves traditional Chinese food. It was deliciously filling, as usual, and delightful company especially since I don’t get to spend that much time with Heather.  There’s not much time left, so we know that adventuring has to happen as often and with as many people as possible before Rachel and I leave.

We soon parted ways at the Good Mall, though, since Heather needed to work and Rachel and I wanted to shop for food and souvenirs. I was quite glad that we got to hang out for a while, though, and see a bit of the city that we’ve never viewed before – especially from that high up.

The night was spent socializing a bit, too. Max and I were originally going to have a girls night with Star Wars (she’s never seen it!), but it turned into a bigger social gathering than I thought it would. Jake and Kelcy leave in a week, and there was something that the group has been wanting to introduce to us “newbies” (Paul, Rachel, and I) since we got here, so they all figured that Saturday might be our last chance. So, after Chrissy and I cleaned up our shattered glass cup spills (it’s a long story. Let’s just say that it’s a perfect roommate match, clumsiness and all), we headed down a flight to Kelcy and Jake’s apartment to have a little nerdy fun.

“Sanguosha”, or “Legend of the Three Kingdoms”, is based on actual Chinese historical events from 220-280 AD, where the Han Dynasty was broken into three parts because each ruler believed they should be ruler of all China. Jake thought that Rachel and I (especially me, though, since it’s been a few years since Rachel has been obsessed with the following games) would love the game since it is a mix between a few different nerdy games: magic, DND, and Mafia. Magic is a game where different decks of cards are built and battled with. DND is all about role-playing characters, taking on a strategy and sticking to it to win a battle. Mafia is a game that was played endlessly in high school with my friends and I, and I’ve even introduced to my kids, although I changed the name. It deals with hiding your role as an assassin, staying alive as a citizen/doctor/sheriff, and trying to either root out the assassins or get rid of the villagers. It works on poker faces, and defending your position – either truthfully or not – to others enough to be believable and not be voted out of the village.

Sanguosha takes a bit of each of these games and makes it easier and more fun for even the not-so-nerdy people (Kelcy and Chrissy have readily admitted that they are among this group). Using cards, each player is separated into either the Emperor/General, Villagers, or Spies, defending the Emperor – who is the only one allowed and required to let everyone know who they are at the start of the game – or trying to end the him/her. It’s a wonderfully fun game of deception and trying to figure out who is who, and quite easy to get into once you have the free English translation app that tells you what each card does. Everyone who has played it here has said that it’s a game to be played only once in a while, though, since if played right it can get quite real and ruin relationships for a couple of days – betrayal is a perfectly acceptable strategy in this game, especially when you’re the spy.

Of course that means that I’m going to go find out where to buy it today, since there are a few people (including me) at home that would love this game…

Sanguosha!