How to Play

Part 1 - Basics

Hello! Welcome to the guide on how to play SanGuoSha! This guide will assume you are physically playing the cards. If you are playing online, you will find that most of the steps will be performed for you.

Role

At the start of the game you must be given a role card. 

Figure 1  Role cards

Place the role cards face down and mix them around, every player will then grab one card each. Table 1 illustrates the number of role cards used depending on the number of players.

Table 1  Role cards distribution

Once everyone has received a role card, you may view your own role, make sure to keep it a secret and place it face down at front of you. Figure 1 shows the role cards. If you have the lord card, turn it face up for everyone to see throughout the game, you have the most important role in the game, your life will determine the outcome of the match!

  

Lord 

As the sole character in the game, not only do you need to withstand the attacks of the rebels you must also determine who the spies are amongst the chaos.

Winning condition: Be alive when all rebel and spies have died.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rebel

As a rebel, you must do whatever it takes to kill the lord.

Winning condition: When the lord dies and the spy didn't win.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Loyalist 

As a loyalist you must protect the lord, your objective is identical to the lord, kill all rebel and spies.

Winning condition: The lord wins

 

   

 

 

 

  

Spy 

As a spy your role is to be the sole survivor, you must kill both rebels and loyalists first and finally 1 v 1 the lord. If the lord dies when there are rebels and loyalists still alive it is considered a loss for you and victors would be rebels even if all rebels are dead.

Winning condition: When all players except the lord has died, win the 1 v 1 against the lord.

 

Hero

After everyone has determined their roles it's time to select your hero, each hero has different abilities and health. Each player can only select one hero and you are stuck with your selected hero for the duration of the game.

Figure 2  Card Details

 

The lord goes first and gets to choose from two face down random heroes given to him/her from the hero deck or heroes who has lord abilities (lord heroes) who can be distinguished by their gold frames, which include: Liu Bei, Cao Cao, Sun Quan, Zhang Jiao, Liu Shan, Cao Pi, Yuan Shao and Dong Zhuo. After the lord has chosen his/her hero, the hero must be placed face up for all to see. Figure 2 gives an explanation of areas on the card.

The rest of the lord heroes are placed back into the hero deck and reshuffled. Each player are handed three hero cards face down. Each player will then choose one hero and when everyone is ready, reveal them together.

Health

The health card determines your hero's health and it goes down with each damage you take. Figure 3 shows a health card.

Figure 3  A five health card

After the heroes are revealed grab a health card equivalent to your hero's health. The lord gets an extra health on top of the health of his/her hero only if there are a total of five or more players.

Game Begins

Shuffle the card deck and everyone is given four cards each face down at the start of the game. Your cards are for your eyes only as are all cards drawn from the card pile.

San Guo Sha is a turn based card game and the lord has the privilege to go first.

Player Phase

Every player who is having his/her turn has to go through six phases, these phases are always in order starting from:

1. Start of Turn Phase

This simply signifies that it is your turn and has no effect on most people. Only certain heroes have abilities that can be triggered in this phase.

2. Judgement Phase

If you have a judgement card on you, you must do judgement. Remember that judgements are done in the order of the latest one first. If you don't have any judgement, skip this phase.

3. Drawing Phase

Very simple, draw two cards from the card pile. You cannot willingly skip this phase.

4. Action Phase

In this phase you are allowed to use the cards in your hands. You can attack someone, eat peaches, use a tool card and equip yourself. Remember under normal circumstances, you can only attack once per turn. Once you cannot use any more cards or used all cards or have no cards left you enter the next phase.

5. Discard Phase

In this phase you must discard hand cards until your current hand is equivalent to your current health. If you have no hand cards or have less cards than your current health, skip this phase. You cannot willingly discard extra cards.

6. End of Turn Phase

Similar to the start of turn phase this signifies the end of a person's turn. Also has no effect on most people. Only certain heroes have abilities that can be triggered in this phase. Once you have ended your turn, it is the turn of the person to the right of you. San Guo Sha is always played in an anti-clockwise direction.

Death

When a player has lost his last health, all abilities and effects are paused and the player is considered to be in "Brink of Death" state. Starting from the person who caused the damage the brink of death player asks for a peach from every player onwards going anti-clockwise until all players have been asked. When no one is willing to save the brink of death player, he/she is announced to be dead and must reveal her role card.

Reward

Lord

When the lord dies the game is finished, the victor is determined by the winning conditions.

Rebel

Whoever kills the rebel gets to draw three "bounty" cards. It is important as a rebel to not let this bounty fall into the enemy team's hands, sometimes it's more beneficial for a rebel to kill another to safeguard this bounty.

Loyalist

When the loyalist dies there is no reward, however if it is the lord who dealt the killing blow, he/she will be punished and must discard all cards (when I use all or any card I'm referring to both hand and equipment cards) except pending judgements. 

Spy

When the spy dies there is no reward or punishment.

That's about it when it comes to the basics of San Guo Sha, hope everyone found it useful!

Click here to go to Part 2 - Distance