Gone Cardboard: A Trio of Asian Imports from Z-Man Games

Since its release of Fairy Tale in 2005, Z-Man Games has continued to publish English-language versions of games from Asian designers, such as R-Eco, Owner’s Choice, Masquerade, Traders of Carthage and Master of Rules. Now Z-Man has three “new” games in its 2010 line-up, two from Taiwanese designer Ta-Te Wu – Mountain of Inferno and Tien Zi Que – and one from Japanese designer Takashi Ishida – Magical Athlete.

Magical Athlete, which was sold by Japon Brand at Spiel in 2007, is a racing game between fantasy characters. Before the races can start, however, each player must draft a team, with players revealing athletes one by one and placing them in a buying queue, with the most recently revealed athlete costing four coins, the next in line three coins and so on down to the freebie. If all five spots are filled on your turn, you must buy an athlete, taking the free one if you have no coins remaining; otherwise you can pass on hiring an athlete.

Once the teams are set, you complete four or five races, with each player simultaneously revealing her athlete at the start of the race. The races themselves are a die-rolling affair – except that each athlete has a special power that changes the rules of movement in some manner: the ghoul moves on a 1 no matter which player rolled it, the priest can aid the athlete at the back of the pack which also helps him, the medusa freezes an athlete sharing the same space, and so on. First and second place in each race pay out, and whichever team scores the most wins.

Magical Athlete was for 4-5 players in its original version – I’m not sure whether the Z-Man version will differ – and the game will be released in English sometime in 2010.

Tien Zi Que is a simplified Mahjong game for two players using a deck of 54 cards with four suits (1-9 in each suit), four directions (three each East, North, South and West), three Jokers and three Red Dragons. On a turn, a player draws from the deck or discard pile, then either discards or creates a set of three cards, whether a triple or a sequence. The player keeps one of these cards for scoring and discards the other two. When a player has five sets, she wins the round and scores points based on the five cards she kept. The player with the most points after four rounds wins.

Mountain of Inferno, for 2-4 players, uses a card deck with 36 disciples – the disciples coming in four suits valued from -3 to 3 – as well as 16 special cards. To start a round, with each game lasting 3-4 rounds, you create an array of 4, 6 or 8 disciples depending on the number of players; deal each player three cards; then take turns placing your Xuanzang token on one of the disciples. On a turn, a player can:

• Play a disciple card, lining it up next to existing cards.
• Play 1-2 Buffalo Demon Kings to move any player’s Zuanzang token.
• Play a Princess Iron Fan to move a disciple.
• Play 1-2 Red Boys to discard a disciple, as long as the group stays connected.

After playing 1-2 cards, you can move your Xuanzang token one space. If any player’s Xuanzang is now at the intersection of a row of four adjacent differently-suited disciples and a column of four adjacent differently-suited disciples, or the deck is empty, the round ends. All players add the values of up to four adjacent differently-suited disciples in the row and column where their Xuanzang lies, with the player whose Xuanzang ended the round scoring the card on which it lies twice. The player with the largest score after 3-4 rounds wins the game.

Both Tien Zi Que and Mountain of Inferno retail for $10 and are scheduled to be released in March or April 2010. These games have been added to Gone Cardboard; rule links for both games can be found there.

Comments: