Description

This is a board game based on the idea of "don't open the textbook at dusk", four modern college students (rich kid, school sister, cat girl, silent boy) vs. five ancient people (Mulan, Qin Shi Huang, Mencius, Pu Song Ling, Zhuang Zi), using the Chinese and Western humanities classics to battle.

The game includes map exploration + card battles + camp rivalry, helping each other or framing each other, it's just a matter of thought.

There are 36 debate cards (a collection of 36 different classical ideas from the East and West!), 5 types of 30 disobedience cards, 9 types of 18 contingency cards, 5 Demon King cards, 4 player character cards, 4 summon cards, 15 Demon King partner cards, and a unique triangle map card designed to match the map for exploration.

—description from the publisher (translated)

Game Worldview

Four college students accidentally open the "old Chinese textbook" and fall into a mysterious space.
They are confronted with the obsession kingdom created by five Chinese ancients!
Repeatedly think and reason with the ancient people who are trapped in their obsessions, so that the discourse has power and the words become weapons!

?Game Features
Map Exploration + Card Battles

At the beginning of the game, players will first decide their roles, and then explore the map to collect card resources. While deciding on a character, a "summon card" will also be drawn. The player who draws a summon card becomes a demon king summoned by the Ancients and fights against other players secretly.

When a player reaches the end of the map, the map exploration phase will end and the identity of the Demon King will be revealed.
The next step is to enter a one-on-many card battle, where other players have to join forces to defeat the player who has become the Demon King.
Will the player who becomes the Demon King be inspired by the values of the ancients and win?
Or will the player with modern thinking and debating ability be able to overrule the ancients?

Here comes the battle of ancient and modern arguments!
Debate Card: The wisdom of Eastern and Western classical thought will become the basis of your debate.
The "no contest" card: the slippery slope, the face ......, the modern way of "discussing" things, will become your best trick.
The unexpected event card: in the process of exploring the map, the effect card will be randomly drawn, and you have to sense the direction of the wind in case of emergency!

Five Demons, Five Levels
The five demon lords and five levels are drawn by ???, the artist who won the 2021 Japan International Manga Award, and have both ancient and modern aesthetics.

Mulan
In this game, you designate the size and wind direction of your own card.
Defiant card: 5 effects and one more "symbolic struggle".
Debate card: 3 cards exclusive to Mulan + 4 cards drawn blindly from the debate card pile

Emperor Qin Shi Huang
Invalidate the opponent's disobedience card once.
Disobedience card: 5 effects and 1 more "facepalm" card
Debate cards: 3 cards exclusive to Qin Shi Huang + 4 cards drawn blindly from the debate card pile

Mencius?I am doing this for you
Replace a card played by your opponent with a blank card.
Defiant card: 5 effects and 1 additional "Karma Blast".
Debate cards: 3 exclusive cards of Mengmu + 4 cards drawn blindly from the debate card pile

Pu Songling
You may replace a card from your hand once after you open a duel.
Defiant card: 5 effects and 1 more "Slip" card
Debate card: 3 cards exclusive to Pu Songling + 4 cards drawn blindly from the debate card pile

Zhuangzi?Northern Meditation with Fish
1. 1 point of blood is returned at the end of each match
2. not take any damage once
Defiant card: 5 effects and 1 additional "Sleep" card
Debate cards: 3 copies of "Zhuangzi" + 4 blind draws from the debate card pile

Explore the map with the topic!
The map of "Call of Ancient Fighters" combines five issues: gender roles, authority, parenting styles, media literacy, and philosophy of life.

In order to create a richer "educational and fun" experience, both the map design and the play style are intended to combine both the issues and the player's own reading experience.

For example, in the "Mulan" map, we designed three special exploration points: jeans, car keys, and pens. Players need to explore these points and open the map card before they can successfully summon Mulan to appear.

These three exploration points correspond to the "gender roles" we want to convey in this map.
Jeans symbolize the imagination of women who no longer have to conform to a specific feminine temperament.
The fountain pen represents the power of women to speak, to argue, to write, and to enter the public sphere.
The car key is a means of transportation, signifying the independence and mobility of women.

While novels and comics focus more on the plot, the board game is based on the concept of classic humanistic sentences, focusing on the four protagonists, who enter the realm of the Ancients' obsessions and need to defeat them to regain their freedom. The tabletop game is a combination of two modes: map exploration and card battles, plus role-playing and camp battles.

The five ancients (five maps) represent the following issues: Mulan (gender roles), Qin Shi Huang (authority), Mencius (parenting style), Pu Song Ling (media literacy), and Zhuang Zi (philosophy of life).

The cards are divided into two types, one is the "debate cards" which are based on sentences from Chinese humanities classics and Western contemporary thought classics, divided into three main parts: rational, emotional and value, on the one hand, and on the other hand, the cards are played in the way of point size comparison. The second is the "disobedience to battle cards" that use concepts commonly found in modern slang to trigger events or effects, such as: karma detonation, facepalm, slippery slope, etc.

—another description from the publisher (translated)