In my work as a leadership trainer, I regularly collaborate with others in the industry - fellow trainers, coaches and training providers. Being in a business community called BNI, I regularly meet fellow members of the community and we help one another in our businesses. One of my friends Captain Fuaad has developed a training game based on Risk, and he asked several of us to help him playtest it. We did this at Bored boardgame cafe. It was a weekday afternoon so there was not much crowd. They let up take up a fair bit of space. The giant game board needed much space. I have my own giant boardgames which I use for training too. I am lucky to be able to integrate my passion of boardgames with my passion of helping others become effective leaders.
I can't recall the last time I actually played Risk. It was probably Risk Legacy that I played, and that might be more than 10 years ago.
It is an amazing feeling to see my games being promoted in a language I cannot read at all. Box & Brew Cafe of Thailand stocked some of my games. They bought from me in bulk when we met at the Asian Board Games Festival in the Philippines.
If you are in Thailand, you can find my games at Box & Brew Cafe!
We visited Xiaozhu's home and I took the opportunity to ask my friends to help playtest my Dream of the Red Chamber (红楼梦) game. One thing about this prototype that I did not deliberately plan for is the combination of 6 and 7. It's a thing that teenagers say now, which old timers find annoying. And also in Chinese (well, Cantonese) it can be misread as something... ahem... inappropriate. I have been thinking about changing the numbering system. Instead of 0 being the main character Jia Baoyu, maybe I should make him the 9. The reasoning is when I play sets containing him, I fan the cards in such a way that he will always be hidden from view, while the largest number of the set will be visible. Him being 0 means he is always the first card on the left, so he will always be hidden from view. How can the main character be always hidden from view? He should be the most visible. By making him the 9, whenever there is a set containing him, his whole card will always be visible. That is my rationale. Now that there is this coincidence of the 67 set, maybe I don't have to change it. Also if on the table I only see tons of Jia Baoyu, the game looks a little boring too.
I also played this prototype with Pey Ling, a teacher who specialises in studying and analysing Dream of the Red Chamber - the true expert. One thing she shared with me was that Xue Baochai, one of the two main female characters, was probably a little plump. In one particular scene after some light exertion she was already panting hard. Hey you learn something new every day.
Pey Ling's specialty is not just Dream of the Red Chamber. She studies and teaches all four of the major Chinese literary works. So we also played my Pilgrim Poker prototype, which has a Journey to the West theme. I showed her my Rebels of the Three Kingdoms prototype too.
Sun 17 May 2026 I was at Kinokuniya bookstore at Pavilion Damansara Heights demoing my games. Currently they stock Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves and Snow White and the Eleven Dwarfs. They invited me to do a demo session because they were running a promotion. Pavilion Damansara Heights is not a very busy mall, even on Sundays. Maybe it is because the place is spacious, the mall felt rather sparse to me. Kinokuniya itself did have some foot traffic. There were always people around. Most people didn't stop to examine the games, whether mine or others at the same table. They just took curious glances. Some did stop to ask, and I gave them brief overviews of the games. Very few wanted to sit down to play. I mostly just showed the game components and explained briefly how the games worked. Some were happy to buy after listening to the overview. Ironically none of those who sat down to play bought the games.
Boardgames is still very much a niche hobby in Malaysia. This afternoon at Kinokuniya reminds me of that. At boardgame events, yes, we attract people who are already interested, and we get the impression that hey there are so many fellow boardgamers in Malaysia. Half a day at a regular bookstore reminds me that we as the boardgame industry still have a lot of work ahead of us to promote the hobby and to create awareness. Although it was a little depressing to be idle for much time, especially compared to when I booth at boardgame events, I am still happy that I'm doing a little bit in introducing tabletop games to the public. Keep hustling!
I did a five player game of Heat on BGA. This is such an enjoyable game, and I'm happy that it is doing well. It has many expansions. I don't own a copy, but if I were new to the hobby, I would have purchased one.
I'm super happy to be assigned green, my favourite player colour.
I'm don't have a paid account on BGA so my colour assignment is random.
This part of the board is challenging - several consecutive corners with low speed limits. We played with some expansions - just a few extra rules here and there. In some ways Heat is a push-your-luck game. How far are you willing to push your car to get that extra bit of distance by paying the price of clogging your hand with heat cards? Movement is often deterministic, only occasionally you roll a die, and usually you are the one deciding when to take the risk. The decision of whether to discard cards and hope to draw better ones is not always easy to make. This game should be in some hall of fame.
I did a two-player game of Molly House with Han. This time I was pretty determined to help the mollies (i.e. LGBTQ community) survive and gain acceptance. They have never survived in all the games I played. This time I approached the game like a cooperative game. I tried to keep track of the cards in the gossip pile. I worked hard to help the community score points. As the game progressed, Han outscored me by a lot. I was arrested for indecent behaviour and I had a major indictment which might lead to a death sentence. My resolve shattered, and I decided to betray my comrades. I became an informer. Eventually the community was infiltrated and shut down by the authorities. Han was hanged for sodomy. I won the game, but I felt so dirty. Aaarrgghh!
Having played several games of Molly House, I now conclude that it doesn't quite work for me. It is a design I admire for how bold it is, and I like the premise. I don't like the memory element. Because the game mechanisms are unusual, I find the game hard to learn and to play. It feels like a lot of work. After having played several games, I still don't feel I know how to play it.
I have been enjoy my ongoing plays of Race for the Galaxy with Jon and Yasmin. When I open up my browser tab of BGA games, this is usually the game I most look forward to to take the next turn.
I completed a game of Signorie on BGA. I have played this before but I have forgotten most of the rules. I had to relearn. I continue to suffer the consequences of my own laziness when playing games on BGA. I do play the tutorials, and I download the rulebooks in case I need to refer to them. However since BGA handles most of the game mechanisms, I usually end up being too lazy to learn the game rules properly. I just click without fully understanding the consequences of my actions. It's not the fault of BGA. It's entirely mine.
I read up my previous blog post about Signorie, and one thing I did differently this time was I tried to set up many bonus actions in the early game. Investing in this gave me extra actions throughout the game. I didn't do as badly as the first time I played the game. I didn't do particularly well either, since I didn't really understand some parts of the game.
Signorie is a decent game and I should learn it properly.
I might be losing the appetite for more complex games. Many of them feel convoluted and tiresome. 10 years ago I would not have imagined myself saying this. Heavy Eurogames is supposed to be the pinnacle of boardgaming for me.
Splotter Games announced Bailiff of Boscoop. For many years I had this rule: when Splotter releases a game, buy it. Don't wait and see. Just buy it. I like almost all their games. But now I am discarding this rule. I am certainly interested to try the game, but I might not buy it. I bought Horseless Carriage. It is a good game, but I have only played it once. Till now I have not made time to play it again.
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