Playtesting: Inheritance and others

I recently started working on a prototype called Inheritance. What lead to this idea was a game Buddhima showed me. It was a game from Taiwan in which players had to close their eyes, and the sense of touch was used. I thought it would be interesting to try making a game that limited sight, and used touch. I had another prototype that did both, but it didn't seem interesting. It just felt like Werewolf. As I toyed further with the idea, I thought about how people in a coma could still hear the people around them talking, and sometimes they hear the truth and learn the true nature of these people. 

The backstory of Inheritance is something out of Hong Kong TV dramas. The rich business tycoon has just suffered a stroke, and he knows he needs to name a successor in his will. But who should he hand his business empire to? Is that person capable enough to run the business? Is the person loyal to the family business? Is that person his trueborn son or daughter, or in the case of possibly handing the reins to his wife, has she been faithful in their marriage? The tycoon has a secret goal, e.g. he may want to give the company to a person who is capable, and he doesn't care about any other factors. Each potential heir has a secret goal too. Most of the time they just want to be named successor. However sometimes there is someone who just wants to see the world burn. They win if the company is given to someone who is either disloyal or incompetent. 

The heirs have default traits - whether they are capable, loyal or trueborn (or faithful). For example the first wife is capable and faithful, but she is not loyal to the family business. However these default traits may not be the true traits, because of trait cards that are drawn by each heir. The default traits are only what appear on the surface.

An heir's trait cards are placed face-down before them. Heirs can peek at trait cards of other heirs, and openly discuss (*cough* accuse). They can reveal their own cards. They can reveal cards of other heirs. They can give cards to other heirs, potentially modifying their traits. Heirs will jostle to influence and expose one another's traits, and try to convince the tycoon to name them successor. Every round, the tycoon has only one opportunity to look at one trait card of one heir. After that he must write his will. At the end of every round, the tycoon rolls a die to see whether he suffers a second stroke. If he does, he... well... the game ends. The will is read, all goals and traits are revealed. The player or players who fulfil their goals win. 

I was pleasantly surprised by the reactions of my friends who playtested this with me. They loved the drama and the roleplaying. Whoever played the tycoon had to speak unintelligibly, and maybe drool a little. I am excited to work on this. It still has several problems that need to be fixed. I am only testing the four player game now. I need to get this to work at four players before I further develop it for other player counts. I hope this project goes far and eventually gets to a publishable state.  

ButtonShy Games is running their annual competition, with a theme of fear. I thought about using the Shaolin 18 Bronze Men. This would be perfect because ButtonShy makes 18-card games! The fear would be that of Shaolin apprentices facing the formidable 18 Bronze Men, a team of elite warrior monks who assess your martial prowess. This is fictitious and it is from Chinese martial arts novels. The real Shaolin Temple has a fighting technique with a similar name, but it is not the same thing. I playtested my prototype, but it didn't seem interesting. I'm not sure I will continue working on this. 

Jon's potential entry for this competition is more promising. And it is difficult to win. It is a cooperative game about not drawing the ghost card and stripping the deck until only the ghost card remains. It is a challenging puzzle. Players cannot communicate. You try to avoid having to draw a card without knowing what to expect, because it just might be the ghost.  

This is Haireey's racing game prototype. It has been through quite a number of versions. This is a game with some Magical Athlete vibes. I have played two of the most recent versions, and they are a little different. I like both. The earlier one is a bit more strategic. You need to decide which die roll ranges to bet on. Different ranges have different probabilities. Two dice are rolled. Safer bets mean a higher likelihood of moving your car, but it won't move far. If you go for riskier bets, a successful roll means moving far. 

The latest prototype has 3D printed buses by Hwa Siang. 

The the most recent prototype, the core movement mechanism is changed. Every turn only the active player gets to move, and everyone else tries to guess how far he will try to move. Everyone plays a card at the same time. The active player gets to move, but the movement range is reduced based on how many other players guess the correct number. 

The most fun part of the game are the unique player powers. Every player gets to use two powers and they all sound crazy. They are always on powers. One of my powers forces other players starting from  the same space to move backwards instead. 

Rasis brought a new version of his rice field game, Sawah Padi. I have played earlier versions of this, and it is nice to see how the design has improved. The grasshoppers, birds and scarecrows are all still here, but they are handled a little differently. 

The buttons are rice planted by players. If there is a grasshopper in a field, the rice score nothing. The same happens if there is a bird. However if you have both bird and grasshopper, the bird prefers eating the grasshopper and the rice is spared. Scarecrows defeat birds, but they don't help with grasshoppers. 

This is Red Chamber Rummy. It has found a publisher. The plan is Specky Studio will publish both this and Rebels of the Three Kingdoms. They will be part of a set, as both are based on well-known Chinese literary works. I am very happy with how Malaysian Holidays turned out. That was my first collaboration project with Specky Studio, with me being purely game designer and them taking the publisher role. My next two games will be illustrated by the same artist, Lim Chi Qing, and I eagerly look forward to her art. 

This photo above is a horrible hand. 0 (Jia Baoyu) is normally a useful card, but when you have four of them that's not helpful. This is not poker! 

I playtested with Allen and Yee Ling, and we tried the base game and both the main variants. The duplicate meld variant was fun. We made good use of the bonus for making melds that have already been played. At one point I played the 4th set of the 39 meld. A humble 1-point meld was now worth 4 points instead (see below)!

The storytelling variant is a little more complicated and there are more components to manage. I am still thinking about whether the fun is worth the effort. It is novel though. With this variant, every time you make a meld, you check it off a list. The melds in the game are chapters in Dreams of the Red Chamber. Checking off a meld means that chapter has been written. At specific points, e.g. the 4th chapter being written, or the 6th chapter, whoever plays that meld scores a bonus. These bonuses create opportunities and dilemmas for the players. If you have a not-yet-played meld, should you wait and only play it when it will score a bonus? But keeping cards in your hand also means you are potentially sacrificing an opportunity to make more melds. 

Fetz the Hungry Dragon

Jon said I’d probably like Fetz, because it’s a lying game. It is true that many of the games I design have some form of deceit. I like that kind of psychological play. I like having a bit of gaming the people in games and not only problem solving. Fetz is a game from Thailand and it is the best party game winner of the 2026 Thailand Board Game Awards. 

The game box unfolds to become the game board

In Fetz you are all feeding the dragon. Whatever you manage to feed will be worth points. When you feed, you declare what it is without showing anyone. Others can challenge you if they don’t think you are feeding the dragon what you say. If you are caught lying, the food is discarded, instead of being fed to the dragon. Successfully feeding the dragon means you get to keep the cards you play for game end scoring. If no one has challenged you, you keep those cards face down. If someone has challenged you and you have been truthful, the cards would have been revealed and they stay face up in front of you.

A big part of the game is stock price manipulation. There are five kinds of animals you can feed to the dragon. Each animal fed will be worth between 1 to 5 points at game end. During the game you keep track of how many of each type has been fed. The animal type that has been fed the most will be worth the fewest points. Tracking this is based on what have been successfully fed, and that includes sets of cards which players declare are a certain animal type but are not inspected by others. If a certain animal type looks like it will be worth a lot of points, you can attempt to feed several at one go, and declare it as another type. If no one inspects, you will have gotten away with scoring many points without devaluing that animal type. If you are always truthful about what you feed, while you do score points, you may also be devaluing the animal you are feeding. This is why there is incentive to lie. 

The game board is mainly for keeping track of how many times each animal has been fed to Fetz. There is also a reference sheet to tell you how many cards to use for different player counts. 

There is one animal type you can’t feed the dragon - snakes. Snakes are an interesting part of the game. Each is -2 points. They are considered jokers. If you declare three sheep and someone challenges you, only to find two sheep and one snake, you are considered to be truthful. You get to feed the two sheep, which means you keep them before you. The challenger takes the snake. If you use a snake but no one challenges you, you will take the snake yourself, and you must reveal the snake. When you play a snake, you hope someone will challenge you and take the snake away. Else you will be taking it. 

The game is played until the deck runs out. You can roughly keep count of the cards. Snakes are always revealed so you know exactly how many are left. For the other animal types, since unchallenged cards are kept face-down, you don't know for sure. 

I found the game to be mostly about stock price manipulation and only partly about lying. I wonder whether it was because other players were aggressive in challenging one another and catching one another, that I didn't feel I need to lie a lot. When they got caught often, their progress slowed, and I was able to go sure and steady. I tried to be truthful most of the time, and I could steadily collect animals. There is some chaos in how the animal values will develop. It is a collective thing. As the game progresses, you become more careful in managing the animal values, trying to keep animals of high value, or trying to devalue other animals so that yours will become higher valued. 

I didn't like the game as much as Jon predicted. It might be due to the way I played. I played in a careful, calculated way, as opposed to a daring and risky way. I didn't have to lie much. I can certainly imagine if the game was close, we would need to lie, and lie skilfully. You want to trick people into inspecting your cards which include snakes. You also want to sneak some cards through without devaluing them. The art makes the game look like a silly rowdy game, but it is not as simple as it looks. 

Golden Meeple

 

Yay, I have a Golden Meeple! This is my avatar on BoardGameGeek.com. I recently received a GeekMail informing me that I have a new achievement microbadge - the Golden Meeple. This is for reaching 10,000 likes. I've been on BGG since August 2003. I used to upload many files - my concise reference sheets. That is why I have that fourth microbadge, Herculean file uploader. I didn't realise getting 10K likes would take 23 years. In the age of social media, I would have expected likes to be much more abundant. At the time of writing, 3812 BGG users have this microbadge. The next level up is 100,000 likes. I don't think I'll live to see that! 

The Wolves

This is one very eye catching box cover! Ba-dum-tss! The game title is as literal as can be. You play a pack of wolves, and you compete with other wolf packs to be the dominant one on the map. You get to experience the life of a wolf, and all this is done using several clever mechanisms. 

The map is divided into regions, and there are five terrain types. Those six peripheral regions have tokens with quarter, half and full moons. These are the countdown mechanism in the game and one of the ways you score points. Certain actions like recruiting lone wolves to your pack, recruiting wolves from other players to your pack and stealing other players' dens advance the countdown. At certain points in the game these regions will score points based on who has the strongest presence. This aspect of the competition is related to the tempo of the game. 

The game has an interesting core mechanism, and it is related to the six double sided terrain cards every player has a set of. One of them has the same terrain on both sides, and that's the terrain your wolf pack is strongest in. In this example above I am the tundra wolf pack and I am strongest on snow fields. You get to perform two actions on your turn, and performing actions require that you flip between 1 to 3 terrain cards of the same type. All your actions are related to terrain. When you move your wolves, the terrain card you flip determines what kind of terrain they will move to. When you build a den, the terrain cards you flip determine where that den can be placed. It must also be next to one of your alpha wolves. If you don't have a certain terrain face-up, you can't do anything on such terrain. You need flip another card so that you get this terrain face-up. Or if the action you want to perform requires flipping two cards, and you only have one required terrain face-up, you are also stuck. This is the challenge the game poses. You have to plan cleverly what to do and what terrains to do them on, so that you eventually get to perform all the actions you want. You know what's on the other side of each of the terrain cards. 

Your player board is important. A big part of the game is engine building. Yes, I know it sounds weird to talk about wolf packs and engines at the same time. You start the game with many game pieces on your player board. As you perform certain actions, these pieces will be moved to the main map. This unlocks abilities and gives you bonuses. This also gives you points. When you build dens, you can increase the movement range of your wolves, you can increase the number of wolves you get to move per action, and you can increase the influence range of your alpha wolves (called their howl range). 

Wolves hunt in packs. There are five types of prey on the board, and you can score many points by hunting them. To hunt down a prey, you need to have your wolves on three different spaces surrounding the prey. 

This calendar is your countdown timer. Those wolf head coins represent lone wolves when on the map. If your alpha wolves howl near them, you get to recruit them to your pack. You get to place a new wolf on the map, and that coin is moved to this calendar. The moon icons indicate the times when specific regions will be scored. Other than lone wolves, the countdown can also be advanced by poaching wolves from other players and stealing their dens.  

There can be a mean streak in the game, because of how you can steal wolves and dens from other players. This is not easy to do though, and there are ways you can defend against it. To steal a wolf or a den from another player, the action is called Dominate. To do it, you need three terrain cards of the same type. This is only possible with your dominant terrain type. If your opponents want to avoid getting Dominated by you, they just avoid placing dens or regular wolves on your dominant terrain. Only regular wolves can be converted, not alphas. Another way to stay safe is to have two pieces on the same space. You are not 100% safe relying on terrain only. One type of bonus in the game is the terrain token. When you have such a token, you can spend it and treat it as any terrain card. This way, you can steal an opponent piece with 2 terrain cards which are not your dominant terrain, and 1 terrain token. You can even do it with 1 terrain card and 2 terrain tokens. Terrain tokens are hard to come by though, so you probably don't want to spend them like this. 

Right from the get go, you have many options. There are several different ways to grow your pack and score points. You can't do everything, and you will choose to focus on some. In one game I lost out in competing for area majority in the regions, but still did pretty well because I advanced in other areas. I like that when you advance in the various areas, they are not just a mechanism for scoring points. They do affect how effective your pack is. You do want to be able to mobilise more wolves, and to have them move further. This makes the game feel real and thematic. 

I was the blue wolf pack and many of my wolves and dens were stolen by others. Animals! 

I enjoyed The Wolves. It's a mid weight strategy game. It's thematic. It has a clever mechanism. You feel there are many things you want to do, and you are forced to prioritise. You have to plan smart and get your terrain cards on the right side. Scheduling your terrain flipping well to be able to achieve several goals through a few consecutive turns is rewarding. The engine building part of the game is satisfying. You grow your wolf family, and you stand proud at its head. 

I have maxed out my prey type and wolf speed. 

Why boardgame industry people are nice

This is my theory, and it might not be entirely correct, but I'm sure it is at least partially true. 

I have been a hobby gamer for many years, but I have only been in the industry side of it for about 5 years. I count from 2022, the year Dancing Queen was released. I have met many, many nice people in the industry. Game designers, game publishers, play organisers and so on. My theory is that for many of us this is a passion industry. We wouldn’t be doing this if we didn’t have enough passion for it. And that’s why I meet nice people. If you’re doing this out of passion, you are not desperately fighting for survival. You are not competing. You are not plotting to get rich out of this. You just enjoy the love of playing, and of spreading the joy. Maybe this is a naïve perspective. There are many people making a living from boardgames. To them it is life and death. So I consider myself lucky being a struggling wannabe game designer. I may never make it as a professional game designer. I may never be able to build a sustainable boardgame business that can feed my family, or even just me. But perhaps that’s okay. If someone plays my game today and it makes them laugh, it is a good day. 

I always have an urge to go around asking people, how do you make money from your boardgame business? I am curious because I can't get the numbers to work for me. At least not yet. A game designer is not a real job. This is the kind of thing I'd say, looking at my financial statements for Cili Padi Games. My little indie game design studio is not being sustained by profitability, but by passion. The financially responsible side of me says I am investing in a business that may grow into a stable source of passive income. The honest side of me says you can afford this hobby so just do what you want. My boardgame business is not a distraction or escape I need from a stressful full-time job. I do love my job and take pride in it. I am just greedy and I want to do all the things that make me happy.

At TOBE 2026 my wife Michelle met some of my boardgame industry friends for the first time. Out of the blue she said to me that Milk is such a kind person. She had just met Milk, and they didn't even have much time to chat. It was Michelle's comment that made me realise I do meet many nice and sincere people in the boardgame industry. Before TOBE 2026 Milk knew Michelle was going (and they had never met), and when she saw a small red chilli hairclip at a night market in Taipei, she decided to get it for Michelle. That was really thoughtful of her. 

I met Ming again at TOBE, and his wife accompanied him too. I can totally imagine our wives rolling their eyes at each other, and talking about how crazy their husbands are, and how they are humouring their husbands by coming along. 

I am grateful for my friends, and I wish them joy. And money, if they want more of it. 

Dokkoi from Japan

Dokkoi is a family business from Japan which makes boardgame accessories. They were at TOBE 2026 in Taipei, and I got this set of component trays from Kotaro-san as a gift. He's an amazing guy. He speaks both English and Chinese, and he learned to speak Chinese by himself when in Japan. 

This is a set of six trays

The material is a soft rubber, so the trays are flexible. 

Components from Puerto Rico

They make nice card holders. These were sold at TOBE 2026.

You can find their products on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/dokkoi_jp/)  and Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/Dokkoi.JP) 

5-Minute One Piece

I feel pressured when I write about 5-Minute One Piece, because I feel reading my post should not take more than 2 minutes. This is a real-time game that is played in 5-minutes when you have four players. With a different player count, the time limit is adjusted. Your goal is to defeat all enemies in the enemy deck before time runs out. 

Every player picks a character, and you take the deck of cards for that character. Every character has a special ability, and the deck also differs from other decks. There are some character-specific power cards in your deck. 

Some of the characters in the game

The game board is a pirate ship. You will play cards here. There will be four stacks of cards. You play cards here to match the topmost fight card of the fight deck. The fight deck is that deck of cards above the ship, each card showing four icons. This is a real-time game, and everyone has a hand limit of five cards. Whenever you play a card, you may immediately draw a new one. You can play cards from your hand to any slot on the ship at any time. You want to have the cards on the ship match the top fight card exactly. Then you get to claim the fight card. You claim fight cards to defeat the active enemy. You have a deck of enemy cards, and you always reveal the top card. Enemies require a certain number of fight cards to defeat. Some enemies have special powers. You win by defeating all enemies before time runs out. 

After you claim a fight card, the next one becomes visible. The cards you have played on the ship remain. If some of them match the new card, then you are lucky and you need less effort to claim the next fight card. 

Your personal deck is finite. If you run out, you don't reshuffle to form a new deck. If you don't have the right card, you can still play useless cards for the sake of drawing new cards, but your deck is a resource you try not to waste. 

That one on the right is a power card unique for your character. When you get such cards, you can place them on the table next to your character card, and you may use them at any time. They don't clog your hand. I should have five cards. When you are busy sometimes you forget to draw cards. 

This is the enemy boss for one of the scenarios. The game comes with many scenarios. Each scenario is a deck of enemies. Note the crosshairs icon on this boss. What this means is if you have a blue (chat) icon which matches the fight card, you can play an additional blue icon on the same spot to claim the fight card, without needing to match the other three icons. 

This is a real-time game so I can't take photos while playing. This was the end of a game. 

Some of the enemies. Some have special powers. 

These are some of the scenarios in the game. 

If you are reading this blog, this game is probably not for you. This is not a gamer's game. This is almost a children's game. This game is made for casual players and non-gamers. I can imagine people who like One Piece will be thrilled by this. It's very easy to play. It's short. So many elements of the TV series are present in the game. The game was originally 5-Minute Dungeon. I think it's great that it is turned into a One Piece game. It will attract people to play boardgames. 

I hope you finished reading this in less than 2 minutes.