This week Mr. Wizard was met in the dungeon by Michael and Isabel.  Alas, they could not unseat the reigning champion Grand Wizard.  Here is a short note from the seemingly unbeatable wizard.

Ladies and gentlemen of the Dungeon Club,

Be strong, smart and aggressive.

I, Mr. Wizard, have beaten all the challengers so far; however, you didn’t make me feel excited——You are too weak!

I want a real challenge!

Come on, you wizards, fight with me!

Sincerely,

Mr. Wizard. R.

Hello, young guild members.

This week many of you, especially the sophomore English majors, take a major national examine, which is meant to evaluate your language skills.  But while most of you were studying for one test, some members of our guild faced a great and terrible test, a rumble in the dungeon.

Wednesday was a day of reckoning, a day of considerable importance… as far as Wiz Warring is concerned.  Mr. Wizard Rick was met by fellow spell casters June, Tony, and Michael.

The battles were intense, hard fought, and so exhilarating that I should have taken notes, but honestly I was so caught up in the action that I could hardly stay in my chair.  I wish I could give a blow-by-blow report.  June won by dunking two treasures.

Note the fallen Grand Wizard trophy in the foreground.

Yes, tis true, Mr. Wizard was numbered among the losers in this game.  However, it was not a title match.  Still Mr. Bill looks pretty shocked.

Then we had a new comer join us in the dungeon.  She came and watched the first game and jumped in on the second under the tutelage of Mr. Wizard.

Angela makes her move under the tutelage of the Grand Wizard.

She caught on quick and, backed by Mr. Wizard, played one of the most exciting games of Wiz War yet played in our school.

Isabel also joined in to spectate… it was really that good… like watching a movie.  Again, as so often happens in this game, Tony was mere steps away from winning when the entire game shifted against him.  Michael with his magical noxious Stinkstone stood on his home base and did not allow him to enter.  Then it seemed Michael was within two turns of winning when Angela and Tony ganged up on him.  Angela laid a telepad on the dungeon floor, which allowed Tony to teleport next to Michael and brutally eliminate Michael’s Wizard by plunging a sword in his heart.  After that, it was a race to home base with Tony coming in first.

Congratulations on the well fought victory!

The brutal, victorious Tony!

Thursday came.  The challengers June and Tony sat side-by-side across from Mr. Wizard.  The game started quietly.  A strange, mystical hush hovered over the game table.  My attentions were divided as I was dungeon master for another game played by Teddy, Michael, and last weeks challenger, Isabel.  In that game, Michael had horrible luck–he drew three trap cards in a row.  When I asked who’d shuffled the deck, he raised his hand.  And shortly he fell as Isabel and Teddy each grabbed one of his treasures and beat it home.

As I checked back on the grudge match, I found Mr. Wizard had also been hit with a trap card, taking four points of damage from a radioactive meteor.  But he didn’t seem to mind. And shortly he triumphed in repelling his challengers, retaining his title of Grand Master and his name of Mr. Wizard.

Isabel watches as Tony approaches a win. She quietly awaits her next opportunity to face Mr. Wizard...

However, across the room, a former challenger of his was making her own bid for the title.  Isabel electrified her remaining opponent forcing him to lose a turn (a lesson Mr. Wizard had taught her the hard way), and giving herself ample time to step on home.  Although she could have simply won, she did not miss the opportunity to sick her minions on her rival.  Her Ghoul and her Black Cat clawed at her shaken foe as she slipped back to her home base and won the right to challenge Mr. Wizard again next Thursday.

The War was on–Wiz War that is, a rumble in the dungeon–as Mr. Wizard met his first challenger, Isabel.  Mr. Wizard Rick decided to try for a two out of three match.

Watching these two battle it out I started to understand how their personality traits were demonstrated in their playing style.  Rick is an Accounting major.  He is calculating, precise, and very good at managing his resources.  Isabel is quiet. And I’ve learn through watching her play that doesn’t mean she’s timid.  She’s sly and quick witted.  She loves to block passage through the dungeon.  I can imagine her giving people the cold-shoulder or the silent-treatment to great effect.  In short, it was a great match up for a game.

The first game went to Mr. Wizard.  I could see his determination was put to the test.  In the end, he blasted Isabel with a lightning bolt causing her to lose a turn.  Then he play a Speed card, which allowed him to take two turns in a row.  So with three turns, he grabbed up Isabel’s second treasure and waltz home.

The second game was nearly lost.  Isabel’s sly use of a Stumble Stick, which caused Rick to be reduced to moving only one space during his next turn, and her use of spells that blocked passage through the dungeon made it so Mr. Wizard almost couldn’t go anywhere.  While she picked locks and passed through walls using the portable hole.  But Mr. Wizard whipped out a Stone Walk card and finally got around all of Isabel’s  blockages.  Then, when she was just one move away from winning, he used a Drop Object card to make her drop his treasure.  He did a snatch and grab that would have made a petty convenience store thief envious.

I was reluctant but forced to call time as we had to get to English Platform.  So Mr. Wizard Rick retained his title as Grand Master.  But Isabel hasn’t kept quiet.  Here’s a letter she wrote after the match.

Dear Mr.Wizard,

Actually, I am not willing to call you “Dear” Mr. Wizard because you are a tricky guy.

Here’s what I want to say.  Tricky guy, don’t be happy so early!  Our game has not ended. Last time, I totally didn’t try my best to fight with you. Now, I swear, you will become the loser forever.

I analyzed our last game. I just stole your treasure and did not fight with you. It was my biggest fault, I admit.

Remember the moment I stole your second treasure?  I whacked you with my stumble stick and you couldn’t move.  You just stayed in a small square.  You were so worried but had no better way to go.  Ha ha!  You were helpless. What were you thinking?  That you could just walk up to me and attack?  You were wrong! I had 11 life points. You had no chance to kill me in so short a time.  It was a PITY that I only needed one turn, just one turn, and I would have won.  Then you got that Drop Object Card and made me drop your treasure. Then you picked it up and ran.  What kind of wizardry is that?  You’re a juggler of cards. You’re just lucky time ran out.

Tricky Mr. Wizard, I warn you–To defeat you is my duty.

Isabel, Mistress Wizard to be.

And it wouldn’t be right not to allow Mr. Wizard himself have the last word.

Dear Sneaky Girl.

“Tricky guy,” I like this nick name, but I won’t use it.  Call me, Mr. Wizard.  That’s the rule.

You’re afraid of me aren’t you?  Last time, you just ran, and tried to escape me, right?  But I have to say, wise choice.  If you had fought with me, you would’ve lost immediately.  I guess you didn’t understand the situation clearly.  Even if you could have killed me, I had a Clone Card, which could regenerate me with 7-life-points.  In words, I had 20 (13 +7) points while you just had 11 points left.

One other thing I want you to know–using Drop Object Card was part of my plan, so I felt nothing when you used your stumble stick.

Next time you’re in MY dungeon.  You better run, or I’ll do more than blast you with a light bolt and make you lose one turn.

Mr. Wizard R.

Letter to Poppy,

This week, when we played Wiz War, you hurt me deeply. I felt so frustrated that I couldn’t go to sleep that night.  I only had one step and I was gonna be the winner. I never felt so close to winning before. And then you, you cooperated with Jeremy and fought with me. You are all tricky guys!

At the very beginning, my strategy was successful, which made me feel optimistic. I got the apprentice card, Harry Potter, who acts like a normal wizard who helped me stop you from stealing my treasure. Unfortunately I drew three trap cards, which brought my life points down to 5. You stole one of my treasures. I may have disappointed you deeply because I used the repossession card and took my treasure back.

Then Jeremy created an illusion wall, which gave me a lot of trouble to steal his treasures. To make matters worse, I drew a trap card again, everyone had to throw all the cards in our hands away and draw some new cards. As a result, my points were reduced to 4.

Luckily I got two number cards, I was so excited. It gave me hope of win. You and Jeremy broken my dream cruelly. When I used the first number card, Jeremy got a sword and stopped me from taking his treasure back to my board. Then you set up the time bomb near me.  With my life points down to 1, I had no choice but ran away as fast as I could. Finally, I died because Jeremy gave me a power thrust.

Next time I need draw more counteraction cards to defend myself. I’ll not just focus my attention on attacking. Hey, this time I felt the feeling that was I gonna be the winner. The next moment I became the loser. You and Jeremy, I’ll combat you next time. See you next Wednesday!

Good luck!

Stefanie

Stefanie,

What can I say to you? As a sincere friend of yours, I must say you throw too much into the battle. But, but, but you’re not the wizard, you’re still alive, ok?  And I want to remind you Jeremy killed you, not me!  Just stop complaining about me. If you still insist on paying me back… ok, I’ll be there. And next time I’ll show you the real me!

Do you remember you used one card to steal the treasure I spent so much effort to get? That was quite abominable, and my time bomb caused you no harm but you always take that seriously. I’ll write it down in my book!

I think this game whet the fire of our enthusiasm. I see an instinct in us here, we’re all aggressive. Next time, the flames of war will rage through the dungeon.

God bless you and see you then.

Poppy

Greetings Guild members, yes you my students, players of the Sanya College Wiz War group.

In a private session Monday, a grudge match between Tony and Rick settled a week’s dispute of who would be our first Grand Wizard.  They’d battled for the position earlier in the week with a draw, each scoring by winning a game.

Due to school responsibilities they were unable to finish the fight Thursday.  So in secret, on Monday, they once again entered the stone dungeon and fought it out.

I wasn’t able to watch the entire match–I had a grudge of my own to settle.  June came along and played a warm-up game with all four of us.  As I was making my way toward a win when June rearranged the dungeon with a powerful spell.  The new layout led to her quick and decisive victory.  She was able to win even with Rick and Tony hot on her heals, seeking to destroy her.  Here are a few pics from her winning position.

As Dungeon Master and June’s teacher, I have to admit I was proud of her wizardly use of the cards and strategy.  But then again, when a student believes she can defeat the teacher that’s when the hardest lessons of all must be taught.  As June’s teacher I decided I had to take her to school, which I did… twice.  But even still, she played so well that I wasn’t able to watch the grudge matches between Rick and Tony.  As time permitted, they had decided on a 2 out of 3 series of games.  Rick took the first game.

I finished up schooling June in time to catch the end of Rick and Tony’s second game.  They’d clearly left off trying to win by absconding with each other’s treasures and went for the kill.  Rick had 9 life points left, and Tony was surviving with just 6.  Rick had a skeleton on the board that he was using to haunt and taunt Tony.  Tony’s hand was woefully lacking in useful attack spells or counteractions.  And that’s when Rick decided it was time to cash in on a Daylight Savings Time card that had stripped him of a turn earlier in the game but allowed him to take two turns in a row.  So he put his cards face down on the table, moved his skeleton to a square adjacent to Tony’s Wizard, moved his own wizard to the same square.  For two turns, he punched, and the skeleton clawed.  It was a beat down–dungeon style–something like a gang initiation.  I hadn’t seen anything like that since the “printer beat down” scene from Office Space.

After that, Rick won the Grand Wizard title, the Trophy, and the right to be called “Mr. Wizard” by all the Wiz War players. That is until Thursday, when he has to defend his title against anyone who wins this Wednesday…  that means you.

Here’s a picture of our first Grand Wizard, Rick, proudly displaying his hard won trophy known as Mr. Bill.

Congratulations Mr. Wizard.  Magical Luck to you on Thursday.

My “American Cultural Studies” class has become an overnight success.  I had students calling me asking where and when we can play.  Maybe it’s because most teachers don’t bust out a game as a tool for learning, or maybe it’s because it’s a foreign game that these students never dreamed could exist, or maybe it’s because Wiz War is absurdly cool and they love the idea of blasting their classmates with fireballs and lightning bolts or stealing treasure, destroying walls, and creating giant bats.  Could be any or all of these things.  Here are two reports from students… and a few pictures.

I played the Wiz War this afternoon the first time, and I want to say, “I love this game!”

Wiz War is a big game, not only does it have many play cards, but it’s full of many kinds of imaginary magic spells. So it will never be boring. I made a strategic mistake at the beginning of Wiz War. I tried to get June’s treasures hastily, and I got one. The cost was I got in furious combat with June and Tony.

I lost around 6 life points. I became their chief target. Jeremy got a treasure easily during the combat time, losing almost nothing. I think it gave him a base to win the final victory. Later, we got another 8 players.

One guy impressed me because he tried every card in his hand to hurt the wizard next to his, but failed at last. It is hard to win the game, that is true, but it is also hard to do anything against the wizard next to yours—–you have 7 chances.

And Tony returned to the stone dungeon this week for another wizardly war.  He doesn’t want to talk about it, but a meteorite crashed through the dungeon ceiling and he fell in the crater.  It caused 4 points of damage and mutated his hand… luckily he could hold 8 cards with his big green paw.  I felt sorry for him, but it didn’t keep Stefanie from smashing a wall on top of him after he stole one of her treasures.

Here’s what Tony had to say.

Our journey continued with another two episodes of our Wiz War, as usual, after lunch at the office on Wednesday and Thursday. But this time was sort of distinct, as we were joined by some more participants to play the game together and JT guided us as our mentor in the game without participating in the game. And here I wanna describe a little bit more about the one on Thursday.

This time, we used six sectors instead of four. I felt pretty optimistic at the beginning of the game because I got some good cards and props in hand that enabled me to set obstacles and barriers to the other players. What baffled me was we drew very few number cards, which I considered fairly useful. If I had been able to draw some number cards, I might have been able to use them to walk more steps or do more damage or create longer lasting spells.

Actually we were about to take part in another activity later that day, so we had to finish the game before three o’clock in the afternoon. Since we each got our own items, magic stones as well as tons of props which enabled us to set barriers to the rest players, I perceived it would be a little bit tough to generate a winner. Later, Amelia was regarded as a prospective winner, because she had one treasure in her sector and the only thing she needed to do was carry the second treasure to her home base. Amelia was just three spaces away from winning when a card she drew that teleported the treasure out of her hand. The situation had been dramatically changed. Nobody was considered to win the game because of the limited time, but we did have a lot of fun in the exciting course. I guess everybody felt the same way.

Looking forward to our new journey.

And from our Amelia who nearly won…

I have to say that the game is really fantastic. I enjoyed it this afternoon. I almost won. What a pity!

Okay, I want to describe the layout of today’s game.  There are six sections in total. Each person gets one color Wizard. I didn’t want the yellow wizard because it had bad luck yesterday, so I chose the pink one even if she is ugly. But it turned out to be the right choice.

The game begins. At first, I am not able to figure it out. But I am eager to learn it. After six turns, I got so many objects, like SMELLY SOCK, A BLACK BAT, SKELETON, LARGE ROCK, DOOR-A & DOOR-B, and ROSE BUSH. I really liked my little boy—a black bat. He was so cute, especially his head. Unfortunately, my little boy died by a cursed card. It broke my heart.

On the other hand, when I got a smelly sock, I had to put it where my wizard was because that sock belonged to me?! I don’t like smelly socks! Smelly socks make me sick. But in the game, it’s okay.

Then, in order to protect my treasure, I use the large rock as a barrier, which I placed on the one side of my treasure. My wizard went to grab someone else’s treasure. And under the help of the door A-B, I took the treasure home successfully.

But when I intended to get back again with another treasure, I suddenly got a trap card, which made me drop my new treasure. I felt depressed. I almost won.

During the first week of classes June asked me to come up with an “activity” to help my office hour students study English.  I gathered from her suggestion that she wanted to try something new and exciting.  About this same time, I was working on building styrofoam castles for my son’s Lego’s guys.  And I stumbled upon Hirstarts.com which led me to the discovery of Wiz War.

I was captivated and wanted to try the game out… so I decided to try it out on my students.  Hey, they could learn in the course of having fun.  How American is that?!

I started right away to build the game.  The game is out of print so people who want to play it have to build their own set.  There are a few people who’ve posted the essentials online, and that was a great help in getting started.

I also wanted to try my hand at customizing some of the pieces as an example to my students about the uniqueness of this micro-culture… that’s my excuse for playing… and my kid thought it was awesome.

So game day finally came, and we played.  As a dutiful teacher, I assigned the students to write a short informal journal entry about the experience.  This is going to be a weekly thing, so they can see how the game play as well as their journal writing progresses.

*There’ll be more action pictures next time… we couldn’t get the session pictures off the phone this time.

This is what Tony had to say.

A few days ago Jeremy, June, a new friend Johnny and I played a fantastic game introduced by JT, called Wiz War.

The game began on a Wednesday afternoon after lunch at the lovely office with a pretty good air conditioner. Firstly, here I gotta thank JT for preparing all the materials needed in the game on his own, otherwise it would have been tough for us to deal with that elaborate stuff.

Actually, I never had an opportunity to know this brand new game before, even though it’s been actually launched for a long time. So I feel pretty excited about the game that is sort of uncommon here in China .

This game requires two to six people to play together. We can win the game by either getting treasure from our opponents while protecting our own treasures or just eliminating all the other players in wizardly battle. We got our own tiny little persons and treasure, and the cards we drew would tell us what’s next. So that’s exactly the very alluring part of the game, because we never know what actions we could take next turn. We got different types of cards, ranging from “attack” to “magic stone” (which I like very much). June was rather aggressive when it came to the game. She was keen on attacking. Moreover, Johnny had tons of “magic stone” cards in hand, which gave him lots of benefits. Not surprisingly, Johnny won the game at last. We were all happy for him, meanwhile, we were happy for ourselves, as we finally got started to get to know the new game that definitely adds more interesting elements to our life.

And from our “aggressive” girl… June.

Another big Wednesday for me. Last Wednesday I decided to begin writing.

This Wednesday, Jeremy, Tony, Johnny, and I began our “wiz war” journey.  I never dreamed that Jeremy could find such a game, or that we could communicate with each other in such a way. It was the most extraordinary afternoon I’ve spent since I have been in Sanya.

When we got into the room, Jeremy took out a big box. Wow, he prepared so many particular things, tokens and little cute toys.

We began to play, meanwhile Jeremy kept explaining the rules of the game. It sounded like he was a skillful player, however, he lost his all treasure. It was I, a newbie, who stole his Treasure Chest! Ha Ha Ha! But before I got back to my hideout, Johnny won the game by stealing both of Tony’s treasures.

I was so happy.

I thought Jeremy was shocked by my first spell because he said, “June was aggressive!” And he was a little bit confused during his turns. I am the only girl among four of us, but I was not kind in the game. O(∩_∩)O

We spent a special afternoon together that forced us to utilize our intelligence. And I know these two hours means we will have a new method to study English this semester.

And from Johnny, the Big Winner of the first match.  Johnny is a high school student who is going to study in the States in the fall, so he’s been hanging around with me, trying to pick up some extra English.  I thought I teach him a lesson in the wizard’s dungeon… but things didn’t go like I planned.

Today we played a very funny fame called “Wiz War” after lunch.  I played it with Tony, Jeremy, and June.  First, Jeremy told us the rules.  I was very difficult to understand!  Then we began.  I used a lot of number cards which allowed me to move further.  And I grabed the first treasure from Tony.  Then I drew a magic stone card.  It gave me the ability to draw an extra card from the deck each turn.  How lucky am I?!

Tony’s turn started, but he only moved.  Then June used her attack card to attack Jeremy.  But Jeremy had a card to repel it, so poor June got teleported to another part of the dungeon.  Jeremy only moved during his turn.  I thought he had something planned.

My turned came next.  I took Tony’s treasure back to my “home” and used a card for attack.  This card created a monster called “wraith” who I could move 3 spaces each turn.  It had 4 life points and could do 2 points of damage on the other player’s wizards.  It was a really good monster.

After a few turns, I snatched Tony’s second treasure.  He tried to use a spell on my to stop me, but instead he teleported me closer to home.  So I won!

Okay, that’s enough for our Wiz War blog this week.  Next week, I promise there will be more pictures.

“Work smart, not hard.”  I heard those words over and over again in my childhood from none other than my father… Dr. Scott Trylch.  I’ve repeated them many times (mostly to myself).  But with my recent teaching experience in China the words are taking on a new significance.  And perhaps for my students I’d add a slight twist–Study smart, so you don’t have to study so hard.

Americans are not really known for being overly disciplined students.  Yet we produce a number of the world’s best universities and the lion’s share of the world’s best university students.

Currently it seems that we’re afraid of the Asian student’s ability to study endlessly, tirelessly.  But my recent experience tells me that the Asian student, for all their hard work, are not achieving the same results as their more relaxed Western counterparts.  The reason, in my mind is simple, the Asian student isn’t studying smart.  They’re studying hard, and getting mixed results.  At some point you reach a point of diminishing returns, a point where you’ve worked so much that you cannot achieve anymore.

Culturally, I think this study habit may be linked to the language.  Asian students have to memorize the characters of their written language.  There isn’t a system for figuring things out for yourself–well there is, but it’s pretty complicated and involves a lot of guessing and basic character knowledge.  My five year old, just learning to read both languages, English and Chinese, is a perfect example of this principle.  He knows the meaning of the spoken word “no” in both languages.  In written Chinese he has to be told that the character representing no, or bu, 不, means no.  There’s no way for him to figure that out.  In English, however, he knows the spoken word no, and he knows the phonic sounds of “n” and “o” and so when he sees it on the page he can figure it out for himself.  He doesn’t need me to tell him the meaning of “n. o.” and he doesn’t need to memorize it.  If he doesn’t recognize it the next time he comes across it, he simply figures it out for himself again.

Advancing this to the college level.  Asian students still work on a system of the teacher tells you and you memorize it for the test.  In the west, yes we sit through lectures where information is poured out, but how the western student ingests the information is completely different.

Here is the best system for note-taking and studying I’ve discovered so far.  It’s famous.  It’s called the Cornell Note-taking system, named after the prestigious Cornell University.  It’s simple and brilliant, but it does require you to think for yourself.  Study it and share.

And just because I love graph paper.

Study smart so you don’t have to study so hard.