History

Relevance to History[edit]

The cards and characters of LTK are all related to the ancient history of China, the most telling of which are the characters and their abilities. Each character is given an ability in the game which usually mirrors the historical character’s personality, actions, strength/weakness, cause of death, and historical events in which the character was involved, etc. For example, Liu Bei‘s ability Benevolence(仁德) allows him to give away his cards to other players, mirroring the benevolent and kind nature of Liu Bei in ROTK. Cao Cao, on the other hand, is given the ability Villainous Hero(奸雄), which allows him to keep any card which causes him damage. This mirrors Cao Cao’s style of coaxing able advisers of his enemies to defect and join him, then utilizing them for his cause.

The relevance of these abilities to ROTK and the Three Kingdoms history is interesting enough to inspire players to discover more about ROTK and Three Kingdoms history for themselves. One blog author describes his knowledge of Three Kingdoms evolving from uninterested to semi-expert after immersing in the study of LTK abilities. In August 2012, UC Berkeley offered a course in LTK.^[2] The faculty sponsor of the course, Professor Robert Berring, wants to get undergrads “aquainted with essential philosophy dating back to China’s ancient dynasties.