Cactus Game Design Message Boards

Ok guys, here's an idea: What if we made sets of 3-5 cards that reference different Biblical texts which contribute to the understanding of a particular Christian doctrine. For example, you could have the doctrine of the Incarnation consist of cards like "The Word was made flesh", "Took the form of a slave", and "Before Abraham was I AM". Each card would have it's own text and abilities, but if all three have been played they give the player an extra advantage over and above their individual special abilities. This is still a rough sketch, but what do you all think?

Doctrine is best left out of the game.

Doctrine is not something to shy away from. There are doctrines that the church as a whole mostly agrees on. If you stick with those main things and avoid the more controversial doctrines it could be a good thing. That requires that the creator(s) are familiar with the doctrines of many different sects of Christianity.

I agree with Gabe, doctrines can be controversial, baptists vs. Presbyterians for example, however as long as we all agree that Jesus died on the cross for our sins so that we could be in the eternal presence of the one true God, we are all Christians. As long as no one is offended by the use of doctrines that they strongly oppose, A.K.A the controversial ones, I think it is a good idea for a new game mechanic.

It's still just a game though, with some players of different religious beliefs. The "doctrine" of Jesus dying on the cross is already incorporated into the game, however smaller niche doctrines really have no place in a game. The whole reason Redemption is fun for me is because it leaves out preachy mechanics that force Christianity on the player (example: The Bible TCG requiring players to memorize scriptures to win the game).

Quote from: Scoobug on April 16, 2013, 09:27:18 AM

I agree with Gabe, doctrines can be controversial, baptists vs. Presbyterians for example, however as long as we all agree that Jesus died on the cross for our sins so that we could be in the eternal presence of the one true God, we are all Christians. As long as no one is offended by the use of doctrines that they strongly oppose, A.K.A the controversial ones, I think it is a good idea for a new game mechanic.

It's still just a game though, with some players of different religious players. The "doctrine" of Jesus dying on the cross is already incorporated into the game, however smaller niche doctrines really have no place in a game. The whole reason Redemption is fun for me is because it leaves out preachy mechanics that force Christianity on the player (example: The Bible TCG requiring players to memorize scriptures to win the game).

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I completely disagree with this statement sorry Daniel. But to me the hull reason i love the game is because of the way it teaches about Gods word in a game. and i for one would love to have more of that. Plus how does Doctrine equal preachy. Doctrine is probably the less preachy part of scripture. The only thing i can see is how fine the line is on the Doctrine. Take just basic depravity of man. That is a very much debated issue not does it exist or not but is it total or not. It seems to me there is very fine line but if we can fine some one who can do the job why not do it.

FWIW, some doctrines are already dealt with in the game: i.e. the doctrine of "once-saved-always-saved" (I'm sure there's a fancy latin term for that, but I'm not sure what it is) is opposed by Falling Away.

I believe that if you are really and truly saved, you can not "fall away". I always interpreted that card to mean someone who was not saved originally.

Quote from: Scoobug on April 16, 2013, 01:58:15 PM

I believe that if you are really and truly saved, you can not "fall away". I always interpreted that card to mean someone who was not saved originally.

Therein lies the rub. Different doctrines are just different interpretations for things, and everyone won't agree on all the same doctrines.

Good point. 

This just reminded me of past discussions of an objective based type of redemption.

The way I always wanted to see it work was at a big tournament (states+) the host gives out a list of objectives with respective point values. Such as

1:winning a game +1 per soul differential
2:win a game with a mono colored offence +3
3:Achive 3 sucsefful blocks with a surviving villan +3
4:Play Pentecost on a priest +1
5:Play A new Beginging with Noah in play +2
6:Win a game with no specal ability souls +3
7:Send a demon to Tartorus +1 for first and +1 for each 2 that follow
8:Win a game using all ten cards in a deck from any one tin +3
9:Win a battle/ra with a character that began the battle face down +2
10: Win a battle/ra wile a tabernacle artifact being protected by Glory of The Lord +3

And so on, don't get too critical of the ten ideas, they are just tossed up there but you get the idea.
Players could then have that night to build a deck to play in the categorie.

I think I might not have expressed myself as precisely as I would have liked, but I also think there's a bit of unnecessary stigma being shown toward the word "doctrine." I don't mean to bring controversial doctrines into the game with this idea (although I don't necessarily think it a bad thing to get Christians talking about these). What I did mean was to provide a means within the game for Christians of all stripes to become familiar not only with Scripture verses in general, but also with particular Scripture verses that contribute in general to the central doctrines held by all Christians (e.g. The Incarnation, The Trinity, sinfulness of man, etc.). I thought making collections of cards that had some sort of cooperation with eachother and nice incentives when used together would be a nice opporutnity to allow this idea to also make gameplay a little more interesting.

That's possible, but it is still a very fine line to follow.

This just reminded me of past discussions of an objective based type of redemption.

The way I always wanted to see it work was at a big tournament (states+) the host gives out a list of objectives with respective point values. Such as

1:winning a game per soul differential
2:win a game with a mono colored offence +3
3:Achive 3 sucsefful blocks with a surviving villan +3
4:Play Pentecost on a priest
5:Play A new Beginging with Noah in play +2
6:Win a game with no specal ability souls +3
7:Send a demon to Tartorus for first and for each 2 that follow
8:Win a game using all ten cards in a deck from any one tin +3
9:Win a battle/ra with a character that began the battle face down +2
10: Win a battle/ra wile a tabernacle artifact being protected by Glory of The Lord +3

And so on, don't get too critical of the ten ideas, they are just tossed up there but you get the idea.
Players could then have that night to build a deck to play in the categorie.

That sounds like it would be an entertaining game version where you see a bunch of odd combos. Sounds fun.