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Berean Christian Bookstore, January 1997. I saw a starter at the bookstore while I was there getting a Teen Bible, and picked it up as an alternative to Magic that I had received from friends from my birthday prior. Started getting into the game when Warriors came out...

My parents learned about it from some friends whose kids played Redemption. Then, my parents got decks for me and my brother. E/F.

I'm actually curious about this. Is there anyone active today who wasn't introduced via word of mouth?

When I was in college, I was introduced to my first strategy card game.  It was called Spellfire which was based on D&D.  I found the strategy of the game to be interesting and was able to get to know some non-Christian guys who I probably would not have otherwise.  I thought it would be a good chance to witness to them as we would often talk about God together.

However after a while, it became apparent that they were not really interested in growing closer to God or becoming Christians.  I also had a nagging feeling that the game itself was not something that God wanted me to be spending my time with.  At that point I quit playing and the next summer (1995) created my own Bible-based CCG called "Promised Land".  When I went to a local Christian Book Store in Batavia, NY, and told the owner about my new game, he pointed out that a new game had just came out which was also a Christian CCG.  It was at this point that the friendly owner named Daniel sold me the original starter decks and a couple blue packs. 

I played the game against myself a couple times, and then when I returned to college, taught it to my friends Dave and Aaron.  At the time we were mainly just experimenting with it as a comparison to my "Promised Land" game.  Since the game was extremely "limited" back in those days, we didn't like it at all and preferred playing my game instead.  So it sat in a box for a decade.  The metagame at that point was "play a bunch of 2/2 GEs on your 4/4 GC and hope to end up bigger than the 6/6 EC with it's 2/2 EEs".

When I returned to Redemption about a decade later, I was brought back by a student of mine named Dawn Dobbs who had come from a playgroup out in Kansas City, led by rpgdirector.  At this point, Priests had just come out and the game had evolved significantly.  The dominant offenses of the time were Angels and the newly feared priests.  The dominant defense was the minimal standalone splash defense.  There were many students at my school who were playing Yu-Gi-Oh.  I could have tried to develop better relationships with them by learning their game, but instead I decided to invite them to learn Redemption (which had become a great game).  Most of them were willing to switch games.

I took a few guys to our first tournament at Ben Huntsman's house with the Northern KY playgroup, where I also reconnected with my friend from college, Jon Greeson (SoulSeeker).  We had a blast and have been going to tournaments ever since.  Redemption seems to ebb and flow in popularity here at Oakdale as players graduate or move away, but overall it's been a fun journey.

I'm actually curious about this. Is there anyone active today who wasn't introduced via word of mouth?

Topic Split  (roughly from when everyone started talking about Redemption Marketing and not the new set.)

As for Chris's question,
2nd encounter:  a poster of an angel caught my eye as I was walking by a booth at Spirit Fest at King's Island.  I walked into the booth and started asking questions about it.  I called my wife and decided to invest into the game that day.  In 2 days, I spent around $70. It wasn't until later that I discovered "tournaments."

I didn't realize until later that encounter was my second with Redemption.  I discovered this when I found a Limited/Unlimited pack of Redemption cards that contained Goliath in the mix of some of my youth stuff.  It was then I remembered stopping by a booth at Youth Specialties in Cincinnati (1999, I think).  I had too much dept to invest in it, and the game didn't grab my attention like it did later.

I was taught by my brothers which I guess qualifies as word of mouth. I'm not even sure how old I was when I really started playing but I do remember being at Nationals 2005 and I think I played Type A.

According to the Covenant Games spreadsheets, you placed 24th out of 46 in Type A and 12th out of 62 in T1 MP.

Not bad for a 7 year-old I guess...

Quote from: KoalaKingoFA on June 10, 2014, 12:14:47 PM

I was taught by my brothers which I guess qualifies as word of mouth. I'm not even sure how old I was when I really started playing but I do remember being at Nationals 2005 and I think I played Type A.

According to the Covenant Games spreadsheets, you placed 24th out of 46 in Type A and 12th out of 62 in T1 MP.

Not bad for a 7 year-old I guess...

Dang. Basically a pro.

My son led me to the toy section of Christian Book Supply in Beaverton.
My curiosity led me to look at the C/D starter deck on the shelf.
The URL on the box led me to Cactus Game Design.
My appetite for wheeling and dealing led me to search eBay.
eBay led me to Covenant Games.

...and the rest is history!  (And I mean "history" since I ended up retiring. )


(P.S. However, this doesn't mean I retired from collecting.  You'll never see my T2 collection up for sale.)

A fellow gamer from Colorado, who knew I was a pastor, told me about the game. I started with C/D and Warriors, and my first tournament was the Northeast Regional in King of Prussia, PA, where I won Sealed Deck. (Disclaimer: I was probably the same age as all of my competitors put together.) I"ve come full circle, from attending Regionals to hosting them, and my kids all play, so I guess that would count as four "word of mouth" players (although in the case of my kids, it's more "hey, Dad will pay for cards if we play this game").

My mother-in-law knew that my family loved to play card games (Spades, Hearts, Bridge), but their family did not. She saw the A/B Starter Decks at the Christian Bookstore in Chesapeake, VA and bought them for me as 1996 Christmas present. I had never heard of it, so I opened it, tried it, then put it in storage.

In 1999, I was a Youth Pastor in MD. My middle school kids were all into this new game called Pokémon. I decided to learn the game and play with them. I eventually thought "Wouldn't it be great if there was a Christian version of Pokémon." That's when I remembered the Redemption Starter Decks. I took them out and played again. I looked up the website and saw the new expansions, so I bought the Factory Set. We all started playing that instead.

It wasn't until I was teaching at a Christian School in CT in 2003 that I decided to take Redemption more seriously as a host. Reyzen was instrumental in that decision. 

Hi there,

just nearly copying my post from the other board.

I am from Germany and learned about Redemption from web when I was looking for an alternative for MtG which I played years ago which is more suitable for Christians resp. Christian perspective but still gives me this plenty of combinations and opportunities and challanges MtG provides. Redemption fulfills this for me.

As also said within the other thread:
When it was stated that Redemption seems to be declining in terms of members I can just bring my perspective to this: The lack of publicity of Redemption outside the US!

But here in Germany only some of the Redemption products are availabe (via Amazon.de or via dealers selling via Amazon.de). This includes 10th anniversary Gift Set, Starter Decks I+J and Disciples expansions (which need some weeks before they are shipped).
I already spent quite some time to search for other purchasing possibilities here in Germany or at least within western Europe. I also wrote to quite a few German online shops which sells CCGs - some of them told me that they contacted their wholesalers which also do not have this game for sale!

This is not only Germany I assume but maybe entire Europe at least! This really great game is not known here at all it seems and I also assume not even within Christian parties - Christian friends of mine who also like playing games and regularly meet accordingly also never heard about that game (well so far they did unfortunately not get very excited about Redemption since they are not familiar with TCGs at all).

Maybe it might be an approach to spread the game within the world using Christian catalog companies or online shops (mentioning Weltbild as an example here while knowing that they might not be the right one since they are also selling lots of secularised products [well most of their products]) - but just to provide an example.

Isn't there any way or possibility to spread the Redemption (and other Cactus Game Design products) throughout the planet?

BTW: It is also unfortunate that from Europe you are not able to benefit from the incentives announced here in the boards top right (below search bar) for particular orders placed at Cactus Game Design web shop (since it is not shipping to Europe yet)!

But anyway I am really happy that I discovered Redemption for me! Thanks a lot to all who make this game (still) possible for us!

Best Regards

There is an online version aside from RTS called Lackey. Info can be found here: http://www.cactusgamedesign.com/message_boards/rtsonline-play/lackeyccg-plugin-beta/