How to get the most powerful cards in the Game!

Two Special Cards

Today I want to tell you about two special and unique cards for Seeker’s Quest.  A long time ago, as I was first formulating my ideas for this game, an image came to my mind, one that would guide me much later in the shaping of the game’s logo.  The sword, and the book.  This iconic idea references one of the many scriptures whose essence is: The word of god (the book) is like a two edged sword (the sword - of course). As I researched the idea, I chose Doctrine and Covenants 6:2 as the final exemplar of the concept.

It reads: “Behold, I am God; give heed unto my word, which is quick and powerful, sharper than a two-edged sword, to the dividing asunder of both joints and marrow; therefore give heed unto my words.”

I’ve created two cards based on this verse, called “The First Edge of the Sword” and “The Second Edge of the Sword”.  Here they are:

They are obviously quite powerful, and both tied into the quoting mechanic.  They’re pricey to play, at a sacrifice of 3, and they’re unique, so once they’ve been played once, it can’t be played again. One of them makes it so that you can quote your own verses and play them for free, and the other makes it so that you can force your opponent to quote his own verses or discard them.  I’ve played with these verses and against them, and, trust me, they are big, bad cards.  But they don’t make a player invincible.

So, why am I bringing this up?

Well, I have some of these verses, and I want to share them, but they’re promotional verses only.  That means that they’re not included in any of the purchasable sets!  So, for a limited time, anyone that buys the Seeker’s Quest Scripture Mastery Set will get one of these promo verses, signed, sent directly from me!  The only other way to get one of them will be to get them at a demo or some other face-to-face event.

Get the game! Get the sword!





Mark has a lifelong testimony of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (the Mormon Church). Mark also has other sites and blogs, including MarkHansenMusic.com and his Dutch Oven blog.

You Can Finally Buy the Game!

About 8 years ago, I started working on this game. We've developed and tested the cards and the rules, trying to make it the best possible game, so that the players could have a way to have a great time engaging with the scriptures.

We went through 11 revisions of the rules, and I can't count how many sets of cards I printed and cut out.  But now, all that work has come to a fruition!

I'm very excited to announce that you can now purchase the first Seeker's Quest package, the learning game, at TheGameCrafter.com. Simply click to the "Buy the Game" link, above, or go to https://www.thegamecrafter.com/games/seeker-s-quest-learning-game

The Learning Game package is an introduction to the game, with enough cards and rules for 2 players to play, right out of the box.

Come check it out!

Mark has a lifelong testimony of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (the Mormon Church). Mark also has other sites and blogs, including MarkHansenMusic.com and his Dutch Oven blog.

Open letter: I Need Your Feedback!

Hello, fellow LDS gamerz!

I'm very excited, and I have been for the last three months or so.  I've been reworking the rules, the cards, the game, all with the intent of submitting it to publishers.  As I've dealt with publishers in the past, I've realized the power of praise and endorsements. Good, kind words from the right people can make a huge difference in their decisions.

So...

If you have ever had the chance to play a game of Chapter and Verse, I would love to have you write a paragraph or two saying why you liked it and what you learned from it, and to email that to me, at mrkhmusic@yahoo.com, so that I can include it in the submission.  Alternatively, you can post it in the comments below.

If you haven't had a chance yet to play, let me invite you to download the cards and the rules (in the nav bar to the left) and give it a try.  Then, post me your comments.

In all fairness, if you have any complaints or suggestions for improvement, please send those to me as well.

Chapter and Verse is a very unique kind of LDS game, and so publishers might now "get" quite how it all works and how popular it could be.  Your words could be the assurance they need to know that it is viable and exciting!

Thanks!




Mark has a lifelong testimony of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (the Mormon Church). Mark also has other sites and blogs, including MarkHansenMusic.com and his Dutch Oven blog.

Chapter and Verse: The Past and Future of My LDS Scripture Game

This adventure all started for me in early 2006.

Well, earlier, really.  I’ve been a tabletop gamer all of my life.  I loved the early role-playing games, and I played Avalon Hill’s wargames with my friends from as early as 8th grade.  I’ve come up with various game ideas over the years, too.  But in the early parts of the century, as I got more and more involved in collectible card games (CCG’s, like Magic: the Gathering, Yu-Gi-Oh, and Pokemon, which I played with my sons), I found myself wanting to make an LDS game that expressed my faith.  I tried making one that was based on the Book of Mormon, but I struggled with it, and in the end, it didn’t satisfy me.

But in early 2006, an idea gelled for me, and I created a set of rules, and a set of cards.  I talked about it in my Mormon commentary blog here, and here.

Rather than be a strict story-line game, it would be more abstract.  The players take verses of scripture, from the seminary scripture mastery list, combine them together into thematic chapters and then close them up into books.  The verses would have individual effects which would change the play of the game, just like MTG and YGO cards do.  It was, and still is, a new idea in the LDS game market.

Over the years, I would work on it, abandon it, then work on it, and abandon it in a sort of creative/frustration cycle.  It was usually my son that would break the frustration part by asking to play it again.  That would trigger a new wave of creativity, a new version of the rules, and more playtesting, until the next cycle of frustration would make me set it aside for a while.

All the time, I thought I wanted to publish it, but I’ve never known how to accomplish that.  I’ve looked at lots of options, and I’ve submitted it at times to various publishers, I’ve priced out printing, etc... but I’ve never really been sure how to proceed with it.

A few months ago, after I turned in the manuscript for my the final book of my Dutch oven cookbook contract, I started thinking about it again.  I brought it out, dusted it off, and started reworking some rules ideas that had been bugging me about it.  I made a whole new set of cards, and Brendon and I started playtesting it.  My boys started taking a deeper role in the development and promotion of the game.  Then, another idea hit, and the Church changed the official list of Scripture Mastery verses, and we remade the whole cardset again.  We’re now in version 11 of the rules.  I’ve been contacting a number of key people and sharing the game with them, gathering input and even endorsements.

Last week, I met with a friend who owns a game store, and I demo’ed the new Chapter and Verse for him.  He was very positive and his suggestions were more directed toward how to get the the game published and distributed, rather than any fixes that needed in the game.

A switch turned inside me that night.  I realized for the first time inside me that this game needs to be published and that it will be published.  I’m not sure when it will happen, but there are now several options on the table to get it done.  For the first time in the 7 years I’ve been working on this game, it feels ready and it feels like it will actually happen.

And that is very, very exciting!




Mark has a lifelong testimony of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (the Mormon Church). Mark also has other sites and blogs, including MarkHansenMusic.com and his Dutch Oven blog.

An LDS Game Demo!

I played a very interesting game tonight.

A few weeks ago, as I was in a game shop up in West Jordan, I struck up a conversation with the owner, when I noticed he was wearing a CTR ring.  When I mentioned Chapter and Verse and told him it was an LDS game based on the scriptures, he said, "I'd play that!"

With that encouragement, I set up a time to demo it for him.  That was tonight.  We played a quick game, and he, being a long-time hard core gamer, picked it right up.  Even though I nailed him twice on the "Quote it" rule (which I rarely do when I'm demoing it), he still won.  I didn't even have to let him win.

His two initial comments?

One was that it was a fun game, which I sure appreciated.  Frankly, I just appreciated him taking the time go give it a whirl.

The other comment was that it might market better as a "LCG" or "Living Card Game". This is a model that a lot of very successful card games are going with right now, like Munchkin, Dominion, Killer Bunnies, and many others.  The idea is that you create a unique starter set, that people buy to begin playing.  That contains everything they need to start with.  Then, every so often, you release expansion sets, which are also complete sets, sold in a single package (rather than sold in small "booster packs").

One cool thing about doing Chapter and Verse that way is that they way the game is designed, you wouldn't need to start with the first set.  A new player could jump in and begin playing with any set.

Another thought I had would be to kind of hybrid it with collectibility.  For example.  Currently, there are 100 unique cards in the first set.  Suppose that you divided those into 60 lower-powered cards, and 40 stronger cards.  Each starter set could contain two copies of each lower card (as if they were "common"), and one copy each of the stronger cards.  Then, you could also create 25 really strong cards (the "rares"), and even sell them in a separate "powerup" set.

But then, what am I talking about?  I can't even get going with a first printing yet!  Oh, well.  At least it was fun to show the game to a receptive player.





Mark has a lifelong testimony of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (the Mormon Church). Mark also has other sites and blogs, including MarkHansenMusic.com and his Dutch Oven blog.

Covenant

This last week was a landmark week for me in some ways.

In most ways, it was just like any other week.  I went to work, did the fam thang, etc...

But this particular week, I submitted Chapter and Verse to Covenant Communications, on the good advice of my friend James.  Nothing ventured nothing gained, right?

We'll see if anything comes of it.  Thanks for all your support!