Doom and Redemption!

So, this week, I was all excited to start working on the Title of Liberty cardset, printing them out and getting them cut and sleeved, ready for playtesting. By the way, if you want to help playtest, just email me!

Then my son and I were talking about decks from the Scripture Mastery set, and he started wondering out loud if he could make a One-Turn-Kill deck. In Yu-Gi-Oh, that's where you kill off your opponent in, obviously, one turn. In this case, it would be a One-Turn-Win, since nobody dies in Seeker's Quest.

I thought, No way. It can't happen. I've set all of the verses where you receive blessings to have high sacrifice costs. But he thought that he could get enough draw verses going to overcome that. I was still skeptical, but I was, honestly, scared.

Well, to shorten the long story, he did it. It was a wicked deck, filled with verses that allowed him to draw blessings, and verses that allowed him to draw verses, both from his deck and the discard. Three games in a row, he won before I even got a chance to freeplay my first verse.

In the game design world, this is known as "Breaking the Game". I would have been thrilled if we had discovered this in the early playtesting phases of making the game. Instead, it came to light after the cards were designed and already available to the public! Yikes!

Seriously, I was quite dejected.

But, soon after, I regrouped, and he and I started talking about ways to "nerf" the verses in question.

Let me explain that. In his video/online gaming circles, if a game company makes a facet of a game weaker or harder to use, it has been "nerfed". To understand this word, think of a real sword, and next to it, a Nerf sword. That should clear up any confusion.

So, we had to nerf the blessing draw verses, and we did that by setting it up so that after receiving the blessing, you end your turn. That way, the other guy gets to play. We also nerfed the verse draws, so that they're not so many, or for greater cost. And, the few verses that pull from the discard, like "Judgement Day" don't pull quite so many, so easily.

That meant that I had to rework the graphics of the verses, and re-upload them into The Game Crafter's website. It took me a while to do all that, but it's done, now. Anyone who buys any of the Seeker's Quest products (Full games, boosters, or pre-con decks) will all contain the new versions of the verses.

There are a few of you who have bought the game already, and for you, if you contact me, and tell me which game set you bought, I'll make up a special booster with the right cards and get it sent off to you.

Here are a few of the "new" verses:

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.

The Title of Liberty

I'm really excited!

I've been working on a first draft of a whole new set of Seeker's Quest verses!

This set is tentatively titled "The Title of Liberty" and will cover the books of Alma, Helaman, 3rd Nephi, and maybe 4th Nephi as well.

There are some fun new mechanics! One is called "Battle". When a battle is activated, your opponent puts verses from his/her deck into his/her discard. If that happens enough, you can cripple your opponents. Remember, unlike Magic, or Yu-Gi-Oh, having an empty deck doesn't lose you the game. However, with nothing to draw, you're out of resources, and it will be difficult to carry on!

Another mechanic is the "Cross Reference". A cross reference verse will mention another verse. If you have that referenced verse in your hand when you trigger the Cross Reference effect, you can set it immediately.

We're also exploring the markers, with some new ones, like Righteous and Unrighteous Characters, and Locations. The "Wartime" marker boost the Battle effect.

So, what does all this mean?

Well, first I have to finish the first draft of the verses. I'm making them all on a big spreadsheet. Then, when I've got them done (I'm shooting for about 125 finished cards), then I'll flow the spreadsheet into a form and print out some prototype cards. These are the ugly ones, without graphics. Then, I'll tediously cut them apart and sleeve them.

Then the real work begins! Playtesting! We'll test the set in isolation, meaning using randomized decks only of the new set. We may find some problems that we'll have to fix.  Then, we'll mix the new verses in with the original Scripture Mastery set, and test that mix, using random decks.  Finally, we'll make some decks and test those against each other, using both sets.

If you're interested in playtesting, just let me know by emailing me at mrkhmusic@yahoo.com, and we'll get you in on the party!




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.

Card of the week: The Marvel

Verse:  Isaiah 29:14

Text: “…Behold, I will proceed to do a marvellous work among this people, even a marvellous work and a wonder”

Verse Rule: EFFECT: Seek: "Work"
Sacrifice Cost: 1
Markers: Wisdom, Histories
Icons: W, H

So, last week, I had a brilliant idea! The game mechanic that we had previously named “Keyword” should be named “Seek”! This is the mechanic that allows me to search through the verse texts in my deck for a particular keyword, then to put that verse into my hand. Since you’re seeking through your deck, it should be called “Seek”.

It was such a clever stroke of genius! It would tie the game play even closer to the name of the game, The Seeker’s Quest, and it’s more descriptive of the action of the mechanic.

What wasn’t quite so brilliant or such a stroke of genius about it was the fact that it meant that I had to spend lots of hours changing the graphics on about 1-2 dozen cards, a couple of which I had to recreate from scratch. THEN, I had to fix the rules booklets!

*sigh*

So, to celebrate the change, the Verse of the Week is one of the ones that changed, The Marvel. It’s built on the verse in Isaiah that talks about the “marvelous work and a wonder” that is about to come forth. That verse is requoted several times in the Doctrine and Covenants as well.

The work and wonder that it refers to is the restored Gospel, of course. LeGrand Richards used the phrase as the title to the book used as an introduction to the church, written when he was a mission president.

This verse rule used in this card is to seek out another verse with the keyword “Work”. The idea is that the “marvelous work and a wonder” is “about to come forth”, so playing the verse allows you to seek through your deck and fetch a “work”, so you can bring it forth.  It’s especially useful when you construct a deck using “The Work of God” or “The Glory of God”, http://chapterandversegame.blogspot.com/2015/06/card-of-week-work-of-god.html

This is a great way to seek out these two powerful cards and getting them ready to play so you can close up lots of books!


Seeker’s Quest! It’s the most fun you can have with your scriptures! To get the game, and get in on the fun, go to https://www.thegamecrafter.com/games/seeker-s-quest-scripture-mastery-set

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.

This LDS Game Feels Complete!

 So, after reworking the card set, which increased the number of cards by over 50%, and redoing the layout, and printing the pages and pages of cards, then cutting them and sleeving them, Brendon and I finally got a chance to playtest this cardset.  I truly hope it's the last test. I've been working and reworking these cards in this LDS game for over seven years, now!  And always with the Scripture Mastery verses.

We played two quick games, and they were both thrilling.  These cards are so much more balanced and flexible than ever before.  With the addition of the Life icons and evening out of the other icons, the game was much more playable.  There were more options, but it wasn't overwhelming!

I was concerned that there would be certain verses that would be too powerful.  There were some powerful cards, it's true, but no one verse dominated the game.  There was plenty of quoting and even some quote challenging, but again, it didn't rule the play. Since Brendon had studied many of the verses in seminary, for Scripture Mastery, he was able to knock off quite a few quotes.

We played with random verses in our decks, as if we had just opened the game out of the box.  We used one set of verses as our base to draw from.  We'll have to try and work with constructed decks sometime soon.

We also discovered that Brendon's work on this whole project has almost earned him the game design merit badge.  This is a relatively new badge, only about a year or so old.

At any rate, this is a great LDS game.  I'm really proud and excited to have been able to work on it all this time.  I really, finally feel like this revision is the most complete of all the versions of it so far!




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.

Beta Version 10.0 of LDS Game Chapter and Verse

Every once in a while, things will bubble and boil up inside me, and all of the ideas that I've had over the course of six months or a year will all burst forth into...  What?   Stew?

I don't know where I was going with that metaphor.

But anyway, I just finished reworking the rules.  There are two big differences:

1. I did away with the learning game and the standard game.  I found that when I taught people the game, I taught the standard game, anyway.  I also combined the meta game into the shame rules doc as the standard game.  The mastery game is so far from development that I shelved it, too.  I also created a "Quick Start Guide" so that players can get the overall idea of the game, and give it a try, then reference the more detailed rules to answer questions, or as they get more into the game.
2. I did away with the "Quote Challenge" rule, and made it a DISCARD verse rule.  I found that many people testing the game were turned off by the rule, and by playing the game with the possibility of a challenge hanging over their heads.  Making it a verse rule follows the model of the Magic: The Gathering "Cancel", "Counter", and "Fizzle" spells.

Here in a few days, I'll put out the new cardset, too.  It has more verses, about 145, and my playtests so far have been lots of fun.

So, here is the new v10.0 complete rules document.  And here is the new v10.0 quickstart guide document. The links are also available in the sidebar, on the left!

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

9.0 Cardset errata/revisions

We interrupt your blog browsing with a CHAPTER AND VERSE SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT!

Here are some fixes for some of the cards.  The set you can currently download at the left already contains these changes.

#121 is now named "The Ultimate Blessing", and its special rule now reads: "Unique ALSO, EFFECT: Keyword “Father/God”. ALSO, If this verse was played during your play phase, you may draw three blessings, then end your turn."

#38's special rule now reads: "EFFECT: Exchange chosen verse in one of your chapters with a chosen verse in your discard (its special rules are applied)."

Also note that even though Pearl verses have a "P" written in each space in the theme icon area, it still only counts as ONE icon of any ONE theme.

Thank you.  We now return you to your regularly scheduled bloggingz...




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.

Fun with the Son

So, a couple of weeks ago, my son bounced up to me and said, “We need to play Chapter and Verse!”  It happened to be a sunday evening, and I was done with the Dutch Oven cooking for the day.  It seemed a clever Sunday night sort of activity, so I dug up the cards that I had, we shuffled them up, and started playing.

It was very exciting to me to see the excitement in him.  I love to watch as he reads an important verse he’s about to play, trying to quick-memorize it, just in case I make him quote it, or how suddenly the air is filled with words like “Faith”, “Strength”, and “Prayer” and it’s all a natural part of the fun.  We don’t even really notice it!

Well, I do.

But then, I’m a dad...

We decided that we were having so much fun that we were going to plan on playing each Sunday, a few games each time.  So far, we’ve held to that plan.  I’ve really begun to look forward to our playtesting sessions.

We’ve started noting ambiguities in the wording of the verse effects, and we’ve discovered a few combos that are a bit too powerful, and need to be tempered.  For example, “The Work of God” and “The Glory of God” should both cost 3 to play, instead of the current 2.  “Judgement Day”, by itself is really cool.  One in your hand and one in your discard is almost an infinite loop of drawing.  I’m still not sure how to fix that.

We’ve tried two different processes for closing up books.  Tonight, we talked about a third.  We’ll try them all and see which one works best.

It’s time to revise the cards, too.  With all of our notes, clarifications, revisions, and plans, we need to make a new set.  This current set has been around for two complete revisions of the rules!

I don’t know what the future holds for Chapter and Verse, but for now, it’s fun to play each week!





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.

The Seekers!

I've been feeling for a long time (and that feeling was confirmed by playtesters) that the game needs a setting, to help make the experience more immersive.  One of the problems with the game is that it's pretty abstract.  You're making books out of chapters out of verses, yes, but in what context?  In what setting? 

As a M:TG player, or a Yu-Gi-Oh player, you represent a great wizard, summoning monsters or casting spells.  in Pokemon, you're a trainer, sending your creatures to fight in the arena.  What are you in Chapter and Verse?

I came up with the idea of "The Seekers".  These are souls searching the world through history and places looking for pearls of truth.  Still a bit abstract, but it gives a bit more context.  It's something you can imagine, and become as you play.  See the description on the left to get an idea of how it will work.

That also means that I need to develop two new types of cards:

• "Pearls" - These will be very strong verses, probably with the "Unique" ability, rare (in published form) and expensive to play.  They will probably give some really big benefit to a player who closes a book with a Pearl verse in it.
• Location verses - I imagine these would function in a way similar to the Location cards in Chaotic, the Planechase cards in Magic, or the Field Spell cards in Yu-Gi-Oh.  These verses would define where and when in the history of the earth the game is taking place, and give certain additional benefits to verses markered to those locations.

What's cool is that I can add these verses to the game, and add a lot of context and flavor to the game.  However, they won't add any actual rules!  It's all in the cards.

And I will, of course, keep you all posted!

First Test of v6.0

Last night my son and I tested the new version of the basic game.  It was dubbed an immediate success.  Not only did he really enjoy the game, but as soon as we were done, he lept into his ideas for cards for the advanced game (the collector/deck building game).  The cool thing was that his suggestions showed that he understood the scripture stories because the card effects he was talking about reflected the scriptures!  He was thinking, for example, of how a "Nephi" character card might interact on the table with a "Laman" character card.  It was thrilling to watch!  And the dude's only ten!

Anyway, I want to test it a few more times before I remake and repost the cardsets, and I haven't rewritten the new rules, yet.

Basically, it's the same game.  The verses are still chosen from the Scripture Mastery lists.  In fact, I didn't change any of the scripture quotes or excerpts I'd been using.  I've done a few things to streamline play, and especially to streamline learning the game.

  1. Now, instead of numbers representing the various Strength, Faith, etc..  points, there are simply letters:  S, F, etc..  Ultimately, in the published version, these will be replaced with visual graphic icons, in a similar way to the "mana" symbols in MTG or the Pokemon/Energy types in Pokemon.  Instead of trying to get 12 points in a certain theme, now you simply accumulate icons.  This keeps you from having to add up what's on the table, and all you have to do is count.  Most cards now have one or two icons/letters.  Some have more, and some will even have a "FF" double icon, counting as two.  I found this makes play much faster.  In fact, I was surprised just how much faster it is.  I still haven't decided how many icons you have to have in the chapters to close up a book.  I'm thinking 5 or 7, but the jury's still out.
  2. The card effects for the Basic game have changed, but only a little.  I went through all of the verses and counted the number of repetitions of each word (except for the "and"s and "the"s).  The most common words were the ones I set up for the "Keyword" effect.  One of the goals is that someone can grab the whole stack of basic game cards.  Split them in half, shuffle them, and play.  With these keyword verses relating to more words, then there is a greater likelihood that the combinations will actually come up.  I also had to re-write the wording of a few verse effects to reflect the new icon style of play.
  3. To streamline learning, there are only 4 standardized effects:  Quote, Prayer, Keyword, and Discard.  Everything else will be in the advanced cardsets.

Other than that, it's pretty much the same game.  It played much more quickly, much more smoothly.  It was very easy to teach it to my son.  That may well have been because he was a bit familiar with previous versions, and he's also fluent in playing more complex collectible games.  I'll have to try and teach it to some folks that have no CCG background and see what they think.

I'm getting re-excited to see how it might fit into the world of LDS games, and help people learn their Scripture Mastery.

BETA Version 5.1 is DONE!!

OK, folks!  I've tweaked up the rules, I've tweaked up the cards, and now it's finally online as pdf's!  I'm feeling much more confident that this is the future of Chapter & Verse.  It finally feels smooth, like it's settling in where it's supposed to.  It feels balanced, and as more cards are added, more fun will ensue.

Here's some of the changes since the previous versions:

• The turn is much more simple and streamlined.  Start, Draw, Freeplay, Play, End.  How much simpler can it get?
• No more counting blessing points as you sacrifice verses.  The word "blessings" is now used in another totally different way.
• Now verses have effects that happen AS you play them into verses, rather than INSTEAD of playing them into verses.
• The game is much more interactive, as you can combine your own stacks of cards ("Chapters") with your opponent's to form books.
• With Quoting, Cross Reference, and the new Keyword ability, the game play responds with the scriptures more and more.

I'm really excited about the changes.  With some more playtesting, we'll be able to move ahead with the production of the game!