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.

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!

More Progress, More Testing

I've been doing some more testing lately, and the more I play 8.1, the more excited I get.  It just keeps feeling more and more smooth and consistent. 

I have been noticing, however, as I've been playing, that I need to tweak up the cards some.  There are a few cards that need to be rewritten.  Not the scriptures, of course!  Mostly the effects.  Some of them have had the same effects text for the last three or four versions, and it's time to update!  Others just need to be more balanced.  For example, there are a few cards that simply cost too little to play, and the sacrifice cost needs to be higher.  Or maybe the ability needs to be tempered a little.  If, while you're playtesting, you find verses in need of editing, please let me know, via comment here, or via email!

Another Question for the Playtesters

I just realized another issue with the rules that needs clarification:  If you're playing along and you run out of verses in your deck, what do you do?

There're a couple of ideas I have right off, and I'd like your input.

  1. If you run out of verses in your deck, you lose the game.  In most other CCG's (Magic, Yu-Gi-Oh, and Pokemon), that's the way it resolves.  This also tends to make the decks that flow lots of verses a little less powerful.
  2. If you run out of verses in your deck, you keep playing, but you can't draw.  That would mean you'd have to have some way to pull from your discard, or your only source of new verses would be your blessing stack.
  3. The only other option I can think of is that if you run out of verses, you could shuffle your discard and flip them face down into your deck and continue playing.


What do you think?  Right off the top of my head, I'm leaning toward option 2.  I don't know why, but it seems to be pretty sensible.  Still, I'll defer to the opinions of the playtesters, if there's enough clear opinion either way.

Decks! and Rules!

There's lots of cool new stuff over in the playtester's page.  You gotta check it out!

First of all, we're excited to announce the creation and release of two playtest decks!  The first one is based on the "Quote" mechanic.  It'll be interesting to see just how this one plays out.  Almost every card has the ability, so if someone were good at memorizing, they'd be able to play verse after verse for free!

Then, there's the Strength of Faith!  This deck is made of cards from the Strength and Faith themes.  Those two play together quite nicely, bringing verses to the hand and drawing blessings.

It'll be fun to try these out and see how they play.  Give them a game or two and tell me how they do!

Also, there's a new version of the rules and the first cardset.  Nothing's really changed much.  There was a need for a clarification.  Now, verses that are played as a result of another verse's effect are not "played" but are "set". If a verse is set, its own effect doesn't trigger.  Its numbers still count in chapters, but no effects.  This keeps the long chains of effects down.

And, based on some feedback I got from James, I created a one-page quick start guide to get you playing right away.  The details of the game are still in the rules, but to just start throwing verses down, you can start with the quick start.  It's not so intimidating as 8+ pages of rules!

New Rules, More Playing

A couple of days ago, I got in some more playing with Brendon and Jared.  This time, we had a friend of ours from Mexico playing as well, Limhi (you'll recognize that name if you read your scriptures...)  In spite of the fact that he sometimes struggles with English, he did quite well, and in fact, almost won.  It was interesting to see him try and quote verses in English.  A couple of times, I knew the Spanish versions, so I let him quote them in Spanish.

I just got finished posting up a new set of rules, v5.4.  Not a lot of changes, but a clarification that will keep the game from spiraling out of control.  That's the concept of the "Set" card verses the "Played" card.  Any card that I play from my hand in the freeplay or after sacrificing in the regular play phase is considered to be "played", and it's effect is triggered.

On the other hand, if a card comes into play on the table top as a result of a verse effect, it's called being "Set", and its effect does NOT trigger.  However, once it's on the table, if it has an ongoing effect "while in play", that effect is valid.

I made changes to the cards themselves to reflect this difference as well.  Rather that having an effect read "...play a card from your hand." it now reads "...set a card from your hand."

That way, you won't have long strings of effects, like having a card throw down another card, whose effect throws down another card, which triggers another card being played, which causes, etc. etc.  You get the picture.

Also, there's now a hand size limitation rule.  Now, if you start your turn with more than 8 verses, you have to take the extra verses (your choice) and put them on the bottom of your blessing stack.

Don't worry.  The game's still fun.  :-)  Moreso, in fact!

Cards for v5.0

I think I've gotten a lot of things worked out in the game, now, and I'm really excited.  Play is much more streamlined, and interactive.  It's really a lot more fun.  I'm getting a playtest prototype cardset of 100 scripture mastery verses ready, and the writeup of the new rules.  I'm hoping to have it posted by the end of the week.  We'll have to see just how well it all goes.

All Kindsa Changes!

OK, I was having some real difficulties with the basic game.  It wasn't interactive enough, it didn't truly involve the scriptures enough, and it was just bogging down in too many rules.

But in my efforts to streamline it and make it more fun and scriptural, I was just making it worse and worse.

So it sat and stewed for a long time.  I've been talking things over a lot with a few of my main playtesters, mostly John and Kent, as well as Brendon.  I've melded a lot of the ideas they've thrown at me and I'm really excited about this latest revision.  It's almost a totally restructured game.

It's also still in its infancy, so I'll work it up and post it.  Unfortunately, it'll need cards with new effects, so I'll have to go through them AGAIN!

But I think I've got a good solid game base, now, that I can tweak and then expand with cardsets and cardpages.  And, maybe even publish!

Thanks for coming along for the ride!

New, New Cards

As I've been preparing the cards for the prototype publication, I've been reworking a lot of the abilities and stats of the verses themselves.  I thought I had that nailed down, but as I was cutting apart a set of cards last night, I found some more things that needed tweaking.

So, I've been going through those cards page by page, to make sure that this or that effect was feasible, that it cost the right amount, that the sacrifice points were all reasonable, etc...  I've been also checking for spelling and typos in the verse references and the descriptions themselves as well.

So, hopefully that'll all be done in another day or two, and back up online.