Prudence in Creating a Theme for a Board Game Idea

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TheAcolyte

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I am not sure if this fits in the moral theology category, but…


I was in the process of creating a board game when the idea of using Christianity as a theme donned on me:


Basically, it’s a competitive board game where players play either as the Roman Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Anglican Church, or the other Protestants. The idea is to gain more points than the other players. Some themes include “excommunication”, “inquisition”, “schism”, and more. There will be a currency based on faith and influence.


My one concern is I do not know whether it is imprudent to make such a game with that specific theme. I am open to corrections and, if possible, and not imprudent to make such a game, maybe you could also give a bit of your own ideas?
 
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A lot depends upon your reason for making such a game. Are you hoping to actually kickstart this and sell it, or is it just for your family? I’d personally feel weird making a game like that where my denomination was only one of many that could win, and other faiths are a choice. I don’t know that it would be wrong to make such a game, but it seems weird.

Two things to consider:
  • You lump protestants together, as though your target audience is catholic, but will many Catholics be okay playing as a different faith group once someone else has called dibs on the one they really believe in? Unless you have a rare situation where there’s one person from each of these denominations playing. Much of your target audience will feel weird about it, even if it’s just a game.
  • Many people would avoid a competitive situation involving religions or political parties during “fun” time. Those discussions get more heated than others at family gatherings. In my family, it would be awkward to play such a game, because we all have different beliefs in reality, we’re very competitive, and it would be hard not to argue about the answers as actual topics.
Hope this helps. I’d love to see some catholic-themed board games, but you sometimes have to look at things from a marketing perspective in business. Again, I don’t feel like it really rises to “imprudent”, but I really don’t know that it will work either, honestly. Perhaps a games where you don’t pick a specific denomination? Or one where religion is more of a theme in the game, and not the point? Have you researched what’s out there? I know there’s some catholic card games.
 
Thought of something else. What if you chose a few saints who are celebrated in all of these denominations? Instead of people playing as competing religions, you play as your favorite saint? It would still be competitive, but for some reason, making the competitors people instead of denominations sounds better to me.
 
That’s actually a good point about the involvement of rather “controversial” topics during “fun” time. Plus with the target being mostly Catholics, it is true that they might feel weird about not playing their faith.
 
My thoughts exactly, I was at first thinking of a Catholic-themed game. The idea of other religions possibly winning was what set me off.
 
Do you already have a system in mind or are you just brainstorming the theme? Because if you already have the system I’m sure there are other factions that could fit the whole schism dynamic. Hypothetical political parties and online fan communities come to mind.
 
You don’t even have to change the game mechanics at all. Just don’t include the Catholics and Orthodox and make it a fight between Protestant denominations only! You can even name it Sola Scriptura for a little laugh!

(But you’d still need to find the right sort of people to play it - those who don’t get offended easily)
 
This is making me think of an improv game where people pitch the worst and silliest interpretations of scripture. There could even be a card system where you get to remove X number of words from a reading, or connect two lines that are nowhere near each other. (As others have said, this needs the right kind of players).

Reminds me of the Red Dwarf Line which I’ll paraphrase: “My parents were 7th Day Hopists. Their Bible had a misprint. ‘Faith, Hop, and Charity, and the greatest of these is Hop.’ So that’s what they did, every Sunday. Brunches were a nightmare…”
 
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  1. Why those churches? Why not the Oriental Orthodox, Church of the East, Methodists, Presbyterians, Quakers, Baptists, etc?
  2. It’s not clear how players get more points.
  3. How entertaining will this really be? Will there be things like, “Congratulations! You burned three Catholic bishops at the stake. Receive 10 points”, or, “You have been anathematised by the patriarch of Moscow. Return to square 1”?
  4. This will appeal to a very niche audience.
  5. People risk being offended. I don’t see much to gain from a board game that plays on rivalries between different Christian denominations. Think about it this way: would you create a board game in which players play as Poles, blacks, Jews, gypsies, Indians, Pakistanis, etc and try to win points? How? “Your village was burned to the ground in the pogrom. Lose 50 points”, “You wake up to find a burning cross on your lawn. Go back 10 squares”? Remember that for you this may be a game, but for many people this is deadly serious. You will think it is ridiculous to compare divisions between denominations to pogroms or the Klan, but think about people who from Northern Ireland and the former Yugoslavia.
  6. Concepts like excommunication, inquisition, and schism will not apply to all denominations equally. Some Protestants will say, “Communion? What communion?”, the Eastern Orthodox will say, “Inquisition? Did we have an Inquisition?”, Anglicans will say, “Schism? The schism with Rome? The schism with the Methodists? The schism within the Anglican Communion? Do we care even care about schisms?”
 
The premise reminds me of a game I play called To Court the King. The idea in that game is to be the one who gains the favor of the king. Now you can’t just start out saying “Hey, King!”. You have to roll dice to gain favor with lower characters like framers, tailors, soldiers. Doing so lets you roll more dice on your turn or manipulate die rolls. That allows you to court favor with higher ranking people like philosophers and bishops. Once someone courts favor with the queen everyone gets one last shot to court the king. It’s a fun game and takes about 30 minutes if everyone who is playing is familiar with the rules.

If you’re just making this for home use. then you can make character cards using layman and religious figures in place of the original ones.
 
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