Although I enjoy games, I have never ventured into the collectible card games such as Pokeman. There are some thing I think would be interesting, such as Anachronism, which features historical cultures like the Assyrians, Babylonians, Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans. This past Saturday, however, I happened upon Redemption at my local Christian bookstore.1
Redemption is similar to the other trading card games. You begin with starter decks and then modify your decks by trading with other players and buying expansion packs. But Redemption is based on the Bible. Each card represents a character from the Bible (both humans and angles/demons), an enhancement (faith, hope, tears for a friend, etc.), a site (Jerusalem, Roman prison, Babylonian exile, etc.), or a lost soul. The goal of the game is to use your heroes to fight the other player’s evil characters in order to redeem a lost soul. The first person who redeems five lost souls wins.
My son and I have played a few games so far. From a gaming standpoint, it seems to be enjoyable. What I am finding even more entertaining is the theological aspect.
Part of it is just plain fun. I love being able to send Jeremiah up against Ahaziah or Paul up against Nebuchadnezzar. Then I play the ark of the covenant card to enhance my hero’s powers, but my son counters by sending locust against me. Such fun! The expansion packs are also cool: Patriarchs, Priests, Prophets, Apostles, etc. I find the expansion pack “Women” to be a bit odd. Why women have to be separate is beyond me. Fortunately, the women are just as powerful as the men. Job’s wife, for instance, is a formidable evil character, while Ruth is a strong hero.
One aspect that is somewhat odd is the fact that you control not only good characters but evil ones as well. This is necessitated by the set up of the game. The only other option, I suppose, would be to have one player be the good characters while the other was evil. This would lead to one player trying to redeem the lost souls while the other tried to wrest them away once they had been saved. I doubt this would have gone over well with the “Once saved, always saved” crowd.
As it is, you spend your turn trying to win lost souls from your opponent. When it is the other player’s turn, however, you are trying to prevent the souls from being won. There is a sort of dualism here that would be disturbing were this not a game. The two players end up being two mischievous gods who use both good and evil characters to try to win more souls for themselves. In this respect, the game is more Greek than biblical.
One theological aspect that I did like is the fact that a hero can still redeem a lost soul even if the hero dies in battle. The creators of the game write that just as Christ died to save us, so our heroes can redeem lost souls through their own death. I find it somewhat odd to have Jacob or Ezekiel dying to save a lost soul, but I suppose we can simply say that Jacob is taking up his own cross to follow Jesus, and in doing so he lives out the redemptive act of Christ.
It is also a learning experience for my son. For example, one card has a special ability that gives characters from the NT additional strength. So, he has to determine which characters are from the NT and which are from the OT. He also takes the time to read the verse at the bottom of each card, so he is at least getting to know a little about the characters.
I will try to post a few pictures of some of the cards over the next couple of days.
- Insert bad jokes here: “Redemption for just $11.95! What a great price.” or “You got Redemption? About time!” [back]
