I'll second the consensus on CREDO. The gameplay is lacking, but
the game is remarkably fun to read and fiddle with. Plus, the
historical pamphlet it comes with is as concise and well-written a
history of the early Church as you'll likely ever see.
The basic gameplay is centered around negotiating the Nicean Creed.
Player introduce various articles and then vote, backstab, and
connive to get them integrated into the final draft. What makes it
brilliant is that the game contains ALL of the possible
interpretations of the faith that existed at that time - you can
get a dualistic creed ("I believe in two gods..."), a gnostic
creed, arian, monophysique, or even a pagan creed ("I believe in
one God, Jesus Christ, CHOSEN AVATAR OF THE UNCONQUERED SUN"). Most
likely you'll end up with an incoherent collection of contradictory
articles making up the final creed - like others have said, it's
historically accurate!
All of this takes place against a backdrop of historical events and
manuevering. Declare heresies, browbeat other bishops into joining
your faction, discover the true cross, lobby to incorporate
apocryphal works into the New Testament (think how much cooler the
Bible would be if it had The Miracles Of The Infant Jesus or The
Secret Testimony of Mary Magdalene) - it's all there. There are
some pretty sly jokes in the card mix, too - many of the different
Creed articles are phrased nearly identically, and I think the true
cross can be discovered more than once.
The game really shines in its concept - the notion that the bedrock
principles of modern christianity were derived by no-holds-barred
political manuevering and blind chance, best represented by
Illuminati or Junta style gameplay can be a real shock to the
system of someone who isn't familiar with how contentious the early
church was. The historical accuracy makes the game's point hard to
dismiss. Plus, the notion of rewriting the Nicene Creed as an
explicitly pagan (or zoroastrian, or neo-platonic) document is just
too much fun, despite the so-so gameplay.
Comment statistics for FMguru on the Making Light blog
The most recent 20 comments posted to Making Light by FMguru:
Show all comments by FMguru.