Missionary Novelty Company

In my search for LDS themed games and places to find them, I came across the Missionary Novelty Company (link). It looks like they have a lot of games to offer: Build the Kingdom, Greatest Mission in the World, LDSopoly, etc. (I think I saw LDSopoly in Deseret Book here in Logan the other day.) They have both English and Spanish version of pretty much all their games.

As I looked over their games, it seemed to me that a lot of them are very much like remakes of already published games; I'll take Build the Kingdom as an example. Here's a quote from their website about the game:

You’ve been called to the “Greatest Mission in the World”, Earth. Your duty is to build the Kingdom of God by placing Books of Mormons (BoM), gaining converts and building ward houses. First player to gain 10 Celestial points wins. You gain Celestial points by placing the most BoMs, obtaining Principals of the Gospel cards-Faith, Repentance, Baptism, Prayer, “Preach My Kingdom”- which produces the most converts, and building the most ward houses with prayer and baptisms. Principal cards can be traded in to produce BoM, converts and ward houses. Beware of Satan who can slow your progress.

There is also a short video that describes the game that you can watch:



Sounds and looks interesting. From this description and images though, it does sound a little bit like Settlers of Catan (we've even got Settlers of Zarahemla that has been done LDS style). I wasn't sure so I looked at the rules which they have up on their site (link). I have to say, this is a great idea. I like it when I can find the rules for a game. It helps me know a little more what I'm getting into before I buy.

Anyway, after looking over the rules, I would have to say this game is very much like Settlers of Catan. Converts and Books of Mormon are used, as opposed to settlements and roads, and Satan is referred to instead of the robber. It was very easy to read the rules and understand the game. That is definitely important.

After looking over their site and the games they have to offer, I am stuck with two questions. 1) Does anyone have any experience with any games from Missionary Novelty Company? and 2) Why are so many of the LDS themed games available remakes of games that have already been published (without the LDS theme of course)?

My Portfolio

Published Games


Hagoth: Builder of Ships (pre-order the game)
Being published by Mayday Games


 
Published Artwork

Nepal: Trade & Intrigue at the Top of the World
Being published (2nd edition) by BluePantherLLC. Now available!



Designed Games
Armor of God
Peril in the Promised Land
Temple Builders

Temple Builders

Many different kinds of "resources" are needed in order for a temple to be built. There are the obvious things, like a spot of ground, the building materials, and the construction workers. But there many other things that are needed that are more important.

For example, righteous members of the church are needed. They need to pay tithing, attend church meetings, pray, keep the commandments, and study the scriptures, just to name a few.

Temple Builders is a cooperative game, for children ages 4 and up. where players work together to build the temple. They begin by collecting these other important resources which they can then trade in for the "physical building blocks" of the temple. Once they have collected all the blocks that make up the physical build of the temple they can put it together however they wish.

The game is played by rolling dice, looking to roll doubles, triples, etc. all the while watching out for the dreaded X that might show up. Too many Xs and you will have to give up the valuable resources without which you will never be able to finish building the temple.

This is the first of what I hope to make a line of games aimed at children 4 years old and up. I'm currently working on making a variation of my Armor of God game for kids.

A New, as yet, Un-named Game

It's been a while since I've introduced a new game, but the wait is finally over!!!

Anyway, the guild was having a sort of in-house competition and Phil gave out some restrictions that needed to be adhered to if anyone wanted to design a game for the competition. Well, this is my attempt.

The players take on the role of a group of "-ites" or a tribe. For example, when I play I am the Mike-ites (super cheese there). The object is to develop your tribe to be the most righteous (represented by a 10-sided die) and to have the strongest army (represented by a 6-sided die). At the end of the game, your weakest of the two will be the points you score. So you have to be sure to develop both of them throughout the game.

To increase righteousness and army strength cards (each player has his/her own deck) are used. This is done by getting sets of 3 or runs of 3 (4 different suits make up the cards: Preaching, Army, Title of Liberty, and Gadianton Robber). Here is where I've tried to add something a little different. At the beginning of the game each player shuffles their deck of cards and then draws the top 4 cards. These now constitute the player's hand. The rest of the deck can be looked at by the player and reordered according to their desire and pleasure. This now constitutes the draw pile. Then, once all players have done this, the top 3 cards from the draw pile are drawn and placed face up next to the draw pile for all to see. On a player's turn one option they have it to draw a card. They may draw from the top of their own draw pile or may select any face up card. So, each player knows the order of cards in their draw pile, but not exactly when each card will come up. A little different, but it makes things interesting.

The Sword of Laban and the Brass Plates (both represented by 4-sided dice) are also on the board and having control of them also increases your army strength (with the Sword of Laban) and righteousness (with the Brass Plates).

The board is made up of hexes. The hexes contain pathways of two colors. Your righteousness and army dice move along one of the colored paths. Once you control the Sword of Laban or the Brass Plates, you can move them along the other colored path.

Peril in the Promised Land

Peril in the Promised Land is a cooperative game where players take on the role of one of the captains in the Nephite army in an attempt to recover cities that have been lost to the Lamanites. They play against the game itself, the Lamanites/King-Men as they attempt to take over Zarahemla.

Players get to setup the board in any fashion they like. It is composed of hex shaped pieces that fit together to create the Promised Land. The Nephite captains start in Zarahemla and must recover 3 of the 6 cities currently occupied by Lamanite forces. Furthermore, to win the game, players must raise a total of 3 Titles of Liberty.

On the players turn he/she has the option to move, draw a card, play a card, or fortify a city. Cards allow players to do things like attack or defend. The Lamanite action for each players turn is decided by the roll of a die. The Lamanites may end up attacking, defending, or the King-Men may advance closer to the Judgment Seat (the player may also lose some of the members of his army). If the Lamanites end up capturing Zarahemla or if the King-Men arrive at the Judgment Seat, then the players lose.

Do you have what it takes to lead your Nephite army forces under the Title of Liberty to retake your homes and lands?