The Board Game Faith Newsletter, Issue 20
Hello, Board Game Faithful!
Daniel: This coming week I’ll be leading a series of classes on the theology of play at a spiritual retreat sponsored by my church conference. I’m really grateful and excited for the opportunity, and also mindful that the content we will discuss represents countless insights and ponderings from Kevin, you, and the larger Board Game Faith community. Thank you for being a part of this joint effort to develop a practical theology of play over these last 16 months. I’ll try my best to represent this wonderful community, and I’ll be eager to share the experience with you! Plus, I’m also a little nervous, so if you’re the praying type, please know I’d greatly appreciate any prayers and/or good vibes! :)
Kevin: I got some of the youth together at our church (7 kids), and we played Happy Salmon and Coup. Happy Salmon is a great icebreaker because it gets you up and moving and it’s silly fun. But they liked Coup even more, which surprised me since they were very confused at first (they had never played a game like that before). What sums up being a teenager than being a goofball (Happy Salmon) and then lying and betraying one another in a gleeful fun way (Coup)? These were great experiences for nervous teens, and I’m so glad I’m in this hobby just for that.
Behind the Episodes
Kevin: We use riverside.fm (referral link if you are interested) to record and host our episodes, and it now uses AI to help generate the Shorts/Reels/Whatever clips that are so darn popular. It even transcribes the audio and burns the subtitles into the video! (These phrases like “burn,” “copy and paste,” “cut” are making less and less sense in a digital world, BTW.) The world continues to get more and more interesting.
Daniel: While it was so sad to record an episode without Kevin (who was sick!, it was also a joy to spend a few moments talking with Jamey Stegmaier about religion and games. He was every bit just as positive and respectful and helpful off air as he was on. Recording with him was a great experience.
Coming Up
Daniel: Our top 10 favorite games–and spiritual reasons why they’re awesome!! Many thanks to Kevin for the great idea. Will there be any crossovers? Will Kevin and I come to blows over the relative merits of Ameritrash and Euro games? Stay tuned to find out!
Kevin: Plus, a bit of a side story in the next episode is we end up psychoanalyzing our lists and why we like what we like, which was super-interesting. We all have our safe spaces, meaning the things we gravitate to that make us happy, even in board games. We live in a time of tremendous creativity and choice in board gaming so we can really gravitate to our personal favorite areas. Amazing.
Games We're All About Right Now
Kevin: Indie publishers, where have you been all my life? I’m falling hard for the magic of Hollandspiele and GMT Games (you can argue that GMT isn’t an indie board game publisher, they are big and established, and you are probably right). There’s something immediate and crunchy about these games – less slick and more narrow in interests. Plus they have footnotes! So I’m digging into Nicaea and Twilight Struggle.
Daniel: Recently I bought a couple of used games from our good friends Sam and Beckie (check them out at @gierer_gaming on Instagram). The first one I tried was Akrotiri, and I’m in love! This is my kind of game: tile placement, exploration, pick up and deliver, wooden cubes, treasure maps…so good! I only wish it could accommodate more than 2 players, but I understand if you buy another copy it can go up to 4.
Kevin: Weirdly enough, this is exactly the same boat Daniel had in college. Same color and everything. Oh, the fun we had paddling around the NC waterways!
Spirituality
Daniel: I’ve been thinking a lot recently about the importance of keeping our hearts open to other people. I’ve been thinking about it because–if I’m honest–I have often failed to keep my own heart as open as I probably should have. It’s so easy to close off our hearts and build walls around our souls. In fact, sometimes it’s necessary to do so in order to survive a particularly awful or abusive time.
But I hope I am slowly learning the Spirit’s lesson that in order for me to be my best self, I have to keep myself vulnerable and open to others more often than not. And I think that’s true for all of us. Unfortunately that means we will probably get hurt or let down at some point along the way, but I believe we will do greater harm to ourselves and others if we never allow ourselves to be open and vulnerable at all.
I wonder if the Psalmist had something along these lines in mind in writing Psalm 51: “you [God] have no delight in sacrifice; if I were to give a burnt offering, you would not be pleased. The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.”
Media We're Digging Right Now
Kevin: I binged The Night Agent on Netflix for no apparent reason and it was great fun. Stupid wacky spy intrigue things are SO MUCH FUN. It reminded me a lot of the old 24 TV show. “Whaaaat, she’s a traitor??” Keeping us guessing is part of the fun.
Daniel: The entire family went to see the Barbie movie last weekend, and we really loved it! It’s a very thoughtful film that obviously wants to do more than just capitalize on the intellectual property. The writer (Greta Gerwig) put in very apparent work to say something meaningful and authentic about being a woman (and a man) in today’s society, and in our view she succeeded wonderfully!
Thank you!
Thanks so much for being a part of the BGF community. We are grateful for each of you and the ways you make the world more awesome. And if you haven’t had a chance to tell us a little about yourself yet, we would love it if you could fill out this form please!