The Board Game Faith Newsletter, Issue 7
Hello, Board Game Faithful!
Daniel: Happy New Year, everyone! One of the special joys of the year gone by has been getting to know different members of this Board Game Faith family. Kevin and I have had the chance to become friends with folks from the UK, Saudi Arabia, Canada, across the US, and more. We’ve loved every minute of it (except for that time Kevin hid my copy of Ark Nova under his shirt and took it back to North Carolina). Thank you for a great year, all you awesome people. We can’t wait to share 2023 with you!
Kevin: As someone who doesn’t get into holidays that much, I say hooray for the new year and normalcy! (I have proposed to the Galactic Council that holidays be canceled but that we get 3 day weekends instead. Wouldn’t that be better??) I do wish you a happy and healthy 2023. I have had to buy a new shirt after tearing that one with Ark Nova (sharp corners and all), but free stuff is so WORTH IT.
Last Episode
In our latest episode (21 - “How to Set Up a Board Game Group in Your Place of Worship”), we reference a document that summarizes the show’s main points. If you’d like to download it and read it for yourself, you can find it here.
Next Episode
Daniel: Next episode (22), we’re diving into history! We’ll be taking a look at King Alfonso X’s Book of Games. Translated in 1283 from an older Arabic text, the document attempts to catalog every table game played at the time in Alfonso’s corner of the world, while occasionally connecting them with reflections on God and the meaning of life. If you’d like to download a copy of the book for your own reading, you can find a PDF of it at our Discord channel.
Kevin: I’ve been thinking about the very interesting connections between games and magic for our ancestors, as featured in this SU&SD video. It makes so much sense that it seemed magical to roll that perfect number, or to predict the future, or to think the cosmos was some giant game. Alfonso was thinking along these lines in the 1200s. And here we are, with some scientists wondering if the universe is some vast computer generated simulation!
Games We're All About Right Now
Kevin: I’m enjoying Daniel’s copy of Ark Nova. (Okay,
it’s my own copy of Ark Nova. Finally! Daniel’s is in the basement as backup copy.) It’s so cool! I like the massive amount of cards that give variety to the game. I do wish it was a more escapist theme that makes my heart sing (robots, aliens, lasers, and so on), but that is my only complaint. Tom Vasel predicted a year ago that Ark Nova would become a permanently beloved game and he has been right. I have also dipped into Final Girl some, which is just so joyously fun.
Daniel: I’m grateful to have received several games over the holidays: Tzolk’in, Hadara, Hansa Teutonica, Skyjo, L.L.A.M.A., and Three Sisters (jointly with Kristen). I’m thoroughly enjoying all of them, and will probably write about each in the future, but I’ll just start off today with Hansa Teutonica: I love it so much! It’s so clever and absorbing, yet with very little set up and take down time. I can’t stop thinking about it. The only problem is that it is a minimum 3-player, and I can’t find a third player to join Kristen and me, despite what I thought was an irresistible sales pitch (“hey, does anybody want to play a game about medieval northern German trading routes?”).
Spirituality
Kevin: In Sunday School last week we discussed John the Baptist. I was struck by just how strange a character he is, and how brazen he was (calling the temple leaders a brood of vipers), and how Jesus needs him to set the stage. In the gospels, you can’t tell the story of Jesus without starting with John the Baptist.
Daniel: Is there a difference between being “spiritual” and being “religious”? I’ve been trying to look into this question for a while now (you may remember me mentioning it last issue), because I believe the answer to it can inform our understanding of what Board Game Faith is all about. If there really are “spiritual benefits” to board gaming, what are they? Can we measure them? And can they be applied across religious traditions? A recent piece of the puzzle for me has been Dr. Lisa Miller’s discussion of studies by Dr. Kenneth Kendler (Virginia Commonwealth University) which explore the differences between the two concepts. You can read more in her book, The Awakened Brain.
Media We're Digging Right Now
Kevin: The Banshees of Inisherin (HBO Max in USA) is completely nutty but absolutely engrossing. Same thing for The Menu (Netflix USA). I started reading Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace and guess what – also nutty. But Wallace is a genius, and I’m sad that he died so relatively young.
Daniel: Kristen and I cannot resist a good “cozy murder” series: shows (often British) which follow the adventures of a particular detective who seeks to unravel the mysteries surrounding a different murder (of which we are usually spared the gore and violence) each episode. One of our recent favorites has been Three Pines, a Canadian mystery (Amazon Prime USA) which features a lead detective who is wonderfully decent, gentle, and compassionate.
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!