A little back story:
We, in the nethermost regions of the vineyard, have been blessed to have not only a spectacular ward to attend, but also some of the most fun, enjoyable, and down right nerdy missionaries one could hope for. In the few months that they've been here, we've shared conversations that range from incredibly deep scriptural and doctrinal discussions to downright silly and ridiculous discussions on fandoms and collective nerdities. Many times, these have overlapped - the number of times I've said "God speaks to me in pop culture references" is >0 per week. Often per day.
So it should be no surprise that at some point the idea of a game night for FHE (because we are, as of yet, childless and in possession of a great hosting house) came up. That morphed into an idea of playing Dungeons and Dragons, but since we'd be playing with missionaries, making it scriptural and playing through the stories found in the Book of Mormon. Anyone who's read any amount of the BoM knows that there are many high adventures to be had, with much blood shed and many souls saved. To that end, I welcome you to....
Mormons and Dragons
This blog will chronicle our attempts at playing through the BoM as an RPG. I'm hoping we can play at least once a month, and the adventures will need to be short - two hours or less, if possible. This week, we'll start with 1 Nephi 3-4, where our brave adventurers will need to retrieve the brass plates from King Laban's castle. More on that later.
A couple of housekeeping thoughts:
- Yes, the missionaries did ask their president for permission to play.
- No, they don't read any of the DnD books outside of the game night, and we do our best to respect their restrictions by reading passages to them instead of having them read for themselves.
- This is a true FHE, and as such will start with a prayer and a scripture (usually one relevant to the adventure for the night), and close with a prayer and a spiritual thought.
- Some blessings we've already seen include deeper reading into the stories of the BoM, deeper reading about the characters (the characters built for the group were based off of folks found in the BoM, named after them, or both), and a better appreciation for the trials that our ancestors went through in the BoM time period.
- The mechanics of the game will be based on DnD, but this DM will emphasize choosing the right as much as possible. (Even though that clearly did not always happen in the BoM.)
- Modifications to the stories will be for the sake of adding adventure (such as including mythical creatures and traps in Laban's castle), but will try to maintain the message of the stories.
- Parables won't likely be included in adventures - those are stories with a purpose other than historical bookkeeping, and are sacred. That's just my opinion and as such how I'll run the game. They may show up as answers to questions or in riddle form. I'm not sure.
- As the missionaries transfer in and out, hopefully the new ones will want to keep the game going. If not, we may have guest appearances by other ward members periodically, or gaps in play.
- If this concept interests you and you want to adapt it to your group, please do! And please let me know how it goes!
- I used a couple of apps to help us generate character stats, as most of us have not actually played DnD before. Just look for them in the app store.
More infor and details to come!
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