Missions? Impossible!

“Missions? Who … Us? Impossible!”
As anyone who has ever had to come up with a “winning idea” knows the same thing rarely works twice. The same goes for missions in the church. Yester-year’s tea socials and bake sales just don’t pack them in like they used to. It’s time to get radical. It’s time to get whimsical. It’s time to go out on a limb and invest yourself in a scheme that’s just so absurdly crazy it might even work! … Or not …

Ages: 10(ish)+

Players: 2-6

Interesting Features: Playing it safe does not pay off! By having one less mission project each round than players ready to invest, competition is built right in!

Extras Needed: deck of ordinary Playing Cards (or 2 or 3), lots and lots of tokens (pennies, chips, stones) for each player

DOWNLOAD: MISSIONS IMPOSSIBLE

Printing Suggestions: Rules are designed to be printed on both sides of the same 8.5X11 (just fold it in half when done) The Tiles should be printed on heaver paper (or glued to it) before being cut out.

Designer’s Notes: What can I say? There really isn’t much of an “interesting” story behind this one … and that suits the game. Originally this was begun as a game design for a specific group of mission-minded Ladies at the LWML (Lutheran Women’s Missionary League). Only problem was I went way over budget. OK, so there really wasn’t any budget, it just sounded better than saying I took way too long to finish it. (It’s the story of my life!) So now I have this game with a very specific theme that not everyone can appreciate, but is still lots of fun. So I’m going to risk it. Gambling and the Church don’t mix? Wanna bet?

Building Babel

A Grandiose little card game for those who think highly of themselves and what they can accomplish!. It’s easy to learn but hard to win! It takes a subtle balance of working together AND looking out for yourself … Not to mention a whole lot of praying that the Big Guy Upstairs won’t end the whole thing before you’re finished! Players try to build the legendary “TOWER OF BABEL” while God is out to stop them! (He said something about new neighbours and His property values going way down!)

Ages: 10(ish)+

Players: 3-6

Interesting Features: By working together you have a better chance of completing the Tower, but only the one who completed the most levels will get the honours! (Unless God stops the whole thing before it’s done … Then they get the Blame instead!)

Extras Needed: A deck of ordinary Playing Cards (with or without the Jokers), some different tokens for each player.

DOWNLOAD: BUILDING BABEL

Printing Suggestions: Rules are designed to be printed on both sides of the same 8.5X11 (just fold it in thirds when done).

Designer’s Notes: Being a Christian, there has been a desire to design at least a few of my games around Biblical themes (I’m a little biased). But how can you do that and still remain true to the overall idea of the Scriptures … don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that the Bible can’t be fun (just read the book of Judges some day). The trick is how do you have fun with it BUT without rewriting what happens in it? Worse yet, how do you do a Biblically based game without it being totally detatched from good taste. The world DOES NOT need another Bible Trivia game (uuuuggghh!). In Genesis Chapter 11 I saw just such an opportunity. Could they have actually built the tower … no way. Can you actually win this game? Maybe … Probably not … But it’s fun trying!