2023 has been a rough year for those of us who oversee the posts on the Christian Gamers Guild website. There were a few submissions from contributing authors which are languishing on hard drives and in e-mail boxes awaiting the attention of an editor, but the only articles that actually made it to the web site were the regular Faith in Play and RPG-ology series. We can only apologize to both writers and readers for our failure in this regard, and hope (not promise) to get those sorted and posted in the months ahead.
Our failure has included that not only did I not post this annual review on time, when I went to post it I didn’t find any trace of notes, images, or drafts for it, so this is being cobbled together not at the last minute but four days after the last minute. Again, mea culpa, I apologize.
This tradition to post an index of the past year’s articles on the last day was fulfilled in December of 2022 with 2022 at the Christian Gamers Guild Reviewed. In December of 2021 we published 2021 At the Christian Gamers Guild Reviewed, and in previous years 2020 at the Christian Gamers Guild Reviewed; 2019 at the Christian Gamers Guild Reviewed; Thirteen Months in Review; and Overview of the Articles on the New Christian Gamers Guild Website, taking us back to the launch of the updated website in 2016. So for anyone who missed something or wants to find something they remember, we’ll try it again for this past year.
The Faith in Play series was entering its sixth year, and early in the year the first five years of it were published in book (and e-book) form as Faith in Play: A Christian Look at Leisure, Volume I, with a foreword by “Geek Preacher” Derek White. This year brought:
- #62: Theocracy January 3, 2023, discussing forms of government and being led directly by God.
- #63: Inadequacy February 7, 2023, considering quests given to characters who do not believe they can succeed.
- #64: A Kingdom Allegory March 7, 2023, presenting a potential game or story setting.
- #65: Family April 4, 2023, about playing games with your kids.
- #66: Promises May 2, 2023, about character personal integrity as a means of expressing faith in a game.
- #67: Stance June 6, 2023, begins with player agency and discusses creativity and credibility.
- #68: Prayers July 4, 2023, discusses the pros and cons of having players speak the prayers their characters make in the game.
- #69: Steeple August 1, 2023, considers the origin and purpose of steeples, and their significance to our games and our lives.
- #70: Holy War September 5, 2023, looks at two distinct attitudes religious conquerers have toward their conquests.
- #71: Good Witch October 3, 2023, considers the notion of a good witch in fiction and in reality.
- #72: Backup November 7, 2023, considers safety nets, why referees take them away from us, and why sometimes God does so.
- #73: Pilgrimage December 5, 2023, suggests an adventure idea based on a caravan with a religious purpose.
The RPG-ology series also reached its five year mark, and was collected and published as RPG-ology Volume I: The First Five Years. The sixth year continued with:
- #62: File Cards January 17, 2023, suggesting ways the referee can use these for reference in play.
- #63: Pain February 21, 2023, reprints a Game Ideas Unlimited article of the same name, about severe pain overcoming the senses.
- #64: Signalling March 21, 2023, discusses the use of musical instruments as signalling devices in battle.
- #35: Dog April 18, 2023, reprints another Game Ideas Unlimited article about how animals think.
- #66: Identity May 16, 2023, recovers Game Ideas Unlimited: Flirting about exploring our own identities.
- #67: Map June 20, 2023, is a recovered Game Ideas Unlimited article about trying to make our worlds three-dimensional.
- #68: Expertise July 18, 2023, considers what distinguishes professionals from amateurs, and how to bring that into play.
- #69: Distracted August 15, 2023, looks at the possible use of a game mechanic for distractions.
- #70: Value September 12, 2023, recovers a Game Ideas Unlimited article about what gives things worth.
- #71: Time October 17, 2023, is another former Game Ideas Unlimited article about building clocks appropriate to your fictional world.
- #72: Multiple Staging November 14, 2023, from Game Ideas Unlimited, showing how separating the characters can help turn stories into epics.
- #73: Sense December 19, 2023, again comes from Game Ideas Unlimited, considering how the perceptions of our various characters might differ, and how that can impact game play.
Already 2024 has seen the release of another article in the Faith in Play series, and we anticipate these series to continue through the new year. We also hope, as mentioned, to be able to get articles submitted by other authors edited, formatted, and published, so that the new year will have a richer offering.
—M. J. Young
Chaplain, Christian Gamers Guild