A.D. 30 Designer’s Notes A game about the life of Jesus, no matter how carefully considered or reverent, due to the very nature of the subject, will be controversial. It’s simply impossible to bring forth all the varying beliefs and points of view about Jesus and encapsulate them into one unifying document or game without unintentionally offending or causing disagreement. My design goal with the game A.D. 30 is not to try to force any one particular set of beliefs or interpretation of history and force the player to live it. Instead, using the Bible (Revised Standard Version) as my source, A.D. 30 explores the very inception of a religion that is currently represented by over two billion people on the planet. A.D. 30 examines the spark of miraculous circumstances woven together at Christianity’s beginning and the volatile time and place in which Jesus lived. The game provides 14 possible outcomes, all of which demonstrate to the player the extraordinary set of circumstances that actually took place and were necessary to achieve the historical result and engender the birth of Christianity. Some will find that ANY possible alternate outcome is offensive or perhaps even frightening. But the vehicle in which this story is told is a game of strategy, and for it to be a strategy game, of necessity, it must include possibilities for varying degrees of success or failure. A.D. 30 is solitaire only game, but it can be enjoyed (and even studied) cooperatively in a group setting. It would certainly make a great departure point for a Sunday school discussion after the class has played it cooperatively. While a roll-andmove game that follows along the life of Jesus in historical order like a train on a set of tracks might ultimately be a better way to teach the life of Jesus from a religious viewpoint, the design goals for this game are different – and the audience for this type of game will be different as well. I enjoy and appreciate the fact that any controversy this game engenders will bring new discussion and interest to the subject, and all the while still delivering an entertaining gameplay experience as well. The Beginnings: I began this game design project out of personal fulfillment and interest. I had initially planned on perhaps showing it to a few people and playing it with them, but I am quite humbled to discover the large amount of interest that A.D. 30 has sparked. I now feel the weight of that responsibility which accompanies these expectations. The inspirations for this game’s engine come from Victory Points Games’ States of SiegeTM series, and the game Yggdrasil from Z-Man Games. Because A.D. 30 began as a personal project, I intended for it to be a solitaire game from the start. The driving mechanic is the 25 Event cards, which are shuffled and revealed one at a time and keep track of “the turns.” The deck is arranged so that the Baptism of Jesus is always the first
card and the Entry into Jerusalem is the final card, thus the “story” is framed by this time period in the life of Jesus. The remaining 23 cards are shuffled together and enacted randomly, although a variant exists allowing for the deck to be sorted historically and played in that exact order. Each card represents one event in the life of Jesus, taken from the four Bible scriptures of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. The random order can result in some odd “out-ofsequence” moments for those familiar with the story, but they allow for the GAME to have more replay value and challenge from that randomness. This is in line with other historical games, such as GMT Games’ popular Twilight Struggle. Like Yggdrasil and the States of SiegeTM games, A.D. 30 has “enemies” (the antagonists in this story) who move inexorably forward, one step at a time. If they reach their final goal, the game is over. In A.D. 30, these antagonists are the primary religious and political leaders of that region during the life of Jesus, represented by Pontius Pilate (the Roman Prefect of the region), Caiaphas (High Priest of the Pharisees appointed by Pilate), and Herod Antipas (ruler of Galilee, a Jewish client state of Rome where Jesus did much of his teaching). Events in the deck cause these leaders to become more concerned about Jesus (and thus moving one space closer to taking action), until they finally decide they must act and arrest Jesus. I made the decision to use these three leaders because they are three whom Jesus goes before during his trial, according to the Gospel of Luke. The original game had over 50 cards in the Event deck, but I paired them down to make the game playable in a reasonable amount of time. It was hard to cut back from what was already a tight set of events, but I made my decisions based on game play and trying to focus on actions rather than teachings. Consequently, most of the parables have been removed from the deck, but they are symbolically represented through the Teach Action available in the game, which increases the numbers of followers and/or Apostles. A.D. 30 is different from the aforementioned games that inspired its mechanics, however, in that to achieve a Major Victory (i.e., the historical outcome), it is essential that one or more of those leaders becomes concerned enough to arrest Jesus. It is also essential that Judas betray Jesus. But the goal isn’t to “lose” the game, then. You must gain followers through teaching and performing miracles, represented in the game by recruiting Apostles and making it easier to distract the opposition leaders. Once you have achieved those goals, and fended off temptations from Satan, then you must enter Jerusalem, where you have carefully planned for the betrayal by Judas and the arrest by one of the leaders. If not, you might find your story (and hence history) to be altered a bit. Design Decisions: Theme vs. Game In some cases, the theme or story dictated what mechanic I put in the game. In other cases, the game demanded a feature that I found myself having to explain thematically. Allow me to elaborate…
The Approach to Jerusalem: In one sense, the game has five individuals converging on Jerusalem. In the other games that inspired A.D. 30, if any of those five actually reach their destination, the game ends in a loss. But in A.D. 30, reaching Jerusalem does not necessarily mean failure, depending on who reaches Jerusalem and the status of Jesus’ situation in the game. This led me to produce what ultimately became fourteen possible endings, and a lot of thinking about what would have happened had things not followed the events of the Bible exactly. While I managed to come up with some ideas for these different epilogues to the game, I think it would be a great intellectual exercise for a group discussion to consider these alternate endings and ponder what might have happened if things had gone differently, and why it was critically important that things happened as they did. Whether or not you accept the possibility of alternate outcomes, the times were volatile and had events not proceeded as they had, history could have been seriously altered. When considering Jesus’ story in the Scripture, that is a matter of faith; in the annals, that is a matter of history; but in a strategy game, this story is explored through player decision-making in response to changing circumstances, with its lessons including an appreciation of how challenging and important it was that things went as they did. Caiaphas, Herod, and Pilate: If any of these reach antagonists reach Jerusalem, and Jesus has not yet arrived there, thematically this represents that leader becoming so concerned that he has gone out and arrested Jesus before all was ready. What would have happened if Herod had decided to capture Jesus, as he did with John the Baptist? What if Pilate had decided that Jesus was a political threat to Rome? Obviously these things did not happen, but a good strategy game explores the “what ifs?” as much as it explores the historical outcomes, and teaches through simulation the circumstances faced at that time and place. Jesus in Jerusalem: In early game testing, A.D. 30 often ended with Jesus arriving in Jerusalem before the final card was drawn, and often before all the Apostles were recruited… as if it was “an accident” that Jesus entered into the city! This was bad thematically because Jesus would not have entered Jerusalem before He was ready, and bad from a game standpoint because it was too difficult to complete the game successfully. To address this, I added Gethsemane to the map locations. It didn’t make sense to be able to recruit Apostles in that location, but it becomes a perfect location both to Pray (regain energy and spirit) and Wander (to return to Bethany and teach before making the final entrance). Because of the Divine Success marker in this space, it is now almost impossible for Jesus to enter Jerusalem before He is ready. Testers have noted how nice it is thematically, as well, that Jesus can visit Gethsemane to pray before His triumphant entrance into Jerusalem.
So what happens when Jesus enters Jerusalem? First, Judas looks for someone to whom he can betray Jesus. This is represented in A.D. 30 by Judas moving two spaces forward, meaning that Judas must already be in Despair (space 4) or Seeking Betrayal (space 5) to actually enter into Jerusalem on his own to seek out an authority figure. Then, if Judas is in Jerusalem, he finds any of the three antagonists on their 4, 5, or 6 spaces as the person to whom he betrays Jesus. So what happens if Jesus makes it to Jerusalem, but Judas does not? In that case, Jesus escapes arrest, because even if any of the three antagonists have made it to Jerusalem, without a person to betray Jesus, they cannot find Him, and so His ministry continues. Once again, that possible outcome presented some interesting “what if” questions. Judas in Jerusalem: As above, Judas seeks out one of three authority figures who has reached a heightened sense of concern about Jesus and pleads his case for an arrest. But if none of those leaders have moved ahead far enough (into an Arrest in Jerusalem space), and Jesus is not yet in Jerusalem, then the game does not end. Judas is the only leader who can end in Jerusalem without ending the game. So once again, this presents a great “what if” question. What if Judas broke from Jesus and tried to betray Him, but nobody would listen? In the game sense, Judas exits the game, which means that Jesus cannot be found and arrested, and the historical outcome is not possible. The Apostles: From a game standpoint, recruiting the Apostles becomes the most important aspect of achieving victory, and the trickiest aspect of the game to manage. Thematically, recruiting the 12 Apostles here represents Jesus teaching and gathering many followers along the way, and not just Apostles themselves. Some of the Apostles are also given special abilities based on their Biblical references, such as Simon with his zealots, or Andrew and his knowledge of geographic region. In a foreshadowing to Acts, the Apostles (who are technically just Disciples at this point) are allowed to go out on their own in the game, taking some of the attention away from Jesus directly. The Desert: This aspect is one that I was conflicted about including in A.D. 30, but if managed properly, Satan and temptation should not be a serious threat. However, if the cards come out in a particularly bad way, it might require some difficult strategic decisions on how to handle the Desert. For game purposes, it represents a nice break from the easy recruiting at the River Jordan and then moving onwards to the more populated regions. Once Jesus moves beyond the Desert, it’s unlikely He’ll ever move back to the River Jordan. Wrapping it up: We notice a great deal about the birth of Jesus at Christmas, and His crucifixion and resurrection at Easter, but often the actual life of Jesus is overlooked in the public
eye. My hope is that A.D. 30 inspires people to look deeper into the life of Jesus, and perhaps reflect upon their own beliefs and understandings of it through the events and elements presented in the game and opens up dialogs with others of faith. I also hope that people who aren’t particularly religious enjoy the strategic mechanics in the game and perhaps learn more about the beginnings of Christianity along the way, even from purely historical perspective. I know that A.D. 30 isn’t a deeply scholarly game, and people well versed in this story are going to find it simplified in terms of the plot’s development, but for many it will serve as a great departure point for their own study, and pursuing further education of this story is always ennobling. As a game, A.D. 30 delivers a thought-provoking experience by offering lots of intriguing choices each turn. Unlike other games where you are trying to prevent everything from happening, in this one, allowing for some “bad things” to happen become necessary to achieve the only Major Victory in the game (which is the historical outcome), and riding this narrow path, hopefully, makes it a strategically rich gameplay experience. I listen to the soundtrack to “Jesus Christ Superstar” from Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice quite a bit as I drive around. I know that it had its share of controversy when it came out, and it still does. And yet, 41 years after its debut on Broadway, I still find it interesting, entertaining, and inspiring. My hope is that, 41 years from now, A.D. 30 can capture a tiny slice of that same interest and inspiration in an entertaining way. − Tom Decker
