Hadrian's Wall: A Solo Review

Someday, I’ll actually get to England and see Hadrian’s Wall for myself… but until that point, I’m stuck with surfing the Web to find pictures. For the uninformed, many parts of what remains of the Wall look like overly thick decorative walls – in some places as tall as nine feet (3 meters), but much of the Wall is substantially shorter. (Many of the stones that made up Hadrian’s Wall were carted off over the years to be used in other projects… kind of like a 19th century version of your standard HGTV renovation show.)

Playing the new flip & write game – Hadrian’s Wall – does not require me to “cross the pond” but instead cross off a number of boxes and symbols on my way to doing my duty as a Roman general, building a milecastle and the bordering wall. While the basic game mechanics are simple and straightforward…

• Flip and resolve some cards
• Take resources based on your decisions
• Use those resources to train your troops and build structures
• Face the onslaught of the Picts

…the game itself involves a myriad of decisions in how to best utilize what you’ve been given to accomplish your mission. 

From here on out, I’ll be focusing on how the game plays as a solo exercise. Near the end, I’ll offer my completely uninformed opinion about Hadrian’s Wall as a multiplayer game as well.

I Have Seen the Writing on the Wall

The first thing you’ll notice when you pick up the game box is how dang heavy it is for a flip-n-write game… and that’s due to two very thick (and large) pads of paper.

A digression: what do I call these? Scorepads? Score reams? Well, that’s not exactly right – this is more like a paper game board. The rule book calls them Game Pads… but that just makes me think of controllers for my son’s Nintendo Switch. 

Anyway, you (the solo player) take one of each page to make up an 18×9 writing space. Directly above it is your player board that shows the progress of the six game rounds and acts as a holding area for your workers and resources. 

With your trusty #2 pencil (or ink pen, if you’re the kind of person who never makes a mistake) in hand, this double-wide writing area is where all the action happens.

We Don’t Need No Thought Control

Each round, you flip the top card of the Fate deck to receive a set of workers and resources. (The number of workers & resources total 8 on each card, though they vary in amount of workers from 1-3 of each type and 0-2 resources.) You also receive resources based on your resource production (which can be improved throughout the game) and extra workers if you have built the appropriate buildings to attract them.

Then, you flip over two cards from your personal player deck – choosing one to slot under the player board to create end game scoring bonuses and one to place to the side which gives you more workers and/or resources.

Finally, you turn over one card from a second player deck to give you additional areas to scout and a different good to purchase. (This mechanic is used in both 1-2 player games to simulate other players.)

You will have three cards “visible” for each round

• the Fate card (which has a possible good for purchase)
• your Player card (which shows an area to send Scouts to examine)
• the other Player card (which has both a good to purchase and an area for Scouts to, well, scout)

And now the spending of workers and resources begins… you alone decide from a veritable cornucopia of options where to pay to fill in various parts of your community to accomplish a wide variety of objectives.

The left hand “page” of your game board is about the wall and milecastle:

• Increase your cohorts to defend the wall
• Send servants out to harvest resources and increase resource production
• Put soldiers forward as the Wall Guard against attacks from the Picts
• Use Builders and resources to finish the Fort, erect the Wall and prepare the Cippi
• Granaries are essential to allow more development
• Train a Builder to fight as a soldier at the Training Grounds
• Build Hotels, Workshops, and Roads to increase the number of workers
• Use the Forum to retrain workers to do other jobs

The right hand “page” of your game board is about building your community in order to support and enhance your work. Your Citizen workers help attract important groups of Romans who then allow various buildings and opportunities:

• Traders let you create Precincts and open the Market (which allows you to buy Goods)
• Performers help open a Theatre and the Ludus Gladiatorious (bring on the bread & circuses!)
• Priests tend their Gardens and erect ever larger Temples (which can curry Favor to mitigate losses in battle)
• Appariotores allow for the creation of the Baths (a perfect place to bride officials to forget about your shortcomings) and the Courthouse
• Patricians provide you with Diplomats (who can placate the invading Picts) and Scouts

Many spaces on your game “pages” contain a symbol that lets you mark off a space on a different place on the board or provides you with another worker or resource. Setting up chain effects is a particularly enjoyable part of the game design.

Some of the symbols lead you to mark off the four scoring tracks:

• Renown
• Piety
• Valour
• Discipline

These tracks provide end game points as well as additional workers. They also open up the possibility of building landmarks at high enough levels.

Yes, it’s overwhelming the first time you play. Take your time and go back to look at the rules for a particular building or area. Some things you build must be built in order; others allow you to mark boxes as needed. Still other areas require you to note the round number as you can only use them a limited number of times each round.

A strong suggestion: use your first couple of games to explore the space and try things. Don’t spend a lot of mental energy trying to figure out your best move when there is so much going on – it’s more important that you get a feel about how different elements of this game interact.

It’s also important to note that you won’t build everything. This is not Agricola – you can’t (and shouldn’t) try to do a little bit of everything. You’re going to need to lean in a particular direction.

Don’t Be Surprised When a Crack in the Ice Appears Under Your Feet

At the end of each round, the blue-painted folks from the North appear to attack your fortifications. You turn over cards from the Fate deck which indicate where the Picts send their troops – to your left, center, or right. Attacks that are repulsed earn you Valour; attacks that break through give you Disdain.

The Fate deck has one other use that I couldn’t find a great place to mention – so, since it’s combat-adjacent, I’ll put it here. When your gladiators fight, you flip a Fate card in order to see how much damage they take.

How Should I Complete the Wall?

The player deck offers twelve different scoring opportunities (worth 0-3 points each, for a maximum possible score of 18).

• Final Disdain
• Completed Wall Sections
• Completed Cohorts
• Complete Wall Guard Sections
• Filled Temples
• Completed Citizen Tracks
• Total Gladiator Strength
• Completed Scout Columns
• Collected Goods
• Resource Production
• Large Buildings
• Constructed Landmarks

Six of these will be under your player board to be scored at the end of the game.

Add to that four main scoring tracks worth from 0-25 points each. Subtracted from that score is the amount of Disdain you received from losing battles against the Picts. 

And with that, you see if you are worthy of leadership… or likely to be working on the next milecastle carting rocks to the site. (Personally, I’ve chosen 60 points as the threshold to count as a win –  though it’s the second tier in the rulebook rating system. With that metric, I’ve won three of my eight plays of the game.)

There are three difficulty settings – which are based on the number of Pict attacks you receive at the end of each of the six rounds. Personally, I find the middle (“Normal”) setting to offer the nicest balance between challenge and freedom to pursue a mix of objectives.

Is There Anybody Out There?

As the title makes clear, this is a review about Hadrian’s Wall as a solo game (see my final thoughts below)… but I still have a couple of thoughts about playing it multiplayer. I will stipulate that I haven’t actually played HW with anyone else, which means you need to take my next paragraphs with a rather large grain of salt.

There is very little interaction built into the game engine – only if you choose to send out a Scout or purchase a Trade Good will you give any workers or resources to one of your neighboring players. There are no racing portions of the game – in other words, no player gets a bonus for finishing their wall faster or winning the most battles against the Picts or (says the former theater kid) putting on the most plays at their theater. 

In some ways, I think this low level of interaction is probably a good thing. The tableau of two sheets of paper is very busy and would be extremely difficult to read across the table – thus leading to frustration as players would have little or no idea what their opponents were doing. 

On the other hand, I’m not sure there’s a great need to push for a full table of players to “get the real experience”. Your mileage may vary, of course… and, because I’m a stand-up guy, I once again remind you that I’ve only played this solo.

There’s Nothing You Can Say to Make Me Change My Mind

So, with all that information about how the game plays (and how the card decks are structured)… what do I think of Hadrian’s Wall as a game?

Honestly, I like it a lot. I’m intrigued by the choices I have as a player and the myriad pathways you can attempt in your quest for accolades and glory. After the first couple of plays that ran about 60-70 minutes, I’m now (just finished game #8 last night) knocking out games in about 35-40 minutes.

The same kinds of resource management issues that draw me into games like Terraforming Mars, Oh My Goods (and it’s cousin, Expedition to Newdale), and Empires of the North are an integral part of Hadrian’s Wall as well. (I’m not saying it’s just like those games or “if you love TM, you’ll love HW”.) These kinds of decisions make for solid solo designs – and Hadrian’s Wall has a lot of them.

In addition, the set-up/tear-down time (due to the flip-n-write design) is minimal, meaning a large chunk of your time is spent actually playing the game. And it has a relatively small table footprint, which means it will work well in my travel kit when I’m stuck in a hotel and need something to play on a less-than-roomy hotel desk.

The color palette of the game “pages” is pretty bland – appropriate to the historical time, but not what we’re used to with many current game designs. That said, the structure of the pages is well-thought-out and contains most of the information you need for play. (There is also a nice player aid for symbols on the back of the rulebook.)

Here’s the big finish – I usually give games I review 4-5 plays before writing the review… and sometimes 2-3 if they really don’t click. When I passed five games with Hadrian’s Wall, I was more than happy to keep playing… and look forward to bringing it to the table in the months ahead.

Notes of Various Kinds

Historical note: there are a variety of theories about the purpose of Hadrian’s Wall – defense from the Picts and other tribes to the north, regulation of trade, etc. I am not qualified to give a historical defense of this game design – but for someone who is a history buff, the combination of various elements of Roman society on the fringes of the empire seems right – gladiators but not to Russell Crowe-like proportions, trade markets and temples, diplomats and scouts (but not always and not always as helpful as you would hope), even a weak attempt at local theater (long before that Bill Shakespeare guy appeared on this very island).

Musical note: the headers for each section of this review are borrowed from Pink Floyd’s classic album, THE WALL (which both seemed thematically appropriate and an homage to my 15 year old self thinking that this album was the deepest thing I’d ever heard.)

Review note: I was provided with a review copy of Hadrian’s Wall by the kind folks at Renegade Game Studios. This review originally appeared on the Opinionated Gamers website.

Update: Since I wrote this review, I've played the game two more times... it's still intriguing and enjoyable!

Yesterday, Today... and Tomorrow: More Thoughts About the SBC

Yesterday

I went to church... the Southern Baptist church my family & I have attended for the last three years. Our pastor, just back from preaching at a Centrifuge camp site, did an amazing job of teaching Philippians 4. We sang contemporary worship songs and even had a verse of "I Surrender All" acapella. We dedicated a family with their newest child... and we honored our graduates and prayed over them. 

More than once, I teared up as I compared the joyful experience of worshipping with fellow believers to the horror show that has been the lead-up to the annual SBC convention this week.

Today

Later this afternoon, my family & I will make the trek to downtown Nashville and brave the crazy registration process in order to be present for the IMB Sending Celebration, where my nephew and his family will be recognized as new missionaries with the International Mission Board. As I've said before, I couldn't be prouder of them and their faith in Christ.

Tomorrow

There's been more information come to light since I wrote my Avalanche of Thoughts post about the SBC last week... in particular, the audio recordings that back up Dr. Moore's letters. And more things have happened... Ronnie Floyd's (dangerously close to gaslighting) response, the frantic action of the Executive Committee to hire a third-party firm to review themselves (though without the proper level of independence and reporting that will bring about meaningful change) - along with their self-congratulatory press release, the foolishness of the Wokeness and The Gospel conference, and a variety of news articles in places like The New Yorker and the Washington Post on what's about to happen here in Nashville on Tuesday and Wednesday.

So... as I pray for justice to prevail, for the truth to set us free, for God to use what some have intended for evil instead to do good, some more thoughts for you to consider.

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Ed Stetzer:

The only way to end these controversies is to do the right thing. And the right thing is to vote on resolutions that support the sufficiency of Scripture and acknowledge that there are places where racism from the past still systemically intrudes in the present. And no, this does not make me a Critical Race Theorist, no matter how many times people on Twitter lie about that.

If we fail to do so, we will spark an exodus of black, young, and other leaders who care deeply about these issues.

Friends, if you think that Danny Akin is liberal, that black pastors have secretly infiltrated us with Marxism, and that abuse survivors are the enemy, then you’ve been fooled. Instead, I hope you will be discerning as you make wise choices on resolutions, motions, and elections of officers.

---

Esau McCaulley:

The idea that black Christians needed Karl Marx to teach them about *systems of oppression* in a country that had *legalized slavery* and *Jim Crow* might be the wildest take to gain footing in a long time.

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Rachael Denhollander:

Guidepost [the firm hired by the SBC Executive Committee] is a highly skilled and qualified firm and I have confidence in their ability to do what the SBC needs.

HOWEVER, the ability to do what they are capable of will depend on the EC letting them do their job. Here's what you should ask for that isn't commissioned yet:

The EC has NOT included all paid, appointed or elected leaders or staff of the Convention in this commission. The scope should be broadened to include these official actors.

The EC has NOT committed to waiving privilege so that Guidepost has access to all data and information. This step is absolutely critical, but the EC alone can make this move, and any firm hired would be inhibited by a refusal to do so no matter how good the firm.

The EC has NOT commissioned a public report on the findings and recommendations. This is a critical component of accountability and transparency that must be included in the commission.

Guidepost is a truly independent, international firm that specializes in policy and cultural analysis and ethical compliance, with leaders that have a strong background in religious dynamics. I've been aware of their work for several years and been very pleased.

But the EC will only get the benefit of what they allow themselves to get. 

Ask for waiver, an extended scope and a fully public report. Only the EC can make those decisions, and they are critical pieces of this assessment and training.

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Ryan Linkous:

My personal plea for #SBC21:

I pastor a small SBC church in East Nashville (less than 5 miles from where the convention is taking place).

The demographics of our neighborhood have entirely changed in the past decade. As Nashville has boomed, East Nashville (EN) has transformed from a rough neighborhood to the Brooklyn of the South. Most new residents come to us from NYC, Chicago, San Francisco, LA, Boston, etc.

There are more 30-year-olds than children under the age of 18 in my zip code. 1/3 residents are in their 20-30’s. And they are typical Gen-Z/Millennial in posture toward religion plus a good deal more progressive.

Many are non-Christians. Some are exvangelicals. Some never grew up in church. But many new residents don’t automatically find a church to worship in on Sunday.

Over the past 30 years, all of the SBC churches in my ZIP code have experienced significant decline. There were as many people attending my church 30 years ago than in all SBC churches in EN combined today.

Everything religious demographers haves predicted has come true here.

Many of my neighbors don’t agree with our church’s position of theological issues such as the inerrancy and authority of God’s Word, the exclusivity of Christ for salvation, or social issues concerning abortion or LGBT relationships.

At the same time, there is a passion for justice among many of my neighbors. We might disagree about tactics and degree on certain things, but it’s the kind of neighborhood where racial equity is on the fore of people’s minds. People want to help the poor and homeless.

All this to say: the inevitable row at #SBC21 this year is going to reverberate to my neighborhood. All the toxicity that will emerge is going to be on local headlines. They’ll chat about it in the neighborhood FB group.

It’s not going to help at all as we endeavor to engage in outreach and evangelism in our neighborhood.

Furthermore, if there is a failure to address the issues concerning sexual abuse, if decisions made on the floor result in a mass exodus of leaders of color and ethnic churches, if leaders are elected who refuse to address these issues, not only will it be a moral failure…

but it will also give a black eye to churches in my area who are trying to adapt to a changing culture while we proclaim the never-changing truth of the gospel.

It’s not about respectability in our neighbors’ eyes. I know where I’m going to diverge from them in my moral calculus, and it isn’t always going to make me comfortable or laudable to them.

But the all-or-nothing, winner-takes-all politicking, especially by those of the CBN who are literally waving flags with a symbol of death and war on it, it’s just going to besmirch the reputation of humble churches like mine trying to do God’s Work in our context.

It also besmirches the reputation of God and grieves the Holy Spirit.

I’m but a lowly pastor, and this is my perspective. But after the mushroom cloud clears on Wednesday, I’ve got to stay in town.

I’ll have to explain why we affiliate with people who are so uncooperative in the name of “Jesus.”

I’ll have to explain to skeptical neighbors why the Jesus of the gospels – who has the words of eternal life, who calls us into his own glory and excellence, who humbled himself for us and for our salvation – is worth following and worthy of praise.

But then again, so will we all.

But back to that plea: 

Do justice

Love mercy

Walk humbly with thy God

Let’s tackle the bungled response to the sex abuse crisis head on.

Let’s resolve to be a place who is a missions-sending juggernaut AND where we have the highest standard of ethical conduct. No thumping our chests about missions if we can’t follow our Lord’s command (see 1 John)

Let’s not allow decades of efforts toward racial reconciliation be reversed by those determined to demonize black voices.

Let’s not allow falsehoods and half-truths perpetuate by those eager to win power.

Let’s resolve to believe abuse victims and seek justice on their behalf.

Let’s not let disgraced and ambitious men use the SBC as their hobby horse or platform for personal interest.

Let’s pray that the SBC would reflect who Jesus is and who he called the church to be.

Let us heed the master’s words so eloquently captured in the hymn: “They’ll know we are Christians by our love.”

An Avalanche of Thoughts on the State of the SBC

Two things are getting ready to happen next week that help explain why my heart & mind are a muddled mess when it comes to the denomination I've been a member of since I was seven years old:

1. My nephew and his family are being commissioned here in Nashville for International Missions Board work in South America - I couldn't be prouder of them or more grateful for their faith & trust in Jesus.

2. The actual SBC annual meeting - also here in Nashville - is going to have to wrestle with the fallout from leadership who chose to ignore and/or dismiss sexual abuse in our churches... and chose to focus on a legal theory about racism rather than grappling with racism and our call as followers of Jesus to live as "one in Jesus Christ" (Galatians 3:28)

I’ve tried for weeks to write about this in a meaningful way - I literally have pages generated as I tried to get a handle on how to respond. And, of course, that all kicked into overdrive with the release of Dr. Russell Moore’s letter to the ERLC leadership... and then his letter to J.D. Greear… and SWBTS’ section in the Book of Reports… and the email from the former Executive Committee legal counsel… 

...there’s frankly too much to take in. I can barely hold my own thoughts together, let alone attempt to wrap all of them into a neat package for my faithful readers. Instead, I’m going to simply put out a brain dump of personal thoughts, quotes from others, music from Common Hymnal, and Scripture. 

My apologies for the length... it's actually shorter than what I started out with [he says with a wry grin].

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Mark:

May God light up the dark corners of SBC leadership. It is past time for us to renounce abuse and injustice not just with our resolutions but with our day-to-day lives - and the way we do "business" as a denomination. For the many pastors and lay people who are serving others powered by the grace and love of Jesus Christ, this power-hungry manipulation of truth in denominational leadership must end.

---

Aaron Schwartz:

Those who have claimed there is a "drift" are right.  A drift away from the love of Christ, in favor of name calling, condescension, and outright dismissal. If we are this committed to the Word of God (which I 100 percent am), then we must recognize the spirit of the Pharisees which has permeated our culture.  They loved the Torah, memorized it, taught it, and even strapped it to their bodies.  It wasn't a lack of love of God's Word for which Jesus rebuked them, but their lack of love for God's people.  It even led them to misapply the Torah they loved so much in order to keep power. 

Mark:

Sexual predators should never be protected from the legal and employment consequences of their destructive and sinful behavior… no matter how winsomely they preach or how well-connected they are to those in authority. Success and talent are not a substitute for character… and it is not grace to cover up sin. 

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Ben Anthony:

I am a conservative complementarian gun owner Calvinist baptist who grew up SBC and will prolly die SBC, Lord willing.

If you think that convention wide action against sexual abuse is a lib attempt at hindrance at the gospel, you need help dawg

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Rachael Denhollander:

The worst pain for a survivor is the institutional betrayal - losing everyone, finding out the abuse might have been prevented or stopped, and that you are powerless to save others.

SBC Messengers, hear are some things you desperately need to hear:

Everything that Dr. Moore laid out in his letter was preventable - the abuse, mistreatment, bullying, intimidation, defamation of survivors - it was all preventable.

It was preventable because this type of behavior has been long-known and reported on. Survivors and advocates have been sounding the alarm on these exact dynamics for decades...

It's not a secret. It has never been a secret.

If you are shocked by the content of Dr. Moore's letter, I understand. But take this time now to find out the history.

Ask how these leaders could behave this way and KNOW they would not be stopped or caught. What gave them the confidence to act in that manner?

The answer is that they could speak that way, take those steps, retaliate and control, because history had long taught them that it was safe to do so. That no one would care enough to speak out, vote against them, or stop them.

These leaders could behave this way because history has taught them they can operate with impunity. That survivor and advocate voices would be quickly maligned as "angry", "bitter", "unreasonable", and by sidelining those voices, they could do as they pleased.

SBC's theology of autonomy and representative-based structure is intended to create a system with extra accountability - where power isn't concentrated in a few, but rather placed on the consciences of all. But...

That only works if Messengers are seeking out knowledge of what is taking place, and insisting on mechanisms of accountability and transparency.

Unless and until that happens, history will continue to repeat itself. 

But it can be done better, if you so choose.

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Diane Langberg:

The church and the individuals in it have been complicit with horrific things that call for sanctuary. We are called to be a sacred place for the vulnerable. We have often chosen to be a safe place for the powerful and have deceived ourselves into believing that God would call that good.

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Proverbs 21:15 ESV:

When justice is done, it is a joy to the righteous but terror to evildoers.

Isaiah 1:13-17 NLT:

Stop bringing me your meaningless gifts;

    the incense of your offerings disgusts me!

As for your celebrations of the new moon and the Sabbath

    and your special days for fasting—

they are all sinful and false.

    I want no more of your pious meetings.

I hate your new moon celebrations and your annual festivals.

    They are a burden to me. I cannot stand them!

When you lift up your hands in prayer, I will not look.

    Though you offer many prayers, I will not listen,

    for your hands are covered with the blood of innocent victims.

Wash yourselves and be clean!

    Get your sins out of my sight.

    Give up your evil ways.

Learn to do good.

    Seek justice.

Help the oppressed.

    Defend the cause of orphans.

    Fight for the rights of widows.

---

Common Hymnal:

He Has Time

Something’s been stolen

Under the weight of the curse you’ve been broken

You’re not what happened

You’re more than the shame you were recklessly given

You silently scream through the tears you can’t keep from falling

Wishing they poured out enough to break through the hurting

Jesus runs after the broken ones

Weeping with those who weep, crowns them with purity

And years of shame shatter in Jesus name

You can’t shake the feeling

He’s not in a rush he has time for your healing Lean on his shoulder

It’s never too late and, your story’s not over

You wish you could go back in time rewrite your own ending 

Then you find faith to believe it’s just the beginning

He is here and he has time

To take what’s wrong and make it right

Jesus runs after the broken ones

Weeping with those who weep, crowns them with purity

And years of shame shatter in Jesus name

Mark:

Opposition to discussing CRT (critical race theory) is a smokescreen that winks at racism (and doesn’t actually deal with CRT in any meaningful way.) Our brothers and sisters of color deserve better than a half-baked statement cooked up by six white seminary presidents. And if someone needs evidence for systemic racism, just look at the NFL finally backing away from “race norming”.

Our denomination has repented via resolution after resolution of the pro-slavery roots of our founding. Now we must stop taking steps backward in the name of false unity. We must stop pretending that the hard work of fighting for civil rights magically fixed the problem and we can simply rest on singing "Jesus Loves the Little Children" at VBS. 

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Martin Luther King, Jr.:

In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.

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Matthew 28:19-20 ESV:

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.

Revelation 7:9-10 ESV:

After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!"

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Skye Jethani:

I find it helpful to think of institutions as flywheels. A flywheel is a device that stores and dispenses energy. Consider a potter’s wheel. A person puts energy into the wheel by pumping a peddle with her foot. This irregular energy input is then stored in the wheel which dispenses the energy evenly over time by spinning the clay even after the potter stops pumping the peddle. Likewise, when we build organizations, governments, or institutions, they store up our values and dispense them over time—sometimes even over generations.

Consider the U.S. government. The founding generation “pumped” their values into the Constitution and created a system of government that respected individual rights, freedom of speech, religious liberty, and limited government. Over 200 years later, the system they created is still “spinning” and shaping the lives of over 300 million people. Of course, a flywheel can also store and dispense evil values over time which is why the Constitution had to be amended to end slavery, recognize African-Americans as full citizens rather than 3/5ths of a person, and give women the right to vote.

Once we see human institutions as flywheels, we can see why the current debate between personal and systemic evil is misguided. It’s not a matter of either changing hearts or changing systems. It’s entirely possible to have individual hearts healed and transformed by the gospel, and yet still have centuries of evil energy stored up within the systems we’ve created. Left unchanged, these flywheels will continue to dispense evil far into the future and hurt many people. Likewise, only changing evil systems isn’t sufficient if the people overseeing those systems are still pumping the evil and injustice of their hearts into the flywheel. Rather than fighting about hearts or systems, Christians who care about injustice and loving their neighbors should desire to overcome evil with good no matter where it resides.

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Common Hymnal:

The Medicine

There's a sickness here that threatens to divide us 

And we're all afraid to say its name out loud

But, Lord, I know that you can heal us of this virus

So, we need you, we need you right now

There's a darkness here that's dangerous and aggressive

It getting harder every day to shake its power

But, Lord, I know that you can free us from oppression

So, we need you, we need you right now

Cause we don't know what to do

So, we turn our eyes to you

We've run out of words to say

But if you come and have your way

You can save us from ourselves

Before our wounds hurt someone else

We need you now

What does it mean to have compassion for another?

How can I claim to love a God that I can't see?

If I can find the will to harm and kill my brother

Cause he neglected to look like me

I can speak the words of men and songs of angels

I can give all my possessions to the poor

But if your love can't move the mountain of my hatred

Somehow, I missed you, and I need you so much more

Mark:

As for concrete actions at next week’s annual meeting:

• First and foremost, pass a motion for an independent third-party investigation of the Executive Committee. In particular, how the behavior of leadership and legal counsel impacted the treatment of sexual abuse victims and agency staff (such as Dr. Moore).
• Elect a president who is not caught up in the continuing power plays of Paige Patterson (Mike Stone) and/or creating division from his current leadership role through mistakes like the CRT statement (Al Mohler).
• Pass a motion to re-examine the abuser-protecting churches who were much too quickly cleared by the Executive Committee in 2019… and to continue the process moving forward to make clear that harboring sexual predators is not acceptable in SBC life.
• Reject motions and resolutions that drive away our brothers & sisters in Christ.

Mark:

Any man who would allow a stained glass window created of him to be installed in a seminary chapel should not be taking a role in leading our convention, even if it is from behind the scenes of the CBN.

The issues reported by SWBTS over his departure (with a donor list and other items that belong to the seminary) are just icing on the cake.

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Ed Stetzer:

In the aftermath of the Conservative Resurgence, the SBC made a mistake. We spent more time taking victory laps than really leading. We let our history become mythology. We turned men into heroes, and then we turned our heroes into gods... 

What we really needed to do was be about our mission and hold each other accountable.

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1 Corinthians 5:12-13 AMP:

For what business is it of mine to judge outsiders (non-believers)? Do you not judge those who are within the church [to protect the church as the situation requires]? God alone sits in judgment on those who are outside [the faith]. Remove the wicked one from among you [expel him from your church].

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Beth Moore:

We must be people of Scripture. We must pursue accurate teaching, stand on sound doctrine & walk in obedience to Jesus. But I believe some of the whirlwind we’re reaping is over past sins committed against fellow believers in the name of and behind the guise of doctrinal purity.

Religious conservatism without Christlikeness proves itself no better than religious liberalism because it inevitably results in arrogance and abuses of power, hurting many and causing the enemies of God to blaspheme.

There was sin in the camp of the Conservative Resurgence. That is not my opinion. That has proven to be a fact. A return to the Scriptures is & was vital but it was done without holiness and with what played out as slack jawing hypocrisy. We need to repent & do this differently.

Mark:

My life has been profoundly shaped by my history as a Southern Baptist layperson and pastor. Funding through the Cooperative Program helped create the Centrifuge camp experience where I surrendered to vocational ministry, the two summers I spent with the Home Mission Board doing summer missions, and made my seminary education affordable. So many faithful Southern Baptist ministers and volunteers poured the love of Jesus and the truth of Scripture into my heart and mind... and I was privileged to serve six different SBC churches as pastor or youth pastor over the last 35+ years.

At the same time, Southern Baptist life was my first exposure to virulent racism: the godly Sunday School teacher who sat on her front porch and calmly explained the "curse of Ham" to me, surprised by my rejection of this horrible false doctrine; the church I served that had an "unwritten rule" that the Family Life Center would close if local African-American students came by to play basketball; the fellow youth minister whose incredibly successful 5th quarter events were shut down by the deacons because the wrong color of students were being saved and baptized.

The longer I served as a pastor and church planter, the more I realized how many people have been affected by sexual abuse... and how often those behaviors and choices were swept under the rug. Resignations for "personal reasons"; avoiding asking or answering difficult questions during reference checks; pressuring victims to keep quiet "to protect the church". 

Enough is enough. Our pious political games must end. We must be a people who do justice, and love kindness, and walk humbly with our God. (Micah 6:8) We must be a denomination who "give justice to the weak and the fatherless; maintain the right of the afflicted and the destitute, rescue the weak and the needy; [and] deliver them from the hand of the wicked." (Psalm 82:3-4 ESV)

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Common Hymnal:

The Kingdom is Yours

Blessed are the ones who do not bury

All the broken pieces of their heart

Blessed are the tears of all the weary

Pouring like a sky of falling stars

Blessed are the wounded ones in mourning 

Brave enough to show the Lord their scars 

Blessed are the hurts that are not hidden 

Open to the healing touch of God

The kingdom is yours, the kingdom is yours

Hold on a little more, this is not the end

Hope is in the Lord, keep your eyes on him

Blessed are the ones who walk in kindness 

Even in the face of great abuse

Blessed are the deeds that go unnoticed 

Serving with unguarded gratitude

Blessed are the ones who fight for justice 

Longing for the coming day of peace

Blessed is the soul that thirsts for righteousness 

Welcoming the last, the lost, the least

Blessed are the ones who suffer violence 

And still have strength to love their enemies 

Blessed is the faith of those who persevere 

Though they fall, they'll never know defeat

It’s An (Even More) Wonderful World: Expansions and Goodies

Back in the day – after my first play of It’s A Wonderful World at a 2019 post-Essen gathering, here’s what I wrote:

A slightly more gamer-y 7 Wonders-ish card drafting game of civilization building. The major difference is that you’re drafting a set of cards that you then use as resources (discarding them) or construction (building them). We were just over 30 minutes with 2 players… but both Dan & I are “play by the seat of your pants” players. I saw other games with more players that lasted nearly an hour – which indicates that the game proceeds at the pace of the slowest player. Good news: it worked just fine with 2 players “out of the box”.

Now, with 36 more plays in the intervening 18 months, I’d call myself a fan.

Which leads me to all of the ways in which you can expand the Wonderful World…

Corruption and Ascension

Corruption and Ascension is a true-blue expansion to It’s A Wonderful World, including a separate deck of additional development cards as well as extra bits to make the game playable with 6-7 players. Also in the box is a dry erase scoreboard which is a particularly nice add-on… and two new empire cards.

The added deck of 56 cards adds two new types of cards to the game:

• Cards with corruption (that take away the production of a particular resource in exchange for a cheaper price and/or a more lucrative payoff)
• Cards with dual scoring bonuses (that reward the player with points for combinations at the end of the game… for example, 6 points for each pair of Project & Financier)

The Corruption & Ascension deck has a different card back than the base deck… so cards are distributed in new combinations outlined in the rules. Otherwise, the game plays exactly as before – just with new possibilities and challenges to building your country into the powerhouse you knew it should be.

This is the easiest to find of the expansions (to purchase)… and is also the easiest to add to the base game without making the game more difficult to teach to new players. I really like the added variety to the decision-making on what to keep and what to pass on.

The Campaign Boxes

As part of the Corruption & Ascension Kickstarter, La Boite de Jeu also published two campaigns for It’s a Wonderful World. Both are similar in structure – the box contains rules for a campaign of 5 games in which the winner of the final game is the winner of the campaign. There are multiple sealed envelopes and “secret” boxes that are opened as a part of the set-up of each game which introduce a variety of variant situations and limitations as well as new game mechanics and cards.

At the conclusion of each campaign, there are booster packs to open that give you cards to add to your base deck to incorporate the twists of the campaign into your copy of It’s A Wonderful World.

While it sounds like I’ve just described a legacy game, none of the choices made in either campaign are permanent. All cards and game mechanics from the campaigns can be reset in order to replay the campaign or to simply the base game without the extra elements.

Both campaigns can be played with the Corruption & Ascension expansion in play with up to five players… and there are rules for solo play as well.

And now we get to the hard part – trying to describe/review two campaign boxes without spoiling any of the fun hidden inside. (Sigh.)

War or Peace

War or Peace is the less complicated of the two campaigns – while there are some unique challenges in certain scenarios, the overall effect on gameplay is relatively simple and straightforward. Players should have a few games under their belts before attempting this campaign… but that’s primarily so that the new twists won’t overly slow down gameplay.

War or Peace should be played before Leisure and Decadence (both for the “history” of the Wonderful World and to avoid some mild spoilers in the rules and mechanics.)

Solo note: for experienced Wonderful World players, I would set the threshold for a win at 60 points – 50 points is pretty easy to accomplish.

Leisure and Decadence

Leisure & Decadence adds two different new game mechanics that create new challenges for players (and should not be the first experience with the Wonderful World for a new player). 

Warning: the twist introduced in the third scenario does not carry over into the fourth or final scenarios… but I promise it will reappear at some point. (Is that cryptic enough?)

The same solo note applies here – 60 points is a more challenging threshold for solo games.

Note: Lucky Duck Games imprint is on the War or Peace box as well as the Corruption & Ascension box – but not on the Leisure & Decadence box. This may explain why Leisure & Decadence is only available through the La Boite de Jue website.

Kickstarter Goodie Box

I’m not sure the goodie box of Kickstarter extras is worth the hard-earned money I spent on it… but since this is a game we play a good bit, I love how the little plastic bit bowls and chunky wooden round marker make the game a little bit nicer. (Note: the bit bowls are very thin clear plastic – which means it is easy to pour bits out of them back into their baggies… and they don’t interfere with the art on the board.)

Also included in the KS goodies are 12 additional cards for the base deck with new twists and the same gorgeous art style… and five alternate empire cards with two different options.

And, yes, that’s a pretty serious pair of typos on one line in the list of contents.

It’s A Wonderful Kingdom

The newest offering in Wonderful World franchise is a Kickstarter for a two-player fantasy world game, using a similar card/resource structure… but with a really nice twist on the “I cut – you pick” mechanic. The initial player places two cards down – dividing them between a pair of selection areas (or even stacking them together). Then the opposing player chooses one of the selection areas and takes all the cards. Then the roles reverse… and any cards not yet taken remain on the selection areas until a player chooses that area. 

The game has multiple modules – quests, advisors, menaces (and even conquest with the available expansion). As my son & I typically play It’s A Wonderful World as a two-player game, it’s a no-brainer for us to back the whole kit and kaboodle.

Final Thoughts

Interestingly enough, adding all those extra cards to the game doesn’t actually dilute the original mix of card outcomes. I did a pretty detailed analysis of the card decks and the percentages of different card types, recycling bonuses, and cards that produce points all stay very close to the base deck in their mixture. That means that the variety of the deck increases without radically changing the feel of the original game – a triumph of thoughtful design and development.

In another nice touch, all of the expansions have subtle but easy to read symbols to help you sort them out from the base deck. 

If you are just going to pick up one of the boxes, I’d strongly suggest Corruption & Ascension – it adds the most to the original game while still being easy to set aside when teaching new players. (And the extra 3x Financier and General tokens along with the dry-erase board are useful no matter which mix of cards that you use.)

I especially like the solo scenarios in the Corruption & Ascension rulebook – the varied win conditions and “rating” my performance makes for an enjoyable solo experience.

My son and I played through both campaigns as two-player games… and while he emerged victorious (twice!), we both had a fantastic time exploring the twists and turns in the campaign boxes. I also played through the campaigns solo after we finished our two-player adventures… and can recommend them as solo experiences. I will say that more players may make things even more interesting with some of the challenges in Leisure and Decadence – but I’m sure he & I will confirm that with friends sometime in the near future.

A final thought: as is normal for reviews of expansions, these are unlikely to change your mind if you’re not a fan of the original game. But, for fans, they each increase the variety of the playing options as well as expanding the base game in interesting ways.

Play #37 likely coming this weekend!

This review originally appeared on the Opinionated Gamers website.

The Myth of the Straight Line

My mom used to talk about her most hated class as a math major in college - Non-Euclidean Geometry. I don't pretend to understand even the smallest bit of the content of the class (I was lucky to escape high school Geometry with a C)... but I remember vividly the phrase that "the shortest distance between two points is not necessarily a straight line." 

That's one of the many things that popped into my head as I finished reading Heather Cox Richardson's book, How The South Won the Civil War: Oligarchy, Democracy, and the Continued Fight for the Soul of America.

While I agree with a number of her ideas:

• the use of myths like The Lost Cause and the American Cowboy to perpetuate false narratives and questionable political positions
• the tendency toward elitism and othering to exclude "non-desirable" people groups from having a political voice
• the cynical choices of both political parties in the last 150+ years to ignore and/or reverse deeply held positions in order to maintain political power

I think there is a problem inherent in her book that, sadly, has become common in public discourse. That's the myth of the straight line.

It is profoundly tempting when attempting to make your point - whether it is drawing from historical precedent, religious text, or scientific data - to assert that since A happened, of course B occurred... and that inexorably led to C & D. 

When Drawing the Straight Line Leads You To Crooked Facts

Richardson's research assistants and editors let her down - or, in a less charitable explanation, she simply ignored easily available information - when it came to dealing with the Protestant denomination I grew up in and served as a pastor for nearly 30 years. 

Over the next few paragraphs, I'm going to attempt to explain my frustration with a set of historical circumstances I know well - and in some cases actually lived through - to show the author's tendency toward drawing straight, clean lines of cause & effect that may or may not accurately portray reality.

• Comparing the footnoted story in The Atlantic about a meeting between two powerful SBC leaders to Richardson's text:
• Atlantic article: "In 1967, at New Orleans’s historic Café du Monde, a young seminary student named Paige Patterson and Texas Judge Paul Pressler met over a plate of beignets to hatch a plan to unite conservative Southern Baptists and take over America’s largest Protestant denomination. The two men successfully executed their strategy in the subsequent decades, a movement they labeled the “Conservative Resurgence” and their opponents dubbed the “Fundamentalist Takeover.” Whatever one calls it, the result was a purging of moderates from among denominational ranks, the codifying of literal interpretations of the Bible, and the transformation of the Southern Baptist Convention into a powerful ally of the Republican Party."
  
• How The South Won the Civil War: "Some deemed [feminists] such a threat to American society that in 1967 men determined to stop the church from embracing rights for people of color and women launched a takeover of the Southern Baptists, the nation's largest Protestant denomination, to turn the religion away from the new ways and back to fundamentalism."

Let me make a few comments here:

1. The author leaves out the rest of the context of The Atlantic article, which goes into detail about the shunning of Patterson & Pressler in the SBC.
2. "Literal interpretations of the Bible" isn't a full or nuanced view of the debates over inerrancy of Scripture and various interpretations of difficult passages. Even extremely conservative theologians hold that there are various forms of literature in the Bible (poetry, history, apocryphal writings, etc.) that are not all interpreted literally. This is a broad brush "look at how backwards these yokels are" kind of argumentation.
3. "Fundamentalism" has become a curse word - and, in some cases, I completely understand why. But the very elasticity of its meaning makes it distinctly unhelpful when discussing theology and practice in a particular denomination (or, for that matter, any world religion).
4. Southern Baptists have dealt with racism in increasingly clear terms. The first convention resolution with teeth was passed in 1989 (after the Resurgence was well underway). I'd also recommend looking at the resolutions from 1995, 2015, and 2018. (Yes, I understand that resolutions don't always work their way into practice - but they are clear indications of how the most SBC-committed pastors & laypeople are thinking.)

The "Conservative Resurgence"/"Battle for the Bible"/"Fundamentalist Takeover" was a real thing in Southern Baptist life... but the implications that Richardson draws by her truncated description and word choices do not adequately reflect the complicated nature of that period in Baptist history.

• Incorrect information about Pat Robertson
• How The South Won the Civil War: "By 1988 evangelicals had become politically powerful enough to push one of their own ministers, Southern Baptist leader Pat Robertson, for the Republican presidential nomination."
• Problematic facts:
• Pat Robertson resigned as a Baptist minister in 1987 as he prepared for the presidential run.
• Pat Robertson's theology - which includes substantial amounts of charismatic doctrine (including his oft-maligned tendency to prophesy about politics) - is not in the mainstream of Southern Baptist theology or practice.
• Pat Robertson did not have a history of being a denominational leader in the SBC.

So, Richardson chose the technically correct appellation for Pat Robertson that fit her straight line narrative... when "televangelist" might have hewn closer to the truth.

Note: there are serious disagreements roiling the Southern Baptist Convention right now about these very issues - the place of critical race theory as a tool in examining orthodoxy and orthopraxy, the appropriate response to the slave-holding parts of our heritage as a denomination, and the ways in which we platform, support, and encourage brothers & sisters of color. All of that is important work - godly work that requires a clear understanding of our history and a Biblical willingness to renounce sin and embrace truth.

I have a long history serving SBC churches as a member and as a vocational minister. I've seen abject racism (Sunday School teachers who advocate for the pernicious "curse of Ham" heresy, deacons who shut down youth ministry events because they attract students of color, etc.) as well as believers who advocate for civil rights and the truth of Galatians 3:28. I had the privilege of pastoring a church that was mixed with Hispanic and Anglo members... in a Baptist state convention led a person of color. The narrative about racial issues and Southern Baptists is just not that simple.

Note as well that I understand that Heather Cox Richardson wasn't writing a book about the SBC and it's role in supporting the political structures and decisions she is criticizing. On her way to proving her point, however, she drew a straight line through a much thornier and complicated bit of history.

And that makes it more difficult for me to take in the rest of the book - leaving me to wonder where else she elided pesky historical facts or sandpapered down sharp edges from individuals or movements she supports.

One more non-SBC related example from a kid who went to high school & college in the 1980s: another footnoted article from USA Today states that "Because of its violence, Red Dawn became the first film ever to receive a PG-13 rating." Richardson's text reads: "In summer 1984, director John Milius brought to the nation's movie theaters what was, at the time, the most violent film ever made. Red Dawn was..." Those are not the same thing. 

This is Not Just a Problem for "Woke Leftist Socialist Sympathizers"

It's vital to note that straight lines aren't confined to the work of Heather Cox Richardson or the pundits on MSNBC. 

I'll take a recent example: George Rep. Andrew Clyde's description of the incursion of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021: "Watching the TV footage of those who entered the Capitol and walked through Statuary Hall showed people in an orderly fashion staying between the stanchions and ropes taking videos and pictures... You know, if you didn't know the TV footage was a video from January the 6th, you would actually think it was a normal tourist visit." 

Rep. Clyde is attempting (as has been his wont) to avoid labeling what happened an 'insurrection'. In that process, he's chosen to focus on the video clips from Statuary Hall. 

I had the privilege of taking a U.S. Capitol tour with a congressional staffer (well, two of them, actually) and my family back in the fall of 2015. I do not remember any part of my "normal tourist visit" allowing me to stand on the Senate chamber dais, enter the building through a window, or fight with a Capitol police officer.

Rep. Clyde is drawing a straight line - avoiding the facts that make his life (and politics) more complicated - in favor of a narrative that supports his own prior positions and support of the former President. 

The same is true of David Barton - whose Wallbuilders ministry has doubled down time and time again on America's founding as a Christian nation. That's despite ample historical evidence that shows a myriad of influences in the founding documents of the American experiment - some of which come from Scripture. By the same token, the religious affiliation and level of spiritual practice of the founding fathers varied widely.

There was an excellent article on The Lost Cause published on The Gospel Coalition website this last week that notes the same problem - the roots of this whitewashing (pun intended) of the Civil War are based in the same desire to draw a straight line that argues for a particular point.

Final Thoughts

There is much to like about Heather Cox Richardson's book - she notes some important ways in which the recent actions of "Movement Conservatives" echo the behaviors of some politicians both prior to and following the Civil War. As I wrote earlier in this piece, I see eye to eye with her on some of her main points. 

But just because I agree with someone does not mean I bury my head in the sand when they shade the story to make a point. As an outspoken critic of the former President and his habitual lying and gaslighting, I need to use the same critical eye to analyze the current President (the Georgia voting law has real problems, but it is not "Jim Crow on steroids"). Or any other writer, for that matter.