Covenant RPG
This is a simpler RPG system I've created. Check out the game page to read through the player handbook and get started with some pre-made Adventures. If you'd like a more complex gaming system, I recommend Holy Lands.
Holy Lands
A robust roleplaying system in a rich setting, the Christian answer to Dungeons & Dragons.Purchase |
Greetings, role players! Let me tell you about my experience with Holy Lands RPG!
Recommendation: Excellent
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Gameplay 5/5
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Content 5/5
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Character Creation 5/5
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Combat 5/5
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Ease of Use 3/5
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Versatility 5/5
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Resources 2/5
About Holy Lands
Holy Lands is a tabletop RPG, meaning the style of game is similar to
Dungeons and Dragons. You create a character with various skills and
stats, and role-play him or her through an adventure narrated by a group
leader called the Racmaster. The “Rac” facilitates the game and the
raconteur between players.
I’ve been playing Holy Lands for close to a year now, and it’s left me
impressed in every facet. I started with the Lite edition (available as a
free download), skimmed through the full versions of 1st and 2nd Edition, and am now playing a game using the Trinity (3rd Edition) rulebook.
Pros
Holy Lands is written by Christians largely for Christians. You
are expected to play your character as if they were Christian men and
women. You also struggle with sins, and your fellow players can help you
overcome temptations.
The setting is medieval Europe, so there’s a lot of room to play
fantasy-type characters and have them fit right into the world. You can
fight demons and evil monarchs and be as historically accurate or not as
you want.
Within the medieval setting, you have a variety of classes you can play,
all with their various strengths. You can play anything from a Bard to a
Cleric to a Devil Hunter to a Saint to a Spy. And, though all human,
you can create your character with distinct statures (a replacement for
fantasy races), including Weefolk on up to Giantfolk.
With any well-constructed tabletop RPG system, Holy Lands also allows
you to customize your stats and skills with a wide range of abilities,
including Faith points and different types of Miracles. There’s also
plenty of gear to equip. I've included a blank character sheet at the
end of this post so that you can see what I mean.
The combat system is unique and robust while still being easy enough to understand.
All you need to play is a copy of the rules, a Rac to run the game, and
another player or two to join your party. After that, you can play
anywhere—in person, in a Facebook group, via Skype, on Slack or Discord,
or by email thread. Play live or write your character’s actions and
wait for the rest of the group to respond.
And speaking of which, the rulebooks themselves are well-written and
nicely illustrated, serving as worthy additions to your gaming library.
Cons
The Trinity Rac guide (Book of Life) gives you some brief story
ideas, and a membership to the website gives you access to maps and
other resources, but the company hasn’t yet written a full adventure
that for the Trinity edition that Racs can use to lead their players
through. That means that the Rac is going to need to put quite a bit of
work into preparing the story. It also means that the story is going to
hinge a lot on the Rac’s creativity.
You can find a couple of pre-written adventures for the older editions on the Holy Lands
Facebook group page. Looking through them will give Racs an idea of how
to structure their stories and, of course, if you’re playing the older
editions of the game, you’re free to use those adventures.
So, to summarize, what’s available is great; I simply wish there were
more resources written to help people start a game or play different
pre-generated adventures.
And while not a detraction for me, I did take a couple of points off for
ease of use because there is a fairly lengthy rulebook to read that
will deter some players from wanting to get into the game.
Who Should Play Holy Lands RPG?
If you enjoy getting into character and don’t mind rolling some dice and
reading the relatively short rulebook (compared to other tabletop RPGs)
to understand the basics of the game, give it a try.
Some people don’t like playing tabletop roleplaying games because it can
take multiple sessions to get through one adventure. If that’s you,
don’t play a long adventure. Have fun with the structure of the game
playing short adventures that don’t last longer than a session or two.
And because you can play in person or with a remote group, there’s
nothing stopping you from getting started in a game. You can even play
for free if you don’t care to start with the newest edition.
If you do want the Trinity player’s rulebook (Genesis), it costs $18 for a physical copy and less for a PDF version. The player book and the Rac guide together cost $30. Visit the Holy Lands site to purchase them. If you’d rather sample the earlier editions, go to the Holy Lands Facebook group and click on files to access the free downloads.
The Outlook for Holy Lands RPG
I don’t think this game is getting as much attention as it should. It’s in its 3rd
edition now, though, so the creators seem to have the drive to keep it
going. Let’s hope more Christians embrace the game and grow the audience
for it.
(Note: There's a Quick Character Generator on the Holy Lands website you can use if you'd rather not fill this all out yourself.)
(Note: There's a Quick Character Generator on the Holy Lands website you can use if you'd rather not fill this all out yourself.)
Do You Know of Any Other Christian Tabletop Games?
Let me know in the comments so that I can review it and it to the list. Game developers can send a review copy if they wish.
check out dragonraid from the 80s.christian adventure learning system rpg game
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