The Great Commission: Strategic Card Game Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Game Overview
  • Winning and Losing the Game
• The Cards
  • People Cards
  • Named People Cards
  • Activity Cards
  • Trouble Cards
  • Blessing Cards
  • Event Cards
  • Location Cards
  • Spirit Tracker Cards
• Game Setup
  • Create the Event Deck
  • Create the World Deck
  • Create the Blessings and Troubles Decks
  • Set up the Churches
  • Learning or "Easier" Games
• Round Order
  • Event Phase
  • Actions Phase
  • Troubles Phase
• Actions
  • Outreach
  • Discernment
  • Intercession
  • Prayer
  • Recovery
  • Send
• Appendix
• Glossary

Game Overview

Winning and Losing the Game

You win the game together if you reach all of the people that God has set before you (win all the cards in the World Deck) AND all of the churches survive the inevitable troubles that ensue (all churches still have Spirit at the end of the round in which you won the last World card).

You lose the game together if either any church loses all their Spirit OR you run out of time (you cannot reveal a new Event in the Event phase AND there are still cards in the World Deck).

This How To Play Guide will help you start playing the game quickly. The full rulebook with background information, FAQs and videos can be found on the publisher's website: www.wordforwordbiblecomic.com/the-great-commission

The Cards

People Cards

(World back and shaded frame) A card pool representing various people of the world, each with a Faith value, a Wisdom value, a Resistance rating, a Recovery Cost, and a Talent (written on the scroll). Card parts: Name, Faith Value, Wisdom Value, Keyword, Talent, Bible Verse, Recovery Cost, Ethnicity, Resistance Rating, Named Person.

Named People Cards

(World back and black frame) People named in the Book of Acts who start the game as church Leaders.

Activity Cards

(World back and teal frame) Play these church initiatives and good works from your hand to help your church at any time during the game. This does not require you to use an Action.

Trouble Cards

(Trouble back) They represent the conflicts, spiritual attacks, and human sins that adversely affect the life of the church. Most Troubles have a Wisdom or Faith value required to defeat them during an Intercession Action. If this deck empties, shuffle the discarded Troubles to create a new deck.

Blessing Cards

(Blessing back) Gifts from God that are answers to prayer. There are 3 types:

• Intervention: Powerful one-time blessings that you play for free immediately when drawn and affect all churches.
• Gifting: Spiritual gifts which you equip to a member of your church when drawn. The effect of the gift can be used for free every time that member is activated.
• Miracle: Special blessings that you play for free from your hand at any time, onto any one church.

Event Cards

(Event back) World events both good and bad that affect all churches for one round. This represents the passage of time and Events occur in two time periods; "Early Days" and "Later Years."

Location Cards

(Double sided Standard/Challenge) The geographical location and region of your church. Each church has a special ability. Use the Standard side for Solo play or your first few multiplayer games. Use the Challenge side for normal difficulty multiplayer games.

Spirit Tracker Cards

Keeps track of the Spiritual health of your church. Place under your Location card to display your current Spirit value. If this falls to zero the church has no Spirit and dies.

Game Setup

Note: The game contains some cards with content that might be considered suitable only for mature audiences. These cards are marked with a blood splatter effect. For younger players, you may wish to remove these from the game before setup.

Create the Event Deck

1. Separate the Event cards into 4 piles according to their types shown on the bottom of the card. Shuffle these piles separately and place them face-down.
2. Draw 2 Good Later Years Events and 2 Bad Later Years Events and shuffle them together to form one shared face-down Event Deck.
3. Draw 2 Good and 2 Bad Early Days Events and shuffle them together. Place 3 of these face-down on top of the Event Deck and discard the remaining card.

Return the unused Event cards to the box without revealing them.

Create the World Deck

1. Shuffle all of the People cards into one face-down pile and all the Activity cards into another.
2. Each player draws 6 People and 1 Activity card for their starting church.
3. For each player, take 12 People and 4 Activity cards and shuffle them together to form a shared face-down World Deck. For a solo game, this deck will contain 16 cards, for 2 players it will contain 32 cards etc.

Return the unused People and Activity cards to the box without revealing them.

Create the Blessings and Troubles Decks

1. Shuffle all of the Blessing cards to make a shared face-down Blessing Deck.
2. Shuffle all of the Trouble cards to make a shared face-down Trouble Deck.

Set up the Churches

Each player should:

1. Draw (or choose) a Named Person, a Location and a Spirit Tracker.
2. Use the Standard side of the Location for Solo play and Challenge side for multi-player games.
3. Place the Location over the Tracker showing your starting Spirit of 7.
4. Place the 6 starting people as members face-up in the Ready (portrait) orientation to form a church tableau.
5. Place the Named Person in front of the other members as the Leader.
6. Draw 1 face-down Trouble card and place it in front of the church.
7. Leave a space for the church discard.
8. Keep the Activity card in hand until played.

Learning or "Easier" Games

For a simpler first game you may want to:

• Exclude the Event cards and skip the "Reveal Event" step in the Event phase.
• Use the Standard side of your Location.
• Have players take turns to resolve their Actions during the Actions phase, instead of playing simultaneously.

Round Order

The game is played over 7 rounds. Each round consists of 3 phases: Event Phase, Actions Phase and Troubles Phase. Players may play simultaneously during each phase.

Event Phase

1. Reveal the top Event card. Effects on this card trigger immediately and affect all churches for the duration of the round. (Do not include anyone waiting to join your church in any Event calculations.)
2. Recover your Leaders one step (rotate 90° counter-clockwise) if possible.
3. If you have no Leader you may appoint one member to be the Leader retaining their existing Readiness state.
4. Rotate Commissioned or Exhausted members one step (90° counter-clockwise) with a total Recovery Cost up to the current Spirit of your church.
5. Add any Newcomers to the church in the Ready portrait orientation. They are now your members.

Actions Phase

By default, each player can take 2 Actions per round. Using Talents and other card abilities you might be able to increase this to a maximum of 3 in any given round. Some cards grant extra Bonus Actions which do not count towards this maximum.

Commission or Exhaust your Leader and/or members to use their Talent (on the scroll) for free. Alternatively, Commission them to perform an Action, adding either their Faith or Wisdom - which does consume one of your Actions. (Unless stated otherwise, you cannot use a person's Talent and perform an Action at the same time.)

Troubles Phase

1. Reduce your Spirit by 2 points for each of your face-down Trouble cards. If at any time your Spirit is reduced to 0, your church falls apart and dies and all players have lost the game.
2. Resolve the effects of any face-up Trouble cards in front of your church in any order. Note that most Trouble effects persist across all following rounds until they are overcome.
3. Draw 1 face-down Trouble card and add it to your church.
4. Check to see if you have won or lost the game. If the World Deck is empty you have won! If the Event Deck is empty then everyone loses.

Actions

Outreach

Going out into the world to share the Good News.

• Commission up to 3 members to use their combined Faith sharing the gospel with a number of people in the World Deck.
• Choose from 1 to 5 World cards to reveal (turn face-up).
• If your Faith equals or exceeds the combined Resistance of the people just revealed (Activities count as 0 Resistance), then the Outreach action is successful and those people have accepted Jesus Christ as Lord and will soon become new members of your church! If unsuccessful, shuffle all of the revealed cards back into the World Deck. The Action ends.
• Trouble Check: New members bring their troubles with them! For every 6 combined Resistance, draw 1 new face-down Trouble card and add it to your church.

Activities gained go into your hand, but Newcomers cannot normally be used this round. Set them aside now and add them to the church in Ready orientation during the next Event phase.

Discernment

Using wisdom and experience to discover the hidden problems facing the church.

• Commission up to 3 members to use their combined Wisdom to reveal the church's face-down troubles.
• Turn over 1 face-down Trouble for every 2 Wisdom supplied by the team. Trouble card effects trigger once per round either the moment the Trouble is first Discerned or later in the Troubles Phase.
• Unless the card says otherwise, the effect continues in subsequent rounds.

Intercession

Confronting and resolving the problems facing the church.

• Commission up to 3 members to use their combined Faith OR Wisdom to intercede and combat Troubles in your church.
• Discard face-up Troubles with a total strength that does not exceed the total supplied by the team. Note you can only use Faith or Wisdom in any one Intercession.

Prayer

Prayer and worship, to praise God, maintain the church's relationship with Him and request His aid.

• Commission up to 3 members. Choose which church to pray for. That church gains 1 Spirit and for each additional member after the first, that church gains either 1 additional Spirit or draws 1 Blessing card. The target church must choose how many Blessings to draw before drawing any.

Recovery

Support and relieve members from their duties, making them ready for a new challenge.

• Rotate Commissioned or Exhausted members of your church one step (90° counter-clockwise) up to a combined Recovery Cost of 10.
• You can only rotate a member once per Recovery.

Send

Send your members and ideas to help at another church.

• As a free Action, once per round you may send up to 3 of your Ready members (including their gifts) to another church. They arrive at their new church in the Ready orientation and will join that church in the Event phase of the next round.

You may send Activities in place of members, but you must include at least 1 member in the transfer.

Either you or the receiving church may spend an Action so that the members and Activities can be used immediately. (Free = join next round; Spend an Action = join now.)

Appendix

• Golden Rule: If a card has text that would conflict with the rules in the rulebook, the card takes precedence but cannot raise the Action Limit.
• Card Precedence: If two or more cards conflict, use the following order: Blessings > Activities > Troubles > Events > Locations > People
• Multiple targets: If a card effect could apply equally to a number of targets, the player may choose which members are affected.
• OUTREACH, DISCERN, INTERCEDE, PRAY, SEND, RECOVER, ACTION: If these are shown in a Talent, use an Action including that member to gain the effect.
• Blessings: You may play Blessing effects in a way that is most advantageous to the players.
• Resistance Modifiers: If a card text reduces or increases Resistance Ratings for an Outreach Action, it also modifies the Resistance total for that incoming Trouble check by the same amount to a minimum of 1.
• "Attach" Troubles: Some Troubles get attached to a member. If that member returns to the World, or is killed, the Trouble card is discarded.
• Members who die during the game: If a card effect kills members, place the members in your discard area. They cannot take part in the remainder of the game unless resurrected.
• Cooperation: There is no hidden information between players, you may speak openly.
• Harder Difficulty: Options for increasing the challenge of the game include:
  • Use the Challenge side of Locations.

Glossary

• Apostle: Some Named People are recognized as apostles of Christ. Apostles often have Talents that can affect other churches.
• Bonus Action: A special benefit that allows you to exceed the normal Action limit.
• Commission: Rotate a Ready member one step (90° clockwise).
• Commissioned: A member who has been rotated 90 degrees clockwise from Ready.
• Encourage 1 member: Rotate a Commissioned or Exhausted member, with a Recovery Cost up to the number indicated, one step (90° counter-clockwise).
• Ethnicity: The two people groups in the game are Jewish and Gentile (non-Jewish).
• Exhaust: Rotate a Ready member two steps (180° clockwise).
• Exhausted: A member who has been rotated 180° from Ready.
• Faith: The strength of a member's faith in God. Used in Outreach and Intercession Actions.
• Immediate: On a Trouble card, immediately apply the effects shown. Unless specified, this can only be stopped by other Immediate cards or by Blessing effects.
• Leader: A position held in the church who recovers one step for "free" in the Event phase. Leaders are also considered to be members of the church.
• Make Ready 1 member: Rotate a Commissioned or Exhausted member, with a Recovery Cost up to the number indicated, to the Ready orientation.