{"id":37917,"date":"2016-08-31T06:05:13","date_gmt":"2016-08-31T10:05:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/?p=37917"},"modified":"2016-08-31T07:03:53","modified_gmt":"2016-08-31T11:03:53","slug":"playing-canon-in-class","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2016\/08\/playing-canon-in-class.html","title":{"rendered":"Playing Canon in Class"},"content":{"rendered":"<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\">\n<html><head><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><\/head><body><p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Canon: The Card Game\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/UDr_GxizXl8?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/p><p>Canon: The Card Game has gone from being an idea, to a clear concept, to a game with printed cards, and most recently, to a game I\u2019ve played in two settings: my Sunday school class at church, and then with the students in my Religion and Science Fiction class. The video above incorporates video and photos from the latter. <\/p>\n<p>The next stop is that, in about 8 days from today, you will be able to buy the game through The Game Crafter website! <a href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2016\/08\/the-canon-card-game-exists.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\">The cards I used in class are the ones I\u00a0blogged about a few days ago, which were printed at Butler in our campus print shop<\/a>. The cards from Game Crafter will be\u00a0even\u00a0better-looking as a result of things I learned in the process of making this first batch.<\/p>\n<p>The game comes in two editions, related to\u00a0the two main uses of the word \u201ccanon.\u201d One is the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thegamecrafter.com\/games\/canon-card-game-fandom-edition-\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">fandom edition<\/a>, and the cards relate to original series, prequels, sequels, cartoons, comics, novels, fanfic, director\u2019s cut, and so on. The other is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thegamecrafter.com\/games\/canon-card-game-new-testament-edition-\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">the Bible edition, and for now specifically a New Testament one<\/a> \u2013 although I already have expansion packs in the works to include more of the NT and\u00a0other works, including a whole deck focused on the Nag Hammadi texts or \u201cGnostic Gospels,\u201d another that incorporates NT textual criticism, as well as a couple of decks related to the Old Testament\/Hebrew Bible. If you click through to either of those pages on the GameCrafter website, you can find <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thegamecrafter.com\/games\/canon-card-game-fandom-edition-\/download\/C909F5DC-6D5F-11E6-AA1C-4CB6A8EFE888\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">the game rules<\/a>. Click through to read them in more detail, but the basic idea is that players draw and discard cards and also place them in two main play areas \u2013 a central \u201ccanon\u201d that anyone can put cards in and remove cards from, and a personal \u201ccanon\u201d in front of you that only you can add to and take from. The aim is to get your personal canon to match the central, collectively-defined one as closely as possible. The game mechanics are fun even just as a game. But the dynamics of collaboration and competition do catch something of the spirit of how canons are actually formed.<\/p>\n<p>As I said, the game\u2019s release for sale online will happen towards the middle or end of next week. I\u2019m really excited \u2013 and hope that you are\u00a0too!<\/p>\n<p>It takes a little bit of lead time before new editions or expansion packs can be made available. Inputting them into the GameCrafter system so that they can be printed on demand is something that I think I have gotten the hang of, and so I could create a customized version of the game in response to a request fairly quickly. But GameCrafter doesn\u2019t allow a game to be sold until its creator has purchased a copy and had time to inspect it \u2013 an eminently sensible rule, even though in this case it is arguable that it unnecessarily slows down the process. After all, making new cards and a variation on the box text and artwork isn\u2019t really creating a new game. But since it takes a while, I thought I should mention that my plan is to release one fandom-related deck initially, and one\u00a0New Testament deck. I will then follow up\u00a0with other decks over the months that follow. I trust that this will sound sensible to you, but if lots of people tell me that they simply cannot wait to get their hands on the Nag Hammadi version of the game, or some other\u00a0themed deck, I\u2019m willing to release those\u00a0sooner rather than later.<\/p>\n<p>Each deck for the game can be used on its own to play the game. In other words, you can play with just the initial New Testament deck, or the second\u00a0deck in the New Testament series, or the Nag Hammadi deck, without needing to own the others. And so for that reason, I\u2019ve not called them \u201cexpansion packs.\u201d Nevertheless, you can play with larger groups, or make play more interesting and different for smaller groups, by combining decks.<\/p>\n<p>One other thing I\u2019m interested in knowing is about the interest of educators in using the game in class, and about\u00a0which kinds of cards would be most useful. On the New Testament deck cards, I\u2019ve placed on each one a list of objections that could be raised to the inclusion of a work in the canon. One can play the game simply as a competitive-collaborative matching game and ignore that text. But I imagine that some professors and teachers might like to use the game, but might prefer for the cards to be mostly blank. They could then require students to write reasons for their move \u2013 to add a text to the central canon or to remove it from there \u2013 on the cards, and after game play could review the cards and evaluate their understanding.\u00a0(Students would need to put their initials next to what they write if this were to be graded). If you are an educator, which would you prefer \u2013 cards with information, or cards with room to write? Or would you like both to be available, so that you have different options, or could perhaps play with one deck and then the other, either to get students to\u00a0investigate for themselves before providing possible answers, or conversely, to give students information and then see what they remember when the answers are taken away? Let me know what you think you might be interested in buying and using, and I\u2019ll make it available if I can! (Obviously I can\u2019t make specific Star Wars, Star Trek, or Doctor Who decks because of intellectual property rights. But another reason someone might want a fandom deck that doesn\u2019t have icons or images on it is to be able to customize the cards to focus specifically on Star Wars \u2013 mention the Clone Wars and Rebels rather than just cartoons, and the Special Edition of the original trilogy rather than simply \u201cDirector\u2019s Cut.\u201d)<\/p>\n<p>On the following pages, there are photos from my Religion and Science Fiction class where four groups of three students played the game. I also had a group of seven of us play the game in my Sunday school class, and so I can testify that it works well in different sized groups.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-37920\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/719\/2016\/08\/Table-1-rules-768x1024.jpg\" alt=\"Table 1 rules\" width=\"459\" height=\"612\"><\/p>\n<p>Now, for photos from the class (sorry I didn\u2019t get any from the Sunday school game, but then I was a player and so was less free to walk around taking photos!). The photo above is one of my favorites since it has the rules on the screen in the background. But there are lots of other good ones, which may give you a sense of how game play works. Take a look!<br>\n<!--nextpage--><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-37918\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/719\/2016\/08\/Squeeze-in-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"Squeeze in\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\"><\/p>\n<p>Even in a cramped space, the game can be played.<\/p>\n<p><!--nextpage--><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-37919\" src=\"http:\/\/wp.production.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/files\/2016\/08\/Table-1-c-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"Table 1 c\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\"> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-37921\" src=\"http:\/\/wp.production.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/files\/2016\/08\/Table-1-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"Table 1\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\"> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-37922\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/719\/2016\/08\/Table-1b-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"Table 1b\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\"><\/p>\n<p>One lucky group got to use the empty table with lots of room.<\/p>\n<p><!--nextpage--><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-37923\" src=\"http:\/\/wp.production.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/files\/2016\/08\/Table-2-Bible-c-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"Table 2 Bible c\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\"> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-37924\" src=\"http:\/\/wp.production.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/files\/2016\/08\/Table-2-Bible-d-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"Table 2 Bible d\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\"> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-37925\" src=\"http:\/\/wp.production.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/files\/2016\/08\/Table-2-Bible-e-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"Table 2 Bible e\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\"> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-37926\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/719\/2016\/08\/Table-2-Bible-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"Table 2 Bible\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\"><\/p>\n<p>Here\u2019s a good look at the New Testament cards in a game.<br>\n<!--nextpage--><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-37927\" src=\"http:\/\/wp.production.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/files\/2016\/08\/Table-2-fandom-b-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"Table 2 fandom b\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\"> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-37928\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/719\/2016\/08\/Table-2-fandom-c-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"Table 2 fandom c\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\"><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-37929\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/719\/2016\/08\/Table-2-fandom-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"Table 2 fandom\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\"><\/p>\n<p>This group managed to squeeze in a game with each of the decks.<br>\n<!--nextpage--><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-37930\" src=\"http:\/\/wp.production.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/files\/2016\/08\/Table-3-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"Table 3\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\"> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-37931\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/719\/2016\/08\/Table-3b-225x300.jpg\" alt=\"Table 3b\" width=\"225\" height=\"300\"><\/p>\n<p>The game really can be played in just about any deck space, making it ideal for play at work (shhhh!) or in the cafeteria, as well as in the varieties of classroom spaces we find ourselves in.<br>\n<!--nextpage--><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thegamecrafter.com\/games\/canon-card-game-new-testament-edition-\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-37946\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/719\/2016\/08\/Poster-2-791x1024.png\" alt=\"Poster 2\" width=\"418\" height=\"541\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>If you read this far,\u00a0I appreciate your enthusiasm. I\u2019m excited too! Please help spread the word!<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Canon: The Card Game has gone from being an idea, to a clear concept, to a game with printed cards, and most recently, to a game I\u2019ve played in two settings: my Sunday school class at church, and then with the students in my Religion and Science Fiction class. The video above incorporates video and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":136,"featured_media":37923,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[1140,1476,1555,14223,1923,3357,3736,10169,10171,10890,11988],"class_list":["post-37917","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-games","tag-bible","tag-butler-university","tag-canon","tag-card-game","tag-class","tag-fandom","tag-game","tag-religion","tag-religion-and-science-fiction","tag-science-fiction","tag-students"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Playing Canon in Class<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Canon: The Card Game has gone from being an idea, to a clear concept, to a game with printed cards, and most recently, to a game I&#039;ve played in two\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2016\/08\/playing-canon-in-class.html\" \/>\n<link rel=\"next\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2016\/08\/playing-canon-in-class.html\/2\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Playing Canon in Class\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Canon: The Card Game has gone from being an idea, to a clear concept, to a game with printed cards, and most recently, to a game I&#039;ve played in two\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2016\/08\/playing-canon-in-class.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Religion Prof: The Blog of James F. 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