In 2001 my youngest son, Christian, was away from home for almost a year. In his youth I had introduced him to the world of Dungeons and Dragons. A fan of every form of adventure gaming and a recent convert to Christianity he needed encouragement and I wanted a way to share time and something entertaining with him that would be more meaningful over the course of months he was away. I had been a dungeon master, a player, even a big play-by-mail gamer in the past, before the Internet and social media came along and that seemed the best way to go: a game, like days past, through the U.S. Mail at the leisure and pleasure of both me and my son. So I created a game, wrote a twenty-four page into, establishing the character, his powers and possessions. I sent it to him. Circumstances at the time, he had every intention of engaging,  but had to set it aside. Life changed, the game delayed, it now (prophetically, you’ll eventually see) collects dust in the dark. But here is the catch. It is not D&D. It is probably the first Christian game of its kind, set in the Dark Ages. I sent an introductory letter with the package and (for today anyway) this is the subject of today’s topic. It is a convincing argument for the need for a good Christian role-playing game. It was my way of introducing the adventure to my son, and what follows is that letter, verbatim:

The argument:

To My Son Christian:

You are about to embark on a great adventure. It’s not quite Dungeons and Dragons, nor is it Silverdawn. You may not need a map. Why not? Because you already know this world. You already live in it. Well, a millennium later, anyway.

You see this is the first millennium, sometime after 900 a.d. In England or Europe right in the middle of the Dark Ages. (We might pin down exactly where later).

But you see, I’ve wanted to do this too — for some time — embark on a great role-playing adventure. But as a Christian, having gone through a great revival in my life, I am bothered by the mixed messages sent by traditional D&D play. In them we pretend there are whole pantheons of gods who look down on mere mortals, or immortals, or monsters and rule their fate — sometimes with fickleness, sometimes with lust, sometimes with hate or sometimes with indifference. The D&D world is motivated by, and revolves around greed — that good old fashioned lust for power, or money, or sex. Sometimes for all of those things. And it is all accomplished with violence and theft, or the use of magic or arcane occult powers or pleadings.

You see, back in 1981 when I first started playing Silverdawn, I paid absolutely no heed to where it might lead. You see, if I hadn’t been using characters or a world of somebody else’s creating I could have compiled years of collected works as a novel and sold it. But it is best that I cannot. Since, I also gave no thought to the idea that someday my sons or daughters or grandchildren would eventually want to read it.

You see, some of it embarrasses me. Not the craft, or originality or the drama or story itself, but some of the content might make even a sailor blush. Filled with the lusty violence of all such material, it is also filled with a lot of sexual content — as a re-newed Christian I look back on that in shame. In fact, it serves as an object lesson that psalms and proverbs elucidates: the sins of the fathers can be passed down to the children — because the selfish and lustful acts of the father have lasting repercussions. Ask King David.

Whatever ingenuity, creativity, even perhaps Nebula or Saturn award-winning drama the story itself might have had at its base — the parts that shame me now — will always be a blemish on the completed work. What is truly missing in this genre is a role-playing game that can be aspired too. That’s when I created the first Christian role-playing game you hold in your hands.

Whatever misperceptions that might lead you to believe otherwise, it is not dull. As you will quickly see, it is filled with its share of drama, excitement and intensity. It is sometimes violent but never gratuitously. For you see, good drama, great stories are not dependent on foul language, or gore, or explicit sex, to be both inspiring and appealing to the masses.

In fact, if you look at the top ten movies of all time (four of which are done by Steven Spielberg) among them are E.T. The Extraterrestrial, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Indiana Jones, Back to the Future, Star Wars, The Wizard of Oz, Gone with the Wind (to name only a few): all of these movies still outrank (and are most beloved) among all movies and share much in common. No four-letter word is uttered in them; no gore or gratuitous violence permeates them; no nudity is part of their images. Yet, they stand as the most popular movies in the world. Why? Because the story — the drama touches us in its excellence. As plot and drama thin — other directors add cheap thrills just to maintain interest. Cheap thrills will never make a story beloved.

Besides that, who said Christian stories, whether fiction or non-fiction have to be dull? Can you find a dull moment in these stories: Joan of Arc, King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, The Search for the Holy Grail, Saint George Slays a Dragon, Saint Patrick drives the snakes out of Ireland, and even Saint Nicholas delivers food and more to the poor on Christmas. How awesome would it be for a great Christian epic to have elements from all of these and more?

There are more reasons I prefer to do this and I will list them by priority below:

(1) There is never enough great Christian fiction. Larry Burkett created a novel called “Illuminatae” Christian fiction that is a best seller. Five fiction novels so far in the Left Behind series (the story of the rapture and tribulation) are all on the NY best seller list. There is a hunger for Christian fiction.

(2) If I am going to write fiction again I want it to count for something. I don’t want to waste my time and not just playing silly games. I am genuinely honoring my son and my God with my time.

(3) The story becomes an outlet for real Christian dialogue and the practice of scripture upon real world situations. It also becomes another reason to read and study God’s Word, since it is the only “scrolls” in our world.

(4) We are leaving a legacy for our children, grandchildren and great grandchildren. This game (or novel) could be something that we create for our own entertainment, and yet be something proud we can leave to our progeny.

(5) with God’s blessing it could someday bless the world as a novel, or movie or a popular Christian TV series.

(6) Because I love you. This becomes something we share. If you find it inspiring too — Your chapter begins where mine ends.

Your character (like Jacob) gets a name change in the middle of this introductory story. God did not abandon the world he created, this is true today, it was true in the Dark Ages. The young thief-turned priest discovers like Moses, like Samson, like Daniel, there is a lot of power through the divine intervention of God. (God teaches him a long lost secret, which endows him with a special power — which I will not say here but you will discover the secret as you read.) I think you’ll agree this secret will bring a D&D element to the story as we rival St. George, St. Patrick and more!

I am leaving this in your charge. If it proceeds it will be from your hands. Note I didn’t want to use Silverdawn so I titled our game Silverlining. I titled the story (or our first novel) after the character’s new name: “Sincere”

So my son, happy reading and happy adventuring.

Sincerely,
Your Loving Father
Gary Lee Stuber

(If there are those curious to read the short story intro that begins this game. I could be coaxed to text it all in from the original typewritten manuscript. But considering the labor, I’d really have to be sweet talked)