I wanted to write an article about Redemption to get more content into the game, but from a different perspective. The problem was I did not know what perspective that was.
I mulled some ideas over; I could write about the current meta and how I design cards that can impact the meta in different ways. I could also tie in themes into that article about what themes are lacking and what themes might be just a little too strong. I considered writing a spoiler article about the next set, but I thought that time just hasn’t come yet and it was too early. I thought about writing about the start of Redemption and how Bryon Hake designed amazing sets in the past and then transitioned to Gabe who created some of the most amazing aspects of Redemption that we know today.
I loved the idea of the history of the game from a designer perspective, but I felt like I would do a disservice to Bryon as I do not have all the details of that time frame. Maybe I will come back to that article if I can find a way to Bryon…
As I continued to jot down ideas and attempted to put sentences together, I thought any article wouldn’t be fully accurate, as I did not have enough information to write something worth reading. As a community I feel we have not learned the meta yet. A spoiler article might be too soon for set development and if I have learned anything from prior set designs, it’s that sets take on a whole new shape from initial draft to the next draft version. The other topic about past designers also would not have much information, or it would be speculation.
When I realized I didn’t know what to write was when I had this idea; instead of writing about things I did not fully know, I would write about things I do know. For my first non-spoiler article I will write about what I have learned as a card designer so far.
I was brought onto the elder team on May 17th, 2021 (thank you discord introductions). I helped with the Gospel of Christ set providing comments and playtesting every theme. I tend to learn through observation and asking questions. Needless to say, there was a lot of observing and asking questions from me.
I found set design eye-opening. I have been playing this game since I was a kid and I have been friends with playtesters for years, but seeing the “behind the scenes” work of set design was amazing. The amount of work that goes into one set is humbling. The lead design, for Gospel of Christ it was Gabe, must brainstorm the set. Sometimes a set is part of multiple sets (for example PoC/LoC/GoC, and even FoM I believe), so the brainstorm has to account for multiple sets at once in regard to themes, brigade distribution and abilities. Even as a playtester you don’t get to see the time taken for the brainstorm phase of a set.
For many reasons, a set is laid out as a document and the people in set design comment their questions, concerns, or positive reactions to any part of the card. The document breaks down each card into a standardized way that groups card types and brigades together and then break down a card line by line. Set design members can then comment on the entire card and say which part they are commenting on. Some comments are about the title matching the scripture, or the ability matching the title. Some comments are about the attributes of a card, the identifier, how to better word a card, or the overall power level (for better or worse) of an individual card.
Either way, this is a very labor-intensive process that the design team takes seriously and puts forth amazing work into each set. By the time Gospel of Christ had released, Gabe had been a part of the design team since 2011 (I think)!!!! Gabe deserved a well-earned break from lead design, but this left a very large void. This is where my story begins with lead design and what I have learned from our amazing team. First stop, Israel’s Deliverance!
What did I learn from Israel’s Deliverance?
K/L starter decks were an amazing reminder of God’s generosity through His people. When the decision was announced for our first ever fundraiser for Roots, special promos and new starter decks, the entire community was excited. The fundraiser immediately showed that we would have new starter decks plus other cards.
Chris and I were co-leads for Israel’s Deliverance and started formulating ideas immediately. The main idea we had is that we wanted some of the more well-known names in the game to be represented. We had many names and stories to choose from, but I believe God helped us make the right decision. We decided on Moses and David squaring off against Pharaoh and Goliath. This allowed us to start from the book of Exodus and go through I Samuel.
What we didn’t realize is that we were shaping the next two sets. We had an awesome idea of telling the story of Israel from Joseph all the way to David and mostly (sorry Judges) everything in between. The main idea was to cover the exodus, travel through the wilderness and show the conquest of nations and the forming of Israel as one unified kingdom.
Overall, what did I learn from Israel’s Deliverance?
The basics. I learned what makes a card simple, what does a new player need to learn for the game, and not to overcomplicate things.
What did I learn from Israel’s Rebellion?
Israel’s Rebellion was a challenge, I have been vocal about that before. It was my first set as lead design, and it was the first set after the largest and strongest set ever released being Gospel of Christ. As a team we were discussing simplifying the game, putting a pause on certain abilities and icons, increasing our font size for easier reading, and being mindful of how strong a card is. This led to much rework, but that’s a good thing!
As a team we had to learn what the future of Redemption looks like, what makes the game fun, what a healthy meta looks like and how to make simpler cards that are still fun and strong.
Admittedly, Israel’s Rebellion is weaker in comparison to many sets in rotation, and I did not achieve all my goals, but I was able to learn the most from this set and my peers. I do love themes and having each theme having their own feel to them while still being strong. I do think Israel’s Rebellion is well designed, but just lacks overall power. And sure, Phinehas and Hophni aren’t that great and evil wilderness lacks modifiers, but now I know what to look for in a card.
Overall, what did I learn from Israel’s Rebellion?
To plan better and speak up! It’s ok to ask for help and say that you simply don’t know something. I should have been more vocal about needing help with themes and their power level. I was focused more on simplification, and I forgot one of the main points of the game is to have fun! Design cards that are fun to play. I knew looking at a lot of cards that they were underwhelming, and I needed to keep the community in mind that the game needs to be fresh and exciting which is done through creating fun cards.
What did I learn from Israel’s Inheritance?
I took my knowledge from Israel’s Rebellion and applied it to Israel’s Inheritance. I had a much better product to roll out to the team. For scriptures we use the most updated version of NASB. I tend to have the document for the set on one internet tab, Bible Gateway up on another tab and I copy and paste the scripture over from Bible Gateway to the set. Well, sometimes I swap versions (NASB to NIV for example) for Bible study reasons and forget to swap back. We had a lot of rework in both IR and II for scripture and it was messy. Even though the set was in a better spot design and ability wise, there were still a lot of rookie mistakes that I made.
However, we did introduce a new theme with David’s Mighty Men, don’t worry, you all will get all of the Mighty Men someday, and we made the Joshua theme very strong and the focal point of the set. We rounded out all the “ites” (Canaan, Moab, Edom) and told the story of Joshua conquering enemies for God’s kingdom.
Overall, what did I learn from Israel’s Inheritance?
Confidence! Israel’s Inheritance has been well met by the community and has been a lot of fun to play and build decks. It gave me confidence in my abilities that we as a team can design a set that makes for a healthy meta, is strong and compliments prior themes. I also learned to not rush things and to look over the details. The 2025 set I rolled out to the team didn’t have many scripture errors, and abilities were more focused as I knew what could fit on a card and what our standards were. Each set feels stronger, better, more interactive, and overall, more fun than the set before it. I cannot wait to reveal the next set to the community. Taking the initial version to the team and releasing the next draft of the set I could write an entire article on, but I have written enough as is! I promise you can feel confident in the direction of the future sets that will promote a healthy and diverse meta.
Applying what I have learned to the future.
So which direction are we going? There’s so much to the Bible and so many books we haven’t fully designed as cards yet. There are still so many stories to tell and characters to bring back, or create for the first time!
To the best of my ability, I try to look at the big picture and see what themes need help, what characters and themes (this doesn’t just mean character themes) haven’t been done in a long time, what books of the Bible are lacking cards, and what generally has not been done before.
God willing, I plan on leading set design for a while longer, but I am committed to always working with others and giving other people an opportunity as well. For now, I imagine I will keep on learning and trying to improve on set design which means I have an overall plan of where to go.
I won’t give too much away, and mind you that these are merely my ideas, but I have brainstormed future sets for the next 5 years. The first block will have an overall theme combining the sets and could include new abilities, new themes and different ways of doing abilities that we have not seen in the past.
The second block titles will have an “old school” feel to them. Each card in the set will have a connection to the title in some way and will bring in new characters, redo some old favorites that have been rotated out, and give certain themes a much-needed boost.
I am looking forward to the future of Redemption. The next set is going to be amazing. I really do mean that. It’s fun to play, it’s interactive and it has a *edited by R.O.S.E.S.*
Applying lessons learned to card design
Now that I have talked about what I have learned, how do I apply this to card design? I created some rules that I like to follow when creating a new card.
Disclaimer* If there are any cards shown past this point, please understand they are merely for the article and may not ever be created, or have any tie-in to future sets titled *edited by R.O.S.E.S.* described in this article. Drats, R.O.S.E.S keeps getting me!
Rule 1: Get inspiration from the scripture and don’t force the scripture to a card.
This is a tough rule for me to follow. I tend to come up with idea abilities first, then try to fit the abilities to a theme. That’s not always bad practice but can make it to where I get excited about abilities and make an entire theme of abilities with characters, Enhancements, and support cards, only to find that I don’t have enough scripture to accurately reflect what I designed. It’s easy to match a scripture to one ability, but it’s a lot more challenging to match twelve or more cards to scripture all in the same theme, timeline or story.
How about we do a community exercise? Let’s find the most applicable scripture for this card and then name the card based on the scripture. I would love for you to direct message me on Discord with your scripture and this ability so I know what you are talking about.
Rule 2: Make the card unique, fun and/or strong.
For this rule I tend to ask myself if the card is unique, strong and/or fun to play?
Solomon, the Preacher, would obviously need some more cards with wisdom in the title brought in the game to help his ability, but I believe this card is a good example of rule 2, while still applying all other rules.
Is this card unique? I would say yes. He’s similar to Music Leader in a sense, but you can trigger Solomon. Most territory class search characters are punishing the opponent for doing something, usually drawing or searching. Solomon allows you to trigger his ability, which might be too strong, which answers one of the other questions for this rule, is the card strong?
Obviously, this card is made for fun, but if it was ever made, it would make sense that cards with “wisdom” in the title would come out in the same set. His power level would be limited to cards with “wisdom” in the title, which balances him, but he has the ability to be very strong. There’s more to Solomon than just wisdom cards. Solomon was a well-known king, and I wanted to show a tie in to wisdom and to royalty. Solomon makes your Old Testament Enhancements “cannot be prevented” while a purple king is opposed.
I think Solomon is unique, and I think he could be strong with the right supporting cards, so the last question; is he fun? Being able to trigger a card when a good Dominant is played is nice, and his ability is thematic, and granting your O.T. Enhancements “cannot be prevented” while Solomon is in play and any of your purple kings are opposed is fun to me. When I design a card, I like to think holistically.
Don’t just consider the card in a vacuum but consider it from a deck building perspective. When I design a card, I want to make sure the card has a purpose in a deck and can either support, or enhance a theme or strategy, or create a strategy.
For Solomon, he is potentially a great resource maker and has a very strong “CBP” ability, which allows for a lot of really fun decks to be made. Jehoshaphat banded to Captain of the Host (Roots) sounds fun to me!
Rule 3: The card should make sense to the scripture.
This rule builds on rule 1 to an extent. For this rule I ask myself; does the card match the scripture? Does the strength/toughness, title, brigade, art, identifier and ability make sense for the passage used? Let’s see what I whipped up for this rule!
I like the attributes of the card to tell the story of the card from a biblical perspective. Starting with the strength and toughness does 0/1 make sense? Considering Eve was the first woman in the world I wanted to represent that with her stats.
There was no woman in the world before her, which the 0 represents, and since she is the first, she gets the 1 toughness. Her numbers mean she has initiative against all Evil Characters in the game, which also makes sense due to God creating Eve before evil entered the world.
I like titles of a card to either sound cool or further tell the story from the Bible, most of the time reinforcing what the scripture says. For this example, I think it’s important to not just say that Eve was the first woman, but also was the first wife ever, showing God making marriage between a man and a woman from the very beginning of creation.
For good Genesis cards we use the blue brigade and Eve’s identifier has antediluvian, which simply means “before the flood”, so her brigade and identifier checks out. For art we care about quality first and then we try to ensure uniqueness. The art also needs to be applicable to the scripture and title. This looks to be a good piece for a Christian card game since Adam and Eve are covered here, but they are not covered in their own doing. The art is appropriate for gameplay and Biblical standards.
Finally, we get to the ability. She gave Adam the apple to eat, so I wanted to represent that while also giving an incentive to “give the evil” and replenish the card you gave. She also gets to grant protection and bands to her son, Abel, all with a modifier.
If I learned anything, which according to this article I have learned a thing or two, I would say this card is doing a bit too much! However, this is just for fun and to show abilities matching scripture. I would say this card is a great representation of all 3 rules so far. It’s fun, unique, strong, applicable to scripture in all ways, and the card was inspired by scripture.
Rule 4: If the card is too complicated, you’re probably doing too much.
I have gotten carried away in card design in the past few years where I really try to push design boundaries. Pushing boundaries is great when you have an awesome team around you to help put crazy ideas into realistic abilities, but in order to get from crazy ideas to healthy abilities, I like to ask myself, what is the intent of this card?
This allows me to get my thoughts out for what the card is trying to accomplish, and then start formulating ways to get there with the help from the team. So, what does a complicated card look like?
This card sounds pretty awesome. The scripture is about Zion and how it was an amazing city, then people sinned and ruined the city. I wanted to show sin taking over a city. The idea is for me to play this card, and each turn I can move it around from good Fortress to good Fortress that my opponent owns and if that card could activate, I would actually get the ability.
Think about your opponent having Bethlehem Stable out and on their upkeep they don’t get to take a good Nativity card from Reserve, or if you finally get rid of that pesky Mary, Holy Virgin and she does not go into the opponent’s Reserve.
Another example would be if this card is on the opponent’s Storehouse and on the opponent’s upkeep you get to take an O.T. Enhancement from your Reserve instead. As cool as this sounds, this card is a migraine waiting to happen and creates way too many crazy scenarios.
I do love this idea, but I think there’s other ways to show it in a card and who knows, maybe I will pitch this idea to the team, and we brainstorm and create something far less messy!
Those are my 4 rules. So when I put everything together, what have I learned from card design?
It’s ok to fail! It’s not ok to not try.
The last example shows 2 separate things. The first aspect I was looking at was a potential theme and their artwork being black and white and what that would look like on a card. It sounded awesome in my mind. I was thinking of Job’s friends, or evil Job cards being black and white pictures instead of color, so I looked around for some black and white cards to see how that would look on a card.
When I found black and white art it looked to be depicting an evil prophet of some sort, so I made a pale green card. I applied the art, and the outcome looked pretty bad. I don’t think the card above looks good, but I wondered why it does not look good? The black and white art with the pale green really didn’t mesh, so I thought, what would this card and art look like in black?
Now that looks much better! And who knows, maybe we will never do this, but at least I know that black and white on a black border gives a very “dark” feel to it and would really distinguish it from other themes.
This card is missing an ability though, isn’t it? So, what other crazy stuff did I cook up for this card, because after all, it’s ok to try in artwork and in abilities!
What in the world is this guy trying to do!? I was trying to turn all Enhancements with “or” in the special ability into an “and”. This ability would allow any evil Enhancement you play that has an “or” in the special ability you would get to activate both abilities. That’s pretty awesome! I will say this ability was pitched to the team and this is the wording that came out, but it’s still very messy. I was happy that the idea was not shot down, but it was actually accepted with excitement, and we worked on finding the right wording.
Marcus’ brilliant mind came up with this wording from my original pitch, but the ability still felt a little clunky. And who knows, maybe something awesome came from this idea, but we did not want to repeat past mistakes and make clunky abilities that were extremely complicated. Admittedly, I was going to use this card for rule 4, but I had the idea for ‘City that Was’ and wanted to show another cool, hypothetical card.
That’s everything! Those are my (for now) 4 rules I like to adhere to for card design based on what I have learned in the last few years. I thought about adding a spoiler from the 2025 set into this article, but I felt that would take away from the point of the article, and who knows, maybe you did get a spoiler. Regardless, the next set I have already learned so much and the team has been working earnestly to make it amazing! I cannot wait to release spoilers for that set, but all in good time.
I also want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and it was a Christmas miracle that I was able to finish this article and send it to Land of Redemption before Christmas! Thank you to the elders for the countless hours behind the scene you all put in, to Rob Anderson for giving us the tools we need and the freedom to design such an amazing game, to the community for being so gracious while I have made mistakes in set design, and to the content creators who take their own time from their day to bring us amazing work! Merry Christmas to you all!
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