Q: Tell us a little bit about yourself outside of Redemption. (by EmJayBee83)
I am a full time student minister at the Crosspointe church of Christ in Franklin, Ohio where I have been on staff for almost 15 years. I have a beautiful wife who is willing to allow me to have a “Redemption Room” which is very gracious of her. Sarah and I also adopted a little boy a little over 2 years ago. His name is Ethan and he has been such a blessing to our lives. His story is so cool and such a God ordained series of events that I would love to share it with you. Catch me at an event and I will tell you all about it.
Q: Tell us about your Redemption background. (by EmJayBee83)
I was first made aware of Redemption in 1999 while attending Spirit Song at King’s Island near Cincinnati, Ohio. David Easterling had a booth set up and he was selling cards. I had been an avid gamer and really loved the idea of a Christian CCG that I might be able to use in the context of my newly found ministry with teens. I bought a couple packs and then a couple more. I pulled a few cards that David had done the art on and he was gracious enough to sign them for me. I took the cards home, put them in a box and forgot about them for about a year. When I finally came across them I was on a mission. I had to have every card ever printed (definitely my OCD coming out) and several sets of them. I started teaching kids in youth group how to play; which after attending our first tournament we realized we were playing incorrectly. No matter, we were hooked and began hosting events at the church building and at our local Family Christian store. We have attended so many tournaments including Nationals in Kansas City, Boston, Knoxville, and Minnesota (twice), while being a part of the leadership team for the Columbus Nationals. With all of that under my belt a couple guys from my playgroup and I started visiting a local game shop called Schumer’s which would eventually be known as Gem City Games.
Q: You were previously involved with Gem City Games. How do you feel that experience (at a primarily secular shop) compares to Three Lions Gaming? Are there ideas from that environment you feel would benefit Redemption? (by EmJayBee83)
Firstly, I would contend that there are no places that are secular but every place is highly spiritual in nature. They may or may not be friendly spirits but they are spiritual none the less. I had to remind myself of that constantly, because if I convinced myself that the store (Gem City Games) was not a place where the “holy”’ spiritual could have a place among the “secular” spiritual (which I think is what you were getting at) then why was I even there. I was still a minister of the Gospel even while being a secular store owner. The two experiences between Gem and TLG are in many ways vastly different. Obviously I am almost exclusively and online entity with TLG whereas I was basically the opposite at Gem, where we leaned on our physical location to keep things going. I would say that the retail experience I gained at Gem was very valuable in teaching me how important the customer really is. If I can’t make something right for my customers then someone else will and take that person’s business. Where I think I gleaned the most knowledge from is my interactions with Star City Games and Alter Reality Games. I saw their business model and although I could not compete with it at Gem, I could model something after them in the realm of Redemption.
Q: How did the opportunity come about to purchase Three Lions Gaming? (by EmJayBee83)
A couple years ago I was investing lots of time in Redemption at Gem. I was building the infrastructure to sell cards through our web site. I was posting quite a bit on the message boards. I was just way more involved in the Redemption community than I had been in a long time. Seeing that, Ken approached me to gauge if I had any interest in purchasing TLG from him. We talked for a couple weeks, but ultimately my number and his number were too far off. Fast forward several months and I was in a very different place. I was thinking about selling Gem for various reasons, but mainly because I wanted to have more free time to spend with my son Ethan. I contacted Ken and due to him selling down some of his inventory and due to me having more possible liquid assets from selling Gem, we were able to strike a deal. The rest as they say is history…and a very interesting one at that which included a road trip with a couple of my friends from Ohio to Arizona and back in four days to pick up the TLG inventory.
Q: Why purchase Three Lions Gaming as opposed to just continuing to run your own on-line card business? (by EmJayBee83)
The reality is that there is only one Three Lions Gaming. After selling cards online (or at least attempting to sell them), I was getting absolutely no traction. I was selling cards for half price and was still unable to break into the Redemption secondary market because of one enormous word; LOYALTY. Doug and Ken had built such a strong foundation of customers that even the possibility of saving lots of money would not bring very many people to take a chance with Gem City Games. The name and the goodwill that TLG has is far more valuable than the tons of cards I have which goes back to what I said I learned at Gem.
Q: You have put forward a plan for your own tournament series. How will that tie in with traditional (i.e. Cactus-backed) Redemption tournaments? What are you looking to do in your own tournament series that you feel did not fit in well with just hosting a standard tournament (or set of tournaments)? (by EmJayBee83)
My plan all along has been to offer tournaments where the tweaks that many have waned to see made to Redemption tournament play can be made without upsetting normal Cactus events. With that being said, I have had a couple conversations with Mr. Rob Anderson about what TLG Events could become to serve the greater Redemption community. Without putting words in to Rob’s mouth, I understand the role of the TLG Events to be a place where new rules and styles of play can be tried and tested. The reason I think this will work well is because when you come into a TLG event you will come expecting something different. We will be trying out deck lists, mulligan, and one deck check-in this season which will officially launch after Nationals this year. Next season we are already looking at doing some type of experiment with set rotation and/or a ban list which will either be added to the stuff we tried this year if they all worked, or replace something from this year that didn’t work. The wonderful thing is that we are not going to be unconditionally committed to the things we try from season to season. If they are bad, then we will drop them after the season is over. If they are good then they may be coming to an Official Cactus Tournament near you. The other cool thing is that if you want to host a TLG event and still get the Cactus Promo cards, you can just combine the two by registering with both Cactus and TLG. Either way, we have a section on our site to promote upcoming TLG Events that I look to be full come this Fall.
Q: You have shown some cool swag for tournament winners. Will hosts of traditional tournaments be able to order these items from you for prize support–or are the play mats, etc. limited to the TLG branded events? (by EmJayBee83)
I assume you are talking about the “Help from Above” playmat that features Jesus reaching down into the water to give you (or Peter) a hand…oh I just so happen to have an image of it right here:
I am super excited about that playmat and the way it will turn out. I just got the preliminary proof for the mat last week and it looked pretty good. I am confident with a few tweaks that it will be stunning. Now to answer your question…the playmat for this season (the one I just described) will only be available to tournament hosts of our events for this coming tournament season. Once this season is over, any remaining “Help from Above” playmats will go on sale on our website and at Nationals next year wherever that may be. 😉 Hosts are allowed to purchase additional playmats for added prize support for their events but we really want the people who have the playmats to be people who have earned them by winning one of our events or who have coerced it away from (traded for it, won an arm wrestling match for it, etc.) someone who has.
I am wondering what the mission of TLG is. What is TLG’s future look like? Will it continue to be only selling cards? Will TLG start working with Cactus and sell packs at Christian stores? Will they start looking to expand to multiple places, and how do they plan to expand Redemption? (by yirgogo)
I have not sat down and written an official mission statement yet (maybe I should do that) but I see TLG’s mission as three fold. I want to #1) promote Redemption, #2) by making it affordable, and #3) by making it accessible. Maybe that is only one fold with two creases, but you get the idea. I think we have made good strides in bringing the price of playing Redemption down and with projects like the Deck Builders, we are working to make competitive decks accessible to all players (the decision making with those decks is completely up to you). We will be selling mainly cards, but I am getting ready to put up some Dragon Shields to see how they sell on the site and am in the process of getting some cool stuff from Doug Gray that I will be putting up on the site for sale in the near future. As far as our involvement with Cactus…we are just a really good customer. I am not in this to become a distributor or anything of that sort, however, the more stores (Christian or not) that sell Redemption the better. I honestly think that there are so many people out there who are like I was. They have some cards sitting in a box somewhere and we are just waiting for them to dig them out and get just a little curious if the game is still around. Hopefully they find TLG and we are able to get them back in the game so to speak.
My question is, “What exactly is the symbolism of 3 lions anyway?” (by Prof Underwood)
Also, why does his avatar only have one lion? (by YourMathTeacher)
I’m also curious what the symbolism is behind the 3 Lions. (by browarod)
This is a great question and so I sent Ken and Doug a message asking them their thoughts. Ken said:
I know I asked Doug way back in 2008 when I bought Three Lions Gaming, but I can’t find the email where he explained it. I do remember that the explanation left more questions than the number of answers it provided. 🙂
Ken
Doug said:
Originally, the website was an explorable inn (Three Lions Inn). You would click on the front door to enter. That led into the main room with items to click in the room and a doorway to enter another room. I wanted an old sounding name for the hidden inn in the woods so I thought three lions sounded cool. That is about it. 😉
Doug
So the end result is that it was not necessarily representative of anything back then. That is why I get the distinct honor of giving meaning to the TLG name and avatar right now. Three is a number that is ripe with significance in the Scriptures and throughout literature from many cultures. In the Bible, the number three connotes significance, sufficiency, and completeness. Likewise, the imagery of the lion is used multiples times in the Bible. The first way the lion is used in the scriptures is to evoke the idea of power in the Old Testament through the imagery in the temple and throne and on into Jacob’s blessing that pictures the tribe of Judah as a lion. The second way lions are shown is in the persecution that God’s people have dealt with from Daniel in the O.T. to the Christians in the N.T. who were thrown to the lions for entertainment. Scripture even portrays Satan as a roaring lion seeking someone to devour. Finally, the third image of a lion is found in the book of Revelation where the Kingdom of God has come to pass and the promise has been fulfilled. There we see the lion and the lamb lying together in harmony; a beautiful picture of the promised rest for those who belong to the Lord. So to sum up the imagery; the first lion is the lion of power and significance, the second is the lion of persecution and God’s sufficiency through it, and the third lion is the lion of promise that has been fulfilled to completeness. So why is there only one lion on the avatar? Well, for one the image with three on it didn’t look very good shrunk down. Secondly, when it is all said and done, only one Lion will stand according to Revelation 5:5:
Then one of the elders said to me, “Do not weep! See, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has triumphed. He is able to open the scroll and its seven seals.”
How much did you pay for it? (by TheHobbit)
I paid more than a dollar and less than a million dollars for it. But seriously, I don’t feel comfortable putting an exact number out there, but I believe that Ken and I both felt like we made a good deal.
Do you still have the Doug Gray fun cards (like the Larry Boy card and the Strong Bad one)? (by Daniel)
And the list of stuff that shows that you are a Redemption card addict? (by Nameless)
Since I contacted Doug about what the significance of Three Lions was I also asked about this stuff too and he has graciously either sent me the files themselves or given me links to them and so here are links to everything he sent me like what you guys both mentioned. For most of this stuff it was like walking down memory lane and I hope you enjoy it too.
Will you be selling Christian posters on 3lionsgaming? Will you list pros and cons for beginners starting out why/why not they should use starter decks or build their own decks? (by Sadness)
As I stated above, I will be selling some stuff like posters but not a huge assortment. Initially I will have two of them that Doug is sending me. The Sword of the Spirit poster and the old school blue Redemption poster. I am pretty stoked about that for sure. As for what beginners should use…
May I suggest a Deck Builder 3 pack combo (1 offense, 1 defense, and 1 LS & Dom pack of your choosing). Honestly I think that these are one of the best things for a new player to use simply because even if you buy the weakest of each category and put them together there is still amazing synergy within the cards themselves. I am not just saying that because it is our newest product offering either. 😉
Does he bring his towel? (by egilkinc)
Ummm, am I missing something here? Yeah, I have to be…anyway.
Thanks so much for all of the great questions everyone!
You’re welcome for the questions! 😀 (by egilkinc)
To buy singles, sealed product, and other gaming supplies, please visit Three Lions Gaming!
John David Cunningham
Woohoo!! Gotta love the deck builders!! Greatest idea for TLG yet!! Thanks for the awesome make over! Been staying at the Three Lions Inn since I was a kid! Love the new site!! Blessings!
Travis
Thanks so much JD. I appreciate your kind words.
John
Who painted that picture of Jesus reaching down through the water…it’s awesome!
Missy Klein
Can I order a print of Jesus reaching down in the water? My husband changed his screen saver on his phone to this. I would like to order this for him for Father’s Day to hang in our new home.
Gabe
I’ve passed your request on to Three Lions Gaming to see if they can help you.