Publisher's blurb:
Lightraiders is a fantasy role playing game you can use to learn and teach Scripture memory and application. The boxed set includes everything you need to play the game plus the first semester's adventures. More quests will follow soon.
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The boxed set includes everything you need to play the game plus the first two adventures, for a total of 24 episodes. New adventure packs will follow over the course of six semesters, with two quests and four new ranks per semester, allowing the players to advance and grow their characters into Lightraider knights. Dice colors will vary.
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Lightraiders is an episodic fantasy rpg you can use as a discipleship program. Learn Scripture and its application naturally as you play. Each one-hour lesson includes a thirty to forty-five minute episode of a continuing quest followed by a ten to fifteen minute Bible study wrap up.
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The pillars of the system are the fruit of the Spirit, the armor of God, and the sharing of the Gospel. The foundation is the Word. Players use their fruit in fantasy quests and nurture them by employing Scripture to help their friends and conquer tests and trials. They temper their armor and use verses in battle to defeat dark creatures that represent sin. And they practice sharing and explaining "the Great Rescue" in the Dragon Lands to save the lost.
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The fantasy game engages players by letting them take part in the story, work as a team, and develop their own unique characters with abilities, items, weapons, and specialties.
Role playing enhances learning by allowing players to describe the allegorical effects of dark creature attacks and counsel other characters using Bible verses and their real world applications. The Bible study wrap-up solidifies this learning at the end of each episode by digging deeper into the context of the verses used.
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An RPG system means each player creates a character to play in the story. The leader (called the adventure master) reads the story and asks the players what their characters do and say. Based on their answers, the player's characters might be called upon to test an ability, talk to a stranger, or fight a battle. The system allows the players to take part in creating the story, so that every group's experience will be unique.
Each player character (or PC) is founded on the fruit of the Spirit (called the core strengths) and has a set of items, weapons and abilities. Players grow their characters by earning points to spend in improving their core strengths and ranking up twice per quest to improve their abilities.
Character creation is easy with our quick nine-step process. Players fill out their character sheets as you guide them, choosing their initial abilities, items, and weapons and determining their starting vitality and wisdom.
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Tests, trials, parleys, and battle are the primary actions of the game. A test is a simple test of an ability, such as "test Observe to find the key," and requires one roll of the dice. A trial is a team effort involving several tests to gain enough successes to accomplish an objective like building a bridge or freeing a trapped animal. Parleys involve talking to game characters (called non-player characters or NPCs). A parley might be about learning information to help in the quest or it might lead to an attempt to share the Great Rescue (the Gospel). Battles involve tempering armor and testing fight and other abilities to defeat dark creatures. Players will learn to lean on Scripture in the heat of these battles. That's the rule book in a nutshell.
Streamlined rules make learning the game easy. The quest guidebook tells the adventure master what to read to the players, what cues to give them, and what to do based on their responses. Our basic rule set is orders of magnitude smaller than most RPG rule books. Play is faster and more efficient to help you fit the game into specific Bible study time frames. Advanced rules will also be available for groups that want their characters to do more.
Wisdom points are the currency of the game. Players earn and spend Wisdom points (Wp) to improve their characters and help their characters out of trouble. Bad roll of the dice? No problem. Spend Wisdom points to change the outcome. Tracking Wp (and damage) is made easy by a slider right on the player mat, so there's no need to corral a bunch of punchout pieces or make and erase a ton of tick marks. This way, your character sheets will last much longer.
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The dice in the game are called starlots. They are the tokens of the Lightraider Order and represent new creations. In the Lightraiders realm, starlots are crystalized dragon fire from the time when the Rescuer stood against the dragons. He took what was corrupted by sin and formed it into something new and beautiful. Players roll three starlots for each roll and usually take the middle value (not the middle die on the table!). Each set has three starlots (colors will vary).
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The Adventure Journal in the back of the Cadet Handbook includes all the verses a player will need for each episode. Players get extra Wisdom points for saying verses from memory, but they can always have their handbooks open for reference. The episode's journal pages also include recommended readings from the handbook for clues to help them succeed, cues for how to respond when attacked by dark creatures, and (most importantly) verse applications to help them counsel the other characters when needed.
Failure is a blessing in Lightraiders. When a player's character takes damage in battle or in a trial, one of the character's core strengths (fruit of the Spirit) might become infected. The others must offer counsel using the verses and applications provided to heal this infection. Repetition is designed into the game so the verses and applications will often be used more than once. This fosters better learning, and players will be glad of it, because they'll need to remember what they learned when they face the hardest challenges at the end of each quest.
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Growing is the goal in the Lightraiders system--growing your character and growing in your relationship with Christ. Players will feel their progress as their characters increase through twenty-four ranks over the full six semesters. In the first semester (included in this boxed set), their characters will advance in the Lightraider Order through the ranks of Initiate, Cadet Stalwart, and Cadet Sentinel to Cadet Scout 1. The following semesters can take them all the way to Knight's Marshal and Guardian.