Every stat is a checkable fact about the actual book, not a designer's mood. Bars are drawn against the highest value any book reaches.
The game's own explanation, as a reader sees it in the backpack.
STAMINA — High. Fifteen books, from Nephi to Moroni.
CONTEND — Middling. Much of it is in the style of the King James Bible, and some chapters are copied from it.
DEFEND — Low. Archaeologists have found no trace of its peoples or their cities.
POPULARITY — Very high. It is printed in more than a hundred languages.
The Book of Mormon tells of Israelites who sailed to America around 600 B.C., and of Christ visiting them after his resurrection. Joseph Smith said an angel called Moroni showed him the plates in 1823. It borrows heavily from the King James Bible, and it teaches that people are saved by grace after all they can do.
By levelling up. A book that develops keeps what it knew and learns the rest on its new schedule.
| Lv | Move | Type | Cat. | Pwr | Acc | PP |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ask with a Sincere Heart | Experience | Argument | 88 | 100% | 10 |
| 22 | Plain and Precious | Exegesis | Argument | 86 | 100% | 12 |
| 34 | After All We Can Do | Soteriology | Argument | 90 | 100% | 10 |
| 44 | A Bible! A Bible! | Exegesis | Argument | 88 | 100% | 10 |
How to read these. In Scholar’s Dream, books argue with each other. Each thing a book can do in a debate is a move, and most moves carry a real quotation — the words the book puts on the table when it uses that move.
Strong against lists the opposing books and arguments a move was written to answer. Used against one of them, it hits much harder than usual: ×2 means twice the normal force, ×4 four times. It is the game’s way of saying: this is the sentence that answers that argument. Open an entry to read why.
“if ye shall ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest the truth of it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost.”
The Book of Mormon (1830), Moroni 10:4 (Project Gutenberg text), public domain.public domain
In the gameThe promise at the end of the book: read it, pray about it, and God will tell you it is true. Many members say this is how they came to believe.
“And after these plain and precious things were taken away it goeth forth unto all the nations of the Gentiles”
The Book of Mormon (1830), 1 Nephi 13:29 (Project Gutenberg text), public domain.public domain
In the gameThe book says that a great and abominable church took many plain and precious things out of the Bible. That claim is why a new book was needed.
“for we know that it is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do.”
The Book of Mormon (1830), 2 Nephi 25:23 (Project Gutenberg text; verse numbers from later editions), public domain.public domain
In the gameOne of the best-known verses in the book. It names grace, and then puts the reader’s own work in front of it.
“A Bible! A Bible! We have got a Bible, and there cannot be any more Bible.”
The Book of Mormon (1830), 2 Nephi 29:3 (Project Gutenberg text), public domain.public domain
In the gameThe book puts this sentence in the mouths of Christians it calls fools. It is the argument against a closed Bible, stated by making fun of the people who hold one.
The specific move or chapter of Scripture that cuts through this one, and why. The number is how much harder it hits than usual — ×4 is four times the normal force.
Athanasius listed the books of the New Testament in 367 and drew the line around them himself: let no man add to these, neither let him take anything from these!
Irenaeus said it in the second century: the church had four Gospels, no more and no fewer. The canon was received, not left open for a later book!
Luther would be corrected by Scripture and nothing else. A new book that corrects the old one is exactly what that standard refuses!
