The Road to Bethlehem - Journeys Through Time and Space

The Road to Bethlehem - Journeys Through Time and Space is a family-weight, Christian-themed, RPG-style, cooperative game where players must work together, guided by a GM, to journey through ancient Palestine to arrive in Bethlehem to witness the Nativity and encounter the newborn infant Jesus. Players play as modern-day travelers who have been spirited away by the Archangel Gabriel (the GM) to partake in this journey. Players must go through a series of scenarios, drawn randomly, during which they are offered choices by the GM which then dictates what challenges and choices they next face. Players must conserve equipment and, most importantly, time on their journey, while also working to increase their individual attributes of Authority and Reputation. The game uses the REAL System - a mechanic where the players do actual, physical interactive challenges at various points as part of the gameplay, the outcomes of which determine their progress in the game (such as identifying objects moved by the GM in a given room, finding commonplace house items within a certain time limit, or dexterity challenges). Once the players have gone through all 8 scenarios, they arrive at Bethlehem where which ending, they've achieved is based on how much time they used on their journey. The GM guides the players using 'The Book of Adventures' which contains step by step instructions for each scenario and narrative text that is read to the players.

The game is geared primarily towards families and can be played by multiple age levels from age 8 and up, but with the caveat that an adult always plays as well and serve as the GM. The total campaign with all the scenarios takes 4-6 hours to play, but the game can easily be saved between the scenarios, with each scenario taking roughly 30-60 minutes to complete.