Training Happy Hearts: Will the Underground Church Succeed? {A Tabletop Game Review}

Our family was introduced to Chara Games last year and, immediately, fell in love with the way they aim to create tabletop games that families and friends can enjoy while exploring historical and modern Christianity. Thus, we were excited to be able to try out their latest card game: Unauthorized - a 6-12 player, 30 minute, social deduction game about the underground church that can, in our experience, be played with fewer players, too.

Unauthorized is basically a role-playing card game that mixes strategy and chance. Intended for ages 12 and up (but, in our home, happily played by children 7 and up), the game is focused around state vs. an underground church. This, of course, makes for a natural conversation opener about life for Christians in some other countries, as well as about what it was like, for say, the first Christians in the centuries after Christ was born.

In the game, each player is assigned a role and each role has specific abilities. Every game has both a pastor and a police officer among the cast of characters.

Experience cards are dealt to each player with the police getting 7 red cards and the pastor getting 7 green cards, while all other players get a mix of cards. The experience cards tell players whether they are loyal to the state or the church (by chance).

Then, the game is played in three rounds where strategy comes into play and intensity can get ratcheted up as players can become imprisoned or even executed and no one can be sure where loyalties lie until the end of the game.

At the game's end - which we found takes 20-45 minutes depending on the number of people playing - if at least one Christian remains out of prison or there is a Christian majority, the church wins. Likewise, if there is no Christian majority or all Christians are imprisoned, the state wins.

Does this sound interesting and fun? It is! Does it sound confusing to get started with? It can be for those like my children and me who are not practiced role playing game players. Thankfully, there is a helpful instructional video about the game online:

Between this video and the direction booklet, my children and I were able to get games up and playing without much trouble and with a lot of fun, imagination, strategy and chance.

My children also liked to simply use the cards to make their own storytelling games and card games. Yep! The cards are full of characters and circumstances that ignite my kiddoes' imaginations!

So far, we've played the game as directed - although often with only 4 or 5 people with one or two doubling up hands - several times, and, I've also found the children playing their own imaginary solitaire and small group games with the game cards.

What the Kids Thought

I asked each of my children for their thoughts about the game.

My seven-year old said:

"I liked being the bad guy in the game to see what it's like, because I don't like to be the bad guy in real life. The bad guy in this game can execute a person or put people jail. He is powerful. I made him have some virtue, because I never murdered anybody."

This was an honest assessment from him! He did love playing "the bad guy", but also gave his policeman heart (which I found encouraging from a mom-perspective even if it may not have been the best game strategy.)

My ten-year-old daughter said:

"This game was fun, because you don't really know what side you're going to be until to draw your cards, and it's fun trying to get people out of prison, share facts with neighbors, and try to win.

The police try to win by imprisoning everyone on the pastor's side, and the pastor tries to have at least everyone out of jail on his side. You have to try to guess if people are on your side or not. That's interesting.

I did not like that once you are executed, you were executed for the whole game. So, Mommy gave me her cards to play so I could keep playing.

I was confused when I saw boy and girl pastors, but learned some Christians have girl pastors.

This game showed me how some people might be good people, but just following orders like when Christians are really persecuted. I think in real life people should only follow orders if they are good and just, so innocent people are not killed."

As you can tell from my daughter's concepts, thoughts were churning and conversation flowing during and between games with us - everything from, "Mommy why would they have girl priests?" (which made me aware my children did not know how some other Christians worship), to "Mommy, I don't want to do what the rules say..." when card said allegiance went with "wrong", to "Mom, it's sad the way people have treated each other..." Plenty of conversations about Christian martyrs of old and the act that people are still dying for their faith came up, too.

My oldest, at eleven, said:

"This game was awesome! I like how it is a battle between church and state. Our state is not like this, but in some places, people are killed for their religion.

I don't like how there are girl pastors, because I am Catholic and in Catholicism there are no girl priests. There are nuns, but girls cannot be pastors. Besides that, I liked the cards. I liked the illustrations and the graphic design.

When you play, you never know who is on your team. It's a game of chance, change, betrayal... The double cards are interesting, because they can affect you either way. You choose. It's like real life.

I don't like this game as much as other Chara Games that I've played, because it takes so many players, but I still like it."

Again, a candid review that was spot on with what I observed as my oldest son played the game. He quite enjoyed the cards - and often used them as he led his siblings in imagined conversations and self-made games. However, he was bummed that the game called for six or more people to play 'for real' since we only have five in our family and, more often, just three available to play.

He tends to opt for the Chara Games 3 Seeds more often than Unauthorized for actual game play as directed, then, but surely used the Unauthorized game cards a lot for self-created fun!

Played as directed, or by our own adapted rules, Unauthorized has been a hit in our home, then, and we'd happily recommend it to others (and have already done so in person prior to writing this review!) Christians and non-Christian alike can enjoy the mix of chance and strategy in this well-designed game. Christians can also appreciate the thematic element of it.

I certainly LOVE that the game engages and entertains while focusing us on the reality of church challenges now and throughout history. So many other role-playing card games include mythical creatures and fanciful, dark themes. It is refreshing to have one that centers around truths of this world.

Really, the only negative thing I could say about the game - and it is not really negative at all - is simply that two of three of my children did not like to play the police/state-sympathizer roles. It was hard for them (and me!) to play these rules, because, of course, we want faith to always win.

Learn More

If you're looking for other Christian tabletop games, you might like our review of Commissioned.