I'm sorry, but I must respectfully disagree with you one such things. Please don't take this personally, like you I'm only expressing ideas and I'm an imperfect being coming in with predjudices and motivations as well as imperfect understanding which may well slant my views...
I have seen over and over again on this forum that there is this obsession with "theme". To me it seems that "you gotta have good theme so your game will be original so it will sell." To me this often comes across as a superficial whitewash used to re-sell an old tired game which nobody wants to play anymore. When I go out looking for a boardgame, I look for one which is fun to play and interesting to play, I don't care if it's fantasy themed, business themed, gay pride themed or science fiction themed, if it's fun to play and can hold my attention for a few hours during which time I get to interact with at least 1 real person in a way we both enjoy (although not nescesarrily to the same extent) then I'll buy/play/download and print it.
I think that particularly when it comes to something (which I assume is) as intimately personal and important as someone's relationship with the divine, suggesting using religion as a sales gimmick is... distasteful. I'm sure you weren't doing that and in what you had to say about non-Christians: "if it's a solid game which just happens to have a bible theme I see no reason a non Christian would have an issue playing it" you kind of seem to say what I've been known to rant about at any given opportunity, that is that a good game is a good game regardless of the theme (within reason and what is commonly accepted as decency of course).
Ok, I wasn't attacking you, I was just saying something I felt needed saying, what you wrote makes good sense and I agree with most of it. I was probalby just being hairy or something when I read that bit about the theme being important and what attacts players.
I think the time traveling aspect makes the game unique, not because of the superficial painted on difference but because it opens up interesting new dynamics which I don't think many games have explored. I find it particulary intersting becuase I asume the developer would be completely opposed to the idea that his players could somehow influence the course of history (changing the Bible is something many Christians get very annoyed with you for talking about!) so we have a situation where time travelers can go back in time but nothing they do can influence what happens. Their 'previous' visits will not effect anything in their 'later' visits. It interests me to see how that works out.
I agree that just slapping a theme on the game wouldn't make a difference. I should've stated that the purpose of a larger goal, such as why they're time traveling and taking pictures, could add mechanics and gameplay to 'beef up' the game, as you asked about. Maybe you could have competing interests, where a player or teams of players are the 'bad' guys who have not-so-nice objectives and the good player(s) have to stop them while taking pictures of their own. You could have secret objective cards for the players (like getting pictures of an event before anyone else or getting the most pictures of something, etc.). You could give the player special powers, like video recording or digital photography capabilities or something. Maybe a special ability could be to photograph people well. Another could be to photograph architecture well. I think there's a ton of stuff that could potentially be added.
Ruben
I think we are sort of on the same page. The current game already has secret missions. For example one player might get more points for cards that are centered around architecture while another player gets more pointd for events that take place on mountains.
I hadn't really thought of having good guys and bad guys, but that could maybe work. Right now I've been playing that many of the cards have duplicates in the deck and the first player to that event gets to play that card and any player with the other card must trash theirs.