Chapter 6
Every item in the game, with a picture, its price and size, its upkeep, everything special about it, and how well it suits each of the six traditions. The pictures are the game's own models, rendered on their own.
After every service, the game averages the fit of every installed item that has a distinct character (formal, informal, organ, band, icons, and so on) in the rooms where the congregation sits: the nave and any balcony. It moves everyone by 0.15 × that average. Plain items with no character, such as pews, pulpits, communion tables, and lecterns, don't count at all, and neither does anything outside the worship rooms (a sacristy's cabinet, a hall's tables). Entries below say "doesn't count toward building fit" for these.
So one discordant item in a small nave matters a lot: a Catholic nave whose only characterful items are an organ (+1) and a row of chairs (−1) averages zero. Add a crucifix, statues, a font, and an altar and the chairs fade to a small dent. For the best fit, fill the nave with things your tradition loves, and keep what it dislikes out of the worship space.
Fit and requirements are separate. A Lutheran church requires a communion rail, which is also a mild fit bonus. An Orthodox church scores pews as neutral fit but discourages them. A Baptist church scores a font −0.33 but doesn't forbid it. Check both before you buy.
Where people sit. Seats are the most valuable thing you can build: standing costs a person 0.15 after a service, a seat earns them 0.05.
Choir stalls Meeting bench Oak pew Row of chairs
Carved stalls where the choir sits together facing across the chancel.
Expected by Lutherans and the Orthodox, and needed (or a choir loft) to start a choir ministry. Seats the choir, not the congregation. Quakers discourage them.
Fit with each tradition
A plain wooden bench seating five, arranged to face the other benches.
The Quaker meeting bench, expected in every meeting house. Arrange them in a hollow square facing inward. Neutral for everyone else.
Fit with each tradition
A 4-metre oak pew seating eight. Pews carry tradition and capacity, and moving them is a fight.
The church's backbone: eight seats in four metres. Pews you've had for a year, or that came with the church, become cherished, and taking them out starts a conflict. The Orthodox discourage them, but standing costs far more than a discouraged pew.
Fit with each tradition
Four stackable chairs. Flexible, but they feel less like a church to some.
The flexible, cheap seat: four seats for $400 against a pew's eight for $2,400. Pentecostals and Quakers love them; Catholics and the Orthodox mark them −1. Chairs aren't cherished, so you can rearrange them freely.
Fit with each tradition
What worship is led from and what the sacraments need. Most of a tradition's required items are here.
Altar Baptismal font Baptistry Columbarium niches Communion rail Communion station Communion table Communion trays Confessional screen Iconostasis Immersion font Lectern Paraments Pulpit Tabernacle
The table of sacrifice and focal point of the sanctuary.
Required by Catholics, Lutherans, and the Orthodox, and a perfect fit for the first and last. Serves communion: one person at a time per front tile, so a two-metre altar serves two at once.
Fit with each tradition
A stone basin for baptism by pouring.
Required by Catholics and Lutherans, traditionally near the entrance. A strong fit for high-church traditions; Baptists and Pentecostals score it down.
Fit with each tradition
A tank for adult baptism by immersion, with plumbing to fill, heat, and drain it.
Required by Baptists and Pentecostals. Needs a plumbing stack within 12 m, so plan them together. At $25,000 it's often the most expensive thing in a low-church building.
Fit with each tradition
A wall of niches for cremated remains.
A handsome wall of niches, and needed for a columbarium room. A fit bonus in high-church traditions and a penalty in low-church ones.
Fit with each tradition
A low rail at which communicants kneel or stand to receive.
Required by Lutherans. Serves communion along its whole four-metre front, which keeps a big parish's communion short. Put a longer rail in, or two, if services run long.
Fit with each tradition
A small stand where a minister serves communion. More stations, shorter lines.
The cheapest way to speed up communion: $300 and one metre square. Add a few if the service report says communion ran long.
Fit with each tradition
A wooden table for the Lord's Supper, often carved with "This do in remembrance of me."
Required by Baptists and Pentecostals. Serves communion. Neutral fit everywhere, so it's also a safe choice for a new tradition.
Fit with each tradition
Illustration: portable items aren't drawn in the church.
Stacking trays of bread and small cups, passed along the pews.
Expected by Baptists and Pentecostals, whose communion is passed along the pews. Buy them once; they're kept in the cupboard.
Fit with each tradition
A fixed screen so a penitent may confess anonymously.
The one thing a reconciliation room needs, which Catholics and the Orthodox expect. Cheap: a $1,500 screen in a 4 m² room clears an expectation.
Fit with each tradition
A screen of icons between nave and sanctuary, with the Royal Doors at its center.
Required by the Orthodox: the screen with the Royal Doors between nave and sanctuary. It blocks sight, which is its purpose, but keep it at the front so it doesn't block the view from the seats of the rest of the front.
Fit with each tradition
A deep font in which an infant can be fully immersed.
Required by the Orthodox for infant baptism by immersion. Needs space in front of it, so don't crowd the first row of seats against it.
Fit with each tradition
A reading stand (ambo) from which Scripture is proclaimed.
Expected by Catholics, Lutherans, and the Orthodox. Leads the readings, and in the Mass and the Divine Liturgy the homily too. Cheap and neutral elsewhere.
Fit with each tradition
Hangings for the altar, pulpit, and lectern, and matching stoles, in each colour of the church year: violet for Advent and Lent, white for Christmas and Easter, green for ordinary time, red for Pentecost. They take the colour of the day.
They take the colour of the day on the altar, table, pulpit, and lectern (shown here in the green of ordinary time). Part of the seasonal decor every church-year tradition notices: up to ±0.04 × formality. A high-church parish should own them.
Fit with each tradition
A raised stand from which the sermon is preached.
Required by Baptists, Pentecostals, and Lutherans. Discouraged by Quakers, whose meetings have no pulpit. Worship in most traditions is led from it.
Fit with each tradition
A locked, veiled receptacle in which the consecrated Eucharist is reserved.
Required by Catholics and the Orthodox to reserve the consecrated elements. A perfect fit for both.
Fit with each tradition
Organs, pianos, and the band. The right instrument for the tradition lifts the building's fit; the wrong one lowers it.
Drum kit Electronic organ Grand piano Pipe organ Sound system Upright piano
A drum kit for a worship band.
Expected by Pentecostals, and a fair fit for Baptists. Discouraged by the Orthodox and Quakers. Noisy (0.3), so neighbours mind a little. Musician volunteers play it together as a band.
Fit with each tradition
A two-manual electronic organ: a console with a pedalboard and its own speakers, enough to lead hymns in a modest church at a fraction of a pipe organ's cost. Counts as an organ for traditions that expect one.
Counts as an organ wherever one is expected, at a twentieth of a pipe organ's price and with no 30-month wait. The best value in the game for a Catholic or Lutheran church that can't afford pipes yet.
Fit with each tradition
A concert grand: it fills the room with sound and looks the part. Counts as a piano for traditions that expect one.
Counts as a piano for traditions that expect one (Baptists). Looks 9 out of 10, against the upright's 6, at more than four times the price. Buy it once the money is steady.
Fit with each tradition
A pipe organ: decades to pay off, centuries to wear out.
Expected by Catholics and Lutherans. 30 months to build, paid monthly, and blocks sight, so put it where it hides no one's view. It's its own building system: a rebuild every 40 years costs 30% of its price.
Fit with each tradition
A mixing desk, stage monitors, and speakers for a worship band, with a projector and screen for the words. A band is lost without one, and loud in a room that echoes.
Expected by Pentecostals: a band is lost without one. Noisy (0.4). A Pentecostal church wants a dry, carpeted room, because a sound system is loud in a room that echoes.
Fit with each tradition
An upright piano to lead congregational singing.
Expected by Baptists: the cheapest way to clear that expectation. Discouraged by the Orthodox and Quakers.
Fit with each tradition
Crosses, images, glass, and the seasonal decor that dresses the church for the year.
Advent wreath Christmas Eve candles Cross Crucifix Easter lilies Icon Stained glass window Statue Steeple and bells
An evergreen wreath on a stand with four candles, one more lit each Sunday of Advent. Out only in Advent.
Out only in Advent, when it counts toward the season's decor. Cheap, and worth having in any church-year tradition.
Fit with each tradition
Illustration: portable items aren't drawn in the church.
Hand candles with paper drip guards for the candlelight service, lit one from another down the pews while the lights go down for Silent Night. Out from Christmas through Christmastide.
Out from Christmas through Christmastide, the season of your biggest crowd. Christmas Eve brings four times the usual newcomers, so be dressed for it.
Fit with each tradition
An empty cross, proclaiming the risen Christ.
The low-church cross, neutral fit for almost everyone. Quakers discourage all crosses.
Fit with each tradition
A cross bearing the figure of the crucified Christ.
Expected by Catholics. Discouraged by Baptists, Pentecostals, and Quakers, who use an empty cross or none.
Fit with each tradition
Illustration: portable items aren't drawn in the church.
Banks of white lilies around the altar or table, often given in memory of loved ones. Out from Easter Day through the Easter season.
Out from Easter Day through the Easter season. Their upkeep ($400 a year) is the flowers, bought fresh each year.
Fit with each tradition
A painted icon of Christ, the Theotokos, or a saint.
Expected by the Orthodox, and a perfect fit for them. Discouraged by Baptists, Pentecostals, and Quakers. Needs a stretch of solid wall, so don't hang it where a window is.
Fit with each tradition
A window of stained glass, commissioned from an artist and a year in the making. It glows, it teaches, and it lets in half the daylight. Fit it into an existing window.
Fits into an existing window, takes a year to make, and halves that window's light. A strong fit in high-church traditions and a penalty in low-church ones. The cathedral scenario needs twelve.
Fit with each tradition
A carved statue of Christ, Mary, or a saint.
Expected by Catholics. Discouraged by Baptists, Pentecostals, the Orthodox, and Quakers.
Fit with each tradition
A tower with a peal of bells, seen and heard across town: more people notice the church, and some come to see. Eighteen months to build.
Makes the church 25% more visible to newcomers (visibility is capped at +50%). But a peal of bells is the loudest noise in the game (1.0): in town, finish building before you ring them, or complaining neighbours will block planning permission.
Fit with each tradition
The working furniture of halls, classrooms, offices, and nurseries, plus the pillar.
Computer Crib Desk Desk chair Folding table Pillar Vestment cabinet Wooden table
A computer on a small stand, for the bulletin, the books, and the email.
Office furniture with no rule attached. Useful dressing for an office.
Fit with each tradition
A crib for the nursery.
The nursery's one requirement. Families with infants lose 0.08 when there's no nursery.
Fit with each tradition
An office desk.
The office's one requirement. Keep its front clear: it has a metre of clearance.
Fit with each tradition
A swivel chair on casters, for a desk or a computer.
Dressing for an office or a computer. No rules attached.
Fit with each tradition
A folding table for fellowship meals and classes.
The cheap way to meet a fellowship hall's four tables or a classroom's one.
Fit with each tradition
A stone column holding up the roof. Handsome, and it blocks the view of anyone sitting behind it.
Handsome, formal, and a fit bonus in high-church traditions, but it blocks the view of anyone sitting behind it. Line pillars along the side aisles, outside every seat's line to the front.
Fit with each tradition
Wide drawers where vestments and paraments are kept flat.
What makes a room a sacristy, which Catholics, Lutherans, and the Orthodox require.
Fit with each tradition
A solid wooden table for classrooms, meetings, and the parlour. It costs more than a folding table and looks it.
A handsomer table than the folding one, at more than three times the price. Counts for a fellowship hall or classroom just the same.
Fit with each tradition
Plumbing, access, levels, and streaming: the things that make the building work.
A/V rack Camera Commercial stove Hearing loop Lift Plumbing stack Ramp Sink Stairs Toilet
A rack of streaming gear: an encoder, a video switcher, an audio interface, and the network to send the service out live. With a camera and an A/V tech on duty, the church can stream its services.
One of the three things the live stream needs, with a camera and an A/V tech volunteer on duty.
Fit with each tradition
A video camera on a tripod, for live streaming services. Place it with a clear view of the front.
Needed for the live stream. Place it with a clear view of the front.
Fit with each tradition
A range for church suppers.
The kitchen's other requirement, with a sink.
Fit with each tradition
Illustration: portable items aren't drawn in the church.
A wire round the worship space carries the sound system straight to hearing aids, so the hard of hearing hear every word, however much the room echoes.
Turns a loss of 0.03 to 0.08 for each hard-of-hearing person into a gain of 0.03. Older congregations need it most. Buy it from Church → Church under Access.
Fit with each tradition
A small passenger lift to the floor above, so those who can't manage stairs can get there too. Six months to install.
The only way wheelchair users reach another floor. Six months to install. Without one, an upper floor gets a note in the building check.
Fit with each tradition
A water supply and drain riser. Baptistries, toilets, and sinks must be within 12 metres of one.
Toilets, sinks, and baptistries must be within 12 m of one. Place it between the restroom, kitchen, and baptistry so one stack serves them all.
Fit with each tradition
A gentle concrete ramp with handrails. Put it outside a door with steps, and wheelchairs and walkers can get in.
Put one outside every door with steps. Without a step-free way in, wheelchair users come 30% as often and lose 0.2 when they do.
Fit with each tradition
A sink with running water.
Needed by both a kitchen and a restroom, and needs a plumbing stack within 12 m.
Fit with each tradition
A flight of stairs up to the floor above. Lay floor on the level above, over the top of the flight, to step off onto.
Join a tile to the same tile on the floor above. Lay floor over the top of the flight on the upper level to step off onto. Add a lift too, or wheelchair users can't follow.
Fit with each tradition
A toilet in its stall.
The restroom's requirement, with a sink. Needs a plumbing stack within 12 m.
Fit with each tradition