General Conference is just around the corner and this year I wanted to spice things up a bit. Conference is amazing but sometimes it’s hard to pay attention through all 4 sessions. What if there was a way to engage in conference in the same way I engage in my Fantasy Football?

So with the help of my brothers I went out and created:

“Fantasy General Conference”

It’s a simple game that allows up to 6 friends or family to turn conference into an engaging game. No more falling asleep during the foreign talks.

So print off a scorecard and a draftboard for each player and lets get started!

It plays in 5 easy steps:

Step 1: Snake draft speakers and content

Step 2: When your draft picks speaks or when any speaker references your content you get points.

Step 3: Points are multiplied if the people you draft say the content you draft

Step 4: Pick your answers for the bonus questions

Step 5: Add your points up at the end of conference, the most points wins!

Lets break it down further.

There are 10 different positions that you draft for and it’s broken up into two categories: Speakers and Content. Once you decide your draft order you will take turns drafting the speakers you think will speak and the content you think they will talk about. You don’t have to draft anything in any particular order, you just need to make sure you fill in all your spots. Once one speaker or content is selected then it becomes unavailable to everyone else, so choose wisely. On each team you’ll draft:

2 apostles

1 Seventy President

1 group of Auxiliary Leaders

1 group of Seventies

1 First Presidency member

2 Ancient Prophets

2 Latter-day Prophets

2 Modern Day Leaders

2 Anecdote types

2 Gospel Buzzwords.

A typical team should look like this:

Team Name: Nephite To The Death

1. Apostle Dallin H. Oaks (3x) 2. Apostle David A. Bednar (2x) 3. Seventy President Ulisses Soares (4x) 4. Auxilery Group YW General Presidency (3x) 5. Seventy Group Group 4 – “Zeniff” (2x) 6. Latter-day GA Hugh Nibley 7. Latter-day GA J Rueben Clark 8. Ancient Prophet Moroni 9. Ancient Prophet Paul 10. Modern Day Leader Brigham Young 11. Modern Day Leader Ezra Taft Benson 12. Anecdote Type Pioneer Story 13. Anecdote Type Jesus Parable 14. Gospel Buzzword Charity 15. Gospel Buzzword Temple

16. First Presidency Eyring SatAM

You receive points if any of the speakers that you drafted speak. You also receive points if any of the content you drafted gets mentioned or quoted by anyone. The point values are found on the scorecard.

This is what the scorecard looks like

In addition to speaking points there are also multipliers. There are factored in if your drafted speakers specifically mention your drafted content. Each speaker has a point multiplier ranging from 2x-4x . So if you draft Dallin H. Oaks and he uses a Jesus parable you would get 2 points for him speaking and instead of just 2 points for an anecdote type being mentioned you would get 6 points because he has a x3 multiplier. Likewise, if someone from my seventy group spoke and mentioned Charity 10 times I would get 5 points for them speaking and then an additional 20 points from their 2x multiplier for the buzzword points.

There is one other factor to scoring and that is the first presidency. Since there are only 3 of them you have to select what session you think that they will speak in. They all have the same 2x multiplier.

In addition to your drafted team there is another way to earn bonus points on top of your draft points. On the scoreboard there are additional fields where you can try and predict some of the specific and outcomes of conference. Some bonus fields are one time guesses, like guessing which word will be said first between “Heaven” or “Hell”. Others give you the chance to guess for each session of conference, like what color outfit the women’s choir will be wearing during each session. There are also a few fields worth a lot of points if you can guess very specific things like guessing a specific hymn that will be sung or a specific scripture that will be referenced like John 3:5.

It’s worth noting that this October conference is unique in that there are 3 apostles that will be announced. The spots are listed in the apostle catagory as “First new one” “Second new one” etc. They are to be determined in the order that they are announced. In this game if they happen to be one of the seventy or presidency that you’ve picked you do not get double points for them, you just get apostle points.

Everyone gets their own sheet and keeps track on their score. If there are any deputes on points they are to be handled in a democratic manner, with ties goes to the defendant.

If you’re joining late or only want to play for a few sessions that is fine. Just cross out the speakers who have already spoken.

Winning is simple. Whoever has obtained the most points after conference is over wins.

Here is the link to the documents. You’ll want to download the “Fantasy Conference Scoreboard” and the “Fantasy Conference Draftboard” files. I’ve also included an excel file that has all of the data if you’d like to make your own changes.

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/0952nmkgf2ycmto/AABn-CL-PH2OJVrWVcpoBKZ7a?dl=0

My hope is that this gives people another reason to stay awake and focus on each talk during all of General Conference.

It’s worth noting that this definitely a beta version. There might be something that happens that totally breaks the game. If so please let me know so I can fix it for april conference. Any general feedback would also be appreciated in the comments as well.

Enjoy!