Jason Kirkpatrick of Elkmont is no novice when it comes to card games — mostly because of his children. He and his wife Sharon have two card playing kids, Will and Sara. They know firsthand that kids, young adults and families love to play games.

Kirkpatrick recently developed the game Quest for Arete (Are-a-tay), a collectible card game with an educational secret identity, which will soon be marketed to gamers across the nation. Most recently, he presented the game over Labor Day weekend at Dragon Con in Atlanta.

“The idea came several years ago from my kids wanting to develop a game,” Kirkpatrick said. “They would play games like Pokemon.”

Kirkpatrick saw a game card that made him think there might be natural science incorporated into the game.  He discovered later that the game didn’t actually contain any science, but, for him, an idea for a new card game was born.

When Kirkpatrick’s children approached him about designing a game, he challenged them to come up with one that had some meaningful information. “We went back and forth and I recommended a medieval sorcery-based game,” Kirkpatrick said. “I always felt like magicians in the old days were just good chemists. They were able to make flash powder or make something amazing happen that people wouldn’t expect.”

Kirkpatrick said Sara and Will were in fifth- and seventh-grade at the time. He said he went out and bought “Chemistry for Dummies” so they could figure out how to make a chemistry-based game. The kids didn’t read it, but Kirkpatrick did instead. “I didn’t take chemistry in school because someone had told me it was hard and I believed them,” he said. “I read the book and found it really interesting.”

At that point, he started to see the bones of a new game. “Once I got the idea nailed down I got the kids to help me with naming spells and test-play and developing the mechanics of the game,” Kirkpatrick said.

“It’s changed dramatically from the original concept to what it is now.”

The game

Quest for Arete is described by Kirkpatrick as a game of magic and duels for players age 12 and up. The magic and history of the game are drawn from the concepts of modern chemistry. In the game, each player is a sorcerer’s apprentice charged by their master to make their way in the world seeking to increase their Arete (in Western philosophy, Arete is the Greek word meaning excellence).

Kirkpatrick said the secret of Quest for Arete is “hidden in plain sight” on the face of each playing card. The “magical” elements represented by each card are actually the same ones from the periodic table of elements. Meaning the symbols used to write the formulae could be found in every chemistry textbook.

The spell icons are modeled after the Department of Transportation’s hazardous materials marking placards.

As an apprentice, a player must duel any other sorcerer they meet by using magical elements (represented by the cards) that combine to make potions and spells. Each duel, won or lost, increases the player’s experience and understanding of the elements.

Deck building is the essential skill of Quest for Arete. Players collect powerful elements. Players then develop a strategy to enhance their strengths and minimize their weaknesses. They use knowledge of the elements to build the most powerful deck.

Additional rules can be applied to increase the challenge and the game can range from a simple game to high levels of complexity. “The structure of the game allows players to choose a level of complexity suitable to their abilities,” Kirkpatrick said. “The game ranges from a simple, rummy-type game to a full blown test of strategic forethought and tactical decision-making.”

Dragon Con

Kirkpatrick and his family recently attended Dragon Con in Atlanta where they unveiled Quest for Arete. “As you can imagine we had some serious gamers at Dragon Con,” Kirkpatrick said. “We really didn’t have any negative feedback. The worst we got was they (gamers) found some holes in the mechanics that we can caulk up. That is what test play is for. We got a lot of encouraging feedback.”

Developing a game like Quest for Arete has brought a few milestones for Kirkpatrick.

He said one was being able to shuffle his own deck of cards that weren’t “home made.”

Kirkpatrick said his favorite milestone was when a kid at Dragon Con had an “Ah-ha moment.” He said his daughter was demonstrating the game to a woman and her two sons. One of the boys was around 9 or 10 years old, a little younger than the average player. “He really enjoyed the demonstration and they took decks home,” Kirkpatrick said. “The next morning I was setting up to do demos and looked over and he is standing eye to eye with me. He said ‘I’ve been thinking about your game.’ I asked him, ‘What have you got?’ and he said ‘Well I went on the Internet and looked up the periodic table of elements and I’ve got some cards I think you need to make.’” Kirkpatrick asked which ones and the young man replied, “Plutonium and Uranium — they used them in nuclear bombs and they are really powerful spells.” Kirkpatrick said it was really cool for the young man to go back to the hotel room and look up the periodic table. “He got right to work,” Kirkpatrick said. Kirkpatrick said Quest for Arete would not turn a child into a chemist. It is first and foremost designed to be fun, but it does provide what Kirkpatrick calls an “education inoculation” that will make players more comfortable with chemical symbols, formulae, math and history.

“I didn’t imagine how long it would take and I sure didn’t realize how involved it all is … but, it’s been quite a journey,” Kirkpatrick said. “I would love to see it continue to grow.” His goal is to use the game as a valuable teaching tool in order that students learn chemistry and possibly incorporate the game into the classroom.

Quest for Arete will makes its official release May 30, 2012 at Origins Game Fair in Columbus, Ohio. Kirkpatrick is using Kickstarter.com to fund the final development of the game.

Kirkpatrick graduated from Athens High School and Athens State

University. He works as a civilian safety professional with the U.S. Army and is a C-130 pilot in the Air Force Reserves at Maxwell Air Force Base.

For more information visit www.QuestForArete.com.