America's Founding Charter

The Constitutional Convention of 1787: Constructing the American Republic focuses on the most fundamental political and legal event in American history. Students in the game, playing delegates to the Convention, gather in “Philadelphia” to write a new constitution for the United States. Or is it that they gather to amend the already existing constitution, the Articles of Confederation, ratified a mere six years earlier? Informing the debates are two competing theories of republican government: Country republicanism, with roots in the Classical and Renaissance worlds and in the thought of Aristotle, Machiavelli, Rousseau, etc; and Court republicanism, arising from a “new science of politics” developed by authors such as Locke, Montesquieu, Hume, etc. The game attempts to teach the entire founding period, and not just the four-month Convention, by allowing, where appropriate, the thought of the ratification period to filter in, e.g., Federalist and Antifederalist writings. Sectional interests, backroom deal making, personal rivalries, foreign intrigue, and the danger of leaks all work to add drama to the proceedings. The game comes in three fully developed versions, differing by length and level of play: Advanced, Intermediate, and Introductory (called Standard). All versions use the same game book.