About Mission 1: “For Crown or Colony?”
The mission is set in Uxbridge and Boston, Massachusetts, in the winter and early spring of 1770.
Students playing the game will assume the role of 14-year-old Nathaniel (“Nat”) Wheeler, who is about to embark on an adventure as the game opens. Nat’s father has secured Nat a trial apprenticeship in the Boston print shop of Benjamin Edes.
Nat’s father is eager for Nat to have the opportunity to learn from a respected printer like Mr. Edes, whose pro-Patriot Boston Gazette aligns closely with his own political views. After having had problems with previous apprentices, Mr. Edes is rather skeptical of taking on a new one sight-unseen, and has only agreed to accept Nat on a trial basis. If Nat can earn Mr. Edes’ respect and trust by demonstrating his seriousness, obedience, and aptitude for the craft of printing, Edes will take him on for a full apprenticeship and secure his future in the respectable printing business.
Nat’s success in his apprenticeship is critical to his own future as well as his parents’ happiness. Nat’s oldest brother Christopher, heir to the family farm, disappeared eight years earlier when he ran off to fight in the French and Indian War. With Nat’s middle brother Samuel next in line to inherit the farm, Nat’s best hope of long-term success and happiness lies in learning a trade.
Nat soon finds himself in Boston, where everyone, it seems, has an opinion on the colonies’ rights and duties as British subjects the taxes imposed by Parliament. From rowdy apprentices harassing British soldiers, to merchant resistance to customs taxes, to boycotts of British goods, Boston is an unhappy town.
As Nat, students playing the Mission will be charged with a number of tasks while working to gain the apprenticeship. From selling advertisements to merchants, to confronting soldiers patrolling the wharves, to learning pro-Patriot songs to play on his penny whistle, Nat’s activities will introduce the player to the full strata of colonial society and the growing tensions within it. Students will also examine primary source documents from the period as they work to gain Mr. Edes’ respect, and interact with historical figures such as Phillis Wheatley and Paul Revere.
During the Mission, students will play through several “days” of Nat’s apprenticeship, ranging from February 21, 1770 to March 6, 1770. Each day in Nat’s life focuses on different elements of the growing tensions between the colonists and the Crown.
In addition to building historical knowledge, the mission engages students with exciting plot lines and a sense of daily life in the 1770s. Each student playing the game will have a unique game play experience based on individual choices, skill, and understanding of the period.
Regardless of which paths students choose, Nat witnesses the Boston Massacre on the night of March 5, 1770. In the aftermath of the Massacre, Nat will be forced to make decisions about where his allegiances lie. Ultimately, it will be up to the player to determine whether or not Nat continues his apprenticeship and joins the Patriot cause in Boston, runs away to sea, or remains loyal to the Crown.
After the player chooses Nat’s path, the player learns about Nat’s ultimate fate and the inexorable march of the colonies toward Revolution.
Students playing the game will assume the role of 14-year-old Nathaniel (“Nat”) Wheeler, who is about to embark on an adventure as the game opens. Nat’s father has secured Nat a trial apprenticeship in the Boston print shop of Benjamin Edes.
Nat’s father is eager for Nat to have the opportunity to learn from a respected printer like Mr. Edes, whose pro-Patriot Boston Gazette aligns closely with his own political views. After having had problems with previous apprentices, Mr. Edes is rather skeptical of taking on a new one sight-unseen, and has only agreed to accept Nat on a trial basis. If Nat can earn Mr. Edes’ respect and trust by demonstrating his seriousness, obedience, and aptitude for the craft of printing, Edes will take him on for a full apprenticeship and secure his future in the respectable printing business.
Nat’s success in his apprenticeship is critical to his own future as well as his parents’ happiness. Nat’s oldest brother Christopher, heir to the family farm, disappeared eight years earlier when he ran off to fight in the French and Indian War. With Nat’s middle brother Samuel next in line to inherit the farm, Nat’s best hope of long-term success and happiness lies in learning a trade.
Nat soon finds himself in Boston, where everyone, it seems, has an opinion on the colonies’ rights and duties as British subjects the taxes imposed by Parliament. From rowdy apprentices harassing British soldiers, to merchant resistance to customs taxes, to boycotts of British goods, Boston is an unhappy town.
As Nat, students playing the Mission will be charged with a number of tasks while working to gain the apprenticeship. From selling advertisements to merchants, to confronting soldiers patrolling the wharves, to learning pro-Patriot songs to play on his penny whistle, Nat’s activities will introduce the player to the full strata of colonial society and the growing tensions within it. Students will also examine primary source documents from the period as they work to gain Mr. Edes’ respect, and interact with historical figures such as Phillis Wheatley and Paul Revere.
During the Mission, students will play through several “days” of Nat’s apprenticeship, ranging from February 21, 1770 to March 6, 1770. Each day in Nat’s life focuses on different elements of the growing tensions between the colonists and the Crown.
In addition to building historical knowledge, the mission engages students with exciting plot lines and a sense of daily life in the 1770s. Each student playing the game will have a unique game play experience based on individual choices, skill, and understanding of the period.
Regardless of which paths students choose, Nat witnesses the Boston Massacre on the night of March 5, 1770. In the aftermath of the Massacre, Nat will be forced to make decisions about where his allegiances lie. Ultimately, it will be up to the player to determine whether or not Nat continues his apprenticeship and joins the Patriot cause in Boston, runs away to sea, or remains loyal to the Crown.
After the player chooses Nat’s path, the player learns about Nat’s ultimate fate and the inexorable march of the colonies toward Revolution.