What makes BRAVE games unique? Game Theory. A branch of mathematics that examines how competing agents can play to win if player strategies are based on real strengths. The funny thing is, our greatest strengths often stem from our weaknesses. Think it’s hard to face your kryptonite and still play from a place of power? Imagine the hang-ups, imagine the hustle needed to explore our nation’s tangled roots and still keep working toward a more perfect union. Impossible? Maybe. But R&D showed increased levels of courage, consciousness, and grace.
How many board games are in the BRAVE series? 4 and counting! Plus, we’re creating ‘Pre-Game Warm-Ups’ and ‘Games-Within-a-Game’ so students can go deeper into standalone viewpoints & topics. Each cornerstone game is played across the same board game surface so it’s easy for your school to bundle purchases, and even easier for your students to put history into its full context. In fact, BRAVE’s scope & sequence is unprecedented in breadth & depth. Is that intimating?! Naw, we’ve provided you with everything you need to roll out a game. This means you can let your students do the heavy lifting while you just put on a good game face. Besides once you’ve learned how to facilitate one BRAVE game, you’re equipped to facilitate every game.
Alliance Diplomatique
A clever take on statecraft whereby six teams across colonial North America meet the triple challenge of nation building, international diplomacy, and economic sustainability. Iroquois Confederacy, Britain, 13 Colonies, France, New France & the Wabanaki Confederacy—we know which team wins this game. The question is, what empowers nations to thrive over time?
ÉCOUTER: a game within a game. Inside the walls of Fort Pitt, June 1763, British soldiers were gripped by a highly contagious and potentially lethal virus for which there was no cure. Outside the walls, angry Ottawa, Lenape & Shawnee warriors were demanding British troops abandon the fort. Double-bound by a biological threat on one hand, and dangerous enemies on the other, players must be prepared to manage the fallout if they fail to contain the virus.
Hopewell
Welcome to Hopewell. A call to Federalist and farmer, Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Cajun, Creole & Free People of Color. Here, students explore the Hopewell Treaty era by revealing the Yazoo Land Fraud, the Compact of 1802, the Louisiana Purchase, War of 1812, the Era of Good Feelings, the Marshall Trilogy and more! Because if the balance of power is stolen, history has its eyes on you.
PODER
Just because you can, does that mean you should? With PODER, students create a head-spinning model of Manifest Destiny. From commodity deals in Louisiana and trade fairs in Santa Fe; from the Alamo, the Battle of San Jacinto and the Texas Republic; to a lone soldier breaking the chain of command in Alta California. The trick is clearing the gap between power and protocol.
BLUE: a game within a game. Between 1492 and 1680, the Rio Grande Pueblos dropped from an estimated 100,000 people to just 17,000. The forces of European expansion clearly devastating—with epidemic disease being the most lethal—players in this game know they only have one tool to protect themselves. Religion. But it’s not what we’re thinking.
Rising, 1862
Rising explores the downstream consequences of Zebulon Pike’s journey up the Mississippi River—including a patchwork of undone treaties that shaped Minnesota state boundaries. Learning culminates as competing teams race to calculate the land’s true value, manage their debt, and prevent the Civil War. Time is short in this game! But doing the right thing is never too difficult, because no one wins unless everyone wins.
Bozeman Trail
Set against the backdrop of the 1851 Treaty of Fort Laramie, this illegal short-cut off the Oregon Trail explores the nature of boom & bust economies across the Northern Plains from six viewpoints. Learning culminates as teams race to manage the 2016 Standing Rock/Dakota Pipeline conflict using the game’s original constraint. Because Tribal treaties aren’t history, they’re federal law.