For a 300-level course titled ‘Asia and the World’, cross-listed between Political Science and History, I developed a team-based simulation for students to understand the comparative challenges faced by China and Japan during the 19th and early 20th centuries. Students balance concerns of domestic stability, fiscal resources, international claims to sovereignty, economic development, and corruption while contending with domestic changes as well as incidents involving Western powers.
The simulation features several unique components that students particularly appreciated in developing their understanding of era: changing systems of decision-making (after the Meiji Restoration event (Japan) and the counter-factual Hundred Days’ Reform event (China)), trade-offs between engaging with foreign advisors to adopt new technologies of warfare, governance, and innovation, and a unique mechanic that allows for an ambitious Japan to declare war on the team playing China as a means of achieving the game’s victory conditions.
The game was successfully played in a class of 20 students in Fall 2023, with two separate games simultaneously played by students in teams of four-five. The game requires a GM role, which was eagerly and competently fulfilled by students who with preexisting interests in table-top gaming. It was played over a second class period due to popular demand, and the game has now been introduced by several players to the broader Olympia table-top gaming community as a locally created prototype.
I share this simulation for other instructors to adapt and use it under an Attribution International 4.0 CC BY-NC-SA License.
This license enables reusers to distribute, remix, adapt, and build upon the material in any medium or format for noncommercial purposes only, and only so long as attribution is given to the creator. If you remix, adapt, or build upon the material, you must license the modified material under identical terms. CC BY-NC-SA includes the following elements:
BY: credit must be given to the creator.
NC: Only noncommercial uses of the work are permitted.
SA: Adaptations must be shared under the same terms.
You may download the complete game with rule book, a rough set of playing card printouts, scoresheets, and a set of debrief discussion topics here.