Classroom games that put students inside international systems

Simulations for teaching international relations and international history, from Bronze Age city-states to the Cold War. Each one is designed so that students feel a concept working on them before they name it: anarchy, the balance of power, sovereignty, networks of trade.

They are built for lecturers to run with their own classes, with everything needed to set up, play and debrief in a single seminar or lecture.

In development · classroom testing 2026–27

The games

The first four games are being tested with students now. Each has a print-and-play or browser version and runs within a normal teaching session.

The Rising Power

Lecture or seminar · live phone voting

Every student is a small state; the lecturer plays a rising power. Each round the room votes to balance, buck-pass or bandwagon, and the server enforces the consequences: conquered states lose their vote.

Players
Lecture 40–100 · seminar 10–20
Time
15–20 minutes · about 45 minutes
Concepts
Balance of power, alliances, hegemony

Read the guideRun a game

Running a game needs an invite code. Ask for one.

The Treaty Table

Seminar game · print and play

Cities make treaties that are equal on paper but unequal in fact. A second version seats two tables under different rulebooks for sovereignty, who then discover what each side cannot sign.

Players
Tables of 4–6
Time
30–35 minutes
Concepts
City-state systems, sovereignty, recognition

The Route Map

Seminar game · print and play

Players open trade routes and charge tolls. Whoever sits on the chokepoint ends up running a network that nobody set out to govern. A second version adds monsoon seasons, merchant diasporas and a Pacific table with no map.

Players
Tables of 4–6
Time
About 35 minutes
Concepts
Network order, trade, diaspora

The Crisis Timeline

Seminar game · print and play, with tutor console

A crisis unfolds dispatch by dispatch, and teams must decide before they know how it ends. One version is set around the 1961 Belgrade Conference of non-aligned states.

Players
Small teams
Time
One seminar segment
Concepts
Cold War, non-alignment, decision-making

What comes with every game

Written for a colleague picking a game up for the first time.

  • One-page rulesLarge type, symbols before colour, printable in black and white.
  • A tutor scriptWhat to say, timings, common problems and what to cut if you run late.
  • Debrief questionsFrom what happened, to why, to where it happens today.
  • What the game gets wrongAn honest note on its simplifications, written to start a discussion.
  • Built for every studentNo one has to stand, and there is always a seat that doesn't need to speak.
  • Rules that enforce themselvesConsequences are built into the cards or the software, not left to the honour system.

Try a game with your students

If you teach international relations or international history and would like to use or test one of these games, get in touch.

hello@worldbuilding.games