History games for the classroom: a teacher’s guide

Updated 2026-10-30

Crown & Plough is a free browser game with no student accounts and nothing to install, so it runs on classroom computers, Chromebooks, tablets or students’ phones straight away. Its scenarios start students as a real historical figure in a specific year, which lets them face “what would you have done?” within a single lesson.

Below are eight scenarios that work well in class, three discussion questions for each, a summary of where the game departs from real history, and a lesson plan for a 45–60 minute period. The site shows ads, so preview it before using it with students.

Play free — no download Start the scenario: The Night of the Herms

A lesson plan for one period

Set “Weight of history” to As history to keep outcomes close to the real past, or to Free for a counterfactual debate. At 1× the game stops for every event, which suits discussion; at 2× and above it stops only for major ones.

Discussion questions by scenario

The Night of the Herms — Athens, 415 BC, as Alcibiades

1. Why did the Assembly postpone Alcibiades’ trial until after the expedition, and how did that decision affect it?
2. Compare Alcibiades’ case for the Sicilian Expedition with Nicias’ case against it.
3. How did the advice Alcibiades gave Sparta in exile — send Gylippus, fortify Decelea — change the war?

Emperor of the Wall — Britannia, AD 122, as Hadrian

1. Why did Hadrian stop conquering and choose to secure the frontiers instead?
2. Was the wall only a military line? What do the villages outside the forts and the Vindolanda tablets tell us about frontier life?
3. Twenty years later Antoninus Pius ordered a new wall further north. Suggest reasons why.

The marshes of Athelney — Wessex, 878, as Alfred the Great

1. Why was Wessex the last English kingdom standing against the Great Heathen Army that landed in 865?
2. What did it mean that Guthrum was baptised after Edington with Alfred as his godfather?
3. How did Alfred’s network of burhs change the defence of the kingdom?

The road to Runnymede — England, 1213, as William Marshal

1. Why did King John keep raising burdens such as scutage? Connect it to the loss of Normandy in 1204.
2. The pope annulled Magna Carta two months after 1215. Why was it reissued in 1216, 1217 and 1225?
3. Loyalty to the king or the barons’ cause: argue William Marshal’s choice.

The Printer of Wittenberg — Wittenberg, 1517, as Lucas Cranach

1. Luther’s Latin theses were printed in Leipzig, Nuremberg and Basel within weeks. What does that show about print?
2. The story that he nailed them to the church door is a later tradition. How do historians tell evidence from tradition?
3. What part did a court painter’s portraits of Luther play in the Reformation?

Winged hussars — Kraków, 1683, as John III Sobieski

1. Why did Poland march south to relieve the emperor’s capital? Look at the alliance made that March.
2. What did the Ottomans do for the first time in the Treaty of Karlowitz (1699)?
3. Poland elected its kings. How did Sobieski come to be chosen?

The Table at the Café de Foy — Paris, 1789, as Camille Desmoulins

1. How did the price of bread in summer 1789 shape workers’ lives and the Revolution?
2. How are Desmoulins’ call to arms at the Palais-Royal on 12 July and the storming of the Bastille on 14 July connected?
3. What power did newspapers and pamphlets have in the Revolution?

A ship to Scutari — London, 1853, as Florence Nightingale

1. What reason did Russia give for occupying the Danubian Principalities, and why did Britain and France go to war?
2. How did William Howard Russell’s reports in The Times change the link between war and public opinion?
3. Why did Nightingale draw army mortality as rose-shaped diagrams? How were statistics used to drive reform?

How the game differs from real history

Every turning point has a What if…? article setting the real outcome beside a plausible alternative — What if Luther had been burned at Worms? or What if the Coalition had crushed the French Revolution?, for example — which works as follow-up reading.

Practical notes for teachers

• No accounts — students never sign up or enter an email. Progress is stored only in each device’s browser and is not sent to a server.
• Shared computers — if browsers are wiped between sessions, saves are lost; copy the backup code from Settings › Save backup to continue later.
• Direct links — add ?scen= plus the scenario ID to the game address to open a scenario directly (the start button on each scenario page does this).
• Ads — the site is supported by ads, which appear on screen; check your school’s policy.
• Content — war, plague and executions appear in text. Play a scenario yourself first when choosing one for younger students.

Start playing

Play free — no download Start the scenario: The Night of the Herms

FAQ

Other games are named only for factual comparison; all trademarks belong to their owners. Information about other games reflects public information as of October 2026 and may change.

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