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In this game-based course, students will play and then design an immersive role-playing game for the Reacting to the Past (RTTP) consortium. RTTP uses active, experiential learning to help students engage with important social, political, historical, and cultural debates. Student teams will research, create, playtest, and pitch their own micro-games based on controversies broadly related to social justice (for example, suffrage or the Boston busing crisis) and/or focused in the Northeast (ex., Columbus/Indigenous Peoples Day and the Wampanoag people or Yawkey’s memory). Our focus will be on key moments — such as trials, rebellions, strikes, and public debates — involving historically marginalized communities as they pursued their social, economic, and political rights. Who stood with them? Who opposed them? Why? Who were their leaders, and what methods did they and their opponents use to persuade the undecideds to join their side? What spoken and unspoken rules, customs, interests, and values governed these various parties’ decision-making? How can we use this information to help others learn about these crucial historical moments? Research will be conducted in partnership with a number of repositories, archives, and libraries. Ultimately, students will create a game that is playable, meets or exceeds the community partner’s expectations, and is, most importantly, fun, dynamic and engaging. Successful prototypes may be posted on the RTTP Game Library website for use beyond BU, with an option for submission to the annual RTTP game development conference.