Our Mission

Anyone can start a war; it takes a hero to end one.

Our mission at Flagbearer games is to explore civics-based education from an inclusive and welcoming standpoint. Using a cast of historical, well-researched characters, our goal is to highlight the contributions of the women, people of color, and indigenous Americans that are often left out of the narrative of the American Revolution. 

We believe that games like this one can be used to teach history through immersive learning experiences, including not only roleplaying with games such as these, but building characters and organizing campaigns. We are working to accurately portray 18th century events and concepts from the perspective of the many different individuals who were living through them, and allowing players to take on this perspective through roleplay. This includes a focus on pivotal topics from the period such as colonialism, Manifest Destiny, the legacy of enslavement, and the meaning of “All men are created equal.” 

Our goal is to explore these topics through the lens of history while taking care to preserve player agency throughout. However, it is important to remember that many people did not have the same agency during this time period. Some of the material present in Nations & Cannons involves historic injustices and systems that were, and in some cases still are, used to justify and perpetrate systemic violence. It is first and foremost important to us that living players around the table are not able to harm each other while playing. Thus, many of these systems of injustice are not built mechanically into our setting. However, we must not pretend that these atrocities never happened, nor imply that their effects are not still relevant today. We have developed this game with the help of a sensitivity reader in order to present these topics with the care they require, and will continue to consult with sensitivity readers as we develop our historical content.

We encourage the use of safety tools when running Nations & Cannons games. Flagbearer Games uses a variety of tools, including the Lines and Veils system (first appeared in Ron Edwards' Sex and Sorcery supplement for RPG Sorcerer, described here), when running games ourselves. We are also committed to listening to what our players need in order to have a safe gaming experience with difficult material, without whitewashing history.