Lost Chapters for Teachers

Lost Chapters is a free strategy card game built on real American history, and it runs in any web browser, including school Chromebooks. The developer recommends it for ages 7 and up. Players under 13 need parental consent for an online account. Teachers should choose activities to suit their students' reading and strategy skills. It is a game first: we don't claim it covers any curriculum or standards, but its cards can open good conversations about the people and events behind them.

Why a card game?

Every card in Set 1, Liberty & Lightning, depicts a real person, place, object or event: inventors like Nikola Tesla and George Washington Carver, reformers like Frederick Douglass and Susan B. Anthony, explorers like Sacagawea and Amelia Earhart, founders like Abigail and John Adams, and events from the Boston Tea Party to the Louisiana Purchase. Students meet dozens of figures while they play, and the game's own Archive shows a short "what really happened" note for many of them.

The game's frame story, about a crystal called the Shard and a world called Marginalia, is invented, and the game says so. That split is useful in class: the Echoes are invented, the history is real.

Getting started in class

• No installs. Students open lostchapters.org/play in a browser. It works on Chromebooks, tablets and computers.
• No account needed to start. Students can play against the AI without signing up; progress then stays in that browser.
• Accounts are 13+. Online play against other people needs an account, and accounts are for students 13 and older (younger players need a parent's consent). Please don't ask students under 13 to create accounts.
• Start with the First Chapter, a short guided campaign that teaches the rules in about four battles.

Classroom ideas

• Card versus record. Pick a character card, read its rules and flavor text, then compare it with a primary or institutional source about the real person. What did the card designers emphasize? What is missing?
• Build a historically themed deck. Ask students to build a 40-card deck around a theme, such as the Revolution or the Lewis and Clark expedition, and justify five of their choices in writing.
• Fact or legend? Set 1 mixes real figures with tall-tale heroes such as Paul Bunyan and Sally Ann Thunder. Have students sort cards into history and folklore, and explain how they decided.
• Connections. Many cards name a partner (Lewis and Clark, John and Abigail Adams, the Wright brothers). Students can research how the real people were connected.

Discussion questions

1. Why might a game designer give one historical figure a stronger card than another? Is that fair to history?
2. Which card would you add to Set 1, and what would its ability be? Base it on something the person actually did.
3. How should a game handle difficult chapters of history, such as wars and injustice, respectfully?
4. What is the difference between a legend and a myth about a real person? Find one example in the cards.

The real history behind the cards

Our Leader pages include a short, sourced history of each Leader, with links to institutions such as the National Park Service, NASA, the Smithsonian and the Library of Congress. Every card page shows the card's rules and, where we have one, a short historical note. We are adding sources to more cards over time.

Found a mistake? Email support@lostchapters.org and we will check it and fix it.

Safety and spending

Accounts are for ages 13 and up, players under 18 get spending limits and break reminders, and parents can set controls from an email link. Read the guide for parents for details.