Renaissance Role-Playing: Colony of Roanoke, part IV: The Final Decisions Phase


Act IV: Final Decisions
The previous parts of this scenario have had a structure much like a novel and the players were taken through a number of scenes that have led up to this point. Have students think about and decide what situation they would like to put themselves in and write about.
  • Leave Roanoke Island for Chesapeake Bay in boats made from the houses, which they plan to reuse for house building in the new area, as well as the pinnace.
  • Powhatan kills them in a massacre.
  • Captured by Spaniards after killing the main guard (body is left).
  • Tried to sail to England in penance and lost at sea
  • Taken prisoner by Indian group and taken to copper mines to work for them.
  • Killed by a hostile Indian group. Indians bury bodies and tear down buildings to show authority and/or to use the parts.
  • Survivors move to live with Croatoan Indians.
  • Settlers move past the Croatoan Indians and west along the Roanoke River and are killed, captured or taken in by local tribes.
  • Settlers attempt to travel south and survivors are taken in by a loose group of Indians (later known as the Lumbees).
  • Settlers attempt to travel north to the Chesapeake Bay region and are killed, captured or taken in by local tribes.
  • Settlers killed by disease. Bodies buried until last man. Indians, seeing settlement abandoned, take down buildings to use the materials.

Have your student research the evidence and write his own ending in a narrative style. In researching the possibilities, he will learn the possible theories and might even come up with one the historians haven't yet thought of!


Act V: Wrapping up the Story
What did we learn?

Now that the role-play has concluded, I  am sure through your interactions you have a good sense of what your student has learned about the historical incident. You might want to have your student, however, complete writing projects that sum up all that he has learned. The best way is to ask him to write the answer to an age appropriate essay question on the topic. You can have the question be open-ended such as, "Describe what you think the experience was like for the Roanoke colony, from their deciding to leave until White leaves the area." Or, you can have them write about specific parts or aspects of the story such as, "Knowing what you know now about the Roanoke colony, what steps would you advise for them to have taken to ensure a higher chance of survival?"

You could also have them read additional materials and write reports on related topics each week, such as the clothing they wore, what they ate during that time period or about the types of ships they had.


If they still have any reading or summaries to write from the topics covered in the Kingfisher History Encyclopedia,  have them finish them up before starting the next unit.

Next we will be exploring the age of Patriots and Independence during the days leading up to the American Revolution through the days following the War for Independence.

The French and Indian War
In the meantime you can have your students research the French and Indian Wars, Major Robert Rogers and Roger's Rangers, and the Seven Year's War, Major General James Wolfe 

Have your students imagine that they are living in 1756, and that they are French speaking British colonial frontiersmen who have been conscripted into the British Army. 

It is 1756 and it is in the middle of winter along the shores of Lake Champlain, in the Colonial Northeast, what is now the border between Canada and the United States. As the war between the French and the British colonists has heated up, it increasingly has effected your life. Because you speak both French and English, you have been conscripted into the British Army as one of Roger's Rangers. An opportunity has been identified to strike at a French fort using subterfuge. It has been decided that a small team of Roger's Rangers should be sent out as a strike force against the French garrison. Your assignment is to kidnap the fort's senior officer and to destroy the ammunition stores in the fort. You will need to travel across the hills, and through the dense forests, in the depths of winter. Write a narrative about how you are to complete this mission.

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