"The Senate Game" - an interesting edularp

I recently acquired a larp called “The Senate Game” (PWYW). It’s an edularp designed for a UK high school classics class, in which the players explore the dynamics of Roman politics by taking the roles of Roman Senators and Equites and debating a succession of crises affecting the Roman Republic. The example crises are seeded from history, but the expectation is that as in Rome, the politicians will soon become the crisis, as they struggle for power and domination.

The characters are non-existent (you have a social class, and that’s it), because that’s not what the game is about. The rules are simple and well focused, covering things like debate, war and murder. It looks like it’d achieve the goal of giving people a look at Roman politics from the inside. From a larp perspective, I think it’d produce a couple of hours of fun, and I’d consider playing it at a con if it was on offer.