Revolution

So it’s the Fourth of July, and once again I find myself wondering why there isn’t a good American Revolution movie. (Seriously, the closest is HBO’s excellent John Adams, and it focuses on the diplomatic efforts on the side as it follows the titular second President with the first getting only a cameo role. The Patriot is slightly less accurate than Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter.)

A revolution is a key turning point in a country’s history, and of course also a source of potential drama. Family, friends and neighbours might be divided by the conflict. Scarce resources become strategic lynchpins. Battles with a lack of set uniforms get dangerously confusing.

And it shouldn’t be viewed in isolation. Thirty-one years earlier, the Jacobites’ second attempt to put a Stewart on the throne ended disastrously, and many of them were among those sent off in early the Highland Clearances, some making their way to America and Canada. Look back or forward a generation or two when deciding on a major event, at what factored into it and what followed as a result.

And, of course, you can always throw the PCs into a revolution...