Ancient Civilizations World History Adventure RPG Full Curriculum 18 weeks Semester 2
  • Ages10–15 yearsThis age range is required to enroll.
  • FormatMulti-week course • Online
  • Length1 hr 50 min
  • ScheduleRuns for 18 weeks
Multi-week course • Online

Ancient Civilizations World History Adventure RPG Full Curriculum 18 weeks Semester 2

History meets D&D in this 18-week live adventure for ages 10–14. Small groups explore the ancient world — Mesopotamia, Egypt, China, and beyond all through an RPG campaign where real history shapes every quest. No prior D&D experience needed. This is Semester 2

Price
$764.00 total
See Classes

How It Works

Every week follows the same three-step rhythm, designed so students arrive at the live session already prepared — and leave having experienced history from the inside.


 

 

Step 1 — Watch (Start of Week) A pre-recorded video drops at the beginning of each week. Students watch it on their own time before the live session. The video covers that week’s civilization — key people, primary sources, the historical context explained clearly — so the live session isn’t spent on passive lecture. Students come in ready to think, argue, and explore.

 

Step 2 — Complete the Reading & Worksheet (Before Live Session) Each week’s materials include a short reading and a worksheet built around the historical topic. No busywork — every question is something students will use in the live session. Materials are designed to build genuine curiosity, not just recall. Primary sources appear throughout.

 

Step 3 — Play (Live Session, 85 min) The live session is where history stops being something that happened to other people — and becomes something students live through. Sessions run in three parts:


 

 

  • Warm-Up & Discussion (~10 min) — The DM opens with a quick discussion of the week’s civilization. Students surface questions from the reading, share reactions to primary sources, and get their bearings in the story before the adventure begins.

  • The Adventure (~65 min) — The party enters the historical world. The civilization’s real challenges, politics, trade systems, and social dynamics become the adventure’s obstacles. Students must understand what they learned to navigate what comes next. Perspective-taking and historical empathy aren’t extras — they’re the mechanics of survival.

  • DM Challenge (~10 min) — Each session closes with a direct challenge question. Students respond individually, the DM discusses, and the story beat closes for the week.

 


 

Week-by-Week Curriculum

Unit 1 — Ancient Greece: The Full Picture

Weeks 1–3

 

Week

Topic

What Students Learn

1

Greek City-States & The Persian Wars — Both Sides

Greek city-states (Athens, Sparta, Corinth) as very different societies; the Persian Wars from Greek AND Persian perspectives; Herodotus as a biased source; Artemisia of Halicarnassus as Persian naval commander — called by Xerxes his best tactician

2

Athenian Democracy — Who Was Actually Included?

Who could vote in Athens (~10–20% of residents) vs. who was excluded (enslaved people, women, foreigners); Aspasia as an intellectual force; Sappho’s poetry; Spartan women’s comparative freedom

3

Philosophy, Art & Alexander’s Empire

Socrates, Plato, Aristotle; Greek art and architecture; Alexander’s conquests from the perspective of the conquered; the Hellenistic world as a multicultural blend; the Library of Alexandria

 


 

Unit 2 — The Persian Empire

Weeks 4–5

 

Week

Topic

What Students Learn

4

The Achaemenid Empire & The Cyrus Cylinder

Cyrus the Great and the liberation of the Babylonian Jewish community; the Cyrus Cylinder as a political document; Persian tolerance of 70+ ethnic groups; Persian women’s legal rights compared directly to Athenian women

5

Artemisia, Persian Women & Zoroastrian Life

Persepolis administrative tablets as archaeological evidence of women’s economic roles; Zoroastrianism and Persian religious life; the Persian Empire as genuinely multicultural

 


 

Unit 3 — Mauryan & Gupta India

Weeks 6–8

 

Week

Topic

What Students Learn

6

The Mauryan Empire & Chandragupta

Chandragupta’s founding of the empire; the Arthashastra as ancient statecraft; Greek ambassador accounts of India as cross-cultural sources; India’s enormous internal diversity

7

Ashoka — From Conqueror to Compassion

The Kalinga War and its aftermath; Ashoka’s Rock Edicts as extraordinary primary sources (a king admitting guilt in stone); Buddhism as a philosophy with real political implications

8

The Gupta Golden Age — Mathematics, Medicine & Art

Aryabhata’s calculation of pi and Earth’s rotation; the invention of zero and the decimal system by Indian mathematicians; how Indian scholarship reached Europe through Islamic scholars

 


 

⚔ Week 9 — Mid-Semester Boss Battle

Three empires, one negotiation. Characters serve as diplomatic envoys from Greece, Persia, and India navigating a crisis that threatens all three powers. Each must draw on what they’ve actually learned about their civilization’s values, practices, and history to make their case.

 

This is the Semester 2 mid-point capstone — a full review of Units 1–3 assessed together through adventure.

 


 

Unit 4 — Han Dynasty China

Weeks 10–12

 

Week

Topic

What Students Learn

10

Han China — Government, Society & Daily Life

The Han merit bureaucracy; Han China as a direct contemporary and rough equal of Rome; daily life for farmers, artisans, and merchants vs. the imperial elite

11

Ban Zhao & Women’s Lives in Han China

Ban Zhao as China’s first female court historian; ‘Lessons for Women’ as historical evidence of both constraint and capability; how to read a text that reflects oppressive norms without endorsing them

12

The Silk Road — More Than Silk

Buddhism traveling east; glassmaking traveling west; Sogdian merchants as the road’s primary operators; the Silk Road as evidence that globalization is ancient, not modern

 


 

Unit 5 — Ancient Rome: The Full Story

Weeks 13–15

 

Week

Topic

What Students Learn

13

Roman Republic & Empire — Power & Its Costs

Roman slavery as foundational to the economy (~1 in 3 people enslaved); what Roman ‘civilization’ meant to the conquered; Cornelia as a political force; women in Roman law and business

14

Spartacus, Boudica & The Right to Resist

Spartacus’s revolt: enslaved people held territory for two years and required three Roman armies to suppress; Boudica’s revolt against Roman taxation and violence; resistance as organized, strategic, and rational

15

Rome Through Other Eyes

Cleopatra’s actual political genius as a head of state; Jewish accounts of the Roman destruction of the Temple; how colonized peoples preserved cultural identity under empire

 


 

Unit 6 — African Civilizations

Weeks 16–17

 

Week

Topic

What Students Learn

16

The Kingdom of Aksum — Africa’s Forgotten Superpower

Aksum as one of the four great powers of the ancient world; control of Red Sea trade routes (Rome needed Aksum’s cooperation to access Indian goods); Ezana converting to Christianity before most of Europe

17

Nok Culture, Meroë & The Queen Who Beat Rome

Nok terracotta sculpture as technically sophisticated ancient art; Amanirenas leading her army against Rome and winning a favorable peace treaty; Africa as internally connected, not isolated

 


 

⚔ Week 18 — Year-End Final Boss

The ancient world is transforming. Empires are shifting, knowledge is at risk, and the party — representing civilizations from across both semesters — must decide what to preserve as their world changes. This is the full-year capstone: a synthesis adventure covering all 14 units, assessed through action and decision-making.

 

This is the Semester 2 capstone — a full review of all units from both semesters, assessed together through adventure. Final student presentations happen in this session.

 


 

What Students Walk Away With

By the end of Semester 2, students have met the classical world on its own terms — not through European eyes, but through the full complexity of who actually lived in it.

 

They will know:

  • That Athenian democracy excluded most Athenians — and that the Persian Empire gave women more legal rights than Athens did

  • That Ashoka, king of India, publicly renounced conquest in carved stone — and that this kind of leadership existed long before anyone in Europe thought of it

  • That zero, the decimal system, and the foundations of modern mathematics came from India

  • That Rome’s economy ran on slavery, that enslaved people organized and nearly defeated it, and that Boudica came closer to expelling Rome from Britain than any general before her

  • That Aksum was one of the four great powers of the ancient world — and that Amanirenas negotiated Augustus Caesar into returning conquered territory

 

Students will also walk away with something harder to measure: the habit of asking whose story is being told, whose is missing, and why. That habit — built week by week through adventure and historical inquiry — is the curriculum’s deepest goal.

 

Students who complete both semesters will have covered the equivalent of a full middle school world history year — honestly, inclusively, and through 36 weeks of live adventure. dragonacademy.net

Available Class Times

There are no bookable times for this class listing yet.