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Game prep: Roles & readings

To prepare for gameplay:

Step 1

  • If you are a member of a household, identify your assigned household.
  • If you are a community member, identify your assigned role.

Step 2
Read, listen to, or view the following materials 

  • Household or community member role sheet.  Read your household or community member role sheet before the game begins. Note the facts that are included in your role sheet as well as those that you think you will need to have to play the game.
  • Musical themes.  There is a theme song for the game as well as each household. Listen to the music for the game and your household.
  • Eyewitness and secret roles. If you are an eyewitness, you will be assigned an individual role sheet and eyewitness account before gameplay begins. You may also be assigned as secret role with an additional a role sheet. Read these documents before the game begins.
  • Read the background information in this handbook.

Step 3
As assigned in the household and community member role sheets, read, listen to, and watch the following sources that have been assigned to your role.

British Pathé newsreels (approximately 9 minutes)

British newspaper articles: Access these sources in Ares. 

Read the section in Chapter V on evaluating news article and stories. You have been given specific articles to read and can also read other content on the same page to gather further information about the war.

The Times London news articles

  • Good hope of victory (June 19, 1940).
  • Britain’s air strength (October 24, 1940)

The Manchester Guardian

  • Germany’s plan for invasion (September 18, 1940)
  • Night raid on Merseyside (October 22, 1940)

BBC radio broadcasts  (approximately 9 minutes)

Government information (approximately 25 minutes)

German propaganda and British news articles (click here to access German propaganda) 

Note: The British newspapers are available in Ares. Access the German propaganda using the password provided by the game master.

Read the section in Chapter V on evaluating news article and stories. You have been given a specific article to read. However, you can also read other content on the same page to gather further information about the war.


  • Lancaster Daily Post
    • Germany gambling on quick win: parachutists disguised as women (May 13, 1940)
  • The Times
    • Non-existent ship “sunk” (January 1, 1940)
    • Points of letters: Lord Haw-Haw’s accent (January 2, 1940)
    • Savage German threat (May 14, 1940)
    • Calm in Brussels (May 13, 1940)
    • New twist on German propaganda (November 4, 1940)
  • A last appeal to reason by Adolph Hitler

Step 4
You will have two handouts:  a Warden’s Report Form and an Evidence Worksheet.

Note the following from your role sheets

  • your household or community objectives;
  • your household or community challenges and issues to be resolved.

Complete your index card with three key facts or takeaways from the sources you have been assigned.

If you are assigned an eyewitness role, read the eyewitness account and note the following on the Evidence Worksheet:

  • at least three key facts about what you have witnessed in Manchester after the bombing;
  • your information sources;
  • the relevance of what you have seen to the safety of your household.

If you are assigned a special information role (e.g., air warden) at any point in the game, read your individual role sheet, note any personal challenge as well as how to meet this challenge.

Step 5
Download and complete your National Registration Identity Card, based on the information in your role sheet(s) and the assigned pre-game materials.

Click on Next (below, right) to move to the next page.

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Do we take shelter? Gamer handbook Copyright © 2023 by Martha Attridge Bufton is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.

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