Students were on the path to writing a document-based essay for verified credit about the causes for the fall of the Western Roman Empire. After learning about the things that made Rome successful and about the internal politics, society, and economics of the late Roman Empire, we engaged in this simulation. Students were organized into small groups of important power players in the Empire like the Eastern Emperor, Western, Imperial Intelligence service, Senatorial Families, the Church, etc. We modeled the health of the Empire along a variety of characteristics using sliders on the board. Each turn, we would draw challenging events from a deck and student groups would make proposals to solve the issues and prop up the Empire, while also angling to gain their group the most political power possible.