By: Grace Griggs
For my adaptation project, my goal is to add an additional layer of immersion to the show than is already present. I recently read that the writer of 1776 thought the show was an awful idea until he heard the song “Sit Down, John” performed. He explained why that changed his mind, saying that “in that song is the entire fabric and level of the show: You are involved with people whom we’d never dealt with before, except as cardboard figures. This room had flies, it was hot, and these men were not perfect. There’s more information about the Continental Congress in that opening song than I learned in all my years at school”. The same thing goes for Hamilton. Part of its value is that it adds extra layers of immersion to the history. My goal is to create an adaptation that increases the audience’s engagement with the story.
To this end, my plan is to adapt a part of Hamilton’s story into a tabletop roleplaying format, specifically 5th edition Dungeons and Dragons. I would like to make a one-shot (a D&D adventure short enough to be played in one sitting) where players can play as Hamilton, Hercules Mulligan and the rest of the gang as they steal cannons from a British fort, a historical event described in the song “Right Hand Man”. The final product will be a pdf that includes the plot of the adventure, all descriptive text blocks, descriptions of all relevant obstacles and NPCs and enough information to give the players a variety of ways to accomplish their mission. It will also include a battle-map of Fort George and character sheets for Hamilton, Mulligan, Lafayette, Laurens and Burr, although only Hamilton and Mulligan were historically present.
The majority of my work will be writing and adapting the relevant rules of D&D to fit the colonial period (add guns, minimize magic etc.). Additionally, I will have to do some historical research to flesh out the events of that night and a little bit of illustration for the map of Fort George.
I am a little nervous about my concept for this project because the two things I am combining are just about as different from each other as possible. However, I do have a good understanding of both the subject matter and the medium I’m converting it to, so I am comfortable that I will be able to work around any issues that arise. Overall, I am very excited to work on this project.