Worlds
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Interactive history · Private beta

Step into history.
Understand how it was decided.

You are inside a real moment of the past, with only what people knew then. Decide, see where it leads, and compare your world with what actually happened.

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  • 4worlds, four ways to play
  • 13days of the Cuban crisis, 11 decisions
  • 11endings — and one that really happened
  • 0invented photos or quotes

One step

Evidence. Decision. What really happened.

  1. 01

    Situation

    Only what was on the desk that morning: a U-2 photo, a letter from Moscow, the latest estimate. Nothing from tomorrow's newspapers.

  2. 02

    Decision

    Four options and no risk-free one. The historical choice is not marked.

  3. 03

    Outcome

    Did you act as Kennedy did? What actually happened, with the photograph and its source.

  4. 04

    The world moves on

    Repeat the real decision and history goes on as it did. Deviate, and the world diverges as far as that choice plausibly matters.

Screen “Outcome”: verdict “As in history”, your choice and the photo of what actually happened

Four worlds are open

Four worlds. Four ways to play.

Each world is a different kind of simulation: a crisis that branches, a reading of other capitals, a ledger on the road, an investigation on a map.

Fork · the world diverges 1962 · Washington

The Cuban Missile Crisis

You are President Kennedy

Thirteen days in October. Every decision moves the world off its historical line, as far as it plausibly can.

  1. 01
    October 16The U-2 photos are on the desk. What do you do first?
  2. 02
    October 18Gromyko insists the aid is defensive. What do you tell him?
  3. 03
    October 20Air strike or blockade?
  4. 04
    October 22Do you prepare an invasion openly?

11 decisions, 56 situations, 134 paths, 11 endings. One of them really happened.

Screen “Decision”: the question “What do you do first?” and four options
Diagram: a straight historical line, branches that leave it and return, and branches that end on their own. October 16 October 28
  • historical line
  • adjusted, returns to history
  • replaced: a path nobody took
  • ending: war, deal or stalemate
Reading · predict how a capital reads a move 1914 · Six capitals

The July Crisis

You are a researcher of causes

A month from Sarajevo to war. One capital makes a move; you predict how another will understand it, then sit where the decision was made.

  1. 01
    June 28 – July 4The shots in Sarajevo. How will Vienna read them?
  2. 02
    July 5–22In Bethmann Hollweg's seat in Berlin. What do you tell Vienna?
  3. 03
    July 23–27The ultimatum. Pašić has hours to reply.
  4. 04
    July 28–29War on Serbia. How does the Kaiser read Serbia's reply?

Real history only: your reading is compared with what was intended and what was actually read.

Screen “Reading”: Belgrade → Vienna, the question “How will Vienna read the assassination?” and three options
Ledger · money, credit, road, haggling 742 · Chang'an → Luoyang

The Merchant of Chang'an

You are Li Wen, cloth merchant

Buy goods on credit, carry them to Luoyang and sell them so that the family lives to see winter. Chance decides the outcome, but the odds are visible in advance.

  1. 01
    Day 1Forty strings of coin, two bales of cloth, no debts. Whom do you ask about prices?
  2. 02
    Days 2–4What do you take to Luoyang? Cloth on credit: repay plus a twelfth by day 58.
  3. 03
    The roadFrom one overnight stop to the next. People tell you the risk; no one knows the outcome.
  4. 04
    LuoyangHaggling, one round a day. The buyer may walk away.

A fictional merchant in a documented economy: prices, interest and roads of the Tang dynasty.

Screen “Purchase”: the question “What will you take to Luoyang?”, goods with counters and the ledger “What you will get”
Investigation · forecast, round, notebook 1854 · London, Soho

Cholera in Soho

You are Dr. Snow's assistant

Ten days of epidemic on Broad Street. Say what you expect before you look, choose where to go, and work out what is killing people: water, air or poverty.

  1. 01
    August 31 – September 2Catastrophe. Why several dead in one house and none next door?
  2. 02
    September 3The pump. If the water is to blame, what will Snow see in the sample?
  3. 03
    September 4–6Rounds. Six rounds for eight places: where to?
  4. 04
    September 7The Board of Guardians. Which three findings do you put on the table?

The finale compares your notebook with Snow's conclusions.

Screen “Round”: the question “Where to?”, a map of Soho with numbered places and the list of places

Why

History is not a list of dates. It is people deciding with incomplete information, and living with the consequences.

Textbooks tell you how it ended. Worlds lets you stand where it had not ended yet.

Black-and-white photo: Kennedy at a desk with microphones and the pages of the speech during the address to the nation, October 22, 1962
The address to the nation · October 22, 1962 · Robert Knudsen · JFK Library

Every fact has a source

Photographs from the U.S. National Archives and the JFK Library, letters from the Library of Congress, maps drawn from declassified estimates. Every image carries its date and credit. Where no photo exists, we say so instead of inventing one.

Demo

See it working

Demo video

A two-minute walk through one step of the crisis. Coming with the beta.

Try it now

The prototype runs in Telegram

Open the bot, pick a world and play. Four worlds, English and Russian, no sign-up.

Open @worlds_dev_bot
Screenshot from the Telegram app

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