まさか この２人と このちっぽけな町を舞台に冒険を繰り広げることになろうとは この時には思ってもみなかった

What is the function of the particle に after 舞台?

返事してくれてどうもありがとう！
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2020-10-29T00:36:05.983
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2020-10-29T03:36:08.067
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question
particle-に
Particle に in this sentence
This is the pattern XをYに. To quote the [Wasabi article](https://www.wasabi-
jpn.com/japanese-grammar/japanese-supplementary-subordinate-clauses/), "you
may roughly consider it as XをYにする which means 'to change X to Y.'" I think it
is also very close to "to treat X as Y".

Like @5ru8ek mentioned in the comments, the majority of the time, you can just
add a して after に and it will essentially mean the same thing. Here are some
examples I pulled from Wasabi:

> ビーチを会場に（して）コンサートを（した / しました）。  
>  [We] held a concert as [we] made the beach a venue.

> 私は病気を言い訳に欠席しましした。  
>  [I] was absent as [I] used sickness as an excuse.

The only oddball is when it is used to mean possession, where instead of して,
it makes more sense to add もつ after に:

> おおきな決意を胸に（持って）試合に参加（した / しました）。  
>  [I] participated in the game with a big resolution [in my heart].

This allows us to give a rough translation of your example sentence:

> まさかこの２人とこのちっぽけな町を舞台に冒険を繰り広げることになろうとはこの時には思ってもみなかった。  
>  At the time, I couldn't even imagine we would use this small city as the
> stage for our adventures.
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2020-10-29T02:14:22.117
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2020-10-29T02:14:22.117
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answer