Originally posted by Almightyjosh
oh yeah, like we don't have enough trouble getting simple democracy to work!!
nice idea though...
That's exactly my point.
- One government would have the challenge of democracy (but with fewer citizens, jesus, please!)
- Another the challenge of authoritarianism, with appropriate rules for "purges" and "forced succession" of course. The citizens pool is instead a small number of party members who can wait and maneuver for nice jobs.
- Another the challenge of religious doctrine. I'm rootin' for the Aztecs on that one. Your system could be:
Huitzilopochtli - a high-scoring, militaristic civ player is appointed as the Aztec War God, and allowed to answer sacrifices in his honor with strange one-sentence aphorisms only, which must be treated as law. For example, the civ needed to know if it should go to war with the Americans. It could agree to sacrifice a McChicken sandwich, or 10 posts on their CFC post-count, or an American worker. Or a metaphorical sacrifice of 10 virgins. Whatever. Huitzilopochtli would respond with something like "A river cannot flow until the ice has melted."
Chief Speaker - has final say on all decisions - but he/she is expected to make a sacrifice before major decisions, and then to consult a council of his advisors (one high priest, plus the Caciques) about the meaning of Huitzilopochtli's musings before making decisions. But the Chief Speaker handles all game mechanics personally.
High Priest - permanent advisory post; assists Chief Speaker with arranging councils
Caciques - (to use the Spanish word for Aztec city chieftan) similar to the regional governors in a Demo game, but also serving as the advisory council to the Chief Speaker. Only one Cacique per city is appointed.
If the Chief Speaker takes a step that is in OBVIOUS conflict with Huitzilopochtli's musings, then the War God is expected to inflict "an act of god" on the Chief Speaker, killing him/her and forcing the Caciques to elect one of their own to replace him/her (the new and old would switch jobs, essentially, unless the Caciques agreed to sacrifice the poor CFCer personally). The system would be interesting but much easier, since Citizens would be unnecessary, except for sacrifices, of course

.
(hell, that sounds so good, I think I will organize a Civ3 Sacrifice Game thread right now just to see if anyone wants to test it).
Make it far more interesting: although the non-democratic systems would probably be easier to play in.
R.III