Welcome to NESpolitik! A game of pandering, gaffes, and gerrymandering! Each of you will be a prospective candidate for office, fighting and clawing your way to the top of the political ladder. Loosely based on the Realpolitik game type, players and parties will work in a similar way. What has changed is the map and the issues well all be battling it out over. And now for some rules!
Candidates: Each of you is from henceforth referred to as a candidate (until your elected to office and can happily be called an Incumbent. Candidates (and Incumbents for that matter) will be allowed three actions each turn. You will all have the following stats that will define your character in the game.
- Name: Doesnt really matter except so that others can refer to you when besmearing your reputation.
- Party: Lets everyone know you political allegiance. Your party can define you, or you your party.
- Reputation: The sum of your total influence over constituents, it's an indication of how popular, or unpopular, you are.
- Notoriety: How well you are known by constituents. The great thing about notoriety is that it will go up significantly faster because of blunders and scandals than because of rule following and successes.
- Campaign Funds: How much money you have to spend on campaigning.
Actions: Generally actions will be anything you do in the game that would take up time. It would take significant time to write a book, create a bill, put out a propaganda campaign, but it would not take that much time to give a speech, have a conversation with a potential donor, or simply talk to other candidates. Actions can be anything you want to do (within reason). Actions will all have a cost associated with them. Candidates can perform three actions each turn. Some examples of actions you can take:
- Introduce Bill/Resolution (put forth a draft for a law to the National Congress)
- Propaganda Campaign (distribute propaganda supporting yourself or putting down your opponent)
- Publish Book (publish a book, much more powerful than a speech)
- Frame Candidate (frame another in a scandal)
- Begin Scandal (start a scandal to get money)
- Hold Dinner (a way to generate money from donors)
- Call for Impeachment (campaign to get an Incumbent removed from office)
- Call for Referendum (campaign to get a law struck down)
- Start Debate (start a debate between opposing factions, increases your influence more than a normal speech would)
- Demographic Research (learn what a certain voter group actually wants from a representative)
Parties: Parties can be powerful in that they act as a hard alliance of candidates to garner support from constituents and donors. Parties can be defined by whatever you want them to be, but they will all share the same stats.
Name: Just as your personal name doesnt matter much, this one doesnt much either.
Reputation: Indicates how good or bad your members have been at winning over constituents. Parties with high reputations will start to cement constituents that will religiously vote for its candidates.
Constituents: These are the people you have to answer to at the end of each term. No matter what you do, you will always have to answer to your constituents. Following the needs of your constituents (or manipulating their image of you) is where you will find your success or failure. Constituents are divided into Voter Groups that have their own demands and values. A single constituent can be part of many voter groups, but in general will have an issue that he or she is more passionate about. Because voters care more about some issues than others, your influence over them may change differently depending on the voter.
Government Structure: The whole game is about getting into government, but just how is it going to work when you do finally get there? It is comprised of a single National Congress. The Congress is made up of a representative from each province, and democratically votes on issues and enacts laws and resolutions. Its agenda is led and set by an elected Prime Minister. Congressional Representatives are re-elected every 2 years.
Map: The nation has been divided into ten provinces, each electing a representative to the National Congress. The provinces are subdivided into voting districts, each one casting one vote for the Provincial Representative to the National Congress. Voting districts are redrawn every five years to keep the population in each equal. The map is divided further into standard increments in which the population of each is counted. These increments provide the demographic distribution information of the countrys population used in the redrawing of districts.
Game Progression: The game will be divided into years. Each year the population will grow, influence will be calculated, random events will be generated, and the news report will be released. The incumbents of the current administration will have to deal with these things as they come about. Meanwhile, the out-of-office candidates will be able to do things to increase their influence (while decreasing their opponents). Some years will be elections years, in which candidates will begin campaigning for office. Election years will culminate in a vote where candidates are chosen for government.
Random Events: Random events are exactly what they sound like. They will be random things that have happened during the year that require action by the current administration.
Media: The news media will be the primary means of getting your image out to the people. It will also be the primary means that the people (and you) hear of all your failures (and successes I guess
). Watch the news closely, as it will be a good indication of your current public image as well as the current issues.