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[Politics RPG] The elections in Hell: Signups
mcc
glitchRegistered User, ClubPA regular
glitchRegistered User, ClubPA regular
The 2006 Hell Federal Elections
A FORUM GAME
It's 2006, and it's an election year in humanity's oldest democracy: Hell.
Four of the nine seats in Hell's parliament are up for re-election, specifically the first, third, fifth and sixth circles. And for the next month leading up to the election on November 7, me and Syndalis will be holding a political role-playing game acting out these elections, to be played in this forum. We are looking for applicants to be the ten players in this game (eight candidates competing in four races; plus two pundits, one from each major party). Lurkers will be able and in fact invited to take part in the roleplay, but will only be able to enter as bloggers and will not be able to directly effect the action because seriously, who pays attention to bloggers.
How this game will be played is explained below. But first, let's take a moment to familiarize ourselves with this exciting and venerable nation.
GEOGRAPHY
Hell is a series of nine huge concentric circles, going steadily downhill in a sort of staircase-like funnel; an informative if outdated and somewhat biased travelogue of its sights and features can be found in the Inferno by Dante Alighieri, and we will not waste space on such things here.
However worth noting for our purposes is the city of Dis, Hell's capital and the seat of its democracy, located in a neutral district in the center of the ninth circle. Hell's parliament and the bulk of its political life is performed in an old and historic building in Dis that serves as Hell's capitol, overlooking a gigantic pillar of ice which is located at Hell's exact center for some reason. This building is known, for no apparent reason considering it is at the very bottom of a valley, as the Hill.
POPULACE
Hell's population consists of a good proportion of all the humans that have ever lived, a wide variety of people from all walks of life. Most religions promise eternal damnation for anyone who is not a member; apparently one of them was right.
The only inhabitants of Hell other than the humans are the demons, a race of nonsentient, animalistic creatures of uncertain nature and origin. Demons come in all shapes and sizes (though the shapes are as a rule horrible), and litter Hell's landscape; aside from periodically coming alive to tear the nearest passing human to bits, they spend most of their time sedentary and motionless, as if they were waiting for something. Demons cannot speak any language, but are docile and can be readily trained to follow commands; they are mainly used by Hell's human population as pack animals.
POLITICS
Hell's politics are dominated by two political parties, the Demagogues and the Populists. Aside from the parties, there are ten important special interest groups that serve as significant factions within hell's politics; members of each interest group are found all over Hell, though each faction has one circle which can be generally claimed as their stronghold. Though each of the factions is historically aligned with one party or the other, any candidate has the potential to sway any faction into voting for him.
There are elections in four parliamentary districts this year and four big, divisive issues up for consideration by the voters, which means this particular election will have both a lot riding on it and a lot of potential for upsets.
RELIGION
Sorry, too late.
THE 2006 RACE: THE PARTICIPANTS AND THE ISSUES
Players in this game will need to understand both the important issues in this election, as well as the parties and factions with the potential to determinine its outcome. Let's look at what's deciding votes in Hell this year.
THE PARTIES
The Populists: Green
The Populists are the party of power, encompassing both the captains of Industry and the powerbrokers of Old Money, and style themselves as a party of rational, limited government and human advancement.
The Demagogues: Brown
The Demagogues style themselves as the party that looks out for the "little guy", and base their power on the bleeding-heart empathy they are able to enact with voters; they have a particular talent in working with and manipulating the Media.
A FORUM GAME
It's 2006, and it's an election year in humanity's oldest democracy: Hell.
Four of the nine seats in Hell's parliament are up for re-election, specifically the first, third, fifth and sixth circles. And for the next month leading up to the election on November 7, me and Syndalis will be holding a political role-playing game acting out these elections, to be played in this forum. We are looking for applicants to be the ten players in this game (eight candidates competing in four races; plus two pundits, one from each major party). Lurkers will be able and in fact invited to take part in the roleplay, but will only be able to enter as bloggers and will not be able to directly effect the action because seriously, who pays attention to bloggers.
How this game will be played is explained below. But first, let's take a moment to familiarize ourselves with this exciting and venerable nation.
GEOGRAPHY
Hell is a series of nine huge concentric circles, going steadily downhill in a sort of staircase-like funnel; an informative if outdated and somewhat biased travelogue of its sights and features can be found in the Inferno by Dante Alighieri, and we will not waste space on such things here.
However worth noting for our purposes is the city of Dis, Hell's capital and the seat of its democracy, located in a neutral district in the center of the ninth circle. Hell's parliament and the bulk of its political life is performed in an old and historic building in Dis that serves as Hell's capitol, overlooking a gigantic pillar of ice which is located at Hell's exact center for some reason. This building is known, for no apparent reason considering it is at the very bottom of a valley, as the Hill.
POPULACE
Hell's population consists of a good proportion of all the humans that have ever lived, a wide variety of people from all walks of life. Most religions promise eternal damnation for anyone who is not a member; apparently one of them was right.
The only inhabitants of Hell other than the humans are the demons, a race of nonsentient, animalistic creatures of uncertain nature and origin. Demons come in all shapes and sizes (though the shapes are as a rule horrible), and litter Hell's landscape; aside from periodically coming alive to tear the nearest passing human to bits, they spend most of their time sedentary and motionless, as if they were waiting for something. Demons cannot speak any language, but are docile and can be readily trained to follow commands; they are mainly used by Hell's human population as pack animals.
POLITICS
Hell's politics are dominated by two political parties, the Demagogues and the Populists. Aside from the parties, there are ten important special interest groups that serve as significant factions within hell's politics; members of each interest group are found all over Hell, though each faction has one circle which can be generally claimed as their stronghold. Though each of the factions is historically aligned with one party or the other, any candidate has the potential to sway any faction into voting for him.
There are elections in four parliamentary districts this year and four big, divisive issues up for consideration by the voters, which means this particular election will have both a lot riding on it and a lot of potential for upsets.
RELIGION
Sorry, too late.
THE 2006 RACE: THE PARTICIPANTS AND THE ISSUES
Players in this game will need to understand both the important issues in this election, as well as the parties and factions with the potential to determinine its outcome. Let's look at what's deciding votes in Hell this year.
THE PARTIES
The Populists: Green
The Populists are the party of power, encompassing both the captains of Industry and the powerbrokers of Old Money, and style themselves as a party of rational, limited government and human advancement.
The Demagogues: Brown
The Demagogues style themselves as the party that looks out for the "little guy", and base their power on the bleeding-heart empathy they are able to enact with voters; they have a particular talent in working with and manipulating the Media.
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Your character will belong to a party, but not any one faction. However your success will be mostly determined by which, and how many, of hell's voting blocs you can curry favor with:
The Humanists: Although condemned to eternal damnation and torment, Humanists try to look on the bright side of things. Humanists praise the strength of the human spirit that makes hell livable at all, and seek to advance the human condition within Hell. The Humanists are strongly populated by individuals who were scientifically minded in life and are the source of most of Hell's technological advances. Humanists dominate Limbo in an uneasy sharing of power with the flagellants, though both the Flagellants and Humanists are widely loathed by practically every other faction. Though the Humanists hate the power-hungry, rich-get-richer-poor-get-poorer policies the Populist party represents, they find they must support it because it contains the greatest benefactors and employers of Science in hell, namely Old Money and Industry.
The Flagellants: Upon finding themselves in Hell, those who have come to be known as the Flagellants came to the obvious conclusion that they are there to be punished, and have set about ensuring they themselves are indeed punished to the greatest extent possible. Though they take part in the modern society of hell, the Flagellants see any activity in Hell other than eternal torment to be an aberration, and use the means available to them to convince (and force) the other denizens to participate in the purpose Hell is officially intended for, endless suffering. Flagellants dominate Limbo in an uneasy sharing of power with the Humanists and have a similar academic bent, though perhaps with somewhat more of a leaning towards the liberal arts. Though the Flagellants hate the touchy-feely, human interest nature of the Demagogue party, they find they must support it because of their sympathy to PETA, opposition to the Expansionists, need for access to the media and opposition to human violence for profit (they think human violence should be done for its own sake).
Media: Born out of the pornographic theatre which originated in the circle of Lust, hell today has a thriving market for magazines, television programs, movies etc. and an industry built up to accommodate it. Though production is still centered in the circle of Lust and content is still basically dominated by pornography, in recent decades hell's media sector has begun to branch out, beginning with incorporating news items and plots into pornographic films and eventually blossoming into a diverse if porn-driven range of news and entertainment products sort of like what one finds on earth.
Commerce: The denizens of hell spend a lot of time shopping, since all things considered there really isn't much else to do. The salesmen and commercial adepts of hell have thus developed into a formidable force in the society and politics of Hell in their own right. The special interest group that represents Hell's commercial sector is mostly founded in the third circle, the circle of Gluttony, which has been converted into an enormous mall.
Industry: Hell is currently at the peak of an ongoing industrial revolution that kicked into high gear at the end of the nineteenth century when a man named James Clerk Maxwell developed a method for training small demons to shove air molecules into one side or the other of an air chamber depending on velocity, thus subverting thermodynamics and providing an essentially infinite supply of practically free energy. Bolstered by this development a great many people became very rich setting up a series of industries for consumer products, mostly in the circle of Greed.
Expansionists: There are people in Hell who are darn proud of Hell and darn proud to be there, and believe it is the rightful destiny of Hell to rule everything that isn't Hell. The Expansionists as they have become known, mostly centered in the fifth circle (the circle of wrath and sloth), have come to great prominence within Hell's politics by rabblerousing and calling for Hell to break out of its traditional boundaries and invade and conquer the other planes, such as Heaven, Purgatory, the 31 realms of the Buddhist sutras, and Earth, although as of yet there is no hard evidence any of these other places even exist or that it is possible to get there.
PETA: Changes in Hell in the last few hundred years have made dramatic differences to its landscape, and some are unhappy with the impact this is having on Hell's natural geography and order. These sentiments mostly come together in a distinct national organization called PETA, or People for the Ethical Treatment of Angels. PETA protests the widespread use and exploitation of demons (which, as PETA constantly tries to convince everyone else, are really just fallen angels) as effectively slave labor, saying the conditions under which demons are kept is cruel and that demons are noble beings who have basic rights and needs. Though PETA's main drive is for advances in demon welfare, PETA's less extreme members take advantage of the group's resources to pursue a more general environmentalist (as it were) policy. Most of the people who find PETA alluring hail for whatever reason from the sixth circle, the circle of Heretics.
Anti-fraud: The Anti-fraud movement was born out of the seventh circle, the circle of violence, and in principle opposes fraud and white-collar crime of all kinds. This is largely a front, and in fact, the anti-fraud movement is a large organized crime syndicate and pressure group to which all the violent criminals all over Hell belong.
Anti-violence: The Anti-violence movement was born out of the eighth circle, the circle of fraud, and... okay, so basically this is the same thing as the Anti-fraud lobby, except they oppose violence and promote fraud instead of promoting violence and opposing fraud. The Anti-fraud and Anti-violence lobbies of hell are essentially competing crime syndicates which oppose each other because they cut into each others profits.
Old Money: The ninth circle of hell comprises the lowest of the low, the most filthy and unethical beings that have ever been called human; the traitors to kindred, the traitors to city and country, the traitors to the innocent, the traitors to God and king. Naturally, they are the most powerful group in Hell, since they have everyone who knows how to really play dirty. These people, if you can call them that, comprise a nameless organization that contains and serves the oldest and most powerful humans in Hell, and that everybody simply calls Old Money.
THE ISSUES
1. S.T.A.I.R.W.A.Y.: Hell's space program, at one time wildly popular, has been beset by problems in recent years, suffering both massive safety concerns and enormous cost overruns, to the point where many now advocate simply ending the program. S.T.A.I.R.W.A.Y.'s main purpose is to develop a means to reach Heaven, something many of Hell's denizens insist they need in order to visit and communicate with loved ones. S.T.A.I.R.W.A.Y.'s initial attempts involved developing a series of spaceships, but all of those just exploded, leading to a new project based around developing a gigantic escalator at Hell's outermost rim. The escalator went from controversial to enormously controversial earlier this year when George Berkeley (D-Limbo), the program's sponsor as well as a beloved leader within the Flagellant movement, died falling off of the unfinished escalator. This was the straw that broke the camel's back, and between the problems the program has suffered, the lack of meaningful results, and widespread suspicions that heaven doesn't actually exist, many are now calling for S.T.A.I.R.W.A.Y.'s termination. This is the major issue this election in Limbo, both because of its importance to the Populists and Flagellants and because Limbo is where the program's resources are mostly located.
Pro: End S.T.A.I.R.W.A.Y.. The Demagogues advocate ending S.T.A.I.R.W.A.Y., saying that the program has not proven itself and the money is sorely needed elsewhere in Hell's budget. This issue is of crucial importance to Flagellants; though they were indifferent to or cautiously supporting of the program under Berkeley, outraged at Berkeley's death and out for blood they now insist the program is unnatural, anethemical to Hell's purpose and must end immediately. S.T.A.I.R.W.A.Y.'s continuation is also staunchly opposed by PETA, who oppose the program both on principle and due to the enormous amount of demon labor it has used and consumed; and by Old Money, who oppose the program for reasons of their own.
Con: Keep S.T.A.I.R.W.A.Y. alive. The Populists advocate continuing S.T.A.I.R.W.A.Y., insisting that as far as the program has come it would be madness to end it now. This issue is of crucial importance to Humanists; S.T.A.I.R.W.A.Y. is Hell's largest scientific project at present and an employer of many Humanists, as well as about the most of the human spirit that could be imaginably attempted, so the survival of S.T.A.I.R.W.A.Y. is of real personal importance to many Humanists. S.T.A.I.R.W.A.Y. is also staunchly supported by the Expansionists, whose goals cannot really be achieved without S.T.A.I.R.W.A.Y. or something like it, and by Industry, who is profiting enormously from the government contracts the program represents.
___________________________
2. Crime: Hell is beset by major crime problems, and the Circle of Gluttony-- with the ample opportunities it represents both for violent and white-collar crime-- has been the target of most of it. In recent years this has reached the point where the Circle of Gluttony is no longer an even remotely safe place to go for any reason, though this has not resulted in any decline in visits. With the importance that the Circle of Gluttony has to the economy of all Hell, there is universal support among the population for a comprehensive plan to bring down the crime levels and make Gluttony safe again. However, though both parties claim to be committed to a reduction in crime, in practice the Demagogues (who are effectively owned by the "anti-fraud" violent crime lobby) have been advocating an anti-fraud program which effectively does nothing to combat violent crime, and the Populists (who are effectively owned by the "anti-violence" fraud crime lobby) have been advocating an anti-violence program which effectively does nothing to combat the massive problem of fraud. This is the major election issue this year in Gluttony.
Pro: No more fraud. The Populists have put together an anti-fraud package which they are trying to pass through parliament. Critics say the package might help the problem of fraudulent crime, but in fact would make the problem of violent crime worse. This is of critical interest to members of the Commerce lobby, though they aren't sure if they support or oppose it. The plan is staunchly supported by the anti-fraud lobby, and also supported by Old Money for reasons of their own.
Pro: No more violence. The Demagogues have put together an anti-violence package which they are trying to pass through parliament. Critics say the package might help the problem of violent crime, but in fact would make the problem of fraudulent crime worse. This is of critical interest to members of the Commerce lobby, though they aren't sure if they support or oppose it. The plan is staunchly supported by the anti-violence lobby, and also supported by Old Money for reasons of their own.
___________________________
3. Transportation: The rings of hell are each separated by massive barriers of many different kinds, ranging from enormous separating walls to huge chasms to poisonous rivers. Moving from ring to ring is somewhere between difficult and damn near impossible. Calls for improvements in this situation have finally come to a head this year, with demonstrations that technology has reached the point where it would be feasible to institute systems for easy movement between levels; however, though proposals to improve Hell's transportation infrastructure are popular, there is also widespread opposition to them for various reasons. This is the major election issue this year in Wrath/Sloth.
Con: Keep the walls as they are. The Demagogues insist that improvements to transportation between layers is not only unnecessary and massive waste of Hell's budget, but upsetting to the natural order of things and wrong on principle; they have promised to kill any plan that would improve the infrastructure. This position is mostly supported by the Expansionists, who not only are proud of Hell's strongly regimented society but also are largely centered in the fifth circle and don't want to deal any more than they already have to with the PETA activists and criminals immediately beneath them. Transportation plans are also staunchly opposed by PETA, who insist the ancient walls and guardian demons are of critical historical importance and have grave concerns about the environmental impact infrastructural changes would have. The plans are also opposed by Old Money for reasons of their own.
Pro: Make movement within Hell easier. The Populists insist that improvements to transportation only make sense and are the best use of resources Hell could expend right now, and have advanced various plans to bridge rivers, build elevators between levels, create a monorail system, etc. This position is mostly supported by the Expansionists, who not only like the idea of spreading out into other regions besides the ones they are found in now, but also are mostly centered in the fifth circle, which is basically all either swamp or underwater and a terrible place to live. Transportation improvements are also staunchly supported by Commerce because it would improve access to shoppers, and by the Humanists who are interested in the engineering and scientific challenges they would pose.
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4. Sex with demons: The wildly controversial Succubus Reform Act has been stalled in Parliament for most of this year, and it is expected that the outcome of this election will be the nudge needed to either get the act passed or kill it for good. At present, sex with demons is illegal; in short, this bill would end that. It is unclear who exactly is planning to have sex with demons, as legal or illegal this is a feat few have ever pulled off without being horribly mutilated or killed in the process, but support for the bill somehow remains as high as opposition. This is the major issue this year in the circle of Heretics, where human-demon relations are taken particularly seriously.
Con: No no no no no no no no. The Demagogues insist that sex with demons is immoral, excessively perverted, and just plain weird, and oppose any change to demon sex laws on principle. This position is mostly supported by PETA, whose members argue that sex with demons is abuse and demons are incapable of consent. The SRA is also staunchly opposed by the Flagellants, who are leery of anything that smacks of people enjoying themselves too much, and also opposed by Industry, who as the largest use of Demon labor is unhappy about use of demons for purposes that would decrease their usability for work.
Pro: Succubus reform. The Populists insist that moral codes against sex with demons are outdated and unnecessary, and an intrusion into private life that must be ended. This position is mostly supported by PETA, who argue that demons are known to enjoy sex with humans far more than the human victims seem to and say demons should not be deprived of the right. The SRA is also staunchly supported by the Humanists, who are supportive on principle of the idea of unrestrained human behavior, as well as the Media, who frankly are just a bunch of sickos.
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PLAYING THE GAME
This game is all role-playing. Everything is done in-character: stump speeches, appearances in the news, political ads and press releases. Nevertheless, this is also an election, so in the end who wins or loses is about numbers.
So, see below and Syndalis will cover the rules:
DON'T PANIC!
Base and Swing
Your goal in this game is to gain votes. Each candidate is trying to get enough votes to beat the other guy. Each party, and the pundits that serve those parties, are trying to ensure that their party wins more elections than the other one.
Votes come in two flavors: Base and swing. 40% of the populace is diehard Demagogue and another 40% of the populace is diehard Populist. Nothing can get these voters to change affiliation, except a major scandal.
The remaining 20% is swing. Though a minority, the swing voters are life and death to a politician.
Character Creation
First and foremost, ONLY APPLY IF YOU ARE ABLE TO PLAY THE GAME TO COMPLETION ON NOV 9th. Next, decide if you want to be a Demogogue or a Populist. Read the information above to decide which would be the most fun to play. Then, look over the four issues and decide which one seems the most interesting to you. Next, figure out a famous historical figure that you would enjoy roleplaying. Lincoln, Ghandi, Homer, Tesla... all are valid choices. Just be sure that the person you pick is not a centrally important religious figure. A previous pope or a long-dead emperor is fine, but prophets and gods are right out. Finally, decide if you want to be a pundit or a politician. A politician is actually running for an office, while a pundit uses effective hatespecch to propel his party members into power.
At this point you are pretty much ready to begin character creation. Write out a detailed background on why your historical figure entered politics in hell, and why he/she has chosen to rally behind the political banner you have chosen. Write out some information regarding the political ethos of your character, and how you will be roleplaying them with regards to the issues presented. Please feel free to be detailed and verbose; we are taking far more applicants than we are accepting positions, to simulate a "primary" where the wheat is seperated from the chaff. Also note that while we will take the issue you want to tackle into consideration, we will possibly have to move you around to fill the eight politician slots.
After your character is submitted and accepted, mcc and I will figure out what your scandal is. Each politician has a skeleton in their closet. A big, nasty, horrible skeleton. It is guaranteed to come up for everyone during the course of the campaign behind the scenes, in one of the four news cycles. If it ever manages to become public news, you have shamed your party. As a result, you lose a d6 in each of the four topics, and you sway your solid voters by 5% in the other direction for everyone in your party. This can have disastrous results across the board, so try your best to not be shamed.
And that is pretty much it!
Locations
A few locations exist in this game. One is simply called "The Hill." The hill, aside from being a building in the city of Dis, is also the main thread at the PA forum, Of Dice and Men. In this thread, pundits air their television shows, speeches are delivered to the masses, PR pieces are hoisted up for all to see, and debates are held, should the public demand and the politicians consent. It is the public face of this game, and anything that happens on the hill is for everyone to see. Keep this in mind.
Each party also has a Party headquarters. It is a seperate forum, hosted by me, that only members of the party have access to. This includes politicans and aligned pundits. In here, the deep dark secrets of the party are kept. within each of these forums is an office for each party member. You can only hold conversations with your fellow party members in your offices; so make a note of where you are having the discussion, and be sure to do so in the appropriate location. This is important, as you will see below. Political news and action plans will be posted in other threads within your party's forum.
Polls / Elections
For each topic, there is a pool of dice you develop over the course of a news cycle. These are developed by spending influence, and also getting the backing of a pundit on the topic. Each Die represents a d6, and you get one d6 per influence point spent. After each news cycle is concluded, your dice pool gets rolled in each topic by a GM, and the number is added up. The number is logged and carried over into the next news cycle, and whoever has the higher number in that topic is ahead in the topical polls that week. On the next news cycle, new dice are rolled, and added to the previous number. If someone attacks you on a topic, and it goes undefended during the news cycle, d6s can be rolled and subtracted from your current number in the polls. How many influence were spent in what topic remains a secret throughout the campaign to the opposing party, but the poll numbers are revealed at the end of each news cycle.
On the final day of election, after the numbers are fully added for each of the four issues. Whoever wins the issue gets either 4% or 8%, depending on the weight of the issue in your region. Once that is done, add the solid voters (each party starts with 40%) to the final numbers, which may or may not have been affected by scandals, to see who the winner is.
Issues
Each region having an election has a primary issue; The reward for that issue is doubled (8% as opposed to the 4% in the three minor issues). It may seem wise to try and focus your efforts on the Major issue, but if you win it at the expense of the three minor issues, you lose the election, barring scandals.
Examples of Influence Use
How do you get swing? you spend influence. Influence represents the amount of sway you have in the population. You start the game with 20 influence to spend on various things over the course of the campaign. You can only spend five of your twenty influence per news cycle, and there are four news cycles before the election. When you use an influence, consider it spent, and removed from your character sheet for the remainder of the campaign. The following list shows some potential uses of influence to gain d6s, or take them away from your opponents.
Media: Get press coverage on some useless initiative, Run attack ads.
Commerce: You have the funds to grease the wheels of your community. Hey, why WOULDN'T you vote for the guy who gave you a crisp C-note?
Industry: Have companies force their employees vote a certain way; get the backing of Industry CEOs and Monopoly Holders. This can be countered with Industry Influence.
Expansionists: Offer funding to the folks seeking to go beyond hell and their various projects. In this one, your influence is essentially capital, but it does gain you voters.
PETA: Do photo shoots where you are hanging out with the demons, or talking about how they deserve rights. Consequently, use it offensively by showing pictures of your opponent doing cruel and unusual things to a demon (real or photoshopped... doesn't really matter in hell).
Anti-Fraud: have some of your tough guys scare the community into voting for you. "A vote for you is a vote for one's skin."
Anti-Violence: Pay to have the results rigged. Votes from heaven or folks long since departed from hell will show up in the ballot boxes; unless specifically countered, this fraud will not be known until well after you are gone from office.
Old Money: Mind control and governmental manipulation. The illuminati of hell gets you your votes; just don't ask how.
News Cycle Structure
Day 1
End of Day 1
Day 2 - 6
If someone attacks your record with influence, they are attempting to damage your score as opposed to building their own. It requires the same amount of in-character action as what was described above, only this time instead of bolstering your name, you are raking your opponent through the mud. You can choose to defend yourself using influence to counter the attack. Generally speaking, this is done by doing something "positive" that goes against the accusation. This act ALSO must be done in-character, on "the hill". However, if the attack requires you to defend yourself on ground which is NOT the stronghold of your party, it costs 2 influence to counter.
Note that you can ALSO spend two influence in attempt to uncover your opponent's scandal. You have a roughly 25% chance of uncovering the scandal of your own opponent. If you know the topic of the scandal, but need proof, your odds rise to 50%. Failing to succeed means that you have lost two of your d6s this voting cycle, which could be a very dangerous situation.
Pay special attention to a particular issue: By doing so, they offer 1 point of influence (d6) to each of the politicians in their party on that topic, and 2d6 to the politician where the issue is a hot topic. Very good for bolstering numbers across the polls
Smear the Opposition: Dig into one of the opponents with great vigor. Doing so will subtract a d6 from each issue of the opponents pool.
Dig for Dirt: A pundit can attempt to uncover the scandal of a single politician. This option is the most risky of the lot, but it also has the most potential reward. You have a roughly 25% chance of uncovering the scandal of any one politician. If you know the topic of the scandal, but need proof, your odds rise to 50%. Failing to succeed means that you do not benefit your party this week, which could be a very dangerous situation.
Day 7
End of Day 7
Let's play Mario Kart or something...
EDIT: I think I'm going to be Socrates, a primarily Humanist Populist from Limbo.
Let's play Mario Kart or something...
edit: from the rules
Let's play Mario Kart or something...
Let's play Mario Kart or something...
Hunter Thompson, Humanist/Demagogue pundit.
(though I'm leery about pretending to be one of my heroes)
Go ahead and write up your background. Looking at the calendar, it looks like you will be able to participate in at least one of the two days if planning between cycles, so it won't be a huge handicap for you.
Let's play Mario Kart or something...
Let's play Mario Kart or something...
Hunter is the man. You also have the benefit of knowing how he does politics.
Let's play Mario Kart or something...
I can probably write up a background tonight at work.
Let's play Mario Kart or something...
I know. But I'll rail about it in my blog, that's for sure
So useless.
Let's play Mario Kart or something...
well, i mean
technically he's a suicide, so he should go to hell
but then he also believed in karmic rebirth so he'd probably be all like 'i'm waiting on my application for a young, virile football player body'
Let's play Mario Kart or something...
and he hated political journalism, but he could never really keep away
Depending on whose hell this is...
Let's play Mario Kart or something...
edit: I assume Chrétien de Troyes is pro Demon-Sex?
Let's play Mario Kart or something...
Probably. Not much is known of his life other than he curried a lot of... er.... special favors with female nobility and wrote all those Arthurian legends about knights carrying off their beloveds. I can only assume he's all about pleasuring the ladies, demonic or otherwise.
A: The Populists look like the liberal party of the two. Bit easier to identify there these days.
B: Old Money for the win.
And they do have some confused members on bith sides by design. Hell, just look at limbo's inhabitants, or the Anti Fraud and Anti Violence folks.
Let's play Mario Kart or something...
Alright alright, we'll switch it up toooooo........
Liú Bèi, a violent demagogue and hell, I'll even run for office, or at least conquer all that oppose my dynasty. I'll do a writeup a little later assuming I don't switch again.
Problem is, no one knows where you go.
Let's play Mario Kart or something...