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Hi everyone,

I've been toying with the idea of starting up a turn based political game which is played online. I did this about three years ago and it worked excellently, so I'm hoping to try it again.

The Game is Set Up as Follows

1.) A map is designed by me, and then using my secret formula, some dice, and a calculator's random feature resources and terrain are scattered across this world.
2.) I will then draw the borders of nations into randomly sized provinces; before randomly determining the size of various nations. All in all there will be around 10 separate nations ranging from about the size of Brazil, down to the size of Ireland/Estonia.
3.) I then randomly determine what kind of government is in power, how much debt the nation has racked up etc. and write a short history for each nation. There will also be some NPC nations which I will control.
4.) At this point the players will select countries on the map without knowing the government/financial/military/technological strength of the given nation. This means that the player who picks the biggest nation could end up with a giant Somalia.
5.) Each player gets 2 actions a turn which are PM'd to me. All turns happen simultaneously. They can use their actions to take military, cultural, technological, economical, political actions etc.
6.) During the game certain random events will happen. These are called "crises" or "crisis." They are usually bad and will require co-operation of more than one State to deal with.

It is important to know that this game is NOT about taking over the world. You can if you want to, but the object of the game is not risk.

I'll give you an example of what happened in a past version of the game that I hosted:

There were 5 players that did interesting things on their turns, lets call them Andrew, Bill, Claire, Deborah and Euan.
They all picked their territory and discovered the situation of their countries.

Andrew discovered he was in charge of a small dictatorship with almost no natural resources. He was however surrounded by weaker neighbours, so he began an aggressive expansion to secure neighbouring coal fields.

Bill was a nation on a landmass roughly twice the size of Taiwan in the middle of an ocean. However, he his government was extremely unpopular with the people.

Claire had a medium sized country with heavy industry. She decided to try and capitalise on this advantage by building even more factories. However, this resulted in an unintended budget deficit, which she financed by printing money and accidently triggering higher inflation.

Deborah discovered herself to be in an area with a lot of gold and the world's only source of platinum. So she immediately set about putting her currency on the gold standard, and began working towards a platinum standard. The only problem was that her currency's value was so strong that she was un-competitive in trading; thankfully she wasn't relying upon trading too much, and she soon became the Chair of the game's World Trade Bank which gave loans to other nations.

Euan was in charge of a very large country, he really enjoyed naval vessels in real life, so he set about researching and developing a strong naval presence in this game, e.g. making aircraft carriers etc.

Example of a Crisis
After a few turns of settling in, and playing for the country that got invaded by Andrew I decided to shake things up with a crisis for everyone to deal with. Random dice rolling determined that the population of Bill's island had begun defecting in significant numbers and there was now a communist insurrection operating from within his nation's jungles. Bill called upon the international community to help him after rebels overpowered his weak military in the East side of his nation and set up a provisional government.

Andrew offered Bill illegal napalm weapons to test out. Claire decided to remain neutral and recognise both the rebels and Bill's government. (A bit like the Estrada Doctrine in the real world.) Deborah agreed with Claire, but encouraged the rebels to surrender and for there to be a peaceful resolution. Euan moved his aircraft carrier battlegroup up to the island, and with the permission of Bill began bombing runs with Andrew’s napalm on the forests.
The result was the destruction of the rebellion.

How to sign up
If any of you are interested in playing such a game I am planning for it to be done on a weekly basis. Each week you can send me your two actions, I will look over everyone’s actions, put them into motion and update the world map’s territories, inflation rate, budgets etc. Two actions a week isn’t very demanding, and it allows plenty of time for diplomacy.
If you are interested leave a comment on this thread letting me know. I am also open to questions! If you would like to know more feel free to ask. =)

List of Players so far
Asazel the cat
Hlaine Larkin mk2
Gentleman_Jellyfish
Djones520
D-USA
Silver Mk2
Stormfather

I smell an undergraduate polisci research paper.


Either way, I'll give it a shot.

 azazel the cat wrote:
I smell an undergraduate polisci research paper.


Either way, I'll give it a shot.

Extremely close. I'm actually one of those international law/pol students.

All the non-politics students found it to be great craic, hope you'll enjoy it.

I'm up for it

What uni are you at anyway?

Good to hear!

I'm at the University of Glasgow.

Strathclyde here

Haha, fair enough!

Mind if I ask what you're studying?

Accountancy/Economics

living in the fast lane :/

Haha, I know how you feel. I've got a friend who just dropped out of economics after 2 years.

Anyway! I'll keep you updated on the progress of the game here.

I would very much like to be considered for this game!

I'm game.

Fantastic!

Glad to have both of you on board!

Sounds like fun, I can be counted in

Great! Welcome aboard D-USA!

I'm working on designing the rules for different types of government at the minute. I'll keep everyone updated in this thread of the progress. =)

These are the types of State so far. When the map and borders are drawn up I will randomly determine what each country is. There is not an equal chance of each one coming up. For example, the Libertarian option will only have about a 3% chance of appearing, whereas democracy will be closer to 40%.

Theocracy
Monarchy
Dictatorship
Fascist
Communist
Libertarian
Anarchy (No effective government)
Democracy*

*Democracy is a special case. When democracy is rolled on the table a further table is consulted to determine what kind of democracy it is. Players
1. Constitutional Monarchy (UK)
2. Republic/Parliamentary Democracy (USA/France)
3. Illiberal Democracy (Russia)
4. Social Democracy (Finland)
5. Liberal Democracy (Switzerland)

Each state type comes advantages and disadvantages. Players are allowed to change their state type, but there will be backlash if they do. The exception to this are the democratic players who are able to change their state to any of the 5 types of democracy without backlash.

Glad to see this has garnered a lot of interest so far!

There are three other people who are interested outside of DakkaDakka, so there are 2 spaces left for whoever wants them. =D

I would be interested in this - I have played a few of these kinds of games before and found them pretty fun.

Just don't make the country names stupid so they are easy to remember

 SilverMK2 wrote:
I would be interested in this - I have played a few of these kinds of games before and found them pretty fun.

Just don't make the country names stupid so they are easy to remember

Fantastic! Glad to have you on board!

Haha, don't worry. The country names are going to be fairly easy to remember! That was one of the major pitfalls of the previous version. The second major pitfall was that I allowed players to name their own countries without reservation.

If anyone has any ideas then I'd appreciate hearing them btw!

This sounds pretty cool- is that last slot still open?

Yes! I'll add you to the list!

I can open up one final space for anyone else who wants to join!

Here are a few of the early rules for States at the minute:

Theocracy
Advantage
May declare a holy war against another nation.
Disadvantage
Research into certain areas is forbidden. If your nation becomes a theocracy the forbidden technologies are destroyed.

Libertarian
Advantage
An armed populace. The population of of libertarian states is heavily armed outside of cities. Territories without cities gain between 1 and 6 militia when your country is invaded.
Disadvantage
May not declare war.
If you attempt to change form of government you will experience armed uprisings.

Social Democracy
Advantage
Major boost to popularity and research.
Disadvantages
Welfare state must be paid for each turn. This doubles in cost when your economy is in a recession.

If you have any criticism or ideas for the others let me know!

Here is the list of all types of possible government:

Theocracy
Monarchy
Dictatorship
Fascist
Communist
Libertarian
Anarchy (No effective government)

Democracy
1. Constitutional Monarchy
2. Republic/Parliamentary Democracy
3. Illiberal Democracy
4. Social Democracy
5. Parliamentary Democracy

Wait, so we can't name our own countries? Because I was looking forward to presiding over the Hegemony of Jackasses


This sounds interesting. I hope I roll an illiberal democracy.

 azazel the cat wrote:
Wait, so we can't name our own countries? Because I was looking forward to presiding over the Hegemony of Jackasses


This sounds interesting. I hope I roll an illiberal democracy.

Haha, whenever I hosted the last game Hegemony of Jackasses didn't come close to how bad some of the names were! One entrepreneurial individual decided that translating a**rap* into German would make a fantastic name for a country...

And THAT is why the names will be closely monitored. XD

Still working on the ideas for illiberal democracy. I'm thinking that it gets some of the benefits of a democracy, whilst being able to make changes whenever the player wants, like a dictatorship. =)

Even if you don't roll an illiberal democracy you can always transition to one. It's possibly the easiest thing to transition to from pretty much any starting point. (With the exception of libertarianism!)

Hey everyone,

just giving you an update on the game here. It's progressing well at the minute, so I thought I'd throw you a taster before I finish making the world map. You will all be able to choose your countries soon.

Below you can see some of the rules for various government types:

Rules
Theocracy
Advantage
Territories of yours that are occupied will regularly inflict damage to enemy troops stationed there as insurgencies begin. Insurgents are outside your control; they cannot be targeted by enemy soldiers unless specialist doctrines are researched, however any war crimes that your insurgents commit you can be held responsible for.
Disadvantage
Research into certain areas is forbidden. If your nation becomes a theocracy the forbidden technologies are destroyed.

Monarchy
Advantage
Monarchies may spend a turn to declare a national celebration which increases popularity, tax revenues and cultural power for 2 turns.
Disadvantage
Liberal leviathan. The liberal media is undermining traditional values! For each foreign influencing factor present (e.g. Satellite TV’s, internet connections to foreign States, your subjects touring to foreign States) from communist, libertarian and democratic States your popularity drops by 0.5% each turn.

Fascist
Advantage
Military-Corporate complex. Consumer goods yield 25% more revenue, and military research is boosted by 25%.
Disadvantage
Happiness is permanently capped at 75%.

Communist
Advantage
Your nation will produce 33% extra resources (rounded down) when manufacturing goods, military units, and harvesting resources. (With the sole exception of consumer goods.)
Disadvantage
Communist states tend to experience poorer economic growth and innovation. Because of this consumer goods generate 50% less revenue.

Libertarian
Advantage
An armed populace. The population of of libertarian states is heavily armed outside of cities. Territories without cities gain between 1 and 6 militia when your country is invaded.
Disadvantage
If you attempt to change form of government, declare a war, or implement unpopular policies you will trigger 0-3 militia appearing in each territory as an armed uprising.

Social Democracy
Advantage
Popularity and science boost..
Disadvantages
A minimum welfare state level of 5 is required. If you fall below this you will face strikes and riots, as well as losing your advantage.

Social Liberal
Advantage
Consumer Goods production increases by 35%.
Disadvantages
All tax rates must be kept at level 3 or below to maintain the advantage. If you raise taxes above level 3 you will experience a -10% penalty to consumer goods production as the job creators flee your country. The nation with the worlds’ lowest tax rate receives your 35% consumer goods advantage instead. (Shared in the event of ties.)

Illiberal Democracy
Advantage
Illiberal democracies are fluid, and as long as they meet the requirements they are able to claim either the Social Liberal or Social Democracy advantages. (Or both!)
Disadvantage
Oligarchy - The best people for the job are often ignored in lieu of political cronies. This occasionally harms economic growth, your military, and other nations’ perceptions of you.

Dictatorship
Advantage
Brutal efficiency. Industries, military, and consumer goods all receive 10% bonuses.
Disadvantage
Insane. Dictators occasionally act in what seems to be an irrational and illogical manner. Every turn you must roll a D6. If a 6 is rolled you must roll on the Dictator Insanity Table* and carry out the action given. Note that this is a free action and it does not take up any of your free points.


*Dictator Insanity Table
1. Let’s make Nuclear Weapons!!! (Gives you a free step on the way to developing nuclear weaponry)
2. Demonstrate my power! (Attack a random person you have border contact with.)
3. I got 9 holes in one! (Popularity boost)
4. Insult world leader. (Insult world leader of your choice)
5. The X are evil/Lock up all the X/Kill all the X. (X represents people with a specific characteristic, this is typically up to the player to decide. However, due to to the sensitive nature of this one it might not be included in the final game. Each turn you roll this result the next forward slash will take effect.)
6. Night of the Long Knives. (3 military units of your choice lose any veteran bonuses they have as ‘traitorous’ officers are eliminated.)

Is there still space for one more or are you all filled up?