RMMV Leader of None (Sci-fi Political Sim)

[JoelMarler]

I'm thinking of creating a political game where you've just been elected president of the solar system federation and have to remain in power over the course of your ten-year term. Any ideas for mechanics? Here's what I've got so far:

- Player automatically loses if a majority of the solar system's planetary leaders have a negative opinion of them.
- Player automatically loses if the androids in the Kuiper Belt invade the federation.
- The support of each planet's leader is secretly tracked. Each planet has different characteristics (individualistic vs collectivist, populist vs elitist, pro-federation vs anti-federation, pro-Earth vs anti-Earth, moderate vs radical.) The aggressiveness of the androids is also secretly tracked.
- You deal with one random situation each month, and your decision raises and lowers your support with different planets and ideological groups. Some situations lead to other situations later on.

Is this structure too sparse? Should I include budgets, military action, planetary stability etc or just stick to political horse trading? And do you have ideas for situations that could arise?

 

[gstv87]

so, kinda like FTL but for politics?

Should I include budgets, military action, planetary stability etc or just stick to political horse trading?

why not go the Reigns way and make it just an event that the player has to decide over?
"Rebellion in this planet! Should we send the troops?"
"Yes!" -> popularity decreases.
"No!" -> population and economy decreases.

 

[alice_gristle]

Sounds pretty interesting! I'm not usually into this type of game, but I can see the appeal. There's an old game from the 90s called "King of Dragon Pass" that uses a similar mechanic and does it in a really cool way too. It's fantasy-themed, but I see no problem in translating a lot of the events into sci-fi. Check it out if you're interested, I think you can get it on GOG for like ten bucks?

- Player automatically loses if the androids in the Kuiper Belt invade the federation.

Aww, why you gotta make the androids the bad guys again? Sympathy for the robot!

 

[JoelMarler]

gstv87: Yeah, I'm going to make it a series of choices: I'm just wondering how many different stats I should track and how complicated it needs to be though, and what kinds of stats are most worth tracking.

alice_gristle: I'll try that game out! Good point about the androids, I'll think of a substitute that's less cliche'd...

 

[alice_gristle]

On the other hand, invading robot armies are a sci-fi staple, so you could use them too. Just depends on what kinda vibe your game has. If it's more like serious political drama, then I'd think of a substitute for the android armies - however, if your style is more comicky and tongue-in-cheek, then genocidal robots are par for the course!

And yes, I realise I just undermined what I said earlier.

 

[ave36]

why not go the Reigns way and make it just an event that the player has to decide over?
"Rebellion in this planet! Should we send the troops?"
"Yes!" -> popularity decreases.
"No!" -> population and economy decreases.

Flat and boring as heck. Games like this should have a diplomacy minigame. For example, it is randomly determined what do the rebels want, and the player has the option to negotiate with the rebels. Depending on how well you negotiate, you could avoid most of the negative consequences of the event; for example, if the rebels want independence, you can convince them to make do with some Special Autonomy Rights, or talk them into a referendum that can be stuffed in your favor. The military option should be an absolutely last resort when your federation is collapsing from all sides, and nothing short of iron and blood can now hold it together.

Aside from the diplomacy mechanic, there should be a parliamentary mechanic as well. If you are an elected president and not a tinpot dictator, you have a party. This party has to participate in parliamentary elections, and if you have a majority, you can use your MPs to pass laws. Normal laws should be fairly basic and situational, but if you have a three quarters majority in the parliament, you can pass constitutional amendments, which basically amounts to changing the rules of the game. Perhaps you can even dissolve the republic and make yourself the Space Emperor, providing an alternate ending to the game, this should require one hundred percent majority in the parliament.
Aside from your own party, there are other parties that can be allies or enemies. Engage in the diplomatic minigame with leaders of these parties to recruit them into your bloc. MPs of allied parties vote your way in the parliament, which means there is a way of achieving those pesky three quarters without having a parliament dominated by just your party.

You can posit that the standard term for members of parliament in your world is eight years, which gives you two standard parliamentary elections: at year one and at year nine. However, you can use your presidential authority to disband the parliament and force re-elections in the middle of the game if you do not like your current parliament. If you do this out of the blue, you will suffer consequences, but there should be political crisis events that give you a free parliament disband.