The Republic is a game centered around the Politics of a space-faring human colony. Players will play as representatives of the different parties and with time, colonies, and can influence the laws of the state as they see fit, provided they get a majority.
It is the year 2400, and after long trials and tribulations, the first extra-solar colony of humanity is ready to step back into the sea of stars to find its place and to (hopefully) reconnect with Earth after a long period of silence since the system that was colonized has entered a shadow of a large nebula that has obscured direct connection with the mother planet.
The Republic is the overall government of the united colony. From the moment of the initiation, the Assembly/ Colonial Senate is free to make laws, decisions and arranging of the colony and other worlds in the future.
At the start, the colony is held to abide by certain basic liberties, afforded to everyone as stated by UN Charter (including rule of law, democratic government and universal suffrage), but as politics and situations change, so will those as well, again depending on how well you are able to steer the politics of the state.
See for rules below:
Unless specified, all rolls are based on opposed d20, with higher figure beating the lower.
The government is compromised of the Speaker, the Senators and the Representatives.
The Chancellor/Speaker will always be incorporated by me, he is just there for the Organizational elements and anything related to GMing at the start. He might get eventually replaced with a player once the state grows and rules/constitution are changed.
The Senators are Representatives sent by the Colonies with actual voting power. They also get elected by the Capital planet based on their party support at the start and might get to spread their parties/ideologies to other colonies to retain support.
The Representatives
Are Players who have applied for the Game but have not yet received a Colony/seat. Representatives appear once Senatorships are all taken up and there are no party slots/colonies available to be taken. Representatives can still speak in the Senate however if they abuse their right they can be banned by Impeachment through the Senate.
Votes in the Senate will be anonymous and done via pm. I will set deadlines for votes to advance the game, players who do not vote will automatically set to abstain. If you want to abstain please PM me anyway so you don't hold up the entire game.
COLONIES
Colonies/worlds under control of the state are measured with several statistics that indicate the conditions on the planet and determine their situation. Naturally, some worlds will be more predisposed to be greater and more prosperous colonies than others and that will have to be managed accordingly by the government and private enterprise.
Their descriptions will determine how quickly they can grow.
Pop: population, counted in millions per point. Each million provides about up to $10B in potential tax revenues per turn/season (at 100% tax rate).
Planetary development Index: it measures the overall development state of the colony, from lower levels on settlement basis to ones over 1.0, which are prosperous and advanced worlds thought to be similar to what Earth is estimated to be in 25rd century. Any income from citizens is multiplied by the index to give final potential revenue from population. Taxation of that sum is dependent on legislation. It can be increased and maintained at higher levels with government spending in infrastructure of $1B per million citizens per each 0.1 above 1.0. Spending smaller than that can maintain infrastructure but will eventually lead to slow decay.
Corporate revenue: many colonies even in their lowest stages of development will be profitable businesses for many corporations that explore and stake claims on these planets. Their revenue is measured by productivity of the local business venture multiplied by the current national economy. That is then available for taxation, depending on legislation.
National economy: The current state of the economy, measured either nation-wide for all worlds connected into the capital commerce network, or locally, for those that are isolated, separate or rebelled. Measured similarly to Development index, although it can rapidly increase or fall. Anything over 1.0 is a boom and anything under is a downturn. Business revenues will be multiplied accordingly.
Stability: measures civic peace and respect for the law. Low stability will result (or is a result of) riots, chaos and lawlessness. Can be offset by spending on public order and safety in short term, and can be increased and kept at high level long term through social spending (hospitals, schools, pensions).
Social spending of minimum $1B per million citizens must be spent for provision of basic necessities in a non-colonial setting.
Public order and safety spending of minimum of $0.5B per million citizens has to be spent to be effective in a non-colonial setting.
When settled, colonies start with index of 0.1, which growth at a rate of 0.1 per year (2 turns). This growth can be slowed down if number of new colonists is restricted or too many are allowed to come over at once.
A new Colony will start with a population of 500,000, which will grow at an optimum rate on its own each turn with addition of immigrants from other worlds.
MILITARY
Military falls into two categories – Armies and Fleets.
Armies are able to take and hold planets, while fleets control orbit and ferry troops from one place to another. They also fight enemy fleets and can blockade planets for economic and military purposes.
Strength of Armies and Fleets is 1 to 1, with military skills of leaders swaying the odds. Each army/fleet point gets a roll of 1d3, the winning army takes the field. The loser goes into damaged state, unless he attacks again, with 1d3-1. Any damage beyond that is crippling and disables the army from fighting. Any further damage in that state destroys the army outright.
ARMY
$5.0B to raise, $1.0B to support
FLEET
$20.00B to raise, $3.0B to support
With Smaller budgets smaller forces can be raised still, but those will be limited to smaller dice respectively for their rolls and will be easier to destroy.
Fleets and armies will gain experience, which will give them additional advantages, if they manage to succeed during their campaigns.
POLITICS
Each Senator is elected as the representative of their respective colony, and as such, is able to determine the goings on and spending of their colonies as required, unless determined otherwise by the central government.
Senators hailing from the capital share the capital population with each other in their political parties, which determines their support and whether they are able to stay in power. Any change to the share of political base in the capital means potential losing of mandate by the party with least votes and introduction of more controlling votes to the winner.
Unlike colonial senators, who also act as governors and representatives of their planets, capital planet senators form the central government, and (unless decreed otherwise in the constitution/by the senate) must divide the roles and responsibilities among themselves accordingly.
PRIVATE SECTOR
Any private citizen is able to carry out business and is able to inset in various ventures to draw profit from them. This includes political actors, who are able to run their businesses at the same time as holding an office, although at the start of the game, the assumption is that “conflict of interest” laws are in place, which prevent any undue direct influence to appear. This of course, like all other laws, are subject to players’ control and change, as long as they control the government.
Businesses grow in tiers, each tier signifying the size of the business and its revenues.
Each business draws gross profit of base $2 million per branch x economic index + local bonus for resource/material produced or particular demand fulfilled. Capital branch of the business/HQ always generates $10 million per tier.
(2$ x tier) x branch) x eco index)+bonus.
Each tier grows on its own in positive economy at a rate of 1 per turn, with growth thresholds for each tier at 1+tier. Downturn in the economy shrinks the business at the same rate. Business can be invested in to speed the growth along by +1 per turn or retain it in downturns at value equal to half the revenue of all branches in last turn.
Each major business has its competitors and some businesses will not grow beyond certain level due to the nature of the business – coffee shop chain on one planet will never outgrow multi-planetary mining combine.
Businesses in the same industry will block each other’s growth in normal growing economy and will only grow with direct investment. Both businesses will decline at double the rate in a declining economy.
BANKING
Banks are a special type of business that rely on other businesses for profits – they live of lending and borrowing and the rates, as well as government bonds and investments.
As a principle, banks can lend only the money they have and set their own rates – however, only a bank will know its own accounts (unless forced to reveal them). Banks can also invest in other businesses indirectly (by buying shares of others) or directly through loans.
They are also involved in lending to the public at large, where the branches create revenues based on the amount of money made available to be lent publicly and the interest rates – this also determines the current market growth and downturns or booms depend on how much money is available and the interest rates.
As always, financial restrictions and auditing relies on vigilance of the player government.
The government is also given the freedom to either have a central bank or private banking.
All the other rules that apply to businesses also apply to banks as well.
OPERATIONS
Politics and business do not have a legitimate side to them only, but a variety of clandestine, off the books or simply unofficial operations can be taken. These are typically:
- Assassinations
- Espionage (military, and industrial)
- Bribery and corruption
- Black market trade and smuggling
- blackmail
- political agitation and sponsorship
- employment of personal security
All of those and more similar operations can be undertaken by any player, providing they are able to field the funds to hire willing agents and to pay them for their silence. They also risk discovery by security if the target is difficulty or a potential target has been previously notified.
MEDIA AND PROPAGANDA
Media and information are a large part of political system, and like with other areas of society, can be influenced by both money and laws. Media businesses can influence public opinion and sway it towards issues being highlighted or parties being promoted. Private individuals and politicians can also run ads or request journalists to work with them, all depending on the profile of the media company and the relationships built up between people.
Media businesses work like standard businesses for all other intents and purposes, but can gain extra revenue directly from other players for ads and promotion.
Rules about media and propaganda (be it private or state-controlled) as always can be determined by the government laws.
POLITICAL INFLUENCE/PARTIES
Parties and political issues divide society and allow different voices to be head. Those form the platform for politicians to both get their political mandate, but also to enable them to gain power and push certain agendas or steer society in a direction they want.
All elections and political agitation happen as opposite d20 rolls, with various bonuses from media, political events and actions.
The capital world starts with political party divide among population and fresh colonies do not get politically divided or motivated until significant numbers appear and frontier life turns into civilized one (usually past 100 million pop at development index of 1.0). they still can get agitated and divided when electing their governor/senator, depending where there is more than one major candidate.
As with all other aspects of the game, laws on elections, agitation and ideologies are flexible and to be set by the government.
Signup sheet
Name:
Physical description:
Bio:
Assets: ($10 million or either a lvl1 business in an industry of your choice (max 3 at start), or political party leader(max 5 parties))
Political party/business description:
Allegiance: (if joining someone else's party).
Skills: a starting +1 to any 1 of the following: charisma, administration, subterfuge, military talent, scientific prowess, business acumen)
Applications are to be submitted into
OOC thread.
If you are a clever person, you will notice I have not named the planet. That is up to you, dear players, once we begin the game!
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Topic: The Republic - Rule a space nation! (9/?) - TURN 1 (Read 8687 times)