a cool game idea
when i was in wilderness therapy, my friends and i came up with an impromptu game that we dubbed "colonizing mars". each person was a political party that they made up (not like republican/democrat. more like furry geneticists and terminator revivalists).
it was fun! we voted on arbitrary things and took turns being the moderator. some wack shit happened. i have a funny story too!
there was this one kid, let's call him "Nick". Nick was stupid. Genuinely stupid. And obsessed with Nazi Germany (but he swore he wasn't a Nazi(spoiler: he was pretty much a 4chan-incel-unbased-loser-neonazi-dickhe
He insisted that he play as the "Fourth Reich". We did not want that to happen. Staff told us to include him and let him play as that. Stupid staff.
Great. First order of business: Vote on whether we trap the Fourth Reich representative (Nick) in a cage (near the dug latrine) and not let him vote on any issues this game. Votes for yes? All but one. Sorry Nick, go over there and stop being a stupid Nazi dick.
Anyways, here are some rough rules for the game. Have fun if you do use them!
COLONIZING MARS
president (GM)
- writes the agenda of the political parties, typically problems to solve about what the colonization of mars will look like
- updates news
- can write in new agenda items at any time
- can give resources to political parties
political parties are created by idea for political party by player, fields it to GM, if approved GM writes the secret goal and secret power the political party has. the political parties are dealt randomly.
all political parties have:
- a name
- a purpose (unwritten)
- a delegate (person/player acting on behalf)
- a secret goal
- a secret power
- food/water (optional game rule)
all political parties have at least one agenda item
the president can interrupt agenda items with news.
all agenda items are resolved by votes by raise of hands, ties go to the mercy of the president (they decide how to continue)
everyone can win or no one can win or some people can win, just fulfill your secret goal (optional game rule: without being caught!)
some goals are roleplay goals (R) and there is no mechanical reason that they can be fulfilled. This usually involves convincing other players to do something or act some way.
some goals may not have a way to be fulfilled. womp womp.
special powers can be announced publicly to the group or given as a secret note to the president. delegates can give notes to the president for any reason anyways. special powers can typically only be activated once per game.
at the end of the game, the president gives a recap of what happened with mars and how they think mars developed.
optional game rule food/water: each delegate starts off with an amount of food and amount of water. they can spend food/water to influence decisions (president discretion) or trade food/water for delegate influence. if they ever run out of food/water, the party collapses and the delegate dies. they are a ghost for the rest of the game, and may look at everyones cards but may not say anything or vote on decisions. they can point and look aggrieved however.
some actions or decisions need a certain amount of water/food to be passed.
example agenda:
- intros
- funding of the new orphanage (3 food)
- legalization of death magic
- news story
- color to paint the town hall
- what to do about the homeless people scaling the walls
- nuclear bombs for public use (SWMG goal)
- news story
- overpopulation
- how do we feel about socialism
- terrorists targeting retirement homes
- news story
- internet filtering
- end
example political parties:
- Shadow Wizard Money Gang
- SG: Legalize Nuclear Bombs
- SP: Cast a secret spell by passing a note to the president saying “we love casting spells”. the president tells you or the group what the spell does.
- Pro-Lifers
- SG: Have no delegate or citizen die all game /or/ pass the “sterilize everyone” bill when overpopulation becomes a problem
- SP: use your team of babies to pass a secret note to the president that counts as 2 votes. note says: (team of babies)
- Secret Communists
- SG: do not let anyone find out you are a communist. if the word “communism” is brought up, you have to scream or yell. (R)
- SP: Make everyone address each other as “comrade” for the rest of the game. if they don’t, you can invalidate their vote for the next decision.
- Ipad Kids
- SG: convince at least one delegate to look up “skibidi toilet” on an electronic device. (R)
- SP: throw a tantrum and make a revote happen on a decision that happened at least two decisions ago. you can do this once per game."