Post by porree in Viziers of the Sunlord jam comments

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I love the mix of politics & myticism; my only issue is with the voting mechanism. I don't see how a player should ever vote against the current Sunlord if that so critically disadvantages them. They have to level up from peasant to vizier, then issue their favored candidate, and then win more than half of the votes to not lose all progress immediately.

I'd also like to know how far-reaching the policies can become. What if someone asks if the Sunlord could be abolished in favor of a two-party system and it somehow goes into effect? Would that just be the end of the game?

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SalusExScientiae5 years ago(+1)

Thanks for the comment!

The voting mechanism is basically designed to ensure all the uncertainty that a real coup entails. You can make an attempt with just a simple majority, but traitors to the rebels are loyalists to the kings. Replacing a regime requires common sentiment, and with so much power at the tyrant's whims, it's almost impossible to keep the government in check.

In short, I sacrificed a mechanical-fun point for a theme/setting point. Depressing, but reasonably accurate.

The policies may entail all reccomendations for the betterment of the Sunlord's glorious oasis, and that's all the citizenry must know. The game ends only when players get bored.

The actual idea of the endgame is supposed to get a bit like Mao, where the players design better systems but ultimately get caught up in all the possible backstabby incentives that can be provided in the base system.

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porree5 years ago(+1)

Oh, I get it. But then the problem remains that that the coups are planned democratically and in plain sight of the leader. If there was a mechanism with the players writing one ode and presenting another as convincingly as possible to smuggle their policies in or writing alternative odes and handing them to each other under the table with the danger of being found out or backstabbed I would get more of an idea of a coup d'etat instead of basically the electoral college, but with murder (which is still cool).

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SalusExScientiae5 years ago(+2)

Well, the idea was for the absence in the rules to leave room for players to sneakily eye each other during play as much as possible. It would have been nice if I had a few more words to lay out how that looks, but alas, two hundred was yet too few.

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