Rise of a Leader (WIP)

Hosted Games Works In Progress
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Ever thought politics was boring? Not anymore! Become a politician and rise to glory in Rise of a leader! Choose your background; will you be a disillusioned proletariat, an aristocratic college graduate or a greedy general just itching to stage a coup? You decide. Can you play the system, get the media on side and become a great leader? Or will you live out the remainder of your days in exile? Rule the fantasy land of Gallontius with an iron fist or bring power to the people! Experience the highs and lows of ruling a nation and find romance, and murder a few enemies, along the way!

Hi guys I am a new poster but long-term lurker of the site.

I’ve recently learnt Choicescript and have began planning my first attempt at a CoG game, I’ve always been interested in a politics choice game and was wondering if it is something that you guys would like?
I’m still in very early planning so I think even a demo might take awhile, but what are your initial opinions on this genre? any suggestions? questions?

I appreciate you taking the time to read and I hope i can get down to writing it very soon.

Much love,
Unicorn Jesus

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Sounds interesting. Politics can be difficult to make interesting, but I like the way you think.

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Thanks :slight_smile:
I was thinking politics but with more murder and slave-making should you choose that path, or you can legalize pot and subsidize Doritos… whatever!

I liked the Choice of Romance politics a lot so I hope for something similar but with more explosions.

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Interesting idea, I always found politics to be an interesting idea what with it’s balance of trying to do right by your own idealism and by the people supporting you.

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@UnicornJesus Alrighty, what sort of routes can a character take? As well as having control over particular issues, I’d imagine any politician would be committed to a particular course overall. What such ideologies have you in mind?

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Could i be a Beautiful noble that try marry king poison him and become my self ruler? Slavery, poison black magic and kill peasant rebels that´s good all politic for Mara.

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I don’t know how extreme the paths can be without people getting too offended? I’d like to include extreme right wing ideology as a path but don’t know if including genocidal options and the like would be considered offensive content. Hopefully as long as it’s a fictional setting it won’t be a problem. I’m hoping for four main routes: one would be a left-wing communist path and you would decide if you’d a Stalin or a hero of the people. My second option would be the other extreme, going full right-wing but whether this would be a fascist state or just a very conservative version of say the U.S would again depend on the amount of Evil/Good choices. My third choice would hopefully be a central political ideology, this would certainly not be as interesting but I’d hope to throw in lots of challenges to make it interesting. A fourth choice I’d been thinking was a full religious option where you would totally motivated by your religion, I’m not sure if this should be a stand alone option or whether I should incorporate it into the other paths. Are their any other paths you’d like to suggest?

It’s going to be a fairly modern setting where people would be more inclined to use modern weaponry but I could work in a magic option too, just for you! Slavery will certainly be in there and if you aggravate the peasants they might need to be kept in line to stop rebellions. When it comes to marrying a king I’m still not sure what to do about gender choices, I don’t want to gender-lock,but I don’t want to make it totally interchangeable like CoB or CoR because that just felt weird! Call me sexist but I’m sure if you played a female character you could find ways to use that to your advantage! Do you have any suggestions?

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I just watched Lord of rings yesterday, Im imagine a religion magical path something similar to the tentation of Galadriel, A charismatic until death leader similar to a sect leader but that a realm extension , my own deaath fedaikin soldiers like in Dune… Neutral sounds boring as hell is like play a game when you end being a typical democratic president … boring

But you have to put interesting enemies in each path , a good enemy is the spice in the political game.

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@UnicornJesus “I’d like to include extreme right wing ideology as a path but don’t know if including genocidal options and the like would be considered offensive content.”

Can you name any right-wing genocides? Because this is something that bothers me, the public misuse of the term “Right wing.” Fascists, for example, were not right-wing; They strove for autarkic nations with strong public unity, which makes them economically left-leaning. There has been a tendency, in the modern media, to equate the term “Right wing” with anything authoritarian… Which is just bullshit. If I were to think of genocides, we’d have the Holocaust (Carried out by National -Socialist- Party), the Holodomor and Decossackization (Carried out by the Soviet Union), the Armenian Genocide (Carried out by the liberal, nationalist reforming Young Turks), the Cambodian Genocide (Carried out by the communist Khmer Rouge), and the Genocide in the Vendee (Carried out by the revolutionary French Republic), - Out of that selection of not obscure genocides, not a single one of those can be meaningfully called right wing; quite the opposite.

“one would be a left-wing communist path and you would decide if you’d a Stalin or a hero of the people”

Keep in mind, I actually know a person who wouldn’t see the distinction there; Some momes actually think that bloody-minded communist bastard -was- a hero of the people.

“My second option would be the other extreme [etc.]”

See my initial rant for why that isn’t the other extreme. I don’t think Fascism and conservatism make good bedfellows.

“Are their any other paths you’d like to suggest?”

I’d recommend rethinking how you’ve structured things. Instead of going for one side, its supposed opposite, a centrist position, and a religious one, - think in broader terms like Socialist/Capitalist, Liberal/Authoritarian, “Progressive”/Traditionalist, Secular/Religious, and then structure routes based around how they measure against those standards.

“but I could work in a magic option too, just for you!”

I wouldn’t do that, unless you kept it vague, unclear as to whether its magic or just psychology and trickery, and sort of made the PC a Papa Doc figure.

“When it comes to marrying a king”

What is the political structure of the country, then, to begin with, - or does that vary?

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Many apologies for my historical inaccuracy, yes I suppose rather than they’re being individual paths it would be better to provide the authoritarian/liberal scales and then allow them to determine the choices and path.

Although originally i was going to go for a modern setting I’ve gone more fantasy- including magic, religion etc. I really liked Choice of Rebels mix of politics and religion/magic, they balanced it really well and i plan to do the same.

Religion will play and big part and so will any ‘magical spells’ they use. The game will start in a ‘Democracy’ that is the result of a fixed election. You’ll make the choice whether you’re elected fairly, start a coup as a general or you get appointed as a messiah or something. I hope to get a demo up soon as so i got a lot of work to do.
Any more help with the politics would be greatly appreciated as although I know my history and politics I am prone to media trickery, unlike you good sir.

Much love,
Unicorn Jesus

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@UnicornJesus Sounds like its all up in the air at the moment; You need something concrete to build around.

“I don’t want players to be forced into left-right ideologies”

A good plan. The left-right distinction gets confused in popular culture, and contains numerous, totally distinct ideologies anyway; It can be a little blunt as a tool of classification.

“in my fictional world most people worship an Elven priestess deity called Seti who they believe grants magical powers to those who need it most.”

I hate elves. If you are going to include an elven religion, I must request the option to launch a righteous crusade against them: “Now let this generation of vipers prepare for unquenchable fire!”

“the great Deity Seti accidentally grants you way much more magical potential than you’re going to need”

…Accidentally? What sort of deity is this? That doesn’t make sense.

“any suggestions on the magical powers?”

Less is more. Total absence is the most.

“later on they’ll have all become slaves working on the southern plantations”

Costing all the fine farm workers their jobs, in the process. That’s an aspect you could consider adding.

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@UnicornJesus Im more fond for mental magic that the typical one. Imagine Seti could known the minds of his followers and posesing them in any moment make them see things aren’t there and make them love him , like the big brother flr me that is the really creepy magic no launch fire. Maybe Mc it was a think police than adquire free will but conserve his her powers.

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@MaraJade

Maybe some abilities to whip up frenzies of followers, or cause an opponent to doubt themselves? Or one that makes someone reveal that they love JB which will surely cause them to lose an election and the support of their heavies. :wink:

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@Drazen I imagine Seti like someone with powerful attributes but without goddess knowledge or power, certainly not omnipotent and omniscient

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@MaraJade Once a demon exceeding high appeared with pomp, and dared to say, “I am the power of God and I am Providence, what dost thou wish that I shall give thee?”

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@Drazen
It is very much so, I’m not sure how much to balance the politics/fantasy
element. I don’t want it to be too much fantasy but I don’t want it to be total politics.
Not sure whether to make the religion a legit thing where she actually grants you powers or maybe that’s just what you tell everyone and they think you’re a messiah. Discreet mind influence powers is what I’m thinking, something similar to the Charm abilities in CoV.

Hey deity’s are often clumsy, look at all the ancient Greek and Norse ones. How many times did they fuck stuff up? Or maybe a Loki style God goes behind Seti’s back and does it? I think it would be best to cut that entire idea and stick to more realism.

Don’t like elves?!!! how?! Yes I was going to add a path to dismantle the religion and have some lovely executions anyway, not sure how brutal I can get away with. What’s CoG’s stance on fictional persecution and torture and execution? Would hate to get into trouble :wink:

Thanks for all the feedback dude, even the bits that made me feel foolish :slight_smile:

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@UnicornJesus “or maybe that’s just what you tell everyone and they think you’re a messiah.”

Yeah, that’s the best way to play that route, I reckon. Make it more building a mystical image around yourself, than actually being magical; It’s not exactly without precedent among dictators to do so.

“Hey deity’s are often clumsy, look at all the ancient Greek and Norse ones.”

I see no deities there, only the fetishes of heathen witchcraft. But yeah, I would endorse sticking to a more grounded backdrop.

“What’s CoG’s stance on fictional persecution and torture and execution?”

So long as you don’t seem to be describing them for the sake of some bizarre gratification, and instead weave such into a proper narrative, I reckon you’ll be fine. Affairs of the Court got away with a fair bit of the above, after all, without complaint.

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Am I the only one who finds it rather presumptuous when someone dictates something is “right-wing” or “left-wing”? I understand the general concept therein of it, but it makes large assumptions about the person that one must simply detest; based on what I know of the “left-wing” I think it’s safe to infer that, out of @Drazen’s choices of: “Socialist/Capitalist, Liberal/Authoritarian, ‘Progressive’/Traditionalist, Secular/Religious” any member of the left-wing would be the foremost of the four choices.

Now we must all clearly realize how presumptuous this is. Let us say, for example, that person X is openly liberal–based on the assumptions dictated by right/left-wing sorting, they must now also be socialistic, progressive, and secular. This is clearly not the case. If we look at our probably-most-historically-referenced dictator, Hitler, one will see that he is undoubtedly a religious leader; he writes often in Mein Kampf that he is persecuting the Jew’s because “I believe that I am acting in accordance with the will of the Almighty Creator: by defending myself against the Jew, I am fighting for the work of the Lord.”

Now, of course, Hitler could also be considered (out of the given choices) progressive–albeit progression can lead in a number of directions, and his obvious a poor one. He did, after all, radicalize the German state and start what was, essentially, the Fifth Crusade.

But alas we face a conflict! If Hitler was religious, but also progressive, then must therein be a struggle between the “wing” he is? Of course there must be, but if there is, doesn’t that defeat the purpose of sorting what is X or Y or Z into a “wing”?

So, conclusively, I think that perhaps the best course of action would not be to make the person a radical “right-winger” or “left-winger,” but rather to make them a radical based on the four above combinations. Logically speaking, if one makes a “right-wing” radical, then they would never tax the church; however, if one makes a capitalist radical, they may very well tax the church–this would obviously free up the money held therein. But is not capitalism held to be “right-wing”? That is precisely the point, and I lament to you that you consider us confusing humans not broad strokes of paint but the gentle dots of color on a canvas.

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@adjppm1227 Precicely the problem I find with many people today - some assume that if you are one position on a topic, then you must be the same position on all topics, essentially creating a caricature nation of the most extremist ideals out there on both sides.

Also, rather unrelated (and I appreciate the reference) but it’d be more like the 10th Crusade, since there were actually 9 major Crusades (although it can be argued that only three were even moderately successful)

@UnicornJesus love the idea of the game, and that’s exactly why I’d have to express my opposition to implementing magic. @Havenstone did it quite well (or rather, is doing it quite well) in CoR, however in his game the ‘magic’ is closely interwoven into the story, and the culture of the nation he created, giving it a purpose.

This may just be my personal taste, but I’d love to see a realistic Choicescript game involving politics and the like, which would set itself apart from Choice of Rebels, or Choice of Romance.

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@adjppm1227 “any member of the left-wing would be the foremost of the four choices.”

You’d be correct on all but one, when it comes to a caricature of the two political wings: There is nothing inherently Liberal in the left-wing. If this last century has taught us anything, it is that the left can be incredibly, incredibly authoritarian, so much so that they basically invented the whole concept of a totalitarian state. I would say this holds true for the modern left, albeit to a somewhat lesser degree, also.

“one will see that [Hitler] is undoubtedly a religious leader”

Now that’s a barrel of worms. Undoubtedly, he used religion to his advantage, and tried to build a pseudo-religion around his party and his Volk… but the claim that he was a religious man would doubtless be challenged by, for example, Saint Maximilian Kolbe.

“He did, after all, radicalize the German state and start what was, essentially, the Fifth Crusade.”

There had already been nine crusades. Or were you making a comparison between WW2 and the Fifth Crusade as it played out?

“however, if one makes a capitalist radical, they may very well tax the church”

I’ve never known a person committed to free market policies advocate a tax on anything, when it can be helped.

Anyway, you’re right to criticise the left/right distinction. I find it prudent to speak of the wing purely in economic terms, to which social stereotypes are fond of adhering.