Ya, as I mentioned in my first post, they somewhat selflessly stand aside while clearly still wishing they were in your position. That is actually why I am hyped to be able to pick who proposes because that feels like a great character for them to choose to prioritize the MC’s career over theirs.
Hm… Considering the standing down ending, will be interesting if America ends up subjected to 16 years of Ritchers in the White House!
Quick question, does Ed Ritcher remain in the Senate during the MC’s term? Dunno if it was clearly stated but was curious. Makes sense that he would standown though so the family can focus on the MC’s first run for the White House.
General question, having only had VP Hill, are all the VPs kinda backstabbers? There is of course the event during Teddy but also I know that if you tie the Senate, I know Hill hands it to the other party.
If you’re playing the Unity Route, yes, if you’re picking a legislation that is strongly supported by your Party. If you’re playing the Party route, then no.
@RFKramer there was a scene you wrote that was supposed to only show up for the unity route, which is when this would happen.
Oh apologies, ya the major legislation worked fine for me. I should have specified, I mean after the midterms you can tie the senate and my VP elected the opposition candidate for Pro Tempore. We had a great relationship and everything! I ultimately didn’t continue on that save (had to make another choice that I was keen to avoid) but if I had I would have dropped Hill from the ticket for that.
I would recommend checking House of Cards, either season three or four, on how an assassination attempt on a leader is developed masterfully, as a way to set up a bit the narrative beats and such. Also good show I feel overall for what you are developing.
I believe Kramer said somewhere earlier in the thread here that the closest you’ll get to an autocracy is having the Lyndon B. Johnson-style approach and personality of strong-arming legislation and your subordinates around.
Ed does not stay in the Senate during your Presidential term – it is mentioned that (if you choose the Senate background), you do serve together in the Senate, but he is retired and out of public office by the time you take the oath.
This is something that just isn’t a possibility for this story, unfortunately – same thing with turning the United States into an autocracy. I did play with the idea a while back of allowing your character to create their own party while running for re-election, but I decided to scrap it for both realistic and practical reasons. Not only would setting up and launching an entire political party operation in a few-year timeframe be incredibly cramped, but getting anything done after annoying the duopoly would be a near-impossibility.
I do have a long list of other interactive fiction ideas, though. In future stories, I do plan on focusing more on multi-party/factional political systems and the ability to allow autocratic playthroughs. Still, the setting of the U.S. unfortunately doesn’t mesh with those story elements well.
Grover Cleveland also. (He married in office and was well known as a womanizer beforehand. “Ma, ma, where’s my pa? Gone to the White House, ha ha ha!”)
That said, yeah - and there’s reasons for it. I don’t think “the candidate is unmarried” would actually sink a candidate’s chances, but successful people (i.e. the kind of people who would be candidates in the first place) are usually married. (The causation does not go the other way. People like me who genuinely have no interest in marriage are simply the minority, most people consider romantic fulfillment to be part of their goals, and people with money and good jobs who want to get married nearly always can.)
I wanna be able to divorce in my second term to marry my affair though.
