The People's House (WIP) (UPDATED | 12/25/2022) - Presidential Sim

[RFKramer]

@LawrenceWatson

One suggestion for the states… I’m a Pennsylvanian, but as a Western PA yinzer, I would prefer to be Mayor of Pittsburgh rather than Philadelphia! Would you consider adding it to the PA portion?

I would consider changing the city from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh though I won’t be adding multiple cities in for each state right now to save myself some time.

@QuixquillianParadise

Is it possible to be extremely corrupt, but get away with it through use of blocking the investigations, having your personal lawyer as AG, being protected the party etc. or no? Like completely get away with it even if you have very high corruption stats.

I haven’t fully decided but I’m thinking yes, you’ll need to have a carefully selected Cabinet and make the right choices, but I do think I’ll write the story in a way that allows you to get away with most choices that lead to a boost in your corruption stat.

@QuixquillianParadise

In terms of who the MC could potentially have affairs with, what’s the top level of scandalous? I really want Corey to have an affair with like, the Russian ambassador as it makes me snicker.

As for potential affairs, I was honestly planning on only including one potential person who would be a secretary or someone you meet at an event. I’m not a romance writer so I don’t feel I could accurately, or interestingly, write multiple romantic interests in addition to your spouse, though it’s something I can think about. Let me know if you have suggestions for potential interests aside from the cliche secretary as well.

@QuixquillianParadise

If our MC has an affair, then what are the consequences on their approval rating if the public finds out? What about their kids? Will there be an option to marry the affair partner (after divorcing the spouse) to increase the potential scandal?

If the public finds out, it would obviously nearly destroy your relationship with both your Spouse and your kids. As for whether or not there would be an option to remarry, I don’t know yet. I could see this being an option in the Epilogue where you meet back up with them and remarry after you leave office, but don’t think I’d include it as a part of the main storyline.

@QuixquillianParadise

What are the consequences of having a high corruption stat in general?

I won’t say too much to avoid spoilers but a high corruption stat is a bit of a double-edged sword. Having it high enough will give you more opportunities down the road but could also come back to bite you if an investigation into your office ever opens up.

@QuixquillianParadise

Will there be a chance to commit actual crimes, ala Watergate? If so, who could the MC’s accomplices be?

I’m planning on taking a lot of influence from Nixon’s Committee to Re-elect the President (or CREEP), and allowing you or your campaign team to do a lot of the same things that occurred in 1972 plus some more. While I’m not even close to writing the re-election chapter (I’m not even at midterms yet!), you will be selecting a whole new slew of characters while you build your re-election campaign staff.

@QuixquillianParadise

If your staff turn out to be corrupt, whether the MC is involved or not, does it reflect on general corruption ratings or just approval ratings?

This also depends. Any corrupt choice you take immediately boosts your corruption score, but it doesn’t affect your approval ratings unless it’s made public.

@Xarena

I have a question to add to this regarding the affair line of thinking, can you have a baby with the person you having an affair with? And if so can you hide that?

I did think about this a lot and I really like the concept but I struggle to find an equivalent for same-sex affairs. Obviously, this works if the MC is heterosexual, but there really just isn’t an equivalent to having an accidental pregnancy otherwise. I might add it anyway, but I really do want to find an alternative scandal of a similar magnitude for a same-sex affair as well.

[Snowflower]

@RFKramer

As for potential affairs, I was honestly planning on only including one potential person who would be a secretary or someone you meet at an event. I’m not a romance writer so I don’t feel I could accurately, or interestingly, write multiple romantic interests in addition to your spouse, though it’s something I can think about. Let me know if you have suggestions for potential interests aside from the cliche secretary as well.

The recurring reporter could be one of the affairs. Maybe they can randomly be either a man or a woman (regardless of whether your spouse is a man or a woman), rather than the genderlocked male Jacob Warner. Another affair partner could be your best friend. Similar to JFK, our PC could have affairs with celebrities. Or perhaps, most scandalous of all, the spouse of one of the high political offices (VP, Speaker, etc.).

Some of these affairs themselves do not have to be long fleshed out storylines either—the fallout from the act of having an affair is what the storyline is about, after all (for those that pursue it. My main playthrough character is rather fond of their Spouse).

[Francisco_Mendez]

Take note of our observations but ideally you should focus on one thing at a time so you don’t get overwhelmed with so many suggestions from us. And more now that you are in a time where time is short in your study duties.

[Sakura_Higanbana28]

@RFKramer

Let me know if you have suggestions for potential interests aside from the cliche secretary as well.

How about a sexy secret service agent? Close enough that no one suspect it and maybe a hot press reporter for when you conduct interviews with. But a seductive secretary that takes care both your professional and personal needs to boot is still a big . This would work well even if you have a few RO’s if they are gender selectable according to MC preference and player sexual at the same time. Maybe even the Vice President themselves. In total making it 4 potential LI’s aside from the spouse. Also this my president is from a rich family but can’t afford a happy family meal is not consistent with their background…

[RFKramer]

@Francisco_Mendez

Take note of our observations but ideally you should focus on one thing at a time so you don’t get overwhelmed with so many suggestions from us. And more now that you are in a time where time is short in your study duties.

This is what I’ve been doing so far, I have an ongoing list on a document of all future planned events that I add to whenever I get interesting ideas!

[RFKramer]

Writer’s Diary #3
June 5th, 2022

Happy Pride Month to everyone and welcome to my third Writer’s Diary for my WIP Presidential Sim game, The People’s House! Feel free to look at the first post here to learn more about my story and play the demo.

Bug Testers Wanted

I am incredibly happy to have an updated demo released, and am super thankful to everyone who reported bugs for me to fix. As the story gets longer and longer it also takes me longer and longer to play through the story, so I, unfortunately, can’t catch all the bugs on my own. Because of this, I will be looking for some bug testers to bring on board!

I’ll be picking 1-3 bug testers in the upcoming week to help me make sure that all future demo updates are coming out bug-free (and that they’re typo-free!) These bug testers, ideally, will also help to improve my writing, to let me know when scenes feel choppy or rushed. While I of course can’t afford to pay these bug testers as I’m a full-time student, bug testers will get updated demos weekly!

If you’re interested in helping out as a bug tester, please just shoot me a private message! I’ll be picking people largely based on how active they’ve been on this thread and the feedback they’ve already given.

Supporting my Writing

Recently I got a message from someone wanting to donate money to support my writing through a Patreon. It was an incredibly heartwarming message to get, and I know that other authors have also set up Patreons or other sites. I, unfortunately, will not be setting one up just yet. I don’t feel that I can accept people’s money to help support this side-project of mine, definitely not yet anyway.

I have decided to revisit this and to set up a poll once The People’s House gets to 75k-100k words. At that point, I believe I might be more willing to set up some sort of system for people to give in order to get special access to things like polls, early updates to demos, and exclusive mini-stories that I may end up writing. I’d love to make writing a full-time career, but I’m just not there yet! Now, enough of my blabbering and onto the updates!

What’s New?

• Massive bug fixes! As I said before, it has been very difficult catching all the bugs now that the story is nearing 30-35k words and a lot of different decisions. All of the bugs that have been reported, and some of the ones I found on my own, have now been fixed and updated so they’re no longer in the demo. A huge sorry to anyone that may have had to restart their game because of one!

• An exciting new idea I had: I’ve decided to implement actual statistics into the game (sort of). Right now I have the stats Economy & Military. They’ll have a value of 1-5 (1 being poor and 5 being excellent) and will be invisible stats, meaning you won’t know exactly what they are or how your policies affect them until you get updates through your advisors & Cabinet. If you have any suggestions for other stats to include in the game, let me know (the main ones I’m considering right now are Deficit, which would impact the Economy stat, Education & Crime).

• With these new stats, there will also be a new scene in Chapter 2 where you set the budget (thanks for Suzerain for this idea!). You’ll have the decision to increase, decrease, or maintain funding for several big branches with the option to try and balance the budget or increase the deficit even further. There will also be options to draft a tax bill to attempt to raise or lower taxes depending on your spending.

• Continued doing writing for the first scene with the Cabinet and the meeting with the Big Four. Both of these scenes, I expect, will take a while because of all the different options I’ll have to write in! There are nine different scenes I have to write depending on your main focus and two to three different speeches for each selectable Cabinet member.

• Seeing a lot of interest in the War chapter (understandably, fictional war is cool when you’re the boss), I’ve been putting a lot of work into outlining that chapter as well. I’m still not entirely sure exactly where this potential war would take place but I’m considering (right now) Venezuela, Iran, Ethiopia, Haiti, and Myanmar.

Updated Word Count: 33,000 words

Progress Update: 15% → 15%

As most of this week’s updates have been just bug testing, I haven’t been able to write too much into the story. Despite this, I am feeling really good about the progress so far! I’ve done some work that I’m really proud of with outlining future chapters and fleshing out ideas for this one.

Other Links

First Post
Writer’s Diary #1
Writer’s Diary #2

[QuixquillianParadise]

I actually think some of ambassador or someone from a foreign country would be a good choice for an affair. There could be huge consequences in foreign relations, like the country of origin of that person withdrawing their diplomats or even a complete break down in foreign relations. Especially if there were national security concerns for either the US or the other country. Obviously it would make for a good scandal as well.

[11110]

What are the branches that are subject to budgeting?

Also, how about adding statistics related to income equality and welfare?

[RFKramer]

I won’t be answering any direct, specific questions about future scenes as I am really trying my best to avoid spoiling future chapters in the story.

I will say that the budgeting process will be similar to the game Suzerain, where you balance a handful of different branches with the option to increase, decrease, or maintain their level of funding. All with their own unique consequences and impact on the nation, the budget deficit, and the economy.

[JBento]

some typos and other specific feedback

“moving out of your parents’ house”

“got off on a hitch” might be an ideom I’m unfamiliar with, but I think you meant “without a hitch”

As a side note, I’m not sure qualifying a Hawaii general election as “a closer fight” speaks highly of the MC’s political abilities. It’s Hawaii, the chances of it going red are… uh. Not very great? I don’t know how much work would be involved in changing that line to depend on the combination of region you’re running in and your party, but if it’s not much, you might consider playing with that.

“Democrat”, the noun, not “Democratic”, the adjective.

“running mate” is two words. Also, all the lols at the notion of getting a Republican to cooperate. Except possibly via blackmail.

I’ve already missed a couple of mentions, but you might want to push the POTUS number from 48 to like early 50s or something, just to avoid clashes when time cataches up with the game.

I think this should be “you can’t help getting a little”, because I think this is supposed to be in the present tense?

“crowd”

“You can’t believe you have made it”

Ok, so, as a general remark, you need to give it a once over because of verbal tenses. You switch between the past and present tenses very often, sometimes in the same situation.

lol, “reaching across the aisle.” No, man, if I have the trifecta I’m going to use it lest the Reps get one of the two legislatives in 2 years and just roadblock everything. The only reason to reach across the aisle is to punch a Rep in the face, and I’m pretty sure I’m not allowed to that.

You’re missing something after that Mr. there. I THINK you meant the MC’s surname to be there and made a typo on the variable. Though a couple of screens later Jacob addresses the MC as Mr. President, so maybe it’s a President that’s missing there. Also, it feels like that first option should raise media approval, and it doesn’t. EDIT: no, wait, nvm, it gives 7% by next morning.

Oooooh, burn. (no “ones” at the end, though)

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA breathes HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

snrk

“crowd”

“are two of those armchairs”

General appraisal: I’m very curious to see where this goes, namely what situations show up and what options you give us to deal with them. Didn’t see a way to address/tackle gun violence, which is FOREVER topical when talking about the US. Loved your jokes about reaching across the aisle. snrk Oh, man, makes me lol every time.

[XanderVixon]

@RFKramer

I won’t be answering any direct, specific questions about future scenes as I am really trying my best to avoid spoiling future chapters in the story.

I will say that the budgeting process will be similar to the game Suzerain , where you balance a handful of different branches with the option to increase, decrease, or maintain their level of funding. All with their own unique consequences and impact on the nation, the budget deficit, and the economy.

That’s awesome that you’re doing similar things to Suzerain, but in the modern era and in text form.

Maybe you can add a conflict between a left wing militia and a right wing militia, and how much the president cares about minorities too

[MadAdam]

Amen to this. Honestly, this is an incredible wip with a wide range of options. Bravo author. The amount of specific minutiae requested in this thread are absolutely doing my head in just reading them, for my own sanity please keep it reasonable, it’s a game with a structure, not a sandbox.

[RFKramer]

I appreciate all this feedback, it’s incredibly helpful and I’ve fixed all of these issues for the next demo update!

@JBento

I’m not sure qualifying a Hawaii general election as “a closer fight” speaks highly of the MC’s political abilities.

The reason I put this scene as a closer fight is because you’re running for the State Senate. Just with how state legislature lines are drawn, I don’t believe there is a single nation in the state that has 100% of its State Senate controlled by one party. So while Hawaii is overwhelmingly blue, there are a number of State Senate seats in Hawaii that are a toss-up or that lean more Republican.

@JBento

push the POTUS number from 48 to like early 50s

This is probably a smart idea, I’ll probably push the number from 48 to 50 for the next demo.

@JBento

You’re missing something after that Mr. there. I THINK you meant the MC’s surname to be there and made a typo on the variable.

I did just forget to write in “President” after the variable!

@JBento

“crowd”

It is incredible the amount of times that I’ve mistyped the word crowd!

@JBento

Didn’t see a way to address/tackle gun violence, which is FOREVER topical when talking about the US.

I did find it very difficult to choose just three issues for each partisan affiliation but the gun rights/gun control debate will make an appearance!

In all, thank you so much for your detailed post!

[11110]

I have an idea that came to me when I heard about suzerain’s budget.

How about implementing a system of investing in such as stocks and bonds in this game?

I think this will bring opportunities to increase personal wealth and events related to conflicts of interest.

[JBento]

@RFKramer

It is incredible the amount of times that I’ve mistyped the word crowd!

This is because “crowed” is ALSO a viable word, so it doesn’t get flagged by whatever text processor you’re using. Also, check out the position of the “e” on your keyboard in relation to “w” and “d”.

@11110

How about implementing a system of investing in such as stocks and bonds in this game?

I think this will bring opportunities to increase personal wealth and events related to conflicts of interest.

This is actually illegal, so if anything it should boost your corruption stat to 100% and keep it there, forever. It also gets you immediately impeached as a Democrat president the exact moment the Reps get control of the legislatives.

[RFKramer]

@11110

How about implementing a system of investing in such as stocks and bonds in this game?

This would be pretty easy to implement so I am trying to find more ways to allow the player to use their own funds in the game. Obviously, when election time comes, you’ll be able to donate to your own campaign to give yourself a boost, but I’m trying to find other things to add as well aside from bribes.

[Sujan_Dhakal]

A note about Nebraska, when you get elected to the state legislature, it’s mentioned offhand you work with the speaker of the Nebraska state house and executive officials during your second term in the state Senate. This bitch should probably be modified because Nebraska’s legislature consists of a single unicameral non-partisan body, although its members still do unofficially represent one party or the other. Think the text should be edited a little to fit that

[MadladJaba]

Instead of our SO just telling us what they want to take on as their signature issue as the first lady/gentleman, what if instead it’s an actual discussion? Then maybe their chosen issue can be randomized, or we can persuade them to choose one that we pick.
Even if they always pick child poverty, I feel like it would be more immersive if there was a more in-depth discussion over what they will do as first lady/gentleman.

[RFKramer]

@Sujan_Dhakal

Nebraska’s legislature consists of a single unicameral non-partisan body

This I was actually aware of. I haven’t updated this line of text, mainly because I really didn’t expect many people to pick Nebraska, but also because of how small of a detail it is. Once more of the story is written out I will be going back to fix little things like this.

There are also other little details like counties being called parishes in Louisiana, and different states having different names for their state legislatures (California has a State Assembly, Virginia the House of Delegates, etc.) Little state details like this will be added in later, but I appreciate the feedback!

@MadladJaba

Instead of our SO just telling us what they want to take on as their signature issue as the first lady/gentleman, what if instead it’s an actual discussion? Then maybe their chosen issue can be randomized, or we can persuade them to choose one that we pick.

This is definitely something I could flesh out for the next demo update. I’ll leave myself a note to revisit that scene once I’m getting closer to releasing an updated demo.

[Francisco_Mendez]

And speaking of public administrations I have a doubt; Will there be a possibility, at least in our second term, to change the election system from the electoral college to one where the popular election is worth more? (So ​​that what happened in the 2000 and 2016 elections does not happen where a candidate won more by points from the electoral college despite the fact that the other candidate had more votes in his favor. Or also review the arguments for which one has electoral college points system than a popular vote system)