Submitted by Malcolm Craig on Sun, 10/12/2006 - 13:44.

• contested ground studios
• creation
• malcolm craig
• setting design contest

So, work progresses on my entry for the Transatlantic Setting Design Challenge. I decided ona bit of a name change. UnRealpolitik was crap, so in keeping with using the Contenders mechanics to run a political game, I've simply entitled it 'Revolutionaries'.

Below are a few of the changes to Contenders so that revolutionaries will run as a political game, rather than one about boxing. I've outlined changes to the characters and to the various scenes that take place within the game.

Cheers
Malcolm

Changes to Contenders

Character creation

The life of a revolutionary is governed by 4 main things:

Hope
Pain
Money
Eminence

Hope is the bright side of life, the knowledge that things can get better and change can be effected by the revolutionary and her cohorts. Hope comes from success in rallies and debates or from successful relationships with a Connection.

Pain is the flipside of Hope, the crushing knowledge of defeat, poverty and powerlessness. Pain helps drive the revolutionary on, to strive for better things, but it can also lead to disaster and dissolution.

Money is vital to help promote a political cause and maintain relationships. Revolutionaries can earn money through Work scenes or through Rally/Debate scenes.

Eminence is the burgeoning reputation of the revolutionary, how important and powerful they have become within the political scene of Ghastport.

A revolutionary is also characterised by 4 additional traits that are used when engaging in Rally/Debate scenes. These are:

Verbosity
Authority
Dissembly
Tenacity

Verbosity represents the characters debating or oratorical technique, their ability to spin an argument and confound their opponents or convince a crowd.

Authority tells how powerful those arguments are, how convincing the speaker can be, how strongly they present their viewpoint and how able they are at shouting down an opponent or making themselves heard over the baying of the mob.

Dissembly comes to the fore when an opponent seems to be taking the upper hand. It allows the speaker to manoeuvre, to twist the point and hopefully stave off some of the worst accusations or scornful crowd responses.

Tenacity shows how long a speaker can last, their knowledge of their subject and sheer force of will to keep moving on and pursuing their goals in the face of opposition, whether it be from a grumbling beer hall full of disgruntled dock workers, or from a determined and skilful debating opponent.

Opposition

Each player taking part in the game should also create an Opponent. Opponents are only defined in terms of Rally/Debate traits. Whether an opponent is a crowd or a single opponent should only be decided as and when they are used in a Rally/Debate scene.

Scenes

As with standard Contenders gameplay, you have the choice of playing out any scene you choose for the character, from a set list of scene types. These are broadly similar to Contenders scene, varying only in slight specifics.

Connection

A connection scene works exactly as described in Contenders. However, the important difference in Revolutionaries is that one of your two starting connections will always be your political organisation, party or some grouping that the character is a part of.

Work

Again, work scene function exactly as they do in Contenders. However, the tone and themes of the work scene scan be quite different. Although the character may have a job or engage in some form of profitable activity, Work scene can also represent political fund raising events, collections or even underhanded theft, embezzlement or some other form of criminal activity. As with the basic rules of Contenders, any work scene in which the Revolutionary wishes to gain 3 or more Money will pretty much have to be illegal, immoral or in some way underhanded or unethical.

Threat

A threat can either be against one of the PCs connections or against them, as per standard Contenders rules.

Organisation

Organisation scenes take the place of Promotion scene in Contenders. The organisation scene is where the Revolutionary organises the place, time and theme of the Rally/Debate scene. An organisation scene can involve fellow members of a political party, the owners of a venue, Government official who may be standing in the way of the event and so forth.

During this stage, it’s important to note how many ‘rounds’ the upcoming Rally/Debate scene will last for. A short speech whilst standing on a box at Oratory Bend might only last a couple of rounds, whilst a major debate with a reviled political opponent may last4, 5, 6 or even more rounds.

If the Rally/Debate scene is going to be against a political opponent, it must be decided if that is an NPC or PC.

Training

Training scenes in Revolutionaries represent a variety of things: book learning, reading up on rivals manifestos, receiving wisdom from older and wiser head, spying on opponents or all manner of things. Training scene require the use of Money in order to increase a Rally/debate trait.

Free Play

Free play is conducted in exactly the same manner as in Contenders.

Rally/Debate

These are absolutely key scenes in games of Revolutionaries. They represents those moments when the Revolutionary can get his or her message out to the public, attempt to win over a crowd, best a political opponent, raise money for their cause and gain eminence on the political stage of Ghastport.

During the Organisation scene, the player will have decided whether it is to be a Rally or Debate they will be taking part in. In a scene where it is a political rally (i.e.: any situation where the Revolutionary is the sole speaker), then the opposition is provided by the crowd. Crowds will always contain agitators, plants from political opponents and those who simply wish to heckle. Like a fight in Contenders, the crowd at a rally are represented in the mechanics and a single opponent whom the Revolutionary must win over.

In a scene where it is a Debate, the opposition will be in the form of a single rival political speaker, whom the Revolutionary must beat in order to win over the crowd. As decided in the Organisation scene, the opponent can either be another PC or an NPC.