THE POLITICAL MATRIX
Talk/Bargain
Work/Prepare
Do Business
Move
Have Fun
Sad/Happy
Shame
Make a
Friend/Enemy
Reputation
Victory/Defeat
Natural Disaster
Social Class
Justice
Wealth/Power
Loyalty/Honor
Beyond your
abilities
Logic
"Miracle"
"Adventure"
Wild Card
Heroic Action
Cowardly
Action
Wicked Action
Fight
Love/Hate
Fear/Fearless
Envy
Advantage
Kill
Political
Agenda
Religion
Politics
Tradition
Motivation
Personality
Knowledge
"Magic"
"Monster"
Wild Card
Wild Card
MATRIX GAME RULES
The rules for this matrix PBM are just as with all other MGs. Each turn the players turn in one argument. This argument can be made for any faction on the board, but at the start of the game each Player chooses one faction to champion. So, it the Jacobin player makes an argument for Lafayette to fire on the crowd in the champ de Mars, he is probably doing this to hurt the Feuillants, not help them. There is nothing new in all this.
THE GAME BEHIND THE GAME
I have found that MGs are very good at resolving "what happens next." What they are weak at doing is structuring the rest of the game. In military campaign games, the game behind the game is a campaign map and a set of miniatures rules. Simple rules such as these are remarkable versatile and allow my "Campaign In a Day" rules to be applied to any war between 3000 BC to 1992 AD. Political MGs also need a set of simple, widely generalizable rules to underlay them. The following sections spell out my present thinking on how to do this.
THE STRUCTURE OF SOCIETY: POWER GROUPS
It seems like a near universal observation that societies are broken up into political factions and social groups. At its basic level is the "Family." Above that level there are Clans, Social Classes, Regional and/or Religious Groups, and more. This sounds a little complicated, but really games use this idea all the time. King Maker and Junta, divide up political power in the country by giving players control over different political power groups of the country. So France in 1791 might have the following "power groups" mucking about ...
1. The King
2. Conservative Aristocrats (outside of the
country)
3. Liberal Aristocrats
4. The Church
5. The Middle Class (mainly Judges and bureaucrats)
6. Merchants
7. San Coullettes (urban working class)
8. Peasants
9. Newspapers
10. Paris Radicals
Each group has a certain amount of political power that is an abstraction of the groups wealth, prestige, and political position. These numbers are assigned by the referee based on his understanding of the power relations of the period. For example, I see the above groups as having the followings powers...
The King 2 Royalist
Emigres 0 Royalist
Liberal Aristocrats 2 Feuillant
The church 1 Feuillant
Middle Class 3 Girondist
Merchants 3 Girondist
San-Coullettes 2 Cordiliers
Peasants 1 Neutral
Newspaper 2 Cordillers
Paris Radicals 2 Jacobin
So political power is broken down in the country between the different parties as follows ...
Royalists 2
Feuillants 3
Girondists 6
Cordiliers 4
Jacobins 2
If an argument called for the players to vote on a certain issue, the above numbers would be used. Obviously the Girondist have the advantage. But this can be altered by arguments.
MANPOWER
No matter what a groups political power is, if there are not men available to do the work an argument calls for then nothing happens. Pharaoh can order the pyramids to be built, but unless he has control over a large peasant work force, they would not be built. I break down the population of 1791 France as follows...
The King 0
Emigres 1/2 (ie not enough to do anything)
Liberal Aristocrats 1/2 (the Emigres are the other half)
Royalist Church 1/2 (called non juring priests)
Liberal Church 1/2 (who have sworn oath to revolution)
Middle Class 1
Merchants 2
San Coullettes 4
Peasants 8
Newspapers 0
Paris Radicals 0
The King, newspapers, and radicals are in such small numbers that they are not able to carry out actions on their own. The aristocrats and the church are split between the liberal and conservative factions, which means they do not have the manpower to do any actions either. That leaves the lower classes free to act.
Each 1 population unit a group has, allows it to do one action. So in 1791 the people are engaged in the following activities...
Middle Class Run the Government
Merchants Do Business Serve in the National Guard
San Coullettes Work Work Serve in the National Guard Political Debate (ie newspaper etc.)
Peasants Farm Farm Farm Farm Farm Farm Farm Political Debate
The King, Aristocrats, Church, Radicals, and Newspapers can do no actions on their own.
STEADY STATE SOCIETY
If left alone, people continue doing all the things that societies need to survive. The players need not concern themselves with the peasants farming cycle unless they want to change something (i.e. a critical event). Once put to a task, people will continue it without incident until a problem arises, or they are reallocated by an argument.
This is an interesting point to me since, if it is true, that societies may still be doing the same jobs they were give to do by Sargon 4000 years ago! And indeed peasants are still farming to this day using ancient techniques in some parts of the world. It makes me glad to live in a city after the industrial revolution got us off the farm.
PROBLEMS
Some societies many be in a steady state, but it is inevitable that problems will arise no matter how "good" a system is. It was a financial problem that triggered off the French Revolution in the first place. Other problems like natural disasters, wars, and religious unrest, can also trigger off major change.
In political MGs, problems are caused by players making arguments that something happens. Why would a player do this? Simple, if I am the King, and I am not in control of France, I want to give the guys in charge as hard a time as I can. Anything that disrupts the steady state of society may be able to be used to bring the king back into power.
At the start of the PBM France has the following problems...
- 1. A financial crisis
2. "The King is a traitor!"
Each problem needs to have some definition about what it means in terms of shifting power alliances. The financial crisis causes people to get angry at the government in power, each turn that it is unresolved. The first turn the peasants get angry, followed by the san coullettes, the newspapers, the radicals, the merchants, the middle class, the church, the liberal aristocrats, the emigres, and finally the king. The second problem lowered the kings political power to the zero it now is at.
Obviously, the faction in charge of the government is going to want to solve all the countries problems. This is done by arguments that call for political action.
POLITICAL ACTION
What is required to solve a political problem like "a financial crisis"? I don't know. I guess it depends on who you talk to. For the last ten years our politicians have told us that the way to prosperity was to encourage investment and profit taking by the rich so that some of it would trickle down to the rest of us. Now, I am a Democrat, so I don't believe this has worked. (My belief is backed up by watching my real earnings drop, an increase in the suicide rate of the clients at my mental health center, and a general increase in crises over the last five years.) I could be wrong. But the problem still remains, what is political action.
Basically, political action is any actions that any group does to change anything In the system. So almost any argument the players can think of is political action. Will the actions solve the problem at hand? If they say they do, then yes. But there is a catch (catch 22 no doubt). The solution is likely to cause another problem. So Trickle down was great if you had money, but not so great for the rest of us. All in all, this stuff gets very confusing. I am grateful that I am not a politician at this time.
For game purposes this MG uses the rule that any course of action that can succeed in three consecutive actions directed at solving a problem will settle it (and cause another problem). But if any part of the plan is destroyed by another factions argument then the process has to start all over again.
Since political actions are so varied, the following sections describe some types of actions that are useful In getting projects done.
ORGANIZING TO MEET PROBLEMS: POLITICAL AGENDAS
Before the government does anything the politicians decide what will be attempted. They set the political agenda. Usually this is a short statement about what is going to be done. For example, "Absolute monarchy", "Liberal Democracy", "Police State", "Pillage and burn", etc. Whatever the agenda is, it sets the stage for the type of political actions that will be done. Some players will try to get the goal accomplished, others will try to stop it. At the same time, just setting the agenda is a political action.
Since most of us are not politicians or political scientists, who might be able to figure out good agendas to set, this game also comes with the private or hidden agendas of each of the parties. consider the private agendas of the different parties in 1791 ...
Royalists:
1. Absolute Monarchy
2. Restore feudal privileges
to aristocrats.
Feuillants:
1. Constitutional Monarchy
2.
Hold Elections
Girondists:
1. Constitutional
Monarchy
2. Prevent the return of the
Emigres.
3. Laize-faire Capitalism
Jacobins:
1. Anti-Aristocratic
2.
Anti-Clerical
3. Anti-
Business
4. Rouseaulan
Paradise
Cordiliers:
1. Constitutional
Republic
2. "Down with the
King!"
3. Social Welfare
Parties can begin to institute their private agendas at any time. All that is needed is a clear agenda, an argument that acts out that agenda, and a unit of man power to carry it out. If players want the government to act on and agenda, then the private agenda must be made into a public agenda by an action. There are only two slots for public agendas in this game so not everyone can have the government act on their agendas at once.
If a player chooses he can use an argument to create a new private agenda Item. Maybe, give the opposition an unpopular stand to defend (mind you, the player running that party may ignore the new agenda item, but at the risk that another player might try to use that against him in a future argument. Maybe it is best to repudiate it with an argument.)
ORGANIZING TO MEET PROBLEMS: FORMING PARTIES
Each party has a hidden agenda that it wants acted upon. To try to achieve this, the party makes arguments to "win friends and influence people." This means basically organizing power groups Into coalitions. At the start of the game, the coalitions of 1790 early 91 are still in place. So the Girondists have the middle class and merchants on their side. This gives them 6 "votes" in making decisions, as well as 3 units of manpower to work with. Arguments can allocate the power and men to whatever political action the player argues for.
It is possible to add new power groups to your faction by making an argument that one "Makes a Friend/Enemy" of that group.
This might be more easily done if a party is in control of the government and the group has become angry with them for not settling the financial crisis.
A player may mobilize man power from another parties faction. Like the Feuillants using 1 unit of merchants in the National Guard, but remember that these men might be more easily made disloyal by an argument than other men are. Naturally everyone will want to have the peasants on their side due to the man power reserve, so one can expect their to be a lot of political maneuvering going on throughout the game.
ORGANIZING FOR PROBLEMS: ADVANTAGES/DISADVANTAGES
As in all MGs, the players are inevitably going to go fishing for advantages through their arguments. Naturally getting more power groups on your side is one advantage. It is also possible to alter to political power number of a group by making a good argument. It could be possible to split up a power group, like the peasants, there by splitting their power to 1/2 and breaking their man power into smaller units (i.e. the peasants of the vendee, separate off so they can be organized for war by the Royalists, while the Revolutionaries control the rest of the peasantry.
Government positions can be and advantage. In this PBM, there is only 1 government position: Head of the Government. Only one faction can hold this office at once. While in office, the controlling party gets to take the brunt of the financial crisis. The advantage is that only the office holder's faction can act upon the public agenda. Other players can make arguments for the office holders men to get them to act but they can not have their own men do the job for the government.
Players can subvert powers from the government (like control of the National Guard) by arguing that the men become loyal to your faction. Then, when a coup is called, or a vote is required, then those men will act on the second players part rather than the governing players part.
If an argument calls for a battle to take place, players might also want to get advantages in terms of whatever miniatures rules are being used.
ACTIONS OUTSIDE OF THE MATRIX GAME
It is possible to use to MG to create a wide variety of events that are best resolved outside of the MG. The movement of troops is best kept track of using campaign map rules. Votes are best handled by having players vote using their factions power/wealth numbers. Trials can be done by having players role play the event (with the governing faction player acting as Judge). Some times adventures are called for that are best handled by using a standard RPG. Events could even be settled by using a mini conference game format. The important part of all this is that the procedure be kept flexible and not tied down into a mire of too many rules.
AFTERWARD
This is definitely working on an intermediate level MG. Political games are by their nature more difficult to understand than military games are. But if this game works then it will be usable to ... Run a variety of revolutions, coups and palace intrigues. Easily create the political events that are happening in RPGs. And be able to be combined with military games to give players even more incentive to capture political objective rather than to loot (or they will lose their positions in the government).
Here is the first turn of this monster. It will go along, 1 month at a time from July 1791 to December 1791. The orders you send In now will be for July. The report for this turn is for the events of June. Good luck and I hope you enJoy the game.
The French Revolution
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© Copyright 1991 by Chris Engle
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