Politics!, Because it's that time of year... Options

[LinaInverse]

So, getting back to my original topic at hand, no one has run a story plot/arc/shadowrun game session involving politics or political figures?

[DocMortand]

*chuckle* I have a feeling when our campaign gets into the campaign season of 2060 we'll have a bit more politics in our campaign...don't worry. Just gotta get there first...*plod plod plod*

[Kremlin KOA]

I ran campaigns set in 57 election time three times... tweo groups were a total party kill and the third made it through with minimal PC losses

two attempts were with experienced shadowrun players one was with a new group

guess which group lived

[CircuitBoyBlue]

My group's just about hitting the 2052 election cycle, so it might come up. I just need to read up on what offices actually get elected in that year. I THINK Seattle governor gets elected, a senator probably gets elected, and I'm not entirely sure if Seattle gets members in the House, but if it does, they'll be up for re-election. Plus, of course, local city council seats and district mayors. The presidential election will probably have little/no impact on the shadow community, because it's scope isn't entirely confined to Seattle like everything else. If the group was based in DeeCee, I can definitely see a break-in at the Watergate, though...

As far as the difference between a Poli Sci skill of 2 and a Poli Sci skill of 6 and what they represent, I'd say a lot of it depends more on the specific specialization of Poli Sci than just the rating of the skill. For instance, if you're a Political Theory person, a high level skill is probably going to represent you having a PhD and done many years of research beyond that. For a campaign management skill, I personally have taken 4 years of courses about that and gone through an institute specifically devoted to it, and I probably wouldn't have more than a 2 or 3 in the skill. Even with a doctorate, the skill wouldn't be that high. It's one of those things where actual experience is generally seen as the only real indication of one's skill. People with a campaign management skill of 6 or higher have probably managed both winning and losing campaigns for many years.

As to a 2 political skill representing knowing how to get someone elected student body president and a 6 being knowing how to get someone elected UCAS president, I would disagree. It's more of an opposed test thing. My old school, American University, is crawling with poli sci dorks, and when SC (student confederation) elections roll around (or even for any other student organization there, for that matter), every side gets really serious. Being able to beat the other guy doens't just require a 2, it requires being able to roll more success than your opponent. In contrast, in my district in Ohio, the guy that banned the use of the term "french fry" could have a shaved monkey with a Hitler tattoo running his Congressional campaign (skill of 1 at best), and he'd still win, because he never faces any real opposition. I'm sure his campaign manager isn't a shaved nazi monkey with a skill rating of 1, but he or she COULD be, and that's the point. Right there, the student body presidential race at AU requires a higher skill rating than most Congressional races. Actually, now that I think about it, that may be a bad example just because of the nature of Congress. Think about it this way: if one side in a 2 sided race for some reason isn't fielding reasonable opposition, you don't need a high skill to beat them, no matter what level the race is at. I'm sure Reagan's people didn't need to be that skilled to beat Mondale (not saying Mondale's dumb, just saying he wasn't that viable a presidential candidate). The Kerry and Bush teams need the highest skills they can get, because they are both facing extremely competent opposition. But if one side only had a skill of 5, the other side would only need a skill of 5 to remain competitive (or if they got lucky, they could get by with a 3 or 4). Of course, other factors creep in. You can have a high skill all you want, if your guy is seen as having given Willy Horton a weekend furlough and someone's address, and then gets his picture taken in a tank, there's going to be some hefty target number modifiers working against you.

[Guest_Crimsondude 2.0_*]

PoliSci is different from Politics (which the SR3 book calls too broad and all-encompassing for a GM to allow on p.89). I mean, hell, based on the descriptions in SR3, I'd have a PoliSci skill of 4.

And when I said student body president, I mean High School. OTOH, student body elections in the D.C. universities are definitely different from those elsewhere. I still have the City Paper article describing how several of the presidents were impeached, resigned or otherwise didn't serve out their terms. My roommate ran the campaign for one of those presidents, and it was a trip and a half. Senate would be 8. President would be 10 or 12.

Anyway, Seattle has representatives in the House and Senate. The Governor is elected, as are the representatives to the Seattle Congress, and the mayors and councilmembers are as well.

As for their involvement, it all depends on what happens in the election and whether or not someone in Seattle needs to die/disappear/change their story.

[CircuitBoyBlue]

Some parts of Seattle, too, are more shady about their elections than others. I can't recall the Seattle sourcebook entirely off the top of my head, but I think I remember Puyallup being big into machine politics, which lend themselves really well toward runs.

And my whole point was that you can't just assign a skill value to a race like that. It would be an opposed test, meaning that what you need is based entirely on what the other guy has. Sure, in presidential races, that's usually going to be really high, but if the other guy has a really high skill level on his campaign team, but a lot of scandals, then you can get away with a much lower level skill.

As for DC university politics, they get rough; my first forray was when my roomate tried (unsuccessfully and without my prior knowledge) to blackmail his way into getting me appointed chair of a board that up until that time had been convened less than once a year. During the four years I was there, the one year term of Vice President was held by I think 7 different people. My senior year, 2/3 of the legislative branch changed the entire governing documents other than the SC constitution overnight and replaced our speaker and all our committee chairs, because otherwise we all would have been impeached in a kangaroo court run by about 4 kids who hated everyone. Yes, it is intense. But the thing is, there's high schools in this country where student government gets to be about that level. I certainly didn't go to one, but I know kids who did. My point was that the level of difficulty in running an election is entirely independent of the level of power being sought; it just depends on the level of the opposition. In fact, Kissinger has a great quote about university politics (not student politics, faculty politics). I will have to paraphrase, but it went something like 'the fighting is more intense than anywhere else, because there is very little actual power to be had.'

[Guest_Crimsondude 2.0_*]

Indeed. The epitome of zero-sum politics.

[Kremlin KOA]

oh crimson considering with a knowledge skill of 8 in a field EVERYONE in that field references your info "when they speak of poliSci they use your name" Maciavelli would have had an 8 UN poli sci specs MIGHT have an 8 I think you overestmate the importance of US presidential elections