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Hidden Agenda Game Idea

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Tue, 03/15/2011 - 12:09
bhazzard
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Below is an idea for a politically themed game in which players are trying to get their bills passed. I would luck constructive criticism and feedback. Thanks!

Hidden Agenda

Congratulations on your decisive victory Congressman. Now it's time to get to work and make true on your promises to your constituents. Of course you may have your own hidden agenda items to work on too. And there are always special interests that would be happy to throw some money at you to get their way.

You'll be working with (and against) your fellow Congressmen to make United States law.

Components

Tokens for "politic points" A small deck of voting cards 2 large decks of bill cards (a deck for players and a deck for the game) A large deck of special cards  - Protect a Bill: placed on top of a bill, it protects it from Filibusters, Revisions, and if it wins the vote, Vetos  - Filibuster a Bill: remove a bill (and it's riders) from congress  - Reintroduce a Bill: pull a bill from the discard and introduce it to congress  - Revise a Bill: remove a rider from a bill  - Veto: Discard a bill that has been passed (as well as any riders attached to it)  - Special Interest: offer either an immediate monetary award that the player can claim if a particular law is passed, or an income that can be received each turn as long as a certain law is/is not in affect.  - others... Suggestions accepted

Objective

The goal is to be the first to get 3 of your bills passed.

Starting

At the beginning of the game each politician will be dealt: a party platform, and a hidden agenda  - Party Platform: 2 bills played face up in front of the player.  - Hidden Agenda: 2 bills kept secret from other politicians

Playing

Each turn consists of 2 phases:

Phase 1: Introduce a Bill

Draw 3 bills from the deck. Put one on the top of the deck, discard one face up on the discard pile, and introduce one. To introduce a bill play it either in it's own space in congress, or as a rider to another bill.

Phase 2: Take an Action

You may do one of the following:  - Discard a special action card and take 2 politic points  - Pay 2 politic points to draw a special action card, play a special action card  - Freely distribute any of your politic points to bills as a way to incentivize voting for the bill

Voting

As soon as congress is filled, a vote is triggered. For each space in congress, players will play either a vote card for "in favor", "not in favor" or "no vote" face down, and then all votes will be revealed simultaneously. If the bill does not pass, it is discarded along with any riders, and any points on the bill are returned to the bank. If the bill passes, it is moved to the law area and those who voted yes split any points on the bill, with the remainder of the points returning to the bank. In the case of a tie it remains in congress, and anyone who voted yes must put a point on the bill to support it, if they are able.

After the vote, normal play resumes

Winning

On a players turn, if three of his bills are laws, he may reveal the hidden agenda bills to win the game.

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Wed, 03/16/2011 - 14:35
#1
bhazzard
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Formatting

Darn... not all of the formatting made it....

Either way, I would love feedback on the basic game idea.

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Wed, 03/16/2011 - 16:02
#2
rcjames14
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Modeling Congress

The design is elegant. Without very many special cases, it creates the possibility for log rolling, calling in markers and party politics. Most of the fundamental dynamics of congress will emerge over the course of play.

However, there are a few missing gaps in your description. What does it mean for congress to be full? How does that happen and how quickly can it happen? Is it related to the number of bills. The number of markers or something else?

And, will everyone have a different platform, or will there be party overlaps so that it isn't every man for himself?

Where do the initial bills and platforms come from? Are they an exact duplicate of the bill deck or something else? What happens if the bills you need to win are stuck at the bottom due to luck of the draw? And how would you ever guess what someone's secret agenda is?

If you can't know... then everyone will feel a little surprised and let down when someone says they just won.

What if you introduced constituency cards to the game instead and gave everyone four. Two are face up (voters) two are face down (special interests). Then, let's say that each bill favors certain constituents and is worth 1point. If it favors more than one of your constituents, it could be worth multiple points. The game still works exactly as you wrote, only it is the first player to have 10 or more points worth of bills passed in favor of his constituents that wins.

I also assume that the special action cards you have in mind are all procedural maneuvers in congress. Cool.

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Wed, 03/16/2011 - 17:21
#3
bhazzard
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Thanks

Thanks for commenting on my design and for the critical analysis and suggestions.

Yea, when I say "When congress is full" what I mean is that a certain number of "spaces" have been filled by a bill or multiple bills. I need to playtest to decide how many spots is the right amount too give enough time for strategy, without making it drag. To some extent, players will decide how long it takes for congress to be filled up depending on whether they go the route of playing bills as riders, or stand alone.

As for your constituency cards, I like it! What do you think of the game ending after a number of voting rounds? Let's say 3 for now... This way instead of ending at a set number of points you end at a predetermined point. Then players reveal their hidden agenda (face down) constituent cards and total up their points (1 point for every bill that favors them).

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Wed, 03/16/2011 - 18:18
#4
rcjames14
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Congressional Sessions

bhazzard wrote:
This way instead of ending at a set number of points you end at a predetermined point.

Perfect. The two years are up and it's time for another election... Only the players who reached a certain threshold of popularity at home make it to the next round! ;)

For a light game, of course, shorter is better, so just use the highest points at the end of the session to determine the winner. Excellent.

It is also possible for each bill to offend certain constituents for negative points... But I think an all positive model will end up being a faster, friendly, game.

The one problem I foresee though is with the voting mechanic. Unless votes are distributed unevenly (let's say each special card has a different vote value) even numbers of players will end up in a lot of ties and the game will deadlock during the end once players realize who will score more points for each bill.

What if each card represented a voting block, each of different size, so that if you have lots of special cards from voting in favor of other peoples stuff, you can slam through your own special interest bills when you need to?

Somehow the voting mechanic has to be more complicated than one player one vote. Otherwise you will run into problems when the shadow of the future is gone and everyone reasons backwards. The advantage of first to ten is that players may not know how much they are helping another person when they are voting for a bill for its political markers.

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Fri, 03/18/2011 - 09:25
#5
bhazzard
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Prototype

I'm currently working on a prototype for play testing. I'll start with just handwritten index cards, but once I have something that works, I'll try to make something I can upload for others to try.

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