I had an idea for a board game while keeping an eye on the electoral maps yesterday, and whipped up the rules over the course of an hour or so. I've pasted them below, and welcome any thoughts you all might have.
In this game, each player is campaigning for President of the USA. The goal is to get the most electoral votes -- since presumably you have more than two players, a majority isn't plausible.
At the start of the game, you have a blank map of the USA, which is divided into states and media zones. Randomly lay down on each state a Population marker and three Stance markers -- these indicate how many electoral votes the state has, and the state's leanings on three key issues (the Red issue, the White issue, and the Blue issue, which you may decide correspond to actual real-life issues if you like). Yes, this means that Rhode Island might end up with a massive population.
Population markers have a number (2 through 12), which indicates how many people the state has. Each state gets as many electoral votes as they have population.
Each player then looks at the board, decides on their own stances on the three issues, and takes Stance markers to suit. The players start with $1 million each, in large bills.
Stance markers have a color (red, white, or blue) and a number (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6). 1 is liberal, 6 is conservative, and 3-4 are moderate. These numbers indicate how the state is projected to vote in the election. By influencing state stances to align with your own stances, you can get more states to vote for you, thus improving your odds in the election.
Play occurs over a series of six Months, each Month having 4 Weeks (i.e. turns). Players take turns in a clockwise order. At the end of each Month, the player to go first moves one step clockwise (so the player that went first now goes last, the player that went second goes first, etc.). At the end of the sixth Month, campaigning is finished and the winner is determined.
In a given Week, players may:
* Campaign in a state to solidify their position there
* Raise funds in a state
* Send advertisements out to their current media zone, to influence all states in that zone
* Reinvent themselves
Additionally, each week, the player can move to an adjacent state (before or after their normal action), and at the beginning of each Month each player can fly to any state in the country. For purposes of not being a dick, Hawaii is adjacent to all west-coast states and Alaska is adjacent to Washington.
Campaigning in your current state
Decide how much money (in increments of $100k) you want to spend. Then pick an issue to campaign on. Your goal is to roll a d6 and get numbers that are higher than the difference between your stance on the issue, and the state's stance on the issue. For every $100k you spend, you get to roll 1d6. If you succeed, then the state's stance on the issue is changed to be closer to your own.
So for example, say you're campaigning in Iowa, which is slightly liberal on Red (2), heavily conservative on Blue (6), and heavily liberal on White (1). Your own stances are moderate (3) on Red, moderate (4) on Blue, and heavily conservative (6) on White. You decide that you want to change Iowa's stance on White, which is diametrically opposed to your own stance. Because the difference in your stances is 5 (6 for your own stance, 1 for Iowa's stance), you must roll a 6 to change their stance. You decide to spend $300k campaigning, so you roll three dice. You roll a 2, a 5, and a 6. Because the 6 is greater than 5, you get to change Iowa's stance on White, moving it closer to your own stance by 1. Iowa is now only slightly liberal on White.
If instead you wanted to change Iowa's stance on Blue, then you only need to roll more than a 2, because Iowa's stance is 6 and yours is 4. If you spent $200k and rolled a 3 and a 6, you would still only move Iowa's stance once.
Raise funds
In order to raise funds, you should to be in a populous state that agrees with your stances. Here your goal is to roll highly on 3d6, but you take a penalty for every point that you differ from the state on stances. For the Iowa example above, your stance differs by 1 in Red, 2 in Blue, and 5 in White, for a total penalty of 8. You roll 3d6, and get a 3, a 5, and a 4, for a total of 12. Subtracting your penalty from that, you get 4. Say that Iowa has a population of 5. Now look at the following chart for your extra funds:
Population range Funds multiplier (hundreds of thousands)
2-4 .5
5-7 1
8-10 1.5
11,12 2
In this case, Iowa's population of 5 puts it in the second population range, so you get 4*1 = $400k more funds. If Iowa's population had instead been 11, then you would have gotten 4*2 = $800k.
Advertise
Advertising is a way to influence several states at once. However, it is more expensive than straight campaigning, and you can only affect the three to six states in your current media zone. Like campaigning, you pick a stance and dedicate money, then roll dice; unlike campaigning, it costs you $200k per die roll, and you take a -2 penalty on your rolls. Note that this means it is impossible for an extremist candidate to influence opposed states: if your stance is 6 and the state's is 1 or 2, then because of the penalty you cannot possibly roll well enough to influence them. You only roll dice once for the entire media zone.
For example, if you are in Iowa, your current media zone includes Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Illinois. Your stance on Red is 3, while the states are 2, 3, 4, and 6 respectively. This means that to influence them, you must beat a 1, a 2, a 1, and a 3. You decide to dedicate $400k to your advertising, which gets you two die rolls; you roll a 1 and a 2. The 2 is enough to sway Iowa and Wisconsin; Minnesota already agrees with you, so they don't move. However, you were unable to change Illinois's stance, so it stays where it is.
Reinvent yourself
Sometimes the campaign is going badly, and you need to change your own stances. This is a costly maneuver to make, but it can help you make a comeback when the odds are against you.
On your turn, declare you are reinventing yourself. You must turn in all of your current funds, as well as your current stance markers. On your next turn, you select new stance markers, and on the turn after that, you may resume normal play (though you still have no money).
For example, say that the election is drawing near, and while you have a fairly solid standing in Blue, pretty much the entire country doesn't like your White stance, and you feel that you would be better off taking a more moderate stance in Red. On your turn, you declare that you are reinventing yourself, turn in your stance tokens and your money, and then end your turn. Next week, you choose your new stance markers -- you stay the same on Blue, but choose a totally different stance in White and move towards the center in Red, then end your turn. The week after that, you start campaigning again, secure in your new political position.
The Election
Once the last Month is complete, all campaigning is done. Now the votes are determined. Each state votes for to the candidate that most closely agrees with them on all three issues. Thus, for each state, compare the candidates' stances to the state's stance. Sum up the differences; the candidate with the fewest differences secures that state's electoral votes. The candidate with the most electoral votes is elected president, and wins.
Let's look at Iowa again. Say we have three candidates, resulting in the following grid:
Red White Blue Difference
Iowa 2 1 6
Clark 3 6 4 8
Rickard 2 4 3 6
Shepherd 5 2 6 4
In this case, Iowa likes Shepherd the best, so he gets Iowa's votes. Iowa's population of 5 means it has 5 electoral votes. Repeat this for each state to determine the winner of the game.
And that's it. Aside from scoring, I think it's pretty playable, and I've been sketching out designs in my head for a way to make a a Javascript/JSON/MySQL implementation. Any thoughts?
