Fictional Political Parties

[Agent X]

The thread that concerns itself with Invictus' political party got me to wondering. Has anybody run a game where party politics played a big part of the game? Has anybody run a game that explored the notion of a Party Realignment removing one of the traditional parties and replacing it with a fictional 3rd party turned major party? Has anybody run a game with totally fictional political parties?

[Enforcer84]

Re: Fictional Political Parties

 

The Promise Party.

Led by a former "Golden Ager" hero. He was the "American Dream" style patriot, was not pleased with the direction american politics were taking. The Promise Party began in 1955. They became a viable third party in 1996 and the leader, James MacArthur Preston lost to Clinton but came in ahead of Dole. His successor, (that was his third and final attempt at the presidency) Michael Wyss (a former sidekick who went into law after his youthful adventuring days) Also came in second in 2000. But in 2004 he took it with a landslide.

 

The Promise Party was for transparency and responsibility in Government. By 2004 they had approximately 20% of the House seats and 5% of the Senate. However, part of the Promise Party's rise came due to scandals involving (ironically enough, considering where we came from) Republican Senator David Sutherland, Democratice Senator Drew Walsh, and former Pentagon Official General Paul Stone.

[Agent X]

Re: Fictional Political Parties

 

The Promise Party.

Led by a former "Golden Ager" hero. He was the "American Dream" style patriot, was not pleased with the direction american politics were taking. The Promise Party began in 1955. They became a viable third party in 1996 and the leader, James MacArthur Preston lost to Clinton but came in ahead of Dole. His successor, (that was his third and final attempt at the presidency) Michael Wyss (a former sidekick who went into law after his youthful adventuring days) Also came in second in 2000. But in 2004 he took it with a landslide.

 

The Promise Party was for transparency and responsibility in Government. By 2004 they had approximately 20% of the House seats and 5% of the Senate. However, part of the Promise Party's rise came due to scandals involving (ironically enough, considering where we came from) Republican Senator David Sutherland, Democratice Senator Drew Walsh, and former Pentagon Official General Paul Stone.

Cool Stuff! How did you integrate this into the plot? Was it backdrop material, a recurring series of adventures, or the center-piece of the campaign?

[Enforcer84]

Re: Fictional Political Parties

 

Mostly Backdrop. I didn't want to have any political arguments when the Scandals Broke. The final bit, was central to the campaign, but brewed over time.

I even had to jump it to the forefront because half my players were moving soon to go to...no, not college...Bill moved to Minniapolis after getting his Phd. Pete went to his last year at Willamette and John, well he was still here, but it was much less fun with just the two of us.

THe three involved were the main sponsors of the Minutemen Project. It was a highly visible, highly politicized superhuman team. Broken into three (Four) parts: Red, White, and Blue (and Black).

The Red Team, was in DC, they were more Right Leaning in outlook. The Blue Team (and this was before the whole Red/Blue States thing by the way) was based in Sacramento. They tended towards moderate Liberalism. Then the White team was the International Team. Something of a thumb in the eye of the UN and UNTIL. The White team, while most often used as a humanitarian aid superteam, would occasionally forcefully extradite criminals or "Protect American Intrests" abroad in such a matter that bad press was sure to follow. The Black team were the wetworks team lead by Invictus himself. They didn't officially exist and Presidents Clinton and Bush Jr. were unware of their existance. The team was originally supposed to do what regular superheroes could not or would not do. But Sutherland used them to frame and eliminate political rivals. Things got out of hand because some of the members of Minute Men: Black were so unstable that they eventually became impossible to control.

 

The PC's had to face them twice and in the first fight two heroes were killed and one critically wounded. The second fight ended in Invictus' escape and the complete annihilation of the rest of the team, he sacrificed them to save his hide. The players were unable to save them. However, they were able to get to the bottom of the conspiracy that spead across both parties and into several criminal and (formerly) legitimate organizations. PRIMUS was devistated as it turned out 30% of their Silver Avengers were agents of Invictus.

 

Invictus was finally captured ...on election day.

[Agent X]

Re: Fictional Political Parties

 

Mostly Backdrop. I didn't want to have any political arguments when the Scandals Broke. The final bit, was central to the campaign, but brewed over time.

I even had to jump it to the forefront because half my players were moving soon to go to...no, not college...Bill moved to Minniapolis after getting his Phd. Pete went to his last year at Willamette and John, well he was still here, but it was much less fun with just the two of us.

THe three involved were the main sponsors of the Minutemen Project. It was a highly visible, highly politicized superhuman team. Broken into three (Four) parts: Red, White, and Blue (and Black).

The Red Team, was in DC, they were more Right Leaning in outlook. The Blue Team (and this was before the whole Red/Blue States thing by the way) was based in Sacramento. They tended towards moderate Liberalism. Then the White team was the International Team. Something of a thumb in the eye of the UN and UNTIL. The White team, while most often used as a humanitarian aid superteam, would occasionally forcefully extradite criminals or "Protect American Intrests" abroad in such a matter that bad press was sure to follow. The Black team were the wetworks team lead by Invictus himself. They didn't officially exist and Presidents Clinton and Bush Jr. were unware of their existance. The team was originally supposed to do what regular superheroes could not or would not do. But Sutherland used them to frame and eliminate political rivals. Things got out of hand because some of the members of Minute Men: Black were so unstable that they eventually became impossible to control.

 

The PC's had to face them twice and in the first fight two heroes were killed and one critically wounded. The second fight ended in Invictus' escape and the complete annihilation of the rest of the team, he sacrificed them to save his hide. The players were unable to save them. However, they were able to get to the bottom of the conspiracy that spead across both parties and into several criminal and (formerly) legitimate organizations. PRIMUS was devistated as it turned out 30% of their Silver Avengers were agents of Invictus.

 

Invictus was finally captured ...on election day.

Tres cool!

[hooligan x]

Re: Fictional Political Parties

 

In my campaign (set in 2056), the President Elect is Gerhardt Bivel, an Independant. He won for two reasons:

 

1.The Republicans and Democrats ran polarized canidates (scaring away moderate voters)

 

2.Bivel runs Bivcorp, a huge multinational corporation that is in the forefront of every field of scientific research, and happened to play a big part in stopping Hell's invasion of Washington DC (my PCs played a bigger part what with fighting the Queen of Hell and everything, thank you very much.). With this amazing PR ("Vote for Gerry Bivel! He saved you from Hell!") he won in a landslide.

 

 

 

Bivel is a big benefactor to the PCs (building their base, putting their kids in good schools, helping them kick drug habits). He is also the man who intentionally facilitated the invasion and is a devotee of Belal, a Caananite war god he hopes to bring to corporeal form by mass atomic sacrifice.

 

My PCs are starting to get wise to him and the shizzle is gonna hit the fizzle soon.

 

Anywho, I made him an Independant because I didn't want to bring real world politics into the game. Most of my players are pretty liberal (we are in Connecticut!) but I didn't want to blame Republicans for allowing demons to destroy half of the nation's capital.

 

[liberal freak out]I mean, why whould they? There's no money in it.[/liberal freak out]

[Guest C--]

Re: Fictional Political Parties

 

Most of my players are pretty liberal (we are in Connecticut!) but I didn't want to blame Republicans for allowing demons to destroy half of the nation's capital.

 

[liberal freak out]I mean, why whould they? There's no money in it.[/liberal freak out]

 

I used to live in Washington DC. Those poor demons are gonna get mugged so fast they won't know what hit them. They'll have to beg for change to ride the bus home.

 

"Hey mister, can I have a dollar?"

[hooligan x]

Re: Fictional Political Parties

 

I used to live in Washington DC. Those poor demons are gonna get mugged so fast they won't know what hit them. They'll have to beg for change to ride the bus home.

 

"Hey mister, can I have a dollar?"

 

The poor bastages who got stuck in DC when Hell's portal closed had a rough time of it. A few demons have filed for political asylum and at least is a naturalized US citizen working for Oracle, the mystical version of SHIELD in my campaign.

[Badger]

Re: Fictional Political Parties

 

I visited my aunt one time in DC. Never going back, no way, no.

 

Hope those poor demons dont get stuck running in that traffic in and out of the city. Poor, poor demons.

[hooligan x]

Re: Fictional Political Parties

 

I visited my aunt one time in DC. Never going back, no way, no.

 

Hope those poor demons dont get stuck running in that traffic in and out of the city. Poor, poor demons.

 

Your first mistake is driving in DC. My uncle lived in DC and never learned how to drive because the public transportation was so good. When I visited I was amazed by how urine-free their subway was. At least 75% less urine than NYC.

[assault]

Re: Fictional Political Parties

 

When I visited I was amazed by how urine-free their subway was. At least 75% less urine than NYC.

 

That's still a whole lotta urine, dude.

 

 

 

 

 

OK, I haven't been to NYC or Washington for twenty-five years, but the joke is still worth making...

[hooligan x]

Re: Fictional Political Parties

 

That's still a whole lotta urine, dude.

 

 

 

 

 

OK, I haven't been to NYC or Washington for twenty-five years, but the joke is still worth making...

 

Nah, dude. You're right. NYC is, like, urine central. I am so done with that place. I went there again last week to see Desmond Dekker and I will never go there again. Every time I go there I remember why I promised myself I wouldn't return. Eh, I'll forget and go back when the Killers and Louis XIV play. Stupid, stupid me.

[AlHazred]

Re: Fictional Political Parties

 

What about using historical political parties (that is to say, they are defunct), like the Federalists, or the American Party.

 

Or imaginary ones:

the PdP, the Party of the Disappointed People;

the Silver and Gold Parties;

or the Divisionists, Factualists, Liquefactualists, and Extremists?

[Susano]

Re: Fictional Political Parties

 

In KAZEI 5 (circa 2035) the primary fictional party is the money party.

 

Hmm... not much different then the real world, come to think of it.

[Susano]

Re: Fictional Political Parties

 

What about using historical political parties (that is to say' date=' they are defunct), like the Federalists, or the American Party.

 

Or imaginary ones:

the PdP, the Party of the Disappointed People;

the Silver and Gold Parties;

or the Divisionists, Factualists, Liquefactualists, and Extremists?

 

I wanna see someone bring back the Know Nothing Party. It seems so fitting for these modern times.

[Savinien]

Re: Fictional Political Parties

 

In the RCU, the uber-champions setting I play in the two parties are now Freedom and the other... Liberty, maybe?

 

Something about a situation called Vipergate where the President had been killed and replaced by a Viper-propagated clone. I wasn't in the campaign for all of that and don't recall all of the details. The GM told me it was because he didn't want to deal with RL political issues.

 

I ran one of the superteams in the campaign for a while and instituted a subset of government bent on Registration and idea of 'painting' meta-humans as the 'bad-guys' to push througha Registration Act. It's a long, convoluted plot with many NPCs and factions involved. At this point al of it is behind the scenes and covered in fan-fiction.

[Marcus Impudite]

Re: Fictional Political Parties

 

I'm a card carrying member of the All Night Party. Our plateform is built on loud music, heavy drinking, and causing the stuffed shirts from all the other parties many a sleepless night.

[Agent 13]

Re: Fictional Political Parties

 

What about using historical political parties (that is to say' date=' they are defunct), like the Federalists, or the American Party.

 

I recall an old Marvel campaign where our characters had some dealings with the candidate of a revival of Teddy Roosevelt's Bull Moose Party.

[Agent X]

Re: Fictional Political Parties

 

I suppose you could base two fictional parties off of the old Federalist/Anti-Federalist Parties and take them a different direction than the actual evolution of the American Party System. Hmmm, Federalists and Democratic Republicans...

[Vondy]

Re: Fictional Political Parties

 

My group was varied enought that I tried to avoid approximations of real life political movements and ideologies. They were certainly there, but I tried to keep the politics on the inter-agency and inter-meta-faction levels.

[teh bunneh]

Re: Fictional Political Parties

 

While my game is not getting involved in politics per se, one of the (soon-to-be-)recurring NPCs is a US Senator. I don't want real-world Democrats vs. Republicans in my game, but I do want the system to be the same. So when my players asked what party he belonged to, I said "He's in the Unionist Party, which stands in opposition to the Federal Party."

 

Which of the two represents the Democrats and which the Republicans, I'm never going to say. It's not important -- the only thing that matters is that the US has a two-party system cursed with partisan bickering and gridlock.

 

Bill.

(My UNITY group is remarkably apolitical for a team that represents the United Nations...)

[AlHazred]

Re: Fictional Political Parties

 

When I did political groups for one of my games, I think I ended up using the Federalists and Progressives, both because both were parties of real power back in the day, and because the names evoke the political system well without straightjacketing the GM (me) into definite "Democrat"/"Republican" categories.

 

Of course, that was before I found out that the Progressive party is currently experiencing an upsurge...