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> Game Guidebook, Official rules to be drafted later
kendg8r
Posted: Mar 29 2006, 10:59 AM
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Administrator
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Road to Power

Road to Power is the latest incarnation of the �Road to the Presidency� game. In this version, the most likely presidential candidates are those who drive on a longer road to power, and thus are those most likely to succeed. In Road to Power, you have the opportunity to take over a political action committee, a national party organization, a local campaign, a national media outlet, or a nationwide contest. The path that takes you to the Presidency is up to you, but no matter what, success will be hard-earned.

This new game will have several distinct phases: 1) initial filing/hiring for PACs and Congress; 2) congressional qualifying races; 3) mid-terms, including any remaining congressional qualifiers and the Senate and Governor races, if any; 4) presidential primaries; 5) the national conventions; and 6) the general election.

Any player may join the game at any stage (except the week of the conventions), although their ability to compete will be more difficult at each stage. Players may also opt out of certain phases, especially the third party candidates. (Such as, if a Green candidate won his state legislative seat, he may want to run for President rather than drain his resources on a House seat.)


PHASE ONE: JOB FILLING
There are a number of appointed jobs in the RTP universe for which you have to make bids: 1) PAC Executive Director, 2) National Party Chair, and 3) Editor of Kernscorp Gazette. There are also positions only won by election: 1) Congressman, 2) Senator, 3) Governor, 4) Vice President, and 5) President. Everything else except FEC Chairman is a matter for a candidate�s biography, subject to the necessity for realism. (That is, a Green Party candidate is not likely to be Lieutenant Governor of Texas, or CEO of a Forbes 500, but could be a state legislator from states like Alaska or Vermont.)

PAC Executive Director. The most prominent positions to be gained in Phase One are the PAC executive directors. In that position, you will control the fundraising and expenditures of a special interest group, which could gain you valuable friends if you run for Congress or President later on. Or, you can just build up your power by making the PAC more influential as the game progresses. But be careful � the PAC�s board of trustees will fire you if you are too inactive, or if you veer off from their PAC�s usual political activities. The PACs you can take charge of include:
  • Right to Life Committee (abortion)
  • Emily�s List (abortion)
  • Brady Campaign (gun control)
  • National Rifle Association (gun control)
  • Club for Growth (business)
  • AFL-CIO (business)
  • National Taxpayer�s Union (tax)
  • Alliance for Tax Justice (tax)
  • American Medical Association (healthcare)
  • Association of Trial Lawyers (healthcare)
  • League of Conservation Voters (environment)
  • National Association of Manufacturing (environment)
  • Human Rights Campaign (gay rights)
  • Christian Coalition (gay rights)

Only one person can take charge of a PAC, and can only take charge of one PAC at a time. While in charge of a PAC, you cannot run for elected office. If a politician gets elected at any phase of the game can convert their candidate treasury into a leadership PAC for the phases they don�t participate in, but otherwise there will only be these 14 PACs available.

If there is no player to control the PAC, the Administrator will keep it running modestly, so it can be picked up later in the game.

National Party Chair. This position is most important for the two parties that will have a national party account from the beginning of the game � the Democrats and the Republicans. Any third party that nominates a separate presidential candidate will be allowed to set up a separate account at that point.

The party chair will marshal the national resources of the party, helping his candidates win Senate and Governor races, as well as helping their standard-bearer win the big finale. But beware � while the RTP Administrator appoints the party chair, he will force the resignation of a chair as a result of inactivity or a petition by the party (or its presidential nominee) requesting a new one. So this chair will need to keep his party happy, if they are to succeed.

Editor of Kernscorp Gazette. The official newspaper of the game, Kernscorp Gazette, is always looking out for aspiring journalists and muckrakers. The editor will need to ensure there is a steady stream of news stories, commentary, and interviews with the candidates. And if there is a gaffe occasionally, or a scandal, to escalate it into a crisis. This position is controlled by the Administrator, who will provide news stories himself from time to time, but the editor will be given a free reign, as long as they are doing the job.

Congressman. Every player has the option to participate in one of two congressional qualifying races. This 3-4 turn mini-election serves both as an exploratory period for presidential candidates, and as an opportunity for players to establish themselves as candidates (and thus use their campaign treasury like a leadership PAC in races they aren�t in). But be careful, these are still elections, and being inactive or ineffective in your campaign could cause you to lose � which would not necessarily be a good thing. The Administrator will set up NPCs (non-player characters) as your opponent(s), unless there are multiple players with a burning desire to be Congressman from Wyoming (or other small states). Yes, that means I will ask you to amend your character biography if you are the second or third player from the same city, unless that city has multiple districts, in which case I�ll just assign you a different district. Unless you specifically want to run without a current federal office, it�s probably a smart idea to at least participate in the congressional qualifying period.

Note: Picking a city/state and district to run in can be significant. Liberal Democrats running in rural Alabama will most likely lose their race for Congress, even if they run the best campaign. Likewise a right-wing Republican running in San Francisco. But a moderate in either party running in Connecticut or the suburbs of Las Vegas could do well, just not overwhelmingly well. You and your district have to be at least partially compatible to win, but I will make it easy if you are. Just keep in mind that good Presidential candidates are not ideological extremists living in their party�s strongholds.

Senator or Governor. Simply put, you have to run in the mid-terms to claim either of these positions in your biography. It will also take considerable amounts of cash to win, so you might be better off only running for these in a smaller state, although there is no ban on running in the bigger states. These mid-terms will be longer than the congressional qualifying, but shorter than the presidential race. In fact, if there are no primaries, the Administrator will likely waive the primaries to speed up the races.

But this is an important stage in RTP. The presidential wannabes, the PACs, and the VP-prospects will all have stakes in the outcome of these elections. Even the national parties will want to preserve a sense of momentum by winning a majority in the Senate or the governorships. And even those planning on immediately jumping to a run for President after the mid-terms could use that cycle to either fund-raise, hone speech-writing and earn thank-yous, or make a risky test-run of a campaign plan.

President. Running for President is at the heart of the RTP series, and this time it is no different. Anyone can run for the Democratic or Republican nominations. None of the other parties are big enough to warrant a full primary, but just as you can for the congressional, senatorial, or gubernatorial races, you can seek the endorsement of one of RTP�s numerous third parties, to help build a national movement. (In fact, in previous RTP games, players did just that in forming the Grassroots and Progressive Conservative parties.)

Democrat/Republican races involve a primary campaign with bids to gain delegates. As with previous RTP games, most Democrat delegates will be selected with a modified proportional voting system (any candidate with more than 10% of the vote gets a proportional share of the state�s delegates), with some �at-large� delegates going to the overall winner (in order to ensure a timely decision on a nominee). The Republicans will, by contrast, handle most of their delegates strictly through winner-take-all.

Once a majority of delegates back a nominee, or a deal is reached at the convention to that end, the party will transform into general election mode. The nominee will select a VP, a party chair will take over the party�s national funds (comprised primarily of money collected from failed candidates or from fundraising events), and the nominee will control $75 million in public funds.

Any candidate can seek the endorsement of a third party, either as a crossover vote or as a separate candidacy. A third party does not have an account for national funds at the start, but can apply to set one up, as long as the party chair is a registered player other than the nominee or the VP nominee. I ban candidates from fundraising during the general, so anyone thinking of running as an Independent should either fundraise like mad during the primaries or assume the nomination of a third party in order to set up an account that can raise money. Otherwise, your campaign is basically dead on arrival.


POLITICAL PARTIES
The major parties are the Democratic and Republican parties. They will have automatic ballot access in every state, a national committee with which to raise money, a nationally broadcasted convention, and a full primary schedule. They�ll be interested mostly in securing a majority of the Senators and Governors elected during the mid-terms, as well as winning the Presidency.

The third parties in RTP are as follows: Green, Libertarian, Reform, Independence, Natural Law, and Conservative. RTP will also recognize Independent candidates and �other� parties (but we don�t have extra graphics for any new names). RTP�s election laws allow any of the 6 minor parties to either cross-endorse a major candidate or to pick their own, in any of the elections, and they will endorse someone if they are asked and they think it�s worth it.

(For those wondering, RTP considers the Reform party to be of the Pat Buchanan conservative protectionist/populist variety, while the Independence party is a more centrist, good government sort of party. Every other party should be clear as to their meaning.)


GAME PLAY
RTP is a mix of online interaction, role-playing, and turn-based action simulation. Each �turn� is a set period of time, usually no less than 3 days and no more than 5 days, depending on the calendar. During each �turn� a number of activities can be used to further your political agenda. At the end of each turn, the Administrator produces a set of poll numbers and financial records to show you where you are. He will also randomly add news stories and the like to the environment.

Time warp. Road to Power is a sequel to RTP, and a �reboot�. We do not consider any past RTP history as relevant for the game�s purposes. We do consider it �present day� in the sense that most news stories will be usable, and will let you know which ones won�t be. President Bush is leaving office in our timeline, however, so it is almost like we are in 2008, but not really.

Activities during a turn. As stated, players have a number of activities available to them during a turn, some come standard with every turn, others are up to the player to choose.

Optional activities. The following are considered �optional� in the sense that you are given space on your schedule to include up to two of these a day, and can do as many during the turn as you wish to fill up the time, or not.
� Resting � a good idea once in a while, or you�ll catch a cold or make a gaffe
� Canvassing � this is the pavement-pounding, personal greeting events
� Policy speech � a good idea for press attention
� GOTV � one of many activities including rallies and lit-drops (and there is a difference with canvassing here when it comes to the RTP turnout and polling model)
� Fundraising � no-brainer, right?
� Press conference � for mud-slinging, chatting with the press, etc. (should use sparingly)

Standard activities. The following are the activities you can do at every turn. Not mentioned are �press releases� and �op-ed� pieces, as they aren�t part of the activity form. Releases are any time comments are made, responses given, etc., that aren�t tied to an actual event. �Op-Ed� pieces must be cleared with the Kernscorp Gazette � no other uses of media outlets are considered worth it.
� Advertising production (yep, it�s required that you actually write your ads, but if you�re smart, you�d write them sparingly and focus on key issues)
� Advertising budget (this is where you spend money on actually airing the ads)
� Ballot access (general election only, third parties only)
� Field operations (setting up organizations on the ground)

Special rule. Now, some optional activities make more sense in conjunction with a standard activity, and thus a Special Rule is born. In order to canvass or do GOTV, a candidate must have produced, under advertising production, �campaign literature� or �fliers�. But these are cheap to produce, and most of the cost for canvassing is making copies of these fliers.

Debt management. Spending more than you have is a habit of government, but shouldn�t be a habit of a party, PAC, or candidate. To be realistic, RTP does allow players to run up a debt, but it has consequences. Players with campaign debt find that fundraising is a bit more difficult, bad press can accumulate (including staff revolts over not getting paid), an added expense is charged to their account (interest payments on that debt), and it could quickly lead to their going bankrupt.

In Road to Power, I will let players choose whether to pay down their debt or simply pay for interest (7.5% per turn). As long as you fundraise enough to pay the interest, I�ll let you continue playing. Once you can�t even meet interest payments, then you�re bankrupt. In some ways, this can be more lenient, or more restrictive then the previous debt rules. For example, I don�t prevent you from campaigning or running ads, as long as interest payments can be paid, although this might create added debt if you�re not careful.

This option only applies if you spend more than you have. (You can�t simply choose to delay paying expenses in order to have impressive cash on hand numbers.) If you don�t make a choice, then the default is to pay off debt (and cancel all activities that can be avoided).

Staffing. As with any organization, political groups need staffs to operate. Unlike some sims, I don�t offer specific services for specific staffers, as I don�t have the time for it. But RTP will provide advice as part of news analysis and things of that sort. Still, we do simulate the costs of hiring staff in two distinct ways.

Central offices (or national HQ�s) are required of all parties, PACs, and campaigns. Their costs vary depending on the size of the organization. (Congressional campaigns need far smaller spaces than the national parties.) The cost of establishing and maintaining a central office can be expensive, but they cover the expenses of having most of the paid staff you�d ever need, except field staff (see below).

Field offices are optional for candidates, and have a uniform cost lower than that of the central office. You can have field offices in every election except the congressional qualifying period. These offices can be expensive, but placing a field office in a congressional district will enhance your turnout operation there. (You can have as many field offices in a state as that state has congressional districts.) In the presidential general election, field staff is hired at a much reduced cost, as the increased free media attention requires less hands-on paid staffing. While they are mostly gravy for the two big parties, the smaller parties absolutely need field staff if they hope to have a decent showing.

Campaign finance. There are two ways to finance a campaign � through private donations or through public subsidy. For RTP purposes, the only public financing available is for the presidential candidates. Everyone else uses private donations. And you can roll-over your funding regardless of what election you�re in.

Private donations come from three primary sources � fundraising dinners and related events, direct mail solicitations, and the Internet. In RTP, this translates into the events put into your campaign schedule, the varying strengths of your campaign, and whether you have a website. (We won�t factor in Internet donations unless you set up a website; the better the design, the better the Internet donations. The other two events relate to your relative ideology and how well you appear to be doing in simulated actions.)

The public system has changed from previous RTPs. Now, you can either opt-in, or opt-out of the system, rather than being forced into it for the presidential primaries and general election. We use to give block grants for registering, having a website, being a governor or living in a big state. But that�s been scrapped for a simpler system. Basically, the public financing for the primaries is a matching grant system. For the first $10 million raised, the government will give enrollees a 1 for 1 match. For the next $20 million, it will give a 1 for 2 match. So, if you raise $30 million, the government will give you $20 million, but you are capped at spending $50 million and no more.

You can opt-out for just the primaries, as Bush and Kerry did in 2004, or you can opt-out altogether, if you find you are a prolific fundraiser. Basically, you have to guess whether you can raise significantly more than $50 million. (Otherwise, if you raise $54 million, then you busted your bum raising $20 million you could have been handed free and easily, just so you can bust the cap by a measly $4 million. Is that worth it?)

And you can�t opt-out after you receive your first dime of public money. (Which is given after you hold 5 fundraisers in 5 different states.) But you can opt-in later, assuming you haven�t reached the spending cap yet. But be careful � my guess is if you don�t raise $1 million in your congressional race or $10 million in the Senator/Governor race, that you probably won�t raise more than $50 million for President. On the other hand, your campaign can find itself bankrupted and disqualified if you run up against the spending caps with debt left-over.

In both primaries and the general election, public financing is available only to the two major parties. (Technically, minor parties really don�t have primaries, or enough votes to justify a general election grant, so they have no need for this system.)

In the general, public financing is worth a $75 million check after the conventions, to do with as pleased. Again, you could opt-out, if you have plenty of money left-over, or could raise much more than that. But it�s not likely that you would opt-out. After all, all Democrats and all Republicans, as they withdraw from the presidential race, deposit their final balances into their national party accounts. If you opt-out, that money stays with you, and carried over, but the party starts with nothing and also has to significantly fund-raise at the same time you are fundraising.

Third parties see no public funds from RTP. But their nominee can retain whatever he raised in the primaries, and raise more money in the general election, along with their national party account (except Independents).

Contribution limits. RTP modifies the FEC code with respect to contribution limits. Any candidate committee or PAC may contribute up to $25,000 per candidate or PAC per election (RTP has 4-5 elections). The exception is that candidate committees can be rolled over into leadership PACs, and withdrawing candidates not creating leadership PACs will transfer their balance to their national party. But leadership PACs cannot be rolled into candidate committees (except the first $25,000), so it would be a good idea to �dump� your money (i.e., make a large number of contributions to empty your treasury) before you announce your campaign.

Independent and coordinated advertising. On a related subject, PACs and parties can also run advertising on behalf of their chosen candidates. �Coordinated� advertising is any ads by a PAC or national party that appear very similar or identical to candidate ads, or vice versa, or any ads written by the two together. �Independent� advertising is any ads written by the PAC or party that is distinct from or done without the knowledge of the candidate featured.

�Coordinated� advertising done by PACs is forbidden, but acceptable for national parties. There is no limit to independent advertising, except the limit of one�s finances.

Ballot access. Placing your name on the ballot in the presidential primaries is free. For every other race (including congressional qualifying period), there is a registration fee of ballot access fee assessed. The amount of this fee varies by state, dependent on the number of congressional districts it has (except when running for congress, where there is a flat fee for anyone who runs). For the presidential general election, ballot access is automatic in every state for the Democratic and Republican nominees. Ballot access is also free for the home state(s) of the third party nominees (Pres and VP), but otherwise it requires a fee. Third parties could gain access to the every state�s ballots, or they can be strategic and try a smaller window of states. But beware � you cannot canvass, do GOTV, run ads, or operate offices, where you do not have ballot access, and just because you are on the ballot in fewer states doesn�t guarantee you a higher % of the vote. In prior RTPs, we limited the # of ballot access requests to 5 per turn, so that even a rosy scenario left third parties off the ballot in 3-4 states. Now, as long as you can afford and chose to do so, you can gain access in every state.


--------------------
Ken Kerns
Administrator, Road to Power
AIM: ufdemocrat | Email: kernscorp@yahoo.com
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