Vote in my Campaign's Election

[Daigoro]

Wouldn't the miners make a significant voting bloc?

[Tomsdad]

Originally Posted by Daigoro

Wouldn't the miners make a significant voting bloc?

They could well be, either way they will have to be considered both as voters and as a section within society who's original role is gone (but not necessarily with skill sets that aren't of use, see above)

One assumes all the miners were at the new year's celebration, and there wasn't teams on site when it all happened.

[Celjabba]

Hard to choose, but I voted for Elias.

Smith as described seem dangerous.
Moore would be a logical choice for a coalition leader, but Elias has a point : Monster around, No food supply and no support = need for an (hopefully temporary) general conscription. The delays and compromises inherent in a coalition approach may prove deadly.
Of course, hopefully it will be a Cincinnatus, not a Maximinus.

The "access to magic" bit may change everything, of course ... any more details on that point ?

Edit : forgot to add that this seem like an awesome campaign !

[smurf]

My knee jerk would be voting for the incumbent.

However, what are people talking about in the Saloons?

Or what do the women think (although they have no vote).

BTW is this akin to the 1632 novels?

[Not another shrubbery]

Originally Posted by dfinlay

On arriving, everyone had access to magic, but the area around was mostly an arid dustbowl, strange monsters roam the wilds and the town is now cut off from the farms and trade that supported it. It's been just over a month and the town hasn't found any other sapient life, though they have found some old ruins. Most people's biggest priority is getting enough food before the town starves, which isn't looking good.

No arable land at all? No food source has been found? The monsters, are they aggressive? Have they been a problem inside the town? And what's this about magic? What kind?

[Anthony]

Given the available information, I wouldn't expect a change in government -- in general, to force a change in government, you have two needs:

1. Demonstrate that the existing government isn't doing its job.
2. Appear a suitable alternative.

You haven't really done (1), and (2) looks dubious too. Being more specific might help.

Originally Posted by dfinlay

Wesley Smith: The old mine boss... He claims that he can make hard decisions fast, unlike Edgar, and knows how to keep people working hard in dangerous environments.

Has this been a problem? His candidacy would look more plausible if indecision was a demonstrable problem. Also, you really need to give him some positive traits to balance out the negatives, or no-one will consider him.

Originally Posted by dfinlay

Karl Elias: ... His platform is that Harmony is effectively at war with its new environment and needs martial discipline. He wants to establish a clear chain-of-command and try to transition the town's structure to something resembling an army base.

Does he even want to be mayor? Martial discipline under civilian senior command is something he'd be perfectly familiar with.

[Sciencezam]

Smith is a bad choice because graft - in a dire situation with scarce resources - is a recipe for disaster. Elias seems capable, but monsters are conceptually just like...large wolves, so a full conscription may not be necessary. But the biggest thing in favor of Moore is his focus on actually getting people to get along; we'll need to work together, and iron-handed tactics don't sound like a good plan.

[Captain Joy]

This kind of reminds me of the Battlestar Galactica reboot. Humanity suddenly finds itself down to a precious few. Put that military man in charge!

[Daigoro]

Originally Posted by Tomsdad

One assumes all the miners were at the new year's celebration, and there wasn't teams on site when it all happened.

This led me to checking on how new year's used to be celebrated- I'm sure it hasn't always been the over-the-top affair we have now- and thus learnt about Watchnight.

Don't know if it'd be at all useful, but perhaps it could add an interesting twist to who was where when the town slipped dimensions.

[dfinlay]

Originally Posted by Phantasm

Usually, when a town was starting out, the saloon owner ended up as judge and mayor by default, because his place was the largest gathering spot, unless the local preacher had a separate church building. Did Moore start as the saloon owner?

He was once the saloon owner, but hasn't ran it for a decade. In recent times, it has been run by a nephew of his.

Originally Posted by Icelander

These aren't just frontier townspeople any more. For all they know, they are the only people in the world and the new Founding Fathers of this reality's United States (or any other polity they choose to make). Their concerns are fundamentally different to those of a frontier town where they can call inothers for help or leave if they choose.

This is a really good point and is one that none of the PCs have brought up, nor really have any of the candidates (at least not in those terms).

Originally Posted by Tomsdad

Smith may actually be a problem (he sound like he's already causing them), he is now a mine owner without a mine. So he's gone from major power in the local area to a person who just lost his source of power but maybe still able to command loyalty or at least support of the mine workers who have also just lost the initial basis for their skill sets adding value to the town.

He (and maybe they) will need to be handled carefully in order to be integrated into the new situation. As a general point as food stress increases tempers will rise and divisions will increase. Which to me means the skill set of Moore will be needed more than ever!

This absolutely could been (some would say, has been) a problem already.

Originally Posted by Tomsdad

Quick question what's the town doing for water? If it's sinking wells, that may well be new work for Smith and his crews.

There's a river a few miles from the town's new location (on the banks of which is where they are trying to set up new farms) and some people have been lugging water from there. There are also wells already in place within the town proper and some of those still have water flowing into them. While some people have talked about something more substantial for water, there is a lack of building materials and it's seen as lower priority than other issues, since they do have enough water to get by.

Originally Posted by JoelSammallahti

I'd like to know the candidates' Appearance, Charisma, Status and Reputation modifiers in order to make an informed decision. (That is, a Reaction Roll). :)

Heh. I don't actually have stats written up for them, but here goes:

Appearance: Smith and Elias both have Attractive, but Smith's is a muscled good looking man sort, while Elias has that stately older gentleman sort. Moore is average appearance.

Charisma: I don't think any of them actually constitute a level of Charisma.

Status: Smith and Moore are Status 2, while Elias is Status 1.

Reputation: Moore has Rep 2 (Everyone's friend). Smith has Rep 2 (Hard-working and quick-thinking), as well as Rep -1 (Slightly crooked). Elias has Rep 1 (War hero), rising to Rep 2 among former Union soldiers.

Core campaigning skills: Moore: Leadership 10, Diplomacy 11, Public Speaking 12, Carousing 11, Politics 10
Smith: Leadership 11, Carousing 13, Public Speaking 8, Diplomacy 9, Politics 8
Wesley: Leadership 12, Public Speaking 11, Politics 9, Diplomacy 9

Originally Posted by Daigoro

Wouldn't the miners make a significant voting bloc?

Originally Posted by Tomsdad

They could well be, either way they will have to be considered both as voters and as a section within society who's original role is gone (but not necessarily with skill sets that aren't of use, see above)

One assumes all the miners were at the new year's celebration, and there wasn't teams on site when it all happened.

They absolutely are a large voting bloc and a good chunk of that is likely to vote for Smith, but definitely not all of them.

Originally Posted by Celjabba

The "access to magic" bit may change everything, of course ... any more details on that point ?

Sure. It's a (completely insane) homebrew system where people get cards when completing various tasks (the tasks are randomly generated and include things from climbing mountains to starting fights to convincing someone to trust them). Each spell people have has a poker hand associated with it (better hand = more powerful spell) and once they've assembled the hand, they can play it to cast the spell. I can give more deets in a post in a bit.

In effect, magic seems to want people to do weird things and rewards them with power for doing so (this is naturally a source of chaos in the town). The more strategic-scale can do some pretty insanely powerful things (ex: granting someone Extra Life or changing the biome type of a 5 mile by 5 mile area), but only a few in the town have access to magic of that level and it can take multiple sessions to pull off.

Originally Posted by Celjabba

Edit : forgot to add that this seem like an awesome campaign !

Thanks!

Originally Posted by smurf

My knee jerk would be voting for the incumbent.

However, what are people talking about in the Saloons?

The election was called on pretty short notice, so there hasn't been a lot of time. A lot of people are worried about the food situation and that not a lot has been done to solve it (people are setting up farms along the river but in a kind of haphazard way and it doesn't seem like it'll be enough).

Originally Posted by smurf

Or what do the women think (although they have no vote).

BTW is this akin to the 1632 novels?

The women are fairly split but are overall skewed towards Moore.

And, I haven't read the 1632 novels but as I understand, the idea is somewhat similar, but was inspired a bit by Banestorm, a weird magic system idea I wanted to do, and wanting to do something a bit Weird Westy.

Originally Posted by Not another shrubbery

No arable land at all? No food source has been found? The monsters, are they aggressive? Have they been a problem inside the town? And what's this about magic? What kind?

There are some food stores that the town has that'll last for a couple months. There is some arable land along the river, but it's not particularly good arable land and getting it ready for harvest before the food runs out is going to be pretty difficult. There have been a couple incidents with monsters. One was eating cattle and the PCs took it down and a couple have attacked people outside town. None have actually attacked the town itself.

Originally Posted by Anthony

Has this been a problem? His candidacy would look more plausible if indecision was a demonstrable problem. Also, you really need to give him some positive traits to balance out the negatives, or no-one will consider him.

Yeah, I should have been more clear about this. A lot of people feel he should be specifically organizing the farming by drafting people into that work and taking command, but he's mostly just been letting people deal with it as they see fit. A lot of people also think he should be forcing rationing of the supplies, which he hasn't really done much of.

Originally Posted by Anthony

Does he even want to be mayor? Martial discipline under civilian senior command is something he'd be perfectly familiar with.

True. When one of the PCs asked him about this, he said he doesn't really want to be mayor but thinks that neither of the other candidates will be good for the town.

Originally Posted by Captain Joy

This kind of reminds me of the Battlestar Galactica reboot. Humanity suddenly finds itself down to a precious few. Put that military man in charge!

Yes. That was also a bit of an inspiration.

Originally Posted by Daigoro

This led me to checking on how new year's used to be celebrated- I'm sure it hasn't always been the over-the-top affair we have now- and thus learnt about Watchnight.

Don't know if it'd be at all useful, but perhaps it could add an interesting twist to who was where when the town slipped dimensions.

Yup. I know about Watchnight.