thread: 2005-09-22 : Executive Decision, the RPG
On 2005-09-26, Vincent wrote:
I have frankly no idea how possible it will be to play non-US. Maybe very, very difficult. It's pretty much The West Wing the RPG, so if The West Wing translates more-or-less painlessly into your local governmental idiom, Executive Decision probably will too.
How the game works is, you play the Prexy and her secretaries (of State, of the Interior, of Defense, etc.) confronting a particular preset situation (like the Baker Situation). You argue, then the Prexy decides, then you all find out how it works out and whose agendas win and whose lose.
It plays strictly in one hour for the 1-hour scenarios and two hours for the 2-hour scenarios. The Baker Situation is a 1-hour scenario. At 0:15, for instance, you read the next development in the situation, sparking the next round of arguments and Prexy-decisions.
Every player has issues she wins and loses according to the rise and fall of, so for instance the Sexy of Defense is going to be pushing for a solution that makes the military look good and do well, plus maybe the Sexy of Defense is also big into a balanced budget, so she's going to be pushing for a solution that won't cost too much money, things like that. When the Prexy chooses her final course of action, you read in the scenario which issues benefit and which suffer, according to the Prexy's decision.
You also get points for going on the record predicting certain facts in the scenario. Like you might say "y'know, I'll go on the record predicting that she's really a monkey," and when it turns out she's really a monkey, you get points.
The Prexy doesn't have the same stake as everybody else - more like a GM or referree or the host of Whose Line is it Anyway, right? Or better: the Prexy is the goal posts. The game is to a) figure out the scenario well enough to make correct predictions and choose a side consistent with your issue-agenda, then b) talk the Prexy into taking that same side.
Ha! I used an unconventional gender pronoun to refer to the Prexy! Yay me.
This makes NinJ go "Shouldn"
This makes NinJ go "Shouldn't that be the "Sexy of Defense"?"
Stupid return key!
This makes VB go "so noted. Done and done."
This makes lpl go "Prexy? Sexy?"
I've never seen these terms before. What happened to good ol' POTUS?
This makes VB go "'prexy' is alas out of fashion now..."
This online etymology dictionary lists "prexy" back to 1871. J coined "sexy" for sec'y just above.
