Who would run for office in the first Town Council of post-revolution Ravounel? These could be established NPCs or ones that represent a particular set of interests (e.g. Nandi Crissandi, a rural druid of Gozreh). What would their platform be?
More importantly, which people do you think would win?
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Who would run for office in the first Town Council of post-revolution Ravounel? These could be established NPCs or ones that represent a particular set of interests (e.g. Nandi Crissandi, a rural druid of Gozreh). What would their platform be?
More importantly, which people do you think would win?
You're doing multi-member districts in the following proportions, right? Castle District - 1; Yolubilis Harbor - 1; The Greens - 2; Temple Hill - 2; Jarvis End - 2; Old Kintargo - 3; Villegre - 3; Redroof - 3.
So, every organized political group (or coalition thereof) is probably going to have a slate. Organized political groups active at the junction of Books 4 and 5 of Hell's Rebels would include the Silver Ravens, the Court of Coin, the Churches of Abadar, Shelyn, and Milani, the Cloven Hoof Society, the Bellflower Network, the Order of the Torrent, and the Lacunafex. These will probably not all operate independently. The Church of Milani, the Cloven Hoof Society, the Bellflower Network, the Order of the Torrent, and the Silver Ravens all affiliated themselves with the Silver Ravens before the Ruby Massacre and the following uprising in Kintargo, and would likely fight an election under their banner in exchange for being represented in their slate. The Church of Abadar finds its natural allies in the Court of Coin but probably doesn't join its list formally - what more likely happens is that the Court of Coin doesn't field candidates in Temple Hill to allow the Church of Abadar to run. The Church of Shelyn could come to a similar arrangement with either big faction.
As for who's on the lists, we could do worse than mining the Silver Raven unique allies and the existing members of the Court of Coin. There are a couple obvious exclusions, of course; Manticce Kaleeki is off the list for the Silver Ravens as she's in Vyre (and AFAIK won't be encountered in your game until the middle of Book 5), Molly Mayapple's out for the same reason, and Jilia Bainilus is probably excluded for separation-of-powers reasons (Laria Longroad would be too, but this election is probably being held before your PCs find out who the Urvises are). Further, it doesn't make much sense for non-citizens (read: people from outside the city) to be permitted to run for a position that styles itself municipal, or for non-residents of a district to run to represent it (although I end up stretching this a bit due to lack of NPCs). Off the cuff, though, I'd imagine these would do:
Silver Ravens:
Castle District: Octavio Sabinus
Yolubilis Harbor: Chuko
The Greens: Marquel Aulorian
Temple Hill: Jackdaw, [***]
Jarvis End: Shensen, Vyvienne Ashurka*
Old Kintargo: Setrona Sabinus, Vespasio Vespam, Forvian Crowe
Villegre: Laria Longroad, Mialari Docur, Rexus Victocora
Redroof: Hetamon Haace, Strea Vestori, Zea
* Vyvienne's a recent NPC from Lost Omens Legends, so I imagine you haven't introduced her. If you don't want to, use Giveni Henge instead.
Court of Coin:
Castle District: [***]
Yolubilis Harbor: Sedranni Vashnarstill
The Greens: Sendi Vashnarstill
Temple Hill: [***], [***]
Jarvis End: Belcara Jarvis, Eldonna Aulamaxa
Old Kintargo: Canton Jhaltero, Nurla Botve, Athany Ironmane
Villegre: Iylvana Desdoros, Kohl Draksitus, Jenna Aeldervenk
Redroof: Maercin Kelimber, Leena Ravenlips, Dath Nerekni
Zachrin Vhast and Mhelrem Gesteliel are both running independently to represent Temple Hill. The SRs are leaving one slot in their slate open and campaigning for Vhast; the CoC hasn't nominated anyone and is simply campaigning against Jackdaw. The CoC also hasn't nominated anyone for the Castle District, and this is totally because they're fine with Sabinus and not because I ran out of NPCs that were even tenuously plausible for them to run. (Maybe Jenna Aeldervenk?)
I know you've seen my views on these groups' platforms before, so I won't recapitulate them here. But that was generally - for this specific election, it'd be helpful to know the issues that will dominate the campaign so posters can focus on those issues.
As for results, the campaign should, obviously be played out. Rallies and demonstrations of supporters, and debates between candidates, can be played using the social combat rules in different ways, and organization checks could possibly add bonuses or penalties thereto.
... and not because I ran out of NPCs that were even tenuously plausible for them to run.
Yeah, I've been afraid of that. With 17 reps and 11,100 citizens left at my table, this Town Council will be even more granular than the NH state legislature, which has one legislator per ~3,300 citizens.
You're doing multi-member districts in the following proportions, right?
I am. But I'm also trying to figure out the likely Ravounel elections, so candidates for either work. My players just seem to not care about much outside of city limits. That, I think, is a unforeseen result of moving Vyre's big dinner set piece to book 5 at my table.
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Yeah, I've been afraid of that. With 17 reps and 11,100 citizens left at my table, this Town Council will be even more granular than the NH state legislature, which has one legislator per ~3,300 citizens.
How did you come up with the number of members per district, by the way? Building density on the map as a proxy for population?
Here's a survey of some of the issues in play at my table:
National security and foreign policy: How do we stay free and what obligations do we have to others?
Relations with Cheliax, the Glorious Reclamation, Nidal.
Economic policy: What does “Free Trade” (one of my table’s slogans) mean?
Key issues: economic planning or hands off approach, environmentalism, tax increases, worker's rights.
Governance: What does “Free Kintargo” (one of my table’s slogans) mean?
The most hotly contested idea is whether to have a Lord-Mayor, what powers they should have, whether they are elected or employed by the Town Council, what kind of checks on their power will exist, etc.
What role should the Board of Governors play?
What is the fate of the nobles? What do rural voters want?
The PCs support term limits and a War Office of some sort. They debated a lot of stuff around simple majority vs. super-majority requirements.
Law and order: What does "free" mean?
Reparations for those who suffered most under Thrune from those who benefited most. The dottari split three ways at my table, and Tayocet Tiora was changed from the canon to be the good precinct captain forced down to beat cop by Thrune.
Education:
Support of the arts, sex ed, and just what is Lady Docur's long-term plan?
Religion: My table's Silver Ravens had "free religion" as a slogan
Should all religions be permitted? Which ones shouldn't? What do we do with Asmodeans?
One PC who runs a Cult of Doubralism (a.k.a. Zon Kuthon Reform) called for an unelected second town council consisting of representatives of all active religions who would "provide spiritual guidance" to the government. The others are a bit skeptical.
Constituencies:
Noble Houses, Vyre, halflings, tieflings, the Acisazi, the dottari, the various religions, the fence-sitters and minor collaborators, merchants, the Silver Ravens rank and file, the Cult of Doubralism, and rural voters.
And I would imagine the Sarinis would be spoilers trying to still curry favor with House Thrune or, if independent, lead a nation similar in role to Isger.
How did you come up with the number of members per district, by the way? Building density on the map as a proxy for population?
My table got really hung up on representativeness when the initial proposal was two reps per district for city-wide elections. I eyeballed what would be the least and most populous districts from there and just made a call to get them unstuck on that issue. Having an odd number helps too.
Other possible candidates (note there's some non-canon tweaks here and there):
Hortense Lierre: Castle Kintargo, LN fighter 4, team leader of Torrent Hellknight armigers
Saal Morvetchti: Yolubilis Harbor, the bridge tax and blockade ruined his beloved apple cinnamon roll business, Cinnamon Bliss.
Razvee: Yolubilis Harbor, CN male tengu rogue 5, runs the River Talons really but his front is a Curio Shop on the Bleakbridge, estranged from Chuko, might try to run a tengu like the one of the Fushi Sisters for office as another legitimate front.
Lorgun Hoon: Yolubilis Harbor, owns a fish store on the Bleakbridge, forced to supply free fish to soldiers.
Gednah Verliss: Yolubilis Harbor, forced to supply free cheeses and smoked meats from her shop, Bleakbridge Cheeses and Smoked Meats.
Dars Daven: Yolubilis Harbor, runs hat and parasol store Sunshaders on Bleakbridge.
Merilla Osenkian: Yolubilis Harbor, runs Fine Flowers (a competitor of the business of Iado), cornered the black market on mint in Villegre and The Greens.
Morten and Cessei Shallets: Old Kintargo, commoner parents of the sacrificial twins, became quite adept community organizers
Aava: Acisazi Village, CG aquatic elf ranger 2, active team leader in SRs and aided ferry service, wry.
Xerelilah (CG female old human cleric of Desna 8): Cypress Point, probably the only rural representative given screen time.
Carl the Sausage Vendor (non-canon from my table): Jarvis End, vendor at Ruby Masquerade and dottari riot to start campaign, knows a lot of people due to his trade.
Ryk: Redroof, N tiefling rogue 1 who runs a mystery meat store, Odde & Daughter Herbs, comic rivalry with Carl.
Bropholog the Sewer Sage: Redroof, otyugh cleric of Gozreh, advocates for the homeless and the undercity.
Morgar: lives wherever the HQ or the drinking is: Villegre or Old Kintargo, N Fighter 6 by this point.
Korva Fushi: Redroof, tengu rogue 2. Silver raven team leader.
Olmer: Old Kintargo, LN dwaft expert 6, fiercely loyal clientele, which he hopes will stick with him as he rebuilds.
[LOTS OF SPOILERS (and lots of reference to ideas from other threads!)]
National security and foreign policy: How do we stay free and what obligations do we have to others?
A national security candidate requires compulsory military service for two years for every citizen of Ravounel, ramped up personal arms production, and a naval and military surge to defend itself, while spreading fear about Cheliax and Nidal.
Supporters: Tanessens, rank and file of the Silver Ravens, a PC's Cult of Zon Kuthon Reformed (a.k.a. Doubralism).
Another candidate calls for immediate peace talks with Cheliax and a military alliance with Nidal to counter Cheliax.
Supporters: many, but bankrolled by House Delronge and Tanessen.
A moderate agrees that peace talks are necessary but is appalled by an alliance with Nidal.
Supporters: Shelynites, Cult of Zon Kuthon Reformed, House Jarvis and Aulamaxa, rank and file of the Silver Ravens.
Another candidate calls for open support of the Glorious Reclamation and to march on Egorian to crush it with the help of the forces in Westcrown.
Supporters: Milanites, Redroof, Vashnarstills (RP’d as followers of Cayden Cailean at my table), rank and file of the Silver Ravens.
Another candidate calls for Ravounel to simply accept political refugees fleeing from oppression rather than to engage in the civil war.
Supporters: rank and file of the Silver Ravens, House Jhaltero, Bellflower Network.
Asmodea Sarini proposes that Ravounel model itself on Molthune, but really aims to lead a “vassal state” like Isger. When that lands like a dead dragon, they turn to dirty tricks and trying to split the vote: attempts to steal ballots, flyers getting out the vote with the wrong date, funding minor parties to split the vote, trying to win with a minority share, and trying to pick up Abadaran and noble support through proposals of extending the franchise only to those who own land or can pay a “vote tax” to fund the election.
Who would these candidates be?
Economic policy: What does “Free Trade” mean?
A minor druidic candidate pledges to return Ravounel to nature, promising to devolve every city into a village, require grass to grow on every thoroughfare, and give animals rights. His chief of staff is his animal companion. Supporters: those in rural Ravounel resentful of Kintargo/Vyre's undue influence, Gozran worshippers, and rangers/druids.
Mhelrem Gesteliel, the CEO of the Church of Abadar, puts forward a plan centered on economic growth through centralized national economic long-range planning. They use their network of Abadaran priests throughout Ravounel and connections to merchants to generate ideas and boost support for a platform whose specifics include creating spurs off the Ravounel and Silver roads, increased mining and timber production, creation of a glass-making industry, etc.
Supporters: They gain support from the Vashnarstills, who need the money that the Abadarans can provide, and houses Delronge and Jarvis.
The Abadaran platform is hotly contested from a variety of groups that don't work together: rural Gozran worshippers that oppose the environmental impacts of mining and timber industries and instead call for the construction of water reservoirs and sustainably managed fishing ponds off the Yolubilis and Katharevousa rivers, merchants and House Aulorian who fear this investment will lead to increased taxes on the rich, rural voters who loathe the Abadarans for their role in keeping them in "debt slavery" and know they’ll never get land reform or the end of enclosures from them, the Calistrians on general principles (of vengeance!), students who support Strix they've never socialized with, etc.
The Bellflower Network sponsors candidates that work for workers rights like collective bargaining (they've already threatened a strike at the mines in Whiterock at my table), safe working conditions, and free health care for those in "essential" industries like mining and salt production. If anyone knows worker exploitation and abuse, it's them.
Supporters: Old Kintargo, Yolubilis Harbor, and Redroof districts, along with Whiterock.
A group of Kintargan smiths propose government support of co-ops like Vespam Artisans, but need a boost. (I suspect that the monk PC will support this group somehow, as his character is the son of a smith.)
Who would these candidates be?
Governance: What does “Free Kintargo” mean?
The most hotly contested idea is whether to have a Lord-Mayor, what powers they should have, whether they are elected or employed by the Town Council, what kind of checks on their power will exist, etc.
A candidate calls for abolishing the Court of Coin as an anachronistic authoritarian institution. (The PCs don't know about the Kintargo Contract yet, but this candidate will also call for abolishing the BoG.)
Support: Villegre, Redroof
Another candidate argues neither goes far enough and calls upon the abolition of the position of the Lord-Mayor as well, with governance to be decided by mutual aid, support, and care at the district level.
Support: Old Kintargo and Redroof, as both engaged in something similar at my table with the Aid Society and/or street trials at my table.
Another candidate calls for a lifetime ban on eligibility for future elections after one term in office as a way to guarantee that the Council will be by and for the people.
Support: The PCs?
The nobility (mostly) unite to try to recreate the Court of Coin within this structure by sponsoring candidates that support their interests and encouraging their employees to vote for them, while running their own candidates in the Greens.
Who would these candidates be?
Law and order: What does "Free" mean?
Calistrians occupy the House of Golden Veils one night, claiming that the property was stolen from them by the Asmodeans when they banned their religion and thus the Abadarans have received stolen goods in their purchase of the building. It is and always was the House of Satin Veils! An injunction and order to vacate the premises is immediately filed. The larger question of reparations gets a boost from the Bellflower Network, which files a friend of the court amicus brief expanding this concept to ex-slaves. A sympathetic village elder, probably Xerelilah, appears in court to ask for debt abolition across Ravounel.
Mr. “I’m Just a Simple Country Lawyer” Candidate vows to ban any proposed law that is longer than a single page.
Supporters: merchants, people fed up with Asmodean judges and Abadaran lawyers, Calistrians.
A coalition might emerge to purge the dottari of Asmodean influence, perhaps by requiring each to be elected by the neighborhood they will work in.
Support: Old Kintargo and Redroof, as both engaged in something similar at my table with the Aid Society and/or street trials.
They might be countered by simply campaigning to have Tayocet Tiora (who was changed from the canon to be the good precinct captain forced down to beat cop by Thrune) or Octavio Sabinus restructure, training and hiring a new national dottari force.
Notable supporters: Villegre, The Greens, Jarvis End, and Castle Kintargo districts, Order of the Torrent.
Who would these candidates be?
Education: Free your mind? Will the rest follow?
House Aulamaxa promises compulsory free artistic education… and in nothing else. “If you can put on a play, you can handle money, write, make things and clothes, work with people, and look good doing it. Let’s be fabulous!”
Support: Shelynites.
A Calistrian candidate demands compulsory sex education and government support of brothels. Nobody wants to cross them.
A bevy of candidates propose to use the empty space at Alabaster Academy to begin something akin to K-12 education.
Supporters: parents, Villegre, and House Jhaltero become the useful idiots to Lady Docur's long-range plan of behind-the-scenes power, as at my table she has been promised control of the Hall of Records and is the current Chancellor of Education.
Religion: What does “Free Religion” mean?
A cult of reason candidate inspired by Rhahadoum promises to require any priest to wear a jester’s attire to allow people to make decisions about their immortal soul through reason rather than faith. (Based on an old debate professor of mine whose favorite parliamentary-style debate case was to force news anchors to wear clown noses for the same reason. Also my players find the Paizo art for the cultists of Norgorber laughable.)
Another candidate calls for banning all evil and lawful religions, arguing that the Silver Ravens couldn't have meant Asmodean and other forces of terror.
Supporters: Calistrians, rank and file Silver Ravens, Bellflower Network, House Jarvis.
Another candidate has faith in the people and calls on the nation to live up to the Silver Ravens' promise of freedom of religion.
Supporters: rank and file Silver Ravens, House Aulorian, Shelynites, people who sat out the revolution or worked in minor roles in the government.
Another candidate calls for Asmodeans and their sympathizers to work in the Deepmar mines until they are judged to be redeemed.
Supporters: Calistrians, rank and file Silver Ravens, Bellflower Network
Another candidate calls for an unelected second town council consisting of representatives of all active religions who would "provide spiritual guidance" to the government.
Supporters: Abadarans, Cult of Zon Kuthon Reform
Health care:
A team of adventurers passes out crude fliers asking for free clerical services on demand for any doing such work. See above for the Bellflower Network arguing for this in industry in their workers’ platform.
Supporters: House Jarvis, quietly.
Who would these candidates be?
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My players just seem to not care about much outside of city limits. That, I think, is a unforeseen result of moving Vyre's big dinner set piece to book 5 at my table.
To be fair to your players, it's also an accurate reflection of the way the SRs' actual territorial control is presented by the text at the end of Book 4/beginning of Book 5. I know you've changed things (because trying to involve the countryside spawned another brainstorming thread that somehow got a lot bigger than this one has), so this is probably well off-base, but in the text the SR rising is limited to Kintargo, and its success leaves whatever power structure the SRs support (in the text, this is the pre-Barzillai old regime, pure and simple) in control of the commune and at a stretch the hinterland of Kintargo. They may have support of some of the magnates from Book 3 to help them hold parts of the countryside, and there may have been large peasant risings in your campaign, but large parts of the country (including all the County seats) are held by outright partians of Thrune and their retainers.
Elections before the telegraph, if they are to be done at all, basically require large bodies of people to assemble in central locations so their votes can be taken and counted. The natural locations for these assemblies in Ravounel would be the County and some of the bigger Barony seats (basically the towns marked on the map). But as stated above, [many of] these are held by outright opponents of the new regime, and not the regime itself. Elections which are not a farce require, among other things, effective control of the territory the people of which are voting. Book 5 as written is supposed to be about gaining that territorial control, even if it presents that process about as absurdly as it's possible to do.
So your players are right to dismiss national elections at this point as an impossibility. At best, you'll have the legal fiction of Kintargo representing the nation, which I'm sure will ruffle no feathers out in the countryside or indeed in Vyre, which is its own free commune with a stable, workable system that hasn't invited revolution thank you very much (given what this system is, this is another absurdity, as is Vyre itself, which in the text seems to have no economic base in either its own production or in its denuded hinterland and thus really should not be able to sustain itself even with tourist money, because the world population and reliable transport necessary to sustain a tourism industry do not exist; but it's what is presented).
This also suggests that a paramount issue in the election, rather than national policy like free trade (which, by the way, is unequivocally bad policy for a small country with a weak economic base like Ravounel - free trade without having first consolidated and grown the internal market through improved transport and agriculture, and fostered a native industry to a point where it can produce more than enough to serve it, is simply an invitation for economies which have done that to dominate yours), should be how to reconstitute the nation from the rebel base in Kintargo. Should it be reconquered/overawed, or should rural magnates be conciliated? Should the state be constituted from the towns and their hinterlands, or from the aristocratic estates-as-provinces? Should it be unitary, federal, or confederal? Many of these decisions are forced on Ravounel by the narrative of Book 5 as it plays out, but at the beginning nobody should be aware of this.
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I note that in the several posts on Friday you focus a lot on individual candidates and seem to assume that anyone who wants to can and will run. I think this is a mistake, both in terms of modeling the political dynamics shaping the election, and in terms of fun gameplay, though I'll be focusing on the dynamics.
Rather than including every mother's son and daughter with a hat to toss in, the candidate pool is likely to be sharply limited to those who can count on the support of a political machine, or are independently wealthy. There are two basic reasons for this. First, election campaigns are expensive and time-consuming, so require a stock of wealth and a lot of free time. Neither is likely to be available to many of the small shopkeepers and artisans you've named in, for example, the post of Friday 6:51 PM. A person who is independently wealthy can spend their money on self-promotion and hire people to manage whatever enterprise generates their income so they can campaign for themselves (they can also bankroll other candidates for much the same effect). A political machine can pool the resources and time of its members and supporters so that the machine can campaign while its candidates continue on with their businesses. All this must be considered because there seems to be no public financing of election campaigns. This is the first election before a new legal code is drawn up, and thus presumably still operates under the old code. Second, serving in office once you've won it is expensive and time-consuming. Granted, we're talking about aldermen who are expected to show up when the council is in session rather than full-time magistrates here, but it's still a significant time investment. Again, there seems to be no salary for aldermen, so they need some other source of income. All these difficulties become exponentially more difficult for people who have to travel from the countryside to Kintargo to campaign (because that's where the voters are) and to serve (because that's where the business is done). These barriers to entry may very well become a campaign issue! Public financing of elections and provision of salary to legislators are traditional demands of democratic parties, because they make their electioneering easier, and are opposed by grandees who don't appreciate the competition. But they are likely to shape the dynamics of this election.
What this implies is that you're going to get well-defined political parties with at most a few eclectic candidates thrown in for flavor. I focused on the SRs and CoC above because they are preexisting organizations united by both experience and interest, able to elaborate long-term programs and specific election manifestos, and because there don't seem to be other centers of power outside the churches. What's also interesting is who will not be permitted to run. I mean this in two ways: permitted by the state, and permitted by the parties. In the first place, it makes no sense that people still under arms on behalf of Thrune would be permitted any say in rebel politics whatsoever. They have no interest in the rebel project and work to see it destroyed. That includes Houses Delronge, Tanessen, and Sarini, and likely most of House Aulorian (including retainers). In the second place, no party is going to want to run under its banner more candidates than there are seats available. It makes no sense for, say, the SRs to run more than one candidate in the Castle District, because if they do they're splitting their own vote. The SRs in particular end up collecting most of the NPCs over the course of the first four books - more than you've allotted for positions. So a lot of NPCs strongly associated with the SRs are either going to be crowded out of contention by the candidates the group decides to support, or are going to split and run independently. The SRs have a united program and manifesto, and a cohesive organization that can discipline members who stray from them, so their slate-picking strategy should focus on minimizing splits, which means picking people who could run independently if they choose. That said, the SRs' slate-picking should be played through, as should manifesto-drafting.
These are largely the same process, and that process is the convention. Whoever has enough support to get their theses adopted as a manifesto is likely to have enough support to get nominated to the slate, and vice versa. This is where all the individuals and factions in the SRs can attempt to influence the manifesto and slate, even though they are all too numerous to be represented in the slate. So really, rather than the election campaign itself, most of the gameplay should focus on the convention. Thoughts on how to do it follow.
The convention has an agenda, first running through the programmatic points and adopting theses for the manifesto, then picking the slate (election of officers would go first, but there's no need to elect officers since those are provided for by the subsystem, and it's basically irrelevant content as far as the players are concerned). At least one thesis is presented for each campaign issue, by its partisan. If there is more than one thesis presented, the partisans have to persuade the convention to adopt their thesis, by means of social combat. PCs can make social combat checks to give their favored thesis a bonus (probably no more than +2 to one check). Once all the theses are presented and the manifesto adopted, the partisans who presented theses and anyone else who wants to run are assigned a district based on their residence or workplace, and run to represent that district in another social combat encounter. Any partisan whose thesis was adopted into the manifesto gets a fairly large bonus (+4 or +6) to all checks to persuade the convention to nominate them. The candidates with the most approval, however you want to model that, get onto the slate, up to the number of available slots per district. If you'll note, it is possible for multiple partisans to present winning theses and run for the same district, as long as those theses relate to different parts of the manifesto but the partisans are grouped to run in the same district. It is also possible for no winning partisans to run to represent a district.
A further wrinkle: if it so happens that a Unique Ally with a substantial power base of their own (e.g., Strea Vestori, Hetamon Haace, Octavio Sabinus, Mialari Docur) fails to get nominated to the slate, the PCs should have to persuade them not to split and run on their own. At this level DCs should vary between 20 and 35 based on the NPCs' level (implying wealth) and longevity with the SRs; higher level implies higher DC, longer service implies lower DC. This is a gut-check.
As for which NPCs present what theses, that depends largely on the characterization you've given them at your table, but some thoughts follow (using only those positions you've indicated are supported by SRs, either prominent or rank-and-file):
The Free Territory
Cassius Sargaeta (Castle District): "No one knows better than I how formidable Cheliax's military machine can be. I have seen it reduce Pezzack to a body feeding on itself, and would not see the same happen to Kintargo. The Acisazi alliance and the destruction of Menador Keep have bought us time, but only the produce of the country and the exertions of its people can ultimately prevent a march on Kintargo. The Silver Ravens must support compulsory service of all citizens in the militia, opening the arsenals to the militia, seizure of ironworks, timber grounds, flax fields, and shipyards by the state, and increase of production therein."
Hetamon Haace (Redroof): "Ravounel's best ally is the revolution within Cheliax. The Empire is a house divided against itself, and cannot stand. At this moment, the titanic struggle between the spirits of Iomedae and Asmodeus hangs in the balance, and if we can tip that balance to Iomedae our southern neighbor will be friendly and our eastern neighbor cowed. By 'we' I mean us, ourselves, the Silver Ravens, not the state. It has no time for a military mobilization; the contest may be decided before then. But revolutionaries can travel quickly and find allies anywhere labor is oppressed, and our weapons are nerve and daring. We should immediately detach teams and officers, even our best leaders, armed with our finest equipment, to Westcrown, there to coordinate with the Glorious Reclamation, Arael's group, and any other trusty fighters for the revolution."
Jackdaw (Castle District): "All plans for war with Cheliax, defensive and offensive, are madness. None of you have seen civil war. I have, and for seventy long years I bore the scars of it in mind and body. We barely control Kintargo as it is. But given that we do, we owe its people every chance at a prosperous and happy life. If there is any chance for peace, we must take it, making the first overtures if we have to. Only once we are secure in our position, then we can try to revolutionize Cheliax."
Free Trade (insofar as you've highlighted positions your SRs actually support, this is a hell of a misnomer. There is no mention of low-tariffs anywhere, and all of the programmatic points have to do with labor and capital.)
Laria Longroad (Villegre): "Free trade for us must mean freedom of association and freedom of contract. A toiler who owns nothing, who must work in order to live, facing the owner of the land and tools on and which she must work, is in no sense free. She must accept the terms she is offered. Workers must be protected in their combination, no worker may be excluded from combination, and the state must vest in their combination's agreements with the bosses the force of law. From this position, labor will be able to conquer the good life: job safety, social insurance, and free time."
Vespasio Vespam (Old Kintargo): "Free trade means nothing without control of the firm producing goods for trade and entering the market to trade. Up to now, all the most productive land and almost all the big works have been monopolized by a handful of men and women: Sallix, Draksitus, Vashnarstill, Jhaltero, I could go on. Some of these support the revolution, and deserve to be safe in their property as thanks. But Sallix is dead, and the Sarinis, Tanessens, and Delronges have taken up arms against us! The state should form a commission to seize and redistribute unused and rebel property to people who can work it, and offer these enterprises capital to expand."
The Free State
Rexus Victocora (Villegre): "The government of Kintargo must incarnate all of Kintargo. The privileges of the estates, the special role of the Court of Coin and the Churches, must be done away with in favor of a single municipal assembly and the office of the Lord-Mayor, each elected by universal adult suffrage. Universal suffrage in elections to the assembly will ensure each segment of the people has its say and the masses of people carry the day. Universal suffrage to the office of Mayor will unite the whole commune while ensuring she is responsible to the majority in her management of the communal magistrates. Unity is to be prized over self-management, since it means the rich can be made to support the poor, as the poor undoubtedly will want."
Strea Vestori (Redroof): "The people of each block, ward, and district know best how to order their own affairs, and should be empowered against the communal authorities even as the communes are empowered against the nation. There should be no communal dottari, only ward dottari. Communal poor aid is bureaucratically intrusive and in any event insufficient and poorly managed. Without communal dottari and social services, there is no need for a Lord-Mayor to command them."
Marquel Aulorian (The Greens): "A popular assembly must remain popular, of and by the people, if it is to remain for the people. Its cannot be permitted to accumulate power and status for themselves, or else they will just serve their own interests. And every citizen should have not just a voice, but a hand in government - a chance to do the business of government itself. To make room for them, and to break any kind of entrenched power, no person should be allowed to serve in the assembly, or as Mayor, for longer than one term, and the terms should be short: one, two years at most."
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And at this point I've spent entirely too much time on this post. I may come back to the SRs' positions on education and religion, and how once an SR slate and manifesto are chosen the election campaign should play out, later.
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Actually, you know what, screw it, I can't identify characters to put positions in the mouths of for your table better than you can. I think I've made my point: many of the policy arguments should be transposed from outside candidates against whom the SRs will be competing to SRs themselves at convention as their election manifesto is hashed out. The challenge for players becomes not what external competitors they want to back or acquiesce to (!?) but shaping the orientation and cohesion of their own party so that it can successfully fight its own campaign. What does "free trade," "free thought," or "free religion" mean in the context in this political moment? Figure it out at convention.
(An aside: I've been using the terms "program" and "manifesto," and should probably clarify what I mean by them. A program is a statement of principles outlining long-term orientations, while a manifesto stakes out positions on the issues of the day.)
As for the election campaign itself, you have a handy metric for the SRs' starting support: the supporter count at the end of Book 4. This is a concrete count, but is spread over the whole city. You can model where the support is likely to be concentrated based on how your SRs are set up - that is, largely, where their teams are drawn from, and where the officers spend most of their time. I'm presuming your districts are all first-past-the-post, including your multi-member districts, which are first-two-past-the-post and first-three-past-the-post. If so, the goal of any party is to get the most votes for its candidate in the single-member districts. In the multi-member districts, the task is more complicated. It does the slate no good for all of the lead party's support to go to only one of its candidates, allowing potentially far weaker parties to pick up the remainder of the seats with fewer votes. This can be solved in a couple ways. A party might lobby to gerrymander the multi-member districts into single-member districts officially, or it might do so itself, campaigning in one part of the district for one candidate and in another part for another candidate. Or if it's really well-organized it could actually obtain pledges from individual voters in sufficient numbers that such that it can ensure the vote is split the correct way. Or it can lobby to implement multiple-choice balloting, where each voter picks two or three candidates to support based on the district (this is NOT ranked-choice voting or alternative vote - I'm pretty sure you know what I mean from union balloting). But basically the campaign has to both drive up the raw vote total and make sure it's efficiently split in the multi-member districts. This should be done using the rebellion system, which provides the tools to recruit supporters and to do things like hold rallies ("Reduce Danger") and propagandize ("Urban Influence"). You can assign competitor organizations modifiers to take similar actions.
Yeah, I get where you're coming from. For my table, there's some unique circumstances that I should have explained in some of my posts, because you're right that these choices wouldn't have universal relevance.
This was kind of a snap election: 11 days of electioneering, plus unspecified time for a skill challenge. They were concerned both about the electorate not having enough time to digest all the articles that one of my PCs laid out (see that other thread) AND concerned about getting this done quickly to have enough time to prepare for Thrune finding out. Rather than let them dither I just picked a certain number of days.
Also, some real tension developed at my table around the constitutional congress and articles, and hashing out a political consensus on Zoom was difficult. So, the PCs didn't run as a way to smooth things over and their dice rolling was more about supporting or thwarting candidates than about platforms. At a different table, I'd have LOVED to have had a skill challenge around the party platform!
As a result, one of my operating assumptions were that political parties would develop eventually, rather than occur on this timeline, with some important caveats. Also, with each representative representing several hundred people, I felt that it was possible for a few underdogs without backing to make some noise. There are, however, some ad hoc and proto-parties.
The two skill monkey PCs did do some organizing, polling, and mentoring. As a result, there kind of IS an ad-hoc Silver Ravens party: Marquel, Morgar, Korva Fushi, Yellow Callie (an ordinary tiefling who got a lot of screen time), Hortense Lierre, and Jackdaw (who had a nat 20 on a speech after the Ravens took Castle Kintargo, but was otherwise useless due to PTSD).
Another ad hoc party were the forces of conservatism and law, personified by Banker Andronicus of the Church of Abadar; indeed, the Church of Abadar bankrolled the following weak candidates: Iylvana Desdoros, Maercin Kelimber, Ryk, the Vashnarstills, and Chuko.
There were some proto-parties as well.
My table's Cult of Doubralism (created by a PC) had several candidates in the mix: Carl the Sausage Vendor, Bropholog the Sewer Sage, Tayocet Tiora, Setrona Sabinus, and Morten and Cessie Shallets. Unfortunately, only Carl won his district, because he campaigned while selling his sausages. (Morten and Cessie were given ridiculous community organizing results in book 2, so with the backing of the cult, they would have won in Old Kintargo... but they were recruited very late in the process.
The Bellflower Network worked as a splitter faction of the SRs. They ran Laria and Forvian Crowe and campaigned against the Church of Abadar by supporting the lone Calistrian candidate, Yellow Callie, another SR splitter. Laria had long been refocused more around abolitionism and worker's rights than her early associations with the Ravens. The Shelynites didn't work together at all, but three ran and the first two won: Zachrin Vhast, Shensen, and Archbaroness Eldonna Aulamaxa. That's the power of the religion that won big in the revolution.
I think a big factor at my table was that no one played an Iomedaean and nobody really expressed much interest in interacting with the Glorious Reclamation. As a result, I didn't feel right making an Iomedaean faction for the election.
As for the nobles... well, my table has charisma-based vigilante caster with the noble scion of Jhaltero feat. Add in vigilante social talents and the plethora of skill ranks and skill feats that you get free from the revolution, and you can see why she's the party's demagogue. Then the noble scion vigilante rolled a natural 20 for a final total of a 60 Diplomacy to spread the word that the nobles shouldn't try to pervert the election. She also has existing good relationships with the heads of Jhaltero, Jarvis, Delronge, Tanessen, Aulamaxa, Vashnarstill. Basically, the Tanessens and Delronges are tolerated by my party, while the Sarinis are not.
The nobles split themselves and faced determined foes: two PCs, and nobody at the table asked about what Lacunafex or House Jhaltero's information network was doing... Lady Docur at my table is a hidden original Silver Raven (their spy master). The Jhalteros see the PC Demagogue as a path to new power, feeling trapped as the peace-keepers among the noble houses. Both had interests in dividing the nobles at this crucial moment.
Houses Jarvis, Aulamaxa, Sarini, and Tannessen got active. The Sarinis ran a campaign which featured delusions of grandeur and boot-licking for House Thrune. (One PC submarined their campaign further and both skill monkeys thwarted their dirty tricks shenanigans.) Aulamaxa's neglect of her territory turned the vigilante PC against her a long time ago. That left Jarvis, the obvious choice, and Tanessen, who doesn't threaten the party and who they just found out they need for the Board of Governors.
I threw a lot of business operators from the Bleakbridge in because the bridge was absurdly important at my table: they actually set aside 10,000 gp in the Bank of Abadar for 1 gp per citizen, only to have Thrune declare the bridge tax the next session. The players set up a ferry service. They chose the bridge fight in book 4 before any other. So, my thinking was that those people would be in the midst of their 15 minutes of fame and might sneak in to split the vote or even win what is a district with a lot of candidates. In any case, Marquel ended up winning easily, although his father will file a claim alleging that he's ineligible due to his legal residence being The Greens.
I absolutely agree about the unique Ally challenge. At my table, that's going to be Lady Docur, at some point. I'm kind of waiting to figure out what the party's going to do with Lady Docur. She's the first NPC with a plan to win the peace. That's why she didn't run.