[Accepted] A Holiday Masquerade

by **The Grim Reaper** » Wed Sep 21, 2016 8:29 am

Name: A Holiday Masquerade

Description: A group of @@NAME@@'s most elite have put together a private holiday party, to celebrate the spooky holiday of Halloween. You and some Ministers have managed to procure some invitations, to let you embark on a search for new political allies - you just need a way to hide from the paparazzi. Your secretary is getting you fitted for a costume, but what costume should you wear?

Validity:

Options:
[option] "Now, traditionally, Halloween is a celebration of deceased saints," murmurs your secretary, dressed to the nines in the garbs of @@RELIGION@@. "Look, I was homeschooled, and my parents never really went in for saints. But, just a tablecloth and some scissors, and you'll be set! You can just pretend to be the ghost of whichever saint your conversational partner seems to like. Even the oldest bishop will know who you are without glasses!"
[effect] a wealthy benefactor of @@RELIGION@@ is funding dress rehearsals for a particularly flattering obituary of @@LEADER@@.
[stats] Political apathy decreases, religiousity increases dramatically, secularism decreases

[option] "As time went on, Halloween transformed from a celebration to a ritual, to stop supernatural horrors," continues your secretary. Your Minister for the Environment hops into the room, in a plant-pot costume, and manages to get words out past the alcohol. "The other day, I saw a horror movie about a man who transformed into a half-@@ANIMAL@@ monster. The big twist was that it just wanted to be loved, just like I - er, we people do. Anyway, I've always thought you had a touch of animal magnetism about you. You could be the were-@@ANIMAL@@ that taught @@NATION@@ to love @@ANIMAL@@s as much as we love ourselves!"
[effect] @@ANIMAL@@s have become a fashion accessory for the eco-conscious.
[stats] eco-friendliness increases dramatically, environmental beauty increases slightly

[option] "Halloween is -" your secretary stops mid-sentence, as a gloved finger is put to their lips. Your Minister of the Interior, dressed as a giant bat, steps out into the light before recoiling in horror. "Halloween is a chance to really put your neighbours in their place. I can't think of a better place to remind your fellow partygoers that you're in charge than a Halloween party. Plus, we could go as a pair - I as a bat, and you as a vampire! There's a nice cloak and some sharp canines your size, in your wardrobe. If I were you, I'd be able to trick, say, a dozen, two dozen potential dissidents."
[effect] costume parties have fallen out of favour for fear of plainclothes police officers in disguise
[stats] Law and Order increases significantly, political rights decrease, niceness decrease, political apathy increases

[option] "Popular culture has stretched modern costuming to its very limits," notes your secretary, taking a measurement of your shoulder-blades. Your Minister of Defence marches into the room, in full military uniform, shouting jovially. "@@SLOGAN@@! The new film Captain @@NAME@@ has seen recruitment numbers triple overnight! Do your part - @@LEADER@@ needs YOU! A nice shield, a big flag as a cape, you'll be the very picture of a modern @@DEMONYM@@ general in no time!"
[effect] @@LEADER@@ is the fashion-forward star of a new military recruitment campaign.
[stats] military spending increases, culture increases slightly, youth rebelliousness decreases, pacifism decreases

[option] "It's easy to use Halloween as an opportunity to celebrate your heroes," shrugs your secretary, while peering at a ruler held against your nose. A chimney-broom pokes into your fireplace, and the muffled voice of your Minister of Social Welfare, no doubt wearing the rest of the chimney-sweep's gear, follows. "You've always been your own hero, though. You could just dress up as yourself, honestly. I doubt it'd really stay a secret - in fact, you might as well tell the media yourself. Think of the children - name one children's TV presenter who wouldn't be arrogant enough to dress as themselves."
[effect] rumours that @@LEADER@@ is their own hero have inspired children of all social classes to believe in themselves.
[stats] niceness increases, inclusiveness increases, income gap decreases, social welfare spending increases

[option] "You have very classical proportions," comments your secretary, putting away their tape measure. Uncharacteristically pleased with their comprehensive list of measurements, they scan you from head to toe. "Frankly, you'd look good in whatever costume - or none at all, really. I bet you could find someone drunk enough to turn it into a fashion line."
[effect] a drunk fashion designer has started a fashion label themed on nudity and titled "@@LEADER@@'s New Clothes".
[stats] nudity increases dramatically, recreational drug use increases slightly

Changelog:

1. Added Option 3, made Option 2 about dressing as a were-@@ANIMAL@@ instead of an @@ANIMAL@@.

by **Finlarvat** » Wed Sep 21, 2016 8:32 am

Maybe the validity for this issue should be that the (IRL) date on the servers is 29 October or 30 October?

by **Cymrea** » Wed Sep 21, 2016 8:37 am

Just an admittedly nit-picky thought here.

Hallowing definition, to make holy; sanctify; consecrate.

I know what you're aiming for with the title, but it feels a bit clunky. Otherwise, cool idea; I really like the idea of a Halloween issue.

by **The Grim Reaper** » Wed Sep 21, 2016 8:42 am

Cymrea wrote:Just an admittedly nit-picky thought here.

Hallowing definition, to make holy; sanctify; consecrate.

I know what you're aiming for with the title, but it feels a bit clunky. Otherwise, cool idea; I really like the idea of a Halloween issue.

Point taken. It was supposed to be a pun on 'harrowing' - forgot hallowing was already taken >_>

Renamed to A Holiday Masquerade.

by **Lynopia** » Wed Sep 21, 2016 9:06 am

"[option] As Halloween became less religious, it became acceptable for costumes to draw from secular culture," continues your secretary. Your Minister for the Environment hops into the room, in a plant-pot costume, and manages to get words out past the alcohol. "The classic film Planet of the @@ANIMALS@@ recently got a remake. I've always thought you had a touch of animal magnetism about you - why not use it to promote the plight of our favourite little fauna to the people best prepared to help?"

Something small, but this should be changed to @@ANIMAL@@s I think, like you have it in the effect section.

by **The Grim Reaper** » Wed Sep 21, 2016 9:07 am

Lynopia wrote:"[option] As Halloween became less religious, it became acceptable for costumes to draw from secular culture," continues your secretary. Your Minister for the Environment hops into the room, in a plant-pot costume, and manages to get words out past the alcohol. "The classic film Planet of the @@ANIMALS@@ recently got a remake. I've always thought you had a touch of animal magnetism about you - why not use it to promote the plight of our favourite little fauna to the people best prepared to help?"

Something small, but this should be changed to @@ANIMAL@@s I think, like you have it in the effect section.

That was a typo - fixed, thanks. I'm pretty sure @@ANIMAL@@s is the correct syntax.

by **Candlewhisper Archive** » Wed Sep 21, 2016 9:10 am

Love the concept!

@@ANIMAL@@s or @@ANIMALS@@ or @@PLURALANIMALS@@ are all fine. We change it to our internal code when we process it, so all you need to do is communicate intent.

by **Australian rePublic** » Thu Sep 22, 2016 3:59 pm

This assumes most nations celebrate Halloween. Not even remotely true

by **Gnejs** » Thu Sep 22, 2016 11:55 pm

Australian Republic wrote:This assumes most nations celebrate Halloween. Not even remotely true

And not a problem in any way. Issues make assumptions all the time.

by **The Grim Reaper** » Fri Sep 23, 2016 1:02 am

Gnejs wrote:
Australian Republic wrote:This assumes most nations celebrate Halloween. Not even remotely true

And not a problem in any way. Issues make assumptions all the time.

I was more concerned with the assumption that the player celebrates Halloween, which is why the issue is somewhat structured around an incredibly simplistic history of Halloween. I can only assume that said structure is totally not worth the time to everyone else, though ;__;

But in terms of assuming that the nation celebrates Halloween, that necessary assumption is why I shied away from something like legislation regarding the nation as a whole. This issue only necessitates the assumption that some small group of elite celebrate Halloween this one time, which I think isn't too bad in terms of suspension of disbelief for virtually all nations that aren't theocracies, or North Korea.

by **The Grim Reaper** » Mon Sep 26, 2016 3:12 am

Bump.

I've added some tentative stats, and intend to have completed this draft and started a new issue before this weekend.

by **Candlewhisper Archive** » Mon Sep 26, 2016 6:48 am

As Nation of Quebec was the one who was keen to see a Halloween easter egg, it'll likely be him who edits this issue, or whichever alternative he picks. I'd suggest dropping him a TG to see if he has any thoughts.

by **Nation of Quebec** » Mon Sep 26, 2016 2:23 pm

This is a fun issue and I must say, it's very well written.

I like that you have a nice flowing narrative here, especially with the secretary measuring your figure. It's rare to see two characters in the same option, but it works well here.

by **Trotterdam** » Mon Sep 26, 2016 3:19 pm

I've always seen Halloween costumes as having a dichotomy between dressing up as stereotypically "scary" stuff, and simply dressing up as whatever you feel like without regard for tradition. The issue currently has only one of the former (the ghost), and that's presented with more of a religious rationale (rather poorly - if you want to honor a specific saint, wouldn't it make more sense to dress up as what the saint is said to have looked like while alive, rather than a generic ghost?), while options 2 and 3 are both dressing up as popular culture characters, and options 4 and 5 are variants of "going as yourself" - option 5 moreso, since you're literally going as yourself and nothing but yourself. I'd just ditch option 4, since "do absolutely nothing unusual" is a bit boring, especially when there's already a more extreme implementation of the same idea. Then use that room to add more scary/creepy/evil options, like monsters or politicial dissidents or something.

The Grim Reaper wrote:[option] "As Halloween became less religious, it became acceptable for costumes to draw from secular culture," continues your secretary. Your Minister for the Environment hops into the room, in a plant-pot costume, and manages to get words out past the alcohol. "The classic film Planet of the @@ANIMAL@@s recently got a remake. I've always thought you had a touch of animal magnetism about you - why not use it to promote the plight of our favourite little fauna to the people best prepared to help?"
[effect] @@ANIMAL@@s have become a fashion accessory for the eco-conscious.

"Animal costume" makes me think animal-ear headbands and such, not wrapping a full living animal around your neck, but I guess you can't afford to be that specific because @@ANIMAL@@ might not be a mammal.

The Grim Reaper wrote:"Do your part - @@LEADER@@ needs YOU!"

You realize you're saying this to @@LEADER@@, right?

The Grim Reaper wrote:[option] "You have very classical proportions," comments your secretary, putting away their tape measure.

"Their"? There was only the one secretary.

(This also comes up in option 4, but I already suggested the hatchet solution for that one.)

by **The Grim Reaper** » Thu Sep 29, 2016 5:55 am

Trotterdam wrote:I've always seen Halloween costumes as having a dichotomy between dressing up as stereotypically "scary" stuff, and simply dressing up as whatever you feel like without regard for tradition. The issue currently has only one of the former (the ghost), and that's presented with more of a religious rationale (rather poorly - if you want to honor a specific saint, wouldn't it make more sense to dress up as what the saint is said to have looked like while alive, rather than a generic ghost?), while options 2 and 3 are both dressing up as popular culture characters, and options 4 and 5 are variants of "going as yourself" - option 5 moreso, since you're literally going as yourself and nothing but yourself. I'd just ditch option 4, since "do absolutely nothing unusual" is a bit boring, especially when there's already a more extreme implementation of the same idea. Then use that room to add more scary/creepy/evil options, like monsters or politicial dissidents or something.

The Grim Reaper wrote:[option] "As Halloween became less religious, it became acceptable for costumes to draw from secular culture," continues your secretary. Your Minister for the Environment hops into the room, in a plant-pot costume, and manages to get words out past the alcohol. "The classic film Planet of the @@ANIMAL@@s recently got a remake. I've always thought you had a touch of animal magnetism about you - why not use it to promote the plight of our favourite little fauna to the people best prepared to help?"
[effect] @@ANIMAL@@s have become a fashion accessory for the eco-conscious.
"Animal costume" makes me think animal-ear headbands and such, not wrapping a full living animal around your neck, but I guess you can't afford to be that specific because @@ANIMAL@@ might not be a mammal.

The Grim Reaper wrote:"Do your part - @@LEADER@@ needs YOU!"
You realize you're saying this to @@LEADER@@, right?

The Grim Reaper wrote:[option] "You have very classical proportions," comments your secretary, putting away their tape measure.
"Their"? There was only the one secretary.

(This also comes up in option 4, but I already suggested the hatchet solution for that one.)

In reverse order, because I'm cool.

1. 'Their' can be used as a singular pronoun.
2. The narrative intention is that they're proposing a campaign slogan - a reference to "Uncle Sam wants you!" It's an awkward sentence, which I'll look at fixing, and also I got the reference wrong - I'll fix that too.
3. Option 4 is a bit shoehorned, but I am quite fond of it. What do the rest of you think?

In terms of additional/replacement options, one I had scrapped originally was a law and order/intelligence option, based on dressing as a mythological figure predicated on being stealthy, or camouflaged. It was a Draculesque vampire, from memory, as I felt it gave the right tone.

by **Candlewhisper Archive** » Thu Sep 29, 2016 6:01 am

While you're grammatically correct that singular gender-neutral "their" can be considered acceptable, I believe we have never employed that option in the Issue base (though please do search for a precedent) and its one of the few things that seems to be part of the unwritten style guide: singular their is almost always "corrected" in the editing room.

by **The Grim Reaper** » Sun Oct 02, 2016 8:48 am

Added a new option about dressing as a vampire to scare political dissidents at the party straight, and changed the @@ANIMAL@@ option to a were-@@ANIMAL@@ option while keeping the narrative roughly the same.

More changes will be coming soon.

by **The Grim Reaper** » Thu Oct 06, 2016 9:28 am

Bump for now. I forgot what the changes I was going to make were

[Accepted] A Holiday Masquerade

[Accepted] A Holiday Masquerade

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