[DRAFT] What If It All Went To Hell?

by **The Blackcat Isles** » Mon Sep 02, 2019 8:18 am

First Draft

Second Draft

[Title] What If It All Went To Hell?

[Validity] Invalid for nations that have banned elections

[Description] Crisis has been averted in @@NAME@@! This morning, radical anarchists from the fringe group 'Death to the State' sought to plunge the country into chaos by bombing the nation's Parliament while it was in session, yet failed due to fundamental disorganization within their ranks. While all the suspects have been arrested and await prosecution, the nation shudders to think what would have happened if the entire government had been snuffed out in one sweep. It therefore falls to you, @@LEADER@@, and your fellow members of cabinet, to come up with a contingency plan.

[Option Validity] Invalid for nations that have sortition
[Option 1a] Your Minister of Interior keeps hiding under the table, periodically rearing @@HIS@@ head to check for any threats. "I-Is it s-safe?" a sneeze coming from the corridor makes @@HIM@@ disappear again. "W-we can't let those crazies d-destroy our way of life!" comes from underneath the table. "E-Even if they would succeed in, eh, well, you know, k-killing us all *gulp*, we need to have fail-safes in place to keep matters of state on track. I'll convene the Department of Interior to make sure emergency elections can be written out at any time, under any circumstance. It will put a bit of a dent in our budget, b-but we have to play it safe!"

[Effect 1a] voting booths are placed on every corner of every street 'just in case'

[Option Validity] Invalid for nations that don't have sortition
[Option 1b] Your Minister of Interior keeps hiding under the table, periodically rearing @@HIS@@ head to check for any threats. "I-Is it s-safe?" a sneeze coming from the corridor makes @@HIM@@ disappear again. "W-we can't let those crazies d-destroy our way of life!" comes from underneath the table. "E-Even if they would succeed in, eh, well, you know, k-killing us all *gulp*, we need to have fail-safes in place to keep matters of state on track. I'll convene the Department of Interior to randomly draw as many emergency replacements for the current members of Parliament as we can. It will put a bit of a dent in our budget, b-but we have to play it safe!"

[Effect 1b] citizens receive letters telling them they're 'the emergency replacement of the replacement's replacement'

[Option 2] "You know, there's another way we can go about this," begins your Minister of Innovation, trying to slide a flyer from 'Direct Democracy Now!' over to you but being hindered by the bomb vest underneath @@HIS@@ jacket. "Right now, a small group of people sits in the Capitol, deciding everything for everyone. Not only is that unfair for the rest of the country, but it also makes them an easy target. So, let's get rid of the Parliament and listen directly to the will of the people! Sure, we'll need to invest in developing safe and reliable ways of electronic voting, making sure every citizen would have access to those polling systems... but that way, if any half-witted terrorist would want to take down our government, they'd have to kill everyone in @@NAME@@! Problem solved!"

[Effect 2] @@DEMONYMPLURAL@@ are glued to their smartphones as new laws to vote on are constantly added in the GovernmentGo app

[Option 3] "A small group of people deciding what's good for the country is exactly what we need," huffs your Minister of Defense unperturbed, notorious for @@HIS@@ belief @@HE@@'ll outlive everyone in @@NAME@@. "Not the parliament, of course, good riddance that'd be, ahem... but us, your cabinet, I mean! We're the ones with all the executive power already, why not add legislative to that as well? It would be a much more efficient system of government if we made up all the rules and then went and implemented them. Besides, the fewer there are of you, the easier it'd be for me-err, I mean, you, @@LEADER@@, to find replacements in case you'd get yourselves blown up!"

[Effect 3] demolition teams prepare to blow up the Capitol, so as to make place for the new stately manors of the members of cabinet

[Option 4] "Does no one here bother to acknowledge the fact THAT WE WERE ALMOST ATTACKED?!" screams your overworked and sleep-deprived Minister of Intelligence. "While we sit here debating about 'what ifs', radicals, terrorists and those damn lizards in human-flesh suits are preparing yet another plot against us! No, no, no, @@LEADER@@, you alone need to take charge RIGHT NOW! Hear me out on this: you'll declare a state of emergency for indefinite duration, then we'll hide you in a deep, deep, deep bunker so no one can ever find you and you won't hand back power until all our enemies are destroyed!" the minister rolls up into a foetus position, rocking back and forth. "All of them..."

[Effect 4] @@LEADER@@ is nowhere to be seen, but their presence can be felt everywhere

[Option 5] "You know what @@LEADER@@, there's no point in any of this," says your Minister of Justice while leaning back, @@HIS@@ right eye starting to twitch uncontrollably. "Whatever we do, there's always going to be someone who we'll piss off and who'll then want our bloody, gory deaths," @@HE@@ throws all the papers and maps off the table, jumping on top of it, clearly having lost @@HIS@@ mind. "You know, those terrorists had the right idea all along, haha! Let's go with this anarchy thing, hahaha! LET CHAOS REIGN, HAHAHAHA!"

[Effect 5] @@DEMONYMPLURAL@@ are in a state of panic as there is no state

by **Australian rePublic** » Mon Sep 02, 2019 4:43 pm

Wait, I thought all the ministers died. Now you're telling me they're alive?

by **The Blackcat Isles** » Mon Sep 02, 2019 4:50 pm

Australian rePublic wrote:Wait, I thought all the ministers died. Now you're telling me they're alive?

Legislature was blown up, not the cabinet along with it. Parliament was in session, so it can be assumed not all the Ministers nor @@LEADER@@ were present there at that time. The description specifies that the nation's legislature is gone, not the entire government. It also says "it falls to you, @@LEADER@@, and the surviving members of your cabinet".

by **The Democratic Nation of Unovia** » Mon Sep 02, 2019 4:52 pm

The Blackcat Isles wrote:
Australian rePublic wrote:Wait, I thought all the ministers died. Now you're telling me they're alive?

Legislature was blown up, not the cabinet along with it. Parliament was in session, so it can be assumed not all the Ministers nor @@LEADER@@ were present at that time.

If you want to use Designated Survivor as the inspiration, then the leader and most of the ministers would have died as well.

by **The Blackcat Isles** » Mon Sep 02, 2019 4:54 pm

The Democratic Nation of Unovia wrote:
The Blackcat Isles wrote:
Legislature was blown up, not the cabinet along with it. Parliament was in session, so it can be assumed not all the Ministers nor @@LEADER@@ were present at that time.

If you want to use Designated Survivor as the inspiration, then the leader and most of the ministers would have died as well.

It's based off Designated Survivor, not a 100% copy. It doesn't need to be exactly like in the series. Besides, killing @@LEADER@@ is a big no-no when it comes to issues. That's massive infringement on player autonomy.

by **The Democratic Nation of Unovia** » Mon Sep 02, 2019 4:57 pm

The Blackcat Isles wrote:
The Democratic Nation of Unovia wrote:If you want to use Designated Survivor as the inspiration, then the leader and most of the ministers would have died as well.

It's based off Designated Survivor, not a 100% copy. It doesn't need to be exactly like in the series.

Yes, but if you killed the leader and the legislature, it could lead to an issue series.
A soft reset for some, a hard reset for others.
Still, your issue idea is new.

by **Australian rePublic** » Mon Sep 02, 2019 4:57 pm

Of coarse the ministers were there. It's their job. What? Did they call in sick?

by **The Blackcat Isles** » Mon Sep 02, 2019 5:01 pm

Australian rePublic wrote:Of coarse the ministers were there. It's their job. What? Did they call in sick?

The cabinet is the executive power, the parliament the legislative. There are matters that the Parliament discusses amongst itself and those where the ministers also need to be present. But at times, when a specific matter in parliament doesn't require the presence of all ministers, they'll be attending to other matters in their office or elsewhere. We can assume that the Ministers who appear in the issue draft, weren't in the Capitol at the moment of the explosion/attack.

by **The Blackcat Isles** » Mon Sep 02, 2019 5:05 pm

The Democratic Nation of Unovia wrote:
The Blackcat Isles wrote:
It's based off Designated Survivor, not a 100% copy. It doesn't need to be exactly like in the series.

Yes, but if you killed the leader and the legislature, it could lead to an issue series.
A soft reset for some, a hard reset for others.
Still, your issue idea is new.

While I see where you are coming from, I don't think the issue editors would be okay with it. I mean, I wouldn't mind writing an issue series, but the question of player autonomy is a huge one with what you propose.

Still, it is an interesting suggestion to think about, at least!

by **Candlewhisper Archive** » Mon Sep 02, 2019 5:08 pm

A better approach to this issue would be a near-miss scenario, where a bomb is found and disarmed before it goes off, prompting questions about what would be done if parliament were annihilated with the government inside it.

by **The Blackcat Isles** » Mon Sep 02, 2019 5:11 pm

Candlewhisper Archive wrote:A better approach to this issue would be a near-miss scenario, where a bomb is found and disarmed before it goes off, prompting questions about what would be done if parliament were annihilated with the government inside it.

But that feels as if the issue would be putting more of a failsafe in place rather than make actual changes. I mean, it would feel a bit weird to say "oh, parliament was almost destroyed, let's install direct democracy right now in case it does go boom!"

plus, it's fairly unique I think, as this particular angle hasn't been approached before, the parliament actually being blown up.

by **Candlewhisper Archive** » Tue Sep 03, 2019 12:29 am

Right, but it's too big an occurrence for a single issue. We already have a terrorist attack on the stock exchange triggering off an entire issue chain (The Enemy Within). Parliament being destroyed would be ten times as big an event as that, and not something that can be covered as superficially as this issue allows.

The possibility of parliament being destroyed, however, is a workable issue idea.

I'll leave it up to you as to whether that option appeals, but in its current form, the story is a no-go.

by **The Blackcat Isles** » Tue Sep 03, 2019 2:01 am

Candlewhisper Archive wrote:Right, but it's too big an occurrence for a single issue. We already have a terrorist attack on the stock exchange triggering off an entire issue chain (The Enemy Within). Parliament being destroyed would be ten times as big an event as that, and not something that can be covered as superficially as this issue allows.

The possibility of parliament being destroyed, however, is a workable issue idea.

I'll leave it up to you as to whether that option appeals, but in its current form, the story is a no-go.

I'll work on changing the premise to a failed bombing then.

by **The Blackcat Isles** » Tue Sep 03, 2019 10:56 am

Candlewhisper Archive wrote:A better approach to this issue would be a near-miss scenario, where a bomb is found and disarmed before it goes off, prompting questions about what would be done if parliament were annihilated with the government inside it.

Right, I finished the second draft along this line of feedback. The premise has now been changed into the Parliament almost having been blown up in a failed terrorist attack. Oh, and I also changed the title so it will better suit the new narrative. I'd appreciate any comments and feedback on the new draft!

by **The Blackcat Isles** » Tue Sep 03, 2019 11:11 am

I just had a brilliant insight and changed effect line 3 to:

demolition teams prepare to blow up the Capitol, so as to make place for the new stately manors of the members of cabinet

by **Chan Island** » Wed Sep 04, 2019 10:51 am

Don't we already have a designated survivor issue in the base?

Well, personally I think the more interesting approach is discussing how to dissolve/react to coup attempts. Historically and in many places coups and attempted coups are very bread and butter of politics, yet is not covered in the issue base except for that one issue with the revolutionaries.

by **The Blackcat Isles** » Wed Sep 04, 2019 11:12 am

Chan Island wrote:Don't we already have a designated survivor issue in the base?

Which is exactly why 'designated survivor' or appointing such a personage is not even mentioned in the premise, nor the options. The issue revolves around what to do if the nation's prime legislature/government was wiped out in an attack or to put fail-saves into place, but not around designating a person to take over everything. Surely that's clearly stated in the premise? Initially I had wanted to actually have the Parliament be blown up, but this was deemed a no-go by the issue editors, so I changed it to this.

Chan Island wrote:Well, personally I think the more interesting approach is discussing how to dissolve/react to coup attempts. Historically and in many places coups and attempted coups are very bread and butter of politics, yet is not covered in the issue base except for that one issue with the revolutionaries.

This issue is not about a coup, it's about a terrorist attack that seeks to complete destabilize the state. Besides, if the editors deemed blowing up the parliament too big for one issue, a coup attempt would be equally as big and thus a no-go, I believe, unless it became an issue arc.

by **Candlewhisper Archive** » Wed Sep 04, 2019 12:18 pm

[Description] Crisis has been averted in @@NAME@@! This morning, radical anarchists from the fringe group 'Death to the State' sought to plunge the country into chaos by bombing the nation's Parliament while it was in session, yet failed due to fundamental disorganization within their ranks. While all the suspects have been arrested and await prosecution, the nation shudders to think what would have happened if the entire government had been snuffed out in one sweep. It therefore falls to you, @@LEADER@@, and your fellow members of cabinet, to come up with a contingency plan.

Decent premise.

Your options seem to be:

1a) Emergency election protocols
1b) Back up ministers (for sortition nations)
2) Get rid of parliament, electronic direct democracy
3) Get rid of democracy
4) Hide LEADER in a bunker
5) anarchy

1a is problematic, as it doesn't actually establish continuity of government. Elections take time, and the question of where the new representatives would convene hasn't been addressed.
1b is unneeded, as sortition nations wouldn't be valid for this issue. sortition = no elections.
2 is unimplementable, as parliament and MPs are mentioned in too many issues. Even non-democratic nations are presumed to have a physical legislative building. Coding "electronic direct democracy" as a policy would take hours, given the validity exclusions it would create.
3 is missing the point. The absence of democracy doesn't stop you getting blown up as a government.
4 is on almost on track
5 isn't going to work either. While we do have issues that dissolve government, the narrative here doesn't justify it.

I suggest keeping the premise but rewriting ALL the options.

I suggest you need to cover the following:

1) Suggest that "I know that designated survivor schemes are used by many nations, but maybe we need to make sure we have a whole team of designated survivors"
2) Give the military the power to assume control temporarily if government breaks down.
3) Make half of parliamentarians at any time attend through telepresencing only, or something.

Then maybe other strategies you come up with.

by **The Blackcat Isles** » Wed Sep 04, 2019 12:34 pm

Candlewhisper Archive wrote:
[Description] Crisis has been averted in @@NAME@@! This morning, radical anarchists from the fringe group 'Death to the State' sought to plunge the country into chaos by bombing the nation's Parliament while it was in session, yet failed due to fundamental disorganization within their ranks. While all the suspects have been arrested and await prosecution, the nation shudders to think what would have happened if the entire government had been snuffed out in one sweep. It therefore falls to you, @@LEADER@@, and your fellow members of cabinet, to come up with a contingency plan.

Decent premise.

Your options seem to be:

1a) Emergency election protocols
1b) Back up ministers (for sortition nations)
2) Get rid of parliament, electronic direct democracy
3) Get rid of democracy
4) Hide LEADER in a bunker
5) anarchy

1a is problematic, as it doesn't actually establish continuity of government. Elections take time, and the question of where the new representatives would convene hasn't been addressed.
1b is unneeded, as sortition nations wouldn't be valid for this issue. sortition = no elections.
2 is unimplementable, as parliament and MPs are mentioned in too many issues. Even non-democratic nations are presumed to have a physical legislative building. Coding "electronic direct democracy" as a policy would take hours, given the validity exclusions it would create.
3 is missing the point. The absence of democracy doesn't stop you getting blown up as a government.
4 is on almost on track
5 isn't going to work either. While we do have issues that dissolve government, the narrative here doesn't justify it.

I suggest keeping the premise but rewriting ALL the options.

I suggest you need to cover the following:

1) Suggest that "I know that designated survivor schemes are used by many nations, but maybe we need to make sure we have a whole team of designated survivors"
2) Give the military the power to assume control temporarily if government breaks down.
3) Make half of parliamentarians at any time attend through telepresencing only, or something.

Then maybe other strategies you come up with.

Option 3 was actually meant to install oligarchy.

I wrote this issue with the intent to give a reason to have the Direct Democracy policy or at least Mandatory Referendums like discussed in the "Regarding Issue #163" thread be introduced. Changing all the options would completely remove why I had wanted to write this in the first place

I will change the options in the draft eventually but I need a bit to rethink this, as currently I'm feeling huge disappointment this seemingly doesn't work.

by **Candlewhisper Archive** » Wed Sep 04, 2019 1:50 pm

Direct democracy IS implementable, it'd just be a huge job. I'm almost certainly the most active editor, and it'd likely take me at least 6 hours. Not really gonna happen for anything other than the best story ever.

by **The Blackcat Isles** » Wed Sep 04, 2019 1:59 pm

Candlewhisper Archive wrote:Direct democracy IS implementable, it'd just be a huge job. I'm almost certainly the most active editor, and it'd likely take me at least 6 hours. Not really gonna happen for anything other than the best story ever.

Alright, I take your meaning, it ain't likely to happen and certainly not with my writing, gotcha ;P (don't take this as me being angry or anything!)

Out of curiosity, what would "the best story ever" look like?

by **Candlewhisper Archive** » Fri Sep 06, 2019 1:47 am

I'll go write it now.

Heh, there's no way to tell basically till we see it. It just needs to be one that makes it worth my while to spend 6 hours recoding the issue base for it.

On a separate but related note, there is kind of direct democracy in the game already, in that there's a policy that makes for regular use of referenda to make decisions, but this is assumed to happen in parallel with the existence of parliament rather than in place of it.

by **Trotterdam** » Fri Sep 06, 2019 2:28 am

Candlewhisper Archive wrote:On a separate but related note, there is kind of direct democracy in the game already, in that there's a policy that makes for regular use of referenda to make decisions, but this is assumed to happen in parallel with the existence of parliament rather than in place of it.

In such a system, the main job of Parliament would presumably be to decide which issues are important enough to be put to referendum, and which options should be offered on those referenda.

[DRAFT] What If It All Went To Hell?

[DRAFT] What If It All Went To Hell?

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