[DRAFT 2] A Payload of People

[Aluminum Oxynitride]

Comments, concerns, questions, and/or suggestions are greatly appreciated. Thank you!

*The description has been edited to make it (hopefully) more of an issue of national importance, rather than an issue of game rules. Options 1, 2, and 4 were slightly changed to fit with the description.

[Title]: A Payload of People

[Validity]: Must have airplanes

[Description]: You are hosting a game night for some friends and family. Tonight’s game of choice is ImagiNation, a United Nations style roleplaying game. An in-game event reminds your Minister of Transportation of something he witnessed yesterday at the airport. A passenger was spotted crawling out of the cargo bay of Flight 1850 to @@CAPITAL@@. The passenger, when asked why they did that, stated that “flights are too expensive and an average-sized person like me cannot comfortably fit in a seat. Airlines treat people like cargo.” An argument immediately breaks out about what to do.

[Option 1]: Your brother, @@RANDOMMALENAME_1@@, immediately chimes in. “There are plenty of military planes sitting in hangers. Why not sell open seats to the public at lower prices? Doing so will increase the competition in the airline market and improve passenger conditions all around.” In character, @@HE@@ says, “I hereby do decree, that in my nation, Beyond the Wall, the military may sell open seats to civilians. People are henceforth guaranteed the undeniable right to fly on military aircraft.”
[Effect 1]: Civilians flying to @@ CAPITAL@@ are “accidentally” conscripted into the air force.

[Option 2]:“What are you thinking?” responds your Minister of Defense, Joan d’Semicircle. “Civilians cannot be allowed onto our classified aircraft. Nor should they ever be! In fact, no one should fly on military planes.”
[Effect 2]: The @@NAME@@ Air Force is reduced to paper airplanes.

[Option 3]: "Just give everyone their own personal jetpack,” states the Game Master @@RANDOMMALENAME_2@@. “This way everyone can fly whenever they want, to wherever they want, and with whomever they want.”
[Effect 3]: Ambient air temperature has increased by 5 degrees Celsius

[Option 4]: "Why not build a museum to preserve all aeroplanes, both military and civilian?” asks your Co-Chair of the Aviation Department, Mr. Wilbur Wrong. His brother, and Co-Chair, Orville chimes in, “This way @@DEMONYMPLURAL@@ will be able to see what it’d be like to fly in a plane along with the recently developed Fighting @@ANIMAL@@ and not have to worry about leg room or exorbitant airline fees.”
[Effect 4]: A large plain is converted to a museum for planes.

[Title]: A Payload of People

[Validity]: Must not have banned airplanes (I don't know if this is possible)

[Description]: You are hosting a game night at your house for some friends and family. Tonight’s game of choice is ImagiNation, a United Nations style roleplaying game. Players, acting as the leader of their own nation, cooperatively (or not) address international issues. A new unit has just been introduced to the game: the military cargo plane. Your brother, @@RANDOMMALENAME_1@@, immediately puts people on the plane to begin an invasion of Tinytopia. An argument immediately breaks out about whether people can be considered cargo, as they are flying on a cargo plane.

[Option 1]: Your brother, @@RANDOMMALENAME_1@@, argues that as military personnel are sometimes transported via cargo plane, people are considered cargo. “Therefore,” @@HE@@ says, “I hereby do decree, that in my nation, Beyond the Wall, people are henceforth guaranteed the undeniable right to fly on military aircraft.”
[Effect 1]: Civilians flying to @@ CAPITAL@@ are “accidentally” conscripted into the air force.

[Option 2]: “What are you thinking?” responds your Chair of the Civil Rights Department, @@RANDOMFEMALENAME_1@@. “People are not cargo. Nor will they ever be! No one should fly on military planes.”
[Effect 2]: The @@NAME@@ Air Force is reduced to paper airplanes.

[Option 3]: "Just give everyone their own personal jetpack,” states the Game Master @@RANDOMMALENAME_2@@. “This way everyone can fly whenever they want, to wherever they want, and with whomever they want.”
[Effect 3]: Ambient air temperature has increased by 5 degrees Celsius

[Option 4]: Why not build a museum to preserve all aeroplanes, both military and civilian?” asks your Co-Chair of the Aviation Department, Mr. Wilbur Wrong. His brother, and Co-Chair, Orville chimes in, “This way @@DEMONYMPLURAL@@ will be able to see what it’d be like to fly in a cargo plane along with the recently developed Fighting @@ANIMAL@@.”
[Effect 4]: A large plain is converted to a museum for planes.

[The Transmondian Commonwealth]

The set up is too convoluted, the question is not of national importance, and the later options don't follow logically from the premise.

[Authoritaria-Imperia]

Hmmm. The description is sort of all-over-the-place, and I'm not sure what the issue at hand is. Whether or not people can be considered cargo seems more like a semantics issue. The issue might be stronger if you connect it in some manner to a policy change. You did that with some options, but other choices just seem to resolve that "People are not cargo" — which isn't really a decision as much as a personal viewpoint. Still, it's a creative, interesting concept.

[Australian rePublic]

How did a nation that allows planes allow this pass the national censor?

[Trotterdam]

It seems unlikely a decision made on game rules would have any real-life impact. Game rules are often motivated by balance or simplicity rather than realism, anyway.

Besides that, the military would often do things that are "out of the norm" as far as civilian standards are concerned, specifically to catch enemies off-guard.

[Candlewhisper Archive]

What Trotterdam said.

While the narrative set-up is fun in its own way (and a similar thing has been done with Monopoly in a previous issue), the jump from arguing about game rules to arguing about a real life principle is too clumsy in this case.

[The JELLEAIN Republic]

What does cargo and military carrying have in common?

I though it was about passengers rights and all that ...

[Aluminum Oxynitride]

It seems unlikely a decision made on game rules would have any real-life impact.

What Trotterdam said.

While the narrative set-up is fun in its own way (and a similar thing has been done with Monopoly in a previous issue), the jump from arguing about game rules to arguing about a real life principle is too clumsy in this case.

I tried to fix that in this second draft. The game is still mentioned, but I have based the real issue off of the passenger flying in the cargo bay. Hopefully that change clears things up.