[Accepted]The Fault is in Our Stars

[Drasnia]

Name: The Fault is in Our Stars

Validity: Must have answered 416.3

Description: Your Astrological Advisor has called for an immediate halt to the government. The cause? The skies have been clouded over for several days making any astral readings too inaccurate for important decisions. Many nay-sayers have crammed into your office to use this occurrence to try and convince you how dysfunctional basing government policy on divination can be.

The Debate

[option]"Public policy should never be dictated by religion!" blusters your Minister of Secularism as he pushes past the pack of protesters. "As a nation, we must strive to put aside our archaic beliefs and instead focus on an approach based on logic. If that means getting rid of all these so called prophets, so be it."
[effect]soapboxes are surprisingly vacant as all prophets have been jailed

[option]"The fault, dear @@LEADER, is not in our stars," laments astrologer @@RANDOMFIRSTNAME@@ Bubble, "but in our tools. We don't have powerful enough telescopes to see the night sky when cloud cover is thick. For just a small increase in taxes, we can build a gigantic telescope satellite that will give us pictures of the constellations both day AND night!"
[effect]the new Bubble Telescope collects pictures of distant galaxies so astrologers can be more accurate with their horoscopes

[option]"Stars, what are they good for?" self-proclaimed 'Alternative Diviner' @@RANDOMNAME@@ says while tossing asparagus stalks in the air. "It is so common for stars to not be visible. This sort of thing will keep happening again and again and again. If you hire me, I will use more reliable methods such as asparamancy and tyromancy. That way, when I'm done divining, I have delicious asparagus and cheese to eat afterward for no cost at all."
[effect]agriculture commodity futures affect the political future

This originally started out as a draft for issue #666, but as it evolved through the editing process, I no longer think it fits that purpose well at all. Anyways, enjoy!

Name: Mark of the Cheese

Validity: Cheese must not be banned

Description: Tyromancy – the practice of cheese divination – has become popular throughout the countryside of @@NAME@@ to the point where some local leaders are basing important decisions on the number of holes in the swiss. @@FAITH@@ zealots and academics alike have come to your office seeking for you to remedy the situation, pointing out the holes in the logic of tyromancy.

The Debate

[option]”It is written in the Book of Maxus,” decries Archbishop @@RANDOMNAME@@ while leafing through a religious tome, “that all forms of divination are an abomination in the sight of God! Only through those he has chosen like myself can ever be given insight to the future. We must put an end to these charlatans and heretics who believe that they are better than God, or you – the Big Cheese.”
[effect]fortune tellers are arrested for the crime of “assault with the intent to divine”
[validity]must have high religiousness

[option]”Public policy should never be dictated by religion!” blusters your Minister of Secularism as he pushes past the pack of protesters. “As a nation, we must strive to put aside our archaic beliefs and instead focus on an approach based on logic. If that means sending some men to “convince” these tyromancers the errors of there ways, so be it.”
[effect]politicians must avoid religious ceremonies if they are to keep their jobs
[validity]must have low religiousness

[option]”C’mon @@LEADER@@,” @@RANDOMMALENAME@@ says while churning a barrel of brie he somehow managed to get into your office, “tyromancy is whey cool. Just watch as this cheese solidifies. This pattern here means you’re going to side with me and pick up cheese-making as well. Huh, this one says you’re going to ban us and this one says you’re just going to ignore the whole situation. I better get to more churning; this doesn’t make any sense at all.
[effect]@@LEADER@@ has become tyromancers’ cash cow

[option]”I’d prefer if’n you could keep out o’ our blasted business!” shouts the pitchfork-wielding mayor of the rural hamlet West @@Animal@@shire. “We knows how to run our gol-darned cities better ‘n you e’er could. We ought t’ be allowed to use anythin’ or anywho we want t’ e’en if that means usin’ tee-row-man-see, div-nation, or anythin’ o’ the like.”
[effect]local municipalities decide laws based on the curdling of cheese

[option]Self-proclaimed asparamancer Emma Paxton hurls a bundle of asparagus spears into the air. “Cheese – what’s it good for? Flavoring your pasta and that’s about it. Now asparagus – asparagus can actually tell the future unlike those dairy fakers. Let me help you make decisions @@LEADER@@ - For a small fee of course.”
[effect]no national decision is made withing consulting the asparagus first

I feel like it could use more cheese humor, but after Lack of Lactose, I didn't want to reuse the same humor. Comments and critiques are, as always, greatly appreciated.

[Trotterdam]

We already have an issue about divination. This is the same, but with cheese.

Can't you just eat the things?

[Drasnia]

We already have an issue about divination. This is the same, but with cheese.

Can't you just eat the things?

It's not just about divination, but the government using it for policy decisions.

[Trotterdam]

It's not just about divination, but the government using it for policy decisions.

#416 also has an option for that ("@@LEADER@@ is refusing to make decisions until the Moon is out of Capricorn"). I don't feel allowing divination to continue in this draft really adds to what that option can do, beyond making a central vs local government distinction (which we also have other issues for).

[Drasnia]

It's not just about divination, but the government using it for policy decisions.

#416 also has an option for that ("@@LEADER@@ is refusing to make decisions until the Moon is out of Capricorn"). I don't feel allowing divination to continue in this draft really adds to what that option can do, beyond making a central vs local government distinction (which we also have other issues for).

I suppose you may be right. Would this be better rewritten as a follow up to that option where people are incensed that the government bases decisions on superstitions?

[Trotterdam]

If you can make the followup more interesting than "we didn't like the previous decision you made, please reverse it", maybe.

[Drasnia]

This has been updated, including a new title, a new premise, new validity, etc. etc.

Also, a big thanks to mid-terms which have been eating up almost all of my spare time.

[Trotterdam]

Interesting, I like the new concept.

You know, the stars move predictably enough that it's possible to calculate where they are even when you can't see them.

This scenario was mentioned when the Scientific Advancement and Primitiveness stats were first added:

It can sometimes happen that a nation ranks highly in both Most Advanced and Most Primitive. This situation usually means that the nation has advanced wearable computers, but uses them only to cast horoscopes.

Though, I guess your space telescope is meant to cover the "surprisingly high-tech stupidity" niche.

[Drasnia]

Second Page bump.

[The Intellocracy Utopia]

What about stats?

[Drasnia]

What about stats?

I never post stats in draft threads. I've found that half of the time spent editing in my drafts was for stats and not the actual text, plus I know several people go through got issues to see which option to pick based off of the draft stats.

[Drasnia]

I have changed the description a small bit. Unless there are any more suggestions, this is the final bump before submission.

[Australian rePublic]

So this assumes that you don't live in a rainforest, where it's pretty much cloudy everyday, or to a lesser extent, in the tropics, where it's cloudy everyday of the wet season

[Drasnia]

So this assumes that you don't live in a rainforest, where it's pretty much cloudy everyday, or to a lesser extent, in the tropics, where it's cloudy everyday of the wet season

The game makes plenty of assumptions about your nation already and I don't see this conflicting with any of them.

This has been submitted.

[Australian rePublic]

Good luck

[Drasnia]

This issue has been accepted. A big thanks to Helaw who edited it. It's even better than I could have imagined.

[Australian rePublic]

Congratulations!