Notes
1. This was inspired by the film ‘The Birdman of Alcatraz’, which was a fictionalized account of a true story. (For one thing, in RL the convict’s bird-keeping had taken place while he was imprisoned at Fort Leavenworth, and had to stop once he was transferred to Alcatraz...)
2. The place-name ‘Alcatraz’, which is of Spanish origin, actually means ‘Pelicans’.
3. The “fixed” name assigned in this draft to the convict commemorates the actor in the RL film, as well as the RL convict himself: ‘Bert’ for both Burt Lancaster and Robert Stroud, and ‘Gloucester’ not only as a substitute for Lancaster -- as another English county-town -- but also because there's a Stroud’ that is a town in Gloucestershire). EDIT: for version 2.0, replaced "Gloucester" with the shorter "Gloster" which has some RL use.
4. In RL Mopery is more of a "placeholder" term, or one used in humorous fiction, rather than a genuine offence: What it means IC in the receiving nation is, of course, up to that nation' player to decide.
6. In the third clause I've put "EVERYBODY" in all-caps because the speaker is emphasizing that word: I'd be happier with either boldface or underlining, but does the issues-writing system allow either of those?
7. The speakers' titles are the most obvious point with which I'm not entirely happy.
58. My first draft on this idea, hand-written due to a lack of computer access at the time, was produced early in the UK’s first ‘lockdown’ last year... but, unfortunately, has since been lost. I seem to recall that it ws better than this one is starting off as...
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Version 2.2
The Birdman of Pelican
[issue]Many @@DEMONYMPLURAL@@ have been enthralled by a recently-released film based on the true story of how convict Bert Gloster, serving a life sentence for aggravated mopery in the high-security prison on Pelicanz Island, carefully nursed an injured sparrow that had flown into his cell back to health and then kept it as a pet.
[validity]Only if the nation has prisons.
[option]"Gloster not only tamed the bird, he tamed himself as well in the process. He acknowledged that when interviewed by the press after the film proved a success," comments @@RANDOMNAME(1)@@, your Minister for Reforms. "Before that incident he was a violent troublemaker, but now he's a model prisoner. We should encourage all criminals serving long sentences to keep pet birds.. Perhaps their looking after the birds well could even earn them privileges, and be useable as evidence in their favour at parole hearings."
[validity]unrestricted
[effect]the jails are alive with the sound of birdsong
[option]]"Bah, humbug!" retorts @@RANDMONAME@@, the Minister for Corrections. "Those scum will just pretend to care about the birds, for the benefits that you'd give them. They don't even deserve free time in which to practice hobbies. Jailbirds like Gloster should be made to work hard, during all the hours not officially set for meals and sleep and so on, to repay their debts to society."
[validity]unrestricted
[effect]chain-gangs of convicts are often seen pulling barges and lifting bales but rarely seen taking breaks
[option]"I agree with @@RANDMONAME(1)@@," says @@RANDOMNAME@@, Home Office Minister, "but @@HE(1)@@ isn't going far enough. We should encourage everybody in @@NAME@@ to keep pet birds. That should give us a happier population, and a more law-abiding one into the bargain. Of course, we might have to import some birds so that there are enough to go round."
[validity]only if nation does not have ‘Autarky’ policy? (or might it work as a reversal for that?)
[effect]the cage-bird trade is booming as well as cheeping
[option]"Our feathered friends shouldn't be kept in cages!", exclaims the Bird Lady as she climbs into the room through a window. She pauses briefly, to unhook one of her costume's wings from the window-latch on which it had caught. "The caged bird might sing, but the un-caged bird sings more sweetly and I know that that's because it's free. What the government should do is setting-up lots of feeding stations for them all across the country, so that they can thrive in freedom and their presence can cheer people up. Feed the birds!"
[validity]unrestricted
[effect]umbrellas are back in fashion
Changes from Version 2.1
Option 1: First sentence modified slightly, to remove duplicate use of "himself".
Option 2: Rewritten slightly to reinstate the term "jailbirds", so that it's seen by every player who receives the issue rather than just those who choose this option, even though this required using Gloster's name again as well; also Effect line has the term "jailbirds" replaced by "chain-gangs of convicts", and modifications further along as well.
Option 3: slight modification to third sentence (of four) so that, at least in my opinion, it scans better.
Option 4: one comma inserted into Bird Lady's speech.
Changes from version 1.3
Option 1 now assigns the remark about Gloucester having tamed himself while taming the bird to the man himself, as both Terrabod and Ostrovskiy suggested, although I've made this his being quoted (from a press interview) by a government minister instead of bringing the convict personally into LEADER's presence; speaker changed, for now, from 'Minister for Optimistic Solutions' to 'Minister for Reforms' (leaving that ambiguous about whether their job involves the reforming of criminals or reforming the laws).
Option 2, apart from some changes in wording, now has the speaker refer not to "Convicts" but to "Jailbirds", a term that Terrabod requested I include somewhere in this issue; Speaker is now 'Minister for Corrections (which could refer to prisons & such or just to providing arguments against others' suggestions) ', rather than 'Minister for Pessimistic Solutions'; Effect line also re-written, but keeping the same theme as before.
Option 3's speaker is now 'Home Office Minister' rather than 'Minister for Offbeat Solutions'. This title is also slightly ambiguous, because in the RL UK the 'Home Office' deals with policing & related matters -- with which a "tamer" population would help -- but also he's talking about people keeping birds in their homes.
ADDED Option 4, with the 'Bird Lady' who's already appeared in several other issues (and whose inclusion in this issue was suggested by Lyrical International Brigade) as its speaker; Effect line is one that Candlewhisper Archive had suggested as an alternative for the former version of option 3.
(EDIT: 08th June: replaced the name "Gloucester" with the shorter version "Gloster", which has some RL use.)
(The proposal should work okay with only one out of options #3 & #4 used, or even with neither of them, although obviously I'd like to see both included...)
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Alternative effect-line for the third option:[box]the cage-bird trade isn't just cheeping it's booming
Changelog
Version 1.0 to Version 1.1 _ effect line for second option has word "rural" inserted before "roads"; word "everybody" in third option changed from ALL-CAPS to boldface.
Version 1.1 to Version 1.2 _ see viewtopic.php?p=38983241#p38983241 .
Version 1.2 to Version 1.3 _ Coding used for numbered @@RANDOMNAME@@ altered to form suggested by Verdant Haven. One word ("basically") deleted from option 3.
I think you should stick with Option #3 being invalid for nations with the Autarky feature rather than making it a reversal, but I don't think it matters very much either way.
