I’ve started work on a board game based around manipulating The Galactic Senate. The concept is that you play as a behind-the-scenes manipulator, influencing and manipulating the Senate to help it over-come its perpetual deadlock. Your end goal is to promote one of your puppets into the Emperor’s Chair, and control enough of the senate to stop the other manipulators from achieving their goals.
The game is still very rough, but here’s what I know:
1. The Senate moves through phases — War and Peace, Expansion, Stability, and Decline. This changes dynamically during the game, and can be manipulated by the players.
2. The different phases push different ideological groups into power, and move other groups into a state of vulnerability. Groups in power have more control, while vulnerable groups are more easy to influence.
3. Influence is like currency, once used, it’s lost.
4. You can create puppets, which are basically senators whom you’ve brought completely under your control.
5. All actions have a reaction, meaning that players will be able to cancel each other out. However, all actions and reactions have a cost, which means influence will be burned if you snipe too freely.
6. There are other influencial groups, whom contribute their own unique powers. These are – The corporations, the religions, and the underworld. Each of these allow the game to be changed.
I think that’s it for now. I will try to get some rough screenshots posted of the board as Jaimee and I move through the test phases.
Jimmy's World of Words 