Objective
Build a political career from local office to the presidency while surviving weekly crises, elections, and unintended consequences. Your goal is not perfection. Your goal is to stay viable.
Core Loop
- Build your character and choose your political style.
- Win a campaign and survive your term, one week at a time.
- Handle budget, issues, scandals, rivals, and random chaos.
- Keep your bars healthy: Impact, Popularity, and Clout.
- Reach end-of-term, pass the election, and decide to advance or defend.
- Get graded with a term report card, then do it all over again.
The Three Bars
- Impact: Real outcomes for people and services.
- Popularity: Public approval and electoral mood.
- Clout: Elite leverage, institutional power, and political muscle.
If one bar crashes, the rest eventually feel it.
Weekly Phases
A normal term rotates through newspaper updates, budget decisions, issue choices, and summary outcomes. National-level roles add more systems (relationship pressure, legislation, instability, and larger consequences).
Elections and Terms
Each term ends in a performance check. Win and you can defend your seat or move up. Lose and your career path shifts. Either way, the report card remembers.
Quick Survival Tips
- Do not max one bar while ignoring the other two. Balance matters more than spikes.
- Short-term popularity gains can wreck your long-term clout.
- If a choice sounds too clean, expect hidden costs later.
- Save tickets for serious runs if you are experimenting with builds.
- Your report card is the real feedback loop. Use it to adjust your next term.