Congress of the Cyberiad

[Veloxi]

So, I've been incredibly blessed to be present and participate in three Congress events held on the Cyberiad.
One of them was very brief, due to the Master Controller dying and the server getting rebooted; the other two were great.
I wanted to write this up as feedback for the admins that run this event, because I believe it to be rich with possibility.

Here are some general ideas about the event:

• Make sure the room has a holopad for the AI.
• Make sure the room has a requests panel for announcements.
• Provide books for each type of participant, to explain their roles:
  • Guide to Representation (for Department Reps)
  • Guide to Speakership (for Speaker of the House)
  • Guide to Executive (for the Captain)
• Remove or silence the vending machines; they are noisy, the worst enemy of text RP.
• Create a new "Antagonist" role 'Congress' that people can elect on/off
  • Admins can check this and announce pre-selected representatives instead of spending 30 minutes getting them to the room.
• Announce that unauthorized people are barred from the Congress room (a noisy distraction), but allow Congress enforce it.
• Move the venue from the Vacant Office to the Courtroom as it this provides more space.
  • The Vacant Office feels cramped with people stepping over each other.
  • The Courtroom is already set up to have a central speaker, is rarely used, is close to Security, and readily remapped. (i.e.: Perfect venue)
• In the Guide to Representation, note that:
  • Representatives should try to be quiet unless recognized by the Speaker
  • Representatives should write their proposals and give a copy to the Speaker and optionally the other representatives.
• In the Guide to Speakership, note that:
  • Speaker should moderate the room and guide the Representatives to present, debate, and vote.
  • Speaker should fax successful proposals to Central Command for permanent implementation.
• If the Admins can keep track of the Congress events and number them sequentially (i.e.: The 119th Congress) that would be very cool.

One bit of Feedback that I saw in OOC was that "Congress is only fun for those participating in it." which is a fair criticism.
First, let me go into a story, then I want to explain how to use this feedback.

During the second Congress event that I was part of, Robert Pond came to Congress to ask for representation for Greytide.
His proposal (please find it attached) was well written and well received, but included an incredibly devious plot.

Section 2.2 granted Robert Pond unilateral emergency powers equivalent to the full power of Congress;
had this measure passed, Robert Pond would have been the Absolute Dictator-King of the Cyberiad who answered only to himself,
think Hijack, but with The Full Power of Central Command to enforce his dictates, including permanently prohibiting the crew transfer shuttle.

I'm pretty sure the engine would have been released at some point, and maybe somebody at CC with a conscience would have allowed the dictator-king to burn in the fire of his own making, but wow were we close to the scariest 'hijack' that I've ever seen. (And congrats to Robert Pond for having the guts to try this!)

Now that we've got that story told, let's revisit that Feedback.
Congress is so rich with possibility because so many more people can get involved in the action.

Want to upgrade this event to Traitor Congress?

1. Give a small number (up to half) of the Representatives a Traitor objective to pass a 'Department Independence' bill, which includes an emergency power provision for a Hijack traitor (ala Robert Pond's proposal).

2. For the representatives who aren't Traitors, make at least two people in their departments Traitors whose job it is to BRIBE the non-traitor Representative to pass the bill.
Any bribe the Representative will accept is fair game.

3. Give some really robust folks a cooperative Traitor objective to incapacitate the Captain, to prevent a veto from wrecking the emergency powers plan.
All tactics are legitimate, from straightjacket without a headset, to assassination.

4. If/when the shit hits the fan and the emergency powers dictator takes power, declare a Revolutionary War.
Crew can choose a side, Dictator Loyalist, or Freedom Fighter, last side standing wins.
Of course, if the Freedom Fighters take too long putting down the Loyalists, then CC will send a Death Squad to wipe out the Freedom Fighters.

And this is just one, albeit particularly violent, variant on things. Other 'Main Objective' possibilities include:

• The Executive and some of the Representatives are secretly Wizards and want to pass a bill putting the Cyberiad under the governance of the Wizard Federation.
• Congress co-exists with a Cult round, and the Cult has the option of kidnapping and brainwashing representatives to achieve their objectives.
• Congress co-exists with a Changeling round, and the Changelings have the objective (by whatever means necessary) to pass a bill making the Cyberiad a sanctuary for Changeling kind.

Thank you to the Admins who run this event. I really enjoy them and look forward to playing more of these!

bald-citizen.txt

Edited December 23, 2019 by Veloxi
Removed unnecessary space

[BryanR]

I saw many of these suggestions and definitely will implement some as well as some more tweaks of my own next time I bring the Congress event out. If the rounds were longer I would invest in a proper election for the representatives of each Department however as it stands its simply not feasible.

I can promise that the next Congressional Room will have more space and have the option to be quite a bit less noisy than the previous one.

As for people saying that its only fun for the participants. There's nothing stopping from them contacting the representative to have them try to push a bill through for them. Either through bribery or coercion. Really, just have to use a bit of imagination on what to do with this. Similarly Robert is a good example of someone not a Representative participating and really making use of the power that Congress was given, even if his motion didn't pass.

[Elysian_prince]

We'll be working on the idea in the future. I've got a few ideas in mind to not keep security so occupied, possibly a way to go the whole 'revolutionary' route and a few other things. We'll see where that goes when I run the event on my end next time. Might be later tonight or Saturday.