Monday, March 16, 2009

The Senate prepares to vote




An idea came to me the other day how to make the Senate a player character within the Roman Campaign. I thought I'd design a voting method that allows independent choices to be made with in the decision round of the game turn.
Two players pick five tablets from a bag and arrange them face down on the table. Next, they take it in turns to flip them over. There are ten for Secundus, ten for Alanicus, ten for Rome and ten Veto's. The pile with the most tablets wins the vote and the army of the Senate marches on the elected result.
To add a little extra fun to the election results, there are two Army tablets. These are the favour and weight of the army. If a player picks one of these he can put it on any pile he chooses, thus giving the army's influence to a vote. There is also a master Veto tablet, this represents the casting vote of Plaudicus who as Consul has the heaviest vote. If this tablet is laid, the whole Senate has to be returned into the bag and the voting starts again.
There is also a tablet with II painted on it, if this is laid then it must be returned to the bag and two others picked in it's place. It may sound very simple (like most of my ideas and rules) but it's great fun and really works. In fact it's probably more fun than rolling on the table of the gods and I never thought I'd ever say that!

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Great idea, and it's great to be back in Roman times!

What would happen if most votes were for Rome - would the Senate's army stay put?

Also, if most votes were vetoes, what would happen?

Finally, what is in the Senate's army, and where is it stationed?

Ave!

Anonymous said...

P.S.: What did you make the vote tablets out of?

Ave!

Secundus said...

The senate's army is stationed with Tullus at the moment, I'm not sure if Tullus is able to continue the game at the moment, so was trying to think of a way to carry on with three players.
If Rome is voted for, then the army, (stationed in Gaul at the moment) would march on Rome. The player controlling Rome stands a double chance of being marched opon. Poor old secundus again.

when most of the votes are Vetoes then the Senate decides not to act aggressively that round on the map but can still buy resources and move troops around. This is done by me as the Game's host.

I made the tablets of of Daz which is a type of air drying clay. When they were dry I painted them then dipped them in Quickshade to toughen them up. I was going to just make them out of foam core but thought I'd spend a little time on them to tie them into the games setting.

BigRedBat said...

Nice idea! I might try a variant on that, myself. I'd be tempted to give most of the votes to the army, though!

I've been thinking about designing a system to determine which side units come in on, in a Civil War, and how they might change sides along the way. Not easy at all...

Simon

Sire Godefroy said...

I'm very interested in details of your campaign system - so, thanks for the insights! Hopefully more to come?

Also good to see you following the path to Rome again. Keep it up!

Cheers

Secundus said...

My true passion is all things Rome but I have started to dabble in other eras recently. However, I soon return to mother Rome in the end.

Snickering Corpses said...

That's really brilliant. I might use something like this myself. What a lovely solution for decision making.

Secundus said...

Thanks, I have improved the voting process since this post was writen and now it's ready. I will post the new Senate rules soon.

Anonymous said...

Yes, please post the new rules!

Ave!

Anonymous said...

Hey - go Plaudicus! I still have a soft spot for this guy and, at the moment, can relate to his having a veto vote due my own RK Stewardship experience.

Hope he gets to use it!