• We have updated our Community Code of Conduct. Please read through the new rules for the forum that are an integral part of Paradox Interactive’s User Agreement.
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21. Can I switch to a different character when I want to?

Players can on occasion start over with a new character. However, the GM will expect some sort of explanation (a) why the player wishes to start a new character and (b) how the new character is different from the player’s old character. The GM will not normally approve a new character that is simply a clone of a player's old character, since this would open the door to abuse. Specifically, creating a new character is *not* considered a legitimate way to get out of tough situations your current character may be in. In other words, if character “Yogi Berra” experiences bad karma, don't expect the GM to allow you to simply ditch him and reincarnate as “Yogi Berra Mk. 2.”
 

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22. Can I play an ambassador, a mayor, or a provincial office-holder?

Local and provincial elections are simulated and decided by the GM. If you are interested in playing a Member of a Provincial Parliament, a provincial Chancellor or a Mayor, contact the GM Content by pm.

If you wish to play a foreign ambassador to Eutopia, likewise contact the GM Content. Be aware that foreign ambassadors (or any other non-citizens) cannot vote or run for office in Eutopia.

Eutopian ambassadors are appointed by the Minister responsible for Foreign Affairs.
 

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23. Can I play a crimelord?

At the moment, crime is mostly handled by NPCs (i.e., it’s modelled by the Gamemasters) so as to ensure that this (very popular) area does not detract from Eutopia’s political focus. Consequently, you cannot play a character whose main occupation is crime; you can, however, play a corrupt cop, a politician with “connections” and the like.
 

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24. Can I play a sports team?

Eutopia has several sports leagues. Most of them allow players to become "caretakers" or "controllers" of specific teams. The exact role of "caretakers" may differ a bit between leagues, but some of the typical functions would be making up background stuff about the team (history, stadium, colours, players etc.) for story-telling purposes, or in some cases managing the team in greater depth (player rosters, tactics etc.).

Any differences in function notwithstanding, the following applies to all "caretakers" and "controllers":

(1) any posts made by a "caretaker" concerning their team will not be attributed to their in-game character, as long as those posts are made in the league thread;

(2) any posts about the team that are not made in the league thread will be attributed to the player's in-game character;

(3) a "caretaker" is free to determine whether and how his/her in-game character is involved with the team in-game (e.g., as the actual owner, a player, rabid fan, janitor, or not at all);

(4) posts made in the league thread may make use of team-related NPCs (owners, players, managers, coaches); these NPCs do not exist outside the league thread, so "caretakers" or other players cannot use them in any way to affect the wider gameworld.
 

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25. Can I join the Eutopian military, police, or secret service?

If a player wishes to assume the role of a member of the forces, police, or secret service, s/he must get approval from the GM Content first (specifically regarding his/her rank).

Players are free to request permission for joining the army, navy or airforce, as well as the Federal Law Enforcement Agency (Eutopia’s federal police).

At present, the UPE has several services that could be considered “secret”: the Counter-Insurgency Service (counter-terrorism), the Office of Special Operations (special forces and government security), and the SAW (intelligence, including military intelligence, plus "guarding the guardians," i.e. keeping an eye on the other services). Players can join the CIS and OSO after GM approval, but the SAW is purely composed of NPCs played by the GM; this is largely because procuring intelligence will, due to the nature of game mechanics, require that said intelligence has to be invented, which is a task best left to the GM.
 
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26. Can I play a member of the Senate or High Court?

No. The Senate and High Court are tools used by the Gamemasters for various gameplay purposes (reward successful parties through Senate elections, clarify certain rules through High Court decisions, intervene in-game without having to come up with ways to dress up this intervention in terms that make sense in-game etc.). All Senators and High Court Judges are
therefore NPCs.
 

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27. Can I become supreme dictator or Monarch of Eutopia?

No. Locking one player into a position of power on a permanent basis and locking every other player out of that position would be detrimental to the game.

In addition, few dictatorships are known for the frank and heated political competition among different parties and factions that makes Eutopia an entertaining game for most of us. In other words, Eutopia under a dictatorship would likely be exceedingly boring - not to mention that it could be very difficult to reconcile such a regime with some of the general forum rules.

In the event that the Monarchy should be restored at some future point in Eutopian history (and stranger things have happened), the Monarch will be an NPC. At the moment, the most likely candidate would be the self-styled “Queen” Maria.
 

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28. How much time should I invest in Eutopia?

That depends entirely on how active and involved you want to be in the game, so it’s up to you. Most people log into the game forum at least once a day and spend several hours a week reading posts, posting replies, or else plotting revenge on particularly recalcitrant opponents.

At a minimum, you should probably log into Eutopia every second or third day, and spend about an hour or two every week on various in-game activities.
 

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29. Nothing is really happening with my character; what gives?

You get out of Eutopia what you put into it. In other words, you will largely have to create your own opportunities in the game, people won’t just present them to you. Don’t wait for other players or GM to do things for you - that’s not their job. If you want things to happen with or to your character, be active, take the initiative, and they will.

Some tips in how to make things (good or otherwise) happen:
- become active in an existing party; this will do a lot to launch you into politics (probably more so than, e.g., trying to start your own party)
- get involved with a Ministry (e.g., by asking to be appointed as Deputy Minister), in a citizen’s commission (the Eutopian government normally sets up commissions of inquiry on a range of topics during a given Term), or just as a “concerned citizen” looking to comment
- socialize; Eutopia has various establishments for in-character interaction. This is a good way to network and “advertise” your willingness to get involved
- think of a good idea for a business, a club, a non-government civic movement, a media outlet, or special event like a dinner or festival and make it happen. You can contribute a lot on your own without being part of the government.
 

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30. I’ve been here for two weeks; how come I’m still a lowly peon?

Just like real life, people will not simply hand power to someone who is unknown in Eutopian politics. Be patient, be active, make a name for yourself, and you will in all likelihood get to take on important roles and responsibilities.
 

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31. How do I become President, a Minister or a Member of the General Assembly?

If you want to become President or one of the nine Members of the General Assembly, get your party to nominate you as a candidate in the next elections. Once your party has been certified by the CRO, get the citizens to vote for you or your party.

Ministers are appointed by the President.
 

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32. How many parties can I join?

One. You cannot be a member of several parties at the same time. You can switch parties, but you must post in your current party’s headquarters that you are leaving *before* you can join or found another party.
 

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33. What is the role of political parties in Eutopia?

Organized political parties are a key part of the political process in Eutopia. Citizens cannot run for political office without being members of a certified political party. In addition, political parties provide a place for like-minded citizens to meet, to debate and discuss issues of mutual concern, and to plan, plot, and scheme how to advance their political agenda.

Political parties have their own private headquarters and a public communication office, and many parties may have their own newspaper or media outlet.

In Eutopia 3, the role of political parties has been strengthened, and it is important to role-play this appropriately. Party discipline and cohesion will play a stronger role. For starters, if Party A is disunited, its public image (by way of press coverage in the Eutopian Newslink), polls (ditto), and electoral fortunes (Senate elections) will suffer. In addition, the party leadership can now replace their party’s Members of the General Assembly at will (at any time, for any reason) - so voting against the party line may come with serious consequences. Finally, the new electoral formula used for the General Assembly discourages party fragmentation, thus contributing to a need for greater coordination within parties.
 
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34. Elections aren’t my cup of tea; can I start a revolution or civil war?

Talk to the GM first. They may or may not allow you to start something of the kind. If the GM give you the go-ahead, be aware that the chances of a coup d’etat or revolution succeeding are very low. At the same time, the penalties for failing and/ or getting caught are high and the GM frown upon players trying to get out of a tough spot by starting over with a new character after a foolish coup attempt.

Also, please see Questions 21, 27, 36 and 56.
 
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35. How do I organize a media outlet?

Just set up a thread for your newspaper, radio or TV station. Put “SEMI-PUBLIC” in the thread title, and put yourself (and anybody else who is interested) down as the editor. All done. Keep in mind that nobody can be editor of more than one media outlet, so UPDATE THE LIST OF EDITORS REGULARLY.

Only editors are normally allowed to post in their media outlet. If anyone else wants to publish something in a media outlet, they need to send it to the editors by pm, who may (or may not) publish it. This does not apply to cases where an ongoing exchange between several players is required, such as a radio interview or a TV panel of experts; in these cases, all players involved
are free to post directly.
 

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36. Can I control NPCs or someone else’s character?

No. Your character can order about NPCs or other players’ characters if s/he is in a position to do so - e.g., if your character is an Army General and the NPC or character in question is a subordinate officer. However, you as a player can *never* control NPCs or other players’ characters in the sense of assuming direct control of their thoughts or actions. In other words, whether or not the subordinate officers your character just ordered about comply with those orders is entirely up to them. Basically, you cannot make posts along the lines of “Ana Graham thought ...” or “Ana Graham did ...” when Ana Graham is not your own character. Likewise, you cannot make posts along the lines of "guards seize Player X," "loyal soldiers seize command of the bunker," or "the entire city of Neuwestbaden turns out to protest the vote."

See Question 24 for a partial exception regarding sports leagues.
 
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37. How do presidential elections work?

Presidential elections are normally held every ten weeks RT and use the alternative vote system. Basically, citizens rank as many candidates as they like in order of preference. If no candidate receives 50%+1 of first preferences, the candidate with the fewest first preferences is eliminated and his/her ballots are redistributed according to the second preferences indicated by the voter. The process is repeated until a candidate emerges victorious with 50%+1 of votes.

That is the way things are described and handled in-game. The actual electoral formula is a little bit more complicated, since there are two types of ballots:

(1) every player gets to cast one ballot, but
(2) the Gamemasters each cast a ballot as well; the three GM ballots will be weighted to count as much as all player ballots put together (e.g., if 30 players cast a vote, each GM ballot will be worth 10 votes for a total of 30). The reason for the GM ballots is to simulate unaligned or floating voters (hence they are often referred to as “floating votes”), as well as all sorts of other vagaries that typically influence an election result.

The process of counting votes is the same as described in the first paragraph, though.
 

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38. How do General Assembly elections work?

General Assembly elections are held every ten weeks RT and use a proportional representation system. In essence, each citizen casts a vote for the party of their choice, and parties receive a percentage of seats in the General Assembly identical with their percentage of votes. Initially, those seats are filled from a party’s list of candidates, which it submitted to the Chief Registration Officer when applying for certification.

That is the way things are described and handled in-game. The actual electoral formula is a bit more complicated. What happens is that every player casts a vote; then, the number of votes received by each party is squared. Finally, a party’s percentage of the popular vote (and General Assembly seats) is calculated based on the squared votes.

For instance, let’s say Party A receives 10 votes and Party B receives 15 votes. Both numbers are squared, so Party A ends up with 100 votes (31%) and Party B with 225 (69%), for a total number of 325 votes. Reflecting their share of the squared vote, Party A receives 3 seats out of 9, Party B the remaining 6.

There are a number of reasons for using this formula: (1) ensuring that election results are dynamic (small changes in voting behaviour can have significant effects), (2) disadvantaging small parties so as to prevent their number from sky-rocketing, and (3) encouraging partisan integration of “blocs” of voters.

To illustrate that third point: let’s assume there are two “blocs” of voters (in this example, they will be the usual suspects, i.e. Right and Left). Let’s further assume that both “blocs” are equally strong, each getting a total of 15 votes from players.

In Scenario I, each “bloc” is united and votes for one party only; both of these parties will therefore get the same number of seats, as will the “blocs” overall (for the moment, let’s ignore the fact that the General Assembly actually has an uneven number of seats ;)).

In Scenario II, the Left is divided among different parties, while the Right is not:

Party A (Left): 4
Party B (Left): 6
Party C (Left): 5
Party D (Right): 15

In this Scenario, Party A’s votes, once squared, will work out to 16 (5%), Party B’s to 36 (12%), Party C will have 25 (8%), and Party D will receive 225 (75%) - for a total of 302.Consequently, Party A will receive no seats in the General Assembly, Parties B and C will get 1 each, and Party D will get a whole 7 seats out of the total 9. In other words, even though the Right and Left are equally strong, the Left’s chances at electoral success are reduced significantly because it is divided among a number of smaller parties.
 

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39. How do Senate elections work?

Senate elections are held every ten weeks RT and use a first past the post system. Each Senator represents one of UPE’s nine provinces.

That is the way things are described and handled in-game. In actual fact, the results of Senate elections (how many seats does Party A win etc.) is determined entirely by the Gamemasters. The idea is to allow the GM to simulate floating and unaligned voters, reward or penalize the performance of specific parties during the election campaign or preceding term, and model all
kinds of other factors that might shape the election outcome (e.g. the fact that we ran out of our favourite breakfast cereal and the dog peed on the carpet right before we read Party A’s latest piece of campaign literature).
 
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