The election of 1885: A referendum on the Bundespartei
The first government with the Bundespartei fell apart in near record time. When the no-confidence vote failed, Chancellor Frederick Carile tried to find a legal loophole to have the polarizing Foreign Minister Franz Meningen replaced, as the 'Liberator' had consistently tried to hold the government hostage in an attempt to get his programs approved. The shouting matches between Carile and Meningen bordered on legendary, as each one accused the other of the most heinous acts. Finally, with no recourse, President Konrad von Schwaben dissolved the Reichstag and called for new elections. The old policies remained in place, and so a new, increased minimum wage (a favored program of the DSU and KPD) was balanced by an expansion of both the German army and navy, spearheaded by Krupp AG.
Seeking to take advantage of a divided electorate, Karl Adimari of the New Society and Chief of the General Staff Friedrich von Hohenstaufen of the HUN announced a merger. Assemblyman Adimari remained the head of the new Conservative party; the new party was poised to profit from the liberal in-fighting. Adimari and Hohenstaufen, along with Minister of War HF Gutfreund, jointly announced the expansion of Germany's military, including 36 new brigades, totaling over 100,000 men, and brand new battleships. The plan would take about six months to complete the army units and a little longer for the battleships, but it would greatly improve the military both quantitatively and qualitatively. Naval engineers developed a new system of producing the large guns needed for the Main Armaments of the battleships, which promised to greatly increase the speed of construction while not sacrificing firepower, range, or accuracy.
The resulting election was, surprisingly, quiet at the polling places, but not so in the public. A splinter group of the KPD calling itself the "Sons of Ferdinand" stimulated a small and easily crushed uprising. Another cell of the "Sons of Ferdinand" also instigated a riot in Franche-Comte; Gendarmerie units put down the riot efficiently, but foreign press gleefully attacked Germany's image. Minister of the Interior Emmanuel Victor was pressured to shut down news coverage of the incident, but refused to do so. The riot in Franche-Comte was costly for Germany's politicians, especially an elderly contingent that enjoyed tours of wineries and vineyards. Among the fallen were several members of the DDA, Joseph Heinz of the UAI, three members of the new Conservative party, and two Imperialists. They enjoyed reminiscing about the good old days; normally joining them was Gerrit Aldo Servatius van Kloetinge, the former Commander of the Gendarmerie, but he missed the year's tour. Writing from his home in Kloetinge, the Assemblyman called the men "the truest friends Germany ever had; that people in Germany felt the need to express themselves so violently is a symbol that our system has failed, that our warmongering and our constant need to gratify our lust for blood is not worth the price." The state funeral was one of the largest in recent memory, but notably absent were the Stadtholders of the KPD; they were attending a very different funeral in Steiermark, where a worker had committed suicide after being mangled in some factory equipment.
Despite the tragedies, the average German liked the way things were going. He or she had money in their pocket for the first time in a very long time, and credited the NLPD with maintaining order and prosperity. To that end, all three liberal parties actually gained a few seats. The conservatives, who once polled 20% of the Assembly in their two parties, actually lost the most, dropping to 13%, with every other party benefitting from the Conservative losses. In the Conclave, the big surprise was the DSU, who earned a guaranteed ministry for the first time by polling over 20% of the vote. The Conservatives also gained slightly as the DDA's ability to gain seats evaporated. The liberals could expect to run the government again, but even if the vote totals were similar, it was difficult to see how the Bundespartei could expect to have such an overwhelming presence in the government again.
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There are no pressing matters for the ballot this session; legislation may be proposed immediately while the various parties work on a coalition.
Chief Justice of the Supreme Court
((Admin hat on))
(( The idea of assassination mechanics intrigued me, so I had a go at throwing something together. I've been basing the mechanics loosely on Archduke Franz Ferdinand's assasination, with possibly a soupçon of Kennedy in there too.
The basic idea: your character has gathered together a group of outraged nationalists / malignant thugs / suspicious men in dark glasses (delete where applicable) to forcibly inhume some other character of your choosing. Odds are, most of them won't get the right angle at the right time, or will get cold feet at the last moment or something. But if your merry gang is large enough, one of them may well succeed... or get captured and spill the beans about exactly who funded their little disappreciation society.
Choose a number of assassins (one is fine, but probably a bit too small a group to actually achieve anything; nine or above will almost certainly get you caught in the attempt). For each assassin, roll a D20 for the attempt itself (if the target is killed, stop rolling D20s). Then, roll a D10 to see if they - or you - got away with it.
D20:
1 - The assassin got caught, and is now shooting his mouth off to any interrogator who'll listen. -2 penalty to detection roll.
2 - The assassin got caught, but he's keeping reasonably quiet. -1 penalty to detection roll.
3-17: No luck, this assassin didn't achieve anything. On the plus side, he didn't give the game away either.
18 - The assassin killed an NPC innocent bystander.
19 - The target was wounded.
20 - Success! The target was killed.
D10:
You're trying to roll more than the total number of assassins. If you roll fewer than this number (after any interrogation penalties), then the whole plan was traced back to you personally, the game's up, and you may as well hand yourself in to the Gendarmerie or flee the country or something. If your roll is equal to this number, then you'll hear in-thread a number of intriguing conspiracy theories about what really happened, but nothing concrete. If it's greater than, then your assassins either escaped scot-free or just didn't know enough about their employer to get you into trouble.
If all your assassins rolled 3-17s and you survived the D10 roll, then no-one even noticed the assassination attempt - you can at least congratulate yourself on your ninja-like tendencies and try again later. On the other hand, if something did happen then we get Breaking News announcements in-thread about what happened (or almost happened), and the in-character witch hunts can begin.
No more than one assassin squad per player per in-game year. (Or maybe per four-year election cycle? Discuss.)
))
I really like PTSnoop's idea here. it's very simple and easy to understand. I would make a couple of changes:
1) We need some modifiers. I would actually make it easier to get caught for any member of the government to get caught
except the Commander of the Gendarmerie or Minister of the Interior, who I suspect would have an easier time covering it up. That would be a -1 for most positions, except the latter two who would be a +1. As far as successfully taking down your target, again you could make an argument that the Gendarmerie/Ministry of the Interior would have an easier time finding disreputable sorts, say a +1 for the roll, and the Chief of the General Staff/Minister of War would also get a +1 since they'd know lots of people with combat experience. Killing a Minister should be harder than just an ordinary Reichstag members; I'd say -3 for President/Chancellor (assuming they'd have substantial protection), -2 for Gendarmerie/General Staff (combat experience, being away from the capital and surrounded by armed men), -1 everyone else. A natural 1 has to be a catastrophic failure; maybe the assassins decide to target the original conspirator instead? "I'll double what he's paying you." Even give them a bonus to kill the guy, maybe a +2 or +3. The roll is free; they cannot be detected, since their target would be unlikely to say anything. Move the penalties to detection up to 2 and 3.
2) I want to be far stricter about the amount of attempts possible. I would say a maximum of one or two per year, first come, first served. If I get multiple PMs, they're resolved in order.
If anybody else has ideas, speak up; I'd like to get a proposal formalized so we can take a metavote.
))
