Voting

Each Round a Crisis comes up, and players must vote Aye or Nay or Abstain (Yes and No are also acceptable. Players may vote at anytime during a round by sending a NB to the mod titled “Vote: Aye, 14” or “Vote: Nay, 14” or “Vote: Abstain, 14” where the player controls 14 votes. Players who do not cast a vote automatically abstain, players may change their vote by simply using “Revote: Aye” or similar, assuming the Deadline has not been reached.

For a measure to pass it must receive a majority of votes in play not including abstentions, players are always told at the beginning of the round how many votes are in play, though more may come in during Auctions as planets and electors come up. If 150 votes are in play, 76 Ayes would be need, but if 20 votes abstained this would drop to 130 votes and only 66 ayes would be needed, essentially ayes must outnumber nays. Each player has a number of votes, and they vote as a group, a player may not divide their votes up, they all either go aye, nay, or abstain.

Note: Votes in Play vs Votes: Each Round a number of interested parties will show up, and divide into Temporary Factions who will vote on the Crisis then disappear, these add to the Votes in Play, but not the total votes players have for purposes of achieving a Majority Victory, see Temporary Factions later in this section for details.

Sources of Votes
Base Vote: Each player begins with their DDI+1d3 votes, this is their Base Vote, and can be increased by raising their Diplomacy or Intrigue Scores, but can never be reduced.

Electors: Electors control a number of votes, fairly similar in number to a player’s Base Vote, and are powerful nobles looking to ally to Factions.

Planets: When a player takes control of a planet, other than their Homeworld, they gain an additional 2-4 votes depending on the Planet, poor, average, or rich and granting 2, 3, or 4 votes respectively

Miscellanous: Anything that grants votes and is not one of the other three types.

It should be noted that Voting is the last thing that happens in a round, followed only by Income. Assassinations or Seizures can reduce a player’s votes that round.

Players also can acquire offices which grant Perks or hold player votes, described later this section, which don not hinge on how many votes they control.

The Adjutant General – The Adjutant General of the Landsdraad, or AG, is the chief administrative aide to the Chancellor of Landsdraad. Serving in this post typically results in a small award of Prestige Victory Points at the end of the game, they also receive one free Court Gossip Action each round they hold the post which they are expected to use. During the First Round of Play, players elect an AG, the principal job of the AG is to keep track of Player Majority Votes and inform the Moderator via NB of their outcome. Player’s elect an AG by simply placing “AG Vote: Name” and whoever has the most votes, or for a tie receives their last vote first, wins the post. There must always be an AG at the end of a round or all players are docked 300 MS from their income due to administrative mistakes. Players are advised to select an active poster for this position. The size of the prestige award of VP is at the Mod’s discretion and based on how well the AG performs their role. Typically an AG Election lasts no more than 96 hours, it is the only time-limited player vote.

Player Majority Votes
Player Majority Vote – Typically this is referred to as ‘A Player Vote’, there are a few things on which players may simply vote without regards to how many votes they control in the Landsdraad. The method for voting this way is to place “Vote: Subject” in the title of a post, preferably in reply to whichever post called for the vote. Any player vote passes on a simple majority of active players. The Adjutant General typically keeps track of these sorts of votes, though the Mod can as well. Any such vote is subject to moderator veto and results never goes into effect until the Mod states that it has, though votes cast for a new AG prior to an official removal are still valid if cast, typically the veto is used only to prevent End Runs around the rules. Votes never carry over to the next round, and must be recast. Votes must be in the title of a post to count, and are otherwise valid if intent is clear.

No Confidence - A “Vote: No Confidence” strips the Adjutant General of their office if passed. New Elections commence and end at the end of the round, which may be shortly extended (24 hours maximum) to allow time to vote should this happen.

End Embargo – a “Vote: End Embargo”, or “Vote: End Embargo on Name” if there’s more than one, ends an Embargo against a player

Audit Player – a “Audit: Player” is sufficient but “Vote to Audit: Player” works too. If a majority pass an Audit, CHOAM auditors descend on the player designated and publish all their Transfer and Transfer Funds actions, posting what was transferred to who. CHOAM bills the Landsdraad for the Audit and the players evenly divide the cost. Any player may be designated, any round may be designated but auditing the current round is the default and the cheapest.

Base Fee: 1000 MS, +100 MS for each active player, +1000 MS x(current round # - round to be checked) for each round they wish to view. So if it is round 4, with 10 players, and players wish to see Bob’s round 2 transfers it would cost 1000 base, plus 1000 for 10 players, plus 1000x(rd 4- rd 2, or 4-2=2), for 4000 MS, evenly divided among players or 400 MS each, and CHOAM would publish all of Bob’s round 2 and 4 transfers. They could get all his transfer that game for 8000 MS (during round 4) or 800 MS each. Player’s may request a cost assessment from the mod, for the auditing fee.

End Kanly – a ‘Vote: End Kanly’ or ‘Vote: End Kanly between Player and Player’ ends a state of Kanly between two players. Any forces or assassins in bound to attack their kanly rival by either player are returned home at the beginning of the next round, and half the Guild Transport Fee is returned, any actions points used are still expended, if either player is involved in an Embargo on the other, they are removed.

End Game – a ‘Vote: End Game’ ends the games prior to the round vote, this is strongly subject to Mod Veto, and exists primarily to formally end a game that has become very unbalanced or dragged out, and typically will carry a 20% penalty to the Victory Pot.

Rule Change - There may be times where the moderator wishes to introduce a new rule tweak and is undecided on it, or feels some additional compensation is in order, such as feeling that 'Perhaps all luxuries should come with a unit of militia' and this may be left to a player vote to decide if the tweak should occur in the current game. Players can propose things in this fashion too though the mod reserves the right veto stuff of course. This is strictly meant for redressing imbalances generated on accident by a totally new game mechanic and anything would be vetoed that was seen as not primarily serving this purpose.

Perks
Controlling a lot of votes can have additional advantages, if a player merits one, they will be receive a NB from the Mod shortly after the close of the Auction Phases. Control of these posts is secret, though the Adjutant General’s free Court Gossip ability is technically a perk. In event of ties perk is assigned to the player with the highest diplomacy, then intrigue, then combat, then coin flip.

Pro tempore – The Chancellor Pro tempore is the player who controls the most votes in the Landsdraad at the end of the Auction Phases, they have some access to the voting rolls and can push forward a Crisis. The perk they receive is knowing they have the most votes, and being able to assign one of the Looming Crises to the Roll 5 position. They also receive the ability to find out how any one Elector voted by designating the Elector’s name and the round they wish to know about.

CHOAM Directorship – This player controls the second most votes, they may designate the roll 6 position for the Looming Crisis and receive one free share of CHOAM Stock.

Master at Arms – This player controls the third most votes and receives one free militia unit, which will arrive at the Location of their choosing (which they must control and can not be their Homeworld).

Temporary Factions
For Most Crises a number of lesser powers with a strong interest in the Crisis will arrive to vote on it, and form into coalitions called Temporary factions, they have a set number and a set vote, typically Aye or Nay.

Temporary Faction Example
The current crisis deals with piracy in Sirius Sector, and three temporary factions have emerged, the Hawks, the Doves, and the Boars. The Landsdraad is voting to allocate funds to build up the fleet there, costing each player 1000 MS and granting each player 1200 MS for each Weapons Factory they own.

Hawks: 20 votes Aye
Doves: 12 votes Nay
Boars: 12 votes – the Boars are conducting secret negotiations with the pirates, which will determined how they vote, CHOAM estimates a 3 in 6 chance they will vote Nay, a 1 in 6 to Abstain, and 2 in 6 to vote Aye.

Note that the Boars will have a die rolled for them, 1-3 Nay, 4 Abstain, 5-6 Aye then cast all 12 of their votes for that option. There can be any number of Temporary Factions in a round, but 2-4 is the norm. Temporary Factions add an additional element of uncertainty to a game, even a strong alliance of players controlling a majority of votes can’t be sure of the outcome, between temporary factions, new auctions, assassinations, bribes, and seizures.