Executive Decision
There’s a bit of excitement here: something I wrote is going to GenCon, the premier national convention for role-playing games (and, to a lesser extent, other games).
This, in itself, is not much of an accomplishment. GenCon is open to all with the cash, time, and transportation. All anyone needs to do is write an adventure, then sign up and run it. The accomplishment is in getting someone else interested enough to run it. And, in this case, that someone is a name.
Greg Stolze is a significant figure in the RPG biz. He’s written or co-written three significant games (Godlike, Feng Shui, and Unknown Armies) and written major supplements to the World of Darkness, along with a number of less significant works.
One of these lesser-knowns is his game "Executive Decision," a LARP-y little production that places 3-7 players in the role of US President and members of his cabinet. At the beginning of play, a crisis erupts, and the president, advised by the Veep, the Chief of Staff, and the Cabinet, has one hour to select from a limited list of ways to respond to the crisis. Periodically, breaking information on the crisis is introduced, which may change the debate over which response to adopt.
The president is entirely neutral in these decisions, ultimately accepting his advisors’ counsel as best he can. The cabinet, by contrast, is not at all neutral. Apart from the president, every player has one or more agenda, such as increasing the budget and status of the military or reducing spending on health care, and will attempt to talk the president into a selection that promotes these agenda. Because the scenarios are designed to put these agenda at cross purposes, debate should be lively; the president has the secondary job of stirring up debate if consensus is reached too easily. At the end of the hour, a decision is made, the appropriate envelope is opened, and the political results of the decision read. Players score according to whether the decision promoted or hampered their agendas; the actual impact on the American people is irrelevant.
As of this writing, the only official "Executive Decision" scenarios are the original five to come with the rules. Discovering that Stolze would be willing to publish another set if he could get them, I wrote up one of my own. His response, and I quote: “Hot damn!” He intends to run it at GenCon. (Ideally, he hopes to print up the text without reading it himself, so that he can participate.) Naturally, I’m pleased as punch, and sent off two more. If the demo goes well, you may soon see my name in official RPG print.
For more on Executive Decision, see Stolze’s web page at www.gregstolze.com, in the “downloads” section. While you’re there, have a look around. I rather like the ingenious mechanic for “…In Spaaace!”