as-written-plus, build
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edit docs/rules.html by hand — edit
docs/rules.template.html or the engine, then regenerate.
If a number here is wrong, the engine is wrong, not the prose.
A player is a faction, not a party: your hand holds cards of both
D and R, and you choose which races to enter and
which party to run each candidate under. Fifty states' worth of races come up
on a fixed cycle; you can only afford to contest a fraction of them, so the
game is about choosing which fraction.
Each year: draft a pack of candidate and district cards, declare candidates
into open races, a window to withdraw before the dice are visible, elections
resolve, the legislature votes on the year's omnibill, and lean decays toward
zero everywhere. Your hand holds 16 cards at the start of a
cycle under as-written-plus — far fewer than the races on
the board, which is why most of them go uncontested.
Every race rolls three six-sided dice per side: national (shared by every race your party runs that year — a wave), state (shared by every race your party runs in that state), and candidate (yours alone). Add a flat modifier total from your cards, highest sum wins.
A general election rolls the candidate die once per side. A primary shares its national and state die between both sides (same party, same state), so only the candidate die differs between them — and it rolls twice, not once, so no modifier gap is a certain thing.
Win probability by modifier edge (the gap between the two sides' flat totals, before dice):
| modifier edge (pips) | win probability |
|---|---|
| +0 | 50.0% |
| +1 | 59.2% |
| +2 | 67.9% |
| +3 | 75.7% |
| +4 | 82.5% |
| +5 | 87.9% |
| +6 | 92.1% |
| +7 | 95.2% |
| +8 | 97.2% |
| modifier edge (pips) | win probability |
|---|---|
| +0 | 50.0% |
| +1 | 61.0% |
| +2 | 71.3% |
| +3 | 80.1% |
| +4 | 87.2% |
| +5 | 92.4% |
| +6 | 95.9% |
| +7 | 98.1% |
| +8 | 99.2% |
A primary is decided by a much narrower die than a general, which is why a small identity-tag or incumbency edge matters far more in a primary than a general — and why a wide edge in a primary is close to a lock, while the same edge in a general still leaves real room for an upset.
Every state carries a signed lean, deviation from that state's own baseline (not from a national 50/50 — exactly like Cook PVI). Winning a race pushes the state's lean toward your party; how far depends on how decisively you won it:
| winning margin (pips) | lean push |
|---|---|
| 0-1 | 2 |
| 2-3 | 3 |
| 4+ | 4 |
Lean decays one pip per state per year, toward zero, so a state only realigns under a sustained run of results, not a single blowout. A newly elected president also places a one-pip honeymoon counter in every state they carried, gone by the next decay.
The most nationalized race on the ballot is the one that pushes lean, in this order: president > senator > representative > governor. A governor's race never pushes on its own — it only ever rides along when it agrees with the state's existing lean, which is why governors of the "wrong" party for their state (a Baker, a Hogan) are common and unremarkable.
Candidates and districts both carry tags from the same vocabulary, so a candidate's fit with a district — or a bill's fit with a bloc — is just overlap in the same space: catholic, evangelical, jewish, black, hispanic, cuban, union, rural, suburban, urban, farm.
One omnibill a year: it needs a House majority and 60% of the Senate to pass, can be vetoed and overridden at 66.7%, and an impeachment vote needs 66.7%. Passage is scored by yes-vote, doubled for the majority party — so a bill is worth authoring even when you cannot claim it outright.
Nothing accumulates. At the end of each year your score is read off what you still hold:
| what you hold | points |
|---|---|
| the presidency | 5 |
| a Senate seat | 3 |
| a governorship | 2 |
| a House seat | 1 |
| a bill still on the books | 3 |
| a state currently leaning your way | 1 |
| a ratified amendment matching your tags | 2 |
| a district card you hold | 1 |
| a card still in your hand | 1 |
Anything repealed, reversed or unseated scores zero from then on — a score can fall without any decay rule at all.
as-written-plus ships victory: "amendment". All modes the engine knows:
| mode | what ends the game |
|---|---|
points | no earned ending — play runs out the year cap and the highest score wins. |
bills | first player to author 8 enacted bills (config billTarget, default 8). |
two-terms | two CONSECUTIVE presidential terms for one player. |
three-terms | three presidential terms for one player, need not be consecutive. |
parallel | either the bills target (8) or two consecutive terms, whichever a player reaches first. |
amendment | the amendment ratifies — see below. Not a player win: the game ends and the epilogue score decides. |
The one earned ending. On config as-written-plus:
34 states to call a convention, 38
states to ratify, and 13 states to block it
outright — so a narrow leader can never close the game alone, and a
determined minority always has a wall. Ratification does not name a winner
outright; it ends the game and the epilogue score (above) decides who won.