First Steps

Name and Profile Picture

Like every other POWER player does, you have to create a new profile. This requires a little work unsurprisingly. First you should think of a name, something that sticks out and makes others know that you are crafty or some real person that makes you would like to pay homage to. Bad ideas include: Basic names like John, Joe, Bob, etc. Popular politicians like Bernie Sanders, Hillary Clinton, etc. Your real name, not a smart idea (looking at you Dylan Vega). It is also recommended you have a custom profile picture, as to avoid having the appearance of a player who makes multiple accounts to cheat, also known as an alt.

State/Positions

This is where most people mess up. They like to act as if they can choose Alabama and put Extremely Left Wing as their positions and expect to win. Highly impossible. If you are brand new to the game you should first get in contact with someone already playing to find out what state would be the most beneficial for the party. That person will also find out the right positions for you to choose for your respective state. Having positions close to your state’s preferred positions will help you in elections. Tip: For most states, the positions will center around Somewhat Left Wing and Somewhat Right Wing positions for social/economic positions. As of writing this there exists no state that uses the extreme positions. This is the most valuable part of the creation because if you mess up, you could set yourself back and might mess up your gameplay for the first week or so (looking at you Heydrich).

Joining the Party

After creating your character/profile, the next step is to join the party of your choice. Since this is meant for the Democratic Party, I’m going to use them for this example. Click on the party page in the party list (found under the Parties tab) http://oppressive.games/power/party.php?party=1. At the top of the page there is a blue button that says Join Party. By clicking on this button, you have just joined the Democratic Party and are now a party member (in the game at least). The next step is the most important. If not already done, join the Discord for the Democratic Party to let the party leaders know that you are a new member for them. They will tell you to email them in-game and where to reach them (at the end I will give you a list of party leadership to contact). Once they confirm your email, they will role you as a provisional member, which you will stay as for a week. Once you have stayed for a week, and if you’ve remained consistently active, you will become a full member. The exception to this are defectors, who must stay for at least two weeks, at most a month to become a full member. The severity of the handicap depends on the person.

Why is Discord important?

Discord is the fastest way to talk to your fellow party members. From the discord you can learn the mechanics of the game and can coordinate with your party. From attack ads, to which races are important to help in and where you are needed the most.

Now What?

Actions

After creating your profile and getting connected on discord now you should have 5,000$ and 35 power left if you haven’t done anything else. http://oppressive.games/power/actions.php Looking at your actions page, you will see a list of actions which I will list what their purpose is;

Make Calls - Increases the amount of money you make every hour, it's worth it for the first few time but then the cost will be too much. This action was recently nerfed, so it’s not as beneficial anymore. (Costs power)
Hold Rally - Increases your state influence by 1 point (Costs more power and less money)
TV Ad - Increases your state influence by 1 point (Costs more money and less power)
Brag - Only applies to Senators, but it basically is like a TV ad, but it’s free and only costs seniority points.
Backslap - It increases your state influence by 1 point, but it costs little money, power and increases your reputation by 5%
Policy Speech - This is the fastest way to switch your positions, but it decreases your state influence by 10% every time.
Activism - Allows you to swing the demographics and polling of a state, resulting in the optimal positions of a state changing based on which direction it swings. However, the it costs not only funds and power, but national influence as well. The cost of all three rapidly increase the more extreme you move the state’s demographics.
Poll - Sees how popular you are within your state, only applicable if you’re in a race. Can be accessed by using the link http://oppressive.games/power/poll.php

Basic party instructions are to only do TV ads, as they are the most effective as we have enough money to spare and raising your reputation is not good. You can make calls if you have extra power leftover to become financially self-sufficient.

Game Mechanics

Power Income

The literal name of the game is power. Each hour you will make more power. You need power to increase fundraising, win elections, and attack opponents. The basic power income for any player is +3. After you join a party your power income will slowly increase depending on your party power. If you become a Senator you will add on a +2 per hour (due to a glitch in the game, you will actually earn +4 power per turn, but +2 will still be displayed) and if you win Governor it's +3 (same glitch, +6). You will also receive +4 power from being in the cabinet, or if you are the head of a lobby. However, the glitch does not apply to either of these.

Money

Money is the main currency of the game. It’s a transferrable, increasable and fundamental system that is used with almost everything alongside power. Each hour you will gain money. You will need money to increase PSO, launch attack and TV ads, host rallies, etc. Unlike power, money can be transferred to other players via the send action at the bottom of another player’s profile. Money can be increase via grassroots, however it’s highly recommended you do not prioritize on this as it was recently nerfed and not as effective. Instead, you can request for funds in the #funds channel on the Democratic Party Discord. Money is also taken from you every hour from party fees, which is set by the party’s chairman. All must pay their fair share!

Party Power

Party power is what you gain every hour from being in a party. If your reputation is high it negatively affects your party power income. You automatically gain +1 for just being yourself and .25 for every person voting you for chair. You also gain anywhere from 0-1 point per hour for how close you are to the party’s positions. The player with the highest party power is automatically chair. For your first 24 hours in the game, you will be unable to vote for anyone. Once you’ve reached 24 hours, you should vote for yourself, to increase your party power faster.

State Influence

Your state influence is the main thing that your % during elections is based on, other than your political positions. Keeping your state influence above 80 to 90 is the most appropriate as most people make enough power to stay in that range. Once your state influence reaches 50, you will begin to accrue National Influence. Gaining 50 NI will allow you to send attack ads to people outside of your state.

Reputation

You gain reputation from attack ads, raising your influence in influence groups, and backslaps. Most people have gained reputation from one of those ways. The higher your reputation is the more vulnerable you are to attack ads. For example every attack ad on you at 0-.99 rep is -1.01 state influence. For every attack ad on higher reputation is anywhere from 1.02-4 depending on how high your reputation is.

Party State Organization

PSO is in every state and its only purpose is how the state will swing in a Presidential election. Nothing more, nothing less. PSO boosting is recommended but not required by your party unless during presidential election cycles in crucial states. It is crucial that you only boost PSO in your own state, for there is a penalty for boosting it outside your home state.

House of Representatives

The House of Representatives, which here on out will be just mentioned as HoR, is the first of the two chambers of the United States congress, both in real life and in-game. The HoR can propose and pass the same bills as the senate in POWER (go figure). Depending on the last HoR election, members have a certain amount of seats, which greatly affect a bill’s passing or failing depend on how they vote. A bill needs to pass in both chambers of congress, and to be approved by the President to fully pass. The President can veto the bill, but the veto can be overturned if 60% of the votes ayed the bill. Just like in real life, the amount of seats each player has depends on what state they’re in. If a representative does not vote on a bill, their reputation increases.

Senate

The Senate is the second of the two chambers of the United States congress, both in real life and in-game. Just like in real life, each senator is worth a single aye or nay, depending on how they vote. Each state, regardless of its size, has two senators. Continuing the conditions in which a bill can be blocked from passing in the HoR paragraph, a bill can be filibustered, which increases the bill’s voting time by 24 hours, and makes the bill require at least 55% of the votes to be ayes to pass. If a senator does not vote on a bill, their reputation increases.

President

The Commander in Chief, the head honcho, the big cheese, the boss, the leader of the nation, the President of the United States (or POTUS for short). The President is election how it would be in real life, via elections. Before this occurs, however, players compete in primaries for their respective party. The player with the most national influence (or NI for short) will win the primaries, represented by delegates, which players can use to endorse others in the primaries. Once a candidate wins the primary, they are entered into the election. The election is ultimately decided on who has the most electoral votes, just like in real life. In order for a candidate to win a state, their respective party must have the highest PSO in that state. Once a candidate is elected President, they are able to create a cabinet. Cabinet choices have to go through congress, which can be filibustered and everything, just like bills.

Slang for POWER players

SI - State Influence
AA - Attack Ad
REP - Reputation
LIB - Libertarians
GOP - Republicans
DPU - Democratic people’s union
ASC - All syndicalist convention
NDA - New Deal Alliance (Democrats in POWER II)
VC - Vice Chair
RC - Regional Chair
DD - Diamond Dog (above 50 NI, can AA out of state)
PSO - Party Strength Organization
POS - Positions (economic/social)
ORG - Organization
INF - Influence
NI - National Influence
NS - National Strength
IS - Institutional Strength
PP - Party Power
PPH - Power per Hour
Turn - One hour = One turn
Alt - A cheating player who uses multiple accounts to gain an advantage, whether it’d be via AAing or primarying their opponents

Party Leadership

Chair - Ted Kennedy

Vice Chair - Drew Laton

Vice Chair - Bernie Sanders

Vice Chair - Charlie Chan

Vice Chair - Woomy

Atlantic Regional Chair - Joe Biden

South Regional Chair - Jenna Coleman

Pacific Regional Chair - VACANT

Midwest Regional Chair - Daniel Marston

Written by Patrick Higgins