Appendix J - Political Positions

Each affiliation is led by a hierarchy of political positions. The 
Periphery Director is the highest ranking position 
in an affiliation. To assist him in his duties he assigns a group 
of advisors called Coordinators.  Each Coordinator 
specializes in one area of responsibility.  For example, most affiliations 
have Coordinators of Information, Defense, Shipping, and Colonization 
as well as an Assistant Periphery Director.

While political positions are actually considered to be positions 
in the game, they are different from what you might expect.  The entire 
position is composed of the single political character.  The only 
possession he may own is Stellars.  This character is always located 
at the affiliation's headquarters colony and may only move under very 
special circumstances (such as moving the HQ colony).

A political position is operated in a manner similar to colonies. 
Orders are submitted on a Turn Card as necessary.  All political positions 
are played free of charge provided you have submitted a turn for any 
ship, colony, or ground party in the past 4 weeks. Otherwise a turn 
fee equal to a colony turn fee is charged at the time a printout is 
generated.  This is to insure that each affiliation is being led by 
players actively playing the game.

The overall purpose of a political position is to receive information 
pertinent to the affiliation's goals and to further these goals through 
a strong leadership. Therefore political positions have considerable 
power.  They can transfer Stellars from the affiliation's treasury 
to worthy positions, add enemies to the affiliation's posted list, 
place positions on probation, promote starcaptains, and grant permission 
for positions to resign from the affiliation.

Orders

There are three basic orders that may be issued by every political 
position.  Other orders are allowed only to specific coordinators. 
The reason for such few order types is that most of the information 
a political player receives is automatically generated with no need 
to issue an order for it.  The four basic orders are:

S - (Position#) - (Qty of Stellars in hundreds)

Stellar Transfer 

This order transfers the indicated number of Stellars to a certain 
position.  Keep in mind that the quantity is in the number of hundreds 
of Stellars.  For example, S 456 9 would transfer 900 Stellars to 
position 456.  Only integers may be specified.

PR - (Position#) (0=off OR 1=on)

Probation 

Allows you to place or remove a position on/from probation.  For example, 
PR 789 1 will place position 789 on probation.

P - (Position#)

Promotion

You promote the indicated starcaptain (ships only) to the next rank. 
This order only functions provided he has spent sufficient time at 
his current rank and if there is a vacant slot in the rank above him. 

Taxation

In order to raise money for the affiliation's treasury, each affiliation 
has the ability to levy a tax from its colonies.  This tax is charged 
for each factory (tooled or untooled) owned by the colony. Taxation 
occurs every four weeks at the time printouts are generated for the 
political positions.  The funds are received by either the Periphery 
Director or his Assistant and distributed equitably to each Coordinator 
based on need.  Each Coordinator in turn can use these Stellars toward 
his area of responsibility.

One Coordinator will be assigned by the Periphery Director 
to set the tax rate.  The order to do this is:

TX (Quantity of Stellars/factory ranging 0-30,000)

One political position will also be assigned to handle 
the debts owed by ships and colonies to the affiliation. Debts may 
be increased/decreased using the order below. Debts should only be 
changed for a specific purpose.  If the political player abuses this 
by changing debts with no valid reason, he may be removed from the 
position or even from the game.

Increase Debt:

IC (position#) (increase in 100's of stellars)

Decrease Debt:

DC (position#) (decrease in 100's of stellars)

There is one additional order that is listed here but must by issued 
by the GM only.  This is the Posting Order that places a position 
on your affiliation's posted list.  To do this you must have the posting 
first approved by the GM, using the official posting request form. 
If the request is approved, the GM will issue the order for you.  
Only the periphery director of an affiliation may submit posting requests.

PO - (Position#) (0=Remove OR 1=Add to list)

Political Printouts

Printouts for political positions are generated every four weeks. 
They are a monthly compilation of facts pertinent to the responsibilities 
of each Coordinator. The various reports are described below:

Order Results Report - The results of all the political orders 
of your affiliation that were issued since the last political printout 
was generated.  This report is received by every political position 
in your affiliation.  In this way the Coordinators can see what each 
other are doing and can provide their own system of checks and balances 
on each other's power.

Personal Report - Each position receives a personal report 
of his failed orders.  No other positions receive this information.

Assignment Report - Each political position receives a list 
of all the positions who have issued an AC order to accept him as 
their supervisor.  This report includes the current location of the 
position.  Ships and Ground Parties  of your affiliation may issue 
this under their standing orders as follows:

Accept Coordinator (political position#)

This may be canceled by the ship or ground party at any time by specifying 
zero as the position#. 

Probation Report - Each political position receives a list 
of all the members of the affiliation who are currently on probation.

Taxation Report - This is received only by the Coordinator 
responsible for setting his affiliation's tax rate.  It contains a 
list of his affiliation's colonies along with the amount of tax paid 
and the number of factories owned.  

Space Defense Report - Received only by the Coordinator in 
charge of the affiliation's space defenses.  It includes a list of 
all colonies in the affiliation as well as information pertaining 
to their ability to defend themselves in space battle.

Ground Defense Report - Received only by the Coordinator in 
charge of the affiliation's ground defenses.  It includes a list of 
all colonies in the affiliation as well as information pertaining 
to their ability to defend themselves in ground battle.

Colonization Report - Received only by the Coordinator in charge 
of colonization.  It includes a list of the affiliation's colonies, 
the quantity of Stellars owned, the MU's of produced goods, number 
of colonists, and the MU's currently owed to the affiliatrion.

New Player Report - Received only by the Coordinator in charge 
of information.  Every time a new ship is set-up in your affiliation 
it will appear on this list.

Other Reports - Since each affiliation has differing goals 
it is likely that other reports may be issued as the need arises.

PD & Assistant PD

The Periphery Director and Assistant 
Periphery Director are special political positions.
They have the ability to issue any political order for their position.
In addition, they receive all the political reports described above for 
their affiliation.  This permits them to take over for any Coordinator 
should he have difficulty assuming his responsibilities.

Research

Since BSE is a constantly evolving game it is necessary to introduce
new items and abilities from time to time.  This is done through the
gamemaster with the assistance of Research Coordinators from each
affiliation.

The Research Coordinator collects the best ideas for new items and 
abilities from members of his affiliation.  He then decides which 
ideas are the most useful and have the best chance of approval by 
the GM.  He may then submit one research proposal per month to the 
moderator.

A research proposal should be a complete description of the new item/ability. 
It should contain everything the GM needs to know in order to make 
an informed decision if it will fit into the game.  However be aware 
that the GM may change some of these statistics if he decides to allow 
it into the game.  Be sure to tell the GM if you are researching a 
new item, an ability for your entire affiliation, or a special ability 
usable by individual positions.

The research proposal will be graded by the GM using many criteria. 
It must not be unbalancing.  It must be useful within the game. It 
must be programmable into the BSE processing programs within a reasonable 
time.   If it fails any of these criteria it will not be considered 
further. 

Several times each year the Gamemaster will evaluate all the research 
proposals that have been submitted.  All the BSE designers and programmers 
will be involved in deciding on the appropriateness of each proposal.

If a proposal is accepted it will immediately be placed into the game 
and is given at no charge to one colony in the affiliation who submitted 
the idea.  It may also be made available to other colonies in the 
game at a certain fee.  The fee to purchase a Special  Ability or 
restricted tech item can be anything but probably will cost a certain 
number of RESEARCH PTS.  RESEARCH PTS (item #147) are a 1 MU item 
and they are non-transferable to other positions.  To build one with 
a factory costs 1 MU of FOSSIL FUELS and 2 MU of METALS/NONMETALS.  The 
cost in RESEARCH PTS for a new item represents your position's effort 
to develop the production skills necessary to produce the item.  In 
addition to the cost in RESEARCH PTS, other costs may be levied.  For 
instance, if an alien race is selling a certain technology they may 
charge a certain number of stellars or other items to acquire it.

Obviously it strongly benefits an affiliation to be the one who suggests 
a new item/ability because they do not have to pay for it. In order 
to have the best chance of success a Research Coordinator should be 
skilled in learning everything he can about the BSE game system and 
what the GM's are willing (and able) to implement.

Special Actions

With the way political positions are structured 
special actions will probably not be needed often.  A space for them 
is provided at the bottom of the political Turn Card for interactions 
with GM run positions. The most senior political positions within 
an affiliation may submit lengthier interactions or call and speak 
briefly with the GM once per week.  Actions submitted on the Turn 
Card will always be answered while lengthier submissions are answered 
at the discretion of the GM as time permits.  Keep in mind we wish 
to continue allowing you to play these positions at no charge but 
our time is at a premium.

One additional use of the Special Actions area of the Turn Card will 
be for Coordinators to request the GM to add or remove something from 
the general affiliation message that goes on each printout.

Referendum

A Referendum is a vote of all ships and colonies within an affiliation. 
It is binding upon the parties involved. Any member of an affiliation 
can request that the GM set-up a Referendum.  It is up to the player 
who requests it to convince the GM of the importance of the issue.  Each 
ship/colony is permitted 1 vote of either Yes or No.  Voting will 
commence for 4 weeks following the introduction of the Referendum.  An 
affiliation may only conduct one referendum at a time.

This forum may be used for such things as deciding if a declaration 
of war is in order, removing a Coordinator from office, or setting 
affiliation policies.  A referendum will be worded in a way that Yes 
votes will cause a change while No votes retain the status quo.  A 
referendum needs a 2/3 majority of votes cast in order to pass.  Any 
ships or colonies who do not vote are listed as abstentions.
