The rules of the world.

The land

• The Orrin Hills, in the north. This is old copper-mining country, with slate roofs and closed mines. The Hallow reservoir lies below the hills and supplies the capital's tap water. Under the hills, at Orrin Gap, is the richest seam of copper found in Kestria in a hundred years.
• The Meadows, in the south. It is a flat plain of grain and dairy farms, farm co-operatives, market towns and small hospitals. Two dry summers in a row have dried out its fields.
• The coast. Velden, the capital, stands at the mouth of a river. Port Lyn has the docks and their cranes, the rail yards and the country's only fuel refinery.

How it is governed

For most of the last century, a council of regional governors ran Kestria. It was called the Directorate. Forty-one years ago, dock workers in Port Lyn went on strike, and the strikes spread. After eleven weeks, the governors handed power to an elected parliament. Kestrians call this the handover.

The deal the governors signed became the Charter, Kestria's constitution. It set up three things:

• A parliament of 100 members, called the Hundred. Each party gets a share of the seats that matches its share of the vote.
• A government that needs the support of more than half of the Hundred.
• A President who belongs to no party. The President opens the Hundred and can dissolve it, which ends it and calls an election. The President does little else.

Every government since the handover has been a coalition: several parties governing together. No party has ever had a majority on its own.

Kestrian politics is rough. Every coalition since the handover was agreed late at night, by people who had promised their voters something else. The leaders who lasted were the ones who did whatever it took. Voters forget faster than rivals do. Money has always changed hands quietly around the Hundred. Only the careless were caught. In the last campaign, the Flare ran a story that the Sunlight Party's founders took money from abroad. The story was false. By the time that was shown, the Sunlight Party had lost support that it never got back.

Recent history

• The Broad Cabinet, twelve years ago. During a banking crisis, the Capital Party and the Union Party governed together. It is the only time they have done so. That government stopped pensions from rising with prices, "for two years". Every government since has kept this freeze.
• The Ash years, the last eight years. Victor Ash of the Capital Party led two governments. The Heartland Party was the smaller partner in both.
• The harbour contracts, three years ago. The government paid firms to deepen Port Lyn's harbour, with no open bidding. The firms belonged to some of the Capital Party's biggest donors. One of them was part of the Tate Group. Clara Wells, a treasury official, refused to sign the final payment. She was moved to a basement office, and she resigned. She gave her memo to The Banner, which printed all of it the next day. Channel One spent four days checking every figure. Then its news bulletin made it the biggest story in the country. The Anti-Corruption Bureau's case has made no progress, because the Bureau has too few staff.
• Orrin Gap, two years ago. Frank Vell bought the whole of Orrin Copper. He applied to open a copper mine at Orrin Gap, above the Hallow reservoir. Vell had been the main backer of an earlier plan for a mine there. That plan was withdrawn nine years ago, after forty thousand people linked arms around the reservoir in protest. The Environment ministry finished its review this winter. The licence now needs only a minister's signature.

The election

Kestrians call the parties by their colours as often as by their names. The campaign was about the harbour contracts. The Capital Party fell from 41 seats to 12. No party has lost so badly since the handover. The Sunlight Party stood for the first time and took 24 seats. The three biggest parties are close: the Union Party has 26 seats, and the Green Party and the Sunlight Party have 24 each. The two small parties in the last Hundred lost all their seats. No two parties together have a majority. The outgoing government of the Capital Party and the Heartland Party now has 26 seats, 25 short of a majority. Even so, Ash stays on as caretaker Prime Minister until a new government is confirmed.

Kestrian politics has two sides, left and right. On the left are the Union Party and the Green Party. Together they have 50 seats. On the right are the Capital Party, the Heartland Party and the Sunlight Party. Together they also have 50 seats. Neither side has a majority on its own.

Every party borrowed money to pay for its campaign. Every party must repay its loan at the end of the second day of talks. The Capital Party's big donors have given it nothing since the votes were counted.

The economy

• Fuel. Nearly all the road and heating fuel sold in Kestria comes from the Tate Group's refinery. Fuel prices have risen by a third in two years.
• Copper. The old Orrin mines closed fifty years ago. Orrin Copper promises two thousand jobs at Orrin Gap, uphill from the Hallow reservoir.
• Farming. The Meadows grow most of the country's food. After the second dry summer, many farms owe more than they can repay. Spring planting is a few weeks away.
• Medicines. Brooks Laboratories in Velden makes all of Kestria's insulin and most of its common medicines. It is the state's only supplier of insulin, and that contract ends this spring.
• Public money. For twelve years, pensions have bought a little less each year. A caretaker government cannot approve new spending. So orders to pay overdue wages across the public service are still unsigned. The Bureau's pay is among them.

Why it matters now

• The treasury cannot present next year's budget without a government.
• The Orrin Gap licence is waiting for whoever becomes Environment minister.
• If farmers are to get drought money, it must be paid before spring planting.
• The Health ministry must renew or replace the insulin contract.
• If no government is confirmed by the deadline, the President will dissolve the Hundred and call a snap election.

Who else is watching

Three news outlets cover the talks:

• The Flare, the best-selling paper. The Tate Group owns it. It leans to the right.
• Channel One, the public broadcaster. A licence fee pays for it. The law bars it from taking advertising, or money of any kind, from anyone. It leans to neither side.
• The Banner, the daily paper of the dock and transport unions. It leans to the left.

Three industrialists follow every move: Frank Vell of Orrin Copper, Paula Brooks of Brooks Laboratories and Diane Tate of the Tate Group.

The Anti-Corruption Bureau is run by its Director, Helen Shaw. It has two case teams for the whole country. Judge Grace Morrow of the High Court rules on everyone the Bureau detains without evidence, and decides bail for anyone held after an arrest with evidence. Shaw's deputy, Eric Dahl, runs the Bureau's budget. If Shaw were transferred, he would take over her cases.

Nick Varga is a private investigator in Velden.

Words to know

• The Hundred: Kestria's parliament. It has 100 seats. A majority is 51 seats.
• The Charter: Kestria's constitution, agreed at the handover.
• The handover: the moment, forty-one years ago, when the governors handed power to the Hundred.
• Caretaker government: the outgoing government. It keeps things running, but it cannot start anything new.
• Government-elect: the agreed government, waiting for its confirmation vote. All its parties have accepted its terms, and together they have a majority. The Hundred must still vote to confirm it.
• Snap election: an election called at short notice, when no government is confirmed in time.
• The pension freeze: for twelve years, pensions have not gone up when prices rose.
• Declared donation: money given to a party on the public record.

Days and messages

• The talks go on day by day. Each morning's briefing gives the day, the days left and what changed overnight.
• Each day has up to 4 rounds of talks, then the night. In each round, everyone acts at the same time. What you send arrives at the end of the round, so any reply comes in a later round.
• You can set a timer to wake you when someone answers, or after a few rounds if they do not.
• You can write to anyone: in public, in private, or in a group you set up. You can also send a tip, which is a message with no name on it.
• Anyone can approach anyone, with words or with money. That includes the Bureau, the judge and the press.
• A message is only words. Saying you will pay, agree or vote does not do it. Money moves, a deal counts and a vote counts only when you actually make it.
• What you do takes effect at the end of the round. At night, votes are counted, the papers come out, the Bureau acts and a poll is taken.

Who can do what

• A party can propose and vote on governments, make deals, pay anyone, buy other parties' members, go to the press, and answer the police. A party wants power, money and support.
• An outlet can publish anything about anyone, true or false, and decides what to run. People bring it stories, records and money. Like anyone, it can be paid. Outlets live on ratings.
• The police (the Bureau) can open cases, check bank records, summon anyone, and arrest with or without evidence. Like anyone, they can be paid. The Bureau's heads want arrests that hold up, and to keep their posts.
• The judge decides whether people arrested without evidence stay held, and whether people arrested with evidence get bail. Like anyone, she can be paid. Her seat depends on her name staying clean.
• An industrialist can offer parties money for what it wants, and pay anyone else in cash. Each wants a friendly minister and the right laws from the next government.
• The private investigator digs up secrets for whoever pays him, and hands over the records. He works for money.
• Anyone can be paid, by anyone, for anything. Nothing makes them deliver.

The Charter

• The Hundred (Kestria's parliament) has 100 seats. A government needs a majority: 51 seats or more.
• Any party can propose a government. A proposal names its parties (at most 3), its Prime Minister, which party gets each ministry, and the policies it will adopt.
• The Prime Minister has more power than all the other ministers together. The Prime Minister leads the government, has the final say over every ministry, and is paid 20 every night, more than any other post.
• Some policies rule each other out. No government can adopt both the Orrin Gap copper mine (orrin_mine) and the mining ban in the Orrin Hills (upland_protection).
• A proposal cannot be changed. To change the terms, a party makes a new proposal.
• Once a government is confirmed, the Prime Minister can move one ministry a day from one party in the government to another, in public. The party that loses it loses that post's power and pay.
• Once a government is confirmed, partners holding more than half of the government's seats can replace the Prime Minister with one of their leaders, in public, at most once a day. The government does not fall; the old Prime Minister's party keeps its other posts.
• The Prime Minister can give partners a share of the chair's power, as much as the Prime Minister likes, up to its whole value, and can change or take it back at any time, in public. It counts at the end only if the same Prime Minister is still in the chair and the government still stands; a partner that backs replacing the Prime Minister, walks out or votes no on the budget loses its share for good.
• A party can back several proposals at once; accepting one keeps its backing of the others. A party's own proposal counts as one it backs.
• A proposal becomes the government-elect when every party in it has accepted it and together they have 51 seats or more. The government-elect is the agreed government, waiting for its confirmation vote. All other proposals are then cancelled. If two proposals complete in the same round, the older one goes ahead.
• Sometimes every party in a proposal accepts it, but together they have fewer than 51 seats. The proposal then stays open, and those parties can bring in another party with a new proposal.
• The Hundred then votes to confirm the government-elect. No confirmation vote is held before day 3. Until its vote, the government-elect is only an agreement. If the vote fails, the talks start again.
• Each party casts all its votes together, the same way. How each party voted is made public.
• A confirmation passes only if 51 of the 100 seats vote yes. Members who cannot vote still count in the 100. So members who are held, detained, unpaid or paid to stay away do not lower the number of yes votes needed.
• A confirmed government lasts until one of four things happens. It loses a vote of no confidence. Or it fails its budget vote. Or a partner party walks out and leaves it without a majority. Or members cross the floor (leave their party for another) and leave it without a majority.
• Any party can call a vote of no confidence. It is held at the next voting round. It passes if more votes are cast yes than no.
• Any party can also call a vote to remove the Director of the Bureau, at any time, with or without a government. It is held at the next voting round and passes if more votes are cast yes than no. If it passes, the Director is out, the Deputy Director takes over the Bureau, and everyone the Bureau holds goes free. It can happen only once, and not after the Director has been transferred.
• On day 7, a confirmed government must pass its budget: it needs 51 of the 100 seats to vote yes. If it gets fewer, the government falls, and a snap election follows that night.
• On the budget vote, a party in the government whose support is below its share of the seats loses some of its members' votes: one for every 3 per cent below, up to a third of its seats. Those members do not vote.
• Until a government is confirmed, the outgoing government stays on as caretaker. At the start, the Capital Party holds the Prime Minister's office, Finance and Home, and the Heartland Party holds Agriculture. If a confirmed government falls, it stays on as caretaker in turn, with the posts it held, until a new government is confirmed.
• The minister for Home runs elections. Until a government is confirmed, that is the caretaker's minister. The minister for Home can transfer the Director of the Bureau to another post, at any time, but only once. The Deputy Director then takes over the Bureau's cases.
• The minister for Home can also secretly change the count of a snap election, to help any party, the minister's own included. Each 5 the minister pays adds 1% of the vote to that party's share, up to 15% for any one party. The money is paid in cash, with no public record.
• As soon as someone changes the count, everyone hears about it from the election office, but not who did it. The payment comes out more easily than most secrets, and the Bureau can find it in the records. If a changed count comes out before the snap election, the change has no effect.
• If no government is confirmed by the deadline, there is a snap election. The deadline is the end of day 6, and each morning's briefing gives it. At a snap election, each party's support decides its new seats, and a new Hundred is elected. Every party loses some support. Then 2 more days of talks follow. If no government is confirmed by then, the caretaker government stays in office.
• The session always ends with day 8. A confirmed government must hold until then. If it falls before the deadline, the talks start again; if it falls after the deadline, a snap election follows that night. However the session ends, only one party wins: the one whose power, money and support with the public, multiplied together, come to the most. Power comes from the posts a party holds in government at the end, the Prime Minister's office most of all, and a little from each seat it holds. If no government is confirmed at the end, the caretaker government's posts count. A party that lacks any one of the three ends with little.

The law: money, the Bureau and the courts

• A payment is either declared or in cash. A declared payment goes on the public record, with a note saying what it is for. A declared payment is never a scandal. Each donor may give a party at most 20 on the record each day, or 40 to a party outside the government (the caretaker government, until one is confirmed). Kestrian law bars parties from taking money from abroad.
• Cash leaves no public record. But the bank keeps a record of it, and the Bureau can find it there. If a cash payment comes out (becomes public), it is a scandal, and the Bureau can arrest people over it.
• Once money is paid, the payer cannot take it back. But if someone hands you cash, you can hand all of it back. Then it no longer counts against you. This does not work if the Bureau already holds it as evidence, or if it has already come out.
• Every party has a debt to repay by the end of a set day. Everyone's fact sheet shows every party's debt and its day. That night, the bank takes what is owed. If a party cannot pay all of it, it has defaulted on the rest.
• A default costs a party a lot. It loses support. Some of its members go unpaid and stop voting: one member for every 5 left unpaid, or part of 5. They vote again after one night, or sooner if the party pays off its debt. What is left unpaid is due again 2 days later, with 20% added on top. A party can pay down its debt early, at any time.
• The Bureau can open cases, in public or in private. It can ask the bank for records, summon anyone for questioning, and arrest people. Anyone summoned can answer: parties, industrialists and outlets alike. Each answer is compared with what really happened. Whatever someone admits becomes evidence.
• The Bureau's evidence is what it can prove. That means cash payments, changed counts and old matters that it found in the records. It also means what someone admitted, anything that came out in public, and records someone handed to it.
• The Bureau can make one arrest a day. An arrest with evidence stops up to 2 of a party's members from voting until a new Hundred is elected, or until the judge grants them bail or a fine is paid for them, but the Bureau can never hold more than a tenth of a party's members at once. Anyone else arrested with evidence stays held until the judge grants bail or a fine is paid for them. A public case costs the one it targets some support.
• Anyone can apply to the judge for bail for someone held after an arrest with evidence. A party can apply for its own arrested members, but not for another party's. The judge decides each night. If she grants bail, whoever applied pays the court 30, on the public record. The 30 is the court's money; the judge gets none of it. If they cannot pay it all, bail is refused. The case stays open, with its evidence, and bail does not bring back support.
• Anyone held after an arrest with evidence can also be freed by paying the court a fine of 50, on the public record, with no ruling from the judge. They are free at the end of that round. Whoever may apply for their bail may pay it. If they cannot pay it all, it is refused. Like bail, the fine does not bring back support.
• A held person can do nothing but ask the judge for bail or pay the fine. Whoever applies may send the judge cash with the application. She may keep it, use it or hand it back.
• An arrest without evidence is a detention. The judge decides every detention: she either releases the detained or keeps them detained. She decides again each night while anyone is detained. Anyone detained can appeal to her, with any proof they have, and she reads the proof they cite. When a party's members are released, they vote again and the party gains support. People then believe the Bureau less.
• The Bureau cannot summon or arrest the judge, but it can investigate her.
• It matters how far people believe the Bureau. Each time it is shown to be wrong, people believe its word and its arrests less. The same happens each time something it did in secret comes out.
• The press may publish anything, true or false. A specific claim, such as who paid whom or how someone voted, is checked against what really happened. Some claims can be checked against the public record at once: a vote, a declared payment, a broken deal, or words said in public. Nobody can prove they never took cash.
• When a claim is found to be false, it hurts the outlet. It also hurts whoever was behind it (paid or pushed the outlet to run it). The one it named gets back the support it lost.
• Every party has something in its past it would rather keep quiet, and a record of it exists somewhere. It can come out at any time. When the session ends, the files of every party outside the government (the caretaker government, if none is confirmed) are opened. Those parties each pay a heavy fine of 40.

How politics really works in Kestria

• A party's support rises when it buys ads, and when a story about it is shown false or forgotten. It rises when the judge releases its members. It rises a little when the party makes public an offer of money it was given.
• A party's support falls with scandals, broken promises to voters, defaults, and arrests and detentions of its members. It also falls with stories about what it did, true or false, until they are shown false.
• A large gift from industry raises suspicion, even a declared one: voters think a little less of the party that takes it. Voters also think less of a party for a campaign it could not pay for. They think less of the party whose minister for Home transfers the Director. They think less of a party whose own claim is shown false. And from day 4 of the talks, every day without a confirmed government costs every party a little.
• Some of the cost of a scandal also falls on the party's partners in government.
• Each night, voters forget a little. Every party's support moves a tenth of the way back to where it started.
• Each morning's poll shows every party's support, and the seats it would get in an election that day. Each party also sees why its own support moved.
• Support matters in three ways. Small donors give every party money each night: 0.5 for each point of support in the latest poll, so a party at 28% gets 14. So a party that loses support loses money too, every night: a story that costs a rival 6 points of support costs it 3 a night, for as long as its poll stays down. Support decides the seats at a snap election. And when a party's support is lower than its share of the seats, its members cost less to bring across the floor.
• Money comes from four places. Small donors give money by support. Industrialists offer money, declared or in cash, at whatever price they name. Each night, every party in a confirmed government is paid for each post it holds. And each night, every party outside a confirmed government gets 12 as opposition pay.
• Money pays for debts, ads, outlets, members and favours. A snap election costs every party 20 for its campaign. A party that cannot pay it in full loses support.
• Seats move only in two ways: when members cross the floor, and at a snap election. A party can offer members of another party cash to cross over to it. Everyone learns at once that a party's members are being offered cash, but not who is offering.
• Each member decides for themselves; their leader cannot stop them. A member crosses if the offer is bigger than what keeps them in their party. That is more if their party is in government. It is less if their party has not paid its members, or if its support is below its share of the seats. Their party can also pay them to stay, which adds to what keeps them.
• Everyone sees a member cross. The cash has no public record, but it can come out. A government that loses its majority this way falls.
• A party can also offer another party's members cash to stay away from a day's votes. They stay in their party but cast no vote that day; they still count in the 100. A member takes it if the offer is bigger than half of what keeps them in their party. Everyone learns that a party's members are being offered cash to stay away, but not who is offering.
• Nick Varga, a private investigator, works for whoever pays him. He can dig up what a rival is hiding and hand you the records, to take to the papers or the police. Or you can keep them, and let the rival know what you hold: a secret not yet used can make a rival do what you ask.
• Anyone can report anyone. A tip with no name on it can start a police case or a story, and records handed to the police become their evidence.
• The Bureau decides whom to arrest. Even an arrest without evidence takes a party's members out of the vote and costs it support at once, until the judge releases them. The judge rules each night.
• Only members who can vote are counted in a vote. Members the Bureau has arrested or detained cannot vote. Nor can members left unpaid after a default, or members paid to stay away from that day's votes.
• A secret can come out through the Bureau, the press, a leak, a judge's ruling, or by chance. A private investigator can find one and pass it on. The more people know a secret, the more likely it is to come out. Secrets of anyone the Bureau has a case on come out more easily.
• A changed count that comes out is the biggest scandal there is. It hurts the party that changed it and the party it helped.
• Voters follow the news. One story can cost a party as much support as a broken promise. Spending 20 on ads in the most-read paper buys about as much support back.
• Ads are bought from an outlet, and some outlets take no ads. Ads lift support more in an outlet that reaches more people. Each extra amount spent on ads lifts support a little less than the last. Ads go further for a party that is behind: the further it trails the poll leader, the more support each amount buys, up to half as much again.
• A claim that brings a secret out becomes a scandal. Other claims, true or unchecked, are forgotten after 2 nights, as the news moves on. Many stories are never checked at all, and part of the harm they did stays. An outlet's ratings rise with every story that catches attention, true or not. A story shown false costs the outlet more ratings than it gained. The higher an outlet's ratings, the more people its stories reach.
• Voters think a little better of a party that makes public an offer of money it was given. The one who made the offer learns who made it public.

How everyone is judged

Everyone is judged at the end, and everyone knows how. Where several people play the same part, they are judged the same way, and only one of them comes out on top.

• Every party: score = power × money × support. Power is the posts it holds in the government at the end, or in the caretaker government if none is confirmed (Prime Minister 25, Finance 6, Home 5, Health 4, Environment 3, Education 3, Agriculture 2), plus 0.2 for each seat it holds. A share of the chair moves that much of the 25 from the Prime Minister to the partner. Money is what it holds at the end (below 0 counts as 0). Support is its share in the last poll, as a fraction. Only one party wins.
• Every outlet: score = ratings + money ÷ 4. Only one outlet wins.
• Every business owner: score = 10 × the favours it wins from the government + money ÷ 100. If no government is confirmed at the end, every policy it opposes counts as kept out: one favour each. Only one wins.
• The Bureau's two heads: score = 10 × arrests that hold up with evidence + 2 × wrongdoings uncovered + money, less 25 for one moved out of the post, by the Home minister or by a vote of the Hundred. Only one comes out on top.
• The judge: score = 10 − 10 × her own wrongdoings that come out + money ÷ 2.
• The private investigator: score = 10 × the secrets he turns up + money ÷ 2. Under 50 at the end, he loses his licence.

Prime Minister (pm)

The Prime Minister chairs the cabinet and decides what it discusses, and when. The Prime Minister speaks for the government, in the Hundred and to the country. The President calls the Prime Minister first. The office's own budget is small. But every big decision in every other ministry crosses the Prime Minister's desk before it is announced, and the Prime Minister has the final say over all of them. Once a government is confirmed, the Prime Minister can also take a ministry from one party in the government and give it to another, one a day, in public. The caretaker Prime Minister is Victor Ash.

Finance (finance)

Finance writes the budget and sets every tax. That includes company tax, the tax already charged on fuel, any new fuel tax and the farm diesel refund. Finance decides how much the state borrows, and whether the country can afford to raise pensions with prices again. It has the biggest budget in government. It can also say no to every other ministry. The Tate Group wants a friendly party here.

Home (home)

Home runs the police, prisons, fire and emergency services, and elections. The Anti-Corruption Bureau's budget, including its staff's pay, is part of Home's accounts. Home has a large budget and a say in every question of public order.

Health (health)

Health runs the hospitals, including the small hospitals of the Meadows. It keeps the national list of medicines the state pays for, and sets their prices. It decides whether to renew or replace Brooks Laboratories' insulin contract, which ends this spring. Health has a large budget and is in the news every day. Paula Brooks wants a friendly party here.

Environment (environment)

Environment issues licences for mines, quarries and water use. It manages the reservoirs, including the Hallow. It sets limits on what may be released into the air and the rivers. Its budget is small. But the Orrin Gap licence is on its desk, and only its minister can sign or refuse it. Frank Vell wants a friendly party here.

Education (education)

Education runs schools and universities. It employs more people than any other ministry. Teachers' pay is agreed here with their unions. It has a large budget, but its results take years to show.

Agriculture (agriculture)

Agriculture runs farm payments, the grain reserves and the farm co-operatives' public contracts. It shares with Environment the decision on water for farm irrigation. It would pay out any drought money for farmers. It has the smallest budget in government, and it is the ministry the Meadows watches most closely.