Basic Guide to Realpolitik

written by: Bernie Sanders (@Phil Scott in the OG Discord)

## **Realpolitik**

Developed by Rumsod, the main developer of Oppressive Games, Realpolitik is an expansive geopolitical game with a variety of countries (**77!**), industries, players, and a vast economic system. As stated by the game:

> "Realpolitik is a global political and economic simulation game where you can play as a powerful politician or businessman in any country. Starting from nothing, you can seize the highest offices in the land through free and fair elections, or dirty tricks and deals."
>
>

So, with such an intriguing concept, many new players find it hard to get into the game with it's various actions, values, and modifiers. Here will be a basic guide for newcomers that wish to learn about the game.

## Politician Screen and Statistics

### **Power**

Every hour, you gain something called "power". It may not be as important in Realpolitik as it is in POWER, but you still will need power to do a variety of actions, such as:

* Proposing legislation (25 power).
* Proposing treaties as Minister of Foreign Affairs (25-50 power).
* Buying TV ads (ranges from 1-7 power) (the effect will be explained under State Influence).
* Growing unions.
* Various other actions.

Power is gained from a variety of sources as well--here are the following ways you can get power:

* Getting elected (0.8 to 8 power/turn).
	+ If you get elected, the amount of power you get per turn depends on how many seats you have.
* Being appointed a position in the ministry (+5 power/turn).
* Becoming the Prime Minister (+6 power/turn).
* Your party:
	+ Party Institutional Strength.
	+ Party Power relative to all members (higher % = more power).
	+ Similarity to party base/positions.

However, if you accumulate too much power, you'll suffer from a "too much accumulated" modifier. This cuts your gain depending on how much you have accumulated.

### **Campaign Finances**

Like power, you gain something called "Campaign Finances." Similar to power, they are not as important in Realpolitik as POWER. However, you can use campaign finances for some things in Realpolitik, such as:

* Investing money into unions.
* Buying ads, performing rallies.
* Activism.
* Conducting surveys/buying polls.
* Attack ads.

There are a few ways to gain more Campaign Finances/turn. You can:

* Build fundraising and grassroots.
* Convert liquid capital into campaign finances.
	+ However, by doing this, you are giving yourself **reputation**, which makes you vulnerable to attack ads and you will gain less **party power** per turn, leaving you vulnerable to inner-party coups.
* Invest power into unions which donate money back to politicians.

However, most politicians don't even have to do this. You may make more than other politicians based on the GDP of the country you start in.

It's very important to build up Campaign Finances in Realpolitik. They are important, very important, especially in protecting a one-party-state (e.g, China).

### **Political Influence**

Political Influence is a modifier within a country which determines the *influence* of the politician within the region. Political Influence is primarily built via spending ads, performing rallies, and engaging in corruption.

One's political influence within a region primarily determines how many seats they obtain in a legislative election, so it's very important for competitive regions.

You may lose your influence via three methods:

* Country approval, which takes away a % of influence/turn.
* Accumulating too much political influence.
* Attack ads from other politicians.
	+ You are more vulnerable to attack ads if you have more reputation, which will be addressed later on.

### **Political Reputation**

A statistic imported from POWER, your political reputation determines how vulnerable your politician is to anything which may diminish their credibility. Political reputation mainly effects two factors:

* How vulnerable one is to attack ads from other politicians (more reputation = higher chance of success).
* How much Party Power one loses (more reputation = less party power/turn).
	+ As a party chair, if you don't keep check on your party power, **you may experience a coup.**

There are only three ways to gain political reputation:

* Attack ads on other politicians.
* Conversion of Liquid Capital to Campaign Finances.
	+ As of recent, rumsod has decreased the reputation penalty from converting capital. As seen on the image on the right, 50,000 only gives .26% rep, which decreases relatively fast.
* Corruption (the action that gives you SI).

### **Party Power**

One's party power basically determines how influential one is within their party. The person within a party that has the most party power becomes the chair.

Party power is gained only through votes from other party members, and can only be lost if someone has a high reputation.

### **Positions**

You have two positions, **economic positions,** and **social positions.** These two positions are important, *very important*, for legislative elections. If you have economic and social positions similar to the region you're in, you're likely to get more seats.

There are many positions:

* Extremely Left Wing,
* Very Left Wing,
* Left Wing,
* Somewhat Left Wing,
* Center Left,
* Centrist,
* Center Right,
* Somewhat Right Wing,
* Right Wing,
* Very Right Wing,
* Extremely Right Wing.

However, most countries are centrist in their politics. You can always figure out by looking at the nation overview before you register to get an advantage.

### **Capital, Total Wealth, and Stocks**

One of the largest, if not the largest aspects of Realpolitik is it's overwhelming market system, which revolves around the production and expansion of personal wealth. It's important to know what it is, and how you gain it, if you'd like to become an adequate player.

#### Liquid Capital

Liquid Capital is how much money your player possesses. **Liquid Capital is not the same as Campaign Finances.** See it as one would in American politics. Politicians have two separate bases for funds, campaign funding, which is used for financing elections and advertisements. Then, you have capital/cash, which can be used for personal funds. In Realpolitik, you are able to turn capital into campaign financing; consequently, you'll receive a hit to your reputation, which makes you vulnerable to attacks--as seen in the Reputation section.

Like Campaign Finances, you gain a specific amount of capital turn based on the GDP of your country and how many players are located within the region.

#### Stocks

Another main feature within Realpolitik is the expansive stock market system. With your liquid capital, you are able to buy stocks in various corporations. Investing is explained further in Buying Stocks and Investment.

#### Total Wealth

Your total wealth is the combination of the value of every stock you have and the amount of liquid, plain capital that your politician currently possesses.

## Political Parties

When you first register an account, it's important to find a party which you be close to. Parties are essential in developing a standing within your country. It is often with party members that you'll find extremely important advice and you will most likely be working together to develop your country. So, it is important to overview the structure of a political party, which is pretty simple.

### Party Positions

There is one elected position, the chairman, which has the ability to **purge members, change party dues, withdraw the treasury, and setting the party color/flag.** Typical members only have the ability to do one ability, and that is voting somebody for chair.

**IMPORTANT:** Only the chair of a party has the ability to propose a prime minister bill.

### Party Support

A rather complicated mechanic after a few updates by Rumsod, party support, generally speaking, is the approval of your party within a region.

Party support is accumulated through a calculation with:

* Country population
* Country positions vs. Party Positions

Party support affects:

* Institutional strength
	+ Your institutional strength will slowly build towards the current party support percentage.

### Institutional Strength

Institutional strength is an extremely important factor in developing your politician and SI. Why? Because Institutional Strength is the one of the largest factors towards power gain. You will gain more power if your party has a high institutional strength within your country. As stated in Party Support, institutional strength always builds towards what your current party support is.

Once your party reaches 50% Institutional Strength, the rate of growth drops significantly.

## Frequently Asked Questions

* **"I can't propose myself as PM. Why is that?"**
	+ You need to be a party chairman in order to propose someone as leader.
* more coming soon oops