← Back to game

Career Mode Guide

How career mode works: every screen, every button, and what each one does.

Section 1

What career mode is

1.1 One political life

• Career mode is a separate game from the presidency game. You play one person from a starting year between 1990 and 2025, month by month, for as long as the career lasts.
• You can start as a governor, a state legislator, a member of the US House, a US senator, the President, or as a private citizen with no office, no name and no donors.
• Every month you press one button to take the month. The world moves: elections happen, offices change hands, the papers go to press. What you did that month is judged and your standing moves.
• You can run for any office at any time the filing window is open. You can hold a seat, run the state from the governor's mansion, and win the White House. When you win the presidency the presidency game takes over the same career.
• Losing a race does not end the career. You go back to being whatever you were and carry on.
• Career mode needs a premium account.

1.2 The two numbers that decide everything

• Name recognition: what share of people know who you are.
• Favourability: of the people who know you, what share like you.
• Both are kept for your state and for the country, and separately for your own party's voters. Every race, every booking, every door that opens or stays shut reads these two numbers. There is no hidden score behind them.
• Recognition comes from being in front of people: door knocking, press bookings, debates, advertising, holding office. Favourability comes from what you say to them and what you do in office.
• Section 5 explains every row of the standing table.

1.3 Winning and losing

• There is no score and no finish line. The career is what you make of it: the offices you hold, the races you win, and the record it leaves.
• A career ends only in a few ways: an officeholder whose approval or stability collapses is run out of office; a national figure can be disgraced; a private citizen can go to jail; an older character out of office can die. Section 19 lists them.
• When a term runs out you leave office and continue as a private citizen with a known name. That is not an ending.

Section 2

Starting a career

2.1 Your Careers

The Your Careers screen lists your saved games. Each career is one card.

• A career card: the character's name, a label such as "Career Mode — Governor (CA)", "Career Mode — Out of Politics", "Career Mode — Candidate" or "Career Mode — President", an ACTIVE or FINISHED tag, when it was last played, and the month it is at. Click the card to continue that career. A finished career reopens on its ending card.
• ✕ on a card deletes that one career after a confirmation.
• Select turns the cards into tick boxes with Select all, Delete selected and Cancel, so you can delete several at once.
• 🏛️ Career Mode (tagged PREMIUM and BETA) opens the Career Mode start screen. A free account is shown the upgrade prompt instead.
• + Start New Career opens the presidency game's scenario picker, not career mode. A Career Mode tile sits at the top of that picker as well.
• The badge at the top right reads "♾️ Premium", or for a free account how many active careers and daily games are left.
• The line under the heading links to this guide.

2.2 The Career Mode start screen

The start screen has five sections in order, then a one-line summary of the start you have chosen, then the buttons.

• MODE: Real or Arcade (2.3).
• TEMPLATES: Custom start or one of eight ready-made people (2.4).
• YOUR START: which office, if any, you begin in (2.5).
• STARTING YEAR and YOUR STATE or HOME STATE (2.6).
• The summary line reads, for example, "Governor of Ohio, sworn in January 2013." or "An unknown out of Texas, starting January 1995. Nobody's watching. That can change."
• ← Back drops the setup and returns to Your Careers.
• Build Your Governor →, Build Your President →, Build Your Member → or Create Your Citizen → (the label follows the start) opens Character Setup (2.7).
• The amber beta notice at the top of the screen links to the Discord and to this guide.

2.3 Mode: Real or Arcade

• Real ("The long game."): your recognition and favourability move at the normal pace. It takes years of work to become a name.
• Arcade ("The quick one."): the same game, but every gain in recognition and favourability lands several times harder, and what you have built fades several times more slowly when you stop working. A career gets somewhere in a fraction of the months.
• The mode is set once, on this screen. It cannot be changed later.

2.4 Templates

A template fills in the start and the character for you. You can still change anything afterwards.

• Custom start: build the whole person yourself.
• Gavin Newsom (EASY): Governor of California, January 2019.
• Arnold Schwarzenegger (MEDIUM): Governor of California, January 2004.
• Barack Obama (EASY): President of the United States, January 2009.
• The celebrity outsider (EASY): a cable host in New York, 2015.
• The business mogul (MEDIUM): a corporate board seat in Florida, 2021.
• The freshman senator (MEDIUM): the US Senate for Pennsylvania, 2007.
• The party activist (HARD): a precinct volunteer in Ohio, 2009.
• The unknown (HARDEST): out of work in Texas, 1995.
• The word beside each template is how hard that life is to play. It is not the Difficulty dial in the builder.
• A template sets the start type, year and state on this screen, and fills the career sheet once the builder opens. The three real people also bring their name, party and profile. Moving off a real person's template drops their name.

2.5 Your Start

• 🏛️ Governor: you are sworn in as Governor of the chosen state that January (or are already in office, if the real governor's term began earlier). You land on the governor's desk (Section 16). California has scripted governor events; every other state's governor events are written for you as you play.
• 🎤 Outside Politics: a private citizen of your home state with a job, no office and no name. You land on the Political Scene (Section 3) and build from the county party up.
• 🦅 President: sworn in as President that January, on an inauguration year. The presidency game takes over from the first morning (Section 17), with a cabinet to build and no running mate on the ticket.
• 🏛️ State Assembly: one seat in your state's lower house (the state's own name for it is used, for example House of Delegates). You take the first seat your party holds. You land on the legislative desk (Section 15).
• 🏛️ State Senate: the same, for the upper house of the statehouse.
• 🇺🇸 US House: a congressional district of your party, and a two-year clock.
• 🇺🇸 US Senate: one of your state's two seats, in the class your party holds.
• 🗂️ Party Official is greyed out: "Coming later."

2.6 Starting Year and Your State

• STARTING YEAR runs from 1990 to 2025. Under it a line names who is in the White House that year.
• A President start only offers inauguration years.
• A state whose election record begins after 1990 starts its list later. The list redraws once the state's record has loaded.
• YOUR STATE (Governor and the four seat starts) is the state you serve. HOME STATE (Outside Politics and President) is the state you live in.
• Every state is playable except Nebraska and New Hampshire, which are not listed.
• A career that starts in 2004 or earlier plays in the nineties era: its own voters, its own look, a shorter list of party wings. It becomes the modern era when the calendar reaches 2005 (18.5).

2.7 Character Setup

The builder is the presidency game's character screen with the career sheet added and several questions removed, because the sheet answers them.

• Your Name, Gender (Male / Female), Sexuality (Heterosexual / Homosexual / Bisexual / Asexual). Sexuality is required in career mode; it is used by the dating system (11.2).
• Your Party: Democrat or Republican. Independents cannot play career mode.
• Character Profile: the career sheet (2.8), then Race / Ethnicity, Religion, Military Service and Scandal History.
• Communication Style: Polished / Presidential, Populist / Direct, Academic / Wonky, Folksy / Relatable, Combative. This is your voice. The Positions lightbulb (8.3) writes suggestions in it.
• Ideology: your wing of the party. Democrats choose from Progressive, Mainstream liberal, Blue Dog and Democratic socialist. Republicans choose from Populist, Neoconservative, Libertarian and Christian right. A nineties start offers the wings that existed then. Your wing decides which of the party's people are natural allies and which ones grate (12.6).
• 🎲 Random rolls the whole person: the sheet, party, gender, sexuality, a name if the box is empty, race, religion, service, scandal, style and wing.
• ← Back returns to the start screen with the year and state kept.
• Age, Education, Wealth, Background, Marital Status and Home Region are not asked here. The sheet sets them.

2.8 The career sheet

• Age: a number. Under it, "Born <year>. You will age as the career runs." Changing age can rule out a job you are too young or too old for; the job then goes back to Out of work.
• Education: Ivy League, State University, Military Academy, Top Law School, Self-Made / No Degree. Some jobs need particular schooling.
• What you do for a living (citizen and seat starts) or What you did before politics (Governor and President starts): a dropdown of jobs grouped No job / Working / Professional / Institutions / Politics / Media / Money / Service. Each row shows whether it is full time, part time or no job, and what it pays a month. Under it the job's blurb and, for a citizen, an "Opens:" line naming the rooms the job gives you access to (courthouses, chambers of commerce, newsrooms, organisers). Jobs you are the wrong age for, lack the schooling for, or that did not exist yet in that year are left off. Office jobs are never listed.
• At home: On your own, A partner no children, Young children at home, Teenagers at home, Grown children, Caring for a parent.
• Health: Robust, Average, Frail.
• Who covers it (only when someone at home needs care): You handle it alone, Family nearby help out, Shared with a partner, A partner at home full time, Paid help. Paid help costs money every month and buys the time back.
• Savings (US$ thousands): pre-filled with the job's typical balance for that year. Type a figure to override it. The note reads "You start with $X of your own. The committee account starts empty."
• THE MONTH: a live readout of your action points for a month (Section 6), with a line showing where they come from: your age, minus the job's hours, minus care at home, plus or minus health. For an office start the office counts as your job.

2.9 The office dials

Below the profile are the presidency game's dials. They are chosen once and switch on at whichever desk you reach.

• Economic Simulation (on) and ⚖️ Checks & Balances (on): the economy and the legislature, court and agencies at a governor's or President's desk. Outside office they are off until you win a desk.
• 📊 Social Engineering Mode (premium): track the statistical fabric of the place you govern.
• ⚡ Event Generation (premium): Classic, Hybrid or Dynamic. A Governor start outside California is locked to Dynamic.
• 🏛️ Expanded Congress (premium, on) and 🎤 Presidential Debates (on) with the Podium Clock: these only take effect at a presidency reached later.
• ⚔️ Difficulty: Easy, Medium, Hard (recommended).
• 🔥 No Hints: hides the written suggestion chips on event cards.
• The media mode, Persona Mode, Deployments & War, Covert Operations, Dirty Tricks and the rest are not offered for careers.

2.10 Pressing the start button

• The button reads Take Office → (Governor, President), Take the Seat → (the four seats) or Start From Nothing → (Outside Politics).
• It checks the name, party, gender, sexuality, ideology, religion and the sheet, and says what is missing ("Enter your name.", "Choose what you do for a living.", "That work does not fit the age and education you chose.").
• A new career is saved to your account as its own row. It never overwrites the career you were playing before.
• A Governor start lands on the governor's desk with the state's chambers, court, a generated cabinet and the state's numbers. The first record line reads "Sworn in as Governor of <State>."
• A seat start lands on the legislative desk with the chamber's calendar of bills. The record reads "Sworn in as the member for <seat>."
• A President start lands on the presidential dashboard with an empty cabinet, the court and agencies of the era, and the Congress elected the previous November.
• An Outside Politics start lands on the Political Scene. The first record line comes from your background, for example "Left the service and came home to Ohio."

Section 3

The screens

3.1 The Political Scene (the hub)

The Political Scene is the home screen for a private citizen and a candidate. An officeholder reaches it from the desk. It is one long page of sections, in this order: the header, the month's diary, THE PRESS, IN POLITICS, NATIONAL OVERVIEW, your state's OVERVIEW, THE ELECTORAL FIELD, YOU, YOUR SCHEDULE, and the buttons at the bottom.

• The header reads THE POLITICAL SCENE, "American politics · <Month Year>", and one line naming what you are right now: "Governor of Ohio", "Candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination", "Member for District 12 · Ohio", or your station and state when you hold nothing (5.6).
• The Desk → in the header opens your desk. It is shown only when you hold an office or a seat.
• The month's diary sits above the board: what is booked this month by name ("Nothing booked yet — the month is yours to fill." when empty), a "Last month" strip of what moved (State recognition, National recognition, State favourability, Party recognition, Party elite opinion, Committee), a "To do" list of things that need you (a debate invitation, "Change your messaging."), and the ▶ Take the month button.
• Folding: every big section header is a door. Click the title to fold or unfold it. A folded section keeps one line of what is behind it. NATIONAL OVERVIEW and your state's OVERVIEW start folded; THE ELECTORAL FIELD, YOU and YOUR SCHEDULE start open. THE PRESS and IN POLITICS do not fold. The open or shut state is saved with the career.

3.2 THE PRESS

• The month's front pages. Every month you play adds an edition.
• The national row: three papers, The National Standard, The American Herald and The Patriot Tribune (left, centre and right), each with a headline and a subhead. The national row is national news only.
• The state row: your state's own three papers under their own mastheads and dateline (for Ohio, The Buckeye Ledger, The Three-C Meridian and The Lake Erie Register). They reprint the month's state news, and a governor's own month is reported here.
• Somber items (an arrest, a death) print full width under the paper that would carry them.
• ◂ Earlier and Later ▸ page through past editions. The label between them reads "<Month Year> edition". The stand reopens on the latest edition whenever you take a month.
• Before anything has printed it reads "The papers haven't gone to press yet." A month whose pages have not arrived reads "This edition is at the printers." Pages are written between turns while the wheel is up, never when you click.

3.3 IN POLITICS

• A short list under the papers of one-line items about named politicians for the month: your state's legislators, statewide officers and members of Congress, and now and then another state's governor (tagged "· <State>").
• Lines read like "<Name> gives a floor speech on housing." or "<Name> breaks with the party over taxes." The person's own numbers move with the line.
• Click a line about a home-state person to open their card (12.4). Lines about another state's governor are not clickable.
• The section follows whichever edition THE PRESS is showing. It is hidden when there is nothing to show.

3.4 NATIONAL OVERVIEW

Starts folded; folded, it reads "<President> in the White House". Open, top to bottom:

• THE WHITE HOUSE: the President's name and party, the Vice President, "First term" or "Second term", and the next election year.
• US House and US Senate: each chamber as a seat chart, Democrats from the left, Republicans from the right, a dashed aisle line labelled with the seats needed to control, and a caption ("D majority", "R supermajority", "No majority"). Under the House, who controls it and when the midterms are. Under the Senate, who controls it or "A tied chamber". Hover a seat for its number and party.
• A sentence such as "Democrats hold the White House and the House; Republicans hold the Senate."
• 🗺 Map view / ◉ Chamber view swaps the seat charts for maps: every congressional district coloured by its member's party, and every state coloured by its two senators (purple for a split delegation). Your own seat counts.
• THE PRESIDENT'S CABINET and THE AGENCIES: name and post tiles, "As seated at the <year> inauguration." Hover a tile for a bio. Once the game's own President is in office it reads "A new administration is taking shape in Washington; the roster isn't settled."
• THE SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES: nine circles coloured by ideology, the Chief Justice marked CJ, a hover tooltip (name, age, who appointed them, ideology, year seated) and a balance line such as "Conservative 6-3 majority".
• NATIONAL STATISTICS: GDP growth, unemployment, inflation, fiscal balance, national debt, and the social figures (population, crime, poverty, life expectancy, median income, home ownership, incarceration, overdose deaths, immigration, press freedom, gun ownership), dated by year. Past the last real year it reads "Last full-year figures, <year>."
• A line naming who won the last presidential election.
• STATE GOVERNORS: a panel for one state (your home state by default, marked HOME) with its governor, when the mansion is next up, its two senators, Lieutenant Governor and Attorney General, and, if you are the governor, your two chambers' split. Under it a map of all fifty states coloured by the governor's party. Click a state to read its governor in the panel; click your home state to return to home.

3.5 Your state's OVERVIEW

Titled with your state's name in capitals. Starts folded; folded, it reads "<Governor> (D) in the mansion". Open:

• Governor: the sitting governor and party.
• Both state chambers as seat charts under their real names (for example State Assembly · 60D — 20R, "Democrats control"). Hover a seat for the member's name and party. Your own seat is outlined. A unicameral state shows one chamber. Seats here are not clickable; the desk's legislature panel is where seats open cards.
• IN WASHINGTON: your state's US House split ("43D — 9R of 52") and its two senators by name.

3.6 THE ELECTORAL FIELD

Starts open. Folded, it reads "A campaign is running — see your schedule" when you are in a race, otherwise a one-line summary of what is open to you.

• YOUR RACES: one line on where you stand: "You are in the Democratic primary for Governor of Ohio, against 3 others. Primary Night — May 2014.", "You are your party's nominee for <office>. The general is November 2014.", "Filing is open for the legislature, Governor of Ohio in 2014 and the presidency in 2016.", "Filing for the legislature opens March 2013." or "Nothing on the ballot is open to you right now."
• Suggested doors: for a citizen of a party, up to two seats worth a look, each a line beginning ▸: a weak incumbent on your own side ("<seat> — <name> holds it for your side, and the party knows you better.") and the other side's thinnest-held seat ("winnable ground" or "their ground"). Click one to open the Seat Book on that seat.
• The seat book → opens the Seat Book (3.11, Section 13).
• Running mate — choose → appears only while a running-mate pick is waiting (14.5).
• THE POLITICAL CLASS · N named in <State>: a grid of the dozen people who matter in your state (12.1). Click a chip for the person's card.
• The party → opens your state party's org chart (12.2). The legislature → opens the legislature's seat grids (12.3).

3.7 YOU

Your own card. Starts open; folded, it reads your name and party. Open, top to bottom:

• Your name, your party, and a biography line built from your profile (age, job, region, education, service, household). A governor adds "In the mansion since <year>."
• Change party: shown when you are not a candidate and not facing a live primary challenge (11.5).
• The tiles: AGE, THE JOB, THE MONTH (your action points), ETHNICITY, RELIGION, SEXUALITY, AT HOME, HEALTH, EDUCATION, WEALTH, SERVICE, STYLE, IDEOLOGY, HOME STATE, HOME DISTRICT. Empty ones are dropped.
• The standing table: two columns, your state and NATIONAL, with the rows NAME RECOGNITION, PUBLIC FAVORABILITY, KNOWN TO DEMOCRATS/REPUBLICANS, DEMOCRATIC/REPUBLICAN FAVORABILITY, KNOWN TO THE DEMOCRATIC/REPUBLICAN ELITE and THEIR AVERAGE OPINION (Section 5). The ? beside it opens a plain-words explanation of every row. ▸ Who knows you unfolds the persona table (5.4). Where you're known → opens the fifty-state view (5.5).
• AT HOME: your partner, children and dating (11.2).
• THE LIVING: your job, income against living costs, the self-funding box and the job market (11.1).
• Moves: Relocate (11.4), Commission an exploratory memo and Take the book deal (11.6), Don't seek re-election for a governor in election season (16.6).
• THE MEMO — <year> and the manuscript line ("📖 The manuscript: N months from the printers.") when you have them.
• YOUR RECORD: the last eight lines of your career record, newest first, or "Nothing yet." The full record → opens the whole record (19.4).
• ▶ Take the month — <date>: the same month button as the diary, shown here when the Political Scene is your home screen.

3.8 YOUR SCHEDULE

• The operation board: every activity you can run this month, grouped THE GROUND, THE PRESS, THE PARTY, THE MONEY, with THE STAFF and PAID MEDIA under them and THE ROOMS at the foot. Section 7 covers every row and Section 8 covers THE ROOMS.
• Folded, the header reads "N of M action points booked".
• While you are in a race, the campaign board appears above it with the race's own activities (13.7).
• A President has no board.

3.9 The bottom of the page

• ← Back to Careers saves the career and returns to Your Careers.
• 🌙 Dark Mode / ☀️ Light Mode switches the whole app. The choice is remembered in your browser. The same button sits at the bottom of the desk.
• 🔧 Debug (premium) opens the debug menu (Section 20).

3.10 The Desk

• Whoever holds an office has a desk, and the desk is their home screen: the legislative desk for a seat (Section 15), the governor's desk for the mansion (Section 16), the presidential dashboard for the White House (Section 17).
• From the desk, The Political Scene → (on the THE MORNING PAPERS card) opens the hub. From the hub, The Desk → in the header returns.
• The desk's month button reads Play <Month Year> →.
• The operation board (YOUR SCHEDULE) still runs on the hub for a seat-holder and a governor: your standing operation continues while you hold office.

3.11 The Seat Book

• A separate screen listing every seat on the ballot's horizon: who holds it, the district, who has filed, and the door in. Reached from THE ELECTORAL FIELD, from a suggested door, or from "The race →" on the campaign board.
• Section 13 walks through it: the level buttons, the filters, the ladder, the seat detail, and File / Announce.
• ← The political scene returns to the hub.

Section 4

The month

4.1 Taking the month

• From the hub the month starts with ▶ Take the month — <Month Year>. From a desk it starts with Play <Month Year> →. Both run the same month.
• In order: the BEFORE THE MONTH GOES card if there is anything to say (4.2); the wheel while the world moves and the papers go to press (4.3); any waiting cards, shown one after another (4.8); then the month's event screen (4.4), or a quiet month (4.7), or a jail stretch (11.7).
• On the event screen the button that ends the month reads Say it → for a citizen, Send it out → for a candidate, or Submit Policy → for an officeholder.
• A second press while the wheel is up does nothing. A month is closed once; a fast double-click on a closing button is ignored.
• Before you take the month, set up the board (Section 7) and your lines (Section 8). What is switched on when you press the button is what runs.

4.2 BEFORE THE MONTH GOES

• A dark card that appears when the month is about to run with something left undone. It lists one line per reason: "One action point is unspent." / "N action points are unspent.", and "The party has new instructions and your messaging has not changed."
• Go back closes the card; nothing advances. Take the month anyway → runs the month. The card asks once per month.
• On a desk the card appears when you press Submit, not when you press Play.
• It is not shown to a President, not in jail, and the party reason is skipped while you are in a live race.

4.3 The wheel

• A full-screen spinner with one line of text. From the hub it reads "The papers go to press…". After you submit on an event screen it cycles through lines written for your role (a governor's agencies, a candidate's travelling press, a citizen's precinct or op-ed desk, a member's clerk).
• Everything the game has to write is written behind the wheel: the month's newspapers, a member's calendar for next month, a governor's next situation, the press bookings' questions. Nothing is written when you click a button on a screen.

4.4 The event screen

• The date line reads "<Month Year> — Public Life" for a citizen, "From the Trail" for a candidate, "The Chamber" for a seat-holder, "Governor's Briefing" for a governor. The banner reads YOUR MONTH, ON THE TRAIL, THE MEMBER'S MONTH or THE GOVERNOR'S MORNING.
• The card: a headline, a description and context. A seat-holder's card is laid out as the headline, why it reached you, the facts as labelled lines, and the ask (15.6).
• The reason bar: "This is happening because you had <activity> running this month." or "...because you work as <job>, and you had <activity> running this month." It tells you which of your activities produced the month (Section 9).
• YOUR RESPONSE: the box where you write what you say or do. The intro line reads "Say something, do something, or let the month pass." for a citizen, "Make your case — the trail is listening." for a candidate, "Announce a policy, make a statement, or direct your government." for a governor, and "Your remarks." / "Your answer." / "Your response." for a seat-holder by the kind of month.
• ▸ 💡 Stuck? Click for inspiration: the card's three written suggestion chips. Click one to drop it into the box. Hidden by No Hints. Ground and campaign events carry it.
• ▸ 💡 Positions: when the card has no written suggestions (a press booking, a seat-holder's month, a governor's dynamic month), this asks for three positions on the event in your wing's voice and your communication style. Nothing is written until you click. It shows "Working…", then three chips; click one to draft it into the box. "Nothing came back. Try again." on failure.
• ▸ 🏛️ Consult the West Wing (governor only): the Chief of Staff thread (16.3).
• ▸ 🎯 Add public messaging (governor and President only): the optional spin box on your response.
• Say it → / Send it out → / Submit Policy →: ends the month with your answer. An empty box is refused.
• If a private citizen's answer is a serious crime, the month ends in an arrest (11.7).

4.5 After you answer

• The analysis screen: the readout in your role's words. A governor gets OFFICIAL STATE BRIEFING with WHAT IT DOES, WHERE IT COULD GO WRONG and STATE AGENCY RECOMMENDATION. A candidate gets CAMPAIGN DESK MEMO with WHAT YOU SAID and WHERE IT COULD HURT. A citizen gets THE MONTH, IN REVIEW (or THE READ for a nobody). A seat-holder gets THE READ. A citizen's or candidate's break event skips this screen. Continue → moves on.
• The reactions screen: the people of the era react to what you said, one by one, with a score each. Their scores are what move your favourability. Continue → (a citizen, candidate or seat-holder) closes the month; View Stakeholder Map → (a governor or President) goes on. A month with no reactions is skipped.
• The stakeholder screen (governor and President only): POWER DYNAMICS, the institutions' reactions. Return to Dashboard → closes the month.
• Every path ends in the month's debrief card (4.6) if the board produced one.

4.6 THE MONTH: the debrief

A full-screen dark card headed THE MONTH with the month's dateline. It shows what your standing operation did that month. Not shown to a President.

• THE WORK: one block per activity that ran. Its name (with ×2 or ×3 when worked harder). On the right, "placed" for a press booking that got on, "raised $X" and the cost when money moved, or a quiet word: "nothing ran this month" (a press booking that did not fire), "barely moved the needles", "turned up, nothing more", "nothing came of it". Under it, signed rows for what moved: known in <State>, known nationally, liked in <State>, liked nationally, known to Democrats/Republicans, with Democrats/Republicans. Then pills of named people from the room with a word on how they took your line: "took it", "liked it", "shrugged", "went cold", "turned away".
• THE PEOPLE: everyone the month's party work put you in a room with, by name and title, with "you met", "it went well" or "you argued". A red row "Around the organisation — the party's asks went unpushed" when none of your lines pushed what the party asked for (8.5).
• THE MONEY: your job's pay, Living costs, Raised for the committee, Committee spending.
• THE MONTH: the standing figures that moved, before → after, plus Your money and The committee.
• Continue → (top right and bottom) dismisses the card and leaves you where the month ended. It does not advance the clock.

4.7 THE MONTH PASSES: a quiet month

• A month when nothing came to your door: none of your activities threw up an event. The clock moves, the papers print, and instead of an event screen you get a card headed THE MONTH PASSES.
• The card shows the month's dateline, up to three of the month's headlines, a note ("Nothing comes to your door. The world gets on with itself." or "A still month, everywhere. Even the papers are thin."), and the month's debrief beneath it.
• A quiet month still resolves the board: your activities ran, your lines were heard, your standing moved. Only the event did not happen.
• The month a job changes is always quiet. A month in jail is always quiet. A seat-holder never gets a quiet month; the chamber always has something.

4.8 Cards

Things that happened in the world since your last month are shown as full-screen cards before the month itself. Continue → moves to the next card or on to the month. A card never advances the clock.

• Primary night: "<OFFICE> — PRIMARY NIGHT" with a row per name and their share, "(you)" beside yours (13.11).
• Election night: three cards, "<OFFICE> — POLLS CLOSE", "— MIDNIGHT" and "— THE CALL", with an animated count in front of the first two. Skip → ends the count early (13.13).
• A contest in a presidential primary, and the convention (14.3, 14.4).
• THE RUNNING MATE: its only door is Choose a running mate → (14.5).
• CONFIRMED after a governor's court appointment. RECALLED for a recalled governor. TAKEN INTO CUSTODY, INSIDE and RELEASED for jail.
• The Victory Address and The Concession: the morning after a governor's race or a presidential run, the month's card is the speech.

4.9 Saving

• The career saves itself: after every closed month, before each card, after a quiet month, after a jail stretch, after a skip, and when you press Back to Careers.
• An ending saves the career as FINISHED. It reopens on its ending card.

Section 5

Your standing

The standing table on the YOU card has two columns, your state and NATIONAL. Every row is a percentage. The ? beside the table explains each row in the game itself.

5.1 Name recognition and favourability

• NAME RECOGNITION: the percentage of people in your state (or the country) who know who you are.
• PUBLIC FAVORABILITY: of the people who know you, the percentage who like you.
• The two are kept for every type of voter in every state. What you see is the total. A citizen who has never done anything starts known to nobody.
• Recognition only ever goes up from work and down from time. Favourability moves up or down with what you say and do.

5.2 Known to your party and party favourability

• KNOWN TO DEMOCRATS (or REPUBLICANS): the percentage of your own party's voters who know who you are, in your state and nationally.
• DEMOCRATIC FAVORABILITY (or REPUBLICAN): of your party's voters who know you, the percentage who like you.
• These are the two numbers a primary reads (13.6). They are the same ledger as the public rows, read for your party's voters only.

5.3 Known to the elite and their average opinion

• KNOWN TO THE DEMOCRATIC ELITE (or REPUBLICAN): the percentage of your party's named officials in your state (chairs, regional directors, county chairs, elected members) who know who you are.
• THEIR AVERAGE OPINION: the average of those officials' opinions of you.
• These two rows are the network (Section 12). They are shown for your state only; the national column shows a dash.

5.4 Who knows you

• ▸ Who knows you under the table unfolds a list of every type of voter in your state: WHO, % OF STATE (how much of the state they are), HEARD OF YOU, RATE YOU.
• The chips Everyone and Democrats / Republicans filter it to your party's voters. Click a column header to sort by it.

5.5 Where you're known

• Where you're known → opens a modal listing every state with a bar and KNOWS / RATES figures, your home state marked "— where you live".
• Click a state to unfold its voter types (WHO, OF <STATE>, KNOWS, RATES). Close shuts it.
• Every state is tracked from the start. National press reaches all of them. If you move state, what you built where you left stays there.

5.6 Your station

• When you hold no office the header names your station: Private citizen, A name in the state, or A national figure. It follows how well known you are.
• Station decides which lines the wheel shows, which readout the analysis screen uses, and it opens some rows on the board and in the job market (a national figure can take the book deal, 11.6).

5.7 What moves your standing

• The board (Section 7): every activity puts you in front of a room of people every month it runs. They learn your name from seeing you; they form a view of you from the line you carry there.
• Events (Sections 4 and 9): what you say on an event screen is judged by the people of the era and lands on the room the event came out of.
• Staff and advertising (7.7, 7.8) spread your name and change nobody's mind.
• Campaigning (Section 13): the race activities reach the district's own people; debates put every name on the stage in front of the audience; endorsements bring a wing of the party with them.
• Holding office (Sections 15 to 17): a member's votes and speeches, a governor's months and a President's are judged, and the office itself makes you known.
• Time: out of the public eye, recognition fades slowly toward a floor. Favourability does not fade on its own.
• The debrief card (4.6) shows what moved each month and by how much.

Section 6

Action points

6.1 Where they come from

• Action points are the month's budget of your own time. The THE MONTH tile on the YOU card shows how many you have.
• The board's masthead spells the sum out in words: the base at your age, "−N working full time" or "part time" for your job, "−N at home" for care nobody else covers, "±N health", "−N keeping the lights on" when you are broke, "+N an assistant" when you employ one.
• The job is what decides whether a month is open or shut. A full-time job takes most of it. No job leaves the whole month free. An office is a full-time job.
• Age is a modest term that falls slowly across a lifetime. There is always at least one point.

6.2 What they pay for

• Every activity on the board costs points, shown in its Pts rail. Ground work can be worked harder for more points (7.3). A personal assistant adds one point (7.7).
• The race activities on the campaign board draw from the same budget.
• Changing jobs takes the whole month (11.1). A month in jail has no board.
• Unspent points are lost at the end of the month. The BEFORE THE MONTH GOES card (4.2) warns you.

6.3 When the budget shrinks

• When a birthday, a new job, a child or a loss of health leaves fewer points than you have booked, the newest bookings come off first, extra intensity before the activity itself. The record notes "The calendar will not carry what it carried last year."
• When the committee cannot pay for what is booked, the dearest paid work is dropped and the state paper notes "The month is trimmed to what the account can carry."

Section 7

YOUR SCHEDULE: the operation board

The board is your standing operation: what you do every month whether or not anything happens. It runs for every role but the presidency. It lives on the Political Scene under the diary.

7.1 The masthead

• Three figures at the top right: Action points (booked of available), Political (the committee account; shown in red when empty), Personal (your own money).
• Under them the line that itemises the month's points (6.1).
• Expand all / Collapse all opens or closes every family of activities at once.
• While a race is live the campaign board sits above with Action points, Committee and a The race → button that opens the Seat Book.
• In jail the whole board is replaced by an IN CUSTODY line with the charge and the release month.

7.2 Switching an activity on

• Activities sit in four sections in order, THE GROUND, THE PRESS, THE PARTY, THE MONEY. Each section groups its rows into families with a chevron (Door knocking, The church circuit, Pitch local radio, The county party, and so on). A closed family shows a count of rows inside and still shows the rows that are switched on.
• Each row is a check box, the activity's name, the faces of the people it reaches, and the rail cells (Effort, Odds, Pays, Cost, Pts by section).
• Click a row to book it for the month. Click again to drop it. Booking needs the activity to be open to you, enough points left, and the committee able to carry its cost. Otherwise the click does nothing and the row says why (7.9).
• Hover or tap an open row to see who is in the room by name, and for a press chip the chance of getting on this month.
• What is switched on when you take the month is what runs. Activities stay switched on month after month until you drop them.
• The rooms panel at the foot of the board (Section 8) is where you write what you say in each room.

7.3 THE GROUND

• Door knocking in six kinds of neighbourhood, town halls and meetings around the district, five congregations on the church circuit, and the associations (the VFW, the chamber of commerce and the like). Rails: Effort, Cost, Pts.
• Each activity is written for particular kinds of people. Those people fill the room; everyone else in the state is faintly present. The people in the room learn your name from seeing you every month and form a view of you from the line you carry there.
• The pips: once a ground row is on, a − / + stepper with three pips lets you work the same streets harder, up to three evenings' worth. Each pip is another action point, reaches the room harder, and gives the month another chance at a break (Section 9). + greys with a reason when you cannot afford it; − at the lowest step switches the activity off.
• Most ground work is free. Some venues cost the committee a little.
• Every ground activity has its own line box in THE ROOMS. A few, like leafleting, only spread the name and have no line.

7.4 THE PRESS

• Pitching yourself to outlets: local television, local radio, the podcasts, the letters page, an op-ed, national television. Rails: Odds, Pts.
• Odds is the printed chance of getting on this month. It rises with how well the state knows you (local outlets) or the country knows you (national outlets). A chip not open to you shows a dash.
• A press chip does not carry a line. It pays only when it fires: the month's event becomes the booking (9.2), the debrief says "placed", and everyone who tuned in learns your name. A booking that does not land says "nothing ran this month".
• National outlets reach every state. Some need a name the country already knows before they will take the call.

7.5 THE PARTY

• Three families: Precinct work (Precinct meetings, Phone banks, Young party chapters), The county party (County party dinners, Volunteer coordinating), The state party (State convention networking, Candidate surrogacy, Party fundraiser circuit, Delegate cultivation, Platform committee). Rails: Cost, Pts.
• Party rooms are your own party's people only. These activities carry no line; they are rooms you stand in.
• Each booked party activity has a chance every month of putting you in front of a named person from the party's chart: precinct work and county dinners reach county chairs; the state convention reaches directors, officers and elected members; surrogacy, the fundraiser circuit, delegate cultivation and the platform committee reach the officers and electeds. The debrief lists them under THE PEOPLE (12.6).
• Precinct meetings, Phone banks and Young party chapters are always open. The county party opens once enough of your party's voters know your name. The state party opens once enough of the named chart knows and rates you (12.7).

7.6 THE MONEY

• Its first row is The year's fundraising with the Fundraise button (10.3). Raising money is one press a calendar year, not a monthly activity.
• The one monthly chip under it is Write checks to candidates in the family The donor circuit: it costs a point and committee money, raises nothing, and puts you in rooms with county chairs, regional directors and state officers, because a check gets a call back.

7.7 THE STAFF

• Personal assistant: one extra action point a month for a monthly wage. You can keep one. + hires, − lets go.
• Field staff: organisers who work the doors and the drops. Each one spreads your name in your state every month; each extra one adds less than the last. No limit. They bill the committee monthly.
• The panel prints "Payroll $X a month · they add N to how many people know you." and the note "Staff spread your name and change nobody's mind. The persuading is yours."
• If the committee cannot make payroll the field staff are let go, and the assistant goes too if there is not even their wage. The paper reports it.
• Not shown to a President.

7.8 PAID MEDIA

• Where it runs: a National chip and one chip per state (your home state first). Pick the ground a buy will run on; clear empties the selection.
• Five kinds, cheapest first: Leaflet distribution, Newspaper advertising, Radio spots, Internet advertising, Television spots. Once ground is chosen each row says "adds N to how many people know you" with a Run it · $X button.
• A buy runs every month until you press Stop, billing the committee monthly. It costs no action points. Bigger ground costs more; a national buy is dearer than any state.
• "Advertising buys your name in front of people. It changes nobody's mind."
• If the committee cannot pay, all advertising comes off the air and the paper says so. Not shown to a President.

7.9 Greyed rows

A row you cannot book prints greyed. Tap it and the reason prints under the row:

• "Needs N action points; you have N left."
• "The committee account cannot carry it this month."
• "Needs a name the state already knows" or "Nobody in <State> returns your calls yet": an outlet that wants a known name.
• "The county committee needs to know your name first" or "The rooms that decide this only open to names the party already trusts": a party rung gated on your party's voters knowing you.
• "Nobody in the building knows you well enough yet" or "The people who run this only hand it to somebody they know": a party rung gated on the named chart.
• "a job that opens Newsrooms, editors, the people who decide what runs": a room your job does not let you into. The job market (11.1) lists what each job opens.
• Activities that did not exist yet in the year you are playing do not appear at all.

Section 8

THE ROOMS: what you say

8.1 The line

• THE ROOMS is the panel at the foot of the board. For every switched-on activity that puts you in front of people and takes a line, it prints the activity's name, the people in that room by name with the share each holds in your state, a label naming the setting (WHAT YOU SAY AT THE DOOR, WHAT YOU SAY FROM THE FRONT OF THE ROOM, WHAT YOU SAY AFTER THE SERVICE), and a text box.
• Type what you say in that room and press Use this. The button reads "Saving…" while the room is asked, then the line prints in italics. A line of a few words is refused with "Say a bit more than that."
• Change reopens the box with the current line. Keep the old one cancels the edit. A line is never locked; you can change it any month.
• A line stays with its room month after month. You say the same thing at the door every month until you change it.
• Press chips and party activities have no line box.
• On the campaign board the same panel is headed WHO YOU ARE IN FRONT OF and holds the race activities' lines (13.7).

8.2 How a line is judged

• When you press Use this, the words are put to the people of the era as if you had said them in public, in that specific setting. Each person forms a score. The score is the politics: whether they agree with what you said, not how you came across.
• Nothing shows at once. The room's verdict appears on the month's debrief (4.6): the ledger rows that moved and the pills "took it", "liked it", "shrugged", "went cold", "turned away".
• The same words in a different room are judged again. A line said on a doorstep and the same line said at the VFW are two different things being said.
• Every month the line runs, the people in the room hear it again and their view of you moves toward their verdict. The people the room is written for hear it loudest; everyone else in the state hears it faintly.
• If the era changes under a line (18.5) the footer reads "The country has changed around it. Put it back out to have it count." Press Use this again.

8.3 The Positions lightbulb

• ▸ 💡 Positions under a line box asks for three things you could say in that room, in your wing's voice and your communication style, on the politics that room cares about. Nothing is written until you click.
• "Working…" while it writes; then three chips. Click one to drop it into the text box, edit it if you like, and press Use this.
• The same lightbulb serves event screens that have no written suggestions (4.4).

8.4 FROM THE PARTY: the party's instructions

• Above the rooms, a box headed FROM THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY (or REPUBLICAN): "The party has asked you to talk about any one of these while you are out. What you say about it is yours." followed by a short list of subjects.
• They are subjects, not positions. You can argue any side. Pushing any one of them is enough.
• The list is the same for everyone in your party and turns over once a year. Nothing you do changes it.
• When you save a line, the game checks whether it is about any of the current subjects. That judgment is stored with the line. Campaign lines (the race activities) never count toward the brief.
• Independents have no brief. The box is hidden on the campaign board.

8.5 Ignoring the party

• At the end of a month, if you had lines out and none of them pushed anything the party asked for, word travels: everyone on your party's chart who knows your name cools toward you by the same small amount, met or not.
• It is charged once per set of instructions, the first month you are caught off-brief, not every month.
• It never fires while you are in a live race. A candidate's months belong to the campaign.
• You see it on the debrief as the red row "Around the organisation — the party's asks went unpushed", and in the "Party elite opinion" figure in the diary's Last month strip.
• Following the instructions earns nothing. It is what stops the cold wind.

8.6 Change your messaging

• When new instructions have gone out and none of your current lines answers them, the diary's To do list shows the card "Change your messaging." with "The party has asked for different issues this year."
• Pressing Take the month then shows BEFORE THE MONTH GOES with "The party has new instructions and your messaging has not changed." (4.2).
• Both clear by themselves once a line you have saved this cycle comes back on-brief. There is nothing to dismiss; go to THE ROOMS and change a line.
• The first instructions a career ever sees never nag. Nor does the nag appear while you have no lined activity running, or while you are in a live race.

Section 9

THE BREAK: events out of your activities

9.1 What a break is

• A private citizen's or candidate's month has an event only if one of their running activities produces one. That event is THE BREAK: the kicker on the event screen reads THE BREAK, and the reason bar says "This is happening because you had <activity> running this month."
• After the board resolves, every running activity that has scenes gets a chance at the month, in random order. The first one that lands is the month. If none lands, the month is quiet (4.7).
• Local chances rise with how well the state knows you; national ones with how well the country knows you; party ones with the party's regard. Ground work at higher intensity has more evenings for something to happen in. Scenes rotate so the same one does not repeat straight away.
• Examples: a man aiming a pistol at you on a doorstep; somebody reading your leaflet and coming back; the host going off the script on drive-time radio; a man standing up at the back of a town hall; the evening bulletin asking you about the month's story on air.
• A seat-holder's month comes from the chamber instead (15.6), though a media booking can still break in first. A governor's month comes from the statehouse (16.2), and a media booking can break in there too.

9.2 Press bookings and the month's news

• When a press chip fires, the booking is the month: "The evening bulletin asks you about <topic> on air." The debrief says "placed".
• The topic is the month's real news. While the papers go to press, a story from the edition just printed is written up as a subject, a short account of what happened, and the host's question. A national channel puts the national story to you about half the time; a local channel mixes the standard ask, the national story and the state's own story.
• A press break carries no written suggestions. Use the ▸ 💡 Positions lightbulb (8.3) for three positions in your voice, or write your own.
• Everyone who tuned in learns your name, and the people of the era judge what you said.

9.3 Answering a break

• The response box is the same as any event screen (4.4). Ground and campaign breaks carry ▸ 💡 Stuck? Click for inspiration with three chips; you can write anything.
• Say it → (citizen) or Send it out → (candidate) ends the month. A break skips the analysis screen and goes straight to the reactions.
• The people of the era judge your answer, and it lands on the same room the activity works: the neighbourhood whose doors you were knocking, the congregation, the outlet's audience.
• You can also let the month pass with a token answer. The room still hears it.

Section 10

Money

10.1 Your money and the committee

• There are two accounts. Personal (Your money) is your own savings: you live off it, you can put it into the committee, and moving state costs it. Political (the committee, the committee account) is the campaign committee's money: activities, staff and advertising are paid from it.
• Your own money starts at the savings on the career sheet. The committee starts empty.
• The board's masthead shows both. THE LIVING on the YOU card shows your own. The debrief's THE MONTH block shows both when they moved.
• Neither can go below empty. The committee's money can only reach you by an activity that pays you personally; there is no button to take committee money for yourself.

10.2 Income and living costs

• Every month your job pays you and the household costs you. The difference lands in your own money. THE LIVING prints "Income $XK · Living $YK · +/−$ZK a month".
• Bigger households cost more. A richer standard of living costs more. Paid help costs extra only while there is someone to care for. A married partner's wages arrive in your money every month.
• Money is scaled to the year you are playing: the same job pays less in 1995 than in 2020.
• When the savings run out the paper says "The savings are gone."

10.3 The year's fundraising

• The first row of THE MONEY on the board. Before you press it: "The year's fundraising · about $X" (or "nothing at your standing") and "after $Y of costs" when costs apply, with a Fundraise button.
• Fundraise runs every raising activity open to you (donor calls, bundlers, a fundraising dinner, the invitations, the gala circuit, and higher up a book proposal, paid speaking and the memoir) for the whole year at once and puts the net into the committee. It costs no action points.
• It can be pressed once a calendar year. Afterwards the row reads "Raised $X · again in January <next year>" and the record notes "Raised $X for the year."
• What it raises rises steeply with how many people know you, how many like you, and how the party machine reads you. A nobody raises nothing. The estimate on the row is the middle of a swing; the real press lands around it. Costs come out of what is raised, never up front.
• The button is disabled when no raising activity is open to you yet.

10.4 Putting your own money in

• THE LIVING has a box "Put your own money in (of $personal)": type an amount in thousands and press Put it in (or Enter). It moves that much from your own money into the committee.
• It is legal and unlimited. The record notes "Put $X of your own money into the committee."
• When you have nothing spare it reads "Nothing spare to put in this month."

10.5 Donations while running

• While you are a candidate, small donations arrive every month from people who know you and think well of you: "Small donations brought in $X." in the diary.
• Each month there is also a chance of one major cheque, likelier the more of the party's named people know and like you and the bigger the office: "A major donation of $X reached the committee." The papers report it.
• A presidential nominee's fall campaign takes its war chest from the committee (14.6).

10.6 Being broke

• If your own money is at nothing and the job does not cover the household, the month loses action points: the gap has to be earned somewhere. The masthead line reads "−N keeping the lights on".
• It is never a game over. Take a job that pays (11.1), or wait it out.
• If the committee cannot pay for what is booked, the dearest paid work is dropped (6.3), field staff are let go (7.7) and advertising comes off (7.8).

Section 11

The person

11.1 THE LIVING and the job market

• THE LIVING on the YOU card shows your job in bold (or "Out of work") and the income line (10.2).
• Change what you do opens the job market: a list of every job. Your current one is marked "— what you do now". Open rows show "full time / part time / no job · $K/mo" with a Take it button. Greyed rows say what they wait for: "Needs …" an age, an education, a name recognition, party standing, having held an office, or a later year; or "Not open to you". Under each job, the rooms it opens.
• Take it changes your job. The record reads "Left X for Y.", the state paper reports it, and the month goes to the change: no activity resolves that month. The note says "Changing what you do costs the month you do it in."
• Each job is full time, part time or no job. That is what it takes from the month's action points (6.1). It pays what it pays.
• Office jobs (State Assemblymember, State Senator, Member of Congress, United States Senator, Governor, President) are only ever assigned by winning. Losing or leaving office puts you "Out of work" and the market reopens, including rows only a former officeholder can reach.
• A governor or a President who takes outside work is warned: "You still hold office — but taking outside work replaces the job the office is. The salary stops, the building closes to you, and the record will show it."
• Close shuts the list. THE LIVING is hidden for a President and while in jail.

11.2 AT HOME: dating, marriage, children

The AT HOME block on the YOU card. It all runs on its own between turns and never costs an action point.

• Single and open to it: "You are on your own.", "Interested in men / women / men and women." (from your sexuality), a text box "The kind of person you are looking for", and Start looking. An asexual character sees only "You are on your own."
• Start looking sends your description off once. From then on each month has a chance you meet somebody, better the more of the country knows your name. The diary then says "You have started seeing X." Stop looking clears the search.
• With a partner: their name, job and age, "Together since <month year>" or "Married <month year>", a line about them, and their money ("Has $XK of their own." or "Brought $XK into the household.").
• Marry appears once you have been together a while. Their savings join your own money, their wages arrive every month afterwards, the record reads "Married X." and the paper reports it. A President who marries in office gets a First Lady or First Gentleman the same day.
• End it / Divorce ends the relationship. Any pregnancy or adoption in progress is dropped.
• Try for children / Stop trying: conception depends on the age of whoever can carry; otherwise it is an adoption waiting list. The diary reports "A child is on the way." or "An adoption has been approved.", then "X was born." or "X came home."
• Children are listed by name and age as buttons that open their card. They grow up: young children become teenagers, then leave home. The AT HOME tile and the care load follow the family that actually exists.

11.3 Age and health

• Each January you are a year older and the month's action points are recomputed. Round birthdays are recorded ("Turned 50.").
• Past sixty, health can slip a step ("Slower off the mark this year than last.", "The doctors have stopped talking about prevention."). Younger, a bad stretch can be worked off ("Back on the morning runs.").
• A cared-for parent eventually dies ("Buried a parent."). The kids become teenagers ("The kids are teenagers now.") and leave ("The house is quiet — the kids are out in the world.").
• Out of office, past a certain age, you can die. The career ends with an obituary card (19.2). Nobody dies in office in this build.

11.4 Relocate

• Relocate on the YOU card (a citizen only, not in jail) opens a panel: "Where you land, nobody has met you. The party comes with you.", a state picker, and Move · $X. Without the money it reads "Moving costs $X of your own money".
• Moving changes your home state and makes the local paper. Your standing in the new state is whatever that state already knew of you (5.5). What you built where you left stays there.

11.5 Change party

• Change party on the YOU card opens a picker with Democrat and Republican. It is shown only when you have no candidacy and no live primary challenge.
• Picking the other party switches you and logs it. "Crossing the aisle is remembered.": it costs you standing with the party you leave. There is no Independent in career mode.

11.6 The exploratory memo and the book deal

• Commission an exploratory memo (a citizen of a party, while the presidential filing window is open and you have not declared): a private read on the race before declaring. It writes THE MEMO — <year> on the YOU card: "The field: …" and one of "The room believes there is a lane.", "A lane, if things break right." or "The money people want to see more first." The papers note you are taking a hard look at the year.
• Take the book deal (a national figure out of office, once): starts the manuscript. The YOU card counts it down ("📖 The manuscript: N months from the printers.") and it makes you better known when it lands.

11.7 Jail

• A private citizen whose own answer on an event screen is a serious crime is arrested. Only what you yourself did is judged; stopping somebody else's crime is not a crime.
• The card TAKEN INTO CUSTODY shows the charge, the sentence and the earliest release. The paper and the record carry it. Any candidacy ends. Everyone learns the name; the people who liked you mostly do not stay.
• While inside, the board reads IN CUSTODY, the diary, the campaign hub and THE LIVING are hidden, and no wages or bills move. Each press of the month button serves a stretch and shows INSIDE, until RELEASED: "The gate opens onto a parking lot and nobody is waiting."
• A sentence measured in decades ends the career: THE CAREER ENDS IN A CELL.

Section 12

The party and the network

Your standing with the party machine is not a bar. It is the named people of your party's state organisation and what each of them makes of you.

12.1 THE POLITICAL CLASS

• The panel under YOUR RACES in THE ELECTORAL FIELD: a grid of about a dozen chips, each with a party dot, a name and a post. The Governor, the Lieutenant Governor, the Attorney General, both chambers' leaders, your party's State Party Chair and Executive Director, the other party's chair, a county chair, and one rising legislator of your party.
• Click a chip to open the person's card (12.4).

12.2 The party org chart

• The party → opens a modal titled "The <State> Democratic Party" or "Republican Party". The Democratic / Republican buttons at the top switch which party's chart is drawn.
• The chart: the State Party Chair at the top; the officers (two Vice Chairs, the Party Secretary, the Party Controller, the Executive Director); the national committee members; then REGIONAL DIRECTORS — CLICK ONE FOR ITS COUNTIES as a row of region chips.
• Click a region to see its director and the county chairs under them, with a breadcrumb "The state party › <Region>". Click The state party in the breadcrumb to go back up.
• A box outlined in the accent colour is a person who knows who you are. Click any box for the person's card under the chart. Close shuts the modal.

12.3 The Legislature

• The legislature → opens a modal with two grids of numbered seat tiles, STATE ASSEMBLY (or the state's own name) and STATE SENATE, each with its split. Tiles are coloured by party; leaders are drawn solid.
• Hover a tile for the member's name, party and wing. Click it for the member's card under the grids.

12.4 A person's card

• Name and post. Chips for party, "<wing> wing", "Age N", their seat or county, and "Assembly leadership" / "Senate leadership" for a leader. An executive director's card notes "Runs the party's state office. Appointed, not elected."
• One sentence on where you stand with them: "Has never heard of you.", "Knows who you are.", or "You've met once / twice / N times."
• A two-column table (their state / NATIONAL) of their own NAME RECOGNITION, PUBLIC FAVORABILITY, KNOWN TO DEMOCRATS/REPUBLICANS and DEMOCRAT/REPUBLICAN FAVORABILITY. Every politician in the world has the same two numbers you do.
• OPINION OF YOU, once they know you: a bar with a word, "warm", "well-disposed", "neutral", "cool" or "hostile".
• For a colleague in your own chamber, a WITH <SURNAME> block with the colleague buttons (15.10).

12.5 Knowing you, and their opinion of you

• Each person on the chart is in one of three states with you: has never heard of you, knows of you, has met you.
• A person comes to know of you once your name has reached far enough among the people they read. Party people notice their own side's recognition of you long before the public's. Each person has their own threshold. Meeting somebody makes it a fact.
• A stranger has no opinion. The day a person first knows you, their opinion is seeded from how the voters of their own wing in your state rate you at that moment.
• From then on the number is their own. Each month it moves by their wing's reading of the lines you are actually pushing (agreement warms, rejection cools), by the party's orders (8.5), and by anything personal between you: meetings, arguments, coffee, dinner, filing against an incumbent. The voters' later drift never rewrites it.
• The YOU card's KNOWN TO THE ELITE and THEIR AVERAGE OPINION rows (5.3) are these two facts summed over the whole chart.

12.6 Meetings: THE PEOPLE

• Party activities (7.5) and Write checks to candidates (7.6) put you in rooms with county chairs, regional directors, state officers or the party's elected people. Each has a chance every month of producing a meeting; somebody you have never met is likelier to be the one.
• A first meeting only makes you acquainted. A later meeting either goes well (a small warming) or turns into an argument (a cooling). Arguments come easier across wings that genuinely grate.
• The debrief's THE PEOPLE block lists them by name and title with "you met", "it went well" or "you argued". Their card counts the meetings.

12.7 What the network opens

• The state-party rungs of the board (7.5) open once enough of the chart knows and rates you. The county rungs open on your party's voters knowing you.
• The year's fundraising (10.3) rises with the machine's read of you. Major donations while running (10.5) are likelier the more of the chart knows and likes you.
• Endorsements in a primary (13.9) come from chart people of your own wing who know you and think well of you.
• Committee invitations on the legislative desk (15.9) come when enough of your party's members in the chamber know and like you. Cosponsors (15.8) must know you before they will hear you out.
• Filing against your own party's sitting member (13.5) is judged by the party the moment you file.

Section 13

Running for office

13.1 Who can file, and for what

• Anybody in a major party can file for anything whose filing window is open. Nothing refuses a candidacy. What stops a nobody reaching the Senate is that nobody knows them, nobody books them, nobody endorses them, and the night counts the votes.
• A citizen (a sitting legislator counts as one) can file for any ladder seat (the state's lower house, the State Senate, the US House, the US Senate), the governorship, or the presidency.
• A sitting governor can file for the presidency but not for a ladder seat.
• You can be in one race at a time. A jailed player cannot file. Independents cannot run.
• You may run against your own party's sitting governor or member in their primary (13.5).

13.2 The Seat Book

The Seat Book lists every seat on the ballot's horizon. Its header reads THE SEAT BOOK, "Every seat on the horizon · <Month Year>", and the same one-line summary as YOUR RACES.

• YOUR RACE at the top, when you are in a race or defending your seat (13.8).
• The level buttons: the state's lower house (by its own name), State Senate, US House, US Senate, and Governor & President. They switch which rung of the ladder the table shows.
• The filter chips: Held by your side, Held by the other side (each switches the other off), Close ground (swing seats), Known less than you (seats whose member the party knows less well than it knows you), Filing open (seats whose deadline has not passed).
• The ladder: one row per seat with columns SEAT, MEMBER, GROUND and NEXT ELECTION. The member's name shows "(you)" on your own seat. Ground is in words: "safe Democratic ground", "Democratic-leaning ground", "a swing seat", "Republican-leaning ground", "safe Republican ground". After the year, "yours" if your candidacy is in it, or "contested" if a race is already under way. A seat new on this map reads "Open — a new district".
• Click a row to open the seat's detail (13.3). Click again to deselect.
• Governor & President replaces the ladder with two rows: "Governor of <State>" with the sitting governor, the election date, "file by <Month Year>" and the names filed so far; and "President — <year>" with who holds the White House or "An open race", the filing deadline, and the field so far. Each row carries its own File or Announce button when the door is open to you.
• THE CALENDAR at the bottom: your race's next date, the congressional midterms, the presidential election, and your state's governor's race.
• "The district maps are still loading." shows until the maps land. "No seats match the filters." when the filters empty the list.

13.3 Seat detail and the door in

• The seat's full name, then a panel: the ground sentence and "Primary <Month Year> · election <Month Year>." (or "Not on the ballot on this map.").
• Four views of the constituency: People (the voter types here, largest bloc first, with their share), Citizens (voting-age citizens by race, from the census), Parties (Democrats, Republicans and swing voters, from how the district has actually voted), Ages.
• The member's card if the world holds one, with a ground line: "Among this district's Democrats, x% of those who know <name> rate her — better than she does statewide, where the politics fit differently." Or "This is your seat." Or "A district new on this map. Nobody holds the seat until November."
• Your own read as a citizen: "Among this district's Democrats: x% know your name, and y% of those rate you." or "— too few to say what they make of you."
• In so far: the names who have filed, "(you)" first, each clickable for a card. Or "Nobody has filed yet."
• The door: File — the papers are due by <Month Year> or Announce — filing opens <Month Year> (13.4). When the deadline has passed: "Filing for <year> has closed. This seat is next on the ballot in <year>." In Nebraska's Legislature and New Hampshire's House: "This chamber is not open to candidates yet."
• ▸ THE SEAT'S HISTORY · N elections folds out every past election for the seat: "<year> · <winner> (D) v <loser> (R) · votes · N voted", with "(real)" where the result is history's rather than this world's.

13.4 Announce and File

• Every race has a filing window with a deadline before its primary. Seats open in the spring of the year before the election; governor races in the autumn of the year before; the presidency in the summer of the year before, closing in January of the election year.
• Before the window opens the button reads Announce. After it opens, File — the papers are due by <Month Year>. Both declare you at once and build the field. The window is a deadline, not a gate.
• Declaring for a seat puts you in your party's primary and forms the field around you: the sitting member (in your primary if they share your party, straight onto the other side's November line if not), the people who really stood for the seat that year, and generated rivals sized to the office. The other side runs no primary against you.
• The papers print "<you> enters the <year> Democratic primary for <seat>." and the record "Declared for <seat>."
• Declaring for governor forms your side's field at filing; your own party's sitting governor joins your primary unless term-limited; the other side's governor or one generated candidate goes on the November line. Declaring for President is Section 14.
• Once you have declared, THE ELECTORAL FIELD reads "A campaign is running" and the campaign board appears in YOUR SCHEDULE (13.7).

13.5 Filing against your own party's incumbent

• Declaring against a sitting member of your own party who is running again is judged the moment you file.
• If the party loves them and knows them widely, it costs you: your party's voters cool, and everyone on the chart who knows you goes quiet. The paper prints "The county committee goes quiet on <you>." and the record "Filing against <name> cost you inside the party."
• If the party privately disliked them, filing is welcomed: "Half the committee is quietly glad somebody filed." and "Filing against <name> was welcomed in more rooms than it wasn't."
• A barely-known incumbent costs little either way. Small reactions pass in silence.

13.6 What a race counts

• A primary: every candidate is their two party numbers in the seat's ground, and nothing else. What share of their own party's voters in this district know them, and what share of those rate them. Your share of the strength in the room is your share of the vote. There is no floor, no viability cut, no momentum, no home-state bonus. An incumbent's edge is only the recognition they actually have.
• A general: Democrats mostly vote Democrat and Republicans mostly vote Republican. Your November is decided by what you have done to three groups of people in this seat: the other side's voters who cross to you, your own who stay home, and the swing voters. Those who know you split by how they rate you; the rest vote the ticket the way the seat actually voted. "Others" is the third-party remainder.
• The presidency reads the same two numbers nationally (14.3).
• Campaigning works by moving those numbers among the seat's own people. Nothing else counts.

13.7 The campaign board: The Trail

The moment a live race has your name on its ballot, the campaign board appears at the top of YOUR SCHEDULE and stays until the race is decided.

• The kicker: THE PRIMARY CAMPAIGN — <OFFICE>, THE OPEN-BALLOT CAMPAIGN, THE GENERAL CAMPAIGN or THE RUNOFF CAMPAIGN.
• The status panel: "N rivals in the field. Primary Night — <Month Year>." or "Against <name>. Election day — <Month Year>.", and "Endorsed by …" once anyone endorses you.
• YOUR RACE: the standings (13.8).
• The masthead: Action points and Committee, and The race → to open the Seat Book.
• The Trail: five race activities, each a switch like any board row, each needing a live candidacy:
  • Campaign door-knocking: "The walk lists, street by street, with your own name on the literature this time." One point. Line box: What you say on the doorstep.
  • Leafleting: a print run and a weekend of doorsteps. A point and committee money. No line; it spreads the name.
  • Local radio circuit: every drive-time slot that will have a candidate on. A booking that may or may not land; the row shows the chance. Line box: What you say on air.
  • Campaign town halls: a folding-chair room a week. Line box: What you say from the front of the room.
  • Campaign phone banks: volunteers, scripts and the voter file. A point and money. Line box: The script your volunteers read.
• WHO YOU ARE IN FRONT OF: the rooms panel for the campaign. For each engaged race activity, the people it reaches with their shares, the line box, Use this, Change, Keep the old one and ▸ 💡 Positions, exactly as in THE ROOMS (Section 8). The race activities reach the district's own people, and their lines are judged the same way.
• Each race activity can throw up THE BREAK for the month: a news crew catching you on the doorstep, somebody reading the leaflet and coming back, the host going off the script, a man standing up at the back, a voter on the line who will not let you go. Each puts a topic to you with three suggested answers.
• Your standing operation (THE GROUND, THE PRESS and the rest) keeps running underneath. The board's ordinary rooms still count, but the party's orders are suspended while you run (8.5).

13.8 YOUR RACE, polls and ending the campaign

• YOUR RACE sits at the top of the Seat Book and inside the campaign board. Kicker: YOUR RACE — DEMOCRATIC PRIMARY / THE OPEN BALLOT / GENERAL ELECTION / THE RUNOFF FOR <OFFICE> · <year>. A line: "Primary night — <Month Year>. The standings read as this month's poll." or "Election day — …".
• The standings: one bar per name with a share. In a primary, each candidate's share of the party behind them. In a general, every name on every line in its party's colour, plus Others. For the presidency, delegates held. Your row is bold with "(you)". The bars are the same arithmetic the night will run.
• Click a candidate's name (yours too) for their card, so the field can be compared name by name.
• Polls: every other month in a live race the papers print a district poll or a statewide poll: "A district poll puts <you> in front at x%." with "One poll, one month. The walking lists matter more." Not for the presidency.
• End the campaign: withdraws. Your row leaves the field, the papers print "<you> ends the campaign.", the record "Withdrew from the race for <office>.", and you go back to whatever you were before.

13.9 Endorsements

• While you are in a primary, people on the party's chart of your own wing who know you and think well of you may back you, at most one a month. The papers print "<name> endorses <you>." and the campaign board lists them under "Endorsed by".
• An endorsement brings the endorser's wing of the party with it: their voters learn your name and warm to you. The higher the endorser's opinion of you and the closer their stature to the office, the likelier.

13.10 Debates

• A debate is not scheduled at you. In the months before a primary night, if you are among the names worth asking (near the top of the standings), an invitation arrives: the papers print "<you> is invited to a town hall / radio / televised debate." and the diary's To do list shows "You have been invited to a <format> debate" with Take the stage and Decline. One per race.
• The format follows the office: town halls and radio for state seats, more television the higher the office; the presidency is always television.
• Decline: the debate happens without you, a rival is judged to have won, and the record says "Turned down the <format> debate."
• Take the stage opens the debate screen: THE TELEVISED DEBATE (or TOWN HALL, RADIO), the office, "<host> · N on the stage · round x of 3".
• Three rounds. Each round THE MODERATOR asks "On <topic> — where do you stand?" You type under YOUR ANSWER and press Answer. "The panel is answering…" while every rival answers the same question. Then CHALLENGE ONE OF THEM lists the rivals who answered: pick one, type under "TO <NAME>", press Challenge (once a night), or Let it go → / Continue → to move on.
• After the last round, THE NIGHT: what share of the party watched, how they scored you out of 100, and "Every name on that stage is better known this morning than last night — including the ones who needed it most." Everyone on the stage becomes better known to the party and their favourability moves by how they were scored. The record notes "Debated N rivals on <host>."
• Going is worth far more to a name nobody knows than to the front-runner. Back to the campaign returns to the hub.

13.11 Primary night

• One evening settles both parties' nominations for a seat or the governorship. Nominees are named directly; there is no convention below the presidency.
• The card: "<OFFICE> — PRIMARY NIGHT", the top names with your row, and in front of it an animated count ("The Party Chooses", counting by precinct for a district seat or by county statewide) with the call "<Name> Takes the Nomination". Skip ends the count and shows the card.
• A win: "The nomination is yours. The general is on." A loss: "<name> takes the nomination.", the candidacy ends, and you go back to what you were. The record reads "Won the Democratic nomination for <office> with x% of the vote." or "Defeated for the Democratic nomination for <office> by <name>."
• A side nobody filed for still gets a name by the deadline; the party finds one.
• Louisiana runs one open ballot: every name of every party on one line. Clear half the vote and the seat is won outright; otherwise the top two go to a runoff, whatever their parties. The card reads "<OFFICE> — THE OPEN BALLOT" with the call "<Name> Clears Half the Vote" or "The Runoff Is Set".
• In a multi-member district the top N on your party's line go through ("TOP N ON THE LINE").

13.12 The general election

• Between primary night and November you are your party's nominee: YOUR RACES reads "You are your party's nominee for <office>. The general is November <year>." and the campaign board becomes THE GENERAL CAMPAIGN against the other side's name.
• The standings show every name in its party's colour plus Others, read the way election night will read them (13.6). The general's poll in the papers reads the same way.
• A statewide race (governor, US Senate) is fought on the state's own people; a district race on the district's.

13.13 Election night

• Three cards in a row: "<OFFICE> — POLLS CLOSE" ("First returns — the early counties report, the anchors hedge, and the war rooms pretend not to watch."), "— MIDNIGHT" ("The count tightens as the big counties land."), and "— THE CALL". Each lists you, the opponent and Others with shares.
• In front of the first two an animated count plays, by county (with the state's real county or parish names) or by precinct for a district seat. A governor's race or a Senate seat is a tug of war between two names; a district seat is a wire reporting precinct by precinct; an open ballot or a multi-member district is a ladder of bars. Skip ends the count.
• THE CALL's note: "You are elected Governor of <State>. The transition begins in the morning." / "<name> wins. The concession call is short; the name recognition is yours to keep." / "Four more years in <capital>." / "You are elected to <office>. The oath comes with the new year." / "<name> wins. The seat you held has a new owner come January."
• Continue → moves through the three cards and then to the desk (a win) or the Political Scene (a loss).
• The morning after a governor's race the month's card is The Victory Address or The Concession.

13.14 Winning and losing

• Winning a seat: the world seats you. The member you unseated leaves, your job becomes the office, and the legislative desk (Section 15) becomes your home screen. The seat row in the Seat Book reads "(you)". The record: "Elected to <office>, defeating <name>." You hold one seat at a time; winning a second office gives up the first.
• Winning the governorship: a legislator resigns the seat (a US Senate seat is filled by appointment). The governor's desk (Section 16) opens. The record: "Elected Governor of <State>, defeating <name>."
• Winning the presidency: Section 17.
• Losing: every campaign ends somewhere. A governor who loses another race and still has a term goes back to the governor's desk. A member who loses another race keeps the seat. Everyone else goes to the Political Scene as a citizen with the name recognition the campaign built. The record and papers name who beat you.
• A defended seat that is lost is given up and the winner seated: "The voters end the tenure."

Section 14

Running for President

14.1 Before declaring

• The presidency's filing window opens in the summer of the year before the election and closes in January of the election year. While it is open, the Seat Book's Governor & President level shows the "President — <year>" row with the field so far and a File or Announce button.
• When the window opens on someone with standing, the papers print "The state party chair wants to know if <you> is running."
• Commission an exploratory memo on the YOU card gives you a private read on the field first (11.6).
• A citizen or a sitting governor can run. A sitting governor keeps the mansion and the desk while running; the record adds "Lt. Gov. <name> minds the store."

14.2 Declaring

• The papers print "<you> enters the <year> Democratic primary." and "A national campaign builds out of <State>." The record: "Declared for the <year> Democratic nomination."
• The field is drawn from the cycle's real and authored candidates and announces one by one over the following months: "<name> enters the Democratic presidential primary." Quiet months carry rivals' attacks by name.
• The campaign board appears with The Trail (13.7). A presidential run reaches the whole country: the two numbers that count are your national party recognition and favourability.
• A run for the presidency starts with no running mate on the ticket.

14.3 The contests and delegates

• Five contest nights on the calendar: The Early States (Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada, South Carolina), Super Tuesday, The Mid-Season Round, Late Spring, The Final Contests. Then the convention in July and the election in November.
• Each contest awards delegates from its pool by share of strength. The card is headed with the contest's name, lists the top delegate-holders and you with tonight's gains, and shows "N delegates to clinch". In front of it a count, "The Delegates Are Counted", with the call "You Take the Night" or "<name> Takes the Night"; once the number is in reach, a climb to the line "N TO CLINCH".
• The record: "<Contest>: You win the night — you took N delegates (nth place)."
• Nobody drops out, and placing first pays nothing by itself. Standing moves by campaigning between the nights. The YOUR RACE panel shows delegates held and "Next: <contest> — <Month Year>."
• Both parties' contests run in the world whether or not you are in them; the other side's race hardens around a front-runner in the news.

14.4 The convention

• The nomination is clinched once someone holds the number. Otherwise the convention settles it: the last-placed candidate releases delegates to the leader ballot by ballot until someone crosses the line.
• The card: "THE DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION" (or REPUBLICAN) with a climb, "The Roll of the States", and "N TO NOMINATE". The note reads "You are the nominee." or "<name> is the nominee.", with "Nobody had a majority on the first ballot; the nomination was settled on the second." when it was.
• The record: "Nominated for President at the <year> convention with N delegates." or "<name> takes the <year> nomination. Your campaign ends with N delegates."
• Losing ends the run and you go back to what you were. Winning opens THE RUNNING MATE card.

14.5 The Running Mate

• THE RUNNING MATE card's only door is Choose a running mate →. It opens the book: "The vetting files are on the plane, the convention wants an answer by the weekend, and every camp has a case."
• The book lists everyone in your party the world names: a search box, an "Every state" dropdown, and tabs Everyone, The field (the rivals you beat, with their delegates), Governors, US Senate, US House, <State> politics, Named elsewhere. Never the sitting President, never you.
• Click a name for their card: party, title, state, wing, "Known to x% of the state's Democrats.", "Of those who know them, y% rate them."
• Put <name> on the ticket → chooses. The papers print "<you> names <name> to the ticket." and the record "Chose <name> as running mate." More → shows more names. ← Back leaves without choosing; the card returns next month, and the hub shows "Running mate — choose →" until you answer.
• An unanswered offer settles on the primary runner-up in October. The chosen name takes the oath as Vice President with you in January. A lost run takes the ticket down with it.
• A sitting President renominated sees ON THE TICKET NOW and can Keep them on the ticket → or replace them.

14.6 The fall campaign

• From the convention to November, your general election is played on the presidency game's own campaign: four campaign turns with the cycle's own events, two debate months, and election night on the presidency game's results screen.
• The campaign banner shows "🗳️ N MONTHS TO ELECTION DAY", a status (Comfortable lead, Narrow lead, Too close to call, Trailing, In serious trouble), and your number against the opponent's by name. The opponent is the world's real opposing nominee. The campaign manager card sits with it, and the manifesto where the game offers it.
• A nominee living in the hub sees these under THE FALL CAMPAIGN — AGAINST <NAME> in YOUR SCHEDULE. A governor or seat-holder nominee sees them on the desk.
• The war chest is topped up from your committee. The country's opinion of you (your national favourability) is the approval the banner and the night read. Each campaign month's judged scores land on the whole country.

14.7 Election night

• Election night runs on the presidency game's engine with the opponent's real name and the cycle's electoral map. The House and Senate are counted the same night on the career's own districts (18.4).
• Take the oath → on a win: the transition runs behind the wheel and the presidency opens (Section 17). The record: "Elected President of the United States, defeating <name>."
• Concede → on a loss: back to the Political Scene as a national figure. The next month's card is The Concession. The record: "Defeated in the <year> general election by <name>."

Section 15

Holding a seat: the legislative desk

A seat in the state's lower house, the State Senate, the US House or the US Senate gives you the legislative desk. It is your home screen while you hold the seat. The Political Scene is a click away, and your standing operation (Section 7) keeps running there.

15.1 The desk

• The header: your name and "Member of Congress for …", "United States Senator for …" or the state chamber's own member label for your district, plus your party. While you run for something else it adds " · running for <office>".
• ELECTION TIMELINE: "The seat is up — <month year>" and who holds the White House.
• Cards, top to bottom: This Month and NET APPROVAL; 📰 THE MORNING PAPERS; THE CONGRESS or THE <STATE> LEGISLATURE; 🏛️ <CHAMBER> — IN SESSION; COMMITTEES; The Member's Timeline.
• 📰 THE MORNING PAPERS: the latest three news lines, each chipped THE RACE, <STATE> or NATIONAL, and The Political Scene → to open the hub.
• THE CONGRESS / THE <STATE> LEGISLATURE: both chambers of the body you sit in as seat charts with party totals. Hover a seat for the member. Click a seat, or pick a name from the "Every member (N)" dropdown, for the person's card.
• ← Back to Careers saves and leaves. 🔧 Debug (premium) at the bottom (Section 20).

15.2 This Month and Play

• The This Month card lists what is waiting: "One bill ticked to speak on." / "N bills ticked to speak on.", "One vote falls due this month." / "N votes fall due this month.", "An invitation from the <committee> is waiting.", "You sit on the <committee>." Or "Nothing is waiting. The month is the chamber's."
• Play <Month Year> → plays the month. The month's event is the chamber's: the floor if you ticked a bill to speak on, otherwise a committee, press or district card (15.6). A press booking you are running can break in first. A seat-holder never gets a quiet month.
• Before you press Play, set your votes on the docket and tick anything you want to speak on.

15.3 The docket and your votes

• The 🏛️ <CHAMBER> — IN SESSION card holds the docket: the chamber's calendar of live bills. Each row shows the bill's title, a party tag (Democratic, Republican or bipartisan), its category, a summary, "Vote due <Month Year>", and "The caucus votes YES/NO" for your party's line.
• YES / NO / ABSTAIN on each row sets your intention. The chosen one is highlighted. Nothing chosen counts as abstain.
• When a bill's due month arrives it resolves in the background: the chamber follows the caucus lines (a split chamber usually follows the majority's line), your intention becomes your vote, and the record notes "Voted YES on <bill>; it passed the <chamber>." The row then reads "PASSED — you voted YES" for that month and is gone the next.
• Your party's members in the chamber read a vote against the caucus line, or an abstention, the way they read the party's orders: their opinion of you cools. Ignoring the docket altogether is read as abstaining on every bill.
• VOTES CAST under the docket lists your recent votes with their results.
• "The calendar is not out yet." shows when the docket is empty. New bills are asked for between turns, never when you look at the desk.

15.4 The two toggles

• Vote the caucus line on every bill: when on, any bill on which you have not chosen a vote is set to your party's line. Applied when the docket is drawn and before votes are counted. You can still override any bill by hand.
• Speak on every bill: when on, every live bill you have not yet spoken on is ticked to speak on. Each month's floor event then takes one of them.

15.5 Speaking on the floor

• Tick Speak on this legislation on a docket row. Next month's event is ON THE FLOOR for that bill.
• Your speech is judged by the public like any month, and once by your own party's members in the chamber through their wings: their opinion of you moves by what you said.
• Afterwards the box is disabled and reads "Spoken, <Month Year>". The record: "Spoke on <bill> on the floor of the <chamber>."

15.6 The member's month

The event screen's kicker reads "<Month Year> — The Chamber" and the banner THE MEMBER'S MONTH. The card has a headline, a paragraph on why it reached you, the facts as labelled lines, and the ask. Four kinds:

• ON THE FLOOR: a bill you ticked. Facts: THE BILL, WHAT IT DOES, THE CASE FOR, THE CASE AGAINST, THE CAUCUS, THE VOTE, YOUR INTENTION. Your remarks.
• IN COMMITTEE: a bill before your committee, or a hearing on one of its matters. Only while you sit on one. Your questions and your remarks.
• THE PRESS: a state paper asks about a live bill, or about something the President actually did this month. Your answer.
• THE DISTRICT (or THE STATE for a senator): a situation from home. "What do you do?"
• The ▸ 💡 Positions lightbulb writes three positions for the event in your wing's voice, from what a legislator can actually do (4.4). A seat-holder's screen has no Chief of Staff and no public messaging box.
• After you submit: THE READ, then the reactions screen, then the debrief. Recently seen situations are avoided.

15.7 YOUR BILL

The YOUR BILL block at the top of the IN SESSION card. You may carry one bill at a time.

• Introduce a bill → opens the form: a prompt box "Say what you want the bill to do, and the drafting office writes it" with Draft it →; The short title; What the bill does; a subject dropdown; Introduce; Cancel.
• Draft it → sends your prompt to the drafting office and fills in the title, summary and subject for you to edit. Or write them yourself.
• Introduce creates the bill and refers it to the committee matching its subject. The record: "Introduced <bill>; referred to the <committee>."
• A live bill shows its title, summary, "In the <committee> since <Month Year>." or "Reported by the <committee>, <Month Year>; on the calendar below.", and "No cosponsors yet." or "N cosponsors: <names>."
• Each month in committee, the committee log on the COMMITTEES card says what happened: "The <committee> did not take up <bill> this month.", "The <committee> reported <bill> to the floor; the vote is <Month Year>.", or eventually "The <committee> let <bill> die."
• Reported, it joins the docket tagged YOUR BILL with your intention set to YES. Your party's line is yes; the other party's line depends on how many of its members cosponsored (enough makes it bipartisan). The vote then follows the caucus lines like any bill: "<Bill> passed the <chamber>." or failed.
• Withdraw pulls the bill while it sits in committee. The record: "Withdrew <bill>."
• More cosponsors, your party holding the majority, and your own seat on the referring committee all raise the odds of being reported.

15.8 Cosponsors

• Find cosponsors → (while the bill is in committee) opens the Cosponsors modal: every member of your chamber, your party first, each with party, seat and their opinion of you in words, a "Find a member" filter, and an Ask button.
• Asking spends one of the month's asks, a monthly budget shared with the colleague actions (15.10). The modal shows "N asks left this month" or "No asks left this month".
• First the member must be willing to hear you: they must know you, and their opinion of you decides. Then they decide on the bill itself by their own wing, without being told who is asking.
• Answers: "Signed on", "Declined: does not know you", "Declined: not this time", or their own words. Click a name for their card with Ask to cosponsor and ← Back to cosponsors.

15.9 COMMITTEES

• Every committee of your chamber, each collapsible: "N members · N D – N R · chair: <name> (party)". Opened, the members as pills (the chair marked "· chair", you marked "· you"), clickable for a card. Sizes, splits and chairs come from the chamber's real composition; the majority party's most senior member chairs.
• Above the list, the committee log: dated messages about your bill.
• Where you sit: "You sit on it · since <Month Year>". Where invited: "You are invited" with Sit and Decline.
• An invitation arrives at the turn of a month when enough of your party's members in the chamber know and like you. No invitation comes while one is waiting, while you are running for another office, or for a while after you decline.
• Sitting adds committee months to your draw (15.6) and helps your own bill through that committee. The record: "Invited to sit on…", "Took a seat on…", "Declined a seat on…".

15.10 Colleagues

The card of any member of your own chamber ends with a WITH <SURNAME> block and a line "N asks left this month". Each action spends one ask from the month's budget.

• Introduce yourself: when they have never heard of you. Makes you met.
• Coffee: pick a docket bill or "Something else", type the subject and what you say, press Say it. What you say is judged by the people of the era, and their wing's read of it moves their opinion of you.
• Dinner: counts a meeting and warms their opinion. The record: "Had dinner with <name>."
• Appear together: a joint appearance. Both of you become better known in the state. The record: "Appeared with <name>."
• Reach a colleague from the chamber chart on the desk, from the Cosponsors modal, or from the Legislature modal on the hub.

15.11 NET APPROVAL and the timeline

• NET APPROVAL: your approval as a signed percentage, the move since last month, a graph of recent months, and ▸ Breakdown for the demographic breakdown. "After your first month." before any data.
• The Member's Timeline: your last few history entries with what you said. View Full History → opens all of it.

15.12 Defending the seat

• The seat you hold keeps its own clock. When its filing window opens you are in its primary automatically: renomination is fought, not assumed, with the record's real challenger where there is one. The YOUR RACE panel shows the defended line.
• Primary night and November are the same field and the same count as any race (13.11, 13.13), read out of your standing in the district. A win: "The nomination stays yours." and the seat is kept. A loss: the seat is given up and the winner seated. "The voters end the tenure."
• A district drawn off the map at a redistricting is served out and never defended.

15.13 Running for something else from a seat

• A member who files for another office keeps the seat and the desk until the world's November. The header adds " · running for <office>". The desk keeps running and the chamber's month is still the month.
• Running for something else gives up the defence: "Gave up the defense of <seat> to run for <office>." The seat's November runs from the record without you.
• Lose and you keep the seat until its term ends. Win the mansion or the White House and the seat is resigned: "Elected Governor; the seat is resigned."
• No committee invitation comes while you are running for another office.

Section 16

Holding the mansion: the governor's desk

The governor's desk is the presidency game's dashboard fitted to a state. It is your home screen while you hold the mansion.

16.1 The desk

• The header: "Governor of <State> · <Party>", plus " · running for …" while you are a candidate.
• ELECTION TIMELINE: "Gubernatorial election — November <year>"; during a primary challenge "Primary night, <month> — <name> is on the ballot against you"; after losing the primary "Your final months in office — the race for the seat runs without you".
• Warnings (Approval Warning, Government Stability Warning, Party Stability Warning) when a meter is falling too far.
• This Month with Play <Month Year> →, ← Back to Careers, Resign as Governor (16.8), and Running mate — choose → when a pick is pending.
• 📰 THE MORNING PAPERS with The Political Scene →.
• The metric cards Net Approval (click for the demographic breakdown), Government Stability (the state government and agencies), Party Stability.
• 🏛️ THE GOVERNOR'S CABINET: a generated state cabinet, run like the President's.
• 🏛️ THE STATEHOUSE DOCKET (with Checks & Balances on): bills the legislature sends to your desk (16.5).
• THE STATEHOUSE — <STATE>: both chambers as seat charts with party counts and the next election. ⚖️ THE <STATE> SUPREME COURT with its balance line. ELECTED STATEWIDE: the Lieutenant Governor, the Attorney General and the two chamber leaders.
• 💰 <STATE> — STATE ECONOMY (GDP growth, unemployment, inflation, budget balance, state debt) and 📊 <STATE> — STATE OF THE STATE (population through cost of living, with a demographics bar). Click a tile for its history graph.
• The Governor's Timeline and the stakeholder card (MOST SUPPORTIVE / LEAST SUPPORTIVE / VIEW ALL STAKEHOLDERS →) on the state's own pool.
• The tweeter tile appears in the modern era once the platform exists. 🔧 Debug (premium) at the bottom.

16.2 The governor's month

• The event screen's kicker reads "<Month Year> — Governor's Briefing" and the banner THE GOVERNOR'S MORNING, with the situation label FROM THE STATEHOUSE. A WHY THIS REACHED YOU bar appears when the card carries a reason.
• What the month is, in order of precedence: a queued world event; twice a year one of the state's political class landing on your desk ("The Attorney General's Inquiry", "The Calendar War", "The Recruitment Raid"); a press booking you are running breaking in; in your own re-election year, some months on the trail; otherwise the mansion's month.
• California draws its months from scripted files by decade. Every other state's month is rolled and written for you in the previous month's wheel from the state's economy, social figures, recent events and your record: a situation, a crisis, or nothing.
• A month with nothing written is OPEN AGENDA — QUIET MONTH IN THE STATE. The agenda is yours: announce anything.

16.3 Answering: policy, the Chief of Staff, public messaging

• The intro reads "Announce a policy, make a statement, or direct your government." Write a policy, a statement or an order in YOUR RESPONSE. Method hints show what the state can do: send it to the Legislature as a bill, sign it as an executive action, deploy the National Guard.
• ▸ 💡 Stuck? Click for inspiration shows a scripted card's suggestion chips; a written month offers the ▸ 💡 Positions lightbulb instead, in your wing's voice and from a governor's actual powers.
• ▸ 🏛️ Consult the West Wing opens the Chief of Staff thread: type a question and Ask, or 📋 Read my draft to slide your drafted response across the desk for a read. The aide knows they run a statehouse and knows the chambers' splits. The number of conversations a month is limited; the status line says how many are left. The thread resets each event.
• ▸ 🎯 Add public messaging: the optional spin on your response.
• Submit Policy → ends the month. The BEFORE THE MONTH GOES card can appear here (4.2).
• After you submit: OFFICIAL STATE BRIEFING (WHAT IT DOES, WHERE IT COULD GO WRONG, STATE AGENCY RECOMMENDATION) with checks headed LEGISLATURE, STATE SUPREME COURT and STATE AGENCIES; the reactions screen; POWER DYNAMICS; Return to Dashboard →; the debrief.

16.4 STATE OF THE STATE

• Fires in January from your second January in office, before the month's event. Banner 🏛️ STATE OF THE STATE, "Address to a Joint Session of the Legislature".
• Four sections: The State Economy, Public Safety & Justice, Schools, Health & Community, Closing Vision. At least one must have content.
• Deliver Address → submits it. The address is judged, and the cabinet's loyalty moves with it.

16.5 The statehouse, the docket, the court, the cabinet

• Your two chambers are the checks engine's legislature with the state's real counts; the state's high court is the court; the state cabinet is generated. Every policy you send runs through them.
• THE STATEHOUSE DOCKET (Checks & Balances on): bills the legislature sends to your desk. AWAITING YOUR ACTION cards with SIGN and VETO, then collapsible PASSED INTO LAW and VETOED histories with stamps (SIGNED, VETO OVERRIDDEN, LAW WITHOUT SIGNATURE, VETOED).
• At the state's general election the statehouse seats are re-fought district by district and the new counts appear on the desk: "Statehouse elections reshape the legislature…". Your record as governor moves seats.
• State supreme court retirements come up each January and July; a confirmed appointment shows a CONFIRMED card.

16.6 Re-election, primary challenges and term limits

• In the spring of your election year, a weak standing inside the party can draw a primary challenger: "<name> announces a primary challenge to <you>." The primary is fought on the same field and night as any race (13.11). Lose it and you govern to the end of the term while your party's nominee runs for your seat.
• From August the other side's challenger makes news. November is the same count as any race: "Four more years in <capital>." or "<challenger> wins. The transition begins in the morning."
• Don't seek re-election on the YOU card of the Political Scene, in election season: this term is the last. The record: "Announced this term would be the last." The seat becomes an open race both parties field for, and you serve out the term.
• A term-limited governor sees "Term-limited — the race to succeed you is on." instead, and watches the open race from the mansion.
• In January after a loss, a forgone race or a term limit, the successor is sworn in and you walk into the Political Scene as a known name: "Left office after N terms as Governor."

16.7 Collapse, recall and removal

• A governor whose approval, government stability or party stability falls too far is run out of the statehouse. The ending card reads "Run Out of the Statehouse".
• In a state that allows recalls, an approval collapse on its own becomes a recall instead: "A recall petition drive against <name> launches statewide." Two months later the state votes. "<name> survives the recall election." or a RECALLED card, the Lieutenant Governor is sworn in, and the career continues in the Political Scene rather than ending.
• A seated member has no collapse ending.

16.8 Resigning

• Resign as Governor on the desk asks "Resign the governorship of <State>? This cannot be undone." The Lieutenant Governor is sworn in, your terms are remembered, and you walk into the Political Scene as a private citizen.

Section 17

The presidency

17.1 Taking the White House

• Winning the presidency turns the career into the presidency game: a fresh four-year clock with the midterm and re-election schedule, the national economy, the Congress the country just elected, an empty cabinet to build, your running mate as Vice President, the sitting court and agencies, and the dials you chose at creation.
• Any seat you held is resigned ("Elected President; the seat is resigned."). A mansion you held passes to the Lieutenant Governor.
• From then on every desk, event and election is the presidency game's. Read How to Win Elections for that game. The operation board, the year's fundraising, staff and paid media do not run for a President.
• Career mode keeps the record and the way back out.

17.2 Renomination

• Your re-election cycle is a race in the world. The other party nominates a real challenger. Your own side stands behind you unless, in January of the election year, a weak party standing invites a challenger: "<name> announces a primary challenge to President <you>." The nomination is then fought contest by contest (14.3).
• The convention renominates you ("The convention renominates President <you>.") or denies you: the challenger carries the party into November and you serve out the term.
• THE RUNNING MATE card returns at renomination: keep the Vice President or replace them (14.5).
• November is the presidency desk's own election night.

17.3 Leaving the White House

• However the presidency ends, the ending card carries an extra button, Continue in the world →. The presidency passes to whoever won the last November (or a successor), the record notes "Left the presidency.", and the career resumes in the Political Scene as a former President.
• A second term is sworn in at the January tick: "Sworn in for a second term as President of the United States."

Section 18

The world

18.1 The record: real names on real seats

• Every seat in the game starts with the person who really held it in that year: your state's chambers, its US House districts, its two Senate seats, its governorship, and every other state's members of Congress and senators. The game reads each seat's election history and seats the winner of the last election before the current year.
• When a seat changes hands in play, the record's real winner of that year takes it where the record has one. A seat the game's own wave flipped goes to the record's runner-up of the winning party. Only past the end of the record is a name invented.
• THE SEAT'S HISTORY in the Seat Book marks history's results "(real)".
• Races you are not in replay what actually happened wherever the record reaches. Background presidential elections seat the real winner.

18.2 The political class over time

• A few hundred named people in two ladders: public office (every legislator, the federal delegation, the statewide officers) and party office (the whole state chart down to a chair for every county of both parties). Each has a party, a wing, an age, and the same two standing numbers you have. Real officeholders wear their real names; everyone else is generated once and stays the same for that save.
• At the turn of each year older members and chairs may step down ("<Name> steps down after years as assemblymember for District 12.") and a successor exists at once. After an election night every seat that flipped gets its new member.
• Wings follow the period: more Blue Dogs in the nineties, more progressives now; MAGA only in the modern list. A safe seat leans to the party's hot wings, a marginal one to its cool wings.

18.3 Other states' governors

• Every state has a sitting governor by name. Your home state reads its own election record; the other forty-nine read the real governors' terms and, past the end of the table, invented successors turning over on the state's cycle. Mansions change hands in January after a November election.
• They show on the STATE GOVERNORS map (3.4), in IN POLITICS, and in the papers.

18.4 Congress

• Every odd January the new Congress is sworn in with the real counts while the record lasts, then a simulated swing against the President's party past it: "The new Congress is sworn in — Democrats hold the House 222-213."
• Every even November your state's House seats and any Senate seat up are re-elected: a seat on the ballot takes the record's real result while the record lasts, and a lean-plus-tide contest past it. The paper reports the delegation's new split and any Senate pickup.
• When a night of your own decides the country (your presidential general, your midterm as President), every House district and every Senate seat up is contested on the presidency game's engine using the career's own districts, and the result writes the House and Senate counts, the maps and your home delegation.
• On a new decade's map districts are redrawn: new ones appear, old ones vanish, and a member whose district is "drawn off the map" serves out the term with no seat to defend.

18.5 The era and 2005

• A career that starts in 2004 or earlier is a nineties career: the screen wears a period look, the voters are the nineties cast, the papers stay in their period, and the wings of each party are the period's.
• When the clock crosses into 2005 the era becomes modern: the voter cast, the district tables and the papers' period switch. Your ledger of who knows you is carried over person by person so that every state reads the same the month after as the month before. Nothing announces the seam itself.
• A line saved under the old era stops counting until you put it out again (8.2).

18.6 The nation's and the state's numbers

• The nation's figures (NATIONAL STATISTICS, 3.4) sit on a line between the real reference years and hold flat past the last real year, which the panel says out loud ("Last full-year figures, 2025"). Nothing is available before 1993, so the panel waits.
• Every state's economy and social fabric sit on the same kind of line. A governor sworn in inherits that month's numbers at the desk plus whatever the previous term left behind. While you hold the mansion, the desk's numbers are the state's numbers. When you leave, the difference your term made is stamped on the state and drifts back to the line over a few years. The same happens to the nation when you leave the presidency.
• A national economic shock in the era reaches a governor's desk and the state paper says so.

18.7 The papers

• Every month you play gets an edition on THE PRESS (3.2): three national front pages and three state front pages, written between turns from the world's own facts (the President and party, the House and Senate counts, your state's governor, the month's state news, and whether history has diverged) and kept on the save so you can page back.
• The month button waits for the presses rather than skipping them. A month that fails twice is written off.
• Once the world has left real history (you won a nomination or an office) the papers extrapolate from the game's facts instead of snapping back to the real month. While you are President, the real-history headlines stop; your own papers are the national news.
• THE MORNING PAPERS on the desk prints the last three news lines verbatim. IN POLITICS on the hub is the political class's own month (3.3).

18.8 What happens every month

When you take the month, the world runs every month it has not yet run, in order. Each month, roughly in this order:

• Your age and health (January). Your money: the job pays, the household costs.
• The month's real-history headlines, unless you are President.
• IN POLITICS lines for the political class.
• The new Congress (odd Januaries). Statehouse and federal elections (the state's general month). Retirements and flips in the roster.
• New races spawn as filing windows open. Your held seat, the chamber, the fields, races, polls, debates, endorsements, campaign finance, staff, family and advertising all tick.
• Inaugurations (January): Presidents and governors take office, including your own successor if you were beaten, forwent or termed out.
• Your recognition drifts. The political class makes news; every other month a named person acts, and twice a year it lands on a governor's desk. Continuing storylines advance. An opinion column files every third month.
• The running-mate offer returns if unanswered. Citizen arcs (the manuscript) progress.
• Then your own board resolves, the breaks roll, and the month's event or quiet card follows.
• A save left for years jumps rather than replaying every month.

Section 19

Endings and the record

19.1 Terms end, careers don't

• When a governor's clock runs out the mansion passes on, the record notes the terms served, and the career continues in the Political Scene as a citizen. A member who loses the seat goes the same way. A President who leaves office continues in the world (17.3).
• Leaving office makes you "Out of work" and reopens the job market, including rows only a former officeholder can reach (11.1). The world remembers the offices held: an ex-governor or ex-President lands in the hub as a known name.
• A citizen's clock simply extends. There is no time limit.

19.2 What ends a career

• Run Out of the Statehouse: a governor (or a candidate who came from the mansion) whose approval, government stability or party stability collapses. In a recall state an approval collapse becomes a recall instead (16.7).
• The Campaign Collapses: a candidate whose meters collapse.
• Out of the Conversation: a private citizen who has burned every party bridge, or a national figure who is publicly disgraced. A citizen cannot otherwise collapse: there is no government to lose.
• THE CAREER ENDS IN A CELL: a sentence measured in decades (11.7).
• An American life comes to its close: death, out of office, in older age (11.3).
• A President's own endings are the presidency game's, and each carries Continue in the world → (17.3).

19.3 The ending card and the epilogue

• The ending card has a headline, a subtitle and the ending's story. Every career ending closes with the epilogue: "N years in public life.", the offices held ("Held the presidency", "Held a governorship", "Held a major party's presidential nomination", or "Never held the office — not for want of trying."), and each office's average and peak approval.
• Buttons: Generate Your Wikipedia Page (19.5), Back to Careers →, View Career History, and share links.
• A finished career shows FINISHED in Your Careers and reopens on its ending card.

19.4 The full record

• The full record → on the YOU card opens the career record screen: the offices held with their average and peak approval, the ledger (Defeated, Endorsed by, Primaried by), and the timeline of every dated record line from the first month to now.
• The record is written by everything you do: "Declared for …", "Won the Democratic nomination for …", "Introduced …", "Married …", "Raised $X for the year.", "Skipped ahead to …".

19.5 The Wikipedia page

• Generate Your Wikipedia Page (premium) on the ending card, or the Wikipedia tile on a desk, writes an encyclopaedia article on the career: the home state, the jobs, the offices held, the campaigns won and lost, in order, from the record. A career that never reached the White House is the article on a politician, titled by the person's name; a career President gets "Presidency of <name>".
• ← Back returns to where it was opened from.

Section 20

The Debug menu

• 🔧 Debug at the bottom of the Political Scene and of every desk (premium only) opens 🔧 Debug — Adjust Stats: number fields for the meters, ↻ Revert Last Turn, Cancel and Apply Changes.
• Skip ahead at the bottom of the modal: "Winds the clock to two months before the night, running the world month by month. The months are not played." One row per coming night (a primary night, the open ballot, a convention, election day, per race and per office you hold) with a ⏩ Skip to <Month Year> button. Or "Nothing on the calendar to skip to."
• A skip runs the world month by month to two months before the night. The months are not played and the cards those months would have shown are dropped. The record notes "Skipped ahead to <Month Year>." A seat-holder's calendar is prepared behind "The clerk prepares the calendar…".
• Not available to a President.

Section 21

Feedback

• Career mode is beta. Player reports are how it gets fixed.
• Tell us what broke, what made no sense, and what you wanted to do and could not, in the Discord. Say which start, which state, which year and which screen.