Difficulty

Difficulty is the three-way setting near the bottom of the setup screen. It affects four systems: the Senate filibuster, the presidential and congressional elections, the Red Scare meters of the 1950s, and the rival and threat mechanics of the Designated Survivor scenario. The setup screen says that difficulty affects elections, the filibuster and political headwinds, that the game is designed to be played on Hard, and that Easy and Medium reduce realism.

The filibuster

When a bill reaches the Senate with enough votes for a simple majority but not enough to break a filibuster, difficulty decides what happens next. On Hard it is always filibustered, and only passes if it reaches the supermajority needed for cloture. On Medium it is filibustered only some of the time, and a bill with strong, uncontroversial support can slip through without one. On Easy there is no filibuster at all. This filibuster gate never applies to budget-related bills such as tax, welfare or healthcare policy, nor once the filibuster has been abolished by the special action. Executive orders, diplomacy and military action are never subject to it.

Elections

Difficulty sets a structural head start or handicap for the President's party at election time. On Hard, both midterm and presidential elections carry a real penalty against the incumbent party. On Medium, the incumbent fights largely on the record alone. On Easy, the President's party instead gets a helping hand at both kinds of election. A challenger who has never held the presidency is not affected by any of this. The same scaling applies when House and Senate seats are up for election, on Hard, Medium or Easy alike.

The Red Scare and Designated Survivor

In a 1950s game with the Red Scare on, Hard makes McCarthy's fear meter swing hardest, Medium softens it, and Easy softens it further. In the Designated Survivor scenario, Hard makes the rival characters grow in power faster, lets a presidential rival declare earlier, pushes the overall threat level up faster, and judges the President's handling of the crisis more harshly; Easy relaxes all of these in the President's favour, and Medium sits in between.

What it does not touch

Difficulty is read nowhere else. The focus group's scores, the economy, the social statistics, the courts, the cabinet and the press are the same at every level.

Access

The setting is free, and is also offered on the career builder, where it defaults to Hard and is carried along with the career's other office dials. Workshop packs cannot override this option.