Dynamic Events

Event Generation is a three-way setting on the setup screen that decides where each month's event comes from. Classic, the free default, draws every event from the game's pre-written pool. The setup screen describes it as pre-written events covering a wide range of political situations. Hybrid mixes pre-written events with events built around the presidency, and Dynamic goes further, building events around the president's decisions, cabinet, economy and political standing. A warning under the buttons notes that Hybrid and Dynamic have not been fully tested and may not always work as intended.

Classic

Each event is drawn from the pre-written pool for the current era, matched to the date and to the situation the presidency is in. After the president enacts a policy, a later month sometimes brings a follow-up event that refers back to that policy by name. This follow-up does not appear with War Room turned on, in Designated Survivor, in a career, or when a workshop pack turns follow-up events off.

Hybrid and Dynamic

In Hybrid and Dynamic modes, an event is prepared in advance and appears the following month. It is built around the state of the presidency: the makeup of Congress, the economy and diplomacy, the cabinet and the First Lady or Gentleman, the institutions, the Court, the president's strongest and weakest supporters, any active deployments and recent events. The result is a headline, a short report, a note on what is at stake and three suggested responses. Some of these events are crises rather than ordinary news. The writing keeps to the period, names real people and figures from the presidency, avoids repeating the same subject too often, and treats past outcomes as settled rather than reopening them. Events about the First Lady or Gentleman only appear once that role has been filled.

When a generated event is not ready in time, Hybrid falls back to the full pre-written pool, crises included, while Dynamic falls back only to the pool's quieter, open-ended events, the slow-news months that hand the president the floor, reusing them once they run out. The first month of any game always comes from the pre-written pool, and the follow-up events described under Classic do not appear in either generated mode.

Each era draws on its own set of events, and the modern era's set leans heavily on war, alongside events covering the economy, diplomacy, the military, personnel, politics, society, the law, the media, crises, stakeholder groups and world affairs.

Access

Choosing Hybrid or Dynamic asks a free account to upgrade to premium. Designated Survivor always runs Classic event generation, and the setting is hidden there. Workshop packs can force event generation on or off for anyone playing the pack. On the career builder, the setting is offered but locked to Dynamic for a governor of any state except California, since California is so far the only state with its own scripted events. Whichever setting a career uses carries over if that career reaches the presidency.