r/StarWars_Model_Senate - a new Reddit based Star Wars sim attempting to accurately and authentically examine the politics of Star Wars and the High Republic

[u/Aussie-Parliament-RP]

If you are anything like me, then you were a strange child. Not only did you like Star Wars, but your favourite parts of Star Wars was the political escapades. Leia? Cool as cause she was a politician. Padme? Even cooler - we got to actually see the Senate? And the Votes of No Confidence? And the political intrigue? And the mirroring of Hitler's rise to power through the manipulation of parliament in Sidious' manipulation of the Senate? So so cool. Suffice to say, I am a political nerd and Star Wars fuels that for me. Gosh even my favourite episodes of the Clone Wars as a kid were always the Senate focused ones.

But as much as I love the politics of Star Wars, somethings that's always annoyed me is how sparse and barren the actual nuts and bolts of the Star Wars political system are! The Vice Chancellor's position is barely explained! The Vice Chair exists, but what does he do? And Senators - do they represent planets? Are they elected? Why is the Trade Federation there? Augh these questions aggravated me. So over the years I have tried to tinker with things, come up with ways these can be explained, and I think there is some sort of need for that within the cosmology of Star Wars. But not only is there a need for that, there is the potential to make it collaborative, fun and a bit gamey too!

So then comes the pitch. I have been involved in political simulations for a while now and they are interesting for sure. So why not adapt them to the Star Wars setting I thought?! But not only that, I haven't been the first to have this idea, and I've seen the other Star Wars pol sims, most of which have barely lasted a couple months and I think I've learnt from those mistakes. So with that said, let's end the preamble.

Welcome to the Star Wars Model Senate! https://www.reddit.com/r/starwars_model_senate/

We are a new political simulation attempting to model the Galactic Senate sometime during the High Republic when the Galactic Senate was at its peak, but steadily heading towards the Separatist crisis. Members of the simulation play as the senators, journalists, lobbyists and potentially even vice chancellors or vice chairs who shape and coordinate the galaxy and its politics. Will you shape a bold new progressive galactic republic free from slavery, with a wide safety net and a strong central government? Will you instead create a repressive galactic republic, barely distinct from the Empire? Perhaps you will forge a new Confederacy based on mutual respect, autonomy and a weak central government? What happens and what form the Galaxy and the Republic takes is up to all of you!

Key to the Galactic Republic is the Galactic Senate. The Senate is the legislative body, where laws are made, motions debated, careers made, Vice Chancellors elected and wars declared. The Galactic Senate is elected from across the Galaxy, through a system known as mixed member proportional (Link here to a brief explanation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QT0I-sdoSXU). MMP is designed to give both local representation (eg. the Senator for Naboo!) whilst also ensuring that the game is fair by ensuring their is proportional representation in the Senate.

But how do you win elections? Over a Senate term (which is about 3 months between elections), players debate on bills and motions before the Senate. These debates are then graded by an electoral team, who assigns up to 40 points for each debate, depending on the quality of the debate determined by four factors:
Originality - is the debate raising an original point or making an interesting connection?
Effort - is the debate one which took obvious effort to make, or is it half-hearted?
Relevance - is the debate relevant to the topic at hand, and is it relevant to broader galactic interests?
Cohesiveness - is the debate's point easy to follow and is it internally consistent, or does it not make any sense at all?

Based on this rubric, points are assigned to each party, which in the long term add up to help determine an election. But points can also be won through press pieces - which can be posted to https://www.reddit.com/r/model_holonet/ - and through campaigning, which is done during elections and which can turn even a long term advantage around, giving the underdogs the win! BTW These election campaign posts and press posts are marked in a similar way!

And that's it! There's a couple discussion topics going on right now that you can go debate and earn some points on, so go get a head start!

Grand Army Debate: https://www.reddit.com/r/starwars_model_senate/comments/12zer4c/topic_debate_1_formation_of_the_grand_army_of_the/

Droid Emancipation Debate:
https://www.reddit.com/r/starwars_model_senate/comments/12zers4/topic_debate_2_droid_emancipation/

Planetary Autonomy Debate:
https://www.reddit.com/r/starwars_model_senate/comments/12zesc0/topic_debate_3_planetary_autonomy/

There's also a party formation thread if that's your thing! https://www.reddit.com/r/starwars_model_senate/comments/12xi3ft/party_formation_thread_and_welcome_to_the_sim/

And don't forget to join the Discord! https://discord.gg/mYh4MAsjX9

Mod Note: I assuming this type of post is allowed based on the precedent set by this post: https://www.reddit.com/r/StarWars/comments/d45l33/introducing_the_model_galactic_senate/

Thanks for reading and don't forget the subreddit is here: https://www.reddit.com/r/starwars_model_senate/