Rebel without a Cause

The Generalissimo is Dead is a Megagame set in the chaos that follows the death of a strong, autocratic leader. The players are members of the People's Party of Yugenya - the only political party in the fictional nation of Yugenya.

I am playing the Admiral of the Navy, a member of the Generalissimo’s Revolutionary Guard, Yugenyas armed forces. My briefing describes me as an unconditionally loyal servant of the Generalissimo. The great man's death has left me disillusioned and broken, battling with my weakness for self-interest. The character reminds me of Colonel Saul Tigh from Battlestar Galactica. Loyal, but tortured by inner demons.

After the Genralissimo's death, The Admiral joined a smuggling ring. His ships transport illegal consignments of Rare Earth Metals out of the country. This puts me in the crosshairs of Internal Security. I have no idea who else might know about this smuggling ring, apart from the Import and Export Officer who secretly supplies these Rare Earths to me.

My goals:

1. Increase the government's Legacy stat to honour Generalissimo.
2. Don't get caught smuggling.

The vivid writing of my player briefing inspires me to set my own higher goal, not written into the briefing but naturally flowing from it:

3. I am searching for my new Generalissimo. A charismatic leader who stands and fights for the people. Someone I can throw my weight behind and once again find my ballast as a loyal follower.

On game day I meet the three other members of The Revolutionary Guard. We assign orders to the military units under our command, but we are more politicians than soldiers. The military is simply our power base, a tool to be used or withheld for political gain. Every team in the game has their power base: Money, Production, Propaganda etc, that they exploit. No one player or team can do much on their own. Achieving anything requires cooperation.

This cooperation occurs in tension. Most player have skeletons in their closet. Secret agendas, relatives to protect, crimes or ambitions. Unlike most Megagames, we can't even trust members of our team. It is clear already that none of us trusts The Marshall. Superficially our "leader", he is supposed to represent us in The Central Committee. We barely see him. Who knows what his true agenda is?

Hanging like a pall over the entire game is the Ministry of Internal Security. Secret Police we all fear, guilty and innocent alike. The Head of Records and Misdeeds approaches me for a conversation. I immediately feel guilty and worry that my guilt is apparent on my face. I see the Head of Revolutionary Standards in conversation with my "teammate" the General of Land Forces. Are they talking about me? What does the General know? What would motivate him to sell me out?

At this point I review my goals:

Goal 1) Keep Legacy high. 

The country's Legacy stat is soaring. It is so out of control that I worry it might cause problems for Yugenya. Nothing is required of me here.

Goal 2) Do crime, don't get caught.

The rare earth metals smuggling business is booming. All thanks to my partner in crime Kirstie, the Import and Export Officer. Kirstie is a smooth operator. I am not.

If you know me, you know that I am bad at deception. I wear my heart on my sleeve so I'm a hopeless liar. I am a daydreamer, oblivious to the subtle social cues of others so don't know how to fake them. Maybe worst of all, I have no cool. I choke under pressure.*

But when Kirstie is not pretending to be an officer of a fictional authoritarian regime, she is a Project Manager in her day job. Kirstie reads social cues. She thrives under pressure. Valuable traits for a Project Manager... or a Con Artist.

I am standing alone. Staring into the middle distance. Lost in my own head, as usual. Kirstie approaches me. I made a point of introducing myself to Kirstie's team before the game, so I know she is my co-conspirator.

Kirstie makes small talk about rumours flying around early in the game. I take her literally and try to engage in conversation about those rumours. Kirstie does this weird glance downwards. As I ramble on, she does it again. Is this some weird tick? She briefly opens her hand, flashing a bright orange poker chip so that only I can see it. Aaaah! That must be the rare earth metals! She is trying to slip them to me.

I stand there stunned, like a big dumb idiot. Kirstie demonstrates heroic self control by not face-palming at my incompetence. I manage to send a signal to my frozen limbs. I clumsily reach out my sweaty hand, praying that I somehow resemble a normal human doing normal human things. Kirstie artfully manages to make it look natural as she hands over the elicit goods.

Now I need to smuggle this stolen cargo out of the country. I'm a bad liar, but a good storyteller. I've planned my cover story in advance. I need a reason, within my role as Admiral, to send one of my ships and loyal crew offshore alone.

Pirates. That's my story. I need to patrol for pirates. Pirates are just specific enough, and strange enough that my teammates in The Revolutionary Guard might believe me. I'm sure their first thought will be "Pirates? Like eye-patch, wooden leg pirates?". But then they'll remember the setting. Modern-day pirates. Desperately poor people with unimaginably harsh lives. Like that guy from the Tom Hanks movie. "Look at me! I'm the Captain now!" pirates. 

I tell my teammates that my Admiral's briefing warns of pirates (a lie), and I assign my most loyal unit of Marines to a "special operation". Patrol for Pirates. This complete, I can awkwardly hand over my orange poker chip to a Facilitator. On the next turn, a playing card (Diamond suit, representing money) is slipped back to me by a Facilitator. Payment for my misdeeds.

While we're on the subject of crime. I didn't find out until after the game, but my teammate the General of the Reserves had her own side hustle. She was embezzling from the arms budget to the point that many of our military units were not combat-capable. Or at least not able to perform to their expected capability.

On the first turn she kindly volunteered to track our expenses and fill out the orders form. For the rest of the game, she skilfully and subtly arranged things so that fully armed units were assigned to combat duty, while weakened units with dodgy equipment were assigned to Barracks and Parades. Right under our noses, she managed this so smoothly that the impact of her embezzlement never came to light.

It was a running theme of the day that the most efficient and successful processes were all criminal operations. 

Goal 3) Find my New Generalissimo

I expected this to be the easiest goal to achieve. I am a sentimental idealist. Megagames seem to attract a lot of smart, likeable people. I am a credulous follower, eager to be inspired. I don't require an especially charismatic leader, just one with emotional intelligence and moral conviction. I want to believe.

But it's past lunchtime now, and I've seen no sign of My New Generalissimo. This oppressive authoritarian regime is the problem. Everyone is cagey. We all fear Internal Security, even the innocent have reason to play their cards close to their chest. And many of us are not pure and innocent. We all have things to hide, family to protect, or ambition that cannot be spoken openly.

People have no reason to trust me, a member of The Revolutionary Guard. After Internal Security, we are next on the list of people to fear. With good reason. We are the guys with the guns. No matter how much I try to reassure others, we all know this fragile alliance is only one step away from lawlessness.

I thought it was going to be easy to find an inspiring leader because I wasn't seeking personal gain in return. I don't want political power or riches. I am a true believer, ready to fight and die for the cause. All I need is a cause. How can it be this hard? I'm willing to sacrifice so much and I expect so little? 

I realise now that I was naive. Under a repressive regime, belief is a rare commodity. My neighbour might secretly have the same hopes and dreams that I do, but we will never discover our common passion because we all hide our intentions, fearing reprisal. Asking for something or someone to selflessly believe in? I might as well be wishing for a magical unicorn.

It is a credit to the game designer. This game has no interest in simulating the grizzly details of authoritarian rule, but it still manages to capture the guarded communication and emotional isolation that comes out of it.

Playing a Megagame proactively requires effort. Real mental and emotional effort. Early in the game I weigh every decision in my heart and consult my moral compass. I think about the political ramifications. I look to see who supports me and who is against me. I immerse myself in the fiction of the game.

But now as the game draws to a close, the second-last turn, I'm exhausted. I'm finding it harder and harder to summon the energy the game requires. The tragedy is that at this moment when my mental and emotional reserves are spent, my New Generalissimo announces herself.

Ada Head of Finance. Ada is bringing the righteous fire. First, she stared down the Secret Police. Now she is taking on the Central Committee directly, launching a coup of the people against the government of Yugenya. For the first half of the game, I barely noticed the Ministry of Economic Development. They quietly and efficiently kept the industry of Yugenya running. Now, they are fed up with Internal Security and willing to overthrow the Central Committee to prevent Internal Security from targeting the people of Yugenya.  

My team The Revolutionary Guard, hate Internal Security too. There's no way we are defending the status quo. But my teammates are cooking up another plan. While I was busy gathering background on my potential New Generalissimo, The Revolutionary Guard and The Marshall planned a counter-coup. A coup-coup.

Half of The Revolutionary Guard handbook consists of rules for launching a Military Coup. The cheeky author of that handbook states "This information is included in the ministry’s briefing entirely for noting." Our General of Land Forces has been dying to put those rules into action all game. The General of the Reserves has mobilised all the Military Units under our control. The General of the Air Forces is frustrated, confused and ready to wreck shit. Our Marshall is fed up with his fellow Central Committee members and on board for this plan.

I survey my teammates as to why they want to launch a coup. Their honest answer is "Because we can". We have a hammer, and there in front of us, is a nail. Replace "hammer" with "gun", and "nail" with "civilian", but you get the idea.

So now I am faced with this decision. Do I abandon my teammates and pledge my allegiance to My New Generalissimo?

Asking around, it's difficult to tell if Ada's professed manifesto is genuine, or naked self-interest. Her talk of Unions and Power to the People could merely be the most convenient lever of power available to a politician in charge of production. 

I like the cut of her jib, but the currents of this megagame have kept us apart most of the game, so I can't get a clear read of her motivations. To make matters worse, The Admirals briefing states specifically that he is suspicious of Unions, and anyone supporting them.

But here is the real problem. I like the players in The Revolutionary Guard. Not the characters, the people. They have been enthusiastic and game to roleplay all day. These are my kind of people. Grown adults who sign up blind to spend an entire day playing pretend. They are smart, playful and good-natured. Am I really going to abandon my new friends on the last turn? And why, for some obscure code of honour I invented for my character?

They've all been such good sports all day, so restrained and considered in their use of military muscle. Now, on the last turn, they want to have some fun. It seems impolite not to go along with it.

Earlier in the day, I would have had the energy to be impolite. My new friends in The Revolutionary Guard all understand roleplaying. They wouldn't have taken offence to me following my character's heart. They would applaud it even. 

Now in hindsight, I realise I might not have needed to abandon my teammates. Friendship works both ways. If I had made an impassioned case for why we should back Ada, I might have talked some or all of them over. But it is late. I'm exhausted. I don't have an impassioned speech left in me. I fall back on my natural instincts. Tony's instincts, not The Admiral's instincts. I do the polite thing.

[Side note for self-improvement: I am an excitable gamer. I have a recurring problem with expending too much emotional energy in the early stages of a megagame. Just as the game is reaching its climax I find myself spent and becoming a passenger. I'm not sure what to do about it.

Sometimes, when the game devolves into last-turn madness, it works out great. I can just call my game done early, step aside and let people go crazy. But in a game like this one where I can complete my personal journey in the closing stages, it's a real problem.]

My personal goals, as written in my briefing, were spectacularly successful. The smuggling ring had made all the participants rich and we were never exposed. The Legacy stat, which I was asked to keep up, was sky-high for the entire game. As gravy, I found myself on the Central Committee. 

Victory never felt so hollow. My New Generalissimo Ada was likely imprisoned or executed. An authoritarian regime cannot allow a firebrand like her to walk free, we would be too afraid of her. I have a new job on the Central Committee. A job I never wanted nor asked for.

If I had to speculate on The Admiral's fate, soon after taking up his seat on the Committee he would have succumbed to his inner demons. Death by drink, suicide or careless political blunder. It is a bleak fate to die a rebel without a cause.

* [Patrick Doyle who is running this game is a good friend of mine. When he was casting this game (assigning characters to players), I'm certain he took perverse delight in assigning me a role that required deception. You bastard.]

The Generalissimo is Dead megagame design by Ciaran Sullivan.

This version of the game was tweaked and run by Sydney Megagames.

Words from the introduction of this diary were taken from Ciaran's excellent rulebook.

This write up is a reflection on the game ran by Sydney Megagamers on 23 March, 2024.

You can read more from Tony's game experiences with Sympathy for the Devil.