The arcane and archaic in federal legislation - whatcha got?

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
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This is probably a stupid idea but might be a fun topic. Also, I think that’s it’s already been done in some form so I doubt that it’s even completely original.

Board games may not be a growth market, but they still survive, so from time to time I wonder about what might make for a good one. Since our legislative process is a perennial object of ridicule, I thought that a good way to capitalize on that would be a game that turned on bizarre but factual aspects of it that aren’t well known. Of course it could be argued that no aspect of the process is well known, but that’s probably a topic for the pit.

In a very broad sense it’s a little like those books that used to be popular about ancient laws that were still on the books in various jurisdictions but are no longer enforced. But since a game has to have an identifiable goal, and usually a process too, this would be focused on shepherding your own pet project through Congress - if you’re the sort who thinks of tax breaks for open-pit mining as something as lovable as one of our furry friends. Only in the world of the game, nothing, or at least very little, would be straightforward and would instead depend on these “bizarro world” rules - so, pretty much like real life I guess.

I know that if you could drill for trivia the way you drill for oil, SDMB would be the Saudi Arabia of the internet, so . . . whatcha got?

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I think the best way to do this would actually be to make a straightforward “Legislation: home edition” that works and is fun to play. Once you have that, then start adding on the crazy parliamentary and bizarro rules, adding them one at a time in such a way as to not break the game.

So the first question is how to make a fun game based on passing legislation. My thought for the overall broad concept is that any player can introduce a bill and the whole group has to vote on it.

Someone just making up a bill won’t work though. I think the way to go would be to have “line item cards”. At the beginning of the game, each player is dealt say 10 cards. Each card is a specific item that can be added to a bill. “Increase minimum wage $2.00” for example. The goal of the game now is to get more of your own line items passed than anyone else.

First issue: what’s to stop everybody from introducing a bill with all their line items, all players vote Yes on everything, everybody wins. The solution would be in the design and distribution of the line items.

Line Item Design: each issue would have line items which are mutually exclusive. Sticking with the minimum wage example we could have one “Raise by $2.00” and one “Eliminate the minimum wage”. If your line item passes you get points for it. But if a line item passes that is in opposition to a line item you possess, you get deducted points. This would simulate legislators having an ideology, and fosters competition.

Line Item Distribution: the line item cards aren’t unique, and they’re randomly dealt to start the game. Player A might have a few cards in common with Player B. This would foster coalition building and making deals.

The game would be split into rounds. In each round, each player can introduce 0 or 1 bills made up of line items they possess, or line items willingly contributed to the bill by another player. Each bill is voted on.

If a bill passes, points are awarded to players who have line items in the bill. Points are deducted from players who possess opposing line items. Any opposing line items are removed from play, so they can’t be introduced into later bills. If a bill is voted down, the line items in it are given back so the can be used in future bills.

Then you go on to the next round, where the process is repeated. Keep going until some defined end point (number of rounds, someone runs out of line items, etc). Tally up the points at the end and see who wins.

The rules need to be refined but I think this could be the basis of a decent legislation game.