el-ahrairah
forward communism, forward gerbils!
that's quite a hairstyle. not sure i'd be asking my barber for the junior hoxha 
Workers' Girder! Getcher Workers Girder!
- Thread starter chilango
- Start date
rekil
to menny cranks
How about when he invented rock'n'roll.that's quite a hairstyle. not sure i'd be asking my barber for the junior hoxha
seventh bullet
sovietwave
Kim Il-Sung looked quite dapper in his youth.
Louis MacNeice
Autumn Journalist
He didn't invent rock'n'roll; that was this guy.
Of course Buddy Holly ripped him off, but the look, the riffs and the rhythms came from the eastern end of the med.
Cheers - Louis MacNeice
el-ahrairah
forward communism, forward gerbils!
knowing my luck, i'd ask for a young stalin but i'd get a young trotsky 
Louis MacNeice
Autumn Journalist
A clean shave and some hair oil is the way to go.
Cheers - Louis MacNeice
Cheers - Louis MacNeice
equationgirl
Respect my existence or expect my resistance
There's always the full-on Rasputin for the really bold:
BigTom
Well-Known Member
had another playtest of trot wars yesterday, with 7 people which went well - need to sort out some of the terminology (it's confusing having events which have paper sales at them, and "paper sales" which work differently, not sure whether "Saturday High Street Stall" would be better in place of "paper sales").
Here we have a mega united front, with 4 trot groups coming together (one of the groups already had 3 players in it). The square blocks are activists that have been recruited to the united front, this one has done very well, recruiting 17 members over the 4 or 5 events the campaign ran. There was of course plenty of hijacking as rival groups bussed supporters into the events with placards and tables to take it over, and more than one sectarian intervention - plus you can never keep your annoying members away from events where they'll bang on about the Kurdish question or something totally irrelevant when you're trying to Save The NHS! from the damn tories.
Now of course is the time to find out if the groups will merge following the united front campaign, or if the ideological differences* are too great (*desire for individual glory)....
The result was inevitable really, wasn't it Shame really, because at this point in the game, there was only 3 unaligned people left to recruit and if we'd all stuck together for one more round/campaign we might have united the advanced portion of the working class into the one true vanguard party and led the proletariat into glorious revolution. Still, we sold a lot of papers so not all bad.
(I think these images are actually from different rounds but I'm taking artistic licence)
Still need to play with 10+ players and then balance the game - mostly it's about how long the game should be, more negative speakers and it'll last longer, more positive speakers and it'll be shorter. That just needs playtime really. Last night's game took about 1.5hrs which I think is pretty good for a 7 player game where only 3 people had played before (and one of those with an older set that has been changed quite a bit). Would like it to be around 1hr for that kind of number of people if everyone has played before and knows what they are doing. We had 8 rounds, each of which could be as short as about 2-3 minutes if people are really on it and not bothering to roleplay the trot part of it with grandstanding speeches about how we should stick together (Before splitting in an attempt to make off with the bulk of new members).
Here we have a mega united front, with 4 trot groups coming together (one of the groups already had 3 players in it). The square blocks are activists that have been recruited to the united front, this one has done very well, recruiting 17 members over the 4 or 5 events the campaign ran. There was of course plenty of hijacking as rival groups bussed supporters into the events with placards and tables to take it over, and more than one sectarian intervention - plus you can never keep your annoying members away from events where they'll bang on about the Kurdish question or something totally irrelevant when you're trying to Save The NHS! from the damn tories.
Now of course is the time to find out if the groups will merge following the united front campaign, or if the ideological differences* are too great (*desire for individual glory)....
The result was inevitable really, wasn't it
Shame really, because at this point in the game, there was only 3 unaligned people left to recruit and if we'd all stuck together for one more round/campaign we might have united the advanced portion of the working class into the one true vanguard party and led the proletariat into glorious revolution. Still, we sold a lot of papers so not all bad.(I think these images are actually from different rounds but I'm taking artistic licence)
Still need to play with 10+ players and then balance the game - mostly it's about how long the game should be, more negative speakers and it'll last longer, more positive speakers and it'll be shorter. That just needs playtime really. Last night's game took about 1.5hrs which I think is pretty good for a 7 player game where only 3 people had played before (and one of those with an older set that has been changed quite a bit). Would like it to be around 1hr for that kind of number of people if everyone has played before and knows what they are doing. We had 8 rounds, each of which could be as short as about 2-3 minutes if people are really on it and not bothering to roleplay the trot part of it with grandstanding speeches about how we should stick together (Before splitting in an attempt to make off with the bulk of new members).
BigTom
Well-Known Member
I can't remember what I said about the rules so to give you all a better idea of what's going on, this is a precis of them:
end of game: when all unaligned activists are recruited to a group (10 unaligned activists per player)
winners: collective - if everyone is in a single group at the end
individual (a) the group with the most members (if more than one player is in the largest group, tie-break is paper sales)
(b) the player with the most paper sales
There can be two individual winners in the same game, one for members, one for paper sales.
Round:
phase 1) United Fronts - everyone has the opportunity to setup a united front, or to join another group's united front
phase 2) timed round (1min) - play an event, any number of paper sales, speakers and hijacks. Speakers get you members, there are positive speakers (party member, party leader, shop steward, union leader etc) and negative speakers (sectarian intervention, someone talking about something irrelevant) and there are also random people who might be positive or negative. The negative speakers are those in your group you'd really rather didn't turn up to events - you can send these to fuck up other peoples' events instead. The random people are those occasional people who, at a trot meeting, are called by mistake by the chair, who was actually pointing at a party member to be the next not-at-all-pre-chosen speaker from the floor.
phase 3) roll for paper sales - each event and paper sale gives you the opportunity to sell papers.
phase 4) count up members - sum up the postiive & negative speakers and gain or lose members as appropriate
phase 5) ideology check - anyone in a united front decides if they are going to split or stick. If everyone sticks then they join into a group (I'm going to have a 3 column name generator for naming groups). If anyone splits, the united front doesn't stay together, and the members get divided up according to a weighted dice role. Then anyone who is in a group (unless newly formed from a united front) also does an ideology check to see if that groups stays together. Anyone who sticks ends up in a group, anyone who splits ends up on their own. Members of the original group are divided up according to a weighted dice role.
It's meant to be a quick moving, fun game for lots of people, not a heavy tactical game. It's fun, although it's odd playing it when I'm spending lots of time thinking about how the mechanics are working rather than getting into the game. Most of the fun comes in the hijacks and ideology checks, and of course in the role playing as silly trotbot activists.
end of game: when all unaligned activists are recruited to a group (10 unaligned activists per player)
winners: collective - if everyone is in a single group at the end
individual (a) the group with the most members (if more than one player is in the largest group, tie-break is paper sales)
(b) the player with the most paper sales
There can be two individual winners in the same game, one for members, one for paper sales.
Round:
phase 1) United Fronts - everyone has the opportunity to setup a united front, or to join another group's united front
phase 2) timed round (1min) - play an event, any number of paper sales, speakers and hijacks. Speakers get you members, there are positive speakers (party member, party leader, shop steward, union leader etc) and negative speakers (sectarian intervention, someone talking about something irrelevant) and there are also random people who might be positive or negative. The negative speakers are those in your group you'd really rather didn't turn up to events - you can send these to fuck up other peoples' events instead. The random people are those occasional people who, at a trot meeting, are called by mistake by the chair, who was actually pointing at a party member to be the next not-at-all-pre-chosen speaker from the floor.
phase 3) roll for paper sales - each event and paper sale gives you the opportunity to sell papers.
phase 4) count up members - sum up the postiive & negative speakers and gain or lose members as appropriate
phase 5) ideology check - anyone in a united front decides if they are going to split or stick. If everyone sticks then they join into a group (I'm going to have a 3 column name generator for naming groups). If anyone splits, the united front doesn't stay together, and the members get divided up according to a weighted dice role. Then anyone who is in a group (unless newly formed from a united front) also does an ideology check to see if that groups stays together. Anyone who sticks ends up in a group, anyone who splits ends up on their own. Members of the original group are divided up according to a weighted dice role.
It's meant to be a quick moving, fun game for lots of people, not a heavy tactical game. It's fun, although it's odd playing it when I'm spending lots of time thinking about how the mechanics are working rather than getting into the game. Most of the fun comes in the hijacks and ideology checks, and of course in the role playing as silly trotbot activists.
rekil
to menny cranks
DaveCinzano
WATCH OUT, GEORGE, HE'S GOT A SCREWDRIVER!
Two sects minimum
DaveCinzano
WATCH OUT, GEORGE, HE'S GOT A SCREWDRIVER!
Who made you the sects police?
rekil
to menny cranks
What was this one again?
The guardian/calvert journal (whatever that is) has a Seven Soviet sci-fi films everyone should see article.
seventh bullet
sovietwave
Cosmic Journey/Voyage. It was made to encourage youth interest in space exploration and related science at school among Komsomol members. Made in the mid-1930s it was set a decade into the future. At the time many (newly) urban people with little education (or decent access to shelter and sanitation never mind schooling) were living in sprawling slums on the edges of new industrial enterprises.
DotCommunist
So many particulars. So many questions.
Weird to think Wyndham was publishing in the same era with his unique english parochial take on sf. Truly the 30's must have seemed like a time where anything was possible
seventh bullet
sovietwave
It did for those with a stake in it. Remember, it was the years of the early plans to catch up with and overtake a depressed capitalist world. For the vast majority it was a time to bear up, though.
ViolentPanda
Hardly getting over it.
Comrades, it is with heavy heart, but with proletarian rectitude that I denounce myself.
I got the juice from a red pepper-based sauce on my Proletarian Democracy t-shirt, and the stain is nigh on irremovable. Comrade Vladimir Illych is staring out of the t-shirt,giving me a very hard look. I think I can see the word "gulag" in his eyes!
What should my self-punishment be?
Greebo has suggested that I stand on one leg and sing The Interationale. Other suggestions are the reading of the complete minutes of the First, Second and Third Internationals, or sitting on the blade-edge of a sickle while hitting myself on the head with a hammer.
I got the juice from a red pepper-based sauce on my Proletarian Democracy t-shirt, and the stain is nigh on irremovable. Comrade Vladimir Illych is staring out of the t-shirt,giving me a very hard look. I think I can see the word "gulag" in his eyes!
What should my self-punishment be?
Greebo has suggested that I stand on one leg and sing The Interationale. Other suggestions are the reading of the complete minutes of the First, Second and Third Internationals, or sitting on the blade-edge of a sickle while hitting myself on the head with a hammer.
kebabking
Not a Girly Swot, but I like them....
i think we both know that Greebo is just protecting you from yourself, you'd be telling yourself its punishment, but really you'd be secretly enjoying yourself - all that minutae, all that tedium, all that suffering for the purity of the struggle - and on reading the minutes, all that 'christ, what a cock!'.
you are a class traitor, a rightist, you know in your heart of hearts - assuming there is one in that degenerate, black, wasps nest of a chest of yours - that there is only one punishment that fits your endless crime.
you must join the Liberal Democrats.
you must hand over your hard won pennies to that hideous evil, you must give your time and talents to the local branch, you must see yourself as you truly are. monsterous, formless, nameless, a devil. that is your punishment comrade, to see yourself with that rosete, to feel the shame as you stuff leaflets through letterboxes, to feel your cheeks burn as you say 'yes, it was a great loss to see Vince Cable lose his seat'.
ViolentPanda
Hardly getting over it.
Greebo says "harsh but fair, comrade. Harsh but fair".
Isn't the Lib-Dems a step too far, though? Can't I just prostitute myself as David Cameron's toast-rack instead, feeling my cheeks burn as he stuffs another crumpet up my arse?
DotCommunist
So many particulars. So many questions.
I think at moments like this we can take a small example of contrition from the murderer of Thomas Becket. You must wear a hair shirt and walk barefoot all the way to Lenins tomb to apologise and whenyou get there be whipped bloody by Party members.
BigTom
Well-Known Member
Personally I think kebabking has this wrong. If it had been a yellow pepper sauce, I'd agree, but red peppers are a little bit communist, and you should volunteer to help Chukka Umana's Labour leader campaign instead. Had it been a green pepper you'd be sent to the green party hq obv.
kebabking
Not a Girly Swot, but I like them....
i'm sorry my old - once - friend, but we both know that again you're trying to get out your rightful atonement for your base crime. to be David Camerons' toast rack would be a cross to bear, but as his toast rack you'd hear endless political gossip and policy discussions, and you'd love that.
as a Liberal Democrat, all you'd hear would be endless fucking whining.
ViolentPanda
Hardly getting over it.
kebabking
Not a Girly Swot, but I like them....
it grieves me to see you brought so low Comrade, it truly grieves me.
anyway, next case - i heard that DotCommunist had been seen in Waitrose..?
DotCommunist
So many particulars. So many questions.
thieving
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