Carbon Copy Politics

Theme:
Take on the role of a special interest group trying to save the world from a changing climate. However, while all the interest groups want to maximize positive impact, they all have different priorities for how to go about it. Are you advocating clean energy, habitat protection, or island nations that might get flooded? Will you pass laws to create subsidies, institute a carbon tax, or maybe attempt an ambitious geo-engineering project? Every method has its own benefits and drawbacks, and you will need strategic planning and political cunning to lead your organization to success.

Mechanics:
Players attempt to pass bills into law, both to have an impact in general and to further their own special interest's goals. However, all players will need to pursue a mixed strategy to succeed -- your special interest does not dictate your strategy. For example, a player might be rewarded for seeing enough geo-engineer projects succeed, regardless of who plays those cards -- so they might play those cards themselves or negotiate for someone else to play them.

Carbon Copy Politics uses a novel "clock" mechanic to track the progress of activities over time. Players play cards onto the clock, which ticks down each turn. Cards that reach the end of the clock resolve, building variable delays into the play of every card. The delay requires players to plan ahead, allow them to set up combos, and creates opportunities for disruption by opponents. For example, bill cards are typically delayed by 3 turns before they are evaluated, so you might play it one turn, play an action to boost public will-for-change the next turn, play a modifier on it the next turn, and then discard cards as the bill resolves to pay the rest of the cost.

Bill cards are rated by their difficulty (cost) and impact (score). Different types of bills offer different ways to pay the cost. Carbon Tax bills get easier to pass as more taxes are passes, while Cap and Trade bills are easier if several are played at the same time by different players.

Audience
The game is straight forward to play with emergent strategy and depth as players learn to time their cards and negotiate deals. It is accessible to casual audiences who just like the theme, but it also provides enough depth to keep serious gamers interested and engaged in the strategy. The game has been well received by pure gamer groups, pure environmental groups, and combinations of the two.

Designers
Gary Rucinski is an environmentalist and physicist. He is interested in how the game can make people aware of the range of options for addressing climate issues and the obstacles to each approach. He wants people to think about practical ways of achieving environmental goals. .

Rob Seater is a board game designer and engineer. He enjoyed making the game capture the strategic trade-offs of passing legislation while remaining non-committal as to what the best approach is or even what level of intervention is appropriate. To him, this kind of game should not be propaganda, but rather an exploration of the strategic trade-offs inherent in the real world.