New Senator Guide
From Star Wars - Dark Horizon's MUSH
If you are looking for a place where stats and numbers matter, the senate is not for you. If you are a ‘hack and slash’ type that prefers to depend on your own skills you are going to fail. The Republic Senate is about politics and I don’t mean the coded kind. They just serve as a basis for what you are trying to achieve. RP is everything on the senate floor. Without RP you cannot know your fellow senators and if you don’t know them you will fail.
Before we even get into the technical details there are a few things to remember. First, your character is /not/ level X. Your /character/ is talented, Charismatic, has goals, and is recognized as a born leader. Act like it! Your character can find a way to make things happen if he just applies himself.
You are better off forgetting all about +stats once you are involved in senate RP. If your character doesn’t take himself seriously because he is ‘low level’ then nobody else will. Guess what? You are a new character with no enemies, no grudges, all the time in the world, and nothing to lose. All advantages that established senators lack.
For God’s sake have a little confidence in yourself!
So you only command X number of votes on a typical bill? So what? No single senator can pass a motion on his or her own. Unlike you, the “more powerful” senators have rivals, grudges, and prejudice that can all be used against them. It truly, honestly, isn’t hard to control their votes once you get to know them. It is a matter of crafting a good bill based on how they vote and taking your own goals slowly.
[edit] Crafting a Successful Series of Motions
If you are new to the senate? Don’t attempt it. Don’t even think of attempting it. Before you even consider writing a bill you need to know how the other senators vote and WHY they vote they way they vote. Every senator will have different reasons. This is how you attract them to vote for your bills and split apart alliances over the long term.
Hypothetical: Meena Tills, Tarkin, and Bail Organa are the three most powerful senators in the senate. They are part of an alliance. As a new senator you are looking to break up that alliance so that you can get your own pet projects passed so you scout them out. You RP with them, ask questions, RP with people who know them, and ask more questions. You make your first discovery Bail Organa is an idealistic Pacifist. Tarkin and Meena Tills strongly believe in using military force as deterrence and as a means of enforcing the law. You are left with two options here:
1. You use this information to drive a wedge between Bail and the others. After all, this is a rather decisive conflict of goals and ideals so it should be easy.
2. You don’t see anything that can be done to disrupt the alliance. So do the following: Log onto Dark Horizons, type “+die” and hit enter, type “+die” and hit enter again. Now reroll as a bounty hunter, thug, smuggler, or some character with no aspirations of becoming a senator.
Results may not be immediate but you have a way to play Bail Organa off against the rest of the alliance. That still leaves the formidable pair of Meena Tills and Tarkin. After more investigation you determine that Tarkin wants a strong central government and that Meena Tills wants planetary sovereignty.
Before you say this issue is inconsequential, please remember that it spawned the first political parties in the United States, France, United Kingdom, Japan, and possible other countries. It may not be as decisive as the conflict of goals between Bail and the others but it is something you can play off of without MT and Tarkin even realizing it.
A little more digging reveals another point of contention. Meena Tills, famous for his paranoia, is concerned with the security of Mon Calamari above all. Tarkin is concerned with the safety of the Republic as a whole and would sacrifice any one planet to save the rest. You just found another wedge that you can drive between them!
Dig long enough and you can usually find at least a dozen points of disagreement between each senator. By crafting your bills accordingly you can drive your rivals apart or entice them into voting for your own objectives. Remember the old saying 'a little pork helps the bill go down'
[edit] It is all about pace. Remember the Tortoise and the Hare
Don’t go for the throat. Don’t go for the throat. Then go for the throat at the decisive moment.
By jumping into the senate with an Agenda and trying to execute it full-force you have just doomed yourself to failure. You will not win. You have to take it slow and gradually achieve your goals over time. Slip something seemingly innocent into a bill that, when combined with later bills, will achieve a major goal. Focus on the little things that create divisions in rival alliances and put pressure on them slowly and gradually. Cracks will begin to form and when the time is right you can shatter the alliance with a major blow.
If you go for the throat too early they can counter it easily via amendments and strengthen the alliance. Filibuster too often and you become a major target. Slow and steady wins the race. The hare typically ends up getting shot--- ask older senators about Mourn and Gog.
[edit] A Show of Unity
is generally a stupid idea except 1) when doing so to intimidate new senators and 2) In dealing with governments outside of the Republic. So you have come a long way and formed a kind of alliance on your own? Don’t overdo it. A crafty rival will be watching you, counting your votes, and trying to find ways to drive you apart. Vote together for the critical bills but for less critical bills, make sure a member of the alliance dissents.
Give your rivals as little information as possible so they have trouble countering you when it comes to the more important bills. You can also propose decoy bills. You can distract your rivals with a bill that is doomed to fail while you slip another one by unnoticed.
