A Force More Powerful: The Game of Nonviolent Strategy
Description
A Force More Powerful: The Game of Nonviolent Strategy is a game about strategic nonviolent struggle. In each scenario, the player takes control of a nonviolent movement with a particular agenda. The constraints, advantages, and problems faced vary widely in each scenario -- as do the capabilities and ruthlessness of the regime. Although the scenarios are fictional, many mirror historical struggles, such as the suffrage movement, the integration movement, struggles for free elections in places like Serbia and Chile, and the Solidarity movement.
The game is turn-based (each turn is one day) and scenarios take place in individual cities or entire countries. The player controls several characters who are activists within the movement and assigns them to do tactics that range from support-building, fundraising, and distribution of literature to mass protests, strikes, and sit-ins. The regime has its own, less savory tactics, and a big part of the strategy is to take account of the regime's capabilities -- the commitment of its security forces, its willingness to use violent repression to stay in power, and its domestic and foreign political support. These vary widely from scenario to scenario.
There's a lot of information in the game, mostly collected in the Strategic Estimate, a notebook-style repository of all the characters and political groups within the scenario. The SE also allows the player use a formal process to lay out a strategy; it is this process that the game is intended to teach. The player may set and prioritize objectives and goals and record notes about key groups, individuals, and places.
The 3D city view is primarily to see the effects of tactics and the regime's policies, rather than to issue orders to characters. The Organization Screen, which is a graphic depiction of the political space in a scenario, is the best way to view different political relationships and vulnerabilities, and to decide what to do next. The 3D view will also allow the player to see the success or bloody failure of the ensuing mass demonstrations.
