Local game designer Thomas Prowell will be playtesting his new power politics game, designed to appeal to fans of satirical games like Junta and Kremlin, or card-driven strategy games like Twilight Struggle, Churchill, or Fire in the Lake. 

Each player (up to 4) represents a White House faction within Trump's "Team of Rivals" struggling to control the President's Twitter feed while advancing its own agenda. All the while, the specter of Robert Mueller's special counsel investigation looms as distraction -- and the possible end of the administration. 

The factions and their objectives are: 

The Establishment: The McConnell/Ryan wing of the GOP -- your path to victory is through passing legislation (Obamacare reform, tax cuts, etc.); you want to keep Trump in power until you can get that stuff done.

The Nativists: The Bannon/Sessions crowd -- you're out to smash the administrative state; you score by commanding the President's attention and getting the Wall built.

The Plutocrats: Trump family members and other Goldman Sachs/Wall Street types -- you don't care about governing as much as you do by scoring big Business Deals.

The Resistance: A loose alliance of Trump's generals (Kelly, Mattis, McMaster), Democratic leaders (Pelosi/Schumer), and the mainstream media working to keep Trump out of foreign wars, defeat the more extreme parts of the GOP agenda, and possibly even impeach the president.

The game uses a card-driven/trick-taking mechanic as its engine (think Hearts). Each trick, you'll be playing to win Trump Tweet scoring cards, vote on legislation before Congress, or capture powerful "Ace" cards representing individuals with special abilities, like Bob Mueller, John McCain or Vladimir Putin. The cards in your hand represent individuals like Ivanka, Bannon, Sessions, Scaramucci, et al and conglomerates like the failing New York Times and fake news CNN. Each card is rated for its Juice (political power -- think Ops Points in a card-driven game) and Squeeze (an event that can be triggered). By winning Tweets, passing legislation and scoring deals, you earn Victory Points. The faction with the most VPs at the end wins.

Playing time is estimated to be 90 mins or less. We plan on playing one game at 6 p.m. and one game at 8 p.m. I have room for 1 more player. Contact Thomas Prowell (t_prowell@hotmail.com) if interested in playing!

Registration on the remaining slot is available to members of Metro Seattle Gamers.