Shadow Cabinet

Guidelines

1. Any sufficiently complex system can be adequately approximated with a random table.
2. Assume excessive competence given the slightest opportunity
3. If in doubt: gun

---

Agenda

1. Each player is a Minister of the Terrestrial Cabinet. They serve for life. No lighter sentence is permitted.

2. Each player selects a Major Ministry:

• Minister of Defence (Commander-in-Chief)
• Minister of Science (Philosopher General)
• Minister of Industry (Supreme Comptroller)
• Minister of Finance (Treasurer)
• Minister of Intelligence (Agent 1)

Each Major Ministry comes with Responsibilities to fulfil and Resources to accomplish them with.

There are a selection of Subordinates you may want to speak with at some point, as well as some Related Minor Departments that you may need to liaise with... or take over.

3. If all five Ministerial positions are filled, the Minister of Defence is also the Acting Prime Minister. They keep this role until challenged by any other Cabinet Member, who then becomes the Prime Minister. The Acting PM does not choose a Deputy Prime Minister.

4. Review the events that lead to the removal of the entire previous Cabinet. Roll five Urgent Incidents, and five Former Cabinet Members.

Once the first Urgent Incident has been resolved, one of the Minor Ministries becomes freely available for the taking. Any player can take it, owing the rest of the Cabinet a moderate favour.

1. Health
2. Education
3. Labour
4. Environment
5. Agriculture
6. Mining
7. Energy
8. Internal Affairs
9. Foreign Affairs
10. Culture
11. Transport
12. Justice
13. Communications
14. Disaster Management

Minor Departments have far less power, resources and responsibilities compared to the Major Department, and can be freely traded between players.

Once three Urgent Incidents have been resolved, each player receives one Shadow Ministry at random and in secret. Duplicates are possible! And likely hilarious:

1. Minister of Offence
2. Minister of Mad Science
3. Minister of Tyranny
4. Minister of Corruption
5. Minister of Assassination

Major Departments

Minister of Defence (Commander-in-Chief)

Responsibilities

• Shooting down rocks
• Keeping the warships in readiness
• Takes on the role of Acting Prime Minister when Cabinet is first filled

Resources

• Orbital Defence Installation (for shooting rocks with)
• Nuclear arsenal (a bit of an albatross)
• Mech suits! Hell yeah!

Subordinates

• General
• Admiral
• Air Marshal
• Police Commissioner

Related Departments: Disaster Management, Justice

Minister of Science (Philosopher General)

Responsibilities

• Defeat the Third Law of Thermodynamics
• FTL travel please, zoom and whoosh!

Resources

• Even Larger Hadron Collider
• Advanced Prediction System, add +2 to all "Time Until Incident" rolls

Subordinates

• Vice Chancellor of Pan-Continental University Conglomerate

Related Departments: Communications, Health

Minister of Industry (Supreme Comptroller)

Subordinates

• Senior Foreman of the Terrestrial Commission

Responsibilities

• Build everything, build it all, keep building

Resources

• LOTS
• Divert any development in any direction you wish
• You don't necessarily need to steal anything, lots can be done just be changing the priority list

Subordinates

• Vice Chancellor of Pan-Continental University Conglomerate

Related Departments: Mining, Energy, Transport

Minister of Finance (Treasurer)

Responsibilities

• Not running out of money
• Spending money
• Orbital trade and beyond, only the rarest and most expensive of goods are still produced Earth-side and make it to orbit

Resources

• Loads of money
• Never quite enough money

Subordinates

• Master of the Exchequer
• Assorted CEOs

Related Departments: Labour, Foreign Affairs

Minister of Intelligence (Agent 1)

A.K.A. The Director

Responsibilities

• Stop Terrorists
• If in doubt, find some terrorists, then stop them

Resources

• Orbital Pacification Laser. For shooting terrorists with.
• Secret Agents (many of them are already on missions as organised by the previous Minister)
• Extensive Surveillance Systems

Subordinates

• Agent 2 et. al.
• Specialist Agents with such skills as Inciting Violence, Discovering Blackmail, and Removing Evidence

Related Departments: Culture, Internal Affairs

Minor Departments

Health

• Doctors, hospitals, metabiotic supplies

Education

Labour

Environment

Seven natural wonders of the world:

1. Mount Everest
2. Great Barrier Reef
3. Grand Canyon
4. Aurora Borealis
5. Harbour of Rio de Janeiro
6. Parícutin Volcano
7. Victoria Falls
8. Ha Long Bay

Agriculture

• Nowadays mostly hydroponics and electro-grown algal vats, but some luxury goods are still grown in the sun

Mining

• Land-based is unpopular but cheap
• Orbital is awkward and expensive if you want land-based goods, but much better for creating warships

Energy

• Orbital solar collectors
• Ground-side Fusion Generator
• Lunar nuclear power plants (oh no, we keep having to send them enriched uranium...)

Internal Affairs

• Removing Spies from the other Ministries
• Reasonable leeway in accomplishing this goal

Foreign Affairs

• Ambassador to Mars, Jovian moons and Solar High Command
• Technically, if aliens ever show up, the Minister of Foreign Affairs is in charge?

Culture

• Propaganda!

Transport

• Hyperloop trains!
• Spaceships!
• Space elevators!
• Also roads and bridges

Justice

• Judiciary appointments
• Can decline to press charges, on anyone

Communications

• Handles the internet, as well as the outernet
• Broadband satellite constellation ringing the equator
• Cyber-security, spam and fraud

Disaster Recovery

• Emergency vessels for land, sea and air (not so much space)

Shadow Departments

Minister of Offence

• Interdiction Fleet, experimental antimatter anti-alien warships, positioned on the other side of the Sun and the dark side of the Moon

Other options

• Bodyguard/assistant that is a cool killer robot

• Chekov's Bomb: You can retroactively place an explosive anywhere you can see, once

• Sub-machine gun with infinite ammo

• Whenever you reach into any unseen space, you always find a magazine or grenade

• The only person with an auto-aiming missile barrage pistol in the room...? not as cool as MoA

Minister of Mad Science

• Wormholes, time-machines, giant explosives. Sometimes, you are absolutely sure which of the three you were planning on making
• Personal Teleportation Device, which includes buttons like "Home", "Office", "Safety", "Secret Lair"

Minister of Tyranny

• Slave labour, mind control, commands
• Optional surgical brain splicing with a mind control node extracted from a deep sea squid

Minister of Corruption

• "Nope, I stole that already"
• Key cards and access codes to every other Department
• Book of override passwords
• Book of blackmail material

Minister of Assassination

• Can kill people with finger guns

Leadership

The Machine

The DM is "The Machine", the process that delivers the news to the Cabinet, and distributes orders from the Cabinet to a dizzying array of underlings and sub-branches. It will follow orders from any Ministers, but conflicting orders will end poorly. If there is a Prime Minister, it will preferentially follow their orders. It is incredibly competent in the execution of orders (or at least, the DM should be as competent as possible)

By default, the Machine will execute instructions in the most effective and efficient manner possible, without burning bridges or using any irreplaceable resources. Quietly using existing power structures is the best method. It will however, expedite instructions if it is explicitly told to do so.

The goal of the Machine is to be both effective and efficient now, and when executing future instructions.

Prime Minister

Once the new Terrestrial Cabinet is filled, the Minister of Defence becomes the Acting Prime Minister. The PM, Acting or otherwise, has final say over the commands given to The Machine, and is generally in charge. However, if the Prime Minister does not follow what the other Ministers require of them, they should be voted out and/or killed.

The Acting Prime Minister holds office only until any other Minister challenges them, at which point the role of Prime Minister transfers to them.

The first duty of the Prime Minister is to select a Deputy Prime Minister. If the Prime Minister resigns, is voted out or killed, the Deputy immediately becomes Prime Minister. Be Warned.

Any Minister can call for a vote of No Confidence at any time, requiring only one other Minister to agree for the Prime Minister to be removed from office. Unless, of course, changes have been made to the situation, in which case permanent solutions must be found.

Holding the position of Prime Minister For Life usually results in that term being rather short.

Non-Ministerial Entities

Uncivil Service

If (when) the Prime Minister or any Ministers actively work against their responsibilities, they are immediately killed by members of the Uncivil Service. The Uncivil Service is managed by Solar High Command for this purpose only.

Uncivil Service members will stand there and watch you get assassinated by your own people. That's just active democracy at work.

The official motto of the Uncivil Service is "The Wages of Treason Is Death", while the unofficial motto adds "The Wages of Incompetence Is Cash"

Corporations

Are like hirelings?

Acquiring More Ministries

• Step 1: Have the current Minister step down or be fired

• Step 2: Be the obvious candidate for that position

• Only one Major Ministry at a time?

• Handled by The Machine, or maybe you have to persuade the Deputy Minister (NPC)?

Ways Ministers might be selected

1. The current Deputy Minister is promoted
2. Meritocratic pick from Department
3. Random pick from Department
4. Worldwide random lottery
5. By cash auction
6. Democratic popular vote
7. Selected by The Machine
8. Nominated by all current members

Memoranda

Former Cabinet Members

Described as (roll twice):

1. Debauched
2. Paranoiac
3. Idealist
4. Belligerent
5. Grasping
6. Vengeful
7. Petty
8. Escapist
9. Junkie
10. Desperate
11. Slacker
12. Philanthropic
13. Exploratory
14. Daredevil
15. Traditional
16. Gamer
17. Gambler
18. Sadist
19. Misanthrope
20. Draconian
21. Anarchist
22. Spendthrift
23. Tyrant
24. Gentle
25. Harmonious
26. Superfluous
27. Wanton
28. Deadly
29. Friendless
30. Stone-cold
31. Always Smiling
32. Absent
33. Connected
34. Delightful
35. Child-like
36. Sedate
37. Ridiculous
38. Vicious
39. Sagacious
40. Methusalean
41. Hesitant
42. Unyielding
43. Musical
44. Grieving
45. Lackadaisical
46. vibrant
47. Cowardly
48. Subtle
49. Obsessed
50. Criminal
51. Alien
52. Augmented
53. Adolescent

Urgent Incident

	Location	Source	Type
1	Oceanic	Biological	Opportunity
2	Coastal	Ecological	Oversight
3	Rural	Geological	Accident
4	Wilderness	Industrial	Incident
5	Suburban	Social	Rebellion
6	Downtown	Moral	Dissent
7	Metropolitan	Political	Calamity
8	Underground	Internal	Catastrophe
9	Atmospheric	Economic	Upheaval
10	Orbital	Military	Decay
11	Lunar	Orbital	Transformation
12	Internet	Weird	Fiasco

// Inland

Time Until Incident

1. Already Happened
2. In Progress
3. Commencing
4. Pending
5. Signs Suggest
6. Predictors Indicate