Hey, how about the Struggling Artist? Now there’s a character we can all agree to dislike :-)
Hey, I love him but even I know he’d make a terrible Mayor. He’d squander the treasury in an hour :P
I’m seconding the Northbound Parliamentarian (even if I wouldn’t vote for her). She’s an interesting side character, promises lots of interesting stuff on a potential Mayor card (seven candles! everywhere!), and I think a Seeking NPC is likely to be a popular choice. Nutjob, yes, but have you met the current Mayor?
I’m going to have to think a bit before I give any further answers. I don’t want to just throw people at the wall and see who sticks.
Edit: Now that I think of it, throwing people at the wall and seeing who sticks is probably precisely how the current Mayor would prefer to choose his successor. He’s probably got the bookies working out odds now, both with and without honey-smearing involved.
edited by Siankan on 7/26/2017
as if the city vices weren’t enough, now you want his mustachioed face plastered on another semi-frequent card? over my cold, perma-dead body, you cruel and sadistic monster you
The Starveling Cat for Mayor!
I’d like to see the Paranomastic Newshound run against the Northbound Parliamentarian. Their different feelings about a certain trio in the Tomb-Colonies would create a very interesting rivalry.
No statistics for the right honourable Squidley Johnson? He was robbed! Robbed, I say! I shall be having a word with the poll-counters about this travesty.
The Starveling Mayor, the Starveling Mayor!
London’s most powerful political player!
The Starveling Mayor, the Starveling Mayor!
ravages the pantry of every taxpayer!
The Starveling Mayor, the Starveling Mayor!
London’s best ruler, says the surveyor!
The Starveling Politician!
The Starveling Politician!
Promises you
An unhealing incision!
edited by Lady Sapho Byron on 7/26/2017
I feel like having a Rubbery candidate might be immensely popular among players, but in-lore it would never happen because of the prejudice against them.
As for my suggestion, Penstock would be an interesting choice. Mind you my deeper lore knowledge may not be up to scratch enough to know why he may not be the best choice, but he seems like an interesting character with a lot to be explored.
Everybody can respect Slowcake as a major.
Sure, he may not physically exist and only be a puppet for a tag-team of Hell and the Great Game, but he’s bound to be Interesting.
I think Failbettter missed a trick by not letting a Mayoral candidate be a Kickstarter reward.
(Also I would vote for Squidley.)
Slowcake? But he doesn’t even exist! And worse yet, he doesn’t exist for all the most boring reasons. Might as well vote for a Fingerking at that point, at least they have the temerity to do something interesting with their almost-existence.
No, the real vote here needs to be for the Northbound Parliamentarian. No "Fair Play", no half-measures, no more promises, only a reckoning that is not be postponed indefinitely.
edited by Arthur Quietus on 7/26/2017
Hate to say it, but I wouldn’t vote for someone affiliated with Mr. Eaten. His reckoning has been postponed for hundreds of years at this point, how can we trust him to get anything done? I do agree with his policies regarding the eating of teeth, though.
Both winners so far have been the only ones with actual names. Jenny, Feducci. Perhaps it’s a coincidence, but it may be that having a given name is too great an advantage for one candidate to have. Perhaps next year, none of them should have names? Or all of them? Or the ones without names should be particularly beloved or badass characters to compensate for their disadvantage? It might also not be a coincidence that our winners were a ninja nun brothel owner and a masked death duelist. FL’s player base seems to have a taste for the deadly, scandalous, and bizarre, and less exotic candidates may not really have a chance. Obviously all three candidates can’t be femme fatale rubbery man prostitute assassin samurai, but some greater parity in coolness might make for a closer race. That’s not to knock our other two worthy candidates this year, and I say that as a DTC voter. But I didn’t expect her to win, because Feducci rides a horse and impales people with a lance, and she wants Londoners to stop using drugs and drink tea instead, actual political policy be damned.
The Bishop and the Campaigner both had names, too - admittedly not the titles they’re best known by, but names! And I could take a reasonable guess at assigning a kind of a name to the Contrarian, too. The Detective’s been the only completely nameless candidate.
I think it’s more that they’re explicitly referred to by name, whether or not the others have names you can deduce.
Also perhaps the fact that they can’t speak human languages. This would rather tell against them in Council.
Steering back toward the Northbound Parliamentarian: I would personally love to see her as a candidate, but I have to ask, what would she do? What is her platform, besides rearranging the city’s lampposts? Also, who would be her allies and enemies?
Platform: Frankly, I haven’t gotten much yet. Anyone hoping for sufferage issues from the only female MP has probably never met her. She would of course be yelling things about candles and Seeking, but probably not in a useful way. "What’s the number?" is probably not a winning campaign slogan. That said, someone with better knowledge of SMEN might come up with something for her, and she’s at least going to give away thousands of Rubbery Lumps.
Allies: I don’t think it would surprise anyone to claim she’s going to favor Tomb-Colonists. I can also see relationships with the Docks (who must make a lot of money with all these Northbound folk) and Urchins (half Neathy mystery, half free Lumps). Society is likely to be ambivalent, but given how they reward you for taking care of even unpopular MPs, they’ll likely rally to her if there is no better candidate. Also, of course, let us not forget every blasted Seeking PC in the Neath. Might she take up the Jenny/DTC banner of the London underdogs? If she does, it’ll certainly be waved in a very novel direction.
Enemies: The Masters, of course, are not going to stand for her (which is probably fatal to her candidacy), and that might stretch into the Constables, too. I could see the Church also finding itself opposing her; Seeking is not exactly spiritually healthy. I’m not sure where Hell stands on Seeking, but if they and the church both opposed her I’d be delighted - and be breaking out a certain thurible. Most other factions don’t likely care one way or the other.
Card: Do you think we could get away with a Mayoral card that somehow affected or interacted with Unaccountably Peckish?
So, let’s be honest. An MP as mayor might be illegal, and the Masters aren’t going to want a Seeker in the mayoral office anyway. She probably has no real platform, although she may still be able to pull together an odd but effective coalition. All in all, the Parliamentarian’s candidacy is a tough nut to crack. Still, I think that it is crackable, and most rewarding if someone achieves it.
(Thoughts on platform welcome.)
The Parliamentarian is a player-designed character from the Silver Tree Kickstarter, which makes me doubt she’ll take a greater role in the game, unless she and her old compatriots (now largely retired) return for a Third City-based story.
The four major acquaintances, all at the same time. If you want a close race, that’s how.