You can invite and kick out board members at will, you can swap the union leadership in a swift action but you can’t ever change the Charter.
The charter decision is given very early in the railroad campaign, it can be a bit confusing for new players. Also the choice to give ownership to the workers only comes up once at a certain narrow point. I messed up and didn’t make the decision while it could be done. I didn’t have Acona in my Board (right after rescuing and healing her) at the time and there was no warning or grayed out option about it being the only chance to give the ownership to the workers. And now I have no way to make the change. Alas, that decision is crucial for my character as it would define her whole being.
I think it could be fixed in a couple of possible ways:
Removing the requirement “Tracklayers’ Work Stoppage exactly 100” for the “Recommend giving the workers a share of the company” option. This way a player can make the decision at any time once “Involved in a Railway Venture” is 60 or higher.
Making an option to stage/fake/instigate a strike artificially. Maybe asking Acona for it or working in secret.
I know this is unlikely to happen but I figured I might as well try making the suggestion. I got somewhat soft-locked since it has been my character’s main goal from the beginning of the railroad enterprise. Not being able to do that compromises her whole character, to the point I am not comfortable playing as her.
I mean I get the narrative reason why the Charter is inflexible. Makes sense that a company doesn’t change its reason for existence very often. But I agree, the current system has room for improvement.
I think the Charter is inconsistent with how important it really is. Is it just something colorful that happens at the beginning of the story? Is it a substantial RP decision? Is it a significant mechanical choice? It seems to have too many mechanical effects to just be some color at the beginning of the story (I can never have Southwark on my board!), but it doesn’t have enough mechanical effects to really be a mechanical decision. And if it’s an RP decision, the initial choice comes too early in the story, and the later option to change seems kind of narrow and obscure.
Maybe there should be a way to change it. Not any easy way, mind you, but something. Like maybe if you raise your Corporate Debt to 10, there’s a shareholder revolt and you have to restructure the company or something. I dunno. But the current system, feels like both initially and during the strike you’re making an important decision without enough information.
When I was choosing my charter, the sciency one, I convinced all the members and…
hit the wrong button. I managed to run a charterless corporation until the union gave me a second chance.
Personally I wish the charter had meaningful values other than “labor” and “not labor”. Let me do some sciencey stuff with my science-oriented train company
It could be “do you want to give up your scientific mission and do what the laborers want?” instead of just “do you want to give up 10e per week forever in exchange for bypassing this stoppage and making Furnace pro-dividends?”
Maybe let science trains produce a bunch of lab research, just like we already use the trains to advance the Parabolan War. And other stuff for the other charters; I don’t actually remember what the options were
Late to the party, but during my first blind foray into building the Railway, I picked the Scientific charter because I have a personal disdain for: the profiteering fatcats, the poor beggars, the ‘communist’ unionists, the sanctimonious religious types and those soul-lusting devils.
By process of elimination and by default, Scientific wins.
That said, in terms of practical benefits, the Worker or Charitable charter seem to be better choices. I looked through the wiki, and the Scientific charter seems to be the least rewarding of all.
Also, though I have already built Marigold station, I have yet to decide on building my Railway church. It’s Church of the Wild or the Counter Church for me… the reason, I have already given earlier.
