File: 1353989498656.jpg-(118 KB, 580x418, e15-704.jpg)

Less often discussed are the fraying edges of this miracle. The intense pressures of the reforms are beginning to strain even great China. Separatist cliques, bitter rivalries, corrupt officials, and an increasingly restive populous all conspire to undo decades of work. The white hot economic growth that has driven the nation's meteoric rise has begun to show its ill effects, with inflation and growing inequality tearing at the social fabric. Even the earth itself seems to be in revolt, burdened by the advance of your people. The wise among the party know this can't go on. A moment of reckoning is coming, and the future of the nation hinges of the decisions of these next years.

This is the world that is to be your stage. As a young up and coming party member you have been tapped to act as the governor of one of China's many provinces. You were appointed directly by the central commission, endowed with the unquestioned authority of the party and clothed in the immense powers of the state. You are one in a million, but you are also one among many. Power in the people's republic is a precarious thing, only the canniest politicians will rise to the top. It is only fitting that you should share in the fate of your people. Success will be rewarded richly. Failures will be deemed counterrevolutionary.

Welcome to Commie Quest, an interactive story of action, intrigue, and grain production quota management. You're going to have to bear with me, as tonight it going to be a short and somewhat slowpoke.jpg session. Since character creation will affect things drastically I'm going to be writing a lot on the fly. Commie Quest is rules light, after character creation there will be no dice rolls of any kind! Still there are a few stats, used more as guides than anything, but still important.

POPULARITY: Popularity measures your general acclaim and goodwill with the people. High popularity makes your people happier, and gives you more leeway in dealing with them. Negative popularity makes you infamous with your people, and renders you a lightning rod for criticism. Those who cultivate their popularity enough can even use the people to influence politics. Be warned though, since the great turmoil no one man has ruled China. Those who would seek to put themselves above the party often meet an ingominous end.

GUANXI: Relationships, connections, pull. Guanxi encompasses all those concepts and more. In a nation that is run on relationships as much as laws it rules supreme. It represents your standing in the party and the influence you have over others. It is often said to be worth more than money, though the Chinese spend it in much the same way. Maintaining high guanxi will offer you passive bonuses such as introductions and prestige, and it can be expended in critical situations to call in a favor or grease a sticky wheel. Finding yourself bereft of guanxi in a tight spot is the absolute worst fate that can befall an ambition party member.

STANDING: Represents your general standing with a faction. China's polity is locked in a constant struggle between various forces. Reformers, conservatives, businessmen, the military, and others all vie for control. Your actions will be noted by these groups, and come to have consequences in time.

File: 1353989705931.jpg-(85 KB, 580x397, e13-136.jpg)

So, now that we've got the boring bits out of the way /tg/, tell me your NAME.

>>21769443
Xiaoli Cai

File: 1353990564127.png-(207 KB, 1000x816, China_administrative_clai(...).png)

>>21769590
>Xiaoli Cai

Yes! You are Xiaoli Cai, recently promoted cadre member and governor of.... where was that backwater called again?

((Roll 1d10 for starting location!))

Rolled 9

>>21769631
Why, how could I forget that? It's...

>Commie Quest
Well, this might be interes-
>China
...Dammit, I wanted to be a stereotypical Russian.

File: 1353990925444.png-(112 KB, 500x398, 500px-Guangdong_in_China_(...).png)

>>21769646

Guangdong! China's most populous province, and by far one of its wealthiest. One of your patrons from the party school secured you this posting so that you would be well positioned for promotion. The opportunities here are immense, but all eyes will be on you.

File: 1353991153560.jpg-(84 KB, 580x397, e12-532.jpg)

Guangdong, cradle of the reform and opening, first of China's mighty economic zones, a prize almost beyond compare. You never would have dreamed this day would come back when you were a humble.....

((Roll 1d10 for starting background))

Rolled 9

>>21769741

File: 1353991620392.jpg-(88 KB, 395x580, e13-249.jpg)

>>21769765

((Motherfuckers have magic dice!))

....child growing up in Zhongnanhai. Well there was really nothing humble about if truth be told, though you did try. You are child of the elite, raised in privilege and groomed for power. Your family line dates back to the oldest, and loyalist of party supporters. Your grandfather traces his party lineage back to the long march, a war forged crucible that shaped the party into the force it is. All of this is your birthright, and you intend to make full use of it. Already your supporters are positioned to assist in your rise.

===Princeling===
+25 Guanxi

>>21769834
You might want to give translations for some of the Chinese, OP. To someone who doesn't know the language and is skimming your paragraph, it might not be immediately apparent that guanxi means connections.

File: 1353991946332.jpg-(109 KB, 580x397, pc-1958-024.jpg)

Everything is coming to fruition. You reflect on the events that brought you here. All the trials and failures. All the fortune and hard work. Three events stand out above the rest, etched into your memory as clear as if they were yesterday.

((Looking for three people to roll 1d10!))

Rolled 1

>>21769900
We better be a graduate of a respected classicist school, OP.

>>21769892

Sorry, I mentioned it briefly in the intro, but its a stat. Guanxi is basically social capital. It will allow you to impress, insinuate, cajole, or outright threaten people of comparably lower stature. It also signifies how useful those around you judge you to be.

Rolled 7

rollan

Rolled 10

>>21769892
It was capitalised in the second post.

Rolled 10

Come on, dice.

Really hope OP goes with these for the rad-factor.
>>21769937
>>21769942
>>21769940

>>21769940
Third post/second reply, rather.

>>21769942
Ninja'd with the same roll. Forgive the mention of that foreign culture.

>>21769946
>not hoping OP goes with 1, 10, 10
Unlikely, though.

>>21769927

Not all branches of the family tree bore fruit. While many selflessly gave their lives and livelihoods to the revolution others stubbornly clung to their livelihoods. Your great uncle, Xiaoli Jun, was a landowner who collaborated with the Japanese. For all its good service this stain was never fully wiped from your family history, and it follows you to this day.

===Class Enemy===
-10 Guanxi
-5 Relations (Conservatives)

>>21769993
Fucking nips! I hope he died in the rape of Nanking.

>>21770006

Woah dude. Easy.

>>21769937

You never could bear to be merely an instrument of the party. While others were attending meetings and dinners you were out among the people. You made service the work of your youth, cultivating an exemplary image among the commoners. You may have lost some small measure of respect from doddering teachers and elders, but it was a small price to pay.

===Man of the People===
Popularity +10
-5 Guanxi

>>21770027
Collaborationists. Pfftt. Deserves to be thrown into a room filled with disease ridden mosquitoes and broken glass on the floor.
Die slowly you traitors, die slowly.

>>21769993
>>21770044

Taking big hits to our Guanxi here. Guess we have plenty to spare.

File: 1353992885319.jpg-(24 KB, 503x335, bo xilai.jpg)

>>21770044
>Low guanxi hi popularity

>hi there.

>>21770065
Preach the good word, brother! The good word of atheist communism, anyway. Not that theist shit.

>>21769942

One incident in particular overshadows them all. While you were in Beijing a young woman near you was hit by a car. When the driver fled the scene you called the police and stayed with her until an ambulance could arrive. The incident exploded on the internet, raising you to almost cult status overnight The government quickly seized on the moment, raising you up as a paragon of Party selflessness.

===Big Damn Hero===
+20 Popularity

>>21769703
Really? Guandong? C'mon, you know all good politicians come from the Henan and Beijing area.
The only thing that ever comes out of Guandong are movies in Cantonese. Fucking cantonese.

File: 1353993364362.jpg-(13 KB, 304x171, _58359022_chn_maozedong_afp.jpg)

Well now, that was interesting. All in all the eternally vigilant corpse of Mao smiled on your dice. Lets take a look at your final stats.

10 Guanxi
30 Popularity
-5 Relations (Conservatives)

You have modest connections, you are extremely well loved by the people, and you are held in slight disregard by the conservatives of the party.

File: 1353993717963.jpg-(40 KB, 560x325, china-government-building(...).jpg)

As your car slows to a stop you step out and find yourself before an imposing concrete building. No matter how much things may change, party sanctioned architecture remains hideously stalinist. It would be comforting if it weren't so incredibly painful to look at. A man hurries out of the building to greet you.

"Welcome governor, I am Zhang Zhihua, your personal aid and assistant. I've been tasked with bringing you up to speed on recent events."

>>21770265
Come back when you're younger and female.

>>21770304
>first response after chargen
>bitches about a lack of waifu
Back in your box, pleb!

"We're quite glad you've arrived, Guangdong is in need of your skill and dedication. The previous governor's... departure left our administration in a state of disarray. There is much to discuss to be sure, but before we begin is there anything you would like to ask of me?"

>>21770265
OP, what are relations like with the outside world? Has technology continued to advance? Have the numbers of Cantonese and Mandarin speakers continued to skew? Has the crisis with the lack of Chinese women been addressed? Are there still a billion peasants in China?

>>21770341
see
>>21770346
Also how do we get more influence, is it harder to gain than popularity? Since Conservatives hate us, how repressive is china right now for liberals? What does it mean to be a Chinese liberal?

>>21770341
"Yes, there is information I need. Firstly, who are the most important people I will be working with while administering this province? I want to be sure I know who'll be objecting to what when I make decisions."

Supporting the above. We really need more info before we can do much.

Unless you're running this FATE-style, and we can totally decide the answers to these questions ourselves. That may be enough to make this stand out... for how quickly it crashes, probably. Ah well. Speaking of which...

>>21770313
Hey, I was just trying to uphold our fine traditions.

>>21770395

"Your direct superior is party commissioner Chen. Although you are governor he reports directly to the party in Beijing on behalf of Guangdong. He speaks with their voice, and acts with their will. I suggest you meet with him as soon as possible."

>>21770432
Will do. Can you set up an appointment? Brief me while we're waiting.

>>21770357

You get more influence by building relationships with other party members and doing them favors. Even fear can be a good motivator in building guanxi, as long as it's disguised in the trappings of courtesy. In the end guanxi effects your sway in the party, and so will be more important than popularity in getting things done. Not to say its the only way, but its the simplest.

>>21770453
Oh, and about my predeccessor's departure... what happened, exactly?

>>21770470
Shouldn't a result of 10 have given us a boost in Guanxi, then, not Popularity? After all, if we're a model Party member...

>>21770487
I suspect popularity may be harder to get, in the end. Kind of like being a count in CK2 means more politicking but less resources.

>>21770346

Zhang blinks briefly under the onslaught of questions before nodding solemnly.

"As you know the position of the party has become more tenuous in recent years. With the global economic crisis elements of disharmony in the country have been emboldened. Here the migrant workers have been protesting for more wages and rights. We've tried to reason with them but they've become increasingly unruly. We've tried to negotiate with them, but it seems like soon we might have to deploy the police. But if it turns into a fight...."

Zhang looks around before leaning in conspiratorially.

"The conservatives need Guangdong to fail, it was where the reforms started so it's where they need to end. They're doing everything they can to push reformers out. The last governor couldn't outmaneuver them so Chen had to cut him loose. If they get their way they'll drag us all down with them. You can't let that happen!"

>>21770537
How much do the migrants care about our popularity? We could more easily convince them to come to an agreement if they see us as being more concerned about the good of the people than our own advancement.

"Zhang, I want you to have a cost-benefit analysis made for their non-monetary demands. It may be possible to make concessions that will improve their lot without offending the businessmen too greatly"

>>21770537
This suggests that our boss is a liberal.

And seconding the rest of the questions in >>21770357
and >>21770346
Half of this shit is stuff our character would know, but I'm pretty fuzzy on it.

>>21770587

>>21770587

"I'll see to it. Governor. Many of their demands stem from their lack of citizenship in Guangdong. They have little healthcare and educational benefits for their children. Some concessions could be made at a minimum of effort, but others may prove expensive...."

Your train of thought is very suddenly interrupted by something large and distinctly on fire crashing through the window. Before you have time to react the flames catch and begin to spread across the carpeted floor. You and Zhang both exchange looks for a moment before breaking into a sprint for the nearest stairwell.

((Going to have to cut off here for tonight, info dump on some background coming up.))

>>21770346
>>21770623

ECONOMIC
The world China inhabits is much like today, only starker. The global recession continued far longer than anybody anticipated. Although China came out of it reasonably well off due to it's cash reserves and planned economy many of the problems are showing through. The massive population, now horribly lopsided in both old age and skewed gender ratios, is increasingly unable to find the prosperity promised to them. Many become migrant workers, traveling to economic meccas like Guangdong to make enough money to send home. These "bare branches" are the most likely source of trouble for you.

> all these China-related quests popping up on /tg/
I love you OP marry me. (No homo.)

Short term goals:
Get our bearings: what's the local situation, who belongs to which faction, whose power is on the rise, who do we need to suck up to in order to get shit done, etc.
Hob-nob with our superiors, peers, and underlings. Can't build up guanxi if they don't know you from Chang.

Medium-Long term goals:
Organize unions for the lower class workers
Education reform
Fight graft and corruption

>>21770740
Actually, our main short term goal is "Holy shit a fire!"

>>21770734

POLITICAL
Since the founding of the PRC left and right have struggled for control. While Mao lived the left reigned supreme, but after his death reforming moderates took the reins.

As of the current setting the reformers are people who want to continue China's economic, social, and (some day) political liberalization. They were largely untouchable in the 90s and early 2000s, but with increasing inequality and a slowing economy they are losing credibility.

The conservatives are those that favor the old ways. A strong state, a powerful military, and a highly egalitarian economy, and absolute party supremacy. Recent political tensions have also burnished their image, making them the party of nationalists.

File: 1353996835679.jpg-(20 KB, 490x360, large.jpg)

>>21770087
This made me actually laugh out loud.

WORLD
The world has become a much more tense place. The EU has dissolved, leaving Europe too fractured to act heavily in world affairs. America has been drained by it's misadventures in the middle east and withdrawn much of it's might to the home front. While they are less than they were, they are still a potent force and have begun focusing on Asia again. Japan has rescinded its pacifist constitution with America's blessing, and challenging China at sea. Other nations in the area are following suit, nettling China on an endless procession of territorial disputes.

China's military is prepared to meet these threats, potentially. While it is still no match for America or (heaven forbid) NATO it is professional and technologically advanced enough to defeat many other nations. A massive nuclear stockpile never hurt either.

>>21770749
Quick! Grab a fire extinguisher! Hundreds of US dollars worth of party-state property are at stake here!

>>21770878
>>21770794
>>21770734
Excellent work, OP.

When's the next thread?

And what do Chinese leftists in your quest do when confronted with homosexuals, religion, cooperatives (like Ocean Spray, not like some idiot commune), the people that want to restore the Imperial system, and the corruption of the party?

>>21770824

As for popularity vs. guanxi, you seem to have the gist of it. Guanxi helps you get shit done with those in the know. It is the most important stat and has concrete effects on what you can and can't get away with. You can elect to burn guanxi in extraordinary circumstances to push things your way, if you wish to do so I'll tell you how much it's going to cost.

Popularity on the other hand is a lot more vague. It effects how people outside (and to a much lesser extent in) government react to you. You can use high popularity to shield yourself from rivals, but in an authoritarian state this has it's limits. Pic very much related, Bro Xilai is the perfect example of somebody with very high popularity, but no guanxi at a critical moment. Don't be him.

Relations are similar to popularity but for groups. It just shows how well regarded you are with a faction, and in turn how likely they are to support you.

I am intrigued, Helmsman! Too bad all these fun quest threads are EATING MY LIFE AAAH!

>>21770623
Now we'll get the fun part of trying to decide how we'll act, though certainly Zhihua's quick aside does give us a nice little antagonistic tone right off the bat. Though just how much we want to ruffle the fogies' feathers (or Chen's) will be interesting to figure out.

File: 1353997855245.png-(282 KB, 315x433, Destroy_the_old_world_Cul(...).png)

>>21770923

Leftists distrust religion (see falungong), pretend homos don't exist, want to subordinate and some day eject foreign companies in favor of state owned ones, and absolutely loathe imperialists as reactionary scum (they're soviets not monarchists). They tend to be the faction of anti-corruption since in their supporters minds its the business liberalization that has turned China into a wild west free for all.

I really have to go all! Next week monday will be more polished I swear, I'll have more stuff written up. Same commie place, same commie time!

>>21771018
I think simple labels like "left" and "right", "reformers" and "moderates" do not really fit with the giant knot that is Chinese politics.

I guess it come down to, do you think Maoism was fundamentally flawed or only flawed in timing and execution?

Also keep in mind that the Chinese elite leadership are full of ENTJ type engineers. They are extremely good at manipulating people, but they are also pretty wonkish and nerdy.

>>21771123

Worth mentioning that one won't always be right and the other wrong. Sometimes you'll need to take a hard line to keep things running, or rub shoulders with people you might not care to. In my setting much of the party has started closing ranks on one end or the other, but in the end you'll need all of them to make it to the top.

Thread archived! Sleepin time!

>>21771123
>Myers-Briggs personality test
>originally built to enable a bunch of women in Amerucan WWII-era factories to work together better
>being used for anything serious

Leave that at your high-school counselor's office, anon.

>>21771214
I propose a strategy of centrism, secret or otherwise, and strong sponsorship of cooperatives to harness both the workers and the business-people.

If we're in the Chinese equivalent of California, complete with its very own variant of Hollywood, and we've got a dust bowl on our hands, the obvious solution is some FDR shit without the mistakes.

I have an idea for a concrete platform.

Tony Judt, a recently deceased and famous Western leftist, once said that democracy is by no means a pathway to wise government policies, and that allowing people to govern themselves does not mean that they were going to do so well. He's probably right.

We should maintain that China needs its educated elites to bring the benefits of its success to greater numbers, and that this will only be accomplished in a combined effort of the employer and the employed; to this end, we can use the structure of the cooperative to bankroll us into a century where we close the gap between poor and middle-class and make it easier for the middle and lower classes to spawn geniuses that benefit themselves and the nation by rising through the ranks...but primarily, they must rise into the party to gain traction. This should get anyone that succeeds in such a meteoric ascent to flock to our banner.

>>21771312
Meanwhile, we cut a deal with the locals that are butting heads as follows: we will have in-province businesses build clinics and schools for them to go to, provided they make themselves available as employees at a reduced wage in order to build said clinics and schools.

However, we will need an industrial boom in order to equitably employ all of them and give their children a future, and this we will accomplish by bringing to China what flukey venture capitalists and annoying safety laws and a monopilized fixed-wing aircraft could not bring to Europe: 21st-century airship freight.

Consider:
-half the energy cost of the US as a whole is in getting fixed-wing aircraft to move around.
-freight undertaken by road is horribly inefficient
-airships built with 21st-century materials science are capable of moving hundreds of tons of freight at a fraction of the energy cost
-the reason the four or five companies trying to make it happen in Europe and the US didn't get anywhere was because the markets there are dominated by airlines that don't want to make room and because the initial investment to get an airfield up for airships is ten times what it costs to make one for fixed-wing craft
-China's been operating under a policy of promoting an all-green electrical grid, and would LOVE to save energy
-our province has massive shipping costs as is, and imports and exports a fuckhuge amount on the world stage

>>21771365
So the workers help build their schools and medical centers and houses and our airship industry, and the business-people get cheap labor for these industrial and service-based expansions along with a steady customer base, Henry Ford style. Afterwards, we create a massive cut in costs for shipping, savings in the energy budget, more jobs, less traffic congestion, and opportunities for experienced employees of one shipping industry to shift towards another after we upscale the whole thing by increasing industrial output with the money we save.

>>21771388
Hi EL! (^Scruffy) >_>

So far seems a decent strategy, and God knows I share some of your sentiments about airships.

I do think we're going to have to bust some migrant heads in before we can bring them to the table, as it were. But we'll see!

>>21771708
>Hi EL! (^Scruffy) >_>
Huh?

Thanks for the criticism, and we'll see about those heads.

>>21771365
on the one hand I think you're trying to shoehorn in airships into this quest
on the other hand, airships are awesome
I support this

>>21771814
If you know of an energy-cheap means to transport goods over any kind of terrain and create a major industrial boost to a given economy, you let me know.

In the meantime, getting a useful vehicle for bringing in raw materials, processing them, and exporting or selling processed goods as cheaply as possible is how all the great post-medieval empires of the world made their peacetime cash.

>>21771854
Uh, railways? Very efficient, green with the right electricity, lots of tonnage.

>>21771907
Railways are currently being used to move people as much as anything else, and are less efficient than airships would be on multiple levels.

Railways are far more at the mercy of geography. Getting them through mountains is harder than getting aircraft over mountains.

Railways that are not dependent on a steady stream of goods or people to fixed destinations are also getting sold at a loss by the bushel the world over. And as China develops and trading partners shift, we are not that likely to be sending rail-freight to the same places.

Finally, railways give benefit to the nation, airships would grant benefits to wherever they're manufactured and whoever owns them. You want to broker power or be given a plaque on a wall somewhere?

>>21771771
Oh, was guessing you were Equity Lord from PostNuclearNerd's Fabrique Generale quest, and saying who I am when I participate. If I'm wrong, no worries! Just thought I saw some similarities.

>>21771907
While you have a point, I do want to point out that, if we can stop people from fucking with them too badly, being the first major power to use airships in, like...I don't know, seventy years? Would be a cool feather in our cap.

Mind it WILL get fucked with, if by competing politicos' thugs if no one else.

>>21771962
Don't forget that we'll have to get some sort of docks made in other provinces, so we'll still be at the mercy of geography for a while, on top of everything else. Though we might be able to rig some sort of cargo drop/elevator without full facilities for some locations.

>>21771907
most of the rail lines would already be built and congested by 2022, i expect

china's building rail at a freakish pace now, so they're also kind of nationalized

>>21771962
>>21771977

While i am not an expert for airships, i am pretty sure they are more expensive than freight trains, slower and can transport far less tonnage. There is a reason why most modern trade is done via container ships and railroads. You can just transport a fuckload of stuff at the same time. Thats easy to plan and limits the costs of unloading.

>>21772090
The minimum cost of unloading is you throw it off a ramp with a parachute on. And airships could go eighty+ miles an hour while hauling a hundred tons with 1930s materials science. This is without considering the massive cost of breaking into the nationalized rail industry.

On the whole, I'd see what OP thinks.

>>21771253
>anything serious
... This is a quest thread. You do know that we are not actually running Guandong, China, right?

Don't worry. I don't use it to make life changing decisions.

>>21772270
I just see that fucking test hailed as the will of god sometimes, usually by people who are also into astrology and the 2012 crisis and other shit that not even /x/ would bother with.

Myers-Briggs is shit, though. Extremely mood dependent and subjective. Few people test the same way twice.

>>21772153
Actually, the trans-shipping costs of rail is apparently what kills them. They can carry 100 tons per brake fairly easily, which is 70 tons of freight per car, but the trains in the US that carry that much go 20mph the whole way when you do the math to average their speed.

Unless it is a commodity with a fixed destination, though, the inflexible nature of the rail system means that rail freight is frequently passed up for highway freight. Even if China had rail lines that are as flexible as highway lines and somehow avoided the massive congestion, most economically viable semis can only carry 25 to 50 tons and are prone to getting stuck in highway traffic. And rail traffic jams make highway traffic jams look like nothing by comparison, though when trains are sitting around empty in trainyards for weeks it gets even more ridiculous.