Caucuses

Overview#

Caucuses are opt-in sub-blocs inside a national party. They give players a way to organize around a shared line, pool caucus funds, run caucus-specific whips, and build a more disciplined internal faction without creating a separate party.

They are a national-party-only feature. State and regional party chapters do not own caucuses.

Core Structure#

Each caucus has:

• a name
• a description
• an optional motto
• a color
• a Chair
• a Vice Chair
• a caucus treasury
• a caucus Tax rate from 0% to 5%
• a roster of player and NPP members
• a set of caucus policy positions

The current player-facing surface lives inside the national party page under the Caucuses tab.

Sub-Tabs#

Each caucus currently exposes five sub-tabs:

• Overview
• Roster
• Whip
• Elections
• Chair's Office (Chair only)

Membership#

Player Membership#

Players can join or leave caucuses through the caucus membership flow. The caucus roster shows both player and NPP members.

NPP Membership#

NPPs can be recruited into a caucus by the Caucus Chair through the Chair's Office.

Current recruitment rules:

• NPP must be in the same party
• NPP must not be retired
• NPP must not already belong to another caucus
• the Chair must have at least 60 relationship with the NPP
• the caucus must not be on its 12-turn recruitment cooldown

The recruit menu intentionally hides:

• NPPs already in another caucus
• NPPs below the relationship threshold

So the picker only surfaces same-party NPPs that are actually in range to be recruited once the caucus is off cooldown.

Caucus-Wide Recruit Cooldown#

Successful NPP recruitment triggers a caucus-wide cooldown of 12 turns (12h at standard cadence, freezes if the game is paused).

The UI always shows one of two recruitment states:

• Recruitment Available
• Xh Ym cooldown

This cooldown belongs to the caucus as a whole, not to an individual NPP.

Relationship Maintenance#

Caucus NPP membership is relationship-sensitive over time.

Per-Turn Decay#

Every stored NPP-to-character relationship drifts 0.1 toward neutral each turn:

• positive scores move down toward 0
• negative scores move up toward 0

This keeps one-off relationship gains from becoming permanent access to caucus control, Slate leverage, or other NPP systems.

Retention Threshold#

After the decay pass, caucus NPPs are checked against the current Chair.

If an NPP's relationship with the Chair falls below 20, the NPP automatically leaves the caucus during turn upkeep.

This is intentionally much lower than the 60 recruit threshold, so caucus membership is harder to earn than it is to maintain.

Caucus Treasury#

Caucuses maintain their own treasury and can tax caucus funds at 0-5%.

Current caucus treasury controls in Chair's Office:

• edit caucus Tax
• send caucus funds to active caucus member players
• transfer caucus funds back to the parent national party treasury

These actions create treasury audit rows so caucus spending remains visible in the broader party record.

Caucus Whip#

Each caucus has its own Whip sub-tab.

The caucus whip surface mirrors the main party Whip Room, but its scope is limited to caucus members only.

Current behavior:

• Players and NPPs sub-tabs
• player Soft and Hard whip modes
• bill-by-bill whipping
• leadership whipping
• no standing-order-based caucus whip behavior in the current intended flow

See party-whips.md for the broader whip model.

Caucus Chair Elections#

Each caucus now has an Elections sub-tab where active caucus members can:

• view the active or most recent Caucus Chair election
• declare candidacy
• withdraw candidacy
• vote for the next caucus chair

Schedule#

Caucus chair elections run on the same cadence as the parent party's national leadership cycle. In practice, caucus elections are anchored to the active national Chair election window for the same party and country, so caucus leadership turns over alongside party leadership.

Participation Rules#

• only active caucus player members may run or vote
• the same new-character cooldown used for party leadership elections applies
• NPPs do not run for or vote in caucus chair elections

Resolution#

When the election ends:

• the winning player becomes the new caucus Chair
• the outgoing chair's caucus membership role is demoted back to member
• the winner's caucus membership role is promoted to chair

Ties break toward the earliest declaration timestamp, matching the broader party leadership election expectation.

Chair's Office#

The caucus Chair's Office is only visible to the current caucus Chair.

It is where caucus leadership manages:

• caucus identity fields (name, motto, description, color)
• caucus Tax
• caucus treasury sends and transfers
• NPP recruitment into the caucus

The NPP recruitment panel shows:

• the NPP's current relationship with the Chair
• the NPP's current office, if any
• caucus-wide recruitment cooldown state

Caucus Health Dashboard#

Party members get caucus-health visibility in two places:

• a high-level Caucus Health summary in the national party Analytics tab
• a richer per-caucus health view inside each caucus Overview

The health pass currently surfaces:

• a simple Healthy, Strained, or Fragile label for each caucus
• recent joins, leaves, and forced exits over the latest short turn window
• current caucus-whip defiance counts
• whether a caucus chair election is active
• NPP members who are drifting close to the Chair relationship exit threshold

Policy Positions#

Caucuses can define internal policy positions. These positions are intended to signal what the caucus stands for inside the party and help support factional identity beyond simple membership.

Design Intent#

Caucuses are meant to create:

• internal party faction play
• smaller whip blocs inside a large national party
• treasury and patronage decisions at a sub-party level
• relationship-driven NPP faction building

They are not meant to replace the national party itself, and they do not create separate ballot lines or separate election parties.

Related Docs#

• party-building.md
• party-whips.md
• party-influence.md