Last updated 2026
Politiplay is fantasy politics played in the real world and scored by the real world.
You draft eleven public figures for the week ahead. When your figures become central to consequential events, you score points. When they stumble, implode, get caught, get fired, get indicted, or otherwise suffer the wrong kind of consequence, you lose them.
This is not a game of noise. It is a game of consequence.
Your squad must include:
Your Captain scores 2×.
Your Wildcard scores 1.5×.
If your Captain has a bad week, that damage is doubled too. Choose accordingly.
The talent pool is organized into four Leagues:
The American Theater
The White House, Congress, governors, courts, party machinery, and the rest of the U.S. political circus.
The Global Order
Heads of state, ministers, opposition leaders, diplomatic players, and international power brokers.
The Commentariat
Anchors, columnists, podcasters, strategists, donor whisperers, and the rest of the people who shape the conversation that shapes policy.
The Irregulars
Provocateurs, dissidents, insurgents, spoilers, and agents of chaos. High volatility. High risk. Sometimes high reward.
Politiplay scores real political consequence, not mere chatter.
A scoreable event must have measurable effect in the world of law, policy, elections, diplomacy, war, institutions, or governance.
Every scoreable event is assigned a Gravity Tier.
Base points:
Not everybody in a story matters equally.
Example
A senator authors a landmark bill:
Tier 4 × Architect = 15 × 3 = 45
A senator merely quoted in coverage of that same bill:
Tier 4 × Referenced = 15 × 0.5 = 7.5
Before a score is finalized, every event passes through one basic test:
Did something actually happen?
If the answer is yes — legally, legislatively, diplomatically, militarily, economically, electorally, or institutionally — it gets full credit.
If it is all heat and no consequence, it gets downgraded or ignored.
Politiplay measures consequence, not noise.
Political life includes humiliation, failure, reversal, collapse, exposure, and disgrace. Politiplay scores those too.
Your figures can lose points for things like:
Same tiers. Same agency multipliers. Just negative.
If your Captain implodes, you feel it twice.
Sometimes one event helps one figure and hurts another at the same time.
When that happens, each figure is scored separately according to their role in the event.
The figure who gains authority may score positive. The figure who loses authority may score negative.
That is not a glitch. That is politics.
The weekly cycle. Fresh squad, fresh scoreboard, fresh news cycle.
Rules:
You may make a limited number of swaps each week before the Sweep locks.
The Hot File is Politiplay's editorial tip sheet. It does not score points by itself.
It exists to help you draft smarter.
Blazers
Figures already dominating the consequential news cycle.
Ones to Watch
Figures likely to break through soon because of a vote, hearing, summit, ruling, election, speech, scandal, or other approaching event.
The Hot File rewards people who pay attention.
If you think the editorial board got a scoring call wrong, you can challenge it.
Objections do not freeze the live scoreboard, but they do create a formal review.
To file an Objection:
Review process:
Possible outcomes:
Every completed Objection is logged in the Precedent Record, which becomes the common law of Politiplay scoring.
Politiplay is not about who shouts loudest. It is about who matters when the world moves.
You do not need a degree in political science to play.
You need curiosity, judgment, and a decent nose for consequence.
Draft well.
Choose your Captain carefully.
Pay attention.
The world will do the rest.
Related
Policy-oriented summaries: Scoring rubric · Fairness & adjudication.