The Candidate

Solo
Difficulty 2 of 3
Not recommended under 14
Available in: Français, English, Español, Deutsch, Italiano

Republic of Valmoria, a hundred days before the presidential election. You're third in the polls, your party doesn't like you, and an unscrupulous adviser offers to win by any means. How far will you go?

The rulebook at a glance

d20 + attribute
4 attributes
The polls

Read the rules

Choose an adventure

Campaign
A Hundred Days
4 sessions · satire, ambition, dilemmas
Cost: 4 Dice for the whole table
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By the Icotale team

The world

PlaceThe Republic of ValmorieA medium-sized country, proud of its democracy, its cheeses and its Thursday-night TV debates.
PlaceThe campaign HQAn old furniture store rented in a hurry: screens, cold pizza, thirty volunteers and an advisor who sleeps on site.
PlaceThe set of "Facing the Nation"The Thursday-night show: three journalists, a rival, and twelve million viewers.
PlaceParty headquartersMarble, portraits, and party barons who didn't vote for you in the primary.
FactionThe Renewal PartyYour party, officially. Its barons preferred another candidate and are waiting for your fall to say so.
CharacterMarc DelormeYour strategy advisor: brilliant, cynical, always ready with a "solution". He has won three elections and lost two friends.
CharacterVictoire LansacThe front-runner: the sitting president, smooth, popular, and never caught out.
CharacterInès BarralAn investigative journalist at the Daily, who has a file on every candidate — and says so.

The rulebook

Resolving actions

Roll 1d20 and add the attribute modifier: 11 or more succeeds, 14 against a journalist or a well-prepared rival, 17 live in front of the whole country.
A natural 20 produces a soundbite that goes down in history; so does a natural 1, but not in a good way.

Initiative : 1d20 + Nerve modifier

Attributes

Charisma CHA: Win over a room, a TV studio, a country.
Network NET: Officials, donors, unions, journalists: who owes what to whom.
Nerve NRV: Dare, bluff, turn a scandal into an advantage.
Composure COM: Hold steady on live TV, take a hit, not reply at 3 a.m.

Special rules

The polls: The Storyteller keeps track of the candidate's voting intention in the flags, in points, and announces it every round that changes it. A live success raises it, a scandal lowers it, an exposed lie makes it crash. The election is won above 50 in the runoff.
Skeletons in the closet: Every shady "method" (a leak, a forgery, a backroom deal) earns points right away and a skeleton in the flags. Every skeleton has a chance to come back out in each following session: the Storyteller draws one at random when the story allows it.
The soundbite: Once per session, the candidate can deliver a soundbite, written by the player: if it makes the table laugh or cheer, it counts as a natural 20. The Storyteller has the press repeat it for the rest of the campaign.

Character creation

Roll 4 dice with 6 faces per attribute, keep the 3 best · 2 rerolls allowed4d6kh3

Origins

Small-town mayor: Knows every market and every prefect; +1 to Network.
Former minister: Has already been betrayed by their own side, and learned from it; +1 to Composure.
Outsider: Entrepreneur, doctor or TV host: nothing to lose; +1 to Nerve.

Vocations

The orator: A voice, a hall, a crowd.
The technocrat: A fully costed program and a memory full of files.
The people's champion: Markets, cafés, everyone's first name.
The strategist: Three moves ahead, and a plan B for each one.

Derived values

Hit points: 8 + Composure modifier
Defense: 10 + Nerve modifier
Initiative: 1d20 + Nerve modifier

Starting equipment

A phone that never stops ringing
A 40-page program nobody has read
A lucky tie

Veils

Topics kept off screen: the Narrator never shows or describes them.

sexual violence
realistic terrorist attacks