Crossroads of Destiny (shortened to COD, not to be confused with a franchise of the same abbreviation) is a President Infinity based election game roleplay on AlternateHistory.com, headed and run by the user Heliogabalus since it's inception.
It is currently by far the longest and most famous election game roleplay on the site, having previously traded blows with Price Of Wisdom until finally overtaking it by many miles. It is currently on it's Fourth thread, and it's simplistic style, speed, deep communal storytelling and a fierce political arena have made it into an inspiration for many PI election games afterwards. Crossroads of Destiny started in the year 1860 and is currently in 2004.
The current thread may be found here
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Tropes:
- Archive Panic: Combining all 3 threads, COD is over 1235 pages long and it is currently the largest Election Game on the forum.
- Crapsack World : The world suffers a nuclear WW3 , the President has been assassinated and several radical parties are getting stronger. The nation is on the brink of famine and the economy is undergoing a full meltdown.
- Fictional Political Party: Too many to count. Of the parties from OTL, the Republicans and Constitutional Unionists merge into the National Unity Party in 1869, which itself merges into the Democratic-Republican Party of the United Sates (DRUSA) in 1888. The Democrats rebrand themselves as the Courage Party in 1880, which also merges into DRUSA in 1888.
- New-Age Retro Hippie: President N.H.C. Gregor (r. 1878-1881) starts speaking like a stereotypical hippie after he beomes addicted to opium. During his post-presidency, he attempts to start a new musical trend and then moves to China. His descendant, Guru W.S.A. Gregor, plays this trope straight, being the leader of a commune.
- Arch-Enemy: Potter and Fowl was a particulary nasty rivalry for over sixteen ingame years, it has settled down in recent years however with Fowl as Potter’s UN Ambassador.
- Commie Nazis: With the genocidal actions by the Communist party of Germany in Eastern Europe, Germany seems to have become this. Unlike with the trope picture however, this is horrific rather then amusing.
- Dark Horse Victory : Louis Orléans run in 1936 end with him preventing Incumbent President J Edgar Hoover of the Progressive-Republican Party to goes to the second round and then beating Edward Brooke Lee from the Conservative Party in the second round . He will won two other term (1940 and 1944) before being assassinated
- Government in Exile : Due to the two Worlds Wars , the German Wars and the Cold War it has happened to a lot of government . Especially the british government who goes to Canada and the French Government who goes to Africa
- Landslide Election : President Orléans (1937-1945) reelection in 1944 in the second round and President Nixon (1953-1961) reelection in 1956 who didn't goes to a second round .
- President Evil : President J Edgar Hoover (1933-1936) who tried to kill President-Elect Orléans and Vice President-Elect Anthony North to provoke a constitutional crisis with the objectif to stay in power .
- Nuclear Weapons Taboo : Subverted At the end of WW3, Germany and the Western Power ended up killing each other by using nukes . Western Europe is destroyed (and nearly everyone lost their lives), Central Europe is in a slightly better shape and the US only get Four City destroyed due to nukes but suffer from several anthrax attacks that contamine New England, Charleston and Florida
- Controversy-Proof Image : Dwight Potter despite continually trying to end NASA funding, invading Arabia, starting World War 3, wiretapping another party in congress, targeting Reform party officials in drug investigations and being a key reason why the 1980 election was the most negative in the countries history still manages to get elected twice, in both 1976 and 1980.
- Attack of the Political Ad : The 1980 Presidential Election is notorious for this . President Potter used several Ads to say that his Opponent former Secretary Bonaparte supported the Genocide in the Balkans . Bonaparte wasn't better, he used the OTL Daisy Ads to say that President Potter will cause a Nuclear Exchange with germany He indeed provoke one and kill millions of people
- Worthy Opponent : President Louis Orléans (1937-1945) think of this about Jezza O'Shea two times his opponent in the general election . The reversal is true .
- Balkanize Me : Pretty much all of Europe after WW3 (1980-1984) . And China since WW2 (1930-1935)
- Historical Downgrade : OTL President Theodore Roosevelt suffer of it . In the game he is the candidate for the progressive three times (and each time falling to goes to the second round) and due to this get a very nice surname Loservelt
- Relucant Ruler : President F. Scott Fitzgerald (1945-949) who became President after the assassionation of President Orléans (1937-1945)
- Celebrating the Heroes : The return of Richard Nixon, Lyndon Baines Johnson and Ronald Reagan from their mission to liberate former President Jay Gatling of his German Incarceration . It lead to a movie called Saving President Gatling
- Women Are Wiser : Well in a way . All Women president in the game (there has been 4) have been good to great president , one restore American Economy after a recession, one win a civil war , rebuild america after a civil war, president a Constitutional convention and another has been the most prolific legislative president since decades . In contrast with men like President Potter who provoke a nuclear war and tried to wiretap it's opposition , Women President are for now in general wiser than Men President
- Matriarchy : American Presidential System became this for a time after the Nuclear War . From 1987 to 2004, there has been only women president , and in 1992 the two prominent candidate were both women .
- Bury Your Gays : There has been two gays president (who were at a time in a relationship with each other) who had to hide their sexual identity due to the fact that in the 30s gays weren't exactly accepted . They both died assassinated, one because he wanted to become a dictator, the others because the perpetuator was mad.
- Deal with the Devil : President-Elect Orléans has to do this with the Director of the FBI Huey Long in order to stop the previous President J.Edgar Hoover to become a dictator by killing Orléans and his running mate and to take control of congress .
- Assassination Attempt : Happens a lot of time during the game , the last one when Jim Buckley, the leader of the Far-Right during the Second American Civil tried to kill President Murillo, Vice President Moon and Secretary of State Bonaparte . He did kill Murillo and Bonaparte but Moon survived .
- Bloody Horror : The reaction of nearly everyone after the Nuclear Exchange It has been estimated that between 300 to 400 millions peoples has been killed directly due to the war . Mainly due to the exchange . And let's not speak of the consequence
- Awakening the Sleeping Giant : Subverted during WW2. American entrance in the war only end with Germans and Austrians troops invading Canada and Japanese bombing day and night the Western coast and trying an invasion . Played straight during the German War of Independence (1940-1945) America entrance successfully help the German to overcome the Austrian, liberating France and defeating Australia
Characters
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Arianne Nightingale "Arya" Moon
OTL equivalent? - Yes, Jerry Brown. Or Lyndon Johnson. Or Abraham Lincoln. All three qualifies.
The former Princess of Psychedelia, Arya Moon, the illegitimate daughter of Audrey Wilson, has risen far from growing up in a hippie community in California not knowing of her true parentage. After transforming California into the "Technicolor State" and becoming Vice-President to Tadeo Murillo, she've became a very different person than the bohemian hippie she once was, instead becoming a fully-serious and mature president that the nation rallied behind.
- Drugs Are Bad: Her present attitude to her former addiction. And she did struggle with her health due to former narcotic abuse early in her first term.
- Drugs Are Good: Her former view, and so far, there've not been any real major consequences to her drug addiction apart from a bout of sickness in her first term, and it could be argued that she was an example of Drunken Master, as she've rosen rather quickly in politics while being high a lot of times. However, she has been a very capable president, so maybe drugs wasn't important.
- Granola Girl: A somewhat-downplayed version [especially as President], but definitely a version of this. She've been said to believe in free love, searching for enlightenment and likely have a few healing crystals and whatnot. No tie-dyes though, this is the 90s.
- Mama's Baby, Papa's Maybe: Her biological father is unknown, with Audrey Wilson refusing to say who it was.
- Vision Quest: Her becoming "vanished without a trace" for months is heavily implied to be a version of this, as it marks the end of her Governorship and leads her to federal politics and eventually to the White House.
