The Washington Roleplay (or just Washington) is a currently-running roleplay on the Portal to the Multiverse forums of NationStates, run by Prolieum
. It has its own wikia, edited and run by many of the current players involved. It can be found here.
The Washington Roleplay plays out the world of the American political system in the present day, with player characters taking up roles from politicians to businessmen, and necessary Presidents and political figures post-Reagan being replaced by Captain Ersatz versions of themselves (President Shrub sound vaguely familiar?) The roleplay runs through elections, from the Presidential campaign down to even lowly county executives, depending on the players taking part, simulating campaigns and elections alongside congressional work and the business of government. The mammoth series of 2016 campaigns have been completed, and the roleplay has been progressing through the tumultuous first year of the newly-elected Reed Administration.
The roleplay went through two earlier versions, and one spin-off after the first attempt fell apart after an overthrow of the government, before coming together in the third, current, and canon version run by Prolieum, which has run for over two years and six thousand pages of roleplay and out-of-character chatter.
Washington provides examples of:
- Alternate Timeline: The roleplay starts at the beginning of 2016, and had quite a different political year than in real life-Calvin Reed, rather than Donald Trump, is now the President of the United States.
- Attack of the Political Ad: Fairly common in campaigns, ranging from mild to severe-or, in the case of one advertisement by Senator Nilap accusing his opponent of conspiring to steal Alaskan oil for North Korea-unintentionally hilarious.
- Big Brother Is Watching: The revelation that the NSA was being used to spy on Secretary of State Jay Garestaer and other Republicans by the Democratic administration triggered a scandal, and a (failed) impeachment attempt).
- Blood on the Debate Floor: Over the DEFACED bill, Alaskan Senator Nilap went from words to fists on New Mexican Senator Villanueva de Peña, breaking her nose, as well as several of her ribs. She stayed on the Senate floor until the final vote on the bill was called.
- Blonde Republican Sex Kitten: While not blonde, Tea Party firebrand Senator Villanueva de Peña would certainly never be called a stuffy old man.
- Butt-Monkey: Increasingly, President Reed, who seems to not be able to go two weeks without something going wrong for him.
- Captain Ersatz: Any Presidents or Vice-Presidents post-Reagan, before 2008. (Bush=Shrub, Gore=Blood, etc.)
- Category Traitor: Senator Gianna Carrollton, ex-Republican, now-Democrat, received no end of grief about her conversion, though moreso from Democrats who believed her to still be hanging on the other side.
- Decided by One Vote: Not quite by a single vote, but the Montana gubernatorial and Alaska senatorial elections were both decided by under two hundred votes.
- Dirty Communists: West Virginia Representative Pross was labeled as this after outing himself as a Democratic Socialist after claiming to be a capitalist through the election process. Washington Representative Martin Taylor is also considered one, with varying degrees of accuracy.
- False Rape Accusation: Levied against Calvin Reed while on his Presidential campaign by an actress hired by cigarette companies opposing his policies-holes in the story ended up making the accusation backfire, helping Reed, with blame falling on the Democrats.
- Fat Bastard: Two hundred forty plus pound Peter Amaras isn't exactly the most well-liked and polite sort of man.
- The Government: From a county officer to the President of the United States.
- The Great Wall: Senator Egazarian was quite vociferous in his calls to "build a wall" (and make Mexico pay for it).
- Gunboat Diplomacy: The negotiation of a missile-defense installation by Secretary of Defense Rodham and Secretary of the Interior Schlang in Micronesia had quite a bit of menace behind it.
- I Approved This Message: In-place as in real-life after candidate-sponsored campaign advertisements.
- Landslide Election: The combination of a massive Democratic collapse, an powerful Progressive Party insurgency, and an strong Republican campaign led to Calvin Reed winning the Presidency with a record 61.55% of the popular vote, as well as 505 electoral votes.
- Overly Long Name: New Mexico Senator María Antonieta María Guadalupe García Zavala Arroyo Castruita Talamantez Villanueva de Peña
- Political Cartoons: A rather crude one involving Secretary Garestaer and President Assad in...compromising positions drew some controversy early in the primaries.
- Politically Motivated Teacher: Professor Blythe, who alternated between college courses and seeking the Libertarian nomination for President.
- Politicians Kiss Babies: Subverted in rather creepy fashion, when Jay Garestaer took a baby at a rally and held it up before the crowd, proclaiming it as the purest form of life before the spread of corruption.
- Scandalgate: Used several times, such as the Pollgates scandal in Mississippi.
- Sliding Scale of Libertarianism and Authoritarianism: Politicians are present on all sides of this spectrum, from near-anarchist Anita Flores to neofascist Andrew Sloan.
- Nothing but Skin and Bones: Jay Garestaer is about five-feet, ten inches: and weighs under a hundred pounds.
- Southern Gentleman: Alois Kramer of Alabama is known for being unfailingly polite, even when insulting someone. Thaddeus Stevens of South Carolina fits the bill as well.
- Straw Character: Several dumb, racist, right-wingers made as southern politicians have been accused of being this, particularly Governors Beauregard and Williams.
- You Killed My Father: A political rally gone bad in the President's hometown by an insurgent candidate led to Dianna Noble doing just this to the President's father, along with seven others.
