Build a coalition bill by bill, trade provisions for votes, but don't sell out the public.
You chair a make-believe legislature. Each session presents a bill and a pool of amendments. Add provisions to win over individual legislators and strike ones that cost you support, watch the live vote tally, and call the vote once you hold a majority. Tempting earmarks buy a single vote but bleed your public-approval meter, lean on pork too often and the public revolts.
Common Ground is a strategy game about coalition-building and the trade-off between getting your way and getting agreement.
Chairing a legislature, adding provisions to win legislators and striking ones that cost support, is coalition-building.
Making every amendment cut both ways is the original constraint.
That is the arithmetic of a legislature. A provision that secures one bloc offends another, so a majority is assembled rather than found — which is why bills grow unrelated sections and why the final text often satisfies nobody completely.
Common Ground is an original free browser strategy game about coalition-building and the trade-off between getting things passed and keeping voters on side. Every term is a fresh negotiation.