Borderline

Sovereignty & Secession · 1945–2001
Devices out. Do not open anything yet.
Step One

Open the game

witsooth.com/games/borderline.html
  1. 1
    Open that link.
  2. 2
    Select the state on your slip — that one only.Not the one that sounds best. The one on your slip.
  3. 3
    Stop at the first screen and look up.
The Situation

It is 1945.

Your borders were drawn by someone else.
Inside them live peoples who were never asked.

You have $10,000 and fifty-six years.
Your Score

Sovereignty

How much of your own territory your government actually controls.
0.00
1.00
That is the only score. Money is not the score.
Every Round

Three phases, in order

Phase 1 · 4 min
The Budget
Spend on four things. Three hold the country together. One holds it down.

At your desk.
Phase 2 · 5 min
Borders & Blocs
Press a claim, sign a treaty, or stay non-aligned.

Out of your seat. Go talk to people.
Phase 3 · 3 min
Extend Control
Buy territory. A line on a map is not control.

At your desk.
Phase 1

The four things you can buy

+0.025
National Identity
One language, one curriculum, one flag. $400
+0.015
Regional Autonomy
Give the regions their own power. $600
+0.010
Transport & Telecom
Tie the regions to the capital. $500
−0.010
Security Forces
Costs you sovereignty. You need 2 to press any claim. $200
Three of these pull the country together. One holds it down.

How a border claim is settled in this room

  1. 1
    Declare out loud. Name the state. A claim nobody heard did not happen.
  2. 2
    Both sides read their Security Forces. Higher total holds the ground.
  3. 3
    A tie goes to whoever has more Institutions.
  4. 4
    Both states record it on their own device. One state holds the land and the other loses it.
  5. 5
    Every treaty you hold adds +2 Security Forces. You may hold three.
  6. 6
    Mobilizing costs $1,000 whether you win or lose.
Day 1 · Round 1 of 6
1945
Lines Drawn Elsewhere
Work through all three phases. Nobody can press a claim this round — you need 2 Security Forces and you have none.
14:00
Day 1 · Round 2 of 6
1960
The Year of Africa
Seventeen states declare independence this year. Both superpowers are offering money to anyone who picks a side. The money is real. So are the strings.
12:00
Day 1 · Round 3 of 6
1975
The Shatterbelt
Your region has become a place where other people fight. Minerals and ports are worth more than they have ever been.
9:00
End of Day 1

Stop where you are.

Your game saves automatically. Stopping mid-round is fine.
On a scrap of paper, before you go
Who in this room can hurt you?
Day 2

Open the game again

witsooth.com/games/borderline.html
It resumes exactly where you stopped. The claim rule has not changed.
Day 2 · Round 4 of 6
1985
Two Patrons Bidding
Everything is worth more this round than it will ever be worth again. Decide what you are buying with the windfall.
12:00
Day 2 · Round 5 of 6
1991
The Bloc Dissolves
The Soviet Union breaks into fifteen states in December. The subsidies stop the same month.
12:00
Day 2 · Round 6 of 6
2001
The Age of Devolution
Every state on the map is giving power away in two directions at once — down to its regions and up to its blocs.
10:00
Everyone stop

You have been playing a real state.

  1. 1
    Press Reveal Your State.
  2. 2
    Read your card to yourself.
  3. 3
    Do not say your country out loud yet.
1:30
Round the room

Say two things. Only two.

  1. 1
    The country you actually were.
  2. 2
    One decision you made that the real country also made.
Debrief · pick three
  1. 1
    Who did you sign a treaty with, and what did it cost you?
  2. 2
    Seventeen states in this room had the same problem and seven did not. Name the problem.
  3. 3
    Switzerland and Yugoslavia were both multinational states. Why did one hold and one come apart?
  4. 4
    If joining a bloc was the better deal, why did the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia break up instead?
  5. 5
    In 1991 Patronage went to zero. Whose sheet did that ruin — the states with the least, or the most?
Simulation complete

2001 — the map as you leave it.

witsooth.com/games/borderline.html
? for keys
Borderline · Witsooth
Teacher cue — press N to hide

Running the deck

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