Tribune of the People

Maybe you think I made this title look like this, because I think it's fancy.
To say the truth... I think it looks ugly, but in my opinion it represents Tribuneship.

Being a Tribune isn't very beneficial for a captain himself. He only gets some good contact with other ships if he does his job well. Furthermore he'll be responsible to help other young captains. Since I'd like to help other young captains, being a Tribune gave me satisfaction (when I was able to do anything). A good Tribune is for the People and I tried to be a good one.


At the moment I'm no Tribune of the People anymore. When I became too old I warned the newbies and they've chosen Radio Free Albemuth to be my successor. I'd like to congratulate the newbies with their good choice.
The Deformed Rabbit Redux and I were looking at the possibility of creating some useful pages for newbies together. We haven't talked about it since then, but it isn't impossible they will be created in the future.

I also made a page with tips for newbies.


What is a Tribune?

Since it isn't mentioned in the rules, I'd like to explain to the newbies in short what a Tribune is.
In TBG there is a group of ships that haven't reached 100 turns yet. They're called newbies. Because it sometimes may be hard for a newbie to survive, the job of Tribune of the People has been created. It's the job of the Tribune to help newbies. Most of the time this help consists of advice and often modules to get a captain started. Furthermore he has to act as a spokesman of the newbies in general. The Tribune is a newbie, who is chosen by the other newbies. Every turn you can give your vote to a ship that's a candidate. A captain can make his ship a candidate by voting on himself. That way the ship will show up at the list of candidates the next turn.

A way to help the newbies is the production request. Every player can request the production of a module from the president, but the president generally listens more often to the tribune. That's not very strange, because the newbies will also grow up and it could be good for a president to have good contacts with them. Furthermore, the Tribune has a tool to force the president to listen. If a Tribune wants, he can disqualify ministers. Most of the time they are the biggest supporters of the president, so the president wants to keep them as ministers. This "Red button" is very dangerous to use, because the president and the ministers will be furious at the tribune and probably also at the newbies. Therefore it isn't used often and I only want to use it after much consultation if it is in the interest of the newbies.

These are in general the duties and the possibilities a tribune has.


My goals as Tribune of the People (the way I posted them when I started)

First of all I want to welcome the new players and give them advice so they can make a good start.
Another important task will be to help and advise newbies. If they have a question or a problem they can hail to me. I will help newbies who have problems by giving them advice and modules.

I also will request module productions from the president for the newbies. All modules I'll request will be basic, since in my opinion primitives aren't worthwile and mediocres can't be maintained by newbies.

I won't let my political preferences influence my judgements as a Tribune. For example, unless I don't like the UPF, I won't bother them as long as they let the newbies live in peace. At this moment there's even a good deal between the current Tribune and the UPF that states that the UPF won't bother the newbies and even help them by making intimidate runs. The Tribune in return isn't allowed to bother the UPF by disqualifying UPF ministers. I'd like to continue that deal.

When I'm retiring from Tribuneship (because of my age or because I think I don't do my job good enough) I will search for a good successor. I think that's important, because when you act on behalf of the people you also have to take care they will be alright if you're gone. I will tell who I think would be best to succeed me. I'll also let people know I'm old at least 2 weeks before I turn 100, so they can start to campaign if they want. If I might be gone (e.g. for a vacation) I also will look for good replacement.
I also want to really listen to the Voice of the People. The current list for newbies is suitable for that. I also won't ignore advice from other captains (in important cases).



Return to my player page.