Player Progression
Your career in A House Divided is a series of escalating gambles: build a base, join a team, win small, use that win to win bigger. This page describes the arc from character creation to head of state, plus the per-office benefits that make each step worth the climb.
Character Creation Snapshot
You begin with:
- $250,000 Campaign Funds, $0 Cash on Hand
- 25 one-time starting actions
- Favorability 50 (neutral)
- Political Influence 0 (anywhere)
- Donor Base Level 1
- No party, no office
One character per account. See Create a Character for every creation-time choice.
Phase 1: Build Foundation
You're an independent with no office. You cannot run for office yet. Everything else is available:
- Campaign (+1% PI per action, free)
- Fundraise (earns $50k + $10k × donor level)
- Run Ads (+1–3 Favorability, $100k)
- Build Donor Network ($50k + $25k × level, +1 donor level)
- Commission Polls (Quick $25k / Full $75k)
- Support or Attack other politicians (+/−1% their Favorability)
- Barnstorm for allies (+1% their PI, 5 actions + $100k)
- Influence NPPs (endorsements, withdrawals, opposition)
- Post news, form coalitions (if you're a chair later)
Typical Phase 1 goal: Political Influence 40–60, Favorability 60–70, Donor Level 3, one or two NPP relationships in your target demographic.
Phase 2: Join a Party
Independents can't enter primaries. Pick a party whose economic/social platform is close to your policy positions — alignment amplifies your Party Influence → bonus-action conversion.
Joining a party immediately unlocks:
- Primary eligibility in your home state / region.
- Party Influence accrual (passive, scales with activity and closeness).
- Bonus actions from the party pool each turn (distributed by Party Influence × alignment).
- Party leadership candidacy (Chair, Vice Chair, Treasurer — elected by members every 96 turns).
- Access to party treasury for coordinated NPP operations.
Switching parties later is allowed but costs: Favorability and Political Influence both take a hit, and your Party Influence resets to 0.
Phase 3: Primary Election
When a race's primary phase opens, declare candidacy. Primary scores combine:
- Policy alignment to your party's official economic/social position
- Favorability
- Political Influence (or NPI for presidential primaries)
The highest primary score per party advances to the general. Other party members competing for the same slot are your direct rivals — but attacking them raises your Infamy without necessarily helping you.
See Primaries for full primary scoring details (future page — for now see Election Mechanics).
Phase 4: General Election
You're a party nominee. You face nominees from other parties. Vote accumulates each turn per demographic group, weighted by your reach (PI or NPI-based) and appeal (favorability × policy closeness to each group).
Final turns are heaviest: roughly 25% of the pool lands in the last ~4 turns. Sustained campaigning wins; bursty campaigning loses.
See General Elections (future page — for now see Election Mechanics).
Phase 5: In Office
Winning a legislative office unlocks:
- Bill writing (you can propose legislation within the chamber you serve in).
- Voting on bills — each vote shifts your own policy position ±0.25 in the bill's direction.
- Office action and fund bonuses every turn.
- Committee membership where applicable.
Executive office (President / PM / Chancellor / Governor) adds:
- Cabinet nomination (Executives) — nominate any character to principal-officer roles.
- Sign or veto bills passed by the legislature.
- Executive orders / actions where applicable.
- Special per-office privileges covered in the country hubs.
Office Action Bonuses
Applied every turn on top of the 4-action base:
| Office | Bonus |
|---|---|
| House / State Sen / MP / MdB / Sangiin member | +1 |
| Senate / Vice President | +2 |
| Governor / equivalent sub-national executive | +3 |
| President / Prime Minister / Chancellor | +4 |
| Central Bank Chair | +3 (stacks with elected office) |
Office Fund Bonuses (per turn, in local currency)
| Office | Bonus |
|---|---|
| House | +$5,000 |
| State Senate | +$3,000 |
| Senate | +$15,000 |
| Vice President | +$25,000 |
| Governor | +$20,000 |
| President | +$50,000 |
Non-US offices grant equivalent bonuses; see each country hub for specifics.
Phase 6: Re-Election and Advancement
You hold exactly one office at a time. To advance you must:
- Win the next race before your current term forces you out, OR
- Let your term expire, then contest the next higher office from out-of-office status.
Strategic moves:
- House → Senate: Senators earn more actions and funds. Longer terms (12 real days vs 4) let you build NPI faster.
- Senate → Governor: Governor has the highest sub-national action and fund bonuses, and appoints Senate vacancies in their state.
- Governor → President: Presidential races are NPI-driven. You'll need ~300+ NPI to be competitive, which takes many cycles of sustained state PI.
- Any office → Party Leadership: Chair elections fire every 96 turns. Holding chair gives you control of the party's action pool — a serious multiplier when running your own or allied campaigns.
In parliamentary systems (UK / DE / JP) advancement runs through party leadership rather than a separate presidential race — your party's leader is the Prime Minister / Chancellor candidate after the legislative election.
Country-Specific Arcs
United States
Standard ladder: State Senate → US House → US Senate → Governor → President. State-level offices serve as a viable endpoint on their own — Governors of large states wield significant real power via policy and cabinet appointments.
United Kingdom
Ladder: MP (House of Commons) → Party Leader → Prime Minister (if your party wins the most seats and confidence vote passes). No direct "Prime Minister election" — the position is a consequence of Commons results and the confidence process.
Detail: United Kingdom.
Germany
Ladder: Bundestag MdB → Party Leader → Chancellor (confidence vote by Bundestag). Mixed-member proportional means constituency and list MPs coexist. The Bundesrat provides a secondary legislative chamber representing the Länder.
Detail: Germany.
Japan
Ladder: Shūgiin (Lower House) or Sangiin (Upper House) member → Party Leader → Prime Minister. Parallel-system elections mean prefectural FPTP seats sit alongside PR list seats; different offices require different electoral strategies.
Detail: Japan.
Vice President, Committee, and Cabinet Paths
Beyond elected office, there are appointed and elected sub-roles:
- Vice President (US) — chosen by the Presidential candidate as running mate. +2 action bonus; tie-breaks Senate votes.
- Cabinet Secretary (US) — nominated by the President, confirmed by the Senate. Eighteen roles exist.
- Committee Chair (US, UK, DE, JP) — earned through committee elections within a party or chamber.
- Central Bank Chair — separate role; +3 action bonus stacks on any elected office.
None of these are dead ends — cabinet experience often translates into later Senate or Governor runs.
Stat Progression Summary
| Stat | Starting | Grows by |
|---|---|---|
| Political Influence | 0 | Campaign (+1%/action); decays 0.75%/turn |
| National Influence (NPI) | 0 | +state PI / 100 per turn (uncapped, logarithmic in presidential races) |
| Favorability | 50 | Ads, Travel; decays if > 60 |
| Infamy | 0 | Attack or NPP lower action; decays 5%/turn |
| Campaign Funds | $250,000 | Fundraise, fund generation, donor base, office bonus |
| Cash on Hand | $0 | Passive income, 50% of personal donations made |
| Donor Base Level | 1 | Build Donor Network action |
| Actions | 25 initial | +4 base + office bonus + party bonus per turn; cap 200 |
| Party Influence | 0 | Passive while in party, scaled by activity and alignment |
Out-of-Office Activities
When not holding office, you can still:
- Campaign, Fundraise, Run Ads, Build Donor Base (all core actions).
- Support / Attack / Barnstorm other politicians.
- Influence NPPs.
- Post news, form coalitions (as a chair), manage corporations.
- Commission polls.
You cannot write bills, vote on legislation, or use office-specific powers (cabinet nominations, executive orders, confidence motions, etc.).
Related
- Getting Started — Onboarding overview.
- Stats & Actions — Full stat and action reference.
- Election Mechanics — Primary scores, vote accumulation.
- Parties — Party Influence, leadership, action pool.
- Cabinet — US cabinet nomination and confirmation.
- United States · United Kingdom · Germany · Japan — Country-specific career ladders.