The People Power Development Team has been working on a revamp of People Power after testing revealed some gaps in the narrative that we wanted the game to tell. People Power is focused on the period between the end of Martial Law in the Philippines and the flight of the Marcos family in February 1986. This roughly 5 year period was marked with both violence and protest, and ended in the dramatic events of the People Power/EDSA Revolution in February 1986. Here’s a summary of the changes we’ve made:

First, the Moro faction has been removed from the game; instead of a joint NPA/Moro faction, the insurgent faction represents the NPA and other marxist-socialist insurgent and political forces. The main organization in the fight for Moro independence, the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) signed an agreement with the Marcos government in 1976 (the Tripoli Agreement) granting limited autonomy to the Mindanao region. This led to a period of infighting amongst rebel Moro factions, and a splinter group formed: the Moro Islamic Liberation Front. The limited autonomy and factional infighting made for less resistance to the Marcos regime. We have found that modeling the Moro people’s struggle through events made for a more historical narrative.

Secondly, we have reworked the Reformers faction to be a nonviolent faction in the mold of Gandhi’s INC/Muslim League. This was Ken’s original vision for the Reformer faction, but prior to Gandhi there was no model of how nonviolent factions worked in COIN. Thanks to Bruce Mansfield’s work, we were able to quickly refit the Reformers and shift the narrative focus of the game to the interactions between state-sponsored force, nonviolent protest, and insurgent Terror. This model is a much closer match to history.

Finally, we have reworked the Acts of Desperation (now called “Acts of Defiance”) and Personality cards. One major challenge of the model in People Power is that so much happened in a 3 day period in 1986. From February 22 to 24, large crowds gathered in the Epifanio de los Santos Avenue (EDSA) after the defection of General Ramos and Defense Minister Enrile. These crowds were encouraged in nonviolent resistance by radio broadcasts from Cardinal Jamie Sin and many nuns, politicians, and military defectors who gathered in Manila and other cities across the Philippines.

How then to show these critical events in the COIN Model, condensed as they are? How can we include these moments without skewing the event deck too much to a 3 day period of the 5+ years covered? To solve this narrative dilemma, we have created a new phase that happens only at the end of the game, where players can use their Acts of Defiance, each corresponding to a moment from that 3 day period that changed Filipino history.

We are excited to share this new People Power with you in the coming weeks, including showing the new Acts of Defiance and Personality cards. Thank you to everyone who has been part of making these changes work, and for every playtester who has played People Power over the last several years. We hope the game lives up to your expectations.

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