What is a Role in the Party Line Game?
Role Series:
The following memo has been provided to us by representatives of The Farm. Read on to learn about the origin and purpose of Roles in The Party Line game!
Welcome to The Farm— a fertile field in which lies truth, security, and an unyielding love for our precious Farmer, to whom we owe our everlasting gratitude for his work in creating the GRANDEST, most PRODUCTIVE Farm in the whole county. Recent polling suggests that every animal here on The Farm approves of and deeply loves The Farmer and all his works. Some of those very animals, a lucky few who have been granted special privileges and authority from The Farmer, would very much like to show their appreciation for the great honor thereby bestowed upon them by explaining how each and every one of their specialized talents— talents cultivated, honed, and allocated by our hardworking Farmer— protect the Farmer and his Party.
However, before we introduce these champions of The Farmer, these beacons of truth, order, and morality, we must first introduce the very idea of Roles and how they function here on The Farm. Where there is life, there is chaos, and such is what was before The Farmer took charge. Through his genius and ingenuity, we here on The Farm went from a wild herd to an organized block, all in service to our dear Farmer, as is right. This organization came from the appointing of representatives among the various animal groups and granting said representative a modicum of power to wield not only over their fellows within their group, but over the Farm at large.
The powers granted to the various Roles come in two distinct flavors. One group gets a chance to hear the words and opinions of the Farmer directly. Here on the Farm, we periodically are met with controversial issues and dilemmas, problems that we alone are not fit to solve, but rather can only be solved with a decree from The Farmer, for his word is absolute and his judgement sound. Despite this, the rest of us are forced to cast our lot one way or another in each voting session, but only by casting said lot with The Farmer are we truly safe. As such, it is of the utmost import that we know which way he leans on a given issue so that we may show our solidarity with him.
To that end, a select few representatives of the animals have a Role that allows them to gain direct insight into The Farmer’s opinion. Some simply see, some swap, some obscure. And some, a VERY select few, can find evidence that The Farmer appears to have changed his mind on a given issue. Of course, those of us truly loyal to The Farmer know that he is unchanging and uncompromising. His vision is truth, and his mind does not change. His answer is always the same, and it is only our reporting of that answer that may be false.
Those who do not truly believe, however, claim that The Farmer is an indecisive man, incapable of rendering final judgement here on The Farm, that he lacks principles, that his opinions are liable to change on a whim without warning. Heretics, all of them. The rest of us would urge any who read this to pay no mind and heed no ramblings of the deceivers or of the deceived. After all, we are sure that The Farmer would have continued rewarding those animals, few as they are (and few—VERY few— they truly are) had they not committed their grievous offenses against him. For, to spread lies about the word of The Farmer, to slander his integrity, is among the very worst crimes any can commit here.
Thus, it is paramount that those who have been bestowed a Role that gives them true insight into The Farmer’s brilliant mind are sincerely of his Party and want what is best for him. While we would never doubt that The Farmer is a diligent man who truly knows the wicked from the saints, who truly knows who deserves knowledge and who doesn’t, who truly knows to whom he can bestow his most sacred trust, we also know better than to assume altruism among the motives of any of our fellow farm-found fauna. And, as repeating a lie is just as punishable as starting it oneself, it is important for us to be wary of those given the privilege of knowing The Farmer’s stances, as useful as that information is. One can never be TOO careful, after all…
But what about the others?... What of those not privy to The Farmer’s inner thoughts? Well, bold of YOU to assume that work on The Farm and for The Farmer’s party stops at simply knowing what to say and when to say it. No, no… Another set of Roles has been distributed here to aid us even when we are failed by those with insight, the supposed wise ones among us. These Roles allocate various responsibilities and powers to the lucky few that get them, ranging from the ability to know which other Roles are currently active on The Farm to unparalleled knowledge and control over the rumors and the spreading thereof that occur here on the Farm (hey, we ALL like our share of gossip). Some abilities even allow one of our representatives to restore The Farmer’s trust in one of the rest of us, should we ever fall out of favor with him!
Like with the Roles that give insight, these too demand a level of caution and vigilance surrounding their use. They may not be used to spread lies about The Farmer’s opinions, but their abilities can be misallocated to the wrong people, by the wrong people, if we aren’t careful. What good is it to learn which Roles The Farmer has distributed and which he hasn’t if the source of THAT knowledge is unreliable. What good is it to restore another’s standing in our Party if they were never truly loyal to The Farmer to begin with? What will we find next, that the only rumors we hear on The Farm are the most malignant, ignorant, and defamatory among them? No… We have The Farmer’s trust and his love. We need naught else. It is up to us to distinguish truth from lie, who we can trust and who we cannot, regardless of the power The Farmer has granted them…
As illustrated, every Role contains great power. That power can be wielded to the benefit or to the destruction of our Party, all dependent on the will of those to whom such power has been given, or should we say, dependent on those who dare exercise their will over that of The Farmer. As such, not every Role grants power. One specifically renders a representative without power. The individual in question still attends all meetings and votes, but holds no great sway over the Party otherwise. However, these individuals too, can be twisted for the personal gain of the selfish and corrupt members of our Party, for those with no power serve as the perfect cover for those who may seek to exercise their Role in more dubious or self-serving ways.
Additionally, The Farmer seeks to establish safety and order above all. This is partially why he created the Role system in the first place… As such, he has mandated that each Role may only grant a power once per meeting period (each period containing 5 issues, and thus, 5 votes). The Farmer’s words are wise and unchanging, of course, and his judgement on this restriction is righteous indeed. However, an unsavory whisper around The Farm suggests that with the right rumors on hand, one may convince The Farmer to allow an individual Role to bestow its power again. Lies, all of it. Our Farmer does NOT change his mind!
The Farmer has allocated Roles to 10 representatives, each of a different animal. The various Roles, and the individuals who currently hold them, are listed below:
Paris, The Pig
Alice, The Cow
Rem-Rem, The Rat
Lawrence, The Hound
Iris, The Owl
Andrea (Angelica), The Spider (we have been told THIS one has chosen a new name…)
Marlowe, The Fox
Estelle, The Sheep
Nicole, The Goat
Terry, The Chicken
Each Role serves an important function to us all, a function that shall be discussed further at a later time. Through prudent use of each, our Party may survive any turmoil brought to us by any dilemma, and The Farmer will be honored forevermore! We do hope this missive from The Farm has been informative and so very much look forward to delivering the next one. Some time, in a future post, we shall discuss the individual Roles in detail, starting with The Pig…
It’s ALWAYS the Pig, isn’t it…?
Stay tuned for more news about the various Roles in The Party Line game!