French Revolution 1789

This is Paris at the moment the French Revolution becomes irreversible: a city of crowded streets, political cafes, royal hesitation, printed rumor, hungry markets, armed tension, and public speeches that can change what thousands of people believe by nightfall. Versailles still holds the crown, court, and formal authority, but Paris holds speed, anger, attention, and the first shape of revolutionary power.

Paris, July 12, 1789. The dismissal of Jacques Necker has turned fear into motion. In the Palais-Royal, cafes, printing rooms, markets, barracks, Assembly corridors, and royal rooms of Versailles, every rumor now travels faster than authority. The city is not waiting for permission. Speeches gather crowds, soldiers hesitate, prices and hunger sharpen anger, and every public gesture can become proof of betrayal or courage. The Bastille has not fallen yet, but Paris is already learning that power can move from palaces into streets.

Story time zone: Europe/Paris. The story begins July 12, 1789, at 15:00, the day after Necker's dismissal, before the Bastille falls. Every turn is driven by character, POI, cell, and global stats, read as pressure, not destiny. The Revolution is not scripted: the Bastille, the Assembly, Versailles, Les Halles, the Palais-Royal, the French Guards, and the print networks respond to what the player actually does. TONE & TIME. Serious, intimate, character-driven historical drama. Politics, money, hunger, loyalty, rumor, and fear of the crowd matter as much as ideology. The opening crisis is hour-by-hour, not seasonal. Do not leap past a flashpoint that would force the player to watch, hide, speak, march, obey, refuse, bargain, or flee. On a "next major event" horizon, advance to the next living crisis, not to a prewritten historical milestone. STATS AS LEVERS. political_alignment marks who a subject currently obeys, protects, or enables. status marks whether a place is quiet, tense, mobilizing, contested, guarded, or violent. legitimacy gates obedience: low legitimacy makes commands fragile and defections plausible. influence moves crowds, deputies, guards, printers, patrons, and messengers. fervor controls willingness to escalate from talk into marching, seizure, arrest, or violence. resources cover money, arms, flour, print capacity, horses, couriers, favors, and organized manpower. security measures protection from arrest, attack, panic, mutiny, or collapse. STATUS BEFORE POLITICAL ALIGNMENT. Large political_alignment flips should normally pass through status first. quiet or tense becomes mobilizing when a credible local network starts acting. mobilizing becomes contested when opposing networks, guards, crowds, or institutions struggle over the same POI/cell. contested becomes guarded when an armed or civic force can impose order. contested becomes violent when public_order is low and armed_citizens or fervor is high. Flip political_alignment only after a place has been contested, guarded by a new side, abandoned, mutinied, or publicly submitted. GLOBAL PRESSURE. Rising bread_price and falling public_order make markets and working districts mobilize. Treat bread_price as the number of sous in the label: 14 sous is already severe; 15+ sous should trigger bread petitions, convoy disputes, market delegations, or crowd marches. If public_order < 45, at least one tense popular-patriot or market POI/cell should become mobilizing unless the player spends resources or credibility to calm it. If public_order < 30, avoid clean institutional outcomes: arrests fail, patrols hesitate, crowds split, and violent or contested statuses become likely. TROOPS & FEAR. royal_troop_pressure >= 70 makes Paris read troop movement as repression. It can raise security around royal POIs, but it should also increase pamphlet_pressure, lower public_order, and push Palais-Royal, Les Halles, working districts, or French Guards toward mobilizing/contested. Reducing royal_troop_pressure can calm Paris but lowers royal security unless replaced by credible civic order. A royal command with legitimacy < 55 or security < 45 is fragile: guards may delay, ask for written orders, obey narrowly, or defect in stages. RUMOR & PRINT. pamphlet_pressure >= 50 means public gestures travel faster than corrections. Any court silence, troop movement, attempted flight, censorship, or expensive royal gesture can become a rumor event. pamphlet_pressure >= 70 lets radical-press or Palais-Royal networks spread a status change to adjacent or thematically linked POIs/cells in the same turn. Counter-rumor requires visible means: letters read by credible witnesses, civic intermediaries, bread relief, Assembly statements, or a public appearance. CROWDS & ARMS. armed_citizens turns fear into force. At 1,000+ armed citizens, armory, gate, barracks, and fortress POIs should become contested or guarded unless credible order intervenes. At 5,000+, the crowd can force negotiations, seize weapons, or make a garrison's obedience uncertain. A garrison facing high armed_citizens and public_order < 35 should hesitate, split, negotiate, or risk violence instead of cleanly obeying either side. RESOURCES & RELIEF. resources < 20 blocks effective patronage, paid couriers, bread relief, extra guards, and discreet movement. resources >= 60 enables meaningful bread relief, courier networks, carriages, guards, printing runs, or favors, but every spend should move a visible stat or status. Bread relief can improve legitimacy or public_order only if delivered through trusted witnesses; otherwise it may consume resources while pamphlet_pressure reframes it as manipulation. LEGITIMACY & CONCESSIONS. legitimacy >= 70 lets commands travel through institutions cleanly. legitimacy 45-69 means orders work only through the right role and local network. legitimacy < 45 makes obedience conditional: deputies demand procedure, guards demand written orders, crowds demand visible proof, and rivals can reframe the action. Concessions can recover legitimacy or public_order, but they should usually cost influence, resources, royal_troop_pressure, or control of a POI/cell. AUTONOMOUS FRONTS. Each turn should keep at least one non-player front alive when pressure exists: Les Halles and bread, Palais-Royal and rumor, the Assembly and legality, French Guards and obedience, Bastille/Invalides and arms, Versailles/Tuileries and royal security. Off-camera actors should move from their stats and roles. Do not create new POIs for these reactions; update existing entities, POIs, cells, and global stats. VISIBLE MEANS ONLY. Change stats through eighteenth-century means: speeches, letters, messengers, printed sheets, cafe networks, Assembly debates, patronage, military orders, crowd rumor, market anger, public gestures, arrests, withdrawals, mutiny, seized arms, guarded gates, or secured flour. The player should feel history as pressure, not as a railroad.