A text-based political simulator that remembers every promise.
A city of two hundred thousand, a council that wants a win, a bridge that will not last the winter, and the only copy of the report in your desk. Close the bridge and lose the district, keep it open and pray, or bury the report. The Game Master writes the city and everyone in it around what you decide, and it keeps track of every promise, every vote and every lie.
Or start from a first line, no setup:
Free to play in your browser and on Android. The full memory system is on every plan, including free.
A real session, recorded
This is what the office sounds like
The heavy mahogany desk feels cold beneath your hands, holding the secret that could save or destroy the city. Outside the tall, arched windows, the gray waters of the river churn against the rotting wooden piers of the Great Span, the only link between the industrial district and the heart of the city. A sharp, frantic rapping shatters the silence of your office.
> I call the city engineer into my office and ask how long we can keep the bridge open without anyone else seeing the report.
Elias Thorne stumbles into your office, his face pale and smudged with soot. He locks the door behind him, his hands trembling as he grips the edge of your desk. "Mayor, the northern pylon is buckling," he gasps, ignoring your question for a moment to catch his breath.
> After the council meeting I unlock my desk drawer to make sure the report is still there.
The council chamber's echoes still cling to your ears, the air heavy with the weight of the decision you've kept hidden. You retreat to your office and slide the key into the lock of your mahogany desk, the mechanism yielding with a familiar, mechanical click. Inside, resting undisturbed against the velvet lining, lies the Bridge Inspection Report, its edges crisp and its implications as dire as ever.
Recorded on 2026-10-16 on the free-tier model: a fresh account, the first line "a text-based political simulator: I am the new mayor of a river city of two hundred thousand people, the inspection report says the old bridge will not last the winter, and I locked the only copy of that report in my desk drawer", then the two actions above typed in. The AI named the story "Collapse of the Great Span". The bridge, the report and the locked drawer all come from the first line; the engineer the Game Master invented gave the bridge a number of hours, and two turns later the report is in the drawer undisturbed. The Game Master's lines are cut to a few sentences each here; the whole exchange, every word, is published as a JSON file.
A text-based political simulator is a story you play by typing, turn by turn, with an AI writing the council, the press, the engineers and the people who will remember what you said. You set the situation in a sentence: a new mayor with a bridge report, a minister told to sink the budget, a king with three heirs. The Game Master writes the politics around you. Then you decide what to do in your own words: "close the bridge tonight and blame the weather," "offer the councillor the hospital for her vote," "leak the report myself." The city answers with what it costs.
There is no approval meter and no menu of policies. You can tell the truth or hide it, buy the vote or earn it, keep the promise or break it. Politics only feels real if the game remembers what you promised, to whom, and what you locked in the drawer, which is why memory decides whether a text-based political simulator is worth playing.
What you can do
How a text-based political simulator plays
Work the room
The council chamber, the press gallery, the engineer's office, the union hall. What you said in each one carries into the next meeting.
People, not polls
Councillors, engineers, reporters, donors, the opposition leader who was your friend. Every one of them is played by the Game Master in their own voice, with their own price.
Promises that keep
Auferet keeps characters, places and events in structured libraries, so the hospital you promised in week one is the hospital they ask about in week thirty.
Your kind of office
A mayor, a minister, a rebel councillor, a king, a candidate. Your first line decides what you hold and who can take it from you.
Any kind of politics
A river city, a coalition cabinet, a starving province, a dying court, a modern campaign. The opening sets the stakes and the Game Master keeps to them.
Free to start
Play whole terms before you pay anything. Auferet's free tier includes the full memory system and 10 free daily credits, in your browser.
Why memory decides it
A promise means nothing if the AI forgets it
Most AI games feed the model one fixed window of recent text each turn. In politics that breaks the game. The councillor you bought forgets the price, the report you buried is on the front page with no reason, the vote you lost is won again. When nothing you did lasts, there is nothing to govern.
That is measurable, so we measured it. Five facts were planted in the first turns of a story on the free model and asked about at turn 20, 40 and 60: once with only recent conversation to read, the way most AI games work, and once with persistent memory, the way Auferet works.
| Asked at | Recent conversation only | Persistent memory |
|---|---|---|
| Turn 20 | 3 of 5 facts | 5 of 5 facts |
| Turn 40 | 1 of 5 facts | 5 of 5 facts |
| Turn 60 | 1 of 5 facts | 5 of 5 facts |
Run on 2026-08-22 and again on 2026-08-27: both runs fell to 1 of 5 by turn 40 on recent conversation and held 5 of 5 with memory. Every question and raw answer is in the result file; the method is on the benchmark page, and how the memory works explains what it stores.
How it compares
Text-based political simulator with an AI vs a choice-based political story vs a political browser game vs a character chat
| Text-based political simulator with an AI (Auferet) | Choice-based political story | Political browser game | AI character chat | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Who writes the story | The Game Master, around what you decide | Writers, in advance | Nobody; the systems and other players | The AI, as one character |
| What you can do | Anything you can put into words | The choices on the page | The policies on the menu | Talk |
| The people | Characters with their own motives | Scripted characters | Approval numbers, other players | One character |
| Consequences | Carried across the whole story | The branches the writers planned | Mechanical: approval, budget | Rarely tracked |
| Memory | Persistent across the whole story | Flags the writers set | A database of the world, not of your story | Varies, often a short window |
Want the war instead of the vote? Run a campaign in the AI war simulator. The same engine runs every text-based game and every AI story game.
FAQ
Text-based political simulators, answered
Is there a free text-based political simulator?
Yes. Auferet is free, with 10 daily credits to claim, and the free tier includes the full memory system. It runs in your browser; unlimited actions start at $10/mo.
How does a text-based political simulator work?
You describe your office, your city and the problem on your desk in a sentence, or pick one above, and the Game Master builds the council, the press, the engineers and the people who will remember what you said. You decide what to do in your own words, and the story answers with what it costs.
Does the AI keep track of promises, votes and what I hid?
That is what Auferet is built for. It keeps characters, places and events in dedicated libraries and can search the whole story, so the report you locked away, the councillor you promised a hospital and the reporter you lied to are still there weeks later.
Can I play a mayor, a minister, a rebel or a king?
Yes. Your first line sets the game. A new mayor with a bridge report, a minister in a coalition that is falling apart, a rebel council in a starving province, a king with three heirs, and the Game Master writes the politics around that choice.
Can I play with friends as rival factions?
Yes. Auferet has multiplayer: one player hosts, friends join, and everyone plays their own character in the same story, each with their own Game Master.
Can I play online without downloading anything?
Yes. Auferet runs in the browser on desktop and phone, and there is an Android app if you want it on your home screen.
The bridge has thirty-six hours. The council meets at nine. What do you do?
Start a text-based political simulator free in your browser and see whether the city remembers what you promised.
Take office free