A Popularity Contest Board Game

I like how you've used cubes with different colored sides for each player - however logistically that might not be as easy as each player having their own colored cubes.

If I read this right, you are basically going around "campaigning" in the various classrooms in order to get some influence in them, and in order to score a Vote (a particular student), you have to "pay" (remove) influence from the listed classes in the listed amounts. That sounds cool!

You might consider a single, public pool of students (i.e. take the cards and put them in a face up display) so players have to compete with each other for them, otherwise it might seem kind of solitary.

Also, it seems like you would always prefer to snag a cube from another player if possible rather than place a new one - isn't that strictly better? What if you had to choose between placing 2 new influence in the classroom or replacing 1 opponent's influence with your own.

Another possibility might be to have a limited amount of influence to place in the rooms, and maybe you have to go to your homeroom to fuel up again or something like that. Just an idea off the top of my head.

Maybe I'm something of a game snob, but I'm not a fan of such a Roll and Move mechanism like the one you're using. Suppose 1 person always rolls higher than another - for no good reason thy will visit more classrooms and therefore spread more influence! You could do something creative with the dice, like roll 2 of them, and you use 1 for movement and the other for how much Influence you draw into your pool to work with - giving the players the choice to move farther or fill up on influence. Again, just a thought.

Finally, there's a game out there called High School Drama which is thematically similar, though mechanically very different. You might want to check it out, in the name of science/research ;)

From his post I can see a theme for sure - you go around school from class to class and campaign for people to vote for you. You have Students in hand, and to win their votes you have to campaign in their classes (as listed on the Student card).

I also see mechanics, though here i would personally aim fo something more sophisticated. Currently you roll dice to move around the school (much like Clue), and you make decisions about which rooms to visit based on your goal of spreading your influence then cashing it in.

Thematically I think the game is fine - and the mechanics such as they are support the theme. However, I would work on the mechanics personally, trying to make the decisions matter some, and allow players to do stuff "on purpose" more than just move wherever the dice allow them to...

I agree with ST -- there are definitely both theme and mechanics here, and the mechanics could use some beefing up to make strategic choices matter more.

I'm a bit confused about Detention. My memory of the student council elections was that the kids who ran in them were usually on pretty good terms with the establishment. That is, the goody two shoes. And running for SC was strongly encouraged. So it seems like having the Principal around would be a BONUS to campaigning. Unless this is some sort of subversive campaign, ie a campaign in a school that has no Student Council, or with unapproved students running. (And I think you mean Principal, not Principle, unless the students have something to fear from abstract concepts of virtue. :) )

Actually, the choice between running a "clean" or "dirty" campaign strikes me as particularly interesting within a high school setting. Do you put up "my opponent is a slut" posters and risk getting sent to detention, or run a safer, but less effective campaign on the "issues" (such as they are; I always remember SC as being more about the election itself than about anything that the SC President could possibly hope to achieve). Do different issues affect different kinds of students? Does each candidate have a natural base from which to draw support -- the jock, the nerd, the popular girl, the anti-establishment rebel, the goth chick, (ie the cliques outlined by that invaluable anthropological study, The Breakfast Club; also worth watching: Election, a great little film about exactly your subject matter, starring Reese Witherspoon and Matthew Broderick).

For a heavier look at the "election" genre of games, I'd check out 1960: The Making of the President, which is historical in flavor but might provide some inspiration beyond roll-and-moves like Clue.