Also loved The Crown and have been thinking along similar lines. I think one of the things that is difficult for games to capture is the weight of precedent and “three moves ahead” thinking. The continuity of the past and the future.

The stakes are so high in that series because everything they do is only one small part of a thousand-year tradition, and one that they all want to see persist into the future. How have previous monarchs handled similar situations? Will the wrong choice today mean that the crown falls and the tradition ends? And knowing all the while that future generations will look back upon your actions for their guidance.

I particularly loved the climax of the “Act of God” episode about the Great Fog, where Churchill is summoned to the Queen and he knows it’s because she is going to ask for his resignation and he arranges to arrive after the morning papers come out, so that he will be a heroic figure in the people’s eyes at that moment.

How do you model that with game mechanics? A paltry “my stirring speech gives me a +3 to public opinion” is so empty and trite. How do you model the choice Elizabeth faces of “infringe upon the limits of the Constitution” versus “allow the people to suffer and lose faith in the government”?

I don’t have an answer, but I do have a game design document that I’ve been throwing all these ideas into for several years. I hope that one day it all ferments into something playable.