Many legislative games of interest defy classical assumptions and techniques; they tend to be open-ended, with weakly defined objectives, and either noncompetitive or pseudo-competitive. We introduce a conceptual and mathematical framework for grappling with such systems. Simulation results are presented for basic specifications of the framework that exhibit a number of qualitative phenomena overlapping with real-world dynamics across a broad spectrum of settings, including aspects of financial regulation and academic decision procedures, that as we demonstrate, may be viewed through the lens of our framework.