Role-Play: Rules & Guidelines

[Europa]

Getting started in roleplay

 

Players new to the game, and/or the concept of roleplaying sometimes have difficulty establishing themselves in that field, outside of the roleplaying context.

 

1) Presenting Your Nation

First of all, when starting, it can be useful to formulate some attributes that define one's nation: what will make it unique in terms of it's government, sentiments, culture, etc?

 

Is your nation an socialist paradise full of tree hugging hippies? Is your nation a rogue nation, led by some terrorist organization? Is your nation the military capital of the world? This is all up to you. You could be the most dictator-ish dictator in the world, or you could hold a direct democracy where the people of your nation vote to make laws. Does your nation have several branches of government? Or is it just you and your posse?

This also leads to who is your President, your Enlightened Emperor, your King, your Chairman? Does he have a cabinet? Does his cabinet have any power? Does he even listen to them when they speak? Do you have a Congress-type system? Any Judicial Department? What do your citizens think of you? What are some of the laws in your nation that aren?t presented in issues?

 

Now, be realistic in all this. Don?t say, ?I?m a rich idiot leader who makes everything strict but my citizens love me!!!?. If you?re a strict dictator, your citizens could hate you. And you could kill the ones who voice this publicly. If you'ld be a direct democracy, you?d run into problems real direct democracy have.

 

This all goes into what your nation is really about. If your not going to voice these, then at least know them in your mind. It makes roleplaying a lot more easy and fun.

 

I am dictatorship. Rawr. Fear Me!!!

 

The Grand Empire of Randomesia is a nation with a so-called ?President?. The Grand Council, basically a congress, was recently abolished by President Sherveen Mashayekhi. The President does have a tight cabinet in which he uses often for advice or for ordering them what to do. Military is compulsory for boys and girls and they start military training at age 14-16, whether in strategy, combat, supplies, or anything else. We are not in the UN because of our nuclear policies and our military and education.

 

2) Allies

Many alliances are formed between nations, whether one-on-one alliances or a huge nation alliance. Some take these alliances a bit too lightly. When an ally is in war, you should participate in that war! You?re that nation?s friend to turn to when its in trouble.

 

When forming an alliance, you should also have embassies in each other?s nations. You can have meetings and talks with them whether on the forums or through messenger.

 

You should also make many allies. The way to win a war is to have a good support group. And they don?t necessarily have to be big nations. Six newly created nations will probably defeat three older ones. Allies are needed in NationStates if you want to survive.

 

3) Military & Economy & ?N00kZoRz?

 

OK, face it, young ones, you?re not going to be able to create your nations, come to the forums, buy the most advanced modern-tech tanks in the world. It takes time to develop. While you don?t need to sit down and create a thread saying ?I?m developing a tank for my storefront!? you should make sure you think about statistics, fluff (description), and other things before you create it. Then you should give it development time, depending on what it is, one or two real days.

 

Now, buying equipment. You?re not going to create your nation, come onto the forums, declare you have a twenty-trillion dollar military budget, and buy a thousand Navy Carriers. You have to go to Third Geek or some other NationStates Calculator (links at end of thread) and find out your budget. Now, it says how much your spending in military, education, etc, but you don?t necessarily have to follow where they say you put it and how much you put into it. And buying things. A 99 million and bellow populated nation shouldn?t be buying weapons of mass destruction. Wait ?til you are 100 million to even start your programs. Nukes are dangerous weapons and shouldn?t be in the hands of the newer nations. I don?t care that a three-hundred billion population nation is donating it to you! It is GODMOD on these forums and that is that. Period. Dot dot dot.

 

Now for military. Your military is going to be 2-5% of your nation most of the time. Some nations, if they prepare 2-4 years ahead, can say 10% if they prepare big-time. This, even with preparation, will be a huge blow to that nation?s economy unless they prepare maybe 10-20 years ahead. And remember, that 2-5% is very split. It would be generous to say 50% of your military is combat. But some nations do just for the sake that this is a game and we?re not here to logistic ourselves to death, although this is important. Half of your military, if not more, are drivers of the foods, ground commanders that don?t fight, airplane maintenance, ship maintenance, etc etc etc, its all vital to having a working military. So don?t think you can have 5% of your population be all fighting. It would be generous to say half of that.

 

Keep records of whatever you buy. I usually keep them in a notepad or Microsoft Word file. I also keep records of most of my major posts and what I sell. This helps keep you organized and realistic.

 

4) Time

 

Time is generally some thing that is difficult to decide on. Consenus is, on these forums at least, 3-4 RL months = 1 NS year. This time frame allows realistic movement of time, rather than the 1 RL day = 1 NS year of some forums.

 

Roleplays themselves will be different. A lot of the time, events will be in real-time or slightly slower, with events in posts happening one after the other, no matter when they were posted by the player.

 

5) Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Attacks

 

Ok, first off, nukes should be a last resort no matter what. Now, the decision is when to ignore nuclear attacks and when to accept them, because they are very damaging.

 

If a nation ignores a perfectly well-based and well-planned attack, then they are wrong. If they ignore a stupid idiot attack made for no reason, then the attacker is definitely wrong.

 

Because they are normally associated with poor RP and have wide-ranging effects, nuclear weapons, orbital weapons, and other devastating WMDs are not allowed, unless both the moderators and the victim specifically allow for them to be used.

 

6) Roleplaying Itself

 

Ok, first, if your planning on invading / starting war, you need to have a valid reason. And, unless the other nation is an idiot godmodder, you need to get permission and work with them to get the war to go perfect and great. Reasons for war? Political ideals, recent actions, sanctions and ultimatums not met, etc etc etc.

 

Now, when you do invade, you have to post what your invading with. Then you have to post it going there. Then you have to post the actual attacks.

 

Make it as detailed as possible!!!

 

Never post someone else?s casualties. Let them do it. But if they are being stupid or unfair, then work it out with them.

 

Make it detailed. RP the bombers getting into the planes, their launch, and the attack itself. Make it interesting!

 

Now remember, it takes time to get things to places, it doesn?t automatically go there.

 

Now, roleplaying events, propositions of bills, statements from your government, etc etc etc, are done the same way. Use government press releases, leaked documents, News reports

 

7) Godmoding

I send my 500 n00ks at your capitalz!!!11

I sendz 2 billon solderz 2 inv4de j00 nat!on!!111

I am so secretive all 400 of my troops and their gunzorz slipped into your nation, while your guard was asleep. I also shut down your cameras so it got through.

I have had these bombs in your nation for 48 years! I just never told anyone!

Doing things that aren?t realistic, basically? Don't.

 

A player cannot use a puppet nation to suppliment the nation they roleplay as, either militarily, economically or by adding their populations together. Players may only role-play their main nation in Europa.

 

Sources:

http://ns.goobergunch.net/wiki/index.php/G...ted_in_roleplay

http://forums2.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=366303

http://nseconomy.thirdgeek.com/

 

MORE TO COME!

[Europa]

International Telegrams (TGs)

 

To TG another nation in a RP manner you must make somethings clear first. There has to be a clear identification of who it is to, who it is from, the subject matter and if its public or private. for Example,

 

To: Europa Empire

From: S.S.S.S.

Subject: I let a stinky rip!

 

now this has the to from and subject line down but seeing how thats all it has then we can only assume this was sent on a secure line. now if you see this.

 

This TG was made public but meant in a private manner.

To: Europa Empire

From: S.S.S.S.

Subject: I let a stinky rip!

 

now you see, above all is the message that this TG was made public  but meant in a private manner meaning it may have been leaked, either way its now public. to just make it public you can do differnt things. heres one.

 

To: Europa Empire, Orioni and who ever it may concern

From: S.S.S.S.

Subject: I let a stinly rip!

 

now this is basicly a TG directed at EE and Orioni but has been issue publicly. differnt things are acceptable but these are the most common.

 

Source: Stoned Smurfs

[Orioni]

In Character rules 

1) Metagaming
Taking OOC knowledge IC in order to gain or improve upon yourself. This includes hearing Rodarion talking about planning troop movements on IRC and suddenly you know about it IC. This is banned, no questions asked.

2) Powergaming
Forcing an action upon your opponent without their permission or consultation. This would be me firing a missile at a Rodarion warship and having it hit and destroy it in the same post. This prevents Rodarion from being able to do anything to prevent this. If we talked about it on IRC and planned that post to condense things, that's fine. Otherwise, it's banned.

3) Godmod
Submitting unrealistic losses and can be on-par with Powergaming. i.e. Rodarion nukes a city of mine and nobody dies because I invented a machine that sucks away explosions and radiation like a cheap hooker. Strictly banned and will be punished.

4) Voiding roleplay
A scenario may only be voided if the main parties (not people who come in after it begins) agree to it. This is to prevent people from backing out when they stray into hot water and bring an actual sense of consequences to their IC actions. People will ask why this rule exists in particular. It's to force a feeling of consequences and gravity to the actions of everybody in the region, including yourself. 

5) Ignore-canon (MIXED IC/OOC)
Angry with somebody? Want to ignore their existence in your canon? Too bad! Your canon is Pardesi canon, and what is and what is not canon is only decided by the administrators. Basically: DWI or get out of Pardes. If you have a complaint about a nation, take it up with an administrator.

 

[Akiiryu]

---

MOBILISATION of MILITARY FORCES

 

I am writing this because I have noticed increasing problems with military mobilisations lately. Please consider this a friendly reminder. However, as the reminder has now been given, expect me to be stricter on this point from now on.

 

Going to war is not like going on a road trip with a couple of buddies in your car.

 

Large scale military forces, no matter what plans are in place, cannot mobilise and head off to action in a matter of hours or even days. Think in numbers of weeks, minimum. This is especially true if the force is going long distances away from home (and supply lines) into potentially hostile territory.

 

In other words, it takes a HECK of a lot of time to prepare the moment of large groups of people and large amounts of equipment...please rp accordingly.

 

I want to stress this was not aimed simply at anyone, but was a reminder for everyone.

 

If people want to have their IC country secretly mobilise (ha, good luck!) you can state it is happening ooc...but there will be signs IC an intelligent country would get (it is very hard to hide the movement of thousands of people, and tons of equipment).

 

Akiiryu for example has started mobilisations on a number of times. It has never said it was mobilising, but people in the know got what I was doing IC. Read Akiiryu's news threads, you'll see what I mean.

[Tagmatium Rules]

Expansion

 

As tempting as it is to expand when your nation hits both the post and population parameters to do so, I must remind everyone that any and every expansion must be properly RP?ed for. This doesn?t mean a one-post mention in your news thread, but a proper thread which goes through your acquisition of that land.

 

Don?t be afraid to be controversial or reluctant to stir up trouble ? in fact, this is often the best way, as it means that the much more fun can be had. Maybe you?re taking over a plot that was originally another player-nation ? you could RP the fact that that nation had recently fragmented and you?re going in to ?pacify? it.

 

Or perhaps the plot you?ve got your sights set on has always been vacant. In this instance, there could be a minor regime with an opposite political ideology to your nation?s, sponsoring terrorism within your borders. Time to invade and scrub out those commies/fascists-supporting terrorists!

 

Just because your nation is expanding, it doesn?t mean that every nation will automatically agree. In fact, the majority of wars in this region, whether minor or major, have originally been started over nations expanding. This is perfectly valid and, to a point, does reflect real-world tendencies, as some nations resent others moving into their spheres of influence.

 

On a final note, I must add that when your nation does get big enough to expand into another plot, it doesn?t mean you have to. If and when you do wish to take over another bit of land, be prepared to have a proper reason and story thought through to explain this expansion, as well as the fact that other nations may not accept it.

 

Examples of Previous Expansion RPs:

 

Collapse of Abyssioan Government ? Peacekeepers are sent in to secure a previous player?s nation.

 

Operation: Hammerfall ? One nation reacts to terrorists attacking from an adjacent plot, and reacts by invading it. Other nations didn?t agree and sent military forces.

 

Plot 21 Incident ? A nation of one alliance expands into the sphere of influence of another. Nearly went nuclear!

[Orioni]

The contents have been merged with and integrated into the updated roleplay rules.

http://www.europans.com/wiki/roleplay-rules/

I'm archiving this topic.