Jul 8, 2017 3:11:18 GMT -5

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Learning how to Roleplay on Nationstates
By: Lamoni, Sunset, Kyrusia, New Hayesalia, Monavia, Swith, Havensky, Cerillium
7/7/2017

So you are part of the Nationstates gameplay world (or even just new to roleplaying in general), and want to learn how to roleplay, but you don't have an idea of how to get started. That is okay, for this guide will help you to establish yourself in the roleplaying world.

There are multiple roleplaying forums on Nationstates, and each of them serve a different purpose. They are, Portal to The Multiverse, Forum 7, International Incidents, Global Economics and Trade, and Factbooks and National Information. Each of these roleplay forums play host to a different part of the Nationstates roleplay community, and the reader should be aware of this. Most roleplayers do not participate in all of these communities, and it is not expected or required for you to do so. No one will hound or belittle you for taking part in only those parts of the greater roleplay community which interest you. A short description of each forum will hopefully help the reader to better understand what is going on in each of these forums.

Portal to the Multiverse:

This forum is for non-nation role play games. You may occasionally find nation-based games in this forum when people seek to break from nation canon and re-purpose their nation's world-build as a setting for something else.

Forum 7:

This is for very light (one-liner or 'beer & pizza') RP, "In the Above Nation" games, and "Factbooks" that don't carry enough weight to be a thread in F&NI. Example: "Does your nation have pogs? Yes or No." Please note that there is a Moratorium regarding Chat Location Threads/Chill Threads in F7.

International Incidents:

War and strife, diplomacy and bellicose rhetoric, spy games for the century, scandal and all the bells-and-whistles of the worst, most calamitous moments in history. International Incidents is one of two boards many roleplayers in National & International Roleplaying call home, specifically for those events which have a tendency to spread beyond their initial scope, impacting the international community in various ways - both healthy and heinous. Much like its sibling (the NationStates sub-forum), however, a wide array of threads can be found within its scope.

General Economics and Trade:

This forum is where your banks, and other storefronts (military or otherwise) are located, allowing a roleplayer's nations or characters to buy and sell from them to their heart's content, as long as they follow the rules and guidelines thereof. The forum is like a large market or bazaar, but no real life money is exchanged. Instead, fictional currencies are used; for a nation, it would be your nation's currency, which for the sake of making things easier on everyone involved, is typically converted to the Standard Dollar (otherwise known as the Universal Standard Dollar, or Nationstates Standard Dollar) when making international purchases.

Factbooks and National Information:

This is the forum where your national factbooks, and certain other types of information about your nation would be located, should you choose to post them on the Nationstates forums. National Embassy programs can also typically be found in this forum.

Nationstates:

The gilded party, the ornate coronation, diplomatic conferences, song and dance and pompous circumstance, with culture shared wide and far. NationStates is one of two boards many roleplayers in National & International Roleplaying call home, with a focus on those events less likely to result in immediately pressing beyond their initial scope and growing into an "incident" of international circumstance. Much like its sibling (International Incidents), however, a wide array of threads can be found within its scope.

NS Sports:

NS Sports is for the roleplaying of matches or games between national or club teams (or among individuals) in a certain sport, be it football (soccer), 'American' football, ice hockey, rugby, baseball, motorsport, or any other real-life sport you can think of or new one you can invent. Rather than allowing roleplayers to come up with the scores or results of the competitions, the results are generated by the hosts of the tournaments. These competitions are for nation roleplay purposes only.

A good part of this guide will be dedicated to International Incidents and Portal to the Multiverse. This is not because other NS roleplay Communities are not important, but because other guides and help threads exist for most of these communities.

The rest of the guide will be posted section by section, with the following sections contained therein:

1.) Open/Closed threads and regions - Sunset
2.) Worldbuilding and your nation - Kyrusia
3.) War - New Hayesalia
4.) Diplomacy - Monavia
5.) Characters - Swith
6.) IC and OOC, why it matters - Havensky
7.) Mentors, and getting help - Sunset
8.) P2TM and related matters - Cerillium
9.) Maintaining good relations with fellow roleplayers - Lamoni
10.) Conclusions - Lamoni

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NS Mentor, please contact me if you have questions!

Edited Jul 8, 2017 5:17:50 GMT -5 by Lamoni

Jul 8, 2017 3:12:14 GMT -5

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Open and Closed Threads and Regions
By: Sunset

An ‘Open Thread’ refers to a topic posted on either the NationStates or International Incidents forums that is open to anyone who wants to participate and can reasonably follow the rules laid out by the topic poster, sometimes referred to as the OP or Original Poster. Closed threads are the opposite; The only posters allowed are those given permission by the topic poster or their designated surrogates. Sometimes these threads are ‘Closed but Open’ - rules laid out in the thread may allow someone to petition for entry with the provision that they can then post. Both types have their uses, advantages, and disadvantages.

Open threads are useful for finding new people to play with. They are often, but not always, about some event that is not considered especially crucial (though that might not be the case for the fictional characters involved). Often they will have very specific rules so as to put the players on something of a level field; Examples might be ‘Only one character’ or ‘No deific characters’.

Closed threads are useful when the events to be written have been planned out largely in advance or when there is a high possibility for conflict.

Open and Closed Regions are very similar in concept. Open Roleplay Regions allow anyone in, often without criteria, and they can be a great place for new players to establish themselves. They can be a good source of advice as well, with established players sharing their particular experiences. Closed regions, on the other hand, typically have a very well established set of rules and history guiding events. They are hard for new players to join because of those rules and that history; Care must be taken that a new player will not simply come in, disrupt the existing order, and then leave again.

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NS Mentor, please contact me if you have questions!

Jul 8, 2017 3:12:50 GMT -5

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Worldbuilding
By: Kyrusia

"Worldbuilding." It is a term that, as both a roleplayer and a Mentor, one becomes exceptionally well acquainted with from an early point in time – at least once one begins the process itself. According to Wikipedia, its literal definition is simple, namely: worldbuilding is nothing more than "the process of constructing an imaginary world, sometimes associated with a whole fictional universe." Anyone who has been involved in roleplaying, particularly of the variety which often takes place on the NationStates forums, learns quickly that the process is so much more, and contains far greater nuance, than such a simple definition implies.

Worldbuilding on NationStates is, fundamentally, the process of bringing life to a creation – in this context, one's nation (be it firmly grounded in reality, or lofty and flying through the cold depths of space). It is to this process that this segment of this lecture will be dedicated: covering the fundamental nature of worldbuilding from the perspective of one seeking to create a nation-state (or any civilization) and its constituent components (people, culture, faith, commerce, history, traditions, taboos, etc.); even so, much here can be applied elsewhere in equal validity. Unfortunately, this topic is not one which can be spelled-out, categorically defined outside of the broadest measures, and quantified into a step-by-step process. Attempts, no doubt, have been – and will continue to be – made, but I cannot see worldbuilding as anything short of a natural, organic process that is stifled under such draconian strictures.

I see no reason to change that now.

Fundamentally, worldbuilding on a nation (or any concept, really) begins the moment an idea, no matter how hair-brained or off-the-wall, is hatched about the same. Perhaps the inspiration is derived from a film, from a book, from that latest video game everyone seems to adore, or even from a favored song; perhaps, like so many, inspiration is drawn from the real world – be it current affairs, speculation on future events, or history. The origin of the inspiration is largely irrelevant, spare insofar as it is advised that one enjoy the initial material and its own tangents, as that is often where the succeeding moments take the player.

If one does not love their initial idea, it is unlikely one will be able to give it the nurturing and attention it needs to flourish. If the idea does not hook the player, does not inspire them to commit themselves to the sometimes arduous task of research (virtually every tangent, when the process becomes obsessive), it may be best not to pursue it. It is better to set aside the idea and accept that while it may have been initially attractive, it is simply not to be, than to keep forcing one's self to run against that wall. That induces bitterness and contempt – not simply for the idea, for it can induce the same for the process as a whole. Sit down, jot down – either actually or in digital form – the initial ideas, review them, and see if the initial attraction remains. If it does, move on; if it doesn't, shelve the thought for a day (week, months, or even years), because a day may come when it proves useful and may be brought to fruition (or cannibalized for other concepts, a process I have done on countless occasions).

In the moments of a nation's first conceptualization, it will be bare. It will be, at best, a rudimentary skeleton of an idea; to draw an artistic comparison: it will be a stick figure. More often than not, however, it is even less: a vague idea of a concept or a rudimentary inclination toward a process. Hell, I have created concepts that began as merely a single scene in my mind, only to develop them into a civilization that spans centuries in historical context and "meat."

"Meat" is a term one may hear when worldbuilding for the NSRP community becomes a topic of discussion. It is an apt comparison for the process when one considers how rudimentary ("skeletal") these ideas can begin. That is worldbuilding: layering "meat" onto the "bones" of a concept. In the way of nations, this often means laying the groundwork for a culture, history, or religion which can help interconnect and justify the rudimentary angles of governance that many nation-state concepts start out being. If one has the concept of a neo-fascistic, military stratocracy, the next, reasonable leap is to begin defining the history of how such developed. Perhaps this works. Perhaps history is the last thing one considers. Some will say that for a nation, one needs to first consider how it is ruled, its history, or any range of facets. No. What matters most is that these facets join to create an image; the sequence in which the facets themselves are created is irrelevant.

Let the idea itself lead. Do not fight the process.

By this point in a concept's initial creation, one begins to question how to move forward. Once one has an initial concept, many recommend throwing the idea into the fires of roleplay and letting the process of interaction sort this out (a recommendation common from those who prefer a "bottom up" approach). Others recommend continuing down the solitary road (sometimes preferred by those who enjoy working from the "top down"). Even still, others recommend fielding the idea to one's roleplay partners and community comrades. There is no wrong process, as long as the aim for consistency is kept in mind. With respect to my personal preference, it will often depend upon precisely which facet I am working; some benefit best from merely discussing the idea with friends and acquaintances (a prospect I personally recommend), others can only be truly explored through direct execution by roleplaying, and other ideas flourish simply from an evening spent over a keyboard and pounding-out a conscious stream of thought into a word processor.

It is important that each player find what works best for them – be that "top down" (such as governance to individual characters) or "bottom up." Even so, a word of note need be made: worldbuilding, in and of itself, is not roleplaying. There are entire forums and Internet sub-communities dedicated to constructed languages, cultures, and – yes – even civilizations that lack an ounce of collaborative storytelling or roleplay. The ideal aim in the NSRP community is to balance the two, with one feeding the other in a mutually beneficial loop of trial, error, and progress. With that in mind, all the worldbuilding in… well, the world cannot save a concept that simply cannot be roleplayed well or in a manner that adheres to the expectations of any given community. Some things work best in other mediums – mediums where the inherent give-and-take of roleplaying does not apply. Some things are created as literature, some as a game; while a game can be literary and artistic, it is still fundamentally a game and not a novel. Roleplaying may, in many ways, bridges this gap, but if something is simply unworkable, all the good that does if no one can find an in-road to explore it.

"What then?" one might ask. "Where do we go from here?"

As noted, there is no real right or wrong way to further this process. Many players, after several days (or, in at least on personal case, a year later) will find themselves willing to field their first roleplay. They will have devised an idea – a diplomatic conference, a protest, an election, a civil war, a terrorist attack – for such and will begin making preparations to execute such. Worldbuilding is only useful if one showcases it. All the work one may have dedicated, even in the first few days, will only ever be seen if the player, further, dedicates the time to introduce it to others. Roleplays should be seen as opportunities to do this, while keeping in mind that not in every roleplay are one's personal creations – their civilization and its components – intended to be the central focus. A good roleplayer will learn to showcase the unique facets of their creations unobtrusively and in a manner which does not override, either in intent or outcome, the purpose of any given thread.

This is where subtlety comes into play.

Subtlety in creativity is sometimes lost on NationStates, where bombastic displays of force seem the norm and vitriolic ambassadors spew their righteous indignation at even the most minute of slights. This doesn't have to be the case in every instance. While one might use a roleplay to explore the unique cultural dichotomy constructed through their worldbuilding and imparted to their civilization by way of a flamboyantly-divisive civil war, and while such certainly has its place, something as simple as a unique word in the language of a civilization can add new depths and greater life to a construct that open conflict might not be capable of displaying.

These small, differential little details can, in my personal experience, often be what separate the "good worldbuilders" from the "great." It is not nearly as easy as it sounds to pull-off in a manner that both gets across the intended message to the reader (and roleplay partners) in a way that is simultaneously unobtrusive yet profound. It is born from a unique level of time, dedication, and energy to a thing to the point where one realizes the sense of "creation" is lost… and the feeling of "discovery" is found. This arises from the moment when, regardless of the method, a player has reached the "goal" worldbuilding strives for: creating a nation, civilization, universe, etc. in such a manner, with such detail, and with such "meat on its bones" that the moment where it stopped being a rudimentary idea and became "something different" is lost. It is the moment when a concept comes alive.

Often something more attributed to writers than worldbuilders and roleplayers, in at least this respect, I think this demarcation is overblown. It is a sensation that any creator may come across, regardless of medium. It is from this sensation that things like subtle details, whispers of nuance, and the unique traits of "life" are, in my experience, derived.

As noted, in one's time spent worldbuilding, there is likely to be a moment (many, if one finds the process rewarding and enjoyable and, thus, dedicates time, energy, and experienced practice toward) where the sense of "creation" is lost and "discovery" is found. In the case of civilizations, this may be a more profound experience than others as, by their nature, that allusion may, in fact, feel very similar to uncovering a civilization in truth. Regardless, this is an aspect of undivided focus. It arises in many different, often unexpected ways, but I have similarly felt and seen it described thus: one idea leads to another naturally, seemingly without conscious thought, as if a page had been turned and, for the first time, details unknown were found as if the concept was not merely an idea, but a living, breathing thing.

Worldbuilding strives to evoke, both in the creator and the reader, a sense of life; the civilization or concept ceases to be fictional, as its detail and nuance grows to create a different reality.

The page no longer has boundaries. The civilization could exist, no matter how fantastical, in reality. Suspension of disbelief has reach a positive level of criticality to such a degree that one can feel the breeze on a desert world, one can hear the argumentative debate in a country's parliament, and one can even know the very feelings of a fictitious people as if they were a neighbor... Of course, these are lofty ideas. This is still, fundamentally, something a player has created. It is like any good film a viewer has lost thought to, any book of such authorship that the reader could taste the food or hear the bustle of a described market, any game where the player has become attached and truly feels for the protagonist, or any song where emotion and revelry has forced the listener to dance – no matter the ridiculousness.

Yes, lofty ideas. Not everyone will get that feeling. Not everyone will develop their nation-state, civilization, or world to the point they get that feeling from it. Not everyone will be able to sit down and feel the unique pressure of focus and the overwhelming, near-giddy thrill that can predicate the moment when a concept comes to life before their very eyes. Some folks, after all, are just here to write about their favorite anime character or comic book villain with no further conceptualization; more power to them. Some are here to enact political fantasies in faux-representations of national stereotypes. Others, still, do this for the purpose of pure wish-fulfillment. No doubt, all of us do this as a form of escapism – hobbies are like that.

If there is one thing that, truly, must be said for worldbuilding, it is thus…

Worldbuilding has no end. It will never be completed. The moment "it is finished" is the same moment the concept – nation, civilization, etc. – dies. Life does not stop evolving, changing, or progressing; similarly, for a constructed world to live it, too, must grow. The concept only ever becomes "playable" or "workable." At its greatest, it has the power to transport the reader/player(s) to a different world entirely – a world built by another reader, by another player. Do not strive for "completion"; strive for enjoyment of the creation itself, its life, and – if one must – that moment when another says, "I could believe that is real."

I do not profess that this will be of any use to anyone. There is not a step-by-step process, only the vaguest of roadmaps. One starts with an idea, one explores that idea, that idea leads to another, which leads to another, and another ad infinitum. One strives to interweave these ideas into a meaningful whole that, at its absolute best, approaches a moment where it can truly be believed and feel alive, both to the creator and those participants who explore the concept(s). Very few are lucky enough to get that sense of satisfaction, but many of us derive immense joy from the creative process itself, sharing it with others, and exploring it with others.

It is my hope, helpful directly or not, that this may inspire or grant insight to others. Others who wish to see how a roleplayer sees such things. Others who may, themselves, wish to delve into the process, even if it is endless.

Even so, I will break my own custom and provide a few concise points I feel need be taken into consideration; these are without order, but I find each important:

Don't fight the process. Let the idea(s) lead. Fighting can lead to bitterness, both for the idea(s) individually and the process as a whole.

This process, while enjoyable, is only ever useful to one's roleplaying if its fruits are showcased. Roleplaying and worldbuilding should benefit one another, not one being a replacement for the other.

Experiment. Try new things. Write short-stories or one-offs that explore a singular moment or a scene with the idea(s) one wishes to explore integrated within them.

Try and maintain a level of consistency in all things. Removing inconsistencies or adjusting things through applying retroactive continuity ("retcon") will always occur, but should be used to solve strategic issues or problems which are found to be fundamentally incompatible with the concept.

Talk to others about the idea. Assuming one intends to actually roleplay with the construct (be it a nation-state, a town, or an entire universe), it will be the community itself that decides its merits through participation and involvement, or the lack thereof.

Research and study. Have an idea? Research it or analogs. One doesn't have to adopt or integrate every new bit of information, but a greater awareness of such can help bring an idea to fruition - be it politics and governance, commerce, geography and climate, or anywhere in between.

Do not try and tackle every issue at once. Focus on one facet until it becomes tedious, and then move onto the next. Don't try and bang-out a civilization's entire culture in a single sitting, as an example.

The broad purpose for worldbuilding on NationStates is to evoke a sense of the concept itself being alive. This amounts to ensuring the reader(s)'/participant(s)' suspension of disbelief is maintained.

Equally, don't feel burdened. The moment one feels burdened by the prospect of worldbuilding, take a break to avoid feeding into contempt and bitterness toward the concept.

Aim for focus. Aim for the moment where details seem to mingle and interweave naturally.

Remember: worldbuilding is never "completed." The moment it is "done" is the moment there is nothing left to explore.

My Signature...

NS Mentor, please contact me if you have questions!

Jul 8, 2017 3:13:55 GMT -5

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War, huh? What is it good for?

NS Roleplay.

By: New Hayesalia

War on NationStates is a wide ranging, maddening concept with a number of real world and NS specific considerations. The conditions are different and the technologies similar, so writing a “How To” for war is going to naturally touch on a wide variety of concepts. Though my expertise is in MT/PMT, I’ll try to give an overview of PT, FT, ‘hard’ PMT, and FanT situations.

This is not a thread to tell you about tactical and operational matters. I won’t be writing about the advantages of 5.56mm against 7.62mm, or the cost of a tank tread, or how a ship works. I’ll be giving an overview of what war is.

I’ll write to explain different types of war, how wars come about, the effects of war on society and national politics, how wars end, and specific NationStates considerations.

To do this, I’ll be drawing on a wide variety of NationStates guides, with major sources including:

Building Your Military
Aerial, Ground, and Naval Warfare
The Art of NS War
Guide to Overlooked Aspects of Warfare
How to Create a Military Doctrine for Your Nation
A Brief Roleplaying Guide to Genocide
The Ultimate Guide to War
Krieg's Guide to Losing
Logistics: War and Peace
Creating and Effectively Using an Air Force
A Primer on Naval Strategy
The Effects of Mass Murder/Genocide on Your Nation
Spacetech: Orbital Mechanics
Brewing a Revolution
Guide to Terrorism
Allanea’s Handy Guide To Military Incompetence and Errors
Guerrilla Warfare - A Primer for NationStates Players
Building and Budgeting Your Military
Creating Scenario of a War RP
2017 Guide to Embassies
From Factbooks & National Information: Allanea's Brief Guide to Military Sustainment/Logistics
Guide to the NS Nation
A Basic Guide to Roleplay Alliances
Population Realism Guide
International Relations (PLS 201)
From Archives: Size in Relation to Future Tech
A Guide to Future Tech Worldbuilding
From World-building to Exploring
Religion Creation 101
Creating a Politician within NationStates Roleplay
Cost of a Nuclear Program for Your Nation
The Wide World of Diplomacy
From P2TM: Map Making
How to Write Diplomatese
From Dispatch: How to Create a Successful Religion on NS
Guide to Roleplaying Your Foreign Policy
How to Avoid Being a Novice
A Guide to Storymaking
The Train Set: A Future Tech Analogy
Future Technology: A Beginner's Tutorial

THE TYPES OF WAR

War is, simply, a prolonged armed conflict between states and/or non-state actors, with lots of violence, social disruption, and socio-economic destruction. It generally occurs between political/socio-political/politico-religious communities. Essentially, any organised group that identifies with a core identity could be a warring party – be it national, political, or religious.

You or the enemy? Soldiers may fight for nations in uniforms, for themselves in ragtag gear, or any combination thereof.

A war between national forces is considered an interstate war, but a war between communities belonging to the same state/former state is considered a civil or intrastate war.

At the meta level, wars occur because of disagreements. While irrational reasons and actors can create odd wars for odd reasons – especially in NS – rational groups go to war because they believe the costs of war will not be overwhelmingly high, and they anticipate gains in the form of resources, power, glory, territory, and similar things.

This morbid cost-benefit analysis also implies that peace is made when the costs of the war outweigh the potential benefits. Furthermore, it also implies a failure of diplomacy – if two states cannot reach a bargain or agreement, then they would be more likely to go to war. Countries do not usually go to war without diplomatic attempts to defuse the situation.

HOW DO WARS HAPPEN?

Carl von Clausewitz said that war was simply a continuation of politics by other means. War is not just a matter of Presidents and Princes playing chess with human lives, or as a fireworks show for leaders. The application of violence to politics is done because it achieves results.

In the real world, countries are not supposed to go to war with each other unless for self-defence or defence of an ally; pre-emptive defence or self or others, or to prevent an atrocity or crime against humanity; or under a mission sanctioned by the UN Security Council. The first two remain very valid in NationStates, but the last is not, as there is no UN Security Council or World Assembly equivalent. You could write your own, on a small international or alliance basis, but there is no NS-wide equivalent.

Buried victims of the Rwanda Genocide, an incident which sparked the development of the Responsibility to Protect principles.

The reasons you would give to go to war, called in Latin ‘casus belli’ meaning ‘cause for war,’ are non-exhaustive. The following list focuses on international wars, and not civil wars or intrastate wars.

Defence of own nation, or of allies, from invasion.
As an attempt to conquer resources. Such resources are on land, air, and water. They include precious minerals, oil, water, strategic locations, fisheries, trade routes, food sources, scientific research, nuclear materials, or other special commodities (like spices, or the Dutch with their tulips.)
Responsibility to Protect (R2P) is a theory and a belief that nations have a responsibility to conduct military actions to prevent crimes against humanity. If, for example, intelligence suggests that a purge against a particular religious group or race is inevitable, R2P implies your nation would have a duty and a right to invade and stop that country from doing that, using military force.
An ideological matter. A nation may go to war to bring civilisation or their religion, or to do away with so called archaic beliefs held by another nation – for example, a democracy invading a dictatorship.
For Independence. While typically a civil war matter, many countries have been created from insurrections and revolutionary wars.
Accidentally. A progression of weird and unfortunate incidents, or just one really big one, can launch a nation to try to respond to a perceived threat on its territory. For example, the Soviet Union nearly responded to NATO’s Exercise Able Archer in 1983 as being an attack on them, justifying a nuclear retaliation. As we are still alive, this obviously did not happen.
Inevitably. Maintaining very poor international relations with another state or alliance, or getting into other conflicts of a smaller level, may encourage states to engage in threatening behaviour towards each other that can boil over to war.

SOCIO-POLITICAL EFFECTS OF WAR

Ignoring nuclear war, which tends to kind of completely annihilate nations, war has a wide berth of effects – even if you win.

We need to consider the economic costs, the costs to human lives, and the costs to national sovereignty.

So here’s the thing. War’s pretty expensive. The dual wars of Iraq and Afghanistan have been quoted to cost in excess of $1 trillion, let alone the multi-billion expenditures of the rest of the coalition countries, and not counting the run on costs of thousands of soldiers that have died or been maimed in that fight. That also doesn’t count the cost paid by the people of Iraq or Afghanistan.

Other people have written, first and foremost, about the cost of owning and operating a military force. Look at real life – the nation of New Zealand has a yearly defence budget of $2.228 billion USD. Even the NYPD alone has a budget of $4.8 billion, so consider how your nation’s population of millions can afford it’s defence. To compete with the super nations of NS, you’re going to need to be realistic about your military expenses in peacetime, let alone operational costs.

NZ infantryman and NYPD emergency services unit officer.

Immediate costs of war are shouldered by the tax payer. It is your citizens and businesses that create the wealth to hire, equip, and maintain a military force and the supply lines to keep it going overseas. But if you’re the country on the receiving end of artillery shells, things get even worse.

The damage to infrastructure as a result of war can be critical. The firebombings of Tokyo and Dresden are some of the most brutal examples of the decimation of infrastructure in war. Even more targeted examples can be crucially damaging – for instance, felling an expensive bridge can cut off millions of dollars in trade for a country, or smashing a pipeline of oil can reduce the economic potential of a nation for years.

There’s more to consider, in terms of infrastructure damage, than just the obvious things. Targets can include the following – though many of them constitute war crimes:

Government sites, like Parliaments, courts, and executive offices.
Commercial and cargo aircraft and airports.
Critical manufacturing centres – for example, shipyards in a country that produces lots of ships.
Dams and hydro electrical plants.
Defence industries, like arsenals and manufacturing facilities.
Emergency services, like civil defence, police, and fire services.
Energy production, including substations and power stations – including nuclear power plants.
Ferries, cargo ships, and ports.
Financial services, like banks and clearing houses.
Hazardous facilities, like chemical manufacturing sites or nuclear facilities.
Heating networks, like district heating, in cold locations.
National monuments and places, to damage the enemy morale. This is supposedly a key part of any South Korean invasion plan of the north.
Oil and gas production and transportation facilities.
Postal services.
Primary production, such as farms and mines, and distribution networks.
Public health facilities, such as hospitals and ambulances
Roads, bridges, and tunnels.
Sewer systems, including pipes and treatment facilities.
Space infrastructure, like launch sites, command centres, and factories.
Telecommunications facilities including internet cables.
Water supplies, such as treatment facilities or desalination plants.
Miscellaneous sites – major churches, for example, in a theocratic nation.

You will note that each of the examples I have mentioned above are multi-million, if not billion, dollar industries and exercises that can be eliminated with a couple of JDAM bombs costing less than $100,000 apiece.

A map of strategic targets in the UK during the 1970s.

If you systematically strike these targets while depleting their military potential, you can force a nation to its knees. This will have a number of run on effects, needless to say.

As mentioned, the economy is the first flag to fall. A country might very well support it’s defence industry to the expense of other parts of the economy, which damages the national economy to some degree; when attacked sufficiently, the economy may collapse. Iraq, for example, is unlikely to be a global economic power any time soon, despite its resource wealth.

The people of a state are also directly affected, and indirectly affect the economy. Imagine your city if bakers, doctors, nurses, bus/train drivers, council workers, hell – anyone with responsibility – suddenly left town. In war, they might not show up to work one day. Maybe they’ve been killed or wounded in an attack, or their place of work was destroyed. Maybe they can’t get to work because all roads and public transport is cut off. Maybe they’ve left town, and become refugees or internally displaced persons. If hundreds or thousands (or more) people do this, the immediate economic effects put a town into lockdown. Even moreso, if the police and emergency services are the people no longer at work.

You’re more likely to surrender if your country has come to a destructive standstill.

Let’s turn to general society, and examine the effects of war on it. This won’t examine an Afghanistan-type national weariness – I’m sure many psychologists smarter than me can tell you how the national attitude of the US has been shifted by 16+ years of war in that place. I’ll be more examining a ‘worst-case’ scenario, with armed enemy troops patrolling your country’s fields.

Rohingya refugees, displaced by persecution and civil conflict.

Like I just mentioned, displaced people are a concern. If the flow of millions of refugees from Syria is such a source for concern in international politics, imagine tens or hundreds of millions that could be reasonably expected from a NationStates level war. The creation of such a massive national diaspora, in real life, would be cause for concern for international governments that may have to house them in their countries; they would be fodder for international slavers that NS is so accustomed to, both as chattel slaves and as victims of sex trafficking. They may fall to things like international piracy, poverty, and it will split families. The utter trauma of displacement cannot be understated.

For people that remain in a war-torn country, their safety, education, employment, health, and general life will never be the same. I hope I don’t need to go into too much detail here, but even degrees of state degradation will not be enjoyed by the populace. Even if your war has been launched in self-defence and under the most nationally unifying of situations, national resolve can be degraded, and the effects of that can very well change governments and nations.

The last thing to consider is the return of soldiers to the nation after the fight. Those who have died in war are still going to take a cost: the Commonwealth War Graves Commission has an annual budget around £61 million; Arlington National Cemetery, just one of more than 130 US national cemeteries across the world where former service members are buried, had a budget in 2013 of $252.8 million. Furthermore, individual soldiers killed in action have a number of payouts usually paid to their next of kin. In the United States, the following is made available:

A "death gratuity" of $100,000.
Rent-free military family housing for up to a year or an allowance for housing. Survivors are also entitled to transportation, per diem and shipment of household goods and baggage.
Up to $8,800 is available for burial.
Payment of all the service member's unused accrued leave.
Insurance payment of up to $400,000. Service members are automatically enrolled and insured for that amount, but may reduce or decline coverage as desired.

Most first world countries have similar policies – and they are not cheap policies in a major conflict.

President Obama lays a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Australian Soldier.

Those wounded in action similarly have a cost to the taxpayer, for medical assistance and the payment of pensions. The US. Department of Veteran’s Affairs has a budget this year of $180 billion to administer a variety of programs including hospitals and treatment for wounded soldiers… but the VA is not exactly regarded by US service members as being the most well-equipped of organisations.

Every part of war – winning or losing – costs money. If you’re ready to put on a helmet on to protect or advance your national interests, make sure you take your wallet.

HOW DO WARS END?

The end of a war is a matter of defeat, victory, or stalemate.

Defining these requires a country to identify it’s war aims. If the objective was to defend your country from attack, then you achieve victory by repelling the enemy. If it is the complete destruction of the enemy state, you have been defeated if you have not succeeded. Simply, victory and defeat are pliable. Von Clausewitz would simply ask – have you achieved your political objective with your military operations?

I know this is a pretty short section, but it’s a pretty short answer. However, be prepared to make peace. Have a withdrawal plan and be prepared for contingencies and, very likely, a changed political environment that may cause national and international instability for years to come.

Frankly, it’s hard to put in words everything to consider here: I recommend watching this NowThis video on the subject.

Victory through superior firepower.

NATIONSTATES SPECIFIC CONSIDERATIONS

Finally, NationStates adds a few other considerations. Generally speaking, these conditions relate to size, space, and ideology. The Cold War between Russia and the United States was a nuclear standoff, with NATO planners fearful of a Soviet tank invasion of the Fulda Gap. That would’ve involved four or five divisions of Soviet tanks and mechanised infantry streaming into West Germany. In an NS example, those five divisions could very easily be replaced by a near-endless stream of tanks equivalent to the entire MBT arsenals of Russia and the United States, if not the entire world.

Size makes NS weird. This won’t affect hard-MT nations that RP with capped populations, like my friend the Cathedral, with a cap of 112 million. My own nation is at 15.6 billion, and many old NS players have similar census results.

Furthermore, the world we all ‘share’ is highly fluid. While I imagine it to be at a minimum the size of Jupiter, this is not hard and fast. Theoretically, the space in this world and the resources it has to offer are limitless and you could be located anywhere. Population sizes are measured in billions, not millions, and everything should be scaled to consider this reality. Having a million man army is a supremely rare thing in real life – it’s a norm in NationStates. This means also that your enemy is likely to have similar stats. Be warned for MT players though – many limitations of logistics still exist. A C-17 can only carry so many people, a big troopship is a big target, and you still need to get those military supplies to the troops with the same ever-complex supply lines.

Apparently, line art of NationStates troopships.

Space is the next part. The distance between two countries, short of being on the border, can range from a dash across the bay to a Falklands War style expeditionary mission. It’s a hard thing to deploy 10,000 soldiers across the world. Now imagine that in NationStates, where a simple deployment could require a huge distance to be covered. The United States has the 75th Ranger Regiment, which boasts the ability to be anywhere in the world in a day. In NS, it could take you more than a day to even fly to another country as the crow flies. Certainly, take this into account when considering how you conduct an NS war.

Ideology is perhaps the most crucial factor. When we talk about outlier nations in real life like North Korea, or the ethnic conflicts of Balkan states, or the Cold War between capitalists and communists, we see nothing on the scale of NS. NS has nations that are liberal democracies, nations that actively engage in the slave trade, nations that out-Meji the Meji revolution, and theocracies of totally fictional religions. International politics in NS is hugely strange, and more importantly, the ambient threat level of NS is excessively high. An Icelandic-style nation that has little more than armed police is a soft target for any militaristic fantasy nation with armed ponies, or god knows what. Your politics, and your response to international affairs, should therefore represent the extensive madness of NationStates and the potential for irrational leadership of those nations. Keep an eye out.

My Signature...

NS Mentor, please contact me if you have questions!

Edited Jul 8, 2017 4:52:47 GMT -5 by Lamoni

Jul 8, 2017 3:15:26 GMT -5

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MONAVIA’S HANDBOOK FOR ROLEPLAYING DIPLOMACY

CONDENSED EDITION
By: Monavia

INTRODUCTION

The NationStates “universe” plays host to what may arguably be the vastest array of fictional civilizations, cultures, and countries ever dreamed up by roleplayers who share a common interest in statecraft. Though most NS roleplayers focus on writing political fiction, their unique characters, settings, and story plots form a body of fiction that encompasses numerous genres and themes. Unless you confine your NS experience to answering issues and telegrams, raiding and defending regions, WA shenanigans, or forum lurking, your virtual nation will interact with others like it the moment you start roleplaying on this forum. Since diplomacy between fictional countries and organizations tends to follow the same basic logical principles as it does between real-life countries and organizations, it helps to have a handy guide you can use to walk yourself through the process of making diplomacy happen in a way that you and your fellow roleplayers will hopefully enjoy for years to come.

While numerous members of the NS community have written guides on specific aspects of diplomatic roleplay, nobody had ever previously written a general handbook on the topic that covered everything in one place. As of early 2017, the NS forums play host to New Hayesalia’s superb Guide to Embassies and Consulates, guides on foreign policy and Internatonal Relations, and at least three threads for teaching players how to write official correspondence (The Ostro's Guide to Communiques [sic], How to Write a Diplomatic Message, and How to Write Diplomatese). Each of these player resources is both informative and valuable to the roleplaying community in ways that have helped countless individuals improve their roleplaying skills and are therefore worth your time to examine.

1: The Diplomat’s Environment

Before I dive into the business of explaining how to roleplay diplomacy, I need to spend a little time explaining the arena in which the proverbial game is played. Anytime two populations become technologically and culturally advanced enough to achieve a division of labor, their economies and territorial claims start growing at an accelerated rate until they reach a point where their individual citizens come into contact with one another. If these cultures survive long enough to become civilized—in other words, if they establish institutions that perform public administration (i.e. governments)—their leaders will try to make deals with one another in an official capacity. Since leaders cannot always make officials deals themselves, they will inevitably appoint official representatives who can negotiate on their behalf. Based on these principles, we can define diplomacy as the official business that governments conduct with other governments.

Who Performs Diplomacy

While my initial definition describes the most basic form diplomacy takes in both reality and popular imagination, governments representing independent sovereign states are not the only entities that perform diplomacy. In fact, intergovernmental organizations (IGOs), such as the World Assembly (WA), IC treaty organizations, and supranational unions can send and receive diplomats the same way countries do. Likewise, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), such as charity and disaster relief agencies, religious bodies, and various political, scientific, and cultural programs can send and receive official representatives who will often receive the same courtesies, rights, and protections as regular diplomats under select circumstances. Here is a basic rundown of the entities I just described:

States are what we often colloquially refer to as countries. A state is a self-governing entity that is fully entitled to act autonomously in charting its own destiny. In most cases, a state is sovereign (i.e. it completely governs itself and does not answer to any superior legal or political authority) and independent (i.e. it can govern and economically support itself without going bankrupt or needing to be placed into receivership by the international community).
An intergovernmental organization (IGO) is a legal entity created by collaborative agreements between two or more governments. An IGO can be bilateral, such as a joint border-control agency, or multilateral, like the WA and various IC treaty coalitions. IGOs are oftentimes sponsored by different governments and usually receive a lot of the privileges that governments extend to one another.
Nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) are generally private not-for-profit entities that function a lot like multinational corporations and oftentimes must comply with the same rules that businesses and religious bodies are bound to obey.

While IGOs and NGOs are “self-governing” in the sense that they are administratively capable of managing their own operations, they are neither sovereign nor independent. Both must obey the laws that different governments impose on them (except for exceptions carved out by treaties) and neither can raise funds by levying taxes, maintain security forces without government permission, or otherwise act like countries.

Diplomatic interactions can assume any number of forms—they can be formal or informal, bilateral or multilateral, and solicited or unsolicited. For instance, if Country A’s leader invites Country B’s leader to a private ball, then the interaction is informal, bilateral, and unsolicited by the recipient. If Country C’s leader hosts a region-wide conference to form a mutual defense coalition at the request of other countries in the region, then the interaction is formal, multilateral, and solicited by the others. In any case, please keep in mind that emissaries to travel around marketing their country’s values, ideas, culture, and political opinions in almost the same way companies appoint sales agents to travel around marketing products and services to potential customers.

2: Diplomatic Personnel

Character Creation

Diplomacy is one of the most heavily character-driven aspects of NS roleplay. While you can reliably roleplay trade and war in terms of sending a trainload of coal to one country or a carrier flotilla to another, the art of roleplaying diplomacy depends a lot more on the actions of individual characters. Put another way, it is simply difficult and awkward to roleplay diplomacy if you have no characters to populate your stories. Of course, it goes without saying that this information is also applicable to the general business of character creation throughout fiction writing.

While there are many different ways you can start creating these characters, if you are new to NS you will have the easiest time starting this process by imagining what sort of personality traits you want them to have. Is your latest trusty emissary an introvert or an extrovert? Is she a hoarder or a neat freak? Does he have any unique quirks and idiosyncrasies that can play a role in the plot of a future roleplay thread? After you have sketched a mental picture of the sort of person you want a new character to be, you can brainstorm a background story that complements your new character’s personality. Ask yourself how your characters became diplomats in the first place—did your country’s leader make Dr. Trustworthy a diplomat because she was a lawyer who can write a treaty or because she was a corporate executive who knows how to make a trade deal?

The work of inventing a new character should ideally include dreaming up details that enable readers to know what he or she looks and sounds like in a given story (e.g. physical appearance, voice, and taste in fashion) and details that explain his or her behavior. For example, ask if you want the diplomat in your new roleplay thread to be a rookie or a veteran. Whenever you dive into the exciting business of creating these characters, you will also need to think about the ways your character’s personality, prejudices, and professional experience might affect his or her interactions with foreigners out in the field. Again, your goal in roleplaying diplomacy (and anything else on NS) is to make things happen by writing a story about it!

Education, Training, and Appointment

Diplomats need a broad set of talents to conduct productive business with their foreign counterparts—for instance, they must be capable of traveling, learn respect for the customs and etiquette of their hosts, make efforts to understand their host country’s culture, and in most cases, they must fluently speak their host country’s language. Specialized academies and training programs can teach new ambassadors how to manage an embassy’s budget, process and file paperwork, or observe security clearances, but cannot teach them things that they can only learn by observation and experience. The best diplomats possess high degrees of social intelligence in a variety of fields, and social intelligence, much like tact, charm, and other personality traits, is not something your characters can learn from a textbook.

When dreaming up your characters’ educational backgrounds, your consular staff, clerical secretaries, and the like will realistically need undergraduate degrees in their areas of specialization and related fields to qualify for admission to a diplomatic academy. A legal attaché will have a law degree and perhaps even a doctorate in jurisprudence. A trade attaché will typically be either a professional economist or a professor of economics. A military attaché will always be a commissioned military officer while an embassy’s security chief will probably be a former senior non-commissioned officer with some past command experience. A full ambassador may either have one or more doctorates in fields ranging from international relations to political science, though nothing says you cannot roleplay your country as a place where the head of state hands out diplomatic posts to his biggest re-election donors. This actually happens in real life!

Diplomatic Ranks and Titles

Every diplomatic corps contains an internal hierarchy. In most RL countries, the head of state makes ambassadorial appointments while leaving the head of his or her foreign relations department in charge of hiring and firing the officials who administer diplomatic academies, provide diplomatic security services, process embassy permits, and so on. Both your NS country’s foreign relations department and the teams of emissaries it sends out should contain some form of internal organization, a division of responsibilities, and a clear understanding of who answers to whom if it is to function effectively.

Diplomats usually hold one of three main ranks. An ambassador is an emissary that a country’s leader appoints to represent the sending country before the government of another country and is almost always more properly known as an ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary. A minister (more properly known as an envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary and often simply called an envoy) is an official who is assigned to serve as the sending country’s chief official representative whenever the receiving country was “not important enough” to deserve an ambassador. A chargé d’affaires (the female equivalent is chargée d’affaires) is an official who heads a diplomatic mission but has a lower rank than an envoy. A chargé d’affaires can either be a permanent head of mission (en pied, as between two countries that have not agreed to exchange ambassadors or have poor relations) or a temporary head of mission (ad interim) who takes over for an ambassador. The term literally means “charged with [handling] matters.”

An entity’s chief official representative in a given jurisdiction will not always bear one of the titles named in the preceding paragraph. While an emissary between one country and another is called an ambassador, an emissary sent from a government to an IGO like the WA is called a permanent representative. Conversely, an emissary sent from an IGO or NGO to a country’s government is called a resident representative. Both are the ranked equivalent of ambassadors but typically have inferior seniority.

3: Diplomatic Missions and Facilities

Introduction

A diplomatic mission is a team of emissaries that a country’s leaders organize and send out to represent their interests in another country. A mission can represent a country (e.g. the Monavian Empire), its sovereign (e.g. the Monavian Crown), an IGO (e.g. the World Assembly or the Fegosian Union) or an NGO (e.g. the Monavian Orthodox Church). If Country A permanently stations a diplomatic mission in Country B’s seat of government, Country A’s leaders will assign their diplomatic mission a number of objectives, such as building friendly relations with Country B’s leaders, negotiating trade agreements with Country B’s government, or simply keeping an official finger on the pulse of Country B’s political scene.

Different Types of Missions and Facilities

Missions can assume a number of forms. A mission can be temporary or permanent. It is called an embassy if it is headed by an ambassador or a legation if it is headed by an envoy. If a mission is permanently stationed in the receiving country, it is called a resident mission, but if it is only stationed there temporarily, it is termed a non-resident mission. Though NS roleplayers have always been at liberty to devise any new type of mission they desire, they almost universally stick to sending and receiving permanent resident embassies.

When a country receives diplomats from another country, the receiving country’s government will typically allow the sending country’s government to rent or purchase one or more pieces of real estate in which to house its diplomats for the duration of their posting. Generally speaking, this real estate is called a chancery if it houses an embassy or legation, and a consulate if it houses a consul and his or her staff.

A chancery will typically house the sending country’s ambassador and subordinate emissaries, the ambassador’s close family, and appropriate managerial, security, support, and miscellaneous staff. Depending on the nature and significance of the relationship between the sending and receiving countries, the sending country’s chancery might also house relatives of the subordinate diplomats, personal domestic servants, computer technicians, mechanics, gardeners, and other professionals that keep the chancery’s buildings, grounds, equipment, and vehicles in working order. Consulates are simpler since they frequently contain no living quarters at all and the entire consular staff lives in property purchased or rented from citizens of their host country. In many respects, consulates function as a chancery’s “branch offices” in its host country by representing it remotely.

Internal Structure of Missions

Regardless of whatever form a mission takes, its personnel will be organized into a distinct hierarchy. The head-of-mission (or chief of mission) serves as the mission’s administrator and is responsible for managing its internal operations. Most missions also have a deputy head or deputy chief tasked with assisting the ambassador, envoy, or other mission chief in various ways. Both the head and deputy head will usually have one or more private assistants, secretaries, and similar employees who help them perform their professional duties and may or may not employ private servants separately from the mission’s service staff. Depending on the customs and regulations of the sending country, a mission’s chain of command may contain one or more additional ranks of senior administrators below the deputy head-of-mission.

Diplomatic officials are oftentimes organized into functional departments which enjoy some degree of autonomy and are managed by semi-independent department heads who usually hold senior diplomatic ranks and titles such as counselor, secretary, etc. Departments will oftentimes contain their own internal hierarchies and divisions of labor as needed. Generic examples include an administrative department, a communications and press department, a cultural department, an economic and trade department, a legal department, a political department, and a security department. Some missions might not have all of these internal divisions while others may have more, especially if they have specific needs to meet. In any case, these departments can prove highly useful in roleplaying a story by giving your ambassadors and ministers something to do other than conduct political business with foreign governments.

Functions of Diplomatic Missions

A diplomatic mission’s primary function is to represent its native country’s interests and opinions in the host country. A diplomatic mission also serves as a two-way communications interface since its members not only share information with their host country’s government, they also function as their native country’s eyes and ears within the host country. Your NS nation’s emissaries will both conduct negotiations with their host government and provide their superiors with a steady flow of news and intelligence. The interface role also includes arranging meetings between officials from both countries and helping organize state visits. In addition to the aforesaid functions, missions also provide valuable services to individual persons traveling between countries. An embassy or legation will usually:

Assist citizens of your nation with securing travel visa access.
Help your citizens replace lost passports and travel documents in the host country.
Offer your citizens and nationals protection in the event of local unrest and domestic violence.
Help evacuate your country’s citizens from a disaster site in the host country.
Help your own nationals and persons affiliated with third parties gain asylum.
Process travel and citizenship paperwork.
Host intelligence officers (i.e. spies) assigned to operate in the host country.

Consulates often provide specialized services to your nationals while they are in the host country. Consulates serve as information centers from which the host country’s citizens can obtain information about traveling to and doing business with the consul’s home country. A consulate’s staff will help people obtain passports, process applications for them, and replace them when they are lost or stolen. Consular staff will notarize vital records (e.g. birth, marriage, and death certificates) for their country’s nationals in the host country; offer their nationals assistance with finding counsel when accused of crimes in the host country, and assist in processing paperwork by which their nationals change their citizenship. Like embassy and legation staff, consular staff can sometimes assist with disaster-related evacuations and provide other emergency services. In short, they can make a multitude of different things happen.

Extraterritoriality

When a diplomatic mission occupies a piece of real estate, the host country’s government will typically grant it extraterritoriality, which is a status in which the host country’s laws do not apply so that the laws of the mission’s country can apply there instead. Put another way, if a piece of property has extraterritoriality, it acts as if it is the territory of the country posting its mission there without actually ceasing to be the territory of the host country. A diplomatic mission’s host government will typically bestow this status on the mission’s official facilities (i.e. chanceries and consulates) and any private residences that the sending country’s ambassador owns in the host country. All diplomatic missions must pay utility fees and either purchase or pay rent on any properties they occupy regardless of their legal status. While most countries will extend this legal privilege to a mission’s vehicle fleet, it usually only applies to the ones used by the mission head and other senior officials and not to vehicles used by security and support staff.

4: Exchanging Diplomats

Setting up an Exchange Program

There is nothing inherently difficult about roleplaying diplomatic tours and deployments, but there inevitably comes a point where so many roleplayers want to send embassies to your nation that keeping track of them all becomes a hassle. You can easily overcome this hurdle by creating a diplomatic exchange thread in which other players can roleplay sending missions to your country’s seat of government and you can roleplay the process of receiving them. Remember, diplomatic exchange threads are in-character threads, so treat them accordingly. The process of creating an exchange requires just as much preparation as any other multilateral RP, but as with other RPs around here, the effort you put into creating your exchange thread will influence others to put in a similar amount of effort when posting replies.

The first step in creating a diplomatic exchange program is to write the opening post of the thread in a word processor that has a spellchecker. If your thread contains a lot of spelling and grammar errors, visitors might not take you seriously and decide to move on without posting anything. In my personal opinion, your opening post should start with an OOC disclaimer warning visitors to keep posts in character and avoid spamming your thread with OOC chatter, though I will not think less of you if you decide such a note is not necessary. The remainder of your post should contain these items:

An in-character introduction below the title
A list of locations where foreign diplomats can open chanceries and consulates (group these by city if you allow them in multiple cities)
The rules and regulations foreign diplomats must follow when setting up facilities and using them
Travel and customs regulations
A facility application form and instructions for submitting it

Managing Your Exchange Program

After you have posted and opened your exchange program, you will eventually begin receiving facility applications from other players. Responding to applications can be a lot of work if your exchange thread becomes highly popular, so my number one tip is to create form letter templates on a word processor and save them somewhere. This way, every time you accept or reject an application you only have to rewrite a few parts of the letters between your characters. You will still need to invest some effort in the rest of your writing, however. If an applicant takes the time to write out a good roleplay post, it is polite for you to write out an equivalent post in reply, even if it takes you a while. Applicants will appreciate the time you spent developing stories in your thread (again, exchange threads are IC) and might even enjoy your writing enough to plan a new roleplay thread with you later.

My other tips in this area include:

Process applications promptly when possible. Applicants will appreciate good treatment.
Process multiple applications in one post whenever possible. This will minimize the number of posts that accumulate in a thread and reduce page count creep.
When rejecting an application, clearly state the reasons for rejection so that the applicant can make appropriate corrections.
In the event that your exchange breaks down or becomes inactive for long periods of time, consider launching a new exchange thread. Just be sure to import all of your existing facility data (i.e. who you approved and what spaces they claimed) into your new exchange thread and post a link to the previous one.

Organizing and Deploying Missions

If you would like to have a permanent mission in another NS nation, find out if the player behind the account has set up an exchange program thread and take some time to read it if one exists. Before posting an application, ask yourself if you have any intention of roleplaying with the owner of the exchange program in the future. If the answer is no and you simply want to claim a space for the sake of claiming a space, please move on and refrain from taking a space that somebody else might actually use. Assuming that you are interested in roleplaying an exchange of missions, take some time to read their rules, find their application form template, and fill it out completely. Be sure to ask for a vacant lot and try not to flout regulations just to be cheeky. Most importantly, never display immaturity when submitting an application unless you want to receive this type of response. In determining what to say on your application form, ask yourself these types of questions:

How important will this nation be to my canon? In other words, how much time do I want to invest in creating new characters and posting in this thread?
How many people would my NS nation’s leaders want to send and who would they prefer to appoint based on what the host country is like in character?
What sort of IC relationship do I expect my NS nation to have with the host nation?
Does it make sense for my characters to hire locally?
How many attachés should I send?
How many vehicles will my personnel need?
Based on how safe the host country is, what security measures do my characters need?

If your facility application is approved, congratulations! The next step in the process is to roleplay your mission’s arrival in the host country. In many cases, you can simply make a single arrival post in the exchange thread and call it a day. In other cases, such as this one in which I got to roleplay a first contact scenario with another user who later joined my region, you can gain access to an excellent roleplaying opportunity.

5: Diplomatic Law

Overview

Diplomatic law comes from a variety of sources. Real-life diplomatic law is principally derived from the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, customary international law, and country-specific legislation created to respect and protect foreign emissaries. Customary international law largely consists of norms and practices (such as the laws and customs of war or the sanctity of diplomatic personnel and visiting heads of state) that cultures throughout the world have traditionally honored for much of their respective histories. Diplomatic immunity and diplomatic asylum are two of the most hallowed legal principles that countries have created treaties to codify.

Diplomatic Immunity

Whenever one country sends emissaries to another country, the host country will typically grant the emissaries and their staff varying degrees of diplomatic immunity, which the U.S. Department of State defines as “a principle of international law by which certain foreign government officials are not subject to the jurisdiction of local courts and other authorities for both their official and, to a large extent, their personal activities.” In other words, it is a legal privilege which shields diplomats and their staff from detention, arrest, prosecution, civil liability, and a variety of other legal consequences for violating their host country’s laws and regulations.

Most real-life countries currently abide by the immunity rules laid down by the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations. While every NS nation has its own diplomatic immunity rules, many abide by the WA’s Diplomatic Protection Act (2008).  In most countries, the head of a mission (i.e. an ambassador, envoy, or chargé d’affaires) and his or her spouse will be granted “full” immunity while emissaries of inferior rank, their close relatives, and diplomatic staffers will receive any number of inferior grades of immunity.

Diplomatic immunity does not exist to provide diplomats with a license to flout laws and regulations or escape liability for the consequences of improper behavior, but rather exists to ensure that diplomats are free to perform the work their governments assign to them without having to worry about unnecessary interference from host country governments. Nonetheless, diplomatic immunity can be abused to the point that a host government will expel a rogue diplomat from its territory and declare him or her persona non grata (Lat. “person not appreciated,” i.e. banned from returning).

If a foreign diplomat performs a criminal act in his or her host country, the host country’s government can ask the sending country’s government to waive the offender’s immunity so that he or she can be prosecuted. Officials tend to be cautious about making such requests so that their own diplomats are not treated harshly in event of criminal misbehavior. Even if the sending country rejects a waiver request, the host country’s government can still cancel the offender’s visa.

Diplomatic Asylum

Real-life international law does not recognize a right to claim or enjoy asylum by entering diplomatic facilities. Having made this point, it is useful to note that customary international law does contain a principle known as non-refoulement “which forbids a country receiving asylum seekers from returning them to a country in which they would be in likely danger of persecution” (Wikipedia). While every country has its own asylum laws, it is generally accepted that a country cannot forcibly remove an asylum-seeker from an extraterritorial facility if the diplomatic mission domiciled there chooses to grant asylum. For some real-life examples, consult the 1954 OAS Convention on Diplomatic Asylum.

6: Diplomatic Protocol and Gifts

Protocol

Protocol is a special etiquette for official settings, such as a courtroom, legislative chamber, or an official audience with a country’s leader. Put another way, it is the type of etiquette people should use when conducting business with civic or religious dignitaries, attending public ceremonies at which they are present, or interacting with them at a social engagement. Every culture contains unique standards of conduct, politeness, and communication that either have no equivalent in other cultures or differ markedly from the standards that other cultures contain, which is why people cannot fruitfully interact with people from other cultures unless they can learn and respect the standards by which others live. Please note that respecting another culture does not mean imitating said culture.

Even when people possess high degrees of intercultural competence, there are limits to how quickly they can learn how one culture’s values and social expectations differ from those of another and sometimes they sometimes simply lack the time and resources to do so. In an attempt to work around this problem, real-life diplomats from all over the world gradually invented a set of diplomatic customs and standards of behavior that they could follow wherever they went without having to worry about the sort of cross-cultural misunderstandings that had caused serious diplomatic incidents in the past. Whenever people talk about “diplomatic protocol” (as opposed to protocol in the more general sense), they are referring to this common set of rules and customs.

Anytime a person travels from one country to another, he or she implicitly represents the culture and values of his or her home country. Diplomats and national leaders explicitly represent their countries in an official capacity, so it is even more vital for them to adhere to protocol than it is for private persons to do so. While every country is entitled to adopt its own local customs and internal protocol, most real-life countries follow principles similar to what you can find in Protocol for the Modern Diplomat.

Gifts

Diplomats and leaders customarily exchange gifts to demonstrate goodwill, build trust, or send symbolic messages. Elements of this longstanding ancient custom include investing substantial amounts of time or money in obtaining something valuable and reciprocating gifts from others. Different cultures assign different symbolism to the same objects, so anytime leaders or their representatives exchange gifts, they will often consult a protocol officer to ensure that whatever they offer will not send an inappropriate message. Many of history’s worst diplomatic missteps resulted from one side presenting a gift that the other found insulting; in some select cases these insults were serious enough to spark armed conflicts.

Diplomatic Insignia

Governments, IGOs, and NGOs often require their official personnel to use and display insignia that distinctly identifies them in certain situations. Chanceries and consulates will invariably fly the sending country’s flag and their architectural designs usually include representations of the sending country’s seal, coat of arms, or other identifying emblems. Ambassadors and consuls of various ranks are often entitled to fly distinctive flags representing their offices and official vehicles usually bear diplomatic license plates and have variations of the owning country’s flag affixed to their exterior surfaces. Accredited diplomats and their families will typically possess special diplomatic passports. A chancery or consulate’s employees usually receive official letterhead for producing official documents and members of the diplomatic mission may use special custom stationery that has their title preprinted on it.

While real-life diplomatic uniforms largely went out of fashion in the middle of the twentieth century, some RL countries still use them for ceremonial occasions, such as the meeting at which a new head of mission presents his or her credentials to the receiving country’s head of government. Wikipedia’s article on this subject even states that “A photo of the 2001 New Year's reception at the Vatican shows the ambassadors of Monaco, the Netherlands, Thailand, the United Kingdom, Spain, France, and Belgium all clad in diplomatic uniform.” RL diplomatic uniforms were historically modeled after court dress and featured heavy embroidery designed to indicate rank.

7: Conferences and Summits

Introduction

I spent the first six chapters of this treatise describing the environment in which diplomats live and work, the process for creating characters with which to roleplay diplomacy, the art of organizing and exchanging diplomatic missions, and the laws and customs that apply when roleplaying diplomacy. While the business of running a diplomatic exchange program counts as one form of roleplaying diplomacy, NS roleplayers who write that they want a “diplomatic RP” are usually asking to either have an exchange of messages, characters, or both revolving around a specific event. This chapter is dedicated to explaining what happens when the official representatives of two or more countries actually meet to conduct official business with one another.

Types of Official Meetings

Most “diplomatic RP” threads assume of the form of summits between two or more heads of government or multilateral conferences between diplomats whose countries share a common subject of concern. A summit (more properly termed a summit meeting) is a formal meeting between the leaders of the involved countries and typically features high degrees of publicity. A conference is a formal meeting between diplomats from various countries and may or may not feature the occasional leader. Conferences usually feature whole delegations from each country. Official meetings can also take on several other forms. Diplomatic receptions are ceremonies in which diplomats introduce themselves to the receiving country’s head of state and present their credentials to them. A state visit is an occasion in which one country’s head of state formally visits another country’s head of state, usually by invitation. Official meetings can also take other forms, but in the interests of brevity I have decided to focus on conferences and summits.

Security

Anytime a country’s government hosts a diplomatic meeting, the host nation is always responsible for providing adequate security. If you are roleplaying as the host nation for such an engagement, your local law enforcement and security officials are responsible for directing traffic, screening visitors, clearing press personnel, deterring potential disruption, monitoring demonstrations, and otherwise ensuring that nobody can disrupt or delay the engagement. In some cases, such as a peace conference taking place within a truce zone, the host nation will rely heavily on military and paramilitary personnel to provide added security. It is rare, however, for a host to have a large military contingent present for security reasons, especially if the venue is located in a safe, stable environment. For the sake of all that is good in NS roleplay, please do not show up with an entire army.

When hosting a conference, summit, or state visit, each incoming attendee (or delegation of them) will arrive with its own security detail. The size and composition of each detail will be tailored to match the status of the person or persons needing protection and the nature of any potential hazards that can be associated with a given visit. Most real-life countries have a diplomatic protection service of some kind that will be responsible for chauffeuring visiting diplomats around and a visiting foreign leader will often travel with a number of military officers (usually adjutants or security advisers) and their enlisted aides. While it is customary (and indeed wise) for foreign leaders to arrive with their own bodyguards, these contingents are generally modest—a visiting leader’s motorcade might include a couple dozen security officers and the aircraft that flew the vehicles into the host country will have its own security detail.

Roleplaying Summits

The IC thread for a summit should begin with the arrival of foreign leaders at a location close to the summit venue. If your NS nation is hosting the summit, you are responsible for roleplaying the reception that the arriving leaders receive. If your leaders are attending the summit as guests, you are responsible for roleplaying their arrival. Generally speaking, the host nation’s head of state or an appropriate designee will be present to personally greet arriving leaders. One way to intentionally snub or slight a foreign leader is to send a low-level functionary or bureaucrat to perform this duty instead. Remember to keep my remarks about protocol, security, and related subjects in mind at this stage.

The second phase of a summit RP is the time period between arrival and the summit’s commencement. Depending on the nature of each leader’s visit, some may choose to arrive one or more days early to engage in sightseeing, tour museums and monuments, or attend plays, concerts, or sporting events. Sometimes you might simply have your leaders invite another country’s leaders to arrive a day early to hash out a unified negotiating position (such as when representatives of two opposing coalitions are preparing for a peace conference). This phase will oftentimes include a photo opportunity and a formal reception to which the media will be invited to take statements from both the hosting and visiting leaders.

The summit thread’s third phase consists of the actual summit proceedings. A summit should be conducted like a formal business meeting. If a summit includes treaty negotiations, please read Chapter 9 to learn more. In the event that the characters involved in a summit need multiple days to complete their meetings, they should adjourn and reconvene as many times as needed to move the plot along. Once the summit is over, it is customary in many countries for hosting and visiting leaders to hold a joint press conference at which they make statements about the summit’s accomplishments and answer questions.

Real-life summits often feature a number of additional rituals, such as state banquets and balls, inspecting the host country’s troops, laying wreaths at memorials, having visiting leaders address the host country’s legislature, and so forth. You are responsible for deciding which of these items are necessary for the plot. Regardless of what you choose to include, you can either try to fit some of these items into the second phase of the thread or have them take place after the third phase is over. You can also try both. Just be sure to get everything wrapped up before you roleplay the departure of various characters at the end.

Roleplaying Conferences

Diplomatic conferences tend to contain fewer ceremonial rituals and components than summits, but they still follow many of the same rules. Everyone should start off by bringing their characters into the host country and have them arrive at the conference venue before doing much else. You can spice up the plot by having your characters liaise with the local media to make statements and take photos or rack up parking tickets and claim diplomatic immunity from paying fines. The only hard-and-fast rule you need to follow in advancing the plot is to maintain a logical sequence in your story while taking some time to let your characters interact and display their personalities. Having made that point, the more players are involved in a conference thread, the more crucial it is for everyone to consistently take their turns while posting and avoid clogging it with really short dialogue posts that barely advance its plot.

Conferences traditionally begin with a number of formalities. The host nation’s delegates are responsible for convening the proceedings and calling on the delegates from each of the involved countries to elect a permanent conference chair (they usually end up electing the host country’s chief representative anyway, but they can always elect someone else). If the conference features treaty negotiations, the delegates will show each other their credentials to prove they have the authority to negotiate and sign whatever agreement they create. Once the conference begins, the chair is responsible for maintaining order and ruling on procedural disputes.

8: Official Correspondence

Basic Principles

Although diplomacy is one of the most character-driven aspects of roleplaying on NS, your characters cannot always meet in person or reserve a teleconference suite every time they want to discuss something. Sometimes the only appropriate way for your characters to communicate with their opposite numbers is through physical and electronic mail, faxes, and other written media. Effective written communication generally follows these five principles:

Accuracy: a message should say what its writer means it to say.
Brevity: an effective message is thorough enough to make its point while still being concise. A concise message will address only one general topic if possible.
Clarity: a message must be intelligible enough for its intended recipient to comprehend its meaning. It does not contain clumsy phraseology or intentional obfuscation that might result in a serious misunderstanding.
Design: a message needs to be formatted in a way that is easy to read and appears to be the work of someone who takes his or her correspondence seriously.
Elegance: a message is written using courteous language that reflects the dignity of both the sender and the recipient.

If you adhere to these principles you will increase the likelihood that another player’s characters will take your characters seriously and respond to them in a dignified manner. At the very least, you are showing the roleplayers on the other side of your screen that you care about writing something that is worth their time to read. If you truly want other roleplayers to invest effort in responding to your posts, then you must also heed the principle of gravitas (i.e. seriousness). One roleplayer’s characters will not take another roleplayer’s characters seriously if they write silly, vulgar, lewd, threatening, or immature messages.

Formatting Correspondence

Official letters, communiqués, notes, cables, electronic transmissions, and the like each have their own distinct formats. Not only does good formatting enable your readers to tell different types of messages apart from one another, it also lends them a degree of gravitas (i.e. seriousness) that is difficult for readers to ignore. If you find yourself in the habit of repeatedly writing the same types of messages to different players (e.g. responses to diplomatic facility applications), you can save yourself huge amounts of work by creating plug-and-play templates for them and saving them in a file. A document containing a set of templates for drafting official paperwork is called a formulary. The easiest way to create a formulary is to save copies of different messages your characters write. All you have to do to quickly write an official-sounding message is swap out a few words and names and dates. Even if you do not create form letter templates or organize them into a formulary, you should remember that there are some things you should not do:

Write communiqués that begin with “To: Nation X, From: Nation Y” instead of having their characters address the other player’s characters.
Enclose portraits of your characters with correspondence. You are sending the diplomatic equivalent of business letters, not distributing family photos to relatives.
Center-align all of the text in a letter. Not only does this make it difficult for others to read the body, but it is also technically improper.
Posting giant, screen-hogging seals, emblems, and heraldic imagery that makes reading a pain for any poor soul trying to access NS on their mobile devices. Please use reduced-size versions (e.g. less than 400 pixels tall) when possible.
Adorn your letters with multiple full-size letterheads that take up three times as much space as their body text.
Start every last official press release with your head of state’s full official style or title correspondence with row upon row of uppercase letters such that readers assume a sticky caps lock key got involved.

9: Negotiating and Writing Treaties

Introduction

Anytime two or more parties wish to make a formal agreement, they draw up a contract that puts their agreement into writing and thereby proves their agreement’s existence. A treaty is a contractual agreement between two or more countries and is typically drawn up by diplomats representing the central governments of the nations involved. Wikipedia states, “A treaty may also be known as an (international) agreement, protocol, covenant, convention, pact, or exchange of letters, among other terms.” Much like any other contract, a treaty must be written in clear legalese that precisely explains every facet of the terms and conditions to which its parties are agreeing and follow a particular format. This chapter is devoted to walking you through the process of both roleplaying a treaty negotiation and writing a treaty’s text.

Types of Treaties

International treaties will always assume either a bilateral form (i.e. an agreement between just two parties) or a multilateral form (i.e. an agreement between three or more parties). A “party” can be a single country or a supranational union (e.g. the EU). While most NS roleplayers negotiate bilateral treaties, such as friendship treaties and bilateral trade and security agreements, a substantial minority of all NS treaties take the form of regional trade and security agreements or charters for ideologically-defined treaty organizations. We can also classify treaties by function (e.g. friendship treaties, economic treaties, boundary treaties, nonaggression treaties, mutual defense treaties, etc.) My unabridged guide on Diplomacy covers this subject in depth.

Writing and Formatting Treaties

Like most legal documents, the text of a treaty should follow a standardized format and be written using precise language to ensure it contains no loopholes. The longer and more complex a treaty will be, the more carefully you should pay attention to formatting it clearly and ensuring its sections have appropriate headers. Use a word processor to save copies of your work in process (this builds upon my prior warning about the need to back up your diplomatic exchange program data). A treaty’s structure typically consists of three main sections: a preamble, also known as the protocol, a corpus (body), and an eschatocol (conclusion). Please consult my unabridged guide on diplomacy to learn how to write each of these segments.

Regardless of what type of treaty you are writing, your draft should always contain several specialized provisions, though it is up to you to determine the best possible wording and where they should go in the corpus of the document. If you need help determining the best possible wording, Wikipedia’s List of Treaties offers you access to a wealth of places to look for real-life examples. You should take care to include sections or clauses that forbids the signatories from expressing reservations (a legal term for claiming that specific treaty provisions do not apply to them) and provisions covering ratification, amendment, withdrawal, depositing proof of ratification, and the treaty’s entry into force.

10: Coercive Diplomacy

Overview

Most diplomatic intercourse is voluntary and cooperative, yet times inevitably arise when voluntary cooperation is either unlikely or impossible as a result of circumstances in which one or more concerned parties find themselves. In these cases, one entity might elect to use diplomatic channels as a means of coercing another entity to act a certain way. This practice is broadly known as coercive diplomacy or “forceful persuasion” and typically relies on the threat of force to achieve success.

Coercive diplomacy will always assume one of two main forms. The first is compellence, in which Entity A threatens to injure Entity B’s interests unless Entity B does something Entity A wants. Compellence can usually be described as saying “do what we say or suffer punishment.” The second form is deterrence, in which Entity A threatens injure Entity B’s interests if Entity B tries to do something Entity A does not want it to do. Deterrence can usually be described as saying “we will punish you if you do that.”

Anytime one government seeks to compel or deter the actions of another, it will generally rely on a specific set of measures to ensure that its will is obeyed. When it comes to the realm of coercive diplomacy—and politics in general—power is best defined as the ability of one entity to command the obedience of another entity. Coercive diplomacy therefore represents a raw contest of power in which one side attempts to impose its will on another. In the next section, we will examine the main tools used to wage these contests.

Tools of Coercive Diplomacy

Every government has a diverse arsenal of tools at its disposal when it comes to performing coercion against other entities. These tools, in increasing order of severity, are: 

Issuing a letter of protest to shame the recipient into complying with the sender’s will. This example illustrates what such a letter looks like.
Expelling one or more of another country’s diplomats and declaring each expellee persona non grata.
Imposing sanctions against another country’s leader or principal officials.
Recalling an ambassador to express disapproval toward another country’s actions. In some cases, one government will replace its ambassador with a chargé d’affaires en pied to snub another.
Recalling an entire diplomatic mission from another country.
Issuing sanctions against the targeted country.
Issuing an embargo (i.e. full trade ban) against the targeted country.
Terminating diplomatic relations with the targeted country by expelling all of their missions while simultaneously recalling all of your missions in their country.
Issuing an ultimatum.
Blockading the targeted country. Remember that blockades are often regarded as hostile acts and the target is likely to declare war in response.
Sending military forces into the targeted country’s peripheral airspace or territorial waters as a show of force.

If you want to learn the military details of mounting a blockade and performing intrusive shows of force (which all but amount to invasion), you should consult guides on roleplaying war.

Ultimatums

NationStates occasionally plays host to the issuance of ultimatums. The term ultimatum is Latin for “the last one” (i.e. the last demand in a series of demands) and refers to a message that one government sends to another to threaten it into complying with specific terms and conditions. An ultimatum is customarily written and formatted much like a letter. It begins with a letterhead, date, and salutation; its body consists of five parts (a series of statements explaining the reasons the ultimatum is being issued, a transition statement, a list of demands that the recipient must comply with, a statement of consequences for noncompliance, and the deadline for sending a reply); and its conclusion consists of a special eschatocol and the signatures and seals of the issuing authorities.

Declaring War

The Prussian military theorist Carl P. G. von Clausewitz wrote “War is simply the continuation of political intercourse, with the addition of other means,” in his famous text On War (1832). In the event that your NS nation chooses to engage in hostilities against another NS nation, you might want to issue a declaration of war to inform them of the situation. While you do not necessarily need to roleplay the act of issuing an official declaration of war to tell a good story, the act of posting a well-written declaration is one way you can show others you take roleplay writing seriously.

Governments traditionally issued war declarations to authorize military mobilizations, warn uninvolved countries of the conflict so that their citizens would not be caught in the ensuing crossfire, and provide their enemies fair warning that hostilities would be prosecuted against them in cases where surprise attacks might be viewed as dishonorable. While real-life civilizations have not always issued war declarations before initiating combat against their enemies, the notion that combat activities should not begin without a prior war declaration became a feature of customary international law among Western governments by the early twentieth century. This belief was eventually codified by the Convention Relative to the Opening of Hostilities in 1907. Every country has its own rules for issuing war declarations; in most real-life states the national legislature is responsible for drafting the declaration and sending it to the head of government for signature. Please consult my unabridged guide on diplomacy to learn more.

11: Miscellaneous Topics

Diplomatic intercourse can assume any number of exotic and unconventional forms, such as cultural diplomacy (sending tourists, performers, writers, artists, and other such people abroad to create a favorable impression among foreign peoples), paradiplomacy (diplomatic activities performed by representatives of a sub-national or local government, such as local cultural exchange programs), preventive diplomacy (a conflict prevention technique in which one entity tries to stop a dispute or conflict from arising between two or more parties), and shuttle diplomacy (two or more entities that refuse to negotiate directly will agree to appoint an uninvolved third party to act as a “shuttle” between them).  My unabridged guide on diplomacy covers each of these items in detail.

Foreign Policy Doctrines

Leaders can base their foreign policy decisions on any number of factors, such as their countries’ material interests and their personal beliefs regarding the proper use of state power and resources. In an effort to discover the way leaders make foreign policy decisions and understand their motives, social scientists, historians, and philosophers postulated three major theories (and numerous minor ones) to serve as frameworks for analyzing international relations. The three major theories are:

Realism asserts that leaders tend to base their decisions on practical considerations more than anything else.
Idealism claims that leaders tend to base their decisions on philosophical or ideological principles above all else.
Constructivism proposes that leaders tend to base their decisions on intangible assumptions, norms, and habits that they think other leaders will follow. Conversely, a constructivist foreign policy doctrine will call for a country to adjust its foreign policy objectives in response to changes in its foreign relations environment.

The other theories of international relations (e.g. Marxism, feminism, foundationalism, structuralism, behaviorism, and functionalism) are “niche” theories that usually critique various aspects of the three main foreign policy doctrines. For example, Marxists and Neo-Marxists believe that leaders base their foreign policy decisions more on economic concerns than they do on security needs, political prestige, or national honor. Some theories (especially postmodernism and post-structuralism) revolve around the agnostic claim that traditional foreign policy doctrines are not reliable enough for people to discern “truth” from their principles.

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NS Mentor, please contact me if you have questions!

Edited Jul 8, 2017 4:55:04 GMT -5 by Lamoni

Jul 8, 2017 3:16:39 GMT -5

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Creating and Running the Believable Character
by Swith Witherward
Co-authors: Agymnum, Cerillium, Mincaldenteans, Tiltjuice

A character is essential to a character-driven role play game. In order to participate in the setting you, the player, must insert a bit of your own imagination. You want a character that can withstand the environment, a being with substance to them and plenty of room for development. You do not want a flat, two-dimensional cardboard cutout or, worse, a character that impedes its own progress or serves as nothing but a self-insert by the player.

Speaking of progress, character growth is essential to a well rounded character. Said character should evolve as the story does; not necessarily in conjunction, but the development should be continuous, perpetual. In-character conflict is often the catalyst for that growth. That said, character progress in IC is only possible when you have a fleshed out idea of the character's personality and pitfalls, weaknesses and strengths, and the overall fit of your character in the roleplay game. Usually, a character application allows you to outline and refine your concept prior at the start of the game, however some GMs don't have applications that go into much depth. How, then, do you flesh it out on your own?

There are an endless number of questions that can be used to mold a character. They all, however, reduce to four main categories as a character and one as an object of writing. As follows, we'll be looking at a character's physical, social, psychological, and moral aspects, and how you develop the character over time in the RP itself.

In short -

Who is my character? What do they look like? Sound like? Act like?
Who does my character interact with? In what ways?
How does my character deal with the self and the world?
How does my character resolve conflicts between the self and the world?

How does my character shape, and become shaped by, the world of the RP?

There are two methods for creating a believable character. We'll review both here.

METHOD CREATION
Depart from roleplay a moment and think of your character in terms of a play or movie. Actors are handed a script and are expected to analyze the character before attempting to portray it. Often, the script doesn't define much of the background. Actors use a little creative license to craft a complete person. This theatre technique blends well with writing, and thus with roleplaying.

It's called 'Character Analysis' and allows the actor to delve into the motives that drive their character during the story. Method acting is a technique of acting in which an actor aspires to complete emotional identification with a part, based on the system evolved by Stanislavsky and brought into prominence in the US in the 1930s. Method acting was developed in institutions such as the Actors' Studio in New York City, notably by Elia Kazan and Lee Strasberg. While method acting today is usually over the top (actors chew their fellow actors via annoying behavior rather than chewing the backdrop in character), character analysis - one of its tools - is a means to "get inside" a character's head. Figure out what makes them tick.

For roleplaying, the thing to consider with regard to analysis is that the mental picture you have for your character will allow you to portray his or her action in your posts. You'll find it easier to craft dialog and movement rather than writing a few phrases followed by he/she said. Character analysis is especially helpful to those very new to roleplaying.

Charcter Analysis: The Physical
Physical Qualities are what we want to convey when we craft posts for our characters. It's very tempting to rip off a picture and say, "That's them!" However, no matter how much you might love an image, that image is 2D. No matter how great, it could always use a bit of tweaking.

Yes, it's alright to use an image in lieu of describing their physical attributes, but take time to describe things well in your application; perhaps there are scars, tattoos, or other physical traits not shown in a picture? These minute details that only you can think off adds a layer of depth and gives a clearer mental image of your character's appearance.

As an exercise, think in the first person when making your character:

1. Who am I?
Names define us from an early age - a word or set of words by which a person, animal, place, or thing is known, addressed, or referred to. Skip the Emperor General Super Chester McBadass names and titles. Chances are, he won't come across as badass as you imagine him to be.

2. Who am I named after? Do I like my name?
This is important. Studies have shown that people will popular names do better socially. Those with unpopular names (or names that are difficult for people to pronounce) tend to be more withdrawn. In the case of the latter, some people adopt a nickname to avoid the stigma attached to their birth name. Nobody is born an adult: your childhood experiences shape you. If named after someone, does the name your character bears also mean he's expected to live up to that person's renown?

3. What is my gender? What do I think about sex?
Pick something. More than that, pick something you can pull off. Don't go with a cliche just to get it out of the way. Consider it as an important extension of the character's lifestyle and behavior. Also, roleplay is about more than sex- in most roleplays, you probably won't be having sex at all. Sexual encounters should not be what motivates your character. Period.

Additionally, avoid making your character's sexuality a focal point unless it's relevant to the role play premise or to your character's story arc. Of course, an LGBT character will find that their identity may be an important facet of their character in a less-tolerant era, but not every wannabe Casanova needs to have their sexual conquests be the center of their character. It gets tiring quickly and is a poor substitution for actual character development.

4. How old am I?
With age comes experience. We've all seen the teenage character with more skills under their belt than Chuck Norris. If you want to play a teen, play a teen and not a prodigy Sue.

5. What is my height? What do I think of I?
This is a big one. It's so tempting to create cute, petite girls and big, hulking men. Put yourself in your character's shoes. Approach the world from their perspective. They've spent their adult years at that size. Petite people are patted on the head a lot. It annoys them. Large people bump into things while shopping, and can never seem to find a parking spot that allows their door to fully open. Extreme sizes bring about extreme mindsets and can, on occasion, result in the person being ostracized from groups.

6. What is my weight? What do I think of it?
Roleplayers tend to make their character perfect in every way. Be realistic. If you must make your female character rail thin, consider that she's faced with endless whispers regarding her anorexia (even if she's not anorexic!). If your character is morbidly obese, consider how it affects his psyche when he stands among fit characters. If neither character hasn't any phsychological reaction to this, then let their triumph over body dismorphia be part of their backstory.

Consider also the character's weight as an evolving trait. Perhaps your character was once overweight as a child and now is very self-conscious and health-conscious in an attempt to keep their weight down. Perhaps, as the result of anorexia, your character dresses a certain way even if they are no longer anorexic. Like most physical traits, weight is not static.

7. What is the pitch, volume, tempo, resonance or quality of my voice?
This should match the character's personality and build. Or, if it doesn't, use the dissonance in a manner that furthers your character's background and development. Higher-pitched larger man? More than a joke at your character's expense, this can be used as one reason for personal insecurities. Deeper voice on a woman? Again, insecurities, or perhaps she found herself taken more seriously by her male peers.

8. Is my articulation careless or precise? Is my articulation standard or colloquial? Do I have a dialect or accent?
You'll want to incorporate this into dialog. Avoid phonetic spelling and accents. Dialogue of the following sort—“Ah reckon ah don’ haff ta go dowan tuh th’ rivuh tuhday, ‘cawse we gots awl th’ feeush we gwine need”—gives the reader a headache and makes you look like a moron. With dialect, less is definitely more. “I reckon I don’t have t’ go down t’ the river today, ’cause we got all the fish we gonna need,” is much more readable and still suggests a particular character.

That said, too much is too much. You can easily get away with: "I want it done today and not tomorrow," Hans' crisp Berliner accent accentuated his mood. without resorting to "I vant it done today und not tomorrow."

Also consider foreign languages. We're writing to appeal to an English-speaking audience and to English-speaking players. Players are prone to using non-Roman letters to convey foreign words. Don't.

" 分かりますか " can't register in anyone's heads. No one else has any idea what the consonants and vowels sound like. "wakarimasu ka" is something you can "hear" in your head when you read it. It still conveys a foreign language (Japanese) speaker.

9. What is my hair color and style?
This will help breathe life into your posts. Does the wind blow blonde strands into your character's face. Does her fiery mane frame angry eyes? Does he run his hand through cropped hair when nervous? Doe rain patter off his bald pate?

10. How does my posture and movement express my age, health, inner feeling?
This is an excellent writer's tool. Does your veteran walk with a slight limp? Does your youthful character tend to fidget and rock on the balls of her feet when she's eager? Does your depressed character slump and hang their head after a major setback?

Body language is, in fact, language. Add it to your dialog to convey deeper meaning.

Mary didn't expect anyone to question her about John's death, especially Jane. "John died. I'm depressed. I don't want to talk about it now," Mary got up.

There's no tone of voice in print. The reader (your fellow players) are left to interpret that passage. Did she respond in a snappish manner? Did she whisper? Is she upset? Angry?

The unexpected question dredged up bitter memories of John. She stiffened and turned her head away to hide the pain in her eyes. "I don't want to talk about it," she slowly breathed out, "Not right now."
Posture and movement give your fellow players something to work off of. You've set the tone. Players don't have to guess your character's mood. They also won't misinterpret it.

11. How do I walk and stand and sit?
Stiffly? Proudly? Timidly? Sluggishly, prone to slumping in the chair? Movement reveals demeanor before dialog does.

12. Do I have any deformities or handicaps? What do I think of them?
There are a few players on NS that pull this off brilliantly. When I hear the words "tech priest", I don't think of figurines. I think of the hulking brute my character encountered long ago. He listed to the left when he walked, and wheezed as he spoke. He reeked of ozone. His face, gnarled from years of hard labor, was a traceable map outlining his passage from youth to man to machine. He looked upon the younger men trying to court my character, and he inwardly died each time. He knew he was a monster. My character put a lot of effort into convincing him that he was just fine in her book.

Notice that while his handicaps/deformities impacted his character, they weren't his character. Handicaps should rarely, if ever, be central to a character's persona; they should, of course, impact said persona but a character is far more than their inability to do certain things.

13. Do I have any objects, hand props or accessories with me? Why? How do I handle them?
We've all seen that character with the sword cane that somehow gets lost in a scene. One moment, it's there. The next, the player has forgotten all about it. If it's a vital component to your character, try to remember to use it.

Character Analysis: Social Qualities
Social Qualities

1. What is my relationship to my environment? Do I like it?
This will impact how your character reacts to their environment. Consider the following: familiarity, access to resources (friends, food, shelter, etc), level of danger, certain triggers (sounds, voices, people, smells, etc) that might result in a negative response, and so forth.

2. What is my educational background? How intelligent am I?
This will impact how your character approaches their environment.

Education is sometimes not clearly thought out. It isn't rare for a person in their mid to late 20s to have a PhD. They won't have two. If they have a second degree, it usually aligns closely with that primary degree. For example, a biophysicist might have taken robotics as a minor. Their PhD is biophysics, not robotics. Grad students don't have much free time on their hands, either. Your character should try to pull off "I'm a grad student, and I fight crime, and I build robots, and I'm mastering my Chi powers!" Attempting to play this sort of character will make you look like a noob.

3. What was my childhood like? What are my strongest memories?
This will impact how your character interacts with others in their environment, as well as impact how they relate to things. Perhaps your character became a loner? Perhaps they were an extrovert and crave companionship?

4. What is my nationality/culture?
Do your character some justice. If you're playing a Japanese person, research a bit of their culture and customs (and don't reply upon anime to define it). If Hindu, look into those customs (and not what's seen in Bollywood!). Same for a Viking, or a Hobbit, or a Dragon, etc, etc. While players do like creating characters from franchises, it will only benefit the player to research said franchise in case (and especially if) you're not familiar with it.

5. What is my occupation? Do I like it? What other jobs have I had? When and why did I choose this one?
This sometimes impacts your contribution to the game. A solider brings skills to the table. A fry cook also brings skills to the table. Look at various ways you can mesh your character's prior or current occupation with the setting in order to enhance their role in it.

Research is your friend. You, as a player, may never have been through military training. Your character, a seasoned soldier, has. Review a basic field manual (you can find them for free online). Don't rely upon tactics you picked up from a movie or video game, especially if you know your GM is going for realism.

Likewise, you may not have formal medical training or a PhD. This doesn't mean you can't Google stuff to give your character an authentic feel.

Age comes into play as well. A 20 year old character isn't old enough to be a master of much. A player between the ages of 13-16 sees 20 as "old and adult". A player between the ages of 25-100 sees 20 as being on the cusp of adulthood. A young character might possess a lot of "book smarts" but hasn't enough real world "adult experience" under their belts.

6. What are my political attitudes?
This may impact group dynamics. Don't think just modern politics. In a fantasy game, does your dwarf have issues with the elven kingdom? In a scifi game, does your bootlegger agree with empire or does she side with the rebels?

7. Am I religious?
More than that, does your character pay lip service to that religion, or do the religion's tenets influence your characters decision making processes?

8. Do I like members of the opposite sex? What do I like about them?
This isn't necessarily orientation. It's how well your character relates to members of the opposite sex. He might be a misogynist therefore he looks down upon female PC. She might be a misandrist therefor she blames men for the group's failings. A character that was raped in their earlier years might mistrust a member of the opposite sex.

9. Who were my parents? Do I like my family? What do I like? What do I dislike?
The family influences the earliest years. Maybe your character is driven to work hard because his alcoholic father abandoned the family? Maybe your character is a spoiled little princess that was handed everything in life? Perhaps the character is the first born and had the burden to serve as the example of the Perfect Child. Or maybe the character was an only child and felt lonely?

10. Who are my friends? Who are my enemies? How can I tell if someone is a friend or an enemy?
This is up to you. It's optional though sometimes it can help motivate a character. Perhaps they were too weak to save a friend from death? Perhaps they were burned by someone and thus anyone bearing a resemblance to that person is instantly disliked?

11. What hobbies or interests do I have?
Please give your character a hobby or interest. It fleshes them out. It gives them something to do when the game is at a lull.

Character Analysis: Psychological Qualities

1. What are my driving ambitions, my goals?
This is the most important aspect of your character development. "Making friends" and "finding love" are NOT good enough goals. Too often, the character with these ambitions does nothing but sit around trying to make friends, and contributes very little to the story. Set up some challenging goals and work towards them in the IC.

2. What do I worry about?
Death? Being poor? Failing friends? Not paying bills on time?

3. What do I fear?
Being defeated? Being humiliated? Being exposed to something that terrifies the character, such as a phobia?

4. What do I do to overcome those worried and fears?
Sometimes these things aren't resolved, and they create conflict within the character. One of your goals might be to have your character triumph over these psychological hindrances during the course of the game.

5. What do I think is my greatest fault?

6. What do I think is my greatest strength?

Bear in mind that sometimes your greatest strength is also your greatest fault. A character's strength might be that he's driven to succeed. His greatest fault is that he hurts those he loves best because he puts his goal ahead of their needs, thus he can't be relied upon when they need him most.

7. What is my maturity level?
This is a big one. Older players can often tell when young players are attempting to run adults. Though the character is 25 (or 40, or 1000), it still comes across as a high school senior. Can adult characters be bubbly and hyperactive? Yes. But they also usually know when it's time to turn off the bubbles and stand quietly. They aren't mortified by the same things younger people are, mostly because they are no longer defined by their peers (unless they're shallow individuals).

Character Analysis: Moral Qualities

1. Are the choices I will make based upon expediency of some ethical standard?

2. If not/if so, why?

Summary
In short, taking the time to analyze your character before putting it into play will enable you to start off strong. Your character will have balance because you have already determined its faults and insecurities as well as its strengths and accomplishments. It won't waste time trying to figure itself out. It knows who it is, what it wants, and why it does what it does.

MOMENT AND MOVEMENT CREATION
This technique is utilized by many roleplayers on roleplay forums, regardless of the hosting site. When done by someone that already grasps the basics of character analysis, the MMC generated character is polished and sleek, retains continuity, and grows along with the story. When done by a noob, the character is flat and unbalanced, often nothing but a trope in search of a good meme, or else a stereotype personality from an anime program, a popular movie, or much-loved book.
A player using MMC starts with only the very basics in place:

Name
Picture
Concept
Skills
Anything else asked for in the application

Our character's traits take shape during play.

Our character is a blank slate. We may start out with the intention of having a powerful pirate down the line, but the game itself takes several turns and we end up with an awesome shaman instead. The MMC method allows for some delicious freedom. We "wing it" and our character's traits take shape during play. However: The onus is on us to keep continuity; it's up to us to balance them with flaws and quirks; it's up to us to not only shape them through gameplay, but to establish them as believable on the fly.

In the end, if we don't strive to answer the basic questions, we'll have a chaotic mess of a character with no growth (because we don't establish goals) and no realism (because the concept is still vague in our minds).

Those basic questions
Who is my character? What do they look like? Sound like? Act like?
Who does my character interact with? In what ways?
How does my character deal with the self and the world?
How does my character resolve conflicts between the self and the world?
How does my character shape, and become shaped by, the world of the RP?

RUNNING THE BELIEVABLE CHARACTER
Believable characters may look awesome in application forms but pale when the player doesn't put any effort into their own skills. Here are a few things to keep in mind.

Roleplayer Qualities
Your qualities as a roleplayer are vital to the hobby. Unlike a first person shooter, roleplay involves multiple people. Their characters are just as important to the setting and story as yours. In a storytelling roleplay, your character isn't necessarily the hero - they are one of the heroes.

How am I contributing to the overall setting?
If your character's only purpose is to sit there and chat, it's a shallow character. Remember those flaws and strengths, and goals and backstory? These are what you use to not only make your character interesting, but to motive them into action.

Contribution means activity as well. Look to see what post expectations are. If players are expected to post frequently and you hardly post, you're hardly contributing. Your character will get left behind.

Contribution also applies to group effort. It's nice when our characters have the spotlight. As a player, be prepared to pay back the favor by helping another player's character have their turn to shine.

How often can I contribute to the overall setting?
Sometimes you can't post every day. You need to post as often as required by the OP. You'll stall the group if you don't post, and you'll miss out on opportunities to grow your character through play. If you can't post due to work, school, or other real life reasons, it's better to "park" that character. If you can post all the time, dial back the enthusiasm so you and other players don't "push" the story forward, robbing other (offline) players of a chance to impact the story.

Continuity of Character and Action
Continuity of character means remaining true to your concept. You've designed your character either by Character Analysis or MMC. You've put it into play in the IC. That doesn't mean you should stop developing the character. We grow based upon our experiences. Your character will go through conflict - the best method of growth!

It often helps to review your app as the game progresses, or to take notes if you're using the MMC method. Remind yourself of your character's origin, and what you'd hoped to accomplish with him/her. Are you staying true to your concept, or are you trying to go in all directions because you're bored or feel left out on certain adventures?

Continuity of action is vital for any game. It means going back to read prior posts in order to maintain the mood or continue the elements previously established. Make every post count towards the story or goal you (or your fellow players or the GM) have established; don't waste space by adding things that just don't fit, or that don't contribute anything.

The most common mistake new roleplayers make is forgetting what their character was doing in their last post. Review it to see what the character's mood was, what actions they did and are planning to do, the purpose behind the post. Try to carry that through to your new post. Read all the posts that fell between to see if you need to adjust your character's mood or action.

Avoid Being a Waste of Space (Uta Hagen's "Nine Questions")
Before writing your post, make certain you can answer the following from your character's perspective:

Who am I?
Where am I? (environment: location, conditions)
What surrounds me? (persons, objects, color and texture, scents, temperature)
What time is it? (hour, minute, date, year, century, era)
What are the given circumstances? (those events, facts, and conditions occurring before or during the moment that affect the character and /or action)
What is my relationship? (to all of the above and to other characters-solid or shifting?)
What do I want? (Objectives or Intention –includes the overall character objectives as well as more immediate beat-to-beat intentions)
What’s in my way? (Obstacle)
What do I do to get what I want? (ACTION – VERBS; physical, verbal, psychological)

Combined:

I'm going to write a post for my character, Neste. She's gone down to the docks at night to find Septimus to console him. It's cold, chilly... foreboding enough to make her uneasy as she walks across the moist wood. Septimus is sitting on a crate near the water's edge, and is surrounded by large iron shipping containers. He went there because he lost a battle with a terrible foe, and feels like an utter failure. Neste respects Septimus, and values him as a fellow combatant. She wants to encourage him to return to the base, though she knows it won't be easy because he's stubborn and tends to mentally punish himself. If need be, she'll discard patient encouragement in favor of barking an order at him.

Answering these questions allows me to craft a detailed post. I can work all these elements in, thereby enhancing the story and giving Septimus' handler something to work off of.

The full moon silhouetted a lone figure perched atop the crate. He had drawn his cloak tightly around him to shut out the night's chill, or perhaps more. Neste peered at him from behind a shipping container, weighing her own doubts. The battle nearly destroyed them all. There was a good chance he would walk away from the team forever.

She wrapped her shawl more tightly around her shoulders before stepping onto the wet planks. Her footfalls echoed in the still night, no doubt tipping him off to her approach.

"Septimus?"

She paused to cast a sidelong glance at him. Her face now set in grim determination, the construct settled beside him on the crate. "We've been friends a long while. Talk to me. I'm here to listen."

Not answering these questions results in a post like this:

Neste walked to the end of the dock and sat down next to Septimus. "Can we talk?"

Skip the Self-Insert
A self insert is a player living vicariously through their character. It's not an original character, per se, as said character shares all the same personality traits of the player. The only differences stems from physical appearances and traits, minor (if any) differing goals, and skills/abilities that are wholly unique to the RP and not that of the player.

While self-inserts can be a fun exercise from time to time, even experienced players need to be careful as perception is one of the key pitfalls when playing a self-insert. Remember, an RP is NOT real life and therefore opinions and actions are NOT tied to the real world. Inexperienced players should veer away from this as feelings can be easily hurt, actions may be taken out of context, and the inability to divorce Self from Creation especially during game-altering events (plot change, character death(s), the RP simply ends) may create unintentional and unfounded animosity between players.

SUMMARY

Regardless of the method you choose, your ability to have a believable character rests solely upon the amount of effort you put into your character's origins, traits, faults, and interactions. You can analyze these in advance or craft them while playing. Keep continuity as you go. Keep situational awareness as you craft each post, and read the posts that fall between your last post to make sure you haven't overlooked anything or anyone while writing.

The NationStates Mentor Program has Mentors in N&I and P2TM that specialize in helping players create and run believable characters. Don't hesitate to approach us if you want to learn some new techniques or improve upon your skills.

My Signature...

NS Mentor, please contact me if you have questions!

Edited Jul 8, 2017 3:18:28 GMT -5 by Lamoni

Jul 8, 2017 3:17:45 GMT -5

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Mentors and Getting Help
By: Havensky

For both the new player and the experienced, there are a wide variety of different resources available in the NationStates community. From general advice across a wide variety of subjects to specific requests for conflict resolution and worldbuilding advice, the Mentoring team is here to help! For those in search of assistance it is useful to know both who to ask and how to ask. While each question and request is different - and some have been asked and answered before - it can be useful to stick to something of a standard format and, of course, direct the query to the right resource.

It should also be noted that there are no stupid questions. Even a question that has been answered a hundred times before is a question that is important to you and thus it is important to us. Also, each situation and the context of that situation is different; Certainly the question might be the same but the circumstances in which it is asked are important as well. Since these circumstances are just as important - context matters - I’ve created something of a checklist to reference when seeking help or putting forward a query. It is based on the Six W’s that journalists are taught to ask when investigating a story and it is a method I’ve used with some success in the past. Answering these questions in advance will help us give you the best assistance we can, as quickly as we can!

Who:

Who’s involved? Is this a personal request for advice or assistance or does it concern another player or players? In the case of another player or players, please link us directly to their nation. Remember that unless you are asking in one of the various advice threads these queries remain confidential between you and the Mentoring team with the only exception being if something needs to be passed on to Moderation where it will again remain confidential.

What:

What’s your query or question or what would you like advice about? More details are better; In most cases we don’t mind acting as a sounding board even if the reply is as simple as, ‘Sounds good - go with it.’

When:

Is this something you’d like a reply to immediately? Or something that happened in the past that you’d like us to look at?

Why:

If the question at hand concerned another player, or perhaps was triggered by some event within your nation, why did it happen? If the question or events concerned involve another player, the first question that you should ask is ‘Is this a question for the Mentors or is it a question for Moderation?’ If any of the previous interactions led to something that is a violation of the site rules a suitable apology might be the first place to start. If not, then the previous events are still potentially of interest and use. If your query involves your nation and an idea for some roleplay, a factbook element, or other areas that are distinctly inside the realm of Mentoring, knowing the previous context can assist us in helping to advise you in whether the idea is reasonable, given past events.

Where:

In advising on a specific event, where should we look? Links to the relevant threads or factbooks, etc.

How:

How you would like us to respond or how you can respond; How to put our advice into action.

My Signature...

NS Mentor, please contact me if you have questions!

Jul 8, 2017 3:19:27 GMT -5

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PORTAL TO THE MULTIVERSE
By: Cerillium

WHAT IS P2TM?
We are a growing community of role players who enjoy bringing our own worlds to life and playing in those of others. The preponderance of our roleplay games are not NS nation-related; however we do see recycled II and NS characters, and players have taken to recycling their nation-related worldbuilding as a backdrop for non-nation stories.

Roleplaying threads operate in much the same way here as they do in International Incidents and NationStates. Where Portal To The Multiverse (P2TM) Roleplay differentiates itself is that these threads do not directly involve your nation itself. RPs in P2TM tend to move away from the game of NationStates and back into the real world, or shoot further into the realms of fantasy. Common themes include alternate history, various war reenactments and spin offs, franchise based RPs (such as Harry Potter, Star Wars, etc.), fantasy and sci-fi, and zombies, just to name a few. In summary, your imagination is the limit.

COMMUNITY CULTURE AND SOME COMMON PRACTICES
Let's be clear here: these are not RULES. These are standards or practices you will encounter in P2TM. The community, as mentioned above, operates like many roleplaying forums found on the net. If you are not familiar with these things, or if your only RP experience has been on NS in the N&I subforums, some of this might seem odd or foreign. Don't fret. You'll get the hang of it soon enough, and our denizens and Mentors are always willing to help you settle in.

THE OP AND THEIR COOP
In P2TM, "OP" stands for "Original Poster". They are usually a game's GM, and "own" the thread which they create. "CoOP" is slang for the OP's assistant, though it can also be viewed as "co-author" or "co-producer" depending upon how a thread is set up. We have a guide to help OPs and CoOPs gain a better understanding of the responsibilities involved in running a thread.

Most OPs will choose a CoOP they have worked with before, or else will choose a friend to be their CoOP. There's nothing wrong with this practice. What the community does not tolerate well is a sense of entitlement, whereby a person believes they should be chosen as a CoOP solely based upon their post count or length of time on NS.

OOC AND IC THREADS
Threads tend to be divided into the categories of “out of character”, which encompasses interest threads and sign-ups, and “in character”, which is primarily story threads. The difference is straightforward. Just like on NS or II, “out of character” threads will generally be denoted with the (OOC) tags in the title while “in character” threads will sport the (IC) tags. Remember that thread ownership does apply to roleplays and that, if the original poster (OP) asks you to stop posting in his/her thread, it's advisable (read: mandatory) that you heed that request. Regardless of the reason, or lack thereof, you should quietly leave with your dignity intact. The only thing worse than a dingbat domineering a thread is two dingbats fighting in a thread. Players refusing to adhere to OP requests to leave the thread may result in a Moderator coming in and enforcing said order in a far more stern and thread-disrupting fashion.

Your OOC and IC threads should have some organization to them to help players participate. Some things found in an OOC are the game's premise, rules, character applications, setting descriptions, character roster and so on. Players have come to expect some of these things and tend to select games with nicely defined OOCs. You are not required to have both an OOC and IC thread for your game. However, if you choose to combine them, you should make some effort to keep OOC and IC posts distinct in your IC thread.

Some of the best advice regarding OOC threads and game pitches comes from an old post buried in time:

"Outline your idea in an OOC thread and what you expect from payers joining, and see if anyone is interested. Please refrain from unwarranted or repeated “bumping” of posts, it looks tackier than an emo Hallmark card. Trust me when I say, if people are attracted to the idea, they’ll post. If your idea flops, don’t be discouraged! Not every idea is a winner, but, in general, the P2TM RPing crowd is diverse enough that nearly any idea will find a fan or two. And, hey, maybe it just wasn't the right time for your Magnum Opus. Let is simmer, let it grow, bring some friends along, and try again in a few months. It might be better for it!"

GOALS
P2TM games are often set up with goals in mind. These goals are often what distinguish a P2TM game from an F7 game. Goals are the purpose for a thread.

If the goal is to play a mechanics RP game whereby each week the OP posts an advance to the story and the players all have a week to respond for their character/faction, the goal matches P2TM's community conventions. If the goal is to play a story-telling RP game (98% of P2TM RP is this), the goal matches P2TM's community conventions. Games can be "light" or "heavy" but they should have a goal. Goals are met through objectives, which themselves are manifested as the plot unfolds.

To give an example of the above, in a story-telling RP the goal might be to kill a fire-breathing dragon. Objectives which present themselves during the plot to achieve this goal may include finding a mage who knows the dragon's weakness, acquiring armor and weapons, earning money to fund said acquisitions, or helping out locals in exchange for food and other supplies.

The ultimate goal of having a goal, so to speak, is to focus a thread and its posts to ensure the roleplayers involved have a satisfying experience and the OP and CoOPs involved can run the game efficiently.

POST CONTENT
These community practices grew over time as we worked to establish our community. Again, these aren't official rules. Most people follow these guidelines, however:

Check for post length: Always check with your OP/GM to see what they require. Some want a three-line minimum for IC posts. Others are fine with one-liner posts. As Trans put it, "Remember, roleplaying is about telling a story, not idly chatting with friends". Threads that involve only idle banter amongst the players may be subject to closure based upon Moderator ruling.
No asterisk play in IC: Asterisk actions are not an accepted convention in publishing. Sorry. There is absolutely no point in using them -- quotation marks are the punctuation tool used to separate dialogue from other action. There's a key difference between: ["Dammit!" Tom took a sip of beer.] AND [Dammit. *Tom took a sip of beer*]. One is proper grammar in the English language, and one is not.

Asterisk play is acceptable in IRC chats, and on 4Chan. It's fine in an OOC thread. If you want to be taken seriously as a gamer, please do not do this IC. There is no OSRS rule against it here. It's a matter of proper Roleplaying Etiquette. Please respect that.
Shy away from colored or specially formatted fonts to denote the speaker: Some players choose to differentiate between their characters by using different colors rather than a simple "they said". Players using a dark setting sometimes select colors that don't display well on a light setting. At times, the colors chosen are garish. Colored dialog font is mainly utilized in Chat Location, Chill or Blitz threads. PRO TIP: Telepathy is frequently denoted by italics. [example: "What do you mean?" she conveyed to his mind.]
Substance is important: The majority of our roleplay games are storytelling, meaning that players work together to craft an adventure. Good storytelling is like a good steak - not so fatty that the texture and quality of the meat is lost, but no so lean that the texture and flavor are lacking. A post that lacks details simply isn't compelling for another roleplayer to respond to; conversely, a post with too many trivial details can make a roleplay feel more like slogging through a novel-writing session and less like collaboration between friends.
Proper spacing: Please try to not make "text walls". A good trick to use is to add a space between paragraphs. Treat character dialog in the same fashion, inserting spaces between each character's lines. Many OPs expect players to do this, so you don't often see it in the OP's rules list, or else it's covered under "good grammar and punctuation".

TYPES OF THREADS FOUND IN P2TM

ROLEPLAY GAMES

Storytelling Narratives: As the name implies, they tend to resemble campfire storytelling where each person in the group takes a turn - sometimes ordered, other times not - writing their piece of the narrative and weaving together an adventure.
Examples include AD&D, Cyberpunk, X-Men, SCP, Middle Earth, Alt History, or player created worlds.
Strategy / Mechanics-Based Narratives: These range depending upon rule systems, and sometimes bleed into storytelling. These are usually played in formal rounds, and the GM might opt to roll dice or assign modifiers. In some forms, the GM posts and players then write up a description of their faction/character's reaction.
Examples might include: faction-based RPs, Civil War reenactments, 40K battles and so on.

OTHER KINDS OF ALLOWED THREADS

Chat thread: There can be only one. It is Mod Sanctioned. It can be found here.  Please do NOT make your own chat thread.
Discussion/Brainstorming/Advice thread: One official one, found here.
Official Guides: Our guides are often housed their own thread.
Organization Threads: These vary depending on topic. We have Tolkien and Warhammer groups, writer's support groups, gamer's support groups, and etc. People are strongly encouraged to not allow their group's thread to turn into a generic chat; keep the thread focused on RP-related topics.
Subforum Newspaper Threads: Self-explanatory.
Megathread Archives: Megathreads are long-running games with multiple, consecutive IC and OOC threads that have too much gaming data for one OOC thread. An example of an archive can be seen here.

THOUGHTS ON WHY THE COMMUNITY IS WHAT IT IS
There are many theories regarding why P2TM strives to distinguish itself as a polished community. One theory many (of us older people) ascribe to is that we had to prove ourselves to Moderation.

Forum 7, from which we came, does not retain threads beyond a certain time. In addition, F7 contains forum games, light-hearted word games, nation trivia, church threads, and other fast-paced endeavors. Our slowly-moving games would vanish to back pages, or autoprune would gobble up our work. We worked very hard as a roleplayer community to earn our own subforum in 2012. We had to work even harder to keep it.

This resulted in a lot of self-policing. Many of our denizens at the time learned to roleplay in real life settings. Huddled around tables or draped over couches, we spent our youth working pencil-and-paper games or pushing figures across a battlefield. Many of us started online roleplaying using BBS (Bulletin Board System) and PbEM (Play by E-Mail) groups. Some of us came from larger PbP (Play by Post) forums which are now dead. Gamers are nerds at heart, after all.

We brought our experiences with us, but also our maturity and willingness to help others. And, most importantly, we began teaching our community the methods necessary to keep our shiny new subforum from degrading into one-shot post material. We didn't set the bar at "elite". Rather, we encouraged each other to put out material (game ideas, posts, stories, concepts, etc) that met Mod approval while also entertaining our community. Or, to put it more bluntly, we were scared witless at the thought of losing our subforum, so we had to work together despite our differences.

P2TM MENTORS

Many of the P2TM Mentors became Mentors because they were actively improving the community and teaching players. In the early days, we weren't even part of the Mentor Program.

The first Mentors were veteran rolplayers striving toward maintaining the polish that kept our subforum alive. More came on board, each chosen for the efforts they made to help the community.

Mentors aren't the most popular people in P2TM; Mentors are the ones that love the community enough to volunteer their time toward preserving its integrity as a whole, and toward helping new generations learn the art of storytelling. You have to be patient and humble. You're here to serve.

Each Mentor has a different approach. This is because each player approaches gaming differently. We work as a team. This allows us to match players and Mentors whose personalities click well. We don't want you to do it "our way". We want to help you find your own way, and for you to gain the confidence you need in order to pass your knowledge on to the generation that follows. Considering every summer hails a new generation, we have a lot of mentor-players teaching a lot of noobs every year.

There's a strong Mentor team in P2TM. We've recently added two more members, bringing our ranks up to eight. My fellows - Esternial, G-Tech Corporation, Giovenith, Mincaldenteans, Swith Witherward, The Armed Republic of Dutch Coolness, and Zarkenis Ultima - make the subforum (and site) a better place to visit each night. I'm eternally grateful to all of them for their dedication and volunteered time.

HOW CAN I BREAK INTO P2TM?
We're a very welcoming community: the easiest approach is to dive right in. Join a game or two that interests you. Start off as a player to learn how things work here. Get some exposure, make some friends, and then launch your first game. You'll have support the whole time, if you find a group that offers it. To be fair, some won't. It's impossible to escape cliques on the Internet, though we try our best to cultivate an atmosphere against that sort of thing.

You can also stop by our chat, or ask for help in our Cafe. Reach out to a P2TM Mentor, also. We welcome TGs.

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NS Mentor, please contact me if you have questions!

Edited Jul 8, 2017 5:02:51 GMT -5 by Lamoni

Jul 8, 2017 3:21:02 GMT -5

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Maintaining Good Relations with Fellow Roleplayers
By: Lamoni
6/8/2017

One of the essential “behind the scenes” things that any good roleplayer should practice, is how to maintain good Out of Character relations with your fellow roleplayers. Much like in real life, a roleplayer should strive to be courteous, and helpful towards their fellows. This allows for roleplays to run more smoothly, and can even be part of what gets you noticed by more experienced roleplayers who are looking for new people to roleplay with.

“But what can I do in order to help this to happen,” you might be asking. There are several things which you as a roleplayer can do in order to help keep things running smoothly between yourself, and your fellow roleplayers. Some of them might seem obvious, while others might not become apparent to you until you have more time and experience under your belt.

Here are some tips and tricks which will help you as you roleplay on the Nationstates forums:

1.) Communication between participants in a roleplay thread is essential!

Roleplays can easily break down acrimoniously when the participants fail to communicate with one another. Sometimes player A will want to do X within the thread, while player B will want to do X plus Y, or sometimes just Y. Out of character communication will enable everyone in a roleplaying thread to be able to tell the others the broad strokes of what they want their characters or nations to do in the situation presented in the thread, and also allows the players to best work out how to help each other get the most out of the thread as a group.

2.) Know the difference between IC and OOC.

In character (IC), and out of character (OOC) are two different things, and never should the two mix in one place. Out of character means that it is the player behind the character(s) speaking, and that what is being said should not be used in the roleplay without permission. Meanwhile, in character means that it is the characters speaking inside of the roleplay, and any information gathered from that can be used in the roleplay, as long as it makes sense for the character in question to know the information.

For example, let us say that character A is talking to character B in a locked room. It would then not make any sense for character C to know what the first two characters were talking about, without a valid reason for it. Maybe C was eavesdropping on A and B's conversation, or C received the information in some other way. But C wouldn't know what A and B were talking about for no apparent reason.

3.) Don't mix IC and OOC chatter on the same thread.

Putting IC and OOC together inside the very same thread is just asking for confusion, as well as people using OOC information that they otherwise would not, simply because they justifiably did not know that the information was OOC to begin with. The best way to go about it is to keep your IC information in the thread, while having your OOC conversations either in a separate thread, or via other means of communication (NS telegrams, e-mail, Discord, etc). This will not only reduce IC/OOC confusion, but the OOC conversations can also turn to social chatting as well. Just don't forget why you are there, the communication of out of character information for your roleplaying thread.

4.) If two players are having trouble agreeing about how to do things, mediation might help.

It will sometimes happen that two or more players will disagree about something in the thread, and will need a calm individual to help them to mediate their dispute. In this case, you can ask them if they need someone who can mediate to help them come up with a workable solution for their problem(s). If they agree to the (informal) mediation, then mentors often make an excellent choice of mediator, as each mentor is a forum veteran, and has the experience to be able to come up with a workable solution that benefits both parties.

5.) Always be polite toward others.

Remember the saying that honey will always catch more flies than vinegar? It applies to people, as well. People will always respond better to someone who is polite towards them than they would to someone who is rude to them. When making a request of someone, make sure to be doubly polite, especially if that someone has power or authority on the forums. It will make a difference in how they treat you! Even forum veterans who are tired of new roleplayers who don't know this tip will respond better to someone who is polite to them. It could also get you into roleplays that you might not otherwise be able to get into.

6.) Know when it is time to call in a mentor or moderator.

If someone is being disrespectful of you or the others in the thread, and won't stop this behavior despite being asked to do so, then it may be time to bring the situation to the attention of a mentor or moderator. If you have questions about Nationstates, the forums, or roleplaying, then feel free to contact the mentors about it. Mentors are forum veterans who have volunteered to answer RP questions, advise players on how to improve their roleplay skills, and have the same abilities to help defuse a situation through mediation as any other player does. Mentors do not have moderation powers, but we can certainly bring in the moderators, if we think that a situation requires it.

7.) Godmodding is never good for a roleplay.

Godmodding is the act of taking complete control of the other player's characters, governments, or military units without permission, with the intent of shaping roleplay events so that they benefit you. It is similar to theft, in that the characters, governments, and military units of a player belong to that player, and a godmodder is using them without the permission of that player. Godmodding typically results in arguments, and annoys or angers the other participants in a roleplay. If during the course of a roleplayed war, your nation's armed forces attack those of the enemy, it is considered rude and bad practice to tell the other player what their losses were. It it also considered rude to take no casualties from a well executed attack or defense, without a justifiable reason.

I cannot say how many times i've seen someone post something like the following: “I send 435,436,234 tanks directly to your capital city, post losses.” First of all, the person posting this is openly declaring their intention to ignore any defenses between where they are now, and the enemy's capital city. Secondly, they are expecting you to treat their godmodding as if it were acceptable, even when it is clearly not acceptable. If someone is trying to godmod against you, try working with the others in the thread to explain to the godmodding player that godmoding is not acceptable in the thread.

8.) Quality over quantity.

Not everyone can write lyrical prose, and not every post can be a marvel of length. A good rule of thumb for writing a roleplaying post on Nationstates is to have a minimum of half a page in MS Word. In other circumstances, should the quantity of a post matter for more than the quality? Having a well written post will always trump a long post that is too wordy for its own good. Just remember, roleplayers generally do not like one-liner responses to their posts. We take pride in attempting to create quality posts, and like to think that other roleplayers do as well. It validates the work which we put into our own posts, even if we have to slow down the pace of an RP in order to get better quality responses.

9.) Nit-picking and pedantry are not good.

While your posts should strive to be free from spelling and grammar errors, there is always someone for whom every little detail must be exactly correct. I once heard of an RP where a player mistakenly bombed the wrong target due to a miscommunication. Instead of berating the player for making a mistake, the other players adjusted the storyline so that the target which had been mistakenly bombed became the correct target all along. Roleplaying is a hobby or pastime, it is meant to be fun and enjoyable! Remember that everyone occasionally makes mistakes, and some mistakes are larger than others.

10.) You don't have to roleplay with everyone!

You can pick and choose your roleplaying partners. If you decide that you don't want to roleplay with someone, just move on! You should never have to participate in storylines or scenes with which you are not comfortable. You're the one who chose to come here and roleplay, so you should be able to pick and choose how to have your fun. If you aren't having fun, why are you in that RP?

Also, just because someone opens a thread declaring war or some other event on your nation does not mean you have to participate in it. If you are not interested, you have the right to ignore the roleplay, or even the roleplayer in question.

11.) No one is required to roleplay with you, either.

Everyone else has a choice of whether they want to roleplay with you, as well. Some people can get offended if they are turned down for a roleplay, but there is no need to get upset. If someone doesn't want to talk to you, then there is no point in forcing them to talk to you. Arguing the point is not going to make anyone want to roleplay with you, so you might as well just move on.

Maintaining good out of character relations with your fellow roleplayers is not only a part of proper etiquette, it can help you look like someone who more experienced roleplayers will want to roleplay with. Roleplaying is supposed to be fun, and if it isn't fun, then it might be time to simply move on to something else.

My Signature...

NS Mentor, please contact me if you have questions!

Jul 8, 2017 3:21:52 GMT -5

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	Lamoni	Right now I'm Offline I have made 51 posts I joined May 2017	My gender is Male	I currently have no messenger contact information filled out.	I currently have no social network information filled out.
Don't worry, everything will be okay. I'm from the Internet!

Conclusions
By: Lamoni
7/7/2017

Congratulations, you've reached the last section of the guide. In this guide, we have covered:

Open/Closed threads and regions
Worldbuilding
War
Diplomacy
Characters
IC and OOC
Mentors
P2TM
Maintaining good relations with fellow RPers

and finally this section, conclusions. This guide has been the culmination of a month's worth of activity on the parts of those who have written for it, and we hope that it is useful for answering questions, and helping new RPers to learn the ropes of what NS RPing entails. I am sure that you will likely have further questions, so please feel free to either ask them in this thread, or in the Mentor's Discord Server, which is where the NSRPS lectures will be taking place. You can also TG any of the Mentors, who will be more than happy to answer any of your questions to the best of our abilities.

If you are looking for a general definition of who the mentors are, and what they do, here is an excellent one:

The Mentor Program, at its heart, consists of a team of roleplayer volunteers who, through their standing commitment to their respective communities and bettering the experience of those whom consider themselves a part of the same, have been granted greater responsibilities by the NS Moderation Team. These responsibilities largely entail providing advice and assistance ("mentoring") to roleplayers, both new and old, about a variety of roleplay-related topics (such as worldbuilding, how to manage an Out-of-Character thread, the art of reaching a compromise, graphics and formatting, etc.); even so, Mentors have further responsibilities, ranging from assisting one another (and other players) in guide construction, providing conflict mediation (for those who seek such and do not otherwise violate the rules), assisting in sticky upkeep, and many other, nuanced duties. In many ways, they are the "people greeters" of their respective communities, acting to point players toward resources and help maximize any given player's experience in their chosen segment of the NationStates' roleplaying community, be it through one-on-one discussions or as a part of a larger effort.

Further, we would like to take the time to introduce you to some regions and organizations which are also dedicated to helping people to learn how to roleplay, and are welcoming to those who are new to RPing.

The Gatehouse: "We're a region for those who enjoy the Portal to the Multiverse. A friendly kind of place for chatting, discussion and general fun, and essentially cosmopolitan in region politics. RP suggestions are welcome. Totally OOC RMB." They don't teach but they're extremely welcoming. Decent people.
Madhouse Productions: "We're a collection of writers, artists, roleplayers, and others that network together to build worlds, fashions cultures, churn out interesting role plays, and pass on knowledge. We're housed in P2TM but we are active in other areas of NationStates, including the N&I boards." It's designed specifically to help people break into roleplaying.
The Local Cluster: We're not really an "organization" in any real sense, but we're also not a traditional "roleplay region" in the sense often seen in MT, either. Due to the unique way regions work (or don't necessarily have the same degree of focus for many N&I FTers, at least) in FT, we like to call it a "region of roleplayers" versus a "roleplay region": no regional canon, not really a "training region" but a region with the idea of helping introduce new FTers to parts of the community and acclimating in a friendly, inviting environment (while still being home to many community veterans just there for a place to put their accounts with like-minded players).
Greater Dienstad: Greater Dienstad has long been known for helping people to improve their (MT and PMT) roleplays and roleplaying skills.  While being welcoming of both new and old RPers alike, and always willing to answer questions; part of our teaching method does require RPers to really want to improve their skills, because in our experience, if someone doesn't want to learn, you cannot make them learn. Whereas, if someone wants to learn, they will use all available resources to do so.

Thank you for reading this guide, and I hope that everyone has a good time here at the NSRPS!

My Signature...

NS Mentor, please contact me if you have questions!

Edited Jul 8, 2017 5:15:55 GMT -5 by Lamoni