Godmode
Godmode, Godmod, Godmoding, Godmodding, and Godmoddery are all equally acceptable terms for this phenomenon.
What Godmoding is:
Saying what happens to other people's stuff.
Example: "Okay, I just blew up 300,000 of your troops!"
Why this is Godmoding: Because in FreeForm Roleplay, it's up to the person being attacked to determine their own losses. This leads to...
Refusing to take any losses. Or lose. Ever.
Example: "Oh, well, my soldiers had personal forcefields so none of them were actually hurt. "
Why this is Godmoding: This is probably where godmoding gets its name (from God Mode in Doom, where you were invincible after typing IDDQD). Naturally, if nobody ever takes a hit, the fight degenerates into "I HIT YOU!" "NO YOU DIDN'T!", etc.
Irresponsible use of Technology, excessive Army size & Stuff.
Example: A 2 day old nation with a population of 6 million posts "My 6 billion man army in vades u with NUKES!!!!1"
Why this is Godmoding: Having armies of more than 1% peacetime, without suffering significant (To be RPed) economic and social problems, is sort of impossible. In the same way, going OMFG I N00KZ Y0!!!11 is sorta regarded as... Well, silly, so one would suggest not doing it if you want to be taken serious. In the same way, if one enjoys RPing a highly developed, a futuristic, or a magic- based nation, one shouldn't go running around, declaring war on players/ nations prefering a dfferent level. One mustn't necessarily ignore them, but remembering that consent is necessary for cooperative roleplay helps a lot.
Troops and Godmoding
As well as the troops that just won't die, godmoding extends to troops which do other interesting things.
Stealth Troops
"Stealth" is a cool word, but it doesn't mean "invisible". A stealth bomber is just harder to detect than an ordinary one is on radar - ditto stealth fighters. To my knowledge, there is no such thing as a "stealth tank", "stealth rocket launcher" or anything else like that.
Invisible Troops
The temptation with magic (of any description) is to make people and things invisible. Thus, "my invisible tank has driven into the middle of your city. HA HA." Think about this for a minute. Invisibility only extends to sight - an "invisible tank" would still make noise, especially when it shot you. "Invisible troops" would be even harder to work with, doors would open by themselves and all those orders of the sergeants would be very audible.
Very Fast Troops
NationStates is a big place. You might have a large army, but if it's all on one side of the world fighting in one war, it can't suddenly appear on the other side of the world fighting in another war. In other words, your battalions can only be in one place at once.
Unknown Logistics
Having your hundreds of thousands of troops marching across the desert to attack the fortress is less plausible if you don't incorporate a realistic supply train.
Acts of God
The cheapest godmode tactic of them all -- invoking God. Surely there is nothing more repugnant than that, especially to those of us who -are- religious. This is a game. God has better things to do with His time than intercede in someone's RPing.
What isn't Godmodding
Having übertech, armies that are too large, etc.
Contrary to popular belief, this isn't godmodding. Armies can be quite large, one just has to RP the results, for example economic and social problems, internal strife, not at all loyal populations and the likes.
Übertech is another issue. More often than not, 'Modern tech' RPers tend to disregard every kind of futuristic (Or magical, physics- bending etc.) Technology as godmoddingwank. This is, however, not entirely true. As long as used reasonable, it is not a godmode. Again, it depends on consent (Rather than 'I PWN YUO!'), and with whom one chooses to RP with. Fairness is the point. Of course, claiming to be in space with some odd superfortress, ortillering some unsuspecting modern tech nation is inexcusable. However, using it for fluff, and simply not stepping around pointing out how big one is, compared to modern tech nations, but instead RPing with 1. other spacedy nations or 2. doing peaceful things is entirely acceptable.
Addtional Information
- See also: Wank
- What Logistics is
