Difference between revisions of "Roleplay"

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== What is Role Play? ==
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Role Playing is acting, just without a script. If you've ever been in a play or had some sort of part, you have role played, or played a role. Role Playing is more like life, though. You have a part that you play, whether its school, work, boyfriend, girlfriend etc.., it is unscripted. Role play is unscripted. You figure things out as you go along, putting up with rough patches (not ignoring someone, flamming, or getting your nation deleted over it), and most of all, try and have fun.
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== What is role play? ==
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'''Role Playing''' is acting, just without a script. Role Playing is more like life than things like plays or other scripted acts. Everyone has a part that they play, whether it's school, work, boyfriend, girlfriend etc., it is unscripted. Role play is unscripted. Players figure things out as they go along, putting up with rough patches, and most of all, try and have fun.
  
== Role Play on NationStates ==
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== Role play on NationStates ==
The great thing about NationStates' forums is that they are "free form". Free form means there are no rules regarding Role Play. There are rules governing behaviour in the forums, but not how you role play. That means, you can decided to pick 20 random nations and invade them, yes, this is frowned upon by many, but it is just an example of what free form means.
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'''Roleplay''' is an extension of NationStates [[gameplay]]. The thing about NationStates' [[forums]] is that they are "free form." Free form means there are no rules regarding Role Play. There are rules governing behaviour in the forums, but not how players role play. That means that players can decide to pick 20 random [[nation]]s and invade them. This is frowned upon by many, but it is just an example of what free form means.
  
On NationStates, a main part of role play is [[War|war]]. There are many happening everyday, yet, none seem to work out well. When roleplaying a war, remember one thing. That is not to try to win. Far to many times, one nation will be losing a battle, when the owner gets mad out of character and goes ballistic and starts to flame. [[Flaming]] is arguing beyond the point of a valid debate, and more along the lines of "You f***ing [[n00b]]! Your mama!" ... Which really scares me when I think that this game gets to users that much.
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=== The role of the forums ===
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In [[NationStates]], a major part of role play is [[war]].  These sorts of battles most often occur in the [http://forums2.jolt.co.uk/forumdisplay.php?f=1230 International Incidents] forum. There are many happening everyday, yet many fail. When roleplaying a war, players often try to remember one thing: not to try to win. Far too many times, one nation will be losing a battle, when the owner gets mad out of character and goes ballistic and starts to flame. [[Flaming]] is arguing beyond the point of a valid debate, and more along the lines of substanceless personal attacks. Flaming is worthy of moderator action against the player partaking in it.
  
== The Basics: (Economy, Budget, Military) ==
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The [http://forums2.jolt.co.uk/forumdisplay.php?f=1223 NationStates] forum tends more towards [[character]]-based roleplaying and [[sports roleplaying]], though wars and battles are also fought there.  Each topic there is its own separate roleplaying event: some standalone, others tying to one or more other threads, some as spin-offs or continuations of previous roleplays, etc. Such is the nature of free-form role play - even [[game time|time itself]] is a variable. Entry into these roleplays is often more formalized: the topic title and/or first post shows if the RP is an [[Invite RP]] or open to anyone.  There may be both [[IC]] and [[OOC]] topics for a given roleplay, and IC and OOC posts should be put into their correct topic.
I've been asked many times, "What does a "good" economy mean, what is my national budget, and how big is my military?" Remember free form? All of those things could mean anything you want. Good could mean each person makes 1 dollar a year, your budget could be infinate, and your military could be your entire nation. That usually makes for bad RP. You want to try and keep it as realistic as possible, no, NationStates itself is not entirely designed to be realistic, but you want to try and mimic real life as much as possible for countless reasons. The main ones are:  
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# No one will role play with someone that has a military of 500 million people or buys everything in a storefront.
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# It really isn't fun. If being an arse is your thing, make your own forums or spam somewhere else.
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Most people don't keep track of their nation's budget, they just buy, but not to much. This is ok. Some people use the GDP [[Calculators]].
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What I do, and what a few other people do is keep track of their military to the dot. I keep 2 percent of my nation on active duty and another 2 available if needed. Also, I keep track of all products that I produce (which is all role playing) and things that I buy. I have a Notepad document of my military.  
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There is an element of roleplay in the [[United Nations forum]], but often there will be a mixture of OOC comments mixed in with the purely diplomatic comments made IC.  The [[UN]] is only semi-RP, and posts there are subject to more [[mod]] intervention for inappropriateness than in the other two RP forums.
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Roleplay in the other forums is strongly discouraged, though Gameplay does permit a bit of region-based RP in the form of [[regional ads]].  The other seven active forums have specific purposes, and the Archives can't be added to even if you wanted to. Players generally stick to '''NS, I.I.''', and the '''UN''' for national and in-character roleplaying.
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=== Offsite roleplay ===
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Roleplay also occurs in many of the larger [[offsite forums]] and on [[IRC]].  Sometimes they are used for planning purposes, and the conversations end up in the NS [[forums]], other times they are complete and separate, although they use NS-related nations and characters.  In short, players can roleplay their nations in multiple places with great ease.
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{| Align="center" border="1" cellpadding="5" width="75%" style="margin-left:0.5em;"|-
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|+ '''A Brief Introduction to the Terminology of NationStates'''
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! align="center" | [[Game terms|Game Terms]]
 +
! align="center" | [[Military Abbreviations]]
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! align="center" | [[Political Abbreviations]]
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|}
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== The basics: economy, budget, military ==
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A common question new [[nations]] ask is "What does a "good" economy mean, what is my national budget, and how big is my military?" All of those things can mean anything players want. Good could mean each person makes one dollar a year, nations' budgets could be infinite, and militaries could be an entire nation. That usually makes for what most players consider bad RP; most prefer to try and keep it as realistic as possible. Although NationStates itself is not entirely designed to be realistic, mimicking real life as much as possible has its benefits. The main ones are:
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# No one will role play with someone that has a military of 500 million people or buys everything in a storefront.
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# It isn't much fun for many people.
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Many players don't keep track of their nation's budget, they just buy within reasonable limits, which is generally accepted. Some people use the GDP [[Calculators]].  Raw data can be obtained from the [[XML feed]].
  
 
== Ignoring ==
 
== Ignoring ==
Firstly, I don't [[IGNORE|ignore]] any nation for any reason because it goes against my beliefs of free form. Ignoring a nation means you do not recognize it AT ALL. It doesn't mean you get pissed, flame, ignore, then harass the next day, it means that to you, that nation no longer exists. And it doesn't mean that all nations owned by that same person are also ignored, just that one. A tip for good role play: Use ignoring as a final tactic if nothing else works.
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[[IGNORE|Ignoring]] a nation means a player do not recognize it at all. It doesn't mean that all nations owned by that same person are also ignored, just that one. Most players try to reserve ignoring as a final tactic if nothing else works.
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Most [[invader]]s and [[defender]]s completely disregard roleplay actions, and can thus be considered to be ignoring them.
  
== Additional Information ==
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== Additional information ==
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* [[Getting started in roleplay]]
  
{{{stub}}}
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[[Category:Roleplaying]]

Latest revision as of 15:58, 15 October 2006

This article deals with Roleplay as it relates to NationStates. For more general information, see the Wikipedia article on this subject.

What is role play?

Role Playing is acting, just without a script. Role Playing is more like life than things like plays or other scripted acts. Everyone has a part that they play, whether it's school, work, boyfriend, girlfriend etc., it is unscripted. Role play is unscripted. Players figure things out as they go along, putting up with rough patches, and most of all, try and have fun.

Role play on NationStates

Roleplay is an extension of NationStates gameplay. The thing about NationStates' forums is that they are "free form." Free form means there are no rules regarding Role Play. There are rules governing behaviour in the forums, but not how players role play. That means that players can decide to pick 20 random nations and invade them. This is frowned upon by many, but it is just an example of what free form means.

The role of the forums

In NationStates, a major part of role play is war. These sorts of battles most often occur in the International Incidents forum. There are many happening everyday, yet many fail. When roleplaying a war, players often try to remember one thing: not to try to win. Far too many times, one nation will be losing a battle, when the owner gets mad out of character and goes ballistic and starts to flame. Flaming is arguing beyond the point of a valid debate, and more along the lines of substanceless personal attacks. Flaming is worthy of moderator action against the player partaking in it.

The NationStates forum tends more towards character-based roleplaying and sports roleplaying, though wars and battles are also fought there. Each topic there is its own separate roleplaying event: some standalone, others tying to one or more other threads, some as spin-offs or continuations of previous roleplays, etc. Such is the nature of free-form role play - even time itself is a variable. Entry into these roleplays is often more formalized: the topic title and/or first post shows if the RP is an Invite RP or open to anyone. There may be both IC and OOC topics for a given roleplay, and IC and OOC posts should be put into their correct topic.

There is an element of roleplay in the United Nations forum, but often there will be a mixture of OOC comments mixed in with the purely diplomatic comments made IC. The UN is only semi-RP, and posts there are subject to more mod intervention for inappropriateness than in the other two RP forums.

Roleplay in the other forums is strongly discouraged, though Gameplay does permit a bit of region-based RP in the form of regional ads. The other seven active forums have specific purposes, and the Archives can't be added to even if you wanted to. Players generally stick to NS, I.I., and the UN for national and in-character roleplaying.

Offsite roleplay

Roleplay also occurs in many of the larger offsite forums and on IRC. Sometimes they are used for planning purposes, and the conversations end up in the NS forums, other times they are complete and separate, although they use NS-related nations and characters. In short, players can roleplay their nations in multiple places with great ease.

A Brief Introduction to the Terminology of NationStates
Game Terms Military Abbreviations Political Abbreviations

The basics: economy, budget, military

A common question new nations ask is "What does a "good" economy mean, what is my national budget, and how big is my military?" All of those things can mean anything players want. Good could mean each person makes one dollar a year, nations' budgets could be infinite, and militaries could be an entire nation. That usually makes for what most players consider bad RP; most prefer to try and keep it as realistic as possible. Although NationStates itself is not entirely designed to be realistic, mimicking real life as much as possible has its benefits. The main ones are:

  1. No one will role play with someone that has a military of 500 million people or buys everything in a storefront.
  2. It isn't much fun for many people.

Many players don't keep track of their nation's budget, they just buy within reasonable limits, which is generally accepted. Some people use the GDP Calculators. Raw data can be obtained from the XML feed.

Ignoring

Ignoring a nation means a player do not recognize it at all. It doesn't mean that all nations owned by that same person are also ignored, just that one. Most players try to reserve ignoring as a final tactic if nothing else works.

Most invaders and defenders completely disregard roleplay actions, and can thus be considered to be ignoring them.

Additional information