FAQ Role Play Guide

[Rogernomics]

FAQ Role-Play Guide



Contents:[/b][/u][/color]

Chapter 1. What is a role-play or RPG?
- How does role-play apply to Nationstates?

Chapter 2. What formatting is used in forum Role-plays?

Chapter 3. Can you list some simple ways you can get into role-play?

Chapter 4. How can I derive character?
- Where does your character live?
- Who is my character?
- Where is my character?
- What if no one listens to me?

Chapter 5. What about Spelling and Grammar?
- How about short speak e.g. Text and MSN style writing?
- How do I use the correct tense?
- How do you create a dramatic pause?
- What if no one listens to me?

Chapter 6. How do you make agreements of role-play characters or nations?

Chapter 7. How do you structure agreements?

Chapter 8. How should region or nation wars be role-played?

Chapter 9. How should region or nation wars be role-played?

Chapter 10. Is there a way you can find statistics without being biased?

Chapter 11. Story Role Play

Chapter 12. What should I not do?

Chapter 13. Bibliography and feedback

[Rogernomics]

1. What is a role-play or RPG?[/b][/color]



A role-play or RPG is a fictional life scenario or story in which the players of role-play or role-players act as fictional characters; this is through the role-player setting their mind into this character, and playing it out by improvising the characters' moves. The starter of the role-play usually provides setting, but it is up to the players to create their own story. Role-playing is finally a game that provides an experience that usually has winners, losers, rankings, and a motive for playing and competing.

1. How does role-play apply to Nationstates?[/b][/color]



In Nationstates you are in effect involving yourself in a role-play as you have a fictional nation or group of nations that interact with each other in a fictional life community.

You have to choose the issues that develop your nations civil and political rights as well as the state of your fictional nations economy, this determines whether you are role-playing a government with a dictatorship or Anarchy for example.

Nationstates involves you also in the World Assembly and in trying to gain endorsements from nations or recruit them; to do this you have to develop and express a new character and therefore conduct role-play. Therefore this gives basis for role-play as it provides you with a fictional setting and background of a nation to which you develop and expand characters to role-play.

[Rogernomics]

2. What formatting is used in forum Role-plays?[/b][/color]



OOC: Extract from The Last Kingdom forum, if only it was that simple

Forum role-plays tend to use short formats like “IC” for in character as it saves time, this is sometimes critical when you are writing long role-play as it decreases the word count and makes Role Play’s more interesting. Here are some important terms you will want to know when you conduct a role-play:

RP:[/b] Role Playing.
FFRP: Free Form Role Playing.
PC Player Character: A character played by a person participating in the game.
GM: Game Master - The person who's usually in charge of running the storyline and plot while players participate in the story. Not usually a position used in FFRP.
IC: In Character - Sometimes used preceding a statement or description from a character's point of view.
OOC: Out of Character - Mostly signified when you're speaking out of character in the middle of a role-playing. Sometimes used preceding a statement or description when breaking out of role-playing to ask a question or make a comment.
BIC: Back In Character - Sometimes used preceding a statement or description from a character's point of view after making an OOC statement.
NPC: Non-Player Character - A character that is not actually played by a person participating in the game but a character in the actual storyline.
Godmodding: A term to describe someone who role-plays a character with the ability to avoid all potential character damaging, fatal attacks or anything that should have happened to a character during role-play.
Metagaming: A term to describe someone who uses knowledge gained out of character and not obtained in character or within the storyline.
(MS) Mind Speak: Usually used preceding conversation made through the mind. Usually through powers like telepathy or spells.
Munchkin: See powergaming/powergamer
Powergaming/Powergamer: A term to describe someone who role-plays a character with too many/much/powerful magic, abilities, or skills defined by one with authority.
RECR Recuitment/Recruiting: A phase of getting people to join before an RP thread begins.
(VQ) Very Quietly: Usually used preceding speech indicating that it is spoken very quietly.
(W) Whisper: Usually used preceding speech indicating that it is being whispered.

“PSST! Let me tell you a secret!”

OOC: Ok in real life but inappropriate in Role-Play use "OOC:" like me

Encoded and Public Messages: These are messages to other role-players or groups of role-players and can be public meaning can be read and replied to by everyone, or they can be encoded (or private) messages that only the receiver (or ally of the receiver with permission) can reply to.

Examples of typical encoding formats to add to a message are these:

***Encoded Message to Role-Player/s***
From: Role-player/s
To: Role-player/s

Examples of typical public formats to add to a message are these:

Declaration of Peace (or war/cease-fire) against Role-Player/s from Role-Player/s

Or you could make up your own too![/color]

[Rogernomics]

3. Can you list some simple ways you can get into role-play? [/b][/color]



Here is a list of some of the easiest ways you can start role-play, these are not solid rules but are advisable, as they would provide a good role-play:

Telecommunications: This involves fictional television and radio broadcasts; you should draw your inspiration from CNN, BBC, FOX, Al Jazeera, PBS, and others for television broadcasts and your major national or state radio station for radio broadcasts.



Newspapers or propaganda leaflets: Newspapers and propaganda leaflets can also be involved; Newspapers can be major editorials and specials and/or images with captions whereas propaganda can be explained comic cartoons criticising role-play events or characters and written flyers that use mostly wording with small images or symbols to make a point.



Movies and Theatre: What could be more entertaining or as expressive in a society as a theatrical production or a movie. This is another way, a film or theatre production on a certain issue in (or around) the nations borders can explain a nations perception of the world around it. Where would we be without Charlie Chaplin for example (featured below)? His film “The Great Dictator” formed world opinion of Adolf Hitler (and Nazi Germany) in the beginning stages of the Second World War.

[Rogernomics]

4. How can I derive character?[/color]



First ask questions. What is my character? A barber, a Monarch or a spy; this matters because people need to know how to react towards you.

Next you must ask yourself; what time does your character live in? If your character lives in medieval times use medieval vocabulary such as nay instead of no, mayhap instead of maybe and so on. If you are in a modern setting such as world war two it is still vital to use correct vocabulary such as Bolshevik (Russian), Jerry (German), and Jap (Japanese).

However if you are using present day setting you must adhere to present-day terminology and grammar rules. If you are in the future however you must describe out of character (OOC) what your future terms mean as people sadly cannot read your mind.

Where does your character live?

The next question to ask in setting is where your character lives, and how the character lives. If the character lives in a straw hut, it probably will not own a helicopter gunship nor can it be a secret agent. How and where you are determines what people expect. If you are James Bond then sure you can live in a straw hunt and have these things, but as in all things; out of character (OOC) you must make this clear.

Who is my character?



This is one of the most difficult questions. It is best to work from stereotypes first, though you can develop your character from there. Lets say your character is a medieval Knight; you are strong, heroic, brave and maybe a bit arrogant. The task to make the character different falls to you.

List characteristics either in your mind or write them down. These include the level of intelligence, beauty, kindness or respect towards others, bravery or cowardice, strength and so on.

Ultimately every character has flaws, even superman has his kryptonite, so do not be afraid to add some flaws into your character. If you are role playing a deity then it can a be a perfect character, but if you are role playing a moral then it is best to give such a character flaws to show it is human or imperfect.

Where is my character?

In every Role Play your character must be placed in a situation they either like or dislike. Therefore it is best to show how much they like or dislike the situation.



Most people would dislike being in a desert with no one else and without any food or water. In another situation most males would like being surrounded by beautiful women. As a result you would be grumpy in a desert, but happy if beautiful women surrounded you.

During Role Play you cannot always control where you are, sometimes your character is placed in an awkward situation. Lets say you are in your nations capital, lounging in a skyscraper with your beautiful women in a hot tub; suddenly your nations capital is bombed by another Role Player and your skyscraper is now a pile of rubble.

This is not a particularly nice situation, so make sure the people you Role Play with know what limits they have in interacting with your character. Also you should expect things can go right or wrong for you, so let yourself to be random as there is no perfect balance; though ideally you will have at least one positive experience in your character.

What if no one listens to me?



Often convincing other Role Players to listen to you is the hardest part of Role Play, especially when the people you Role Play with are giving you a hard time. The worst thing to do in this situation however is to get angry, as this almost insures that you will never get concessions.

Sometimes people are not reasonable, in which case appeal to their emotions and attempt to fit in (even though you don’t like it). The reason is simply that if you are seen making an effort to play their way, they are more likely to listen to you.

When you do complain do so in a suggestive manner and use flattery; how this is done is by saying what has been positive in the Role Play, then talk about the negative aspects, then finish off on a positive note.

Finally if things do not work it would not be a bad idea to suggest a new Role Play in the style you want? Maybe the people you Role Play with are as tired of the Role Play as you are?

In some cases the Role Players want to finish their Role Play because they have spent so much time on it, in which case you will have to wait till they are finished. But in most cases it does not hurt to leave Role Play’s unfinished as you can always come back to them later as Role Play’s are for enjoyment or pleasure are not supposed to be a work assignment.

[Rogernomics]

5. What about Spelling and Grammar?[/color]



This is an important thing for Role Play as how you structure a sentence determines what it means.

Now let us start with the basics, we use a full stop at the end of a sentence; unless it separates two ideas.

e.g. There is a cat, it is cute. Correct
e.g. There is a cat. It is cute. Incorrect

Explanation marks are also something in use, now going back to the first example:

e.g. There is a cat. It is cute. Incorrect

However this can become correct grammar if the point the cat is cute is given some effect.

e.g. There is a cat. It is cute! Correct

Here the point the cat is cute has more importance than the fact there is a cat. What really matters is it is cute.

Next is the use of the semi colon. So many people misuse or don’t use this at all.

e.g. There is a dark valley, where the trees are grey. Almost giving evil looks. Incorrect

Now this is fine if you want the main point to be something is giving evil looks, but if you do not you should use a semi colon.

e.g. There is a dark valley, where the trees are grey; almost giving evil looks. Correct

This shows how a semi colon functions, it is to give a more powerful separation than a semi colon, but its main purpose is not to totally separate ideas like a full stop.

Now something also important is use of paragraphs, each paragraph should realistically only present one idea.

The exception to this rule is a philosophical argument, interrogation or poetry; but this never joins two or more paragraph and there must be a break between paragraphs.

To extend further into grammar it is sensible for good grammar to go with good spelling. This is because they are always walking hand in hand; for to understand a sentence it must have good spelling and grammar.

My personal advice is to use a spell checker on word or (if available) the forum spell checker to check the spelling of your posts and correct any errors.

How about short speak e.g. Text and MSN style writing?



No! The reason for this is simple, though normal speech is being made easier through MSN and text messaging this does not extend to Role Play.

The link is not often made between Role Play and fictional novels although they are closely related; this is because to have bad spelling and grammar in a fiction novel is not professional, and the same applies to Role Play.

People like to attempt perfection, and perfection in Role Play is not only an interesting and entertaining Role Play but also one with good spelling and grammar; as I said previously it is in the end a good idea to use a spell checker to make sure you have got this correct.

How do I use the correct tense?

There are three types of tenses, past, present and future. These determine whether something happens in the past, the present or the future.

Let us start with the past tense, the correct way is shown in this example:

e.g. There was a sniper on the roof

This implies that at some point there was a sniper on the roof, this does not mean however that the sniper cannot be in your room with a gun to your head; simply that the sniper is off the roof.

For the sniper to be off the roof and not have the possibility of a gun aimed at your head you would use:

e.g. There was a sniper on the roof, but he returned to base.

Now we go into present tense, which is what happens now; let us examine an example:

e.g. In the Palace there is a fine gold throne, when the sun shines it lights up the room with a yellow radiance.

Here it is implied that there is a palace, a fine gold throne, however the point “the sun shines when it lights up the room with a yellow radiance” should be ignored; this is because this is in the future tense which we will cover next.

To finish off there is the future tense, where future events occur; look now at these examples of the future tense:

e.g. There will be a visitor.
The nuke will be here soon.
That flame looks like it may cause a major fire.

In all three examples it implies a future event that may or may not eventuate, the past and present tenses that were talked about earlier assume a true event has occurred.

How do you create a dramatic pause?

Dramatic pauses help to improve sentence structure by making it more interesting.

With a dramatic pause the purpose is to make the reader contemplate or to derive an emotional response from a sentence.

e.g. The darkness fell on the forest, the wolves prowled; then one came for me…

In this case the emotion response implied is that the individual is afraid and quite possibly in danger, the reader is shown to contemplate this by the use of the ‘…’.

Well you are a hypocrite, so why should I do this?

Well sadly yes, mistakes do get made; certainly some have less than others but ultimately errors are made. Dan Browns novels are an example of this, but because he makes slight errors and it is still understandable people still read them.

If you can’t read this guide follow the links in the bibliography, makes perfect sense to me, if you don’t like it you don’t have to read it; but I would advise you to read this guide but is really up to you.

[Rogernomics]

6. How do you make agreements of role-play characters or nations?[/b]



Agreements can provide insight into your role-play event or character. These agreements should involve either secrecy if you want them private, openness if you want to allow some role-play nations or characters to join with the knowledge of everyone and lastly it can be an agreement by one role-player character or nation against another.

Trade agreements or Organisations: These include financial gain of nations or regions with each other; things like free trade like with China and Argentina, trade tariffs like that of the European Union and North America and investment like in the middle east and Asia are some important ideas and concerns.

Trade organisations like the WTO or world trade organisation allow communication between nations or regions to try to get rid of trade restrictions eg. free trade, less tariffs, etc.

But remember that large nations will always have the advantage in trade agreements and that trade agreements can have an impact on political and civil freedom and foreign relations agreements.

Foreign Relations: These include improvement of friendships with weak or heavy-handed relations; the entente cordiale between Britain and France of WW1 was a light-handed understanding, whereas something like NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organisation) is a heavy-handed alliance or pact.

Foreign aid can be a gain from these agreements like the rebuilding of post-war Europe by the United States or a loss with the plundering and isolation of parts of the world by the USSR with the Iron Curtain policies.

Be aware that foreign relations are often critical to agreements to do with trade or political or civil freedoms as if nations or regions don’t like you they will rarely (if ever) sign agreements with you.

Political or Civil Freedoms: These sorts of agreements involve voting rights, etc for political freedoms and abortion, same sex marriages, etc for civil freedoms; political freedoms contain ideological struggles like that between the anti-democratic communists and democratic capitalists for example. Whereas civil freedoms contain moral or social issues like that between conservative and liberal minded nations or regions.

However bear in mind political and civil rights can have an impact on foreign relations and trade agreements, as a communist nation or region would rarely trade with a capitalist one, and Christian conservative and radical Islamic nations or regions would have much different opinions on political rights.[/color]

[Rogernomics]

7. How do you structure agreements?[/b]



Agreements are structured with a title or usually a short introduction or Prologue, then a list of clauses showing a role-play idea or opinion numbered with roman numerals or modern numbers.

You can then finish off with a conclusive statement that summarises the agreement. You should include after this with a final clause that allows nations or regions to leave the agreement, this can be part of the conclusive statement summary or act in place of it.

Here is a checklist for setting up an agreement:

1) First you could use an agreement title eg. Treaty of Versailles, Warsaw Pact, NATO (North Atlantic Treaty organisation), ideological, cultural or religious struggle like a Jihad (holy war) against role-player/s, WTO (World Trade Organisation), etc

2) Next there needs to be a reason for the agreement. An explanation, does not have to exist, sometimes agreement titles are self explanatory like Free Trade Agreement or Military Alliance). However more complex agreements such as a mutual protection pact, or a slight increase in trade would need good explanations.

3) Use roman numerals or numbers down the page, and start to explain and organise the main ideas of the agreement.

4) After you have made the initial statements you start to focus on the ideas and expand them further.

5) When you have made all your points, you can sum all or some of the critical idea/s in a conclusion.

6) At the end of the agreement you can add in signatures to agreement or not worry about it. If you do add in signatures they should be of an important official in your Role-Play nation like a Prime Minister, President (Dictator or Democratically elected one), Minister of Foreign affairs or trade, etc sign them.

[/color]

[Rogernomics]

8. How do you start role-play wars, disputes, and incidents? [/b]



Starting Role-plays: There are many ways to start role-plays; you should choose something that will cause a response like a moral, social, political or civil issue.

Some ways you can express this is thorough role-playing an incident, dispute or war action with a newspaper or television role-play, this can lead to a conference or banquet or just telegram dialogue between nations or regions.

Propaganda role-playing can also be a good way too as if you want to bring light to some idea or issue it will gain disdain or respect of other nations or regions and if channelled correctly can cause full-scale wars and hatred like the second world war Nazi Germany propaganda against Jewish people.

However role-plays do not have to be negative and can give a positive resolution like China starting to open up to the west during the cold war, due to acts of personal friendship between Chinese and American people.



What do banquets or conferences involve: With These sorts of events you have to imagine you are role-playing a school ball, prom or debate.

You should have an introductory title explaining where the conference is being held, next an introduction (more in depth the explanation the better the role-play, however you should limit it to half a page any more and people get bored with the role-play).

Make an opening statement next like “I invite the nation/s or regions of such and such to discuss the issue/idea of such and such”. From this point people will respond, you sometimes have to guide people if you want an ending to the event or it will get dull and never be resolved.[/color]

[Rogernomics]

9. How should region or nation wars be role-played? [/b]



When role-playing wars it is up to the player whether they win, lose or take part in a ceasefire.

You can use your whole army, however in order to stop god-modding you can use your whole army but in the numerical sense you cannot. We have to be fair, no storm troopers appearing out of nowhere like on Star Wars, or mass suicides please.

Starting a battle: When the battle starts what should happen numerically should not be full-scale use of the military, only up to 1% of the people in a nation/region would be best as it would be a well trained and organised military.

From this point an army gets worse trained, when you get up to 5% or above of your population it would be poorly trained and/or organised, unless you are spending the majority of your funding on the military (which is unlikely).

IC: Battle of city/area name, Rpers nation

Rper massed number# troops and responded/attacked to the attacker/defender…

It is much easier to not include an entire nations/regions suicide to stop the enemy (like WW2 Japan), limited things though like troops using suicide attacks are ok, but not millions or billions of people attacking the enemy.[/color]

[Rogernomics]

10. Is there a way you can find statistics without being biased?[/b][/color]



“There are three types of lies; lies, damn lies and statistics”
- Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli (of the British Empire)

Yes, here are two ways that allow you to see statistics on your and other nations for fun or just to provide you with more background information that does not have bias.

a) Calculating military size: To calculate how big your army would be divide by 100 so with a nation of 1000 million (1 billion) you would have 10 million as that constitutes 1%, if you want a realistic maximum of 5% just times 1% of your army by 5 so you would have 50 million, etc.

b) Finding out other information: To find out more role-play information about your nation, like the state of your economy go to these sites:

1) www.sunsetrpg.com/economystatistics.php gives information mainly on your nation and includes some calculations the others do not have (my favourite)
2) nstracker.org/ gives a nice graph for your nations spending and is useful for comparing nations with each other
3) peachiekeen.net/nstracker/nseconomy.php gives the best information on regions as a whole
4) nsdossier.texasregion.net/ This is the newest of the calculators, however it seems to have the best features such as the biggest 100 regions, and interesting facts like where a lot of the moderators or largest nations are located.

These can be used to find which nation has the best military, economy, political rights, civil rights, environment and which has the worst in a Role-Play. However my advice is use only one type of calculator for each Role-Play event (as each calculates its statistics differently).

[Rogernomics]

11. Story Role Play



This generally involves an event that leads up to another event in a continuing cycle. Story Role Play’s can involve a Game master (meaning a leading figure the other role-players must follow) or simply be one where the dominant character changes frequently or rarely. They begin in story format this one has no dominant character. The dominant character changes frequently, here is the example:

Role Player 1 (Remus Caesar):

Chapter 1: Escape
…I considered taking armour but chose against it - it would only slow me down. I ran 'til I was well clear of the camp. Then I began to devise a plan to kill the Traitorous General, and while I was at it I could kill the new man, who was obviously in league with him, Remus Caesar…

Then someone continues the story like this:

Role Player 2 (Lonskarvia):

Chapter 2: The Life and Lies of the Emperor
…He then said "My name is Lonskarvia, I am here to kill you. You are working with the General who betrayed the Emperor." I looked at him with a weird look. "I left him...when I figured out what happened. I then left to find help. I serve the Emperor. Athanisus Ilius and I are currently leading the empire." He put down his dagger and bowed…

In all stories there is never a definite ending or it would be a fictional biography and not a story. Here is an appropriate ending example:

Role Player 3 (Athanasius Ilius):

Chapter 10: At the camp
…Back at camp I began writing a proclamation. I thought of the sack of Thebes by Alexander. I walked up to a messenger, handing him the message and told him "have this message sent across the Empire, may Zeus be with you!” With my proclamation read…the messenger raced off into the night, and I hoped that the message would encourage surrender; and end the civil war that has been so plaguing the empire…

The decision however is up to you in how you control your Role Play. I wish you good luck, and hope that you can form great Role Play’s of your own. Hopefully you could improve on my ideas and come back to me with a flash guide of your own and enlighten me (a not so subtle hint).[/color]

[Rogernomics]

12. What not to do[/b]

My concise advice on Role-Play:[/color]

A) Never take Role-Play personally (it undermines your Role-Play as well as the other Role-Player’s Role-Play)

B) Do not go into a Role-Play if you know it will do something to your nation that you don’t want done to it e.g. get attacked

C) Never stay in a Role-Play if you are sick of it (it will make it boring for those who are enjoying it – they may tell you that as well)

D)Do not try god-modding, it is the number one insult to another Role-Player. As if you do you it you must apologise for your error and correct the mistake with the Role-player/s you have god-modded against.

E) Try not to leave a Role-Play and mid Role-Play come back (if you can help it) as once disconnected from the Role Play it is hard to get back into it

F) Never leave out characters or make a inconsistent setting, it undermines the quality of the Role-Play (and people notice this)

G) Check your spelling and grammar and make sure it is understandable. I can’t stress this enough. If you have terrible spelling and grammar you will lose lots of friends. Unless you have a ‘great’ personality in which case people just may forgive you.

[Rogernomics]

13. Bibliography and feedback[/color]



Here are listed all the sources that without their input would have made this role-play guide more difficult to put together:

Thank you to the sites that I used images from. They were mostly (if not all) from free source sites e.g. Wikipedia, free avatar galleries, forums, etc.

Terra Haute’s (Furtward's) of Imperial Britain's rules for What do banquets or conferences involve (Section 5), calculating military size (Chapter 7) and lastly with How should region or nation wars be role-played? (Chapter 6)

www.Dictionary.com/ for help with defining a role-play in What is a role-play or RPG? (Chapter 1)

www.rpgconsortium.com/gamerscorner/articles/ for its brilliant index terms for role-play in What formatting is used in forum Role-plays? (Chapter 3). It is certainly the best place to go for more information not provided by this guide as well.

Questions: If you have any further questions either telegram Rogernomics the nation or personal message Athanasius in the Lazarus regional forum or Neo Genesis Movement forum. If you cannot contact me and have further questions contact members of the jolt forums (it is in the links on the Nationstates site sidebar) and they will help you. Most importantly do not be afraid to ask.

Feedback: Contact me with positive (or negative) responses over this guide either through telegramming or personal messaging, see questions above

Complaints: If you have complaints about the guide I have taken lots of information in the guide out of personal knowledge like that of historical events, the rest is from research from the above sources, what I find irrelevant or incorrect about these sources or too long has been left out.

However if there is something you think would be good to add contact me, but I will not change the major ideas of this guide.

Organised, Edited and Written by Athanasius/Rogernomics

[Alexander of Byzantine Glory]

My appreciation, karma point and many thanks for the great work here Athy !!