NationStates Jolt Archive

I'm pretty new to the forums, and haven't done much here. Can anyone help me with some general stuff, like how war works on here, and what kind of technology you should have related to how old your country is?

Basically, it's all roleplay; you write what you do, someone else writes what they do, you write a reply, and so on. Roleplay is divided into different groupings; there's sports RP (about which I know absolutely nothing), number-based roleplay (where there's an emphasis on having concrete statistics for your war machines and so forth; this can become quite in-depth and complicated), and character-based roleplay, which is what I do (which focuses on the development of characters, and values good writing more than absolute accuracy in all things).

Probably there are others, but those seem to be the main ones (and they're not by any means clear-cut). The important thing is to have fun, and do what you enjoy most.

Wars are also roleplayed; in my opinion they're things to be avoided, but some people enjoy a bit of military RP. For an example of a good scripted war RP (scripted meaning the events have been worked out beforehand, which avoids arguments over the legitimacy of various actions, et cetera), I direct you to What Is And Isn't Mine (http://forums2.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=315645&page=3); it's a whopper, but it's good.

Technology is limited only by your imagination. There are people who will tell you that "a nation under X population shouldn't have X technology" (these people generally fall into the number-RP camp); personally, I believe that as it's free-form roleplay, you can do what you like.

The only real limit is what other people will accept; while you can have massive starfleets and galaxy-spanning empires, it's likely that other people won't roleplay with you if you do. But there are many sci-fi nations who do quite well, as well as fantasy and modern-technology nations.

I'd also say that it's wise to know your strengths; if you're not a fan of sci-fi, then a sci-fi nation probably isn't the best idea. Ultimately, though, the goal is to have fun (and hopefully help others have fun at the same time).

I hope I've helped!

Thanks. It cleared up a lot of things for me.

No problem! Glad to help out. There are also several stickied threads up the top of the forums which may be helpful to read.