NationStates Jolt Archive

I'm getting a little bored of just answering the daily issues and reading the resulting description of my nation state. I'd like to start adding some depth and start role playing, but I know nothing about role playing and don't even know where to begin.

I've read some of the threads which seem like they would be very helpful for someone who already knows where step #1 is, but I don't. Where do I find step #1? How do I get started?

First of all, I don't think this should be in technical. However, a mod will decide.

Second of all, you always refer to "Step #1". What do you mean by this? What do you want? This (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=406680) may help you, but I don't know.

Put One step in front of the other,

And soon you'll be acting out the DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOR!

Put One step in front of the other,

And soon you'll be acting out the DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOR!

What is the name of spoons has this got to do with anything?

You want to learn how to RP? Contact my nation and I'll pull you into the heat of the action, but only if you are serious. Being a serious RP, I really hate people who act as such.....

*runs into room and pulls out hotdog*

I beat you all in the eye! Ph34r me! AGGGGHHHH!

You want to learn how to RP? Contact my nation and I'll pull you into the heat of the action, but only if you are serious. Being a serious RP, I really hate people who act as such.....

*runs into room and pulls out hotdog*

I beat you all in the eye! Ph34r me! AGGGGHHHH!

You forgot that they like to pwn j00 w/n00ks.

I'm getting a little bored of just answering the daily issues and reading the resulting description of my nation state. I'd like to start adding some depth and start role playing, but I know nothing about role playing and don't even know where to begin.

I've read some of the threads which seem like they would be very helpful for someone who already knows where step #1 is, but I don't. Where do I find step #1? How do I get started?

Hmmm. Maybe I can help here. The first step I use when creating a nation for roleplay is to conceptualize the nation's properties. I ask and answer a series of questions that help me to lay out the basic qualities I want the nation to have.

Does the nation have a government? If so, what kind of government?
What are some of the cultural practices of the nation's people?
What are your people? Humans? Elves? AI? A mix of these?
What does your country look like? (Think topographical map.)
What kind of ecosystem does your country have?
What kind of economic system does the country have?
What kind of resources does the country have?
What kind of technology does the country have?

Depending on the answers to those, you can ask more detailed questions that will help you define your country further. I hope that helps. :)

Hmmm. Maybe I can help here. The first step I use when creating a nation for roleplay is to conceptualize the nation's properties. I ask and answer a series of questions that help me to lay out the basic qualities I want the nation to have.

Does the nation have a government? If so, what kind of government?
What are some of the cultural practices of the nation's people?
What are your people? Humans? Elves? AI? A mix of these?
What does your country look like? (Think topographical map.)
What kind of ecosystem does your country have?
What kind of economic system does the country have?
What kind of resources does the country have?
What kind of technology does the country have?

Depending on the answers to those, you can ask more detailed questions that will help you define your country further. I hope that helps. :)

Don't forget all that which it doesn't have. For example, nation X may have oil yet no uranium. Nation Y may have uranium, yet no oil. That leads to a good RP scenario; do they trade or do they go to war?

First of all, I don't think this should be in technical. However, a mod will decide.
I wasn't sure about that.

Second of all, you always refer to "Step #1". What do you mean by this? What do you want? This may help you, but I don't know.

Thanks for the link, although I've read it already... But this helps... You asked what I want. I'll try to be more specific. The post you refer to says some people use a pre-written module. What IS a pre-written module and where would I find one? Better yet, how do I write my own? (I'm a writer AND software engineer so I shouldn't find this difficult, if I can just identify what some of these things are.)

Next, the article talks about putting together plot points and character descriptions. So where do I put them?

Also, I'm not entirely clear on how much is influenced by simple descriptions and how much is influenced by a random generator or some equivalent to a die, if there even is one. As you can see, I am quite lost.

Thanks...

Hmmm. Maybe I can help here. The first step I use when creating a nation for roleplay is to conceptualize the nation's properties. I ask and answer a series of questions that help me to lay out the basic qualities I want the nation to have.
Again, this is where I ask... what do I do with these descriptions? Do I post them somewhere?

well first off you need to have an idea of what their nation is going to be like, jsut like how a writer decides what his next book is going to be about, is it going to be a sci-fi utopia or maybe something more modern, it's all up to you.

you can post it here on the forum, you can just keep it in your head, or you could just write it down in a text document on your computer.

A pre-written module I (believe) is just the fancy way of saying you have planned it all out (like player A and player B are going out on a camping trip, at some point they will go on a river ride and go over a water fall, it's all planned out before the thread is started and they know in advance how it will end. Some people like not to plan out there threads and just see where it goes from there.

huh... So is there anything that can be done via RP that can change the state of my nation, such as revitalizing a struggling economy with a new industry? Or would this happen within the confines of the RP, but have no effect on the nation since that's an isolated game? (or is it?)

Again, this is where I ask... what do I do with these descriptions? Do I post them somewhere?

You can if you'd like. However, I find it's generally more practical to write all these things down somewhere (not on the forum) and remember it, then bring them into play when it comes up. Always have a good conceptualization of what your country is and what the people who live within its borders are like.

The next step (and this may be the hardest part for someone new to role-playing) is to actually get involved. Look for a recently-started thread that interests you (international conferences are the best, but they can be hard to find. Exchanges of ambassadors are good too. Whatever you do, don't make a war your first) and read every post in it. Then come up with a character (be it your leader, your foreign minister, your ambassador to [country], or a private citizen from your country) and decide how to best introduce them to the thread. Usually their plane/ship/train/whatever arriving is the best. Read the responses you get and have your character respond in the way you think someone like them would reply in that situation.

However, I think the best advice I can give you is simply to read. I don't mean read the stickies; they have their merits and problems, but they can be confusing to a newcomer. I mean read whatever threads interest you to get an idea of how things work in practice around here. If you don't know which ones to read, shoot me a telegram and I'll give you some of my personal favorites.

huh... So is there anything that can be done via RP that can change the state of my nation, such as revitalizing a struggling economy with a new industry? Or would this happen within the confines of the RP, but have no effect on the nation since that's an isolated game? (or is it?)

Ah, this is another tough conceptual point. The role-play and front page of NationStates are only loosely connected. Nothing you do in role-play will affect the front page, but the front page does affect your role-play.

What I mean is this: don't claim resources in excess of what your nation page says you have. If it says you have 56 million people, you'd do well not to claim 4 billion in role-play. However, don't let that cramp your creativity! Your nation is what you claim it is, but more people will respect you if you keep your claims reasonable.

I definately recommend reading a lot of stuff. There are tons of seperate cliques and roleplay groupings, and you definately want to look around a little before you get your feet wet.

I'd recommend thinking of at least a rough history of your nation, encompassing the questions already posed- government, technology, etc. You'll likely also want to create a master list of characters that fill various roles- unless you've got some uber-AI running the place, your nation's leader isn't going to be doing everything. (My master character list tops out right now at about 130 characters that I have used at some point or another.)

Lastly, you get out of RPing what you put into it. If you take the time and develop a good concept and play it out well, you will attract similarly serious RPers, and either get into one of the aforementioned cliques, or perhaps even start your own.

As others have noted, your RP tactic will depend on what you want to get out of NS.

In my two NS stints (in 2003 with the recently-revived Alasdair I Frosticus and more recently with the Archregimancy), I decided that I didn't really want to get involved in the diplomatic/war side of things - perhaps I was made paranoid by all of those messages in the pre-jolt days along the lines of "I DECLARE WAR ON U" and "MY NATION KIX YR ASS" (not quite sure why they were so intent on kicking my donkey, but we'll let that pass) or "I NUKE U + U R DUST". And so on. So I conceptualised a nation that existed outside of ordinary time and space in a 'dreamed realm' where travel between dreamed reality and physical reality was virtually impossible without my say-so.

This allowed me to pick and choose participation in whatever RPs were consistent with my nation (usually sport and, umm, poetry contests), while ignoring everything else. I liked it so much, I've re-used it my second time around.

Now, that's a fairly unusual approach, and not one that's going to be suitable for everyone. The basic point I'm making (rather long-windedly) is that the boundaries of NS RP are so loose that your nation can be almost anything you want it to be so long as it remains internally consistent, and bears some loose relation to your nation's description. This time around my nation consists solely of football [soccer] playing Orthodox Christian monks; last time around it was a half quasi-Byzantine half quasi-Paraguayan Holy Empire. As I said, the boundaries are so loose, you can do almost anything.

And in terms of writing and storing details on your nation - as well as being a handy RP resource in general - there's no better place to start than the NS wiki... (http://ns.goobergunch.net/wiki/index.php/Main_Page)

Reading a few entries there will give you an excellent idea of what other people have done with their nations.

Nice to see a serious effort to begin your own little world of possibilities. I am perhaps one of the the unofficial leaders of fantasy based roleplaying (elves, dragons, demons, etc), so if that's your preferred genre, then by all means, look me up. However, do keep in mind that I also RP realistic RPs (stuff that would be possible in the real world). If I can't help you, then I can definitely direct you to someone who can.

On another note, my region is specifically centered around those who prefer character- based roleplays. Feel free to browse the region Fatal Terrain to see who's around.

I noticed you're looking for some way to organize your nation, so I'm going to give you my own factbook/history. You might need to scroll back up to the top, after clicking the link.

The Tarlachian Archives (info thread/factbook) (http://forums2.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?p=7603676)

Good luck, and I hope to see you soon producing some enjoyable RPs!

Thank you all for taking the time to explain this to me. I think I'm getting the general idea now and you have all given me some good points to think about. I'm rather excited about getting started, especially realizing the creative potential.

Thank you all for taking the time to explain this to me. I think I'm getting the general idea now and you have all given me some good points to think about. I'm rather excited about getting started, especially realizing the creative potential.

I believe I speak for all who contributed here when I say "you're welcome".