NationStates Jolt Archive

I'm not entirely sure if this is just a personal pet peeve or something that requires mod intervention, so I hope I'm not wasting your time.

Kulikovia, the same user that brought us threads like S.H.I.E.L.D. (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=561285), has recently started up another RP based off TV/movies– Heroes: Stand Alone (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=564467). As I see it the biggest problem with this thread (and S.H.I.E.L.D. for that matter) is that is just has nothing to do with NationStates. The characters even hail from RL nations, so I see no reason for it to be here. I'm sure there's a Heroes fan site somewhere where this would be more at home.

So, I'd appreciate if someone were to at least warn Kulikovia against creating future threads like this (or even nip the current one in the bud). On the other hand, if I'm wrong and this kind of RP is a-okay, I'd like to know so I don't make the same mistake again.

I'm not a mod but I don't see the problem with it. I don't see where it says 'Keep it totally NS'

If all threads inspired by a TV Series, Fiction Books, Movies, Computer or Tabletop Games were erased nearly half of all existing threads would be gone. Including all of mine as I was inspired by Orwell's Homage to Catalonia among several other works, fictions and movies altogether.

Particularly "Future Tech" would take a heavy hit.

So from my limited knowledge there's nothing wrong, because that was not the first and nor shall be the last RP thread based on a TV Series or alike.

If all threads inspired by a TV Series, Fiction Books, Movies, Computer or Tabletop Games were erased nearly half of all existing threads would be gone. Including all of mine as I was inspired by Orwell's Homage to Catalonia among several other works, fictions and movies altogether.

Particularly "Future Tech" would take a heavy hit.

So from my limited knowledge there's nothing wrong, because that was not the first and nor shall be the last RP thread based on a TV Series or alike.

My issue isn't that it's based on a TV show (although I'm not crazy about that either), it's that it has absolutely nothing to do with NationStates.

This isn't Historic Reenactment, nor is it TV Show Reenactment.

Much like the Sex and the City RP (no, really), this isn't allowed. Thread locked.

I'm not a mod but I don't see the problem with it. I don't see where it says 'Keep it totally NS'The fact that these are the NationStates forums should be something of a hint.

Rules should be universal to prevent what would become an arbitrary application of the same rules at a per case basis, which in turns equates unfairness. Thus I would like to ask how are threads like the following NationStates related?

http://forums3.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=562752

http://forums3.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=558153

http://forums3.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=523678

I believe that enforcing total exclusivity to NationStates around in such manner will do more harm than good, and is somewhat subjective, and also easily by-passable when someone uses a known canon to create the bulk of his/her NS concept.

Rules should be universal to prevent what would become an arbitrary application of the same rules at a per case basis, which in turns equates unfairness. Thus I would like to ask how are threads like the following NationStates related?

http://forums3.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=562752

http://forums3.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=558153

http://forums3.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=523678

I believe that enforcing total exclusivity to NationStates around in such manner will do more harm than good, and is somewhat subjective, and also easily by-passable when someone uses a known canon to create the bulk of his/her NS concept.

There's a key difference between roleplaying an idea which involves one's nationstate, and roleplaying an idea when it has nothing to do with their nationstate. From what I noticed, your 2nd and 3rd example are that key difference, as they both involved each player's nationstate. The 1st example does seem like it could potentially be in violation though. I'll refrain from making any sort of official post until I can get another response from a moderator.

It's never been required before that an RP has something to do with NS, so why is it all of a sudden required. Yes this is the NS board, but we've never required that rp's be focused around ones nation before.

I have run numerous rp's in the past, popular ones with sequals and many of them have had nothing to do with NS, and none of the mods have ever said word one to me about them. Hot Rodias Saloon story was nothing to do with NS, IIRC and no one censured him. I can easily name a dozen or two others that I have participated in that have had nothing to do with NS.

I find it interesting that all of a sudden that it's verboten.

Seems to me Scolopendra's thread (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=528525&page=9) on Alternate History threads has set a precedent.


Summary: Using Real Earth geography is fine. Using the shape of Real Earth countries is fine. Using Real Earth populations is fine. Using the actual Real Earth countries (culture, history, et al), and thus essentially being a carbon copy of a Real Earth country, is not. (my emphasis)

Substitute "Warhammer 40K" for "Real Earth" throughout, and you get a situation where RPing in a WH40K universe would be okay, provided that it was played with your NS nation being visibly outside of, or altering, the WH40K canon.

For example, your NS nation might have a religion that preaches that aliens are always superior to humans. I think you could then legally RP the effects on your nation of encountering 40K's Imperial Church, which swings the other way. But NationStates RPs must have NationStates relevance.

From what I've read of the thread that's been questioned (the first one), it's just WH40K fan-fic. It has nothing about it that marks it as an NS roleplay; the NS nations' names are just sticky labels whacked onto WH40K figurines.

The other two threads involve nations with clearly established NS existences (and I don't mean in terms of how long they've been here). Despite whatever borrowings individual players have performed from other fictional worlds, their nations' backstories are integrated into the NS multiverse.

(Dunno if that's the sort of thing you were getting at, Euro, but that's how I understood the question.)

I see no problem with the "NS only" rule. It should be easy to create a "Heroes" (or anything else) RP with the characters coming from NS nations.

It's never been required before that an RP has something to do with NS, so why is it all of a sudden required. Yes this is the NS board, but we've never required that rp's be focused around ones nation before. <snip> I find it interesting that all of a sudden that it's verboten.

It's been around for a while, even before the Scolo thread I quoted. I think it's just more difficult to apply to character RPs because of the wide variety of citizens most of us have in our nations and puppets -- for example, you, somewhere in your RPd universe, have people with psychic powers. I, somewhere in mine, have people with psychic potential. We could both take part in an RP set in something closely resembling Marion Zimmer Bradley's Darkover canon, but written according to our NS nations' differing characteristics.

But people can't just adopt an author's created universe as is, unchanged, and write fanfic on NS. Some authors don't like fanfic in their canon and they, or their estate, pursue offenders. However, even we supernally gifted-and-talented mods don't know every author's views on the subject, and, likewise, don't read every RP. Players police each other and the subject recurs every now and again when someone finds a particular example they consider beyond acceptable bounds.

Then a mod is asked to make a ruling and the excreta hits the temperature control device.:tongue:

It's never been required before that an RP has something to do with NS, so why is it all of a sudden required. Yes this is the NS board, but we've never required that rp's be focused around ones nation before.

I have run numerous rp's in the past, popular ones with sequals and many of them have had nothing to do with NS, and none of the mods have ever said word one to me about them. Hot Rodias Saloon story was nothing to do with NS, IIRC and no one censured him. I can easily name a dozen or two others that I have participated in that have had nothing to do with NS.

I find it interesting that all of a sudden that it's verboten.

This sort of thing has been against the rules for some time now. Check this thread: http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=528525. Date poste: 30-05-2007, 16:20

I would suggest keeping your eyes on the stickies.

Seems to me Scolopendra's thread (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=528525&page=9) on Alternate History threads has set a precedent.

(my emphasis)

Substitute "Warhammer 40K" for "Real Earth" throughout, and you get a situation where RPing in a WH40K universe would be okay, provided that it was played with your NS nation being visibly outside of, or altering, the WH40K canon.

For example, your NS nation might have a religion that preaches that aliens are always superior to humans. I think you could then legally RP the effects on your nation of encountering 40K's Imperial Church, which swings the other way. But NationStates RPs must have NationStates relevance.

From what I've read of the thread that's been questioned (the first one), it's just WH40K fan-fic. It has nothing about it that marks it as an NS roleplay; the NS nations' names are just sticky labels whacked onto WH40K figurines.

The other two threads involve nations with clearly established NS existences (and I don't mean in terms of how long they've been here). Despite whatever borrowings individual players have performed from other fictional worlds, their nations' backstories are integrated into the NS multiverse.

(Dunno if that's the sort of thing you were getting at, Euro, but that's how I understood the question.)

Precisely.

I'm not trying to be funny or mean here, but using the Voice of Experience:

My very first experiences RPing online was at White Wolf's site -- a group of us who met online on their forums started a cross-game RP campaign which included Hunters, Kindred, Garou, Changelings, Mages, Mummies and Wraiths -- but because they did not want a cross-game RP (who knows why?) we were told to stop and had our thread closed.

We still frequented White Wolf for discussions on rules and various tidbits about each game, but we started our own RP site where we could RP what we pleased without giving the moderators of the official site a heart attack and without getting pissed about being shut down every time they noticed us doing an unsanctioned RP.

I am sure there must be Heroes sites that would be glad to have you -- or you can go to Invision, Proboards, or wherever else you please to make a free TV/Literature/Non-NS RP Game site, in just the same way as some of you have created amazing regional forums off-site.

Please -- your Nationstates RPs here of course may be about characters from your nations, but they should have a world-wide political/military scope rather than individual.

I'm trying to make sure I understand what is apparently implied by this last sentence:

Please -- your Nationstates RPs here of course may be about characters from your nations, but they should have a world-wide political/military scope rather than individual.


Are you saying no more character RP's? So only war and politics are allowed?

And yes that is a bitchy question - but I'm going to point out that any number of character rps are currently going on that have little to nothing to do with politics or wars and it's never been a problem before.

Character RPs are still allowed.

And yes that is a bitchy question

IC:*the cat Seklh, upset by Elvii, scratches Tanaara*/IC

... but I'm going to point out that any number of character rps are currently going on that have little to nothing to do with politics or wars and it's never been a problem before.

It's not a problem now. Politics and wars still go on in the background of people's lives, no matter what personal dramas or adventures they're involved in -- like someone in Denver being late/early for work, ruining/enhancing their love life, staying alive or dying last week because the security arrangements for the Democrats' convention affected traffic flow.

I think it comes down to what balance there is between the background and the foreground -- your nation's "NS-ness" has to be visible, even if not prominent.

EDIT: Yeah, Tsar got it superbly. Tsar conquers the Gordian knot!

So, hypothetically speaking, if your nation is based off of humans and one day you suddenly acquire a vampire and sent it to some land you never even knew about before then that sort of RP would be not allowed since it's largely unrelated to your NS nation, correct?

Okay, thanks.

So, hypothetically speaking, if your nation is based off of humans and one day you suddenly acquire a vampire and sent it to some land you never even knew about before then that sort of RP would be not allowed since it's largely unrelated to your NS nation, correct?

You're overthinking this. You can have an entire nation of vampires if you want. What you can't do is say "Who wants a Castlevania RP, I'll be Dracula after his umpteenth resurrection" and change nothing; because a Castlevania RP could take place on any forum (the same goes for WWII RPs, WH40K RPs, or whatnot). If Dracula had landed the Spirit of Whitby on the shores of your nation in the 1890s, starting a reign of terror and people on spikes, that would be different (and awesome).