NationStates Jolt Archive

Hey there,
I've been going over these forums and marvelling on how much work some of you folks have put into your nations and the RP that follows.

I RP in MMO's and often write RP related stories and hope I can do so for my Nation here.

But I'm a bit fuzzy on how to justify a made-up nation in the world.

I originally envisioned the Costalane Commonwealth as a tropical island the size of Cuba... And having it 'evolve' like Cuba did... from liberal paradise, to police state, and ultimately to a world player, but not superpower (slowly over time with a very slow alteration of how I deal with issues). Do I just consider it an island in the Pacific someplace where there is no island in real life, or rather, it's where an island is in real life - but has a different name/culture?

Now, I did join the UN and hope to break away from it at some point far down the road.

My basic question is however...

Can someone give me some direction on fleshing out my country (things I should have and not have) and how I should present it to the 'world' and forum here in an RP sense. It's all so overwhelming. Or, point me to a 'how-to' or slap me silly and make me use the dreaded search option.

First off the thing is NS does not take place on earth, but rather in the NS world. For RPing, wait for your pop to build up, and don't say things like "I killed all of your men without a casualty" or anything else that constitutes as God Moding.

Ok, great... Makes it easier for me to make a map and come up with an overall attitude for the population in the future.

And /godmode? No thanks :p

I'm perfectly willing to lose. :D

If your looking for a region, mine is accepting new people. It's called Herak. Although its future tech, where space travel, and sci-fi type weapons are the norm.

Go to NSWiki (http://ns.goobergunch.net/wiki/index.php/Main_Page) and browse "Nations" or "Factbooks" for ideas on how others approach this.

Or Google the real-world site of any nation you want to model yours on and fiddle with the statistics (for example, one of my nations is, physically, the Australian state of Tasmania, halved, though its civilisation is decidedly different).

If you RP mainly in International Incidents other players will probably hold you closely to the population size, economy, etc, that NS gives you.

If you RP mainly in NationStates, your nation is largely whatever you say it is. The more you RP, the more details you will reveal about it. At some stage, it becomes a good idea to have a factbook or history so that other people's characters can react convincingly.

You don't have to stick to the one forum all the time. If you concentrate on individual characters you can usually fudge the stats. Just think it through: if your Ambassador has just run off with the Dictator's daughter, is it going to provoke a war between your countries (II) or a heart attack (NS) or a revolution (either) or just a snide comment in the Strangers' Bar (UN)?

Your NS country is a State of mind.