NationStates Jolt Archive

I have played NationStates for about three months, and I am just now venturing onto the forums. After browsing through several threads, I am really, really, really confused.

What's up with the International Incidents forum? It seems like a bunch of people playing out imaginary battles with few rules. How is it related to the NationStates online game? And what are the rules for these roleplays? Are people using their actual NationStates nation, or not?

Anyone want to clue me in?

I have played NationStates for about three months, and I am just now venturing onto the forums. After browsing through several threads, I am really, really, really confused.

What's up with the International Incidents forum? It seems like a bunch of people playing out imaginary battles with few rules. How is it related to the NationStates online game? And what are the rules for these roleplays? Are people using their actual NationStates nation, or not?

Anyone want to clue me in?


I think the general consensus is that the Nationstates forum is for more experienced roleplays, usually less battles and more character interaction. The International Incidents forum is the less "professional" forum (though some would disagree) and has (as far as I can tell) more battles than character interaction. I am not sure which forum has more people browsing it, but I would expect that I.I. does. You are already familiar with Gameplay, Technical is self explanitory, as is Moderation. General is where everone hangs out and argues over various subjects (usually focusing on evolution, religion, global warming and politics; even combinations of them... such as an evolving nazi who causes the world to heat up through prayer....)

What's up with the International Incidents forum? It seems like a bunch of people playing out imaginary battles with few rules. How is it related to the NationStates online game? And what are the rules for these roleplays? Are people using their actual NationStates nation, or not?
II is one of the roleplay forums, as you've already seen. As a rule it is for nation-based RPs—that is, role-playing as your NationStates nation, with that nation's stats, population, culture, etc. Many of the RPs in that forum are war RPs because so much of the NS population plays video games such as Age of Empires, Civilization, and so on and is used to military combat; or, alternately, simply enjoys using war as a vehicle to tell a story. II also contains some diplomacy RPs, factbooks, and even the odd character-based RP (such as one I'm currently in, The Sport of Nations (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=449577)).

Role-play in II is free-form, so there aren't too many rules. Just remember:

1) Godmodding is forbidden (an explanation of this none-so-rare phenomenon can be found here (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=367578)).

2) Puppet-wanking and statwanking are not appreciated. These terms refer to using other puppet nations to give yourself an advantage in war, and inflating your stats or using unrealistic stats (i.e. saying you have a "Powerhouse" economy when it's really just "Thriving" or creating a bomber that can fly at Mach 6 and shoot 400 missiles at once).

3) Do not use smilies in RP posts—your national leader is not probably going to send a diplomatic communiqué to his ally stating " :sniper "—or chatspeak (as in, the soldier guns down a tank single-handedly and then says "OMGWTFLOL i Pwn3z0r j00!!!11one", which you should consider yourself lucky if you can't read). You probably already knew this anyway...

4) Try to make detailed posts. I'm getting tired of people who have their RPs full of statements like
We formally offer military aid to Middle Snu. or The soldiers march across the border and attack your city. 200,000 people die.
Everyone would prefer
Official Encrypted Diplomatic Communiqué

Greetings! As a sovereign nation who has been similarly besieged by enemy troops in the past for exercising our right to play metal at 4 AM, we applaud your resistance to these tyrants and formally offer you military aid. Simply inform us where the best place will be to land our troops... ...and so on.

5) Don't RP with people of a different tech level. There are many different types of technology used by NS RPers: future tech, fantasy tech, modern tech, and so on. If you are a modern-tech nation (MT)—one set in the year, say, 1998—you probably shouldn't join future-tech RPs set around 2492. Again, this ought to be obvious.

Those are some of the conventions we'd appreciate that you follow... and welcome to the nuthouse, er, forums! ;)

Thanks for the answers. They've helped a lot. But really basic thing still bugs me: what does the game I have been playing have to do with all the rp that goes on here? For instance, Czardas said that saying you have a "powerhouse" economy when it's just "thriving" is poor form. But couldn't anyone look at my nation and see what the economy rating is?

People could, but they're not really inclined to. Get used to it, people are lazy. I have a feeling that people are going to mistake me for a n00b by looking at my post count and not my join date now... :p

Thus, if you say you have a "powerhouse" economy when you don't really, then the people who check and actually see what it is are not going to be very happy with you. It just means don't inflate your stats...

People could, but they're not really inclined to. Get used to it, people are lazy. I have a feeling that people are going to mistake me for a n00b by looking at my post count and not my join date now... :p

Thus, if you say you have a "powerhouse" economy when you don't really, then the people who check and actually see what it is are not going to be very happy with you. It just means don't inflate your stats...

Nah, you're not a n00b. There's this bloke called Czardas, though...

Anyway, I think the point is it's dangerous to wank very basic stats, simply because being called on it would be highly embarrassing.

EDIT: Holy shit, better just check you are actually Czardas. Didn't mean to flame him. You managed to get validated?

Nah, you're not a n00b. There's this bloke called Czardas, though...
You do read #themodcave on your off-hours, don't ya? ;P Anyway, I probably wouldn't want to collect a bad history with just 4 or so posts, so maybe let's quit hijacking now... ;)