Game Rules

[PresidentDavid]

GAME RULES

Introduction
Before reading the rules page, be sure to read the game Charter which outlines how the game works, how the GM team is allowed to moderate, and the rights and responsibilities of the players. Reading the Charter is crucial because the Game Rules compliment the Charter, and are based around what is written within it.

Part 1 Starting Out
This Part of the rules is in place to direct players on properly founding their nation both In-Character (IC) and Out of Character (OOC).

Section 1 Territory Claim
The first decision that new and old players must make when founding a new nation is their territorial borders. Once set, this territory and all living things living on and in it will belong to the player. Claimed territory includes: land, lakes, rivers, and inland seas (bodies of water must be totally encompassed by a player’s territory for all of it to belong to a player). Players are given great liberty in choosing where they want to found their nation and RP, however size is a limiting-factor. To be clear, players may draw custom borders (like using rivers or longitude and latitude) but it is generally suggested to try to pick counties/provinces of existing nations, existing nations, or unique combinations.

Initial land claims are up to the discretion of the GM team.; however, there should be a specific GM that is delegated to normally approving/disapproving land-claims. If you are unsure how much territory you may claim for your new nation, you can either ask the appropriate GM on IRC, or simply request the land you want in the map-thread, and you will be corrected if your claim is too big. The GMs are required to keep claims from being too large.

Nations may not be founded in Antarctica, and players can only claim some outlying islands that are habitable. Players are free to, however, later RP the setting up of research stations.

Section 2 Factbook
After players choose their territory, they must then create a Factbook for their nation which includes basic information about their government, economy, and people. A factbook template is https://nationrp.rpg-board.net/t16-factbook-template to provide a strong-guideline of what is expected.

Section 3 Declaration of Existence
After creating a Factbook and having it approved by a GM, a player make post their Declaration of Existence (DoE). When a player posts his DoE, that is when the territory he chose officially becomes his – not when he makes the territory claim or posts his factbook, but when he makes his DoE. The DoE should be in the DoE part of the forums, and should be some type of message to the world which literally declares your nation’s existence. Beyond that, be as creative and colorful, or as dark and scary, as you like.

Part 2 Time

Section 1 Time Conversion
In-Game (IG) time and RL time do not move together. For every one month of RL time, one year passes by in IG time. This does not mean, however, that one RL hour equals 12 IG hours. Players are largely free to RP their timescales under the one-month period. This means that someone can RP a ship going from London to Beijing in one post. That being said, this liberty only applies to posts which do not involve conflict. When it comes to wars, or acts of war, a player cannot movie a carrier fleet from one side of the Earth to the other in a matter of RL minutes.

Section 2 Vacation Mode
If a player is going on a vacation or trip, or has personal matters to deal with, then he may declare that his nation is in vacation mode in the "Vacation Mode" thread. While in vacation mode, the player may not post ICly. When a player is in vacation mode, no other nations may declare war on him. Players who are in a war may enter vacation mode, but this is not a permanent solution to avoiding war, and should not be abused to try to do such.

Section 3 Inactivity and "Wiping" From The Map
If a player is inactive (not posting ICly for twenty days) then their nation is wiped from the game. This means that they lose the right to roleplay in that territory, and also lose control of all living and non-living things within that region. From the moment the twenty-day mark passes, that territory is open for new players to roll into, or for old players to re-roll to.

Section 4 In Times of War
In times of war, timelines may become confusing because of how long it can take for both sides to post responses. For example, if players A and B are fighting a war, and player C founds a nation bordering both of them a RL month after their war began, player C may not participate in the war because the time that the war is taking place is likely before his nation was even founded. However, if a new nation is created before a new month begins, they may interact in the war. The GM who is moderating the war can answer detailed questions and specifics on this matter.

Part 3 War

Section 1 How to Enter a War
War does not have to be consensual. A player may ICly declare war on another player either formally, or by launching an attack, without warning. They must, however, have actual IC justification. For example, a player roleplaying as The Republic of Alaska may not declare war on a nation RPing as The Kingdom of New Zealand if the two players have never made contact, interacted, or if there is no backstory RP done beforehand showing some IC reason as to why Alaska would want to invade New Zealand. This could be done, however, if the player RPing Alaska could produce RP showing that his government’s actions were not without warrant.

Section 2 How to Fight a War
Fighting a war is the hardest part of this game. Players who are fighting for control of their territory must cooperate with each other OOC in order to make progress. Wars function like so: attacker starts thread and posts initial warpost, defender responds with appropriate measures and posts casualties and tries to launch a counter-attack, attacker posts casualties and continues the fight, etc. This process can feel tedious, and can take a long time if done between the wrong people, so be careful when you declare a war, and know what you are getting yourself into. It could be the end of your nation as you know it.

Section 3 War Morderation
Under normal circumstances, a GM will be chosen to moderate the war between you and your enemy. In a perfect world, the GM would never have to do anything, however you are likely to get in arguments with your opponent on how many casualties you have suffered, or if a specific scenario is possible: that is where the GM comes in. He is the decider, and what he says goes. In extraordinary circumstances, you may appeal the decision of your war GM to the GM Council, called The Core Council. Appeals like this should be done very sparingly, and only when a player feels that he has been judged very unfairly.

Section 4 Occupation
If a player takes over another player’s territory, destroys his government, and kills his military, he may have won the war, but that didn’t mean he won hearts and minds. Even if Player A takes over part of or all of Player B’s nation, Player B still retains control over all of the original civilians living in his territory.
What this means is that a player may roleplay an unruly populace that constantly engages in riots or small rebellions in the region they control. These rebellions should be made up of civilians with low-morale and relatively low-organization, but they can be heavily armed if a player took the time before the war to cache weapons around their nations for citizens to use, or if the player RPed a nation that encouraged/allowed citizens to keep and bear arms.

If, however, the occupied player decides to reroll to another nation, than the invader gets full control of that region and all of the civilians in it. While these scenarios sound bloody and not fun, players taken over by others may later decide they like their captors, and may want to RP a merged nation together, which makes them very powerful on the international stage politically, and militarily.

Section 5 Auto-Advance
If a player does not respond to his opponent's war post after fourteen days, then his opponent may request an auto-advance on him. This means that the player effectively skips his turn, and his opponent is allowed to post again, typically giving him a significant advantage, because he can impose more casualties while taking little himself.

Part 4 Espionage

Section 1 Order of Operations
Spying is simple, but involves careful roleplay - it is not for people who like to write little or do not care for detail, because details and specifics are a player's best friend for espionage and counter-espionage. First, a player who wishes to spy will post a single, detailed post of what the goal of their spy is. He will also write what actions they take, and how they try to infiltrate their enemy's nation and military industrial complex, or whatever organization they wish to gather intel from. Then, the defending nation will write a detailed post and try to attempt counter-espionage using already-existing systems and units in their country. If they were not prepared enough for a spy, then they likely will not be able to stop them from stealing information. A designated Spy GM will decide how much intelligence the player receives, or if they are discovered, and if the defending nation will discover what nation he hails from.

Part 5 Mergers

Section 1 Parameters of a Merger Nation
Mergers may take place between two or more willing players. They may either unite adjoining territory (or nearby territory, in the case of islands) or one player may enter into an already-created nation and begin roleplaying. It is up to the players how they roleplay their merged nation, and who gets to RP what aspects such as internal government and foreign affairs. That being said, a merger cannot be a "warm-body" situation where one player is very active, and another play rarely posts in order to avoid inactivity, but not really play the game. Players must also decide who controls which civilians in what parts of the country, because they both cannot roleplay all of them.

Section 2 Control of The Military
While players are given great liberty in dividing who roleplays what aspects of the nation, this is not true for the military. In times of war, each player must post the movements and actions of their own troops. For example, if players A and B both roleplay The Empire of Japan, and each player has X military points, then they must RP their own points. This does not mean they have to ICly act as if their units are in separate militaries, it simply means they must post their own war posts.

Section 3 Ending a Merger
Ending a merger can go one of three ways. One: The other players in the merger go inactive, and only one person remains to RP the nation. Two: The players decide to stop RPing as a merger, and either reroll, or carve up the nation into smaller, independent nations. Three: A civil war erupts between the players. In scenario three, they use their armed forces to either invade each other, or hold their own ground.[/b]

Part 6 Annexation

Section 1 Eligible Territory
A player's nation may annex territory that is not officially part of another nation. The general term for this land is "White Space" because it is white on the map, which denotes that it is available to be claimed. The white space that a nation wishes to annex should be bordering, or extremely close to it. However, exceptions can be made, for example: Republic of California could annex Hawaii, or Kingdom of France could annex the Falkland Islands.

Section 2 How to Annex
Once a player finds suitable territory, they may start the process of annexation by posting a thread in the "Annexations" section of the forum. In that thread, they will need to write and post five original, unique, and detailed posts on how their government/military is annexing the territory. These posts can be character roleplay of leaders discussing and implementing strategy, a first-person account of soldiers invading the territory to-be annexed, or another relevant perspective. These five posts must be at least twenty-four hours apart; however, a player only has ten days to annex a territory after they make their initial post, after which, their annexation is considered a failure.

Section 3 Resistance to Annexation
If a player is annexing adjacent territory which is culturally similar and was historically a part of their nation, then they will not face resistance. If a player is annexing a faraway, sparsely populated island, they will face no resistance. If a player attempts to annex a faraway land that would be considered a colony in the real world - or a nearby territory that has strong cultural dissimilarities - then they will face resistance. Examples of this would be France trying to annex New Orleans, or China trying to annex Japan. Resistance will be roleplayed by a GM who will be allocated a reasonable amount of military points to fight off the invaders by the GM team. This process may take more than five posts to complete, but the GM fighting the resistance should be as speedy as possible.

Section 4 Outside Influence
If another player ICly sends a sizable number of troops to counter/disrupt the annexation, then the player will have his annexation frozen and will have to either fight off the outside influence, or withdraw from the territory. In this scenario, the annexation will not be considered a failure after ten days. If the other play manages to repel the initial annexation, then they may begin their own annexation of the territory, or leave it.

Part 7 Respecting RP History

Section 1 Roleplay History
This rule is in place to have a minimal amount of consistency in the world. New nations who replace old nations must acknowledge their past and recognize the actions of the previous player as canon (legitimate). This does not prevent someone from RPing a fairytale kingdom where a former communist dictatorship was, but they must RP how some kind of transformation took place.

Part 8 Realism

Section 1 Restrictions on Fantasy
The goal of this rule is not to stifle creativity, but to prevent someone from using dragons to defeat nuclear weapons. Players may roleplay the existence of pagan gods, fairies, sea-monsters, or even aliens if they wish, but they can't use such things in wars or derive any special powers from them. They must also RP them in such a way that they aren't the central theme of their nation. For example, if a player RPs a nation where dragons exist, he may RP them as some mystical creatures worshiped by the people, but he may not RP them as the leaders or soldiers of the nation. The goal should be to RP them so that other players may easily dismiss their existence. However, when it comes to character-RP, this rule is more relaxed. For example, a player who RPs The Kingdom of Greece may do a character roleplay where his King visits Olympus and talks with Zeus. Players may not use unrealistic fantasy/mythology to find out other players' private internal information.

Part 8 Weapons of Mass Destruction

Section 1 Use of Chemical Weapons
Weapons of mass destruction include chemical weapons and nuclear weapons. There are no biological weapons. These weapons have the potential to destroy vast amounts of civilians, military units, and infrastructure. The use of WMDs is not a decision that should be taken lightly, and should only be used in the most desperate of situations. Chemical weapons can be used in war, but the designated war moderator will be the deciding factor if someone attempts to use them on major population centers. Such actions would rarely ever be taken by actual national-governments, and would have dire consequences for them even if they were winning the war they were fight.

Section 2 Use of Nuclear Weapons
Nuclear weapons, however, may not be as liberally used as other WMDs. With having the most powerful weapons on Earth in one's arsenal comes immense responsibility. A nuclear attack on another play could set off a global nuclear war. Also, nuclear weapons should not just be used on-the-fly. In the real world, they have only been used twice in war, and for very good reason - they destroy everything for miles, can kill millions, and can permanently ruin territory for habitation. For these combined reasons, the use of nuclear weapons requires the approval of the War GM and of the Core Council. If used offensively, or even defensively, the deployment of nuclear weapons can create a lasting reputation on a nation ICly, and a player OOCly.

Part 9 Points

Section 1 Points System
The points system is a mandatory feature of the game. Every nation gets 350 points from the start.

Points Spreadsheet https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1aXKWIGpjt3K9ICxHGEXsxNtaodLp4u8zWi9nbIYurzw/edit?usp=sharing

Spoiler:

Section 2
Players may earn up to five additional points every RL month. Players earn these points through good roleplay. On the last day of each month, a member of the GM team is to create a thread requesting players to submit roleplay that they would like judged. The GM will asses all of the roleplay for each player, and based on his opinion, will hand out points for effort, amount written, and creativity.

Part 10 Custom Technology

Section 1 What it Is
Custom-Tech is realistic, functional equipment or vehicles that one would use in the battlefield or for espionage. Players may create and use custom-tech, but it must first be described and registered with the Custom-Tech Committee, and then approved by them. Custom-technology cannot be used to create futuristic weapons before their creation, and it should not be something beyond comprehension or unreasonable.