Nation RPs are becoming more of a thing, it seems, but I've never been intrigued by the over complicated mechanics that go into most of them; so this one is made with simplicity in mind, and it's something to help participants pass the time as a little side-project. It is, by no means, a full-blown RP that would consume your time.
The inspiration for this comes from NationStates, an online nation game created by satirist Max Barry. While the conflicts and scenarios spotlighted in this RP won't necessarily be of a satirical nature, they will--more or less--be constructed and presented in similar fashion to NationStates.
In the not-quite-so-distant future, humans expanded into the cosmos to begin colonizing other worlds. In a remote system on the verge of explored space, a new garden planet was discovered with gravity and atmosphere similar to Earth's. However, most of the surface is actually one giant ocean, with islands (big and small) scattered across the globe. These plots of land became independent colonies of the settling travelers that made this new planet their home.
The inspiration for this comes from NationStates, an online nation game created by satirist Max Barry. While the conflicts and scenarios spotlighted in this RP won't necessarily be of a satirical nature, they will--more or less--be constructed and presented in similar fashion to NationStates.
A Brief Overview
In the not-quite-so-distant future, humans expanded into the cosmos to begin colonizing other worlds. In a remote system on the verge of explored space, a new garden planet was discovered with gravity and atmosphere similar to Earth's. However, most of the surface is actually one giant ocean, with islands (big and small) scattered across the globe. These plots of land became independent colonies of the settling travelers that made this new planet their home.
Making Your Nation
To get started, your colonists will need to claim one of the planet’s many islands to call home. All settlements and colonies are independent of one another, effectively their own sovereign nations. For the moment, there are no higher factions that they can align themselves with, so we’ll assume all are fully autonomous and can freely make their own decisions about how they are to govern themselves (else, what’s the point of this fun little simulation, eh?).
Head over to this website to begin generating your island. You’ll want to click the “Random” button in the upper-right to change through the seeds, or you can try tinkering with it manually to see what you get. I recommend leaving the other settings as they are. Click the PNG button at the bottom of the settings to save a copy of the map on your computer. Then just upload it and paste it into your National Almanac Data (below).
Use the following BBCode for your National Almanac Data. You’ll want to remove the periods (.) from the HR/line break tags. The code script still generates line breaks, so I had to purposefully escape them. Finally, when inserting the image of your nation, I recommend resizing it to 600x600 pixels, or putting it in a spoiler.
When you're all set, you are welcome to post your nation in the Characters tab above. You can continue to update the almanac data as we progress through the RP.
Head over to this website to begin generating your island. You’ll want to click the “Random” button in the upper-right to change through the seeds, or you can try tinkering with it manually to see what you get. I recommend leaving the other settings as they are. Click the PNG button at the bottom of the settings to save a copy of the map on your computer. Then just upload it and paste it into your National Almanac Data (below).
If you have GIMP or Photoshop (or even something as simple as Paint) and would like to designate cities or regions, or do other things to your map, you are absolutely encouraged to! You might even try to turn it into a desert island by recoloring the entire map or find other ways to make it unique.
Use the following BBCode for your National Almanac Data. You’ll want to remove the periods (.) from the HR/line break tags. The code script still generates line breaks, so I had to purposefully escape them. Finally, when inserting the image of your nation, I recommend resizing it to 600x600 pixels, or putting it in a spoiler.
[center][h2]Insert Nation’s Name Here[/h2]
[i]Insert National Motto Here[/i][.hr][.hr][img]Insert your map’s direct image url[/img][.hr][.hr][/center]
[b]Type of Government:[/b]
[b]Type of Economy:[/b]
[b]Current Leader’s Title & Name:[/b]
[b]Dominant Languages:[/b]
[b]Dominant Religions:[/b]
[b]Notable Exports:[/b]
[b]Brief Description:[/b] (put a paragraph or two here describing your nation -- include things like geography, culture, etc.)
[b]Top 3 Recent Headlines:[/b] (you can frequently update this section with three quick snippets of major news that has happened in your nation)
[indent]--
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[/indent]When you're all set, you are welcome to post your nation in the Characters tab above. You can continue to update the almanac data as we progress through the RP.
Political Influence Points
The game is played by simply making decisions using "Political Influence Points" (PIP, for short). Each decision made earns you 1 PIP and cost no PIP; but, at the same time, decisions require a minimum amount of PIP (basically, the tougher the problem, the more influence you require in order to resolve it). At the start, a new nation has 1 PIP and they can earn up to a maximum of 12. When problems demand the player to make a call, they will have a set amount of choices.
The nature of the responses will either be “Authoritarian” vs “Libertarian” (Social), or “Left” vs “Right” (Economics). Thus, we’ll be using the Crowd Chart from “The Political Compass” to determine a nation’s standing (more on that below).
Most situations only have two or three choices, while other issues may offer some more freedom.
The nature of the responses will either be “Authoritarian” vs “Libertarian” (Social), or “Left” vs “Right” (Economics). Thus, we’ll be using the Crowd Chart from “The Political Compass” to determine a nation’s standing (more on that below).
Most situations only have two or three choices, while other issues may offer some more freedom.
Viva la Revolución!
If, at any point, the player is no longer satisfied with their nation's standing, they can initiate a revolution. Revolutions reset a nation's PIP to 1, and all decisions to situations that arose before are null and void. Thus, if you're no longer content with your fascist dictatorship or have grown bored with your hippie paradise, you can wipe the slate clean and try something new.
Political Standing
Many situations will always be available to tackle, so long as your nation meets the PIP requirement. Others are only available within a set time frame (determined by the gravity of the situation at hand). Situations don't have to be addressed, however. If no choice is picked, your nation will incur no consequence and its standing will remain unchanged.
A nation's standing is its overall style of governing, based on the decisions it has made in response to situations. A new nation that hasn't responded to a situation (or a recently revolutionized nation) is considered to have a "balanced" government. Standing is determined following a confirmed decision and calculated by points assigned to the choices you've made up to that moment.
Points are assigned to determine where on the political Crowd Chart your nation falls in its political standing. “Authoritarian” vs “Libertarian” (defining social politics) is shown via the Y-axis, while “Left” vs “Right” (defining economic politics) is shown via the X-axis.
When a choice is picked, points are awarded to one (or two) of those criteria and your nation’s standing will adjust on the flow chart according to the total points accumulated since you started (or had a revolution). Keeping track of your points is the PLAYER’S RESPONSIBILITY, NOT MINE. You’ll also need some basic math skills, as picking an option that puts you “5 pts left” and then another option later on that puts you “2 pts right”, will actually have your nation end up standing “3 pts left” on the chart (assuming this example started at 0, in the center).
For easy visualization, you can use Political Compass’s “Build Your Own Chart” form on this web page: (politicalcompass.org/crowdchart?showform). If you’re using that form, you’re plugging in the total amount of points you’ve calculated after all decisions in each field. The “Name” field can be the name of your nation, of course. Remember, “Economic” is the X-axis, and “Social” is the Y-axis. Points to the right/up are positive (i.e. +5), while points to the left/down are negative (i.e. -5). You can paste a screenshot of this chart at the bottom of your posts to provide a continuous visual update of your nation’s standing.
Example of a Crowd Chart with a nation's total standing below:
A nation's standing is its overall style of governing, based on the decisions it has made in response to situations. A new nation that hasn't responded to a situation (or a recently revolutionized nation) is considered to have a "balanced" government. Standing is determined following a confirmed decision and calculated by points assigned to the choices you've made up to that moment.
Points are assigned to determine where on the political Crowd Chart your nation falls in its political standing. “Authoritarian” vs “Libertarian” (defining social politics) is shown via the Y-axis, while “Left” vs “Right” (defining economic politics) is shown via the X-axis.
When a choice is picked, points are awarded to one (or two) of those criteria and your nation’s standing will adjust on the flow chart according to the total points accumulated since you started (or had a revolution). Keeping track of your points is the PLAYER’S RESPONSIBILITY, NOT MINE. You’ll also need some basic math skills, as picking an option that puts you “5 pts left” and then another option later on that puts you “2 pts right”, will actually have your nation end up standing “3 pts left” on the chart (assuming this example started at 0, in the center).
For easy visualization, you can use Political Compass’s “Build Your Own Chart” form on this web page: (politicalcompass.org/crowdchart?showform). If you’re using that form, you’re plugging in the total amount of points you’ve calculated after all decisions in each field. The “Name” field can be the name of your nation, of course. Remember, “Economic” is the X-axis, and “Social” is the Y-axis. Points to the right/up are positive (i.e. +5), while points to the left/down are negative (i.e. -5). You can paste a screenshot of this chart at the bottom of your posts to provide a continuous visual update of your nation’s standing.
Example of a Crowd Chart with a nation's total standing below:
Invoke the Powah!
When players choose to respond to situations, they have the opportunity to play out their government's choice in two parts:
1.) The official declaration of the decision itself (i.e. a presidential press conference, or a crowd-stirring speech) -- In the form of a post that declares the player's action of choosing an available response
2.) The fallout of their decision (i.e. a news story about riots in the streets, or a dramatic change in the nation's GDP) -- In the form of a follow-up post no sooner than 24 hours (real time) later.
1.) The official declaration of the decision itself (i.e. a presidential press conference, or a crowd-stirring speech) -- In the form of a post that declares the player's action of choosing an available response
2.) The fallout of their decision (i.e. a news story about riots in the streets, or a dramatic change in the nation's GDP) -- In the form of a follow-up post no sooner than 24 hours (real time) later.
War!
As of right now, I don't have a solid plan for integrating a fair war system into the game. This is just a relaxing RP that you can do on the side whenever you get time in between the other RPs you might have going on here. However, I'll work on coming up with a system we can use in the future for acting out conflicts between the island nations.
