The Question about Nation RPs in terms what's the Nation Sheet includes?

[Landaus Five-One]

I have a question about the Nation RP Sheet for nations and etc.

What does it include?
What's the primary thing you should be focusing on?

I would love to have the Nation Sheet just for experimenting purposes. :)

[Vilageidiotx]

The most typical things are...

Name: United States of Touchurselfistan or Kingdom of Harry etc

Area: This could be a map, and probably should be in a fantasy world. Some maps are sections off so you just choose a section. Some people will just describe the area they mean. In a real world based RP you can just describe your borders by what real world nations or places are included in yours.

History: The nation equivalent of a Bio. I've always felt like this is the really important want since this is where you find out if the person apply understands what they are RPing, and it's the first time you get to see their writing ability in action.

...now, personally I don't think anything else is needed. Some people will put things like military strength or population on there, but honestly I've rarely seen that amount to much. I'm more into the "Less is more" rule.

To give you an example, here is the sheet for Precipice of War.

APPLICATION

This application format is for those looking to play as a nation or an sub-national organization/NGO (just flip "nation" for "Organization" to set aside that section of the app for the name/title).

Nation:
Leader:
History: (Four-five paragraphs if not more, otherwise I may not pay attention.)

[Landaus Five-One]

Anything else for the Nation Sheet besides those three?

Also thank you for replyin' so quickly.

[TheEvanCat]

Anything else for the Nation Sheet besides those three?

Also thank you for replyin' so quickly.

@Landaus Five-One

Nope. I agree with Vilage (but that's probably because I've been with PoW for like four or five years now) because that offers a lot of interpretation into how you can roll with things while at the same time streamlining the application process. You don't need your GDP or military personnel strength because that's really just useless info. If you're a small country, you'd be expected to have a smaller military or an RP reason for a strong military (I play Armenia, which is small with a proportionally very strong military because everyone is riding high on the nationalism/jingoism/"remove all the kebabs" train with a hint of oh-we-don't-like-to-mention-this-but-we're-horribly-in-debt-don't-tell-anyone-please.) That's just how it works.

[Landaus Five-One]

I guess this Sheet works with Space Empires or is there a different sheet for that? @TheEvanCat.

[Vilageidiotx]

Depends on the needs of your RP. If you have a map for a space rp, you'd need a way to divide it.

[Landaus Five-One]

Ah, okay. That's nice to know.

Thank you, guys who posted on this thread.

I guess there's a different kind of sheet for Corporations? >.>

[Dinh AaronMk]

Ah, okay. That's nice to know.

Thank you, guys who posted on this thread.

I guess there's a different kind of sheet for Corporations? >.>

@Landaus Five-One

It depends on what you think is best. Proprietor of PoW here by the way.

I've never saw it necessary to alter the nation format much when adapting it to corporations or NGOs. All that you'd need to do is make some small changes, like change "territory" to location of their headquarters and not expect anyone to post maps really.

[Landaus Five-One]

@Vilageidiotx I like your signature, it is kinda hilarious.

@Dinh AaronMk Ah, okay, that is somewhat different. That probably means the Nation RPs are more about the entire nation instead of the people who are apart of them.

[Shorticus]

This really depends on the NRP.

Myself, I think that lots of fluff CAN be a good thing for an NRP, especially a fantasy one, since it helps you think about the different things that make your nation distinct. Hell, in this one RP I've been participating in, States of Evolution, we spent two whole pages of the IC basically working together to craft a history of the world. We've also detailed stuff about our different species, different religions, etc. It's a ton of work, but it's a ton of fun, too.

However, not everyone goes into an RP wanting to write a ton of stuff JUST to get started on actually playing the game, so there's that.

The scope of the RP is important, too, both in time and scale. An NRP can be about warring tribes, or it can take place over the course of only a few years. In such a case, more emphasis on individual characters may help.

And then there are cooperative NRPs and pseudo-cooperative NRPs where you all play as a member of the same state. I can think of two NRPs that are currently running that fit this: The State and my roleplay, Masters of the Hidden Valley. In such a case, the GM makes the nation (or guides the process of its creation) while the players play members of it that can influence its fate. In such a situation, you need character biographies, not nation sheets.

Hopefully this helps.

[Landaus Five-One]

@Shorticus These are a lot of things to think about. I'll probably stick with the basics first mostly a non-nation role play right now since that does take a long time to build in terms of a NRP.

Even though I have much work to do with the Jaina'Res Multiverse/The Main Realm.

[Arawak]

It should include lore/fluff on the world your faction operates in and make some attempt at trying to fit into the setting. The primary thing to focus on is making your faction something that hasn't been done yet in the world or is "missing".

As said earlier more minimalist app sheets tend to work better since large app sheets with many parts to fill out can tax from the main purpose of app sheets, that being to see if your writing ability qualifies for the RP. The app sheet is also used to see if your nation concept fits into the world and rules the GM has laid out. The strictness varies, as NRP GMs tend to be rather laid back in practice since they want to try to get and retain as many players as they can to avoid their NRP dying. You really only have PoW, an NRP whose origins come from the sporum which only developed its quality after gaining a tight knit group of players as a NRP that lasts in the long term as it's the NRP they invested in most. One major aspect of PoW is that it has story arcs and characters that go outside the realm of 'hey guys we having a council meeting okay?' or 'oh look, a war', but this is only because it got past those phases and moved onwards to just having lots of absurd situations.

App creation wise I tend to prefer broad categories and the ability to submit multiple application sheets for separate subjects. The most often application being separating species and nation from each other due to my preference for common domain when it comes to fictional species. Separate sheets for NGOs I actually see as useful because a NGO may be based in multiple areas and have a set of relationships with other factions that is highly distinct from what a faction/nation/empire has with other factions/nations/empires. This is mainly because a NGO will have culture/beliefs that emerge from the empires/nations they originated in and be a product of said civilization's history regardless of their motive. With technology, I find that states are the best place for technology to be placed because it is usually a state where technological innovation occurs most. Organizations may make a state more innovative, but baseline tech usually is a product of government research while organizations iterate on what inventions the government has put the most funding in.
Here’s an example of what I mean:

Species

Name: Dogmen
Biology: They are like man and dog. They have to pant a lot, can't see color but are really strong.
Psychology: They like to be in packs more than alone and perceive smell as a whole language in of itself.
Other: I like dog.

State

Name: Dogtopia

History: Dogtopia was founded a century ago by the Alpha Dog who led its fellow dog to the promised lands free from the White Knights of Ozarlam. They spent seventy years in isolation from the rest of the world, but have experience a huge population explosion as the Alpha Dog became immortal and stated "we need more dogs". Since the Alpha Dog never said to stop, the dogpeople have been having regular orgies ever since to make more dogpeople. This has led to a famine, but it's one that the Alpha Dog seeks to address by expanding Dogtopia to new lands.

Culture/Beliefs: There is the Alpha Dog that all the dogs better follow (dissent leads to all sorts of humiliating punishments) who holds a cult of personality in all of dogtopia. The Alpha Dog says what goes and you better do wat Alpha Dog says or you get to go to the dog dungeon. There is ritual barking at the moon gods to give them more money once a month. They are a highly natalist culture and breeding is extremely valued beyond all else. They don't have marriage, instead you have collective raising of young and dogs specialized to producing milk for all the puppies.

Technology: They have mastered bone based weaponry, using hollow bones full of gun powder as grenades and have some of the most stylish armor in the world.

Relations: They hate the White Knights of Ozarlam, but love the Greyfolk Tribes.

Other:

Organization

Name: Milkmen

Base: Dogtopia

Information: The milkmen are a organization of dog people who go around the lands trying to get more milk for the puppies. They do this outside of the Alpha Dog, but the Alpha Dog didn't say they can't do it so it's fine. They are tolerated mostly because they reduce the effects of the famine but have a hard time finding things to barter from Dogtopia to get milk since the Alpha Dog doesn't want dogs being slaves anymore. So they end up having to trade bones for milk, although finding a way to get milk for bones is hard since only the Greyfolk Tribes value these bones and have lots of milk to trade. This worries the Milkmen since if they Greyfolk end up not liking Dogtopia anymore it will be bad news for the Alpha Dog and bad news for the Alpha Dog means lots of dogs in the dog dungeon.

Each application type emerges frm the previous. Species -> Faction -> Organization.

Basically I see a hierarchy when it comes to NRPs that goes as follows:

-World (setting the NRP takes place with all the guidelines and systems involved)
-Species (What species have emerged in said world? Generally you'll have something around human levels of intelligence.)
-Faction/Civilization/State (What societies have emerged from the sapient species on the world?)
-Organization (What organizations have emerged from the cultural beliefs of the societies developed by the inhabitants of said world?)

This hierarchy does not take into account pastoral nomads or tribal groups which can be considered organizations due to their lack of territory ownership (being nomads and all). This hierarchy applies to modern political NRPs too; the world is a modern day earth, the sapiens are human and the states include New Quebec (don't think about it). You could have a species without a faction or organization, but said species is probably a animal. You really can't have a space age tech species without a organization or faction unless they are animals that lived in space to begin with.

Individuals I do not count on this hierarchy because individuals are too diverse to fall into the hierarchy; they can be pretty much the product of anything that exists within the world.

[Landaus Five-One]

@Arawak Thank you for the in depth nation sheet. I have a lot of lore for the Jaina'Res Multiverse, I still have to flush out and etc.. World Building is a pain. lol