General Roleplay Guidance

While everyone does have their own style that differentiates them from everyone else, there are still rules that need to be followed and things that all RPers are expected to know.

As such, below are a few general guidelines on good Roleplay practice. They are not specific to TCB, and relate to Roleplay in general within the nationstates environment:

1. Respect and Etiquette

A) Be curteous to your fellow RPers and try not to disrupt the RP as much as possible. If you'd like to discuss something concerning the RP, it's preferred to do so through private messages, or in a separate discussion and planning thread if one is available.

B) Posting OOC within an ongoing RP is fine, but try to keep it to a minimum, or try any incorporate it as part of your IC post.

C) If you plan on leaving an RP for whatever reason, please have the common courtesy to write yourself out of it, in character. This is important because if you didn't, anyone who had been interracting with you would be stuck because you failed to give them a reason, in character, to progress without you.

2. No Godmoding or Metagaming

This is regarded as the ultimate low in RPing and is not only disrespectful, but is also unfair.

A) Godmoding could entail either:
1) Controlling other people's assets or nations without permission.
2) Performing closed ended actions (ie, anything with a predetermined outcome that doesn't allow for a the target to react)
3) Creating a character/object/entity that is seemingly invincible and/or good at everything. Also known as the "Mary Sue effect".​
People are usually unaware of when they are godmodding, so veterans or staff will usually inform the godmodder of their activities in an attempt to bring it to light.

B) Metagaming, while similar, is a bit different. When someone metagames, they are reacting to events and characters using out of character knowledge.
Examples:
1) knowing details of another nation's state secrets, despite your nation never having made any attempt to steal them or having any prior knowledge about them.
2) knowing an opponent's next move by reading it in a post the owner of said enemy nation has made elsewhere/out of game.​
These are all things that you are not supposed to know in character. Therefore these things should not affect the way you RP and should have no bearing on your nation's actions - because your nation doesn't have any knowledge of them in game.

3. Basic English is Your Friend!

Proper grammar, spelling and punctuation are a very important part of RPing, not only as a way of better describing and communicating to other people your intentions in a post, but also as a way of improving your language skills.
RPing can be a fun and educational exercise and all we ask is that people glance over their posts and make sure they're clearly legible before replying.

4. Content is More Important Than Volume

A) Players don't expect to see a four page English essay for a post, but at the same time, they don't want to see one composed of one or two sentences.

B) The content of your posts is the most important thing, as it shows your nation reacting to world events, other nations and interracting with its neighbours in as realistic a manner as possible within the constraints of your nation's character and/or culture.

C) It's important to put some effort into your posts -this goes a long way to make them believable and a lot easier to understand and react to. If your posts don't convey much then you shouldn't really expect people to take you very seriously in an RP.

5. Be Reasonable and Realistic

A) Consider The RP setting; if the RP is basically a modern one with some sci-fi elements, then feel free to employ suitable technology levels - say, for example in the way of space exploration capabilities - Consider it to be near future. Conversely, if the setting is world war one, introducing nuclear powered submarines with ICBM's would be completely unsuitable.

B) This does not mean anything goes; it's sort of a prerequisit for things to make sense before going through - consider cause and effect.

C) We don't want to limit the amount of fun people have here, but there are some things that won't be tolerated, because they just don't make enough sense to exist within our universe. Unless you can plausibly explain how things exist within our setting, then they probably won't be tolerated.

D) A good example of this is having some kind of anthropomorphic animal character present in your nation; unless you can provide a sensible example as to how this creature exists other than "they're just there", then it's unacceptable. Saying they're artificially created lifeforms , or a type of transhuman, or are from an alien planet or even from an alternate dimension or reality are reasonable explanations for how this character can exist.

6. There is No Monopoly On Things

While the entire RPing world is free reign for the most part, people can dictate certain aspects of it for themselves, such as events within their own borders. This, however, does not mean they have some kind of monopoly on something. If one RPer created a race of demons, it does not mean another RPer can't have his own race of demons that are completely unrelated to the former's. This example could easily be explained as each race existing on a different plane, so it's not all that ridiculous to imagine.

7. Every Action Has a Reaction

While it's easy to disregard things in an RP setting, it still remains that everything you do will have a consequence or effect on the world and characters around you. That being said, RPing with a modest amount of realism is advisable considering it wouldn't be right for someone to, say, blow up The White House and expect to walk around the streets Washington DC as if nothing happened. In fact, an action like that could very well cost a character the ability to even function in society at all, meaning they probably could never be seen out in public without illiciting a negative reaction. We don't RP in a comic book setting, at least, not one that doesn't attempt to function like the real world would, so just try to remember that and be mindful of what you decide to do in character.

8. Detailed Nation Profiles Are Important!

A) Since you will be using your nation prominently when RPing, it's important for you to outline who they are and what they are capable of doing, by way of your nation profile.

B) This is important as it allows you to clearly outline where your nation stands in the world, and helps other people to know what they're reacting to when presented with an action by you nation.
This also helps prevent godmodding in that RPers will know (out of character of course) what your nation is capable of doing and what they are not capable of doing. .

9. Finish What You Started

A) Since RPing is a collaborative experience and one where everyone benefits, then it's important to remember that getting involved in a scenario means that the event was something everyone's nation experienced.
If the scenario never reaches a conclusion, then that means that everything that had happened was effectively lost or wasted - something that is grossly unfair to the participants.

B) When people join an RP, they are excited about the prospect and begin formulating ways in which they can take part in the plot. When an RP dies due to inactivity, or due to the creator's own carelessness, then it only serves to demotivate people from RPing altogether, especially if this becomes a regular occurance. In short, if you happen to start an RP scenario, have a good idea of where you want to go with it and make sure you see it to it's finale.

10. Terminology

For those new to RPing, there's quite a bit of terminology you might see being thrown around. Here's a small list of some of the more common terms:

Roleplay (RP): A game in which a person takes on the role of a nation, character, or characters, and acts out a story, scenario or battle. Think of it as collaborative storywriting with other people.

Nation: The player's "character" as used in the RP. Character profiles can be found in the Nation Profiles & Factbook section of the nation RP section.

Out of Character (OOC): Talk between RPers when they are speaking as themselves and not the characters they play. Examples of how one can differentiate this between other RP text are (paranthesis), or ((double paranthesis)), or preceeded by "OOC".

In Character (IC): Text used when RPing as your character/nation. Unless otherwise noted, all interaction within an RP post is assumed to be in character. Actions can be denoted using *stars*, **double stars**, or similar.

NS Stats: The Nation statistics and measurements system as employed by Nation States. It both facilitates ease of comparison between nations, and acts as a further check on unintentional god-modding. That said, you should feel free to deviate from them, if using your "official" ratings would not be conducive to role-play activities, or your style of play.

Thank-you for reading; now go out and have fun!