The Roleplay Chessboard | Constitution

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Czabalkia
Liberalina
Teymour
Val verde-

PREAMBLE

Since The Roleplay Chessboard was established on May 7th, 2020, we, the citizens of The Roleplay Chessboard, have dedicated ourselves to creating a fun, fair, realistic alternate history region with an active and dedicated playerbase. As the roleplayers and moderators of this region, we recognize that we are all teammates and friends and that none is more equal than the other. Additionally, we shall strive to create a region free of disputes, abuse, and hostilities.

We bind ourselves to the rules of this Constitution, that our region may be prosperous and successful, and we all find enjoyment from our shared regional experience, roleplay or otherwise.

SECTION 1. REGIONAL ADMINISTRATION

ARTICLE I. ATTAINING CITIZENSHIP
1. Any person who is not a citizen is considered an immigrant, and may attain citizenship.
2. Citizenship is defined as being an active member of our community within the regional roleplay.
2. The path to citizenship requires joining the Discord if possible, and submitting an application in according with Section 1, Article IV to the permanent moderator team.
3. Citizenship is lost if a player does not lodge a roleplay within a seven day period without forewarning, fails to upload upon being given an extended grace period by a mod after the seven day period, and goes inactive for more than five days in an OOC context.
4. Upon failing to upload during the extended grace period, the citizen's application is rendered null and their claim is considered unoccupied.
5. A citizen who has lost citizenship is liable to reattain citizenship if they submit another application.

ARTICLE II. DUTIES OF CITIZENSHIP
1. Citizens recognize that the duties beholden to citizenship must be respected, or else enforcement of the rules outlined in Section 1 Article I shall be enforced.
2. Per the application process, a new citizen who has just had their claim accepted or a citizen who has requested a new claim must post a roleplay within one day of the claim be accepted, or the claim will be null.
3. Citizens must remain active within the regional RP to maintain citizenship. One post every 10 is the required minimum for a primary count, 14 for secondary nations.
4. Citizens are recognized as representatives of The Roleplay Chessboard and are expected to act properly towards non-citizens of other regions.
5. The Roleplay Chessboard tolerates a player who is active in other regions, but a citizen of The Roleplay Chessboard is encouraged and expected to prioritize their citizenship in The Roleplay Chessboard.

ARTICLE III. RIGHTS OF CITIZENSHIP
1. Citizens are allowed to request a vacation time of extended tolerance towards inactivity by said player.
2. Vacation time shall only be granted when requested by a player if a player has met the 10 day activity limit three times.
3. Vacation time shall be granted regardless of other circumstances if the situation necessitating vacation is related to the player's health, the health of a player's family, or their living situation.
4. Citizens of The Roleplay Chessboard are not required to be members of the World Assembly.
5. Citizens of The Roleplay Chessboard are allowed to have multiple accounts within The Roleplay Chessboard provided the status of ownership is made clear to the regional government.

ARTICLE IV. APPLICATION
1. To attain citizenship, a prospective citizen must send an application for a spot on the map of The Roleplay Chessboard. This application must contain:

(a) Territory, the numbered spot or spots on the map desired to be occupied.
(b) History, providing an explanation for the current status of the territory.
(c) Resume, a link or links to previous roleplay conducted on the RMB or NationStates Forum if possible, or a statement making clear the player has not been involved in roleplay before coming to The Roleplay Chessboard.

2. The application must be telegrammed to the Cartographer, a Permanent Moderator, or posted in the Border Control Area of the Regional Discord Server to be validated and put up for vote.
3. The Permanent Moderators are entrusted with voting on all applications. A clear majority must be made in order to be passed and citizenship to be provided.
4. Citizens who wish to apply for a different spot than previously claimed must also put in an application, however, this will not effect their citizenship status.
5. If the Permanent Moderators come to a tie regarding an applicant's vote, the application is sent to the General Assembly. If the vote in the General Assembly does not come to a clear consensus, the application is sent to the Attorney General, who must either approve or deny the application.
6. Members of the Regional Government who are voting on a claim maintain the right to determine how they cast their vote based on:

(a) Plausibility and realism of the claim, with respect to alternative history
(b) Grammar, with consideration of language differences.
(c) Quality and length of the application, in regards to required detail to justify more nuanced and drastic changes

ARTICLE V. STRUCTURE OF GOVERNMENT
1. The Government of the Roleplay Chessboard is recognized as a democratic system.
2. The Executive Administration is recognized as being comprised of the Permanent Moderator Team.

(a) Permanent Moderators are recognized as founders of The Roleplay Chessboard and are given special status within the meta of the region due to this.
(b) Permanent Moderators are recognized as equal to all other citizens.
(c) A Permanent Moderator is entrusted with executive powers.
(d) A Permanent Moderator cannot be revoked of his position or his citizenship unless found guilty of treason or conspiracy against the region by the Attorney General and voted upon by the General Assembly.
(e) The Permanent Moderator Team has control over the approval of citizenship and applications.
(f) The Permanent Moderator Team is entrusted with the ability to amend the Constitution with the consensus of the General Assembly and the Attorney General.

3. The Regional Legislature is recognized as being comprised of the General Assembly.

(a) The General Assembly consists of five elected citizens.
(b) Terms in the General Assembly consist of thirty day periods, with elections every twenty five days. The five candidates who receive the most votes shall be promoted to the General Assembly.
(c) There are no term limits for membership in the General Assembly.
(d) The General Assembly is entrusted with the power to interpret the Regional Constitution as needed to enforce rules when Permanent Moderators are unable to perform this task, as needed.
(e) The General Assembly may propose an amendment of the Constitution or introduction of regional legislature.
(f) The General Assembly is entrusted with recruiting new members as allowed by on-site rules and within the terms and agreements of any off-site areas where they may recruit.
(g) A member of the General Assembly may motion for the removal of another member of the General Assembly, a Permanent Moderator, or the Attorney General with the support of two members of the General Assembly and three members of the Permanent Moderator Team, or one of the aforementioned along with the support of five citizens. In this event, a clear case must be made, and a vote be held among the General Assembly, the Permanent Moderators, and the citizenry, bar the accused.

4. The Regional Judiciary is recognized as being comprised of the Post of Attorney General.

(a) The Attorney General is a democratically elected position.
(b) The Attorney General is entrusted with oversight of the General Assembly and the Permanent Moderator team.
(c) The Attorney General serves for a duration of one hundred and eighty days, with an election every one hundred and seventy five.
(d) The Attorney General is required to select a Deputy Attorney General who shall replace him for the remainder of his term in the event of removal or resignation.
(e) The Attorney General may serve a total of three consecutive terms. If three consecutive terms have been served, the Attorney General shall be ineligible to run again for two terms.
(d) The Attorney General may motion for the removal of a Permanent Moderator or a member of the General Assembly with the support of three members of the General Assembly and three members of the Permanent Moderator Team, or one of the aforementioned along with the support of five citizens. In this event, a clear case must be made, and a vote be held among the General Assembly, the Permanent Moderators, and the citizenry, bar the accused.

5. Elections for the General Assembly and the Attorney General shall be open to all citizens besides the Permanent Moderators.
6. If a Permanent Moderator resigns, looses citizenship, or is removed from this position, it rests in the powers of the other Permanent Moderators and the Attorney General to choose a citizen to serve as his replacement based on merit, duration of stay in The Roleplay Chessboard, and activity.

ARTICLE VI. POWERS OF GOVERNMENT
1. The Permanent Moderators are responsible for approving all claims.
2. The Permanent Moderators are responsible for determining what is and is not godmod or unrealistic, in conjunction with the Attorney General.
3. The Permanent Moderators hold the power to, in a unanimous vote, dismiss a player from their spot due to inappropriate or otherwise unsportsmanlike conduct, failure to roleplay realistically, or for violating the Constitution.
4. The Permanent Moderators withhold the right to act above the provisions of the Constitution if necessary for the preservation of regional security and realism within the roleplay if the motion is unanimous and supported by the Attorney General, unless the decision is directly related to the Attorney General, in which case it requires a majority of support in the General Assembly.
5. The General Assembly is responsible for enforcing the Constitution within the Region and on Discord to assist the Permanent Moderators.
6. Members of the General Assembly are entitled to put forward law which shall consist of a vote by the General Assembly and the Permanent Moderators.
7. The Attorney General is allowed to investigate the Permanent Moderators and the General Assembly if a citizen or citizens make a claim of injustice or abuse of power in any way.

ARTICLE VII. CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS
1. All matters concerning the Constitution must receive the support of 2/3rds of the region.

ARTICLE VIII. THE REGIONAL MESSAGE BOARD
1. The Regional Message Board is recognized as the only forum or message board where roleplay is to be posted.
2. Moderate OOC discussion is allowed on the RMB, at the Permanent Moderators' discretion. However, a Permanent Moderator may not suppress any posts made by a member of the community who is not yet a citizen, who has not or cannot join the discord, or both.
3. All discussions on the RMB must follow the same rules of etiquette as in Section 2. Article I "Discord Etiquette".
4. The Attorney General may suppress posts on the RMB which he finds violates the rules of etiquette.
5. All Roleplays posted on the RMB must be in line with site rules.

SECTION 2. THE REGIONAL DISCORD

ARTICLE I. DISCORD ETIQUETTE
1. All discussions must be discussed strictly in their respective chats. The regional government may delete discussions which are not relevant to the chat in which they take place.
2. All citizens are expected to respect one another. Direct bullying and harassment will not be tolerated.
3. Cursing and banter is allowed unless used in an intentionally malicious and derogatory manner.
4. Flamebaiting and trolling are strictly forbidden.
5. Information acquired in an OOC discussion in Discord about planned our future events within RP by another player must not be used in RP. This constitutes as metagaming and is subject to the provisions of the Constitution.

ARTICLE II. DISCORD ADMINISTRATION
1. The Permanent Moderators are entrusted with full ownership and management of the regional Discord.
2. If a citizen is found violating the rules of etiquette, they are to be muted for an appropriate amount of time twice. If they continue to violate the rules of etiquette, they are to be stripped of the citizenship role.
3. If a Permanent Moderator is guilty of violating the rules of etiquette, the Attorney General is to work with the other Permanent Moderators to formulate an appropriate punishment.

SECTION 3. ROLEPLAY RELATED RULES AND REGULATIONS

ARTICLE I. LAND RIGHTS
1. Citizens may own land rights, RP rights, or both over a certain territory

(a) Land Rights refer to OOC ownership of the territory claimed as land rights by the citizen. They hold full right to do whatever they wish in this territory without impediment, and no other citizen is allowed to claim or use this land consent.
(b) RP Rights refer to an OOC agreement between a player, the regional government, and another citizen if necessary that recognizes a player is allowed to roleplay on land that is not theirs. However, this land may be claimed by another player, or if it is the case that the land is part of a territory that another citizen owns land rights too, may be revoked at the land owner's discretion.

2. Core land is land that is owned by a citizen.
3. In the event that, through dynastic marriage or union, two polities both occupied by players both share the same Head of State, both players will share Roleplay rights over the joint territory of the monarch's crown lands. However, each player will maintain the land rights of their original territory, which cannot be given away or altered without the consent of the player who owns the land.
4. Citizens can request an expansion to their core land and moderators will assess the expansion based on realism and the skill of the roleplayer.
5. Citizens are entitled to request the right to roleplay a second nation. This nation should be smaller in size, population, or influence than a player's primary account and wield negligible relevance in regards to the player's primary nation. To claim a second nation, a player must submit an application.

ARTICLE II. EQUIPMENT

Forward: These guidelines have been developed to most accurately reflect how equipment ownership, development and modification actually works in real life.
1. All nations shall have all equipment manufactured, purchased, acquired or captured in real life pre-1200 provided no major alterations were made to the history that would effect that.
2. When equipment acquired or purchased, the parties must agree on a delivery date (month, year)
3. Once equipment is delivered, it is the sole property of the nation it is delivered to, and they have the right to modify, or sell the equipment.
4. Nations have the ability to reverse-engineer equipment, but must get approval to do so from the Mods who will judge the request based on realism, the IC standing of said nation in terms of education and technology.

ARTICLE III. ECONOMIC REALISM

1. The size of a citizen's economy must be based on tangible evidence as seen in your roleplays. Tangible evidence can be things such as economic policy, education, soceio-economic policy, trade agreements and more. Additionally, the real-life natural resources and tangible and potential wealth of a citizen's claim must be taken into account when managing and calculating an economy.
2. While positive effects can be seen from a citizen's economic-based roleplays, a citizen must also account for negative things which can harm your economy, such as war, natural disasters, embargoes, commodity pricing and more. Failure to do so may result in a warning for Godmod.
3. Understand recessions are a normal part of the economic process and its fairly unrealistic for your economy to not go into recession once every 10 to 15 years.
4. Money has to come from somewhere, so a citizen must take proper account of all budget and funding issues within their nation. Failure to do so, if seen by a Permanent Moderator or the Attorney General, will result in a warning as part of the regional stance against Godmod.

ARTICLE IV. SOCIETALISM

1. Societies are not set in stone, nor are entirely functional the entirety of their existence. In the course of the roleplay, players are expected to Roleplay the natural ebbs and flows of a society depending on the economic, cultural, political, and military factors which may affect it.
2. As part of the principle of Societalism, players are expected to understand and react to the natural reality that societies will, at some point, collapse or change. Players must logically and realistically roleplay societal highs and lows based upon outside and internal affects or face a warning and further action from the moderators.

SECTION 4. WAR, BATTLEFIELD TACTICS, & ESPIONAGE

ARTICLE I. LEGALITY OF WAR
1. Wars may be both consensual and non-consensual. A player may wage and declare war against another player with or without the direct consent of the player being attacked.
2. Failure by the defensive party to recognize or respond to posts made by the initiative party will result in a victory for the initiative party should 5 days pass without response or recognition; recognition being defined as the OOC acknowledgement of the IC legitimacy of the post. This will not apply if both parties engage in dialogue as to why a lack of response or acknowledgement is made clear and both parties agree to work towards a common solution.
3. Failure by the initiative party to recognize or respond to posts made by the defensive party will result in a victory for the defensive party should 5 days pass without response or recognition. This will not apply if both parties work towards a common solution.
4. Should either party feel the other party's post to contain elements of godmod, as defined in Section 3, Article II, the party can chose between attempting to work a solution with the accused party, or report the post directly to the moderators for a review. Should the moderators find the post to contain godmod, they will make suggestions to the godmodding party on how best to remove the godmod. Alternatively, should the post be found to be valid, the reporting party must acknowledge the legitimacy of the post or face defeat in regards to the context of the post.

ARTICLE II. DEFINITION OF GODMOD
1. Godmod is defined as the following:

(a).Deployment of military force without roleplaying troop movements, logistics, or interference.
(b).Use of non-existent force, including but not limited to infantry, artillery, cavalry, armor, naval vessels, and air power not previously mentioned as having been relevant to the battle or campaign.
(c).Ignoring factors including geography, weather, logistics, and enemy positions/movements when attacking or defending a position.
(d).Use of equipment not previously possessed by the using party, or not listed within factbooks or previous RP posts as belonging to the using party.
(e).Direct manipulation of enemy units without consent.
(f).Refusing to roleplay logistics and supply lines.

2. The moderators hold the right to define a post as godmod upon review should they find it to be in violation of the notion of godmod but not strictly adhering to one or any of the aforementioned definitions regarding godmod.

ARTICLE III. ROLEPLAY ON THE BATTLEFIELD
1. When roleplayed, war and battles can be roleplayed in two certain ways:

(a) Turn-Based Combat Roleplay encompassing movement of troops and supplies and actions on the battlefield.
(b) Character-Based Story Roleplay, defined as roleplay focusing on a larger story or individual perspective of the conflict, retelling or adding context regarding any particular battle or part of the conflict at large but not directly affecting the flow of the war in real-time.

2. While being similar to the definition of a "Character-Based Roleplay", negotiations and peace talks which do directly affect the conflict do not fall under the definition of a "Character-Based Roleplay" in regards to Article III of Section X and, therefore, are to be moderated differently.

ARTICLE IV. ESPIONAGE
1. Espionage is defined as: spying or theft of technology, information, funds, or materials from one nation by another with intent of disruption, manipulation, or use of the stolen technology, information, funds, or materials.
2. Any nation, given its realism to do so, can have intelligence agents within any or all nations without consent of the nations the agents are stationed in. These agents can operate only within the realistic means to do so: the more open the country, the easier espionage is; the more dictatorial the country, the harder espionage is.
3. While initiation of espionage may be non-consensual, direct actions regarding theft of direct material objects including weaponry, blueprints, personal belongings, artifacts, and other items of national importance must be roleplayed similarly to Turn-Based Combat Roleplay as defined in Section 3, Article III. The party attempting to steal or spy must roleplay this with the party being spied upon.
4. In an Espionage Roleplay, the initiating party must expressly state how and why its agent(s) is operating and the goals of the agent. The responding party must recognize the action provided it falls outside of the definition of godmod, and respond in 2 ways:

(a) Recognize the action occurring, but ignore the action within IC.
(b) Recognize the action and respond to the initiating party appropriately using the format expressed in Section 3, Article III on a personal scale.

5. The goals of the initiating party should be to secure intelligence, materials, or technology safely or otherwise cause disruption as expressed. The goals of the responding party should be to prevent the theft of technology, materials, or intelligence, and/or to stop or respond to the disruption.
6. The definition of disruption includes:

(a).Physical sabotage including attack on or disruption of infrastructure.
(b).Physical sabotage including attack on or disruption of industry or finance.
(c).Physical sabotage including attack on or disruption of military and counter-intelligence assets.
(d).Direct attack upon a character including assassination attempts.

7. Success in an espionage RP for the initiating party will result in them being able to utilize the stolen technology, information, funds, or materials as allowed within Section II, Article III and Section II Article II. Success in an espionage RP for the responding party will result in denial of the use of the stolen technology, information, funds, or materials by the initiating party.