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DispatchFactbookMiscellaneous

by The Truculent Red Madhouse of Cerillium. . 355 reads.

Cer's Handy Mentor Stuff



CONTENTS
ROLE PLAY HELP
GAMEPLAY
MODERATION



HUMAN POTENTIAL

As the Buddha was dying,
Ananda asked who would be
their teacher after death.
He replied to his disciple -

"Be lamps unto yourselves.
Be refuges unto yourselves.
Take yourself no external refuge.
Hold fast to the truth as a lamp.
Hold fast to the truth as a refuge.
Look not for a refuge
In anyone besides yourselves.
And those, Ananda, who either now
or after I am dead,
Shall be a lamp unto themselves,
Shall betake themselves
As no external refuge,
But holding fast to the truth
as their lamp,
Holding fast to the truth
as their refuge,
Shall not look for refuge to
Anyone else besides themselves,
It is they who shall reach to
The very topmost height;
But they must be anxious to learn."

Quoted in Joseph Goldstein,
"The Experience of Insight"

Welcome to Nationstates!
Please call me Cer. I'm one of the many Mentors available to you for your RP needs. I cover the P2TM and F7 forums. You can contact me via Telegram, or through my nick on esper.net ("Cer"). Don't be shy. I don't mind your questions.

Please be aware that I work full time and often more than 40 hours a week. I many not be able to respond to telegrams within a 24-hour period on specific days of the week. However, I will do my best to answer questions, teach, and advise. If I don't know the answer, I will hunt down someone who does. We have a good group of P2TM Mentors that you can turn to if I'm unreachable. You can find a full listing here.

The following is a listing for frequently referred to links. This is not a complete listing, of course.

I've also touched upon Gameplay and Moderation here.



ROLE PLAY HELP

NATIONSTATES HELP
These links will better your NS experience.

ROLE PLAYER GROUP:
(Shameless plug!)
Pædagog is a roleplay group made up of veteran and beginner roleplayers alike who seek to collaborate on developing unique and interesting worlds to explore through the realm of play-by-post roleplaying. To this end, we support players with constructing their own languages, building their own nations and worlds, designing engaging roleplays based on unique and fun concepts, and in strengthening their abilities as roleplayers, game masters, dungeon masters, and - above all - as writers.

Pædagog is not a casual roleplay group. Though we do like to maintain an atmosphere of family rather than a formal hierarchy, we take our roleplaying seriously and expect members to adhere to a certain level of quality as well as dedication when it comes to posting, setting up roleplays, and interacting with others. In short: be mature, be ready to learn, and be reliable. In return, we promise to be open, to be helpful, and to always support you in all your worthy, RP-related endeavors.

Come join a group that treats roleplaying as a proper hobby and pays it respect with quality and grace. Submit your application for Pædagog today and prepare to learn and teach your fellow nations what it means to be a roleplayer!

P2TM RP HELP:
There are key areas in the P2TM subforum. We're slightly different than International Incidents. There is more freedom regarding genre. P2TM has its quirks and strange habits. The following guides will be helpful.

ATTENTION GAME MASTERS/OPs
We've constructed two primary guides to help you GM/Ref/Run a successful RP.

DIPLOMACY RP HELP
I'm not a Dipolmacy Mentor. I visit the northern subforums to RP in closed nation events but I don't consider myself a knowledgeable source when it comes to that forum's politics, how IIers run their FT, what groups are cool and what groups should be avoided, or where your particular threads should go (II vs NS). I prefer the southern subforum (P2TM). I'll happily pass along your nation RPing questions however; our Diplomacy Mentors are always happy to provide advice or assistance. You can also contact them through TG. A full Diplomacy Mentor Listing can be found here.

There are a plethora of guides for Diplomacy! It's easier to send you to the Guide Index: found here.




GAMEPLAY
"NS, when you first start, is like Morrowind. You're thrown into a game and you have no f*cking idea what to do next....I like this charm, it let's you find your own way and develop, but at the same time it means someone is likely to become to ingrained in only one sort of group." Zaolat

Crazy girl described it best in her ]Guide to the Gameplay forum: Gameplay (as opposed to roleplay) is what happens in the game and that which is related to it. At a basic level, it involves playing NationStates the game, but it also encompasses the organisation of this gameplaying, which often takes place on regional offsite forums. Gameplay includes (but is not limited to) nation management, regional politics and the invader/defender game.

Some useful Gameplay links:

A hotbed topic is R/D (raider and defender gameplay) vs RP (the collective role play community). People sometimes forget there is more to this site than role play, answering issues, or sharing a region. NS is comprised of many communities, each one catering to unique interests. The various communities don't always see eye-to-eye.

The Raider/Defender game is here to stay. It's part of NS.

Some (but not all) raiders fail to understand various RP communities. Both groups are like four blind men describing an elephant; each man can only describe the part of the animal he's familiar with hence one man describes the beast's front and the other a side or the rear. There isn't any consensus because each man fails to understand that there is more than one side, and that each side is relevant for the health of the elephant itself.

Personally, I take the entire elephant into account. Please do not ask me to boycott, join your defender's group, or demand NS officials step down because they support RD - don't ask me to look at just one side of the beast and ignore the rest. I support RD; I support RP. I empathize with RP regions' frustrations but, at this time, there's very little anyone can do regarding protecting founderless regions or preventing tagging raids beyond what's currently available (tools, techniques etc).



MODERATION

MODERATION
To begin, NS Mentors are NOT Moderators. We can sometimes help you resolve in-game issues between players but we do not hand out punishments nor can we ban players from your game thread.

NationStates follows basic rules as outlined in the One Stop Rules Shop (OSRS) thread. The summary of them is as follows: Don't be a dick. I strongly recommend reading the entire OSRS prior to forming your Factbooks, entering forums, or uploading a flag.

Gameside: (flag, embedded factbook, signature, telegram, nation name, perceived staff violation, etc) violations are reported by filing a Getting Help Request [GHR]. These go directly to our Admin Team. It sometimes takes a while for someone to respond. This length depends upon the complexity of the situation, and also Admin and top-tier Mod availability; not all Moderators have access to these reports. Please be patient.

Forumside: Anything that goes on in the forums can be reported in the Moderation Forum. You may also file a GHR involving forumside violations but the quickest response time is usually through the forum - All Mods have access to this area.

A reminder to all RPers: NationStates is not here for your sexting needs. Keep your RP clean and at a PG13 level. Do not use the telegram system to act out your fantasies.

Some helpful Moderation links:

MODERATION "ISSUES"
NS happens to be a fantastic community. It's polite and intellectual (depending on where you haunt). We have good members. We have good Moderators helping to maintain a positive flow on this site. They give the trolls the boot; they keep hateful people at bay; they protect groups from persecution; they listen to concerns. Mods aren't rogue warriors; each answers to the group and to Admin and Max Barry. They're accountable for every action and, regardless of their personal desires, their role is to enforce Max's wants or needs on this site. Mods, like Mentors, are volunteers.

As taken directly from the OSRS:
Note on Mod Oppression and Mod Bias: NationStates moderation is based on acting against rule-breaking in the games and the forums. Political opinions do not factor into official decisions by moderators. We make our rulings and interpretations as official representatives of NationStates, and are acting in the name of Max Barry. Our only agenda is RULES ENFORCEMENT. All viewpoints are acceptable so long as they are argued within the rules.

NS is just a game site; the real world is much brighter and holds better things. Keep calm and log out.


♦♦♦ NationStates Belongs to Max Barry and we're guests here: Gameplay, Roleplay, and Nonplay Alike. ♦♦♦
Every NationStates Community Member needs to remember that.

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