Oatland

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The Role-play Rules

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For role-play to be interesting, it is necessary to establish a certain framework. Every nation participating in role-play and every member region of the Global Roleplay Organization agrees to abide by all the rules in this document.

1. There are two ways to participate in the role-play:

a) Your region registers with GRO and builds an embassy. In this way, all nations in the region that wish to do so can apply.
b) You want to join a role-play individually. In this case, either you join a member region of the GRO (a region that meets criterion a just above) or you join our storage region.

2. A person can only have one nation taking part in each role-play. A nation wishing to take part in the role-play must meet one of the following two criteria:

a) Be a nation member of the World Assembly (WA).
b) Be a non-WA nation with a WA-registered controller elsewhere in NationStates.

3. GRO will manage several role-plays with different themes, for example a modern role-play, a medieval role-play, etc. By the way, we welcome any suggestion.
4. The GRO masters the role-play rules and reserves the right to make changes. GRO undertakes to inform members of any changes made. However, members can make requests or suggestions.
5. Each role-play is managed by one or more moderators. GRO has its own chief moderators but any nation that wishes to do so can apply to become a moderator. We will validate or reject applications. If your application is accepted, you will be asked to create a puppet that will join the region of the role-play in question.
6. We reserve the right to sanction nations that violate these rules. We undertake to act proportionately to the seriousness of the facts. Generally, we will give one or more warnings to the nation concerned before considering other sanctions such as temporary or permanent suspension.
7. The authorities of GRO's member regions undertake to use their regional powers to enforce these rules. For example, if we suspend a member nation of a region connected via an embassy, the regional authorities should not allow the sanctioned nation to continue posting on our RMBs.
8. Any user of the RP must be respectful of others and must not rage, swear, be rude, vulgar or insulting, or engage in any other form of indecent or disrespectful behaviour. Spamming is also prohibited.

1. The role-play is carried out on the RMB of the role-play. The RMB is considered the international stage. Anything that is not indicated on the RMB does not count. It is allowed to communicate secretly via telegrams.
2. A distinction is made between In Character (IC) and Out Of Character (OOC). By default, everything posted is considered IC. If it is OOC, it must be specified. If you want to share secret information with another player, you are encouraged to use spoilers. It will be considered as secret (other nations won't know it in IC) but it will still allow other players to understand the RP better.
3. The role-play will also contain in-game nations defined as Non Player Characters (NPC). These nations are managed by moderators.
4. Godmodding is forbidden. It is defined as taking control of another player's characters.
5. Metagaming is forbidden. It is defined as making use of OOC (Out Of Character) knowledge in RP. For example a player reveals secret plans for winning a war OOC but does not IC (in character). The opponent would be able to counter them perfectly because of his OOC Knowledge of the plans, which is Metagaming.
6. The participating nations and NPCs will be indicated on the map.
7. No nation is invincible. No nation can claim having unlimited ressources (including financial ressources).
8. No technology (military), diplomatic or trade strategy is infallible (for example trade routes or military equipment).
9. Players need to accept the consequences of their nation's actions. A provocative behaviour can have a bad impact on another nation as well as in-game nations for example.
10. You can do anything you think is realistic, just have fun. Anything you think is relevant can be done as long as it is within the rules.
11. The moderators control the RP and have the final say. That is, they can invalidate an action deemed unrealistic.
12. Moderators also have the role of inventing scenarios to stimulate role-play.
13. It is forbidden to coerce another player in a scenario. Although players must assume the consequences of their actions, two protagonists of a war RP must pretty much agree on a scenario. In case of major disagreement, moderators will intervene. It is prohibited to lead another player in a major scenario such as a war during a period of inactivity of the latter.
14. Remember that we are all friends and that RP has to remain fun. Don't be aggressive and don't be a sore loser. When being hostile to another nation (in role-play), don’t say something that can be seen as offensive even if it is IC.

1. To join the modern role-play, a player needs to fill in the following form and send it to the Head Moderator:

How to fill the form

Role-play nation name: you may want (or not) a different name for your nation in the RP
Map claim: describe clearly and precisely the territory you wish to have on the map
Role-play population: determine your population in RP. Keep in mind that too high a population density can have disadvantages (including economic ones)
Official government type: what kind of country is it? Liberal democracy, military junta, single-party republic, etc. ?
Political system: main institutions. For example the parliament chambers, the Prime Minister, the President, the King, etc. Describe.
Head of State and/or Head of Government: insert your head of state and government and tell who has the executive authority and who represents your nation abroad.
Capital city: where the political institutions are located.
Largest city: name your largest city if it's not the capital. You can give its population.
Economy: describe the economic policy (e.g. ultra-liberal, interventionist, etc.). Indicate your main economic activities (e.g. oil resources, agriculture, tourism, textile industry, financial services, etc.). Add anything else you find interesting (e.g. unemployment, imports/exports, etc.). You are allowed to add figures and statistics if you want.
Currency: Name of currency. Add the value if you want (compared to the ICU)
Economic figures (GDP, GDP/capita): Estimate your Gross Domestic Product and your GDP per capita. GDP = GDP per capita * population
Military: Describe your military strength. If you have dispatches that describe your military, add it as well please.
Diplomacy: if you want you can describe your foreign policy (e.g. isolationist, imperialist, multilateralist, interventionist, etc.)
Member of the United Nations (Yes/No): The United Nations are an assembly of nations that vote on world issues. Same as IRL, but can evolve during the RP
Other information and requests: If you have any other information or requests you would like to share with us, please do so here.
Main factbook: do you have a main factbook, an overview of your nation? If you do, please post the link.
Other factbooks: if you have other dispatches that describe some areas of your nation (military, culture, etc.) post the link here.

Raw code of the form (copy and paste)

[b]Nation name in RP:[/b]
[b]Map claim:[/b]
[b]Role-play population:[/b]
[b]Official government type:[/b]
[b]Political system:[/b]
[b]Head of State and/or Head of Government:[/b]
[b]Capital city:[/b]
[b]Largest city:[/b]
[b]Economy:[/b]
[b]Currency:[/b]
[b]Economic figures (GDP, GDP/capita):[/b]
[b]Military:[/b]
[b]Diplomacy:[/b]
[b]Member of the United Nations (Yes/No):[/b]
[b]Other information and requests:[/b]
[b]Main factbook:[/b]
[b]Other factbooks:[/b]

2. This is a modern RP, so the technologies and means can't be futuristic.
3. All types of magic, sorcery, divine intervention, and other forms of powers not grounded in science are forbidden. For example, the nations' species can only be human and teleportation doesn't exist.
4. Every country can have their own currency. But the world uses a common currency, the International Currency Unit (ICU) for comparisons. 1 ICU = $ 1 IRL. No nation, real or NPC, can take control of this currency. It is the International Bank that controls this currency, and it is not under the influence of any state and will not support any country or ideology. The ICU can be used for economic exchanges by public or private entities as well.
5. To declare war players need a reasonable Casus Belli, or better known as warcause. Nations must play the diplomatic escalation first.
6. Players who wish to wage wars (which is not mandatory) are obliged to list their military forces in a dispatch. It does not require elements of extreme precision, but some basic elements are necessary. The more precise, the better.
7. The minimalist effort will not be interesting. In the case of a major event (e.g. declaration of war) it is necessary that the post is long enough.
8. It is possible to sign diplomatic agreements and create international organizations, even economic and military ones, as long as they respect the other rules.
9. Indicate who is behind each of your IC posts, e.g. whether it is the President speaking, a diplomat, the private sector, the media, etc.
10. In any case, the more accurate you are in your posts and the way you play in general, the better the RP will be for everyone!