Hello, and welcome to the Solar & Lunar Alliance! Let me first say that we are pleased to have you as an addition to our group of dedicated roleplayers. We are a community of diverse players literally from around the US and the world and we make having fun a priority for all our members.
In our effort to make new players feel as welcomed as possible and informed from the start, about some of the technicalities of our game play, we've created this guide as a "how to" when it comes to roleplay in the Lunar Alliance. Along with a list of the six major rules that help govern our rp, this guide also has articles which are based on some of the most frequently asked questions that new players have about our game. It is our hope that after reading this guide you'll feel more informed about how things are done and have even more enthusiasm to get started.
Now, first and foremost, here are the five main rules we follow throughout the game:
1) Never insult another player
2) Do not post Prohibited Content as based on NationStates.net rules
3) Don't make frivolous, inane posts that don't add anything to game play.
4) Do not participate in Godmodding or Metagaming activity
5) Follow the instructions of Lunar Alliance Council and RP Moderators
6) Have fun
Also while it is not an official rule, we do ask that each and every one of our members make their best effort to TYPE IN PROPER ENGLISH (or the best you can, if English is a second language). Substituting numbers for letters, using the same grammar and spelling you use in text messages, or using any other short-form of type will be frowned upon. Will you misspell words? Sure you will, because we all do it. All we ask is that you make the same honest attempt that everyone else does, even our members who use English as second language.
If at any time you think someone is being unfair or otherwise breaking any rule created by the Lunar Council or Moderating staff, please contact a member of the regional staff and allow us to handle it.
Ok now down to some FAQs:
What is Godmodding and Metagaming?
Godmodding and Metagaming can be difficult things to gasp but hopefully after reading this guide in its entirety, you’ll have a better understanding. We define Godmodding as taking advantage of the situation by using your OOC (Out of Character) knowledge and using it IC (In Character), even though it is knowledge your character in the story would or couldn’t have based on the story being told. So for example let’s say your Alien species and mine have met out in space. Your ships outnumber mine and so I send a message out to call for reinforcements. In the course of writing this part of the story, I write that the message is “encrypted” so that the enemy cannot trace it or intercept it. If then in your next post you write that your species does intercept it and reads it, then that is Godmodding as I expressed in my post that your race could not do this. Now admittedly Godmodding is not always black and white. For example, while I may be able to say that your alien species couldn’t intercept and decode my message, I cannot say that your weapons have no effects what so ever on my shield if we get into a fire-fight.
Simply put rping is a give and take thing which I further explain later in this guide. It is a collective story telling experience and as such, it takes two to tell a story. So again, just be mindful of what your write, remember to give other players a chance to respond, and NEVER respond for a player or rp out the outcome of a situation for a player unless they’ve expressed their consent for you to do so. If you RP an action then it is up to the other player to RP the consequence of that action and subsequent re-action.
Roleplaying? What’s that?
Roleplaying, or RPing as it is often called is easily described as collective storytelling. The object of RPing is to inform and entertain the rest of us with descriptive tales about your nation, your characters, and the events which involve both. The more effort and detail you put into the story you choose to tell, the more people will become interested in it and want to join in. This is key, as the object here of telling any story, is to create a plot in which other people can get involved. Usually the best stories created are those where other players can spontaneously join. However, sometimes it’s not a bad idea to talk over a possible story with another player, agreeing upon their involvement before the story is actually told. Whichever path you choose to take when beginning a story, always remember that RPing is not about winning, it’s about telling a good story.
RPing is also about compromise between players, especially in instances where the story is about war. When looking to tell a good story about a war between yourself and another nation or nations it is important to remember that for our community, a person who has a weak military but has great characters and is willing to compromise is much more valuable to us. After all, no one likes to play with the bully in the playground and likewise, no one will be impressed by your billion man army if you're going to be uncompromising when it comes to telling stories. The golden rule in RPing here, especially in stories of war, is that it's not the end that interests people, it's the journey your nation and it's characters take to get to that end. That and that alone is the greatest dividing factor between good stories told in our community and the greatest stories we've ever told.
Thus it is good to remember that quality is certainly valued over quantity here in our community. Now we're not saying you have to go around writing novels here to impress us. No, so long as we can tell you put true effort into the story you're telling, you will certain gain our respect and become a valued member of our group. A rule of thumb is that anyone can tell a story, but it's the person who can put the reader into the story that we value here.
Do we have rules on RPing Wars?
Yes we do and actually we have many. First off, you cannot just start a war with any player you choose. This is because sometimes players don't want to be in wars at certain times and unlike the real-world, we don't force anyone to been in wars they don't want. You certainly can set up a situation that could very likely lead to war but you can't actually invade or attack another player's nation without their prior consent. An example would be if you felt you needed to be hostile with the country neighboring yours. You're well within your right to station troops along your border and you can even make outlandish claims that your neighbor shot down one of your own jets. However, YOU CANNOT INVADE THAT NATION AND YOU CANNOT ATTACK ANY OF ITS PEOPLE, LAND, OR PROPERTY WITHOUT THAT PLAYER'S CONSENT. Therefore, as a rule of thumb it is usually best to contact the player via telegram or on Discord and discuss war Out Of Character (OOC) before making any In Character (IC) moves. Again, you're free to agitate the situation and even setup an environment that could lead to a spontaneous war, but you can't actually force anyone to fight a war with you.
If you decide to take the general advice and just contact someone before you fight a war instead of setting up a situation and hoping for war, it's best that the two of you make sure to at least create a rough outline of how a war is going to go. This is a good idea because that way both of you have an idea of what the other is willing to lose and have an idea about which of the two of you is actually going to win the war. Some players feel it best to leave who will win the war up in the air, since sometimes it's hard to tell what other nations may get involved either on your behalf or your enemy's behalf. This is ok too, but we only suggest this if both you and your enemy, as players on this game, are mature enough to work through whatever problems may come up OOC. Nothing kills a good story faster than two players who aren't mature enough to work through differences for the benefit of a story. If problems become too much, then the moderating team will have to step in and lay down guidelines. The best advice we can give any player is to remember that it’s not about winning or losing when it comes to any story, including war stories, here in our game. What does count is the story you tell and the journey your character's and nation's take. Some of the best stories our players have ever told were more entertaining from the "loser" point of view than the winner.
Now, lets say you, in one way or another, and another player have agreed to fight a war. Well when it comes to actually fighting it is always important to remember yet again, that you are telling a story. It’s certainly not about who wins and who loses but instead the journey from the beginning to the end. PLEASE DO NOT use your first post as a platform to show how your military is so powerful that it can take out millions in one swipe. Why you may ask?, BECAUSE NO ONE CARES! Instead, make it interesting, use your first post to introduce us to a character or two that we'll get to follow throughout the story and see develop as a person. Or at the very least, many it a bit more personable in general. After all, anyone can say that "The Twelfth Army pushed back enemy forces along the river...]" but it takes a more creative writer to give us "All Colonel James could think about was the pain in his chest as his heart felt as though it would rip right out of him. Yet with bullets zooming past his head, he couldn't care about that now. No now was the time to be a leader. Now was the time to lead his his squad in the Twelfth Army and push back the enemy along the riverbank" Now it is also important to remember that when it comes to posting damages rendered by an attack, it is not only courtesy but the rules that this is done by the person who suffered the attack and not the person who was attacking. After all, anyone can say that their advance on enemy lines was successful because naturally we all want to be successful. When it comes to damages, just remember to be fair (as with roleplaying war in general). If someone gave an attack, acknowledge it and take some damage. An artillery barrage doesn't have to take out your entire fielded army but it can do enough damage to make you rethink your strategy. Be courteous to your opponent as they will be courteous to you in return as a sign of respect.
NEVER USE A WEAPON OF MASS-DESTRUCTION/PLANET KILLER ON ANYONE WITHOUT THEIR EXPRESS PERMISSION. Hopefully that makes that particular rule very clear! Yes your nation has the right to have such a weapon in their arsenal but NO, it does not have the right to use it whenever and on whomever it wishes. Such attacks bring on massive devastation to nations in Real Life so naturally they will bring massive devastation here. Not every player is excited about the idea of having their capital city turned into a glass parking lot or their homeworld destroyed.. Therefore, the use of such weapons require the expressed permission of your opponent in all situations. This also applies to the killing of major characters, both in war stories and other stories. You cannot simply say you assassinated the leader of your revival country just because he was on tour in a neutral neighboring country. You also cannot say that you killed the leading general of the enemy army just because your forces happened upon his command post before he could escape. YOU CANNOT KILL ANOTHER PLAYER'S MAJOR CHARACTERS WITHOUT EXPRESSED PERMISSION. Most players in our game make it very clear which of their characters are major characters and are therefore off-limits unless you contact them first. The best rule of thumb is to simply contact the player in all cases as it will ensure that no arguments come over the situation later.
Again, I cannot express enough that when it comes to wars and the telling of war stories it is CRUCIAL TO REMEMBER that it’s not about who wins or who loses, but about the story told. Tell me a gripping story, leave me guessing until the very end on who’s going to win and who’s going to lose. Always be prepared for other players looking to ally themselves and overall be courtesy to everyone involved. Remembering all these things will not only save you from a LOT of arguments but it also lead to the writing and telling of some fantastic stories our group will not soon forget.
Created by Veridia Prime
