Holy Chuder wrote:Are there many Medieval Tech Civilizations on Nation States that rp. Sorry I'm new here
Deian Salazar has been looking for PT RP partners
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by Roski » Thu Apr 02, 2015 4:29 pm
Holy Chuder wrote:Are there many Medieval Tech Civilizations on Nation States that rp. Sorry I'm new here
by The Macabees » Thu Apr 02, 2015 5:52 pm
Holy Chuder wrote:Are there many Medieval Tech Civilizations on Nation States that rp. Sorry I'm new here
by Holy Chuder » Thu Apr 02, 2015 6:12 pm
The Macabees wrote:Holy Chuder wrote:Are there many Medieval Tech Civilizations on Nation States that rp. Sorry I'm new here
Past tech RPing can also be strong within regional communities and other types of RP communities, where the players know each other well and it's easy to coordinate. And there's an incentive in those contexts, in that since there is a community canon, it's common for players to want to develop that canon, including their nation's histories. The region I am, for example, has a World War II-era RP going on and I'm pretty sure we've done some medieval RPs as well. This approach is longer-term, since you'll have to settle in the community that's right for you, and finding one that's right for you is always a process, but over the long-run you will probably find that setting up past tech RPs is easier than when you're relatively new to the game.
by Bubba Reb » Wed Apr 08, 2015 9:34 pm
by Questers » Thu Apr 09, 2015 4:35 am
Bubba Reb wrote:1) What are some good tips on writing this type of RP
2) What should I avoid.
3) Pictures, only one? Many? Links and spoulers only?
4) What questions should be asked in the application to join the RP?
Any advice or comments from respected, proven, RP writers are welcome.
by Bubba Reb » Thu Apr 09, 2015 8:15 am
by Questers » Thu Apr 09, 2015 8:27 am
by Sunset » Thu Apr 09, 2015 3:51 pm
by Bubba Reb » Thu Apr 09, 2015 3:59 pm
by Divergia » Fri Apr 10, 2015 3:56 pm
by Yalos » Fri Apr 10, 2015 4:13 pm
Divergia wrote:Hey just wondering: If me an a few others are planning on making a RP alliance, can we work on our Charter in an OOC(only) thread? I'm not exactly a new player, and the only OOC threads I really see in II are for Applications. If you're not supposed to put such a thread up in this part of the forums where would one do so?
by Divergia » Fri Apr 10, 2015 7:55 pm
Yalos wrote:Divergia wrote:Hey just wondering: If me an a few others are planning on making a RP alliance, can we work on our Charter in an OOC(only) thread? I'm not exactly a new player, and the only OOC threads I really see in II are for Applications. If you're not supposed to put such a thread up in this part of the forums where would one do so?
As long as it serves an RP related purpose, and doesn't devolve into a simple chat thread (so basically, as long as you're talking about and discussing your alliance and relayed issues), it should be fine to just use an OOC thread in II.
by Vandario » Fri Apr 10, 2015 8:54 pm
by Vancouvia » Fri Apr 10, 2015 9:13 pm
Vandario wrote:I'd like to try and get more involved in RP'ing my issue is whenever I look at most RP's I tend to get lost in all the details, like example one will ask to fill out something and like how many people do I have in military service and all I an think "idk" because I'm not even sure how many I should have how much would be too much or too little compared to my government spending and RP'ing, but I also understand things can't be too vague it would leave too much open you need those sort of stuff, so I guess I'm never too sure whats too much or whats enough, I've not really RP'd so maybe its just inexperience.
by Sunset » Sat Apr 11, 2015 12:41 am
by Dralka » Sat Apr 11, 2015 5:59 am
Sunset wrote:Personally, when I see an RP asking me to supply troop numbers and similar 'hard' details, I walk away. My view is that RolePlay should be just that - Role Play.
Not Roll Play.
That's an old tabletop roleplayer joke; Are you role-playing, or roll-playing? Are you playing to see how many dice you can roll, or are you playing a role? The same is true for forum RP; If you need those hard numbers are you playing to win or are you playing to create the best story? To my mind, since all winning or losing is completely voluntary, why not just skip the numbers altogether and write a story instead? Consider the great works of (even military) fiction. Does the author talk about how there are forty five thousand men on one side, six hundred were cut down in the first volley, it took two minutes for the cannons to prepare their next shot? Or do they write about the heroics and sacrifices of that soldier, that General, or that unit?
And yes, you can write about how a larger event is playing out while focusing on one particular individual or group of individuals. Describe what they see, what is happening around them, who is there or who is not. None of this needs hard numbers nor often any numbers at all. You just need to put yourself in there out on that battlefield watching those cannon roar and hearing the snap-whiz of musket rounds whining past. Write that story that everyone else wants to read. Is this going to cut down on the possibilities for RP partners? Maybe. But maybe you'll enjoy yourself more too, rather than worrying about winning.
by Valaran » Sat Apr 11, 2015 6:35 am
Sunset wrote:Personally, when I see an RP asking me to supply troop numbers and similar 'hard' details, I walk away. My view is that RolePlay should be just that - Role Play.
Not Roll Play.
That's an old tabletop roleplayer joke; Are you role-playing, or roll-playing? Are you playing to see how many dice you can roll, or are you playing a role? The same is true for forum RP; If you need those hard numbers are you playing to win or are you playing to create the best story? To my mind, since all winning or losing is completely voluntary, why not just skip the numbers altogether and write a story instead? Consider the great works of (even military) fiction. Does the author talk about how there are forty five thousand men on one side, six hundred were cut down in the first volley, it took two minutes for the cannons to prepare their next shot? Or do they write about the heroics and sacrifices of that soldier, that General, or that unit?
And yes, you can write about how a larger event is playing out while focusing on one particular individual or group of individuals. Describe what they see, what is happening around them, who is there or who is not. None of this needs hard numbers nor often any numbers at all. You just need to put yourself in there out on that battlefield watching those cannon roar and hearing the snap-whiz of musket rounds whining past. Write that story that everyone else wants to read. Is this going to cut down on the possibilities for RP partners? Maybe. But maybe you'll enjoy yourself more too, rather than worrying about winning.
Archeuland and Baughistan wrote:"I don't always nice, but when I do, I build it up." Valaran
Valaran wrote:To be fair though.... I was judging on coolness factor, the most important criteria in any war.
Zoboyizakoplayoklot wrote:Val: NS's resident mindless zombie
Planita wrote:you just set the OP on fire
by Lubyak » Sat Apr 11, 2015 12:05 pm
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by Bubba Reb » Sat Apr 11, 2015 1:33 pm
Sunset wrote:Personally, when I see an RP asking me to supply troop numbers and similar 'hard' details, I walk away. My view is that RolePlay should be just that - Role Play.
Not Roll Play.
That's an old tabletop roleplayer joke; Are you role-playing, or roll-playing? Are you playing to see how many dice you can roll, or are you playing a role? The same is true for forum RP; If you need those hard numbers are you playing to win or are you playing to create the best story? To my mind, since all winning or losing is completely voluntary, why not just skip the numbers altogether and write a story instead? Consider the great works of (even military) fiction. Does the author talk about how there are forty five thousand men on one side, six hundred were cut down in the first volley, it took two minutes for the cannons to prepare their next shot? Or do they write about the heroics and sacrifices of that soldier, that General, or that unit?
And yes, you can write about how a larger event is playing out while focusing on one particular individual or group of individuals. Describe what they see, what is happening around them, who is there or who is not. None of this needs hard numbers nor often any numbers at all. You just need to put yourself in there out on that battlefield watching those cannon roar and hearing the snap-whiz of musket rounds whining past. Write that story that everyone else wants to read. Is this going to cut down on the possibilities for RP partners? Maybe. But maybe you'll enjoy yourself more too, rather than worrying about winning.
by Bubba Reb » Sat Apr 11, 2015 5:18 pm
Sunset wrote:As long as it's not too dominant I don't have a problem with it and do it myself. In fact, if you do this thing I'm very much going to send Rear Admiral Titan McCopper - who talks just like the old weather-bitten miner he is - as the official envoy along with his stripper-dwarf adjutant. Should be fun.
Oh, and...
It's = It Is.
If you can't put it is instead of it's then don't use an apostrophe. I still catch myself doing that.
Other than that, I agree with everything Questers had to say. Having read some of your stuff, you've got a lot of potential and a diplomatic gala of some kind might be the best way to stretch your RP legs a bit. It would definitely need that Bubba Reb flavor to it though. Maybe a barbecue held on a crumbling dock next to the swamp; You catch it, he cooks it.
by Stahn » Sun Apr 12, 2015 6:11 am
Sunset wrote:Personally, when I see an RP asking me to supply troop numbers and similar 'hard' details, I walk away. My view is that RolePlay should be just that - Role Play.
Not Roll Play.
That's an old tabletop roleplayer joke; Are you role-playing, or roll-playing? Are you playing to see how many dice you can roll, or are you playing a role? The same is true for forum RP; If you need those hard numbers are you playing to win or are you playing to create the best story? To my mind, since all winning or losing is completely voluntary, why not just skip the numbers altogether and write a story instead? Consider the great works of (even military) fiction. Does the author talk about how there are forty five thousand men on one side, six hundred were cut down in the first volley, it took two minutes for the cannons to prepare their next shot? Or do they write about the heroics and sacrifices of that soldier, that General, or that unit?
And yes, you can write about how a larger event is playing out while focusing on one particular individual or group of individuals. Describe what they see, what is happening around them, who is there or who is not. None of this needs hard numbers nor often any numbers at all. You just need to put yourself in there out on that battlefield watching those cannon roar and hearing the snap-whiz of musket rounds whining past. Write that story that everyone else wants to read. Is this going to cut down on the possibilities for RP partners? Maybe. But maybe you'll enjoy yourself more too, rather than worrying about winning.
by Questers » Sun Apr 12, 2015 6:38 am
According to who? Who said role-playing was story telling? Actually a role-playing game is just transplantation of reality to fiction. There is no rule, in this game, in pragmatic terms or in dictionary terms about whether roleplaying is about telling a story - because that is one approach you can take, if you like. If people want to play roleplay as a competition, that's their right.
People create fictional nations for fun, and because they enjoy the subject matter. That being said, whatever nation you create should follow general internal consistency. Stories which are internally inconsistent are poor - you will notice that in any good story a character acts according to how they would act based on what their personality & circumstances are. Let's just take 1984 as an example. It might have made a great story if Winston became a resistance fighter and overthrew Big Brother. Most likely, however, it would have been dumb, because that was not the type of person he was, and it would have been greatly consistent internally. Nationstates is the same. The window dressing that you refer to is not window dressing - it is the personality, characteristics and circumstances of a nation, and these things dictate what happens in accordance with good internal consistency.Lubyak wrote:Everything around that story--your nation's history, organisation, etc.--is all window dressing. Sometimes the window dressing is exceptionally beautiful and well done, and you can admire it for what it is, such as people who have done exhaustive work creating their nation's military' and political structure. The window dressing can even effect how you RP, by giving you a frame of reference. e.g. How would my soldiers be trained to react in this situation, based on the doctrine I wrote up? or How would my leadership react to this incident, bearing in mind their political situation and our military abilities? The window dressing can give you guidance and consistency in how you play your characters and nations, but it shouldn't dictate how you RP.
However, to get back to the original point, in my experience many of these: 'How many troops are you sending/do you have?' are more to weed out wankers and other such 'RP to win' style players. So, if you're facing one, and don't have an answer, feel free to say 'I've not worked that out yet, and I'm trying to do so.' People will respect you more for that than simply spitting out a random number. NS already has plenty of people who just post 'I have x million troops, y tanks, and z planes.'
Lubyak wrote:However, such things--including realism--should always be allowed to bend in favour of telling a good story. While it is impressive that you have 20 page write up of a tank detailing its amazing weapons and defensive potential, if it serves the story better to have it blow up dramatically, then it should blow up dramatically.
by Lubyak » Sun Apr 12, 2015 9:00 am
Questers wrote: According to who? Who said role-playing was story telling? Actually a role-playing game is just transplantation of reality to fiction. There is no rule, in this game, in pragmatic terms or in dictionary terms about whether roleplaying is about telling a story - because that is one approach you can take, if you like. If people want to play roleplay as a competition, that's their right.
People create fictional nations for fun, and because they enjoy the subject matter. That being said, whatever nation you create should follow general internal consistency. Stories which are internally inconsistent are poor - you will notice that in any good story a character acts according to how they would act based on what their personality & circumstances are. Let's just take 1984 as an example. It might have made a great story if Winston became a resistance fighter and overthrew Big Brother. Most likely, however, it would have been dumb, because that was not the type of person he was, and it would have been greatly consistent internally. Nationstates is the same. The window dressing that you refer to is not window dressing - it is the personality, characteristics and circumstances of a nation, and these things dictate what happens in accordance with good internal consistency.
There is no 'good' story ever published which has bent realism (excepting science fiction and fantasy, which substitute their own realisms, with internal rules) in favour of story-telling. Even magical realism, best exemplified by Gabriela Garcia Marquez, does not do this. But he was a fantastic author, and unmatched by anyone on this site, frankly. And you may claim, as many do, that magical realism is a code word for fantasy.
There is a good reason for this, one that magical realists do not ignore: that is suspension of disbelief. All fiction includes suspension of disbelief. It is a balance that if a story is good enough and its human elements are compelling enough, people can ignore things that they would otherwise refuse to believe. Inside "modern tech" writing, this has its limits. This is true for all people, but those who aren't educated about a particular topic might not disbelieve something fictional just because they do not know it is wrong. That applies to all technical military aspects, but it also applies to basic real life things that require education. I don't know anything about aerodynamics, so it's difficult for me to precise about what I feel suspension of disbelief is. I know a lot about, let's say, cooking, or on paper, tanks, so it is much harder for me to suspend my disbelief for those things.
If, in a fiction setting, you destroy the readership's suspension of disbelief, you have failed totally in providing a good story. That does not mean that everything must be superrealistic, only that people must be able to accept those unrealistic things happening because the story is so good. A very good story will allow you to bend realism - realism should not be bent at the expense of a particular literary aim. That is called deus ex machina. This is usually thought of as a literary failure, but those writers who've used it well were again, as Gabriela Garcia, much better than whatever can be found here.
I don't advocate either "competitive" or "collaborative", "unplanned" or "planned" roleplaying. I think that people should take their country and their characters in a course that it is believable for that country and those characters to take.
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by Questers » Sun Apr 12, 2015 10:02 am
by Lubyak » Sun Apr 12, 2015 11:02 am
Questers wrote:We're not talking past each other. I'm just not explaining myself very well.
Firstly, internal consistency is impossible without what you refer to as window dressing. Without exposition about a country's characteristics, it is impossible to make someone believe something is internally consistent, and consequently impossible to make something have a meaningful impact. I agree that there are a lot of details that do not need to be said - I prefer to write posts without specific details (as I illustrated in the last page) but in general, a nation's actions have to be internally consistent, and we have to know that they are internally consistent. We expect the DPRK to act the way it does because we know the DPRK - and if it changes, or does something uncharacteristic, the impact is intensified because we know what it should be doing. That is why context - which is what you are calling window dressing - is important.
There doesn't have to be a story, or stories. Some people are happy posting endless number-wank. Some people are happy building an alternate reality. Or an alternate not-reality. I do not believe in telling other people how to play the game, I'm only detailing already-accepted IRL "rules" of literature for people who like to write.
Here's the problem with what you're saying: you are suggesting directly that people who do not know how military affairs work should write about them and just bend reality. Let's just take the example you used earlier of a tank exploding. In the first place, in traditional prose, none of the myriad factors that lead up to this have to be stated or explained. It is sufficient to note that the vehicle was destroyed. Red Army is a great example of this. Specific details do not make a good story. Humans and how and why they act make a good story. It is never necessary to do anything that is unrealistic, because everything is fictional - if you set a context in which unrealistic things don't need to happen. That is the real work. If you just want to change reality because you can't find a way to make the context work for you, that is lazy writing, and additionally breaks suspension of disbelief.
Now that being said: you must write for your audience. The majority of my war posts are character exposition. Unless I write narrative history, which is just an explanatory thing, there are no numbers or specific details. The audience I am writing for prefer that. Presumably, some people don't. If you are writing for an audience that won't care if a pistol destroys a tank, then go ahead. A good writer should know what level of disbelief his readership will accept and mold that. Personally I do not care for fantasy, but there are some very good fantasy authors. They appeal to their audience very well. But if any of them tried to write a book like The Sun Also Rises, they would probably fail.
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