SC Questions & Answers

[Sedgistan]

Got a niggling question and just can't find the answer?
Wondered about something SC related but never found the place to ask?

Look no further, we now have a Q&A thread, for all your random questions need.

If your question is related to an existing proposal, please use the relevant thread.

[The Democratic Kingdom]

what is "SC?"

[Abhichandra]

what is "SC?"

Security Council

[The Democratic Kingdom]

what is "SC?"

Security Council

thanks

[Tinhampton]

What will be the future of the SC Rules Discussion thread?

[Sedgistan]

I'm inclined to leave it be (open) as it's better suited to in-depth rules discussions, while this is more of a short question and answer thread.

[German Wehrmacht]

Just curious.

[Drasnia]

The region gets a badge on the region page. That's it.

[Mallorea and Riva]

Just curious.

Merged into the Q/A thread.

[German Wehrmacht]

Just curious.

Merged into the Q/A thread.

Thanks

[Mallorea and Riva]

Merged into the Q/A thread.

Thanks

No problem. The above answer is correct from a mechanics perspective. It's no different from a nation being condemned, like mine is. You get the badge that links to the resolution. Any social/political consequences that result are purely up to the players.

[North Yo]

Is it possible to have both a condemnation/commendation and a liberation?

[Mallorea and Riva]

Is it possible to have both a condemnation/commendation and a liberation?

Yes. As long as the rules are followed, you can have as many badges as the voters want you to.

[Abhichandra]

So I'm a little confused. The GA is IC, but is the SC OOC? (Should c/c's be written in IC or OOC)?

[Mallorea and Riva]

So I'm a little confused. The GA is IC, but is the SC OOC? (Should c/c's be written in IC or OOC)?

Yeah this is a confusing bit. SC resolutions are written from an IC perspective per Rule 4. The debates, however, are almost always OOC. The question is whether they really are OOC, or if our gameplay personas are our "IC" way of playing the game. So there are three different potential levels to look at it (or more), totally OOC, IC per Rule 4, and IC per gameplay.

tl;dr see Rule 4.

[Unibot III]

The IC/OOC distinction is not exactly specific enough...

If we're talking about drafting and drafting discussions, culturally the GA is divided over whether drafting ought to be done IC or OOC (you'll see both), drafting and discussions resolutions IC in the SC, meanwhile, is far, far, far rarer. A culture of SC roleplay never exactly caught on (in part because the controversial creation of Rule IV kind of sucked the oxygen out of the SC community at the time: we were forced to fight for 'gameplay rights' in the SC and there was a lot of infighting between the GA's roleplayers and the SC's gameplayers making it uncomfortable to be a SC roleplayer.)

If we're talking about resolutions, both the GA and the SC require that resolutions be written from the perspective of the World Assembly (which you might call "IC") but they have different standards. In the GA, that test is made of a trinity of the metagaming rule, the real world reference rule, and the game mechanics rule which is the tougher test. You can't, for example, discuss 'regional passwords' in GA resolutions because that's beyond the scope of the GA and its roleplayed subjects - discussing regional passwords would be a metagaming violation and potentially a game mechanics violation.

The test in the SC, Rule IV, is far looser and flexible to allow the SC to discuss matters related to NS Gameplay and NS Roleplay. Rule IV is broken into four parts: A is analogous to the GA's real world reference rule, B & C can be thought of as the SC's metagaming rules, D is a format violation in the GA, and the SC's Rule III fulfills the role of the GA's game mechanics rule. Rule IV B & C are where the SC diverges from the GA because it's a much more flexible protocol than the GA: the GA is limited to talking about 'roleplayed' national matters (health, the environment, security etc.) whereas the SC can talk about regional passwords too and World Factbook Entries and Regional Message Boards. Provided you make it understandable and intelligible within the confines of the game, you can pass Rule IV B &C. In others, in the SC, you can break the fourth wall provided you make it sound like you aren't, whereas in the GA, you are not ever allowed to break the fourth wall. This is where SC authors have to deploy a certain genius to circumvent Rule IV artfully.

[Mallorea and Riva]

This is where SC authors have to deploy a certain genius to circumvent Rule IV artfully.

We don't circumvent, we Creatively Comply.

[Drasnia]

This is where SC authors have to deploy a certain genius to circumvent Rule IV artfully.

We don't circumvent, we Creatively Comply.

Alright, Kenny.

[Germaustia]

Quick question, this will most likely become a debate, but why on Earth is the only thing that comes through the SC, Commendations. Every time something is at vote, its never an actual matter, its about someone doing something to get a commendation. Point I'm trying to ask is why do we have Commendations, when we could easily be putting up better things for vote, not someone getting a commendation over some 'Defense of a region' that no one has heard of. There should be restriction to the amount of Commendations, because we get at least 5 per month, and it shouldn't only be Commendations coming up within SC, to waste space.

[Bhang Bhang Duc]

The Security Council can only do three things; Commend a nation or region, Condemn a nation or region and Liberate a region. It can also repeal previously passed resolutions. This is what it was designed to do.

If you think it should be doing other "stuff" then your understanding of the SC's purpose may be faulty.

[Unibot III]

Quick question, this will most likely become a debate, but why on Earth is the only thing that comes through the SC, Commendations. Every time something is at vote, its never an actual matter, its about someone doing something to get a commendation. Point I'm trying to ask is why do we have Commendations, when we could easily be putting up better things for vote, not someone getting a commendation over some 'Defense of a region' that no one has heard of. There should be restriction to the amount of Commendations, because we get at least 5 per month, and it shouldn't only be Commendations coming up within SC, to waste space.

There is a limit per month on commendations: it's 7. Voting takes four days, so it's physically impossible in most circumstances to commend more than seven nominees a month. Honestly, it's usually far less than that. Probably more like once a month (with several failing.)

The SC queue is not very busy with condemnations or liberations these days so I don't see the harm in commendations going to vote. Once military gameplay starts getting more active, the SC will get more involved in liberating special cases - but without targets for liberations, the SC has nothing to proceed on.

[Drasnia]

Quick question, this will most likely become a debate, but why on Earth is the only thing that comes through the SC, Commendations. Every time something is at vote, its never an actual matter, its about someone doing something to get a commendation. Point I'm trying to ask is why do we have Commendations, when we could easily be putting up better things for vote, not someone getting a commendation over some 'Defense of a region' that no one has heard of. There should be restriction to the amount of Commendations, because we get at least 5 per month, and it shouldn't only be Commendations coming up within SC, to waste space.

There is a limit per month on commendations: it's 7. Voting takes four days, so it's physically impossible in most circumstances to commend more than seven nominees a month. Honestly, it's usually far less than that. Probably more like once a month (with several failing.)

The SC queue is not very busy with condemnations or liberations these days so I don't see the harm in commendations going to vote. Once military gameplay starts getting more active, the SC will get more involved in liberating special cases - but without targets for liberations, the SC has nothing to proceed on.

Just to piggyback on to this, the SC is often very cyclical. For the longest time the only thing we ever seemed to vote on were liberations. Before then condemnations. It's nice that we're finally getting around to commending some people because it had been quite a while since we had.

[Greater Hunnia]

Question: is it legal to write a condemnation in reaction to a draft that didn't make it to the SC? I know that proposals are supposed to be about in the game stuff, but I don't know if drafts fall into this category, or only drafts that made it to vote canonically exist in NS.

[Bhang Bhang Duc]

Question: is it legal to write a condemnation in reaction to a draft that didn't make it to the SC? I know that proposals are supposed to be about in the game stuff, but I don't know if drafts fall into this category, or only drafts that made it to vote canonically exist in NS.

See the ruling on tit-for-tat proposals here:

viewtopic.php?p=3755848#tit_for_tat

If you're going to submit a proposal to condemn Humberistan solely based on the fact that they have drafted a condemnation of your region, then I suspect that it would fall foul of this ruling. Make it more substantive than that and you should be fine.

[Greater Hunnia]

Question: is it legal to write a condemnation in reaction to a draft that didn't make it to the SC? I know that proposals are supposed to be about in the game stuff, but I don't know if drafts fall into this category, or only drafts that made it to vote canonically exist in NS.

See the ruling on tit-for-tat proposals here:

viewtopic.php?p=3755848#tit_for_tat

If you're going to submit a proposal to condemn Humberistan solely based on the fact that they have drafted a condemnation of your region, then I suspect that it would fall foul of this ruling. Make it more substantive than that and you should be fine.

I'll keep that in my mind, but my original question persists: do drafts that fail to make it to the SC exist canonically in the game, thus can be referenced in further proposals?