The War Within Astholm RP [OOC/IDEAS THREAD]

[Astholm]

I was thinking about writing a war RP, since these are obviously popular on here, but with one thing that's different here; it's from the perspective of the victims - ordinary people going about their business, rather than soldiers or mercenaries.

It could go one of two ways:
A civil war - causes of it to be determined. RP'd from perspective of citizens etc. Character bio, side supported etc.
A foreign power attacking the nation - As above.

The period it is set in is during the 1980s (mid-1980s - early 1990s) and the nation is geographically but not politically part of Astholm. Culturally its people speak these languages:
English, French, Dutch and German, with Italian and Flemish also spoken; the official language is English.

It would be a small nation, within the continent of Astholm, an island (or an inland) nation that is 83,855 km² (32,377 sq. mi) in size.

I will allow puppets in this since Astholm, as a nation, also gives its name to a continent too, and I have used puppets every now and then elsewhere.

One thing; I am new to war RPs, and not good at them at all, so this will be an opportunity for me to practice.

Any OOC discussion can go here to save (OOC: ) comments in the IC thread.

The obvious rules apply - no godmoding etc.

If anyone's interested TG me, or post on here.

[Aurora Confederacy]

wars not my thing, BUT what about a Falklands themed one?

[New Edom]

I'd be willing to help out, actually. I'm very good at this kind of thing, my writing is very fair, and I use a population cap.

What I have as suggestions are the following:

1. LImit character types if you want to avoid typical war problems. Like I would suggest the following:
- journalists
- ordinary citizens/refugees
- civilian aid workers
- local politicians (nothing more than say Members of Parliament/whatever legislature, local councillors, etc)
- students/children

2. Have one or two combatants who are mostly off camera. You'd need some interaction with military personnel, but pick them very carefully. One good way to do this would be for them to have (this may seem weird but bear with me) their own separate thread or discussion where they deal with the war, and the events filter down to your descriptions of what the ordinary folk deal with.

What I'm picturing for this is something like, for example, one army shells a location; they are unaware of the ordinary lives of the citizens. They don't realize that destroying the transformer station makes things terrible for the inhabitants of a nearby city.

3. Use rping examples carefully. Day in the life and character threads often end up being degraded by poor or short writing.

[Astholm]

I'd be willing to help out, actually. I'm very good at this kind of thing, my writing is very fair, and I use a population cap.

What I have as suggestions are the following:

1. LImit character types if you want to avoid typical war problems. Like I would suggest the following:
- journalists
- ordinary citizens/refugees
- civilian aid workers
- local politicians (nothing more than say Members of Parliament/whatever legislature, local councillors, etc)
- students/children

2. Have one or two combatants who are mostly off camera. You'd need some interaction with military personnel, but pick them very carefully. One good way to do this would be for them to have (this may seem weird but bear with me) their own separate thread or discussion where they deal with the war, and the events filter down to your descriptions of what the ordinary folk deal with.

What I'm picturing for this is something like, for example, one army shells a location; they are unaware of the ordinary lives of the citizens. They don't realize that destroying the transformer station makes things terrible for the inhabitants of a nearby city.

3. Use rping examples carefully. Day in the life and character threads often end up being degraded by poor or short writing.

New Edom, you are invited and accepted to the RP.
In reply to your points:

1. They were the sorts of characters I was aiming for, so you weren't far off.

2. Interesting approach; I'd need some help on writing this. I'm using the Military Realism thread to try and do this.

3. This is less of a "day-in-the-life" sort of thread. I need to get better at writing; my daily life in Astholm RP (see here) is average writing, but it was my first "go" - as such it's being rebooted. But I'll get better over time by practising.

As for the nation size, is that a fair enough one, or should it be smaller?

[New Edom]

I'll have to think about the size.

I think also having a general story with some subplots would help too. Like have a general story, and give everyone a personal story of some kind.

[Astholm]

Thanks for that idea!

As for the general war itself, I'm trying to avoid "LOOK AT MY HUMONGOUS WARSHIP!! YOU BADDIES WILLL DIEEE!" [not exact words, but that's the gist of it] type RPs.

With regard to the personal stories of some kind:

Politician who wants to help people - and is not in it for the PR opportunities, he genuinely is helpful
Oppressed family
Corrupt leadership / arms dealers
Mercenary figure
Soldiers