RP Think Tank

[Oasis Corporation]

I'm working on a map for my region, Shattered Colonies. My goal is to create a clear, easy-to-use, and visually appealing (though, with my poor drawing skills, I doubt I could get that done) map appropriate for the roleplay region's sci fi, space exploration setting. I would love feedback on what I have so far, and even commentary like "Delete your account," or "You can't draw for your life," would be greatly appreciated!

Click the image for a larger, clearer version.
([url=https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/534003101695213608/550437560615305236/Regional_Map.png?width=581&height=406]Image)[/url]

Where's the sun in that system?

It will take the place of some of the unclaimed planets. Beyond the absense of a sun, what are your thoughts on the map? Is it easy to understand and not terribly drawn?

[A m e n r i a]

Completely understandable. Adding some satellites would be cool too though.

[Oasis Corporation]

Completely understandable. Adding some satellites would be cool too though.

Thank you so much! I appreciate the feedback :¬)

[Brandican]

My nation is new, but I have some experience running RPs on NationStates.

I want to participate in a RP between my nation (which is entirely populated by animals) and another nation (preferably one made up of humans). But the RP will take a different route. it will focus on the soldiers and civilians fighting or living during the war and it will not just be a summary of battles. It will be an actual story, not just a catalogue of events.

[Yohannes]

Hi Brandican!

My nation is new, but I have some experience running RPs on NationStates.

Nice

It will be an actual story, not just a catalogue of events.

Narrative storytelling is my favourite too (and news writing)! For war narrative storytelling with a focus in civilian and personnel war storytelling I'd suggest looking at the following in-character post by The Macabees [ click me ], or for power politics (not war instantly), the following post by New Edom [ click me ]

When we read their post it feels like we're reading the story of a book, not just a list of sentences. Other NationStates writers will say fancy things but I'll just say that as for me, I've learnt from observing how real life authors write their books (and also my school's creative writing teachers then)

The best thing I'd say is to practice your writing and keep posting (in-character writing, not out-of-character)

Don't worry about making badly arranged sentences and spelling mistakes on NationStates, because National and International Roleplaying writers are normally easy-going (i.e. relaxed and tolerant), and we all have to start somewhere

In my experience, the best way to practice (or once again polish) your National and International Roleplaying narrative writing on NationStates is by creating "nation maintenance" threads. Some examples are as follows:

• A Nation Of Nations
• Low Life // High Tech
• Mille di Vite in Lux Pulchrae
• Raise the Silver Cup
• Sunset: Then, Now, Tomorrow
• The Sun Never Sets While I'm Here

Alternatively, as my signature says, you're free to copy the way I write (i.e. my sentence construction and tense) from my under-construction fictional book on NationStates: The Archbishop and His Mission

In conclusion, practice and trial and error (i.e. experimenting and failing) are the best way forward. That's all I can say. Good luck and see you round the National and International Roleplaying forums!

Edit: Finally, I'd suggest to try contacting the government players of The Western Isles (or have a free alternate account moving to The Western Isles for fun) - that region is especially good with worldbuilding and crafting stories.

[A m e n r i a]

My nation is new, but I have some experience running RPs on NationStates.

I want to participate in a RP between my nation (which is entirely populated by animals) and another nation (preferably one made up of humans). But the RP will take a different route. it will focus on the soldiers and civilians fighting or living during the war and it will not just be a summary of battles. It will be an actual story, not just a catalogue of events.

I've read your human zoo thread and tbh I want to get involved. Problem is, you're MT and I doubt you want a PMT civ storming into your nation with strike teams. Good luck though.

[Main Nation Ministry]

I had sorta an idea for a non-international incidents RP I can do. You ever heard of the concept of the "home of the future" concept? Or heard of Monsanto's House of the Future? I'm a fan of retro-futurism, so I thought it would be interesting to do a simple RP without violence and focusing on a simple premise. How about several strangers from other nations end up staying in an actual house of the future? Characters can interact with what the house has to occur, along with mingling with the other guests as well. Sounds interesting?

[Neu Engollon]

I had sorta an idea for a non-international incidents RP I can do. You ever heard of the concept of the "home of the future" concept? Or heard of Monsanto's House of the Future? I'm a fan of retro-futurism, so I thought it would be interesting to do a simple RP without violence and focusing on a simple premise. How about several strangers from other nations end up staying in an actual house of the future? Characters can interact with what the house has to occur, along with mingling with the other guests as well. Sounds interesting?

I don't know if it has been done before, but it does sound rather unique and interesting for NS. (Bradbury fan?) Likely best to be put in the Nationstates subforum. As OP, you would really need to be intricately descriptive about what is in this house. You might want to hold back some details for later surprises, but at least have some mundane details already scripted out so that players have some idea of the space and functions of the house that their characters have to work with. Sounds very promising and I will be interested to see how it turns out.

[A m e n r i a]

I had sorta an idea for a non-international incidents RP I can do. You ever heard of the concept of the "home of the future" concept? Or heard of Monsanto's House of the Future? I'm a fan of retro-futurism, so I thought it would be interesting to do a simple RP without violence and focusing on a simple premise. How about several strangers from other nations end up staying in an actual house of the future? Characters can interact with what the house has to occur, along with mingling with the other guests as well. Sounds interesting?

I'm in. That sounds like an Indonesian show that used to be on when I was little.

[Main Nation Ministry]

I don't know if it has been done before, but it does sound rather unique and interesting for NS. (Bradbury fan?) Likely best to be put in the Nationstates subforum. As OP, you would really need to be intricately descriptive about what is in this house. You might want to hold back some details for later surprises, but at least have some mundane details already scripted out so that players have some idea of the space and functions of the house that their characters have to work with. Sounds very promising and I will be interested to see how it turns out.

I think I need to make a worldbuilding thread to see what people would want inside the house. People can suggest rooms and other inventions they would like to see in the house, before the actual OOC thread is up. I did read Bradbury's There Will Come Soft Rains, but I was inspired by Disney's interest in futurism originally. I construct a draft version of the house, before I make a worldbuilding where some changes can be made, if that's ok.

[Akhaja]

I'm thinking of creating a thread for a world RP with a UN RP. Is anyone interested in helping out?

[Socialist Minecraft Server]

Im thinking about what im thinking about what im thinking

[A m e n r i a]

I'm thinking of creating a thread for a world RP with a UN RP. Is anyone interested in helping out?

There's already the WA for that.

[Akhaja]

I'm thinking of creating a thread for a world RP with a UN RP. Is anyone interested in helping out?

There's already the WA for that.

I know that. There isn’t really an RP aspect to the WA, though.

[Brandican]

There's already the WA for that.

I know that. There isn’t really an RP aspect to the WA, though.

There are no aspects to it at all. It's a waste of time and clogs up your telegrams with useless junk.

[Yugobatania]

Hello! This is my first time here in the forums, and an absolute newb at all the terminoligies, but I have an fairly interesting idea. I'm not sure if anyone has done this before, so here we go.

So, it starts of in an early PMT world, in the current world we have within NS, or perhaps later in the future, around 2025-2035. My country, Yugobatania, is proposing to create a global effort for a colonization effort of Mars. This is mainly to boost our image, and to prove to everyone that we're not only known for basket weaving (which for some odd reason is the 2nd highest industry in my country). And if anyone is interested in joining, preparations will begin for building a spacecraft.

We will also need to set up a site to launch the ship (preferably near the equator), and for the nations involved to decide who should go and how many should go. This mission should bring along a spaceship that has cryogenic sleeping cells for the crew to fall asleep in, and wait to arrive at Mars. And perhaps this should also be an IC roleplay, since there are people involved. In the meantime, the ship would be automated until they are almost there. It should also carry supplies for the crew to set up a base camp to survive for at least a year until another supply ship comes.

Depending on how long it takes, once the crew is picked and the launch site built, the rocket is to launch. Until...

BOOM!

The rocket blows up. Soon some nations decide to use this as an excuse to start a war, even though it was a technical error in the system (or it really was sabotaged, depending on what the RP'ers agree on), and tada!

War!

So, what do you think? Any improvements to this general outline?

Also, I thought of a random name for the mission to Mars: Chidden V

[Neu Engollon]

Hello! This is my first time here in the forums, and an absolute newb at all the terminoligies, but I have an fairly interesting idea. I'm not sure if anyone has done this before, so here we go.

So, it starts of in an early PMT world, in the current world we have within NS, or perhaps later in the future, around 2025-2035. My country, Yugobatania, is proposing to create a global effort for a colonization effort of Mars. This is mainly to boost our image, and to prove to everyone that we're not only known for basket weaving (which for some odd reason is the 2nd highest industry in my country). And if anyone is interested in joining, preparations will begin for building a spacecraft.

We will also need to set up a site to launch the ship (preferably near the equator), and for the nations involved to decide who should go and how many should go. This mission should bring along a spaceship that has cryogenic sleeping cells for the crew to fall asleep in, and wait to arrive at Mars. And perhaps this should also be an IC roleplay, since there are people involved. In the meantime, the ship would be automated until they are almost there. It should also carry supplies for the crew to set up a base camp to survive for at least a year until another supply ship comes.

Depending on how long it takes, once the crew is picked and the launch site built, the rocket is to launch. Until...

BOOM!

The rocket blows up. Soon some nations decide to use this as an excuse to start a war, even though it was a technical error in the system (or it really was sabotaged, depending on what the RP'ers agree on), and tada!

War!

So, what do you think? Any improvements to this general outline?

Also, I thought of a random name for the mission to Mars: Chidden V

First off, welcome to the RP forums! Second, our apologies that it has taken a week for anyone to respond.

Your idea is promising and kind of unique, but not totally beyond the realm of similar NS RP. That's not a bad sign. In fact it's the opposite as it means there is likely the interest in such a themed topic...if you tweak it just a bit.

I do know that someone formed an International space agency, but my searches have come up empty on finding the thread. When I do track it down, I will post the link. (Any help is appreciated on that.) A search for 'space' and 'international' turns up threads with a similar set up premise. You might want to contact those players who participated in that international space agency thread or similar threads to recruit interested parties.

Now, the major issue I personally have with your plot is that it requires players to invest in a lot of character development of trained space exploration crew members and national space program background, only to wipe that out early on in the RP.

While that has been an effective shock value trope in story telling in modern media, when it comes to RP, players might not want to invest that amount of effort only to see it wiped out so early on, to then totally switch tracks to your average conflict thread.
At the very least, maybe you could extend it to the crew making it to Mars and then having events there effect international policy at home. Or vice versa, like in 2010 or the last Cloverfield movie where events on Earth effected the international station crew.

All in all, it's still kind of a flimsy excuse for all out war and wasted opportunity to allow more RP of the space exploration aspect of the RP. You might get a couple players interested with the RP set up as is, but you're likely narrowing the field of interested players.

Also, you mentioned some need in knowledge of space exploration and operations. You might want to start doing your research on that as the burden would fall on you as OP to add that sense of realism. Or, alternately, seek out a co-OP who is more versed in the subject.

This is your first venture into being the host of a forum RP, I assume. It's a big undertaking. Don't get discouraged, but I think that starting an interest thread and working some of the plot out with other players will make for a much more beneficial experience for everyone involved.

[Yugobatania]

Hello! This is my first time here in the forums, and an absolute newb at all the terminoligies, but I have an fairly interesting idea. I'm not sure if anyone has done this before, so here we go.

So, it starts of in an early PMT world, in the current world we have within NS, or perhaps later in the future, around 2025-2035. My country, Yugobatania, is proposing to create a global effort for a colonization effort of Mars. This is mainly to boost our image, and to prove to everyone that we're not only known for basket weaving (which for some odd reason is the 2nd highest industry in my country). And if anyone is interested in joining, preparations will begin for building a spacecraft.

We will also need to set up a site to launch the ship (preferably near the equator), and for the nations involved to decide who should go and how many should go. This mission should bring along a spaceship that has cryogenic sleeping cells for the crew to fall asleep in, and wait to arrive at Mars. And perhaps this should also be an IC roleplay, since there are people involved. In the meantime, the ship would be automated until they are almost there. It should also carry supplies for the crew to set up a base camp to survive for at least a year until another supply ship comes.

Depending on how long it takes, once the crew is picked and the launch site built, the rocket is to launch. Until...

BOOM!

The rocket blows up. Soon some nations decide to use this as an excuse to start a war, even though it was a technical error in the system (or it really was sabotaged, depending on what the RP'ers agree on), and tada!

War!

So, what do you think? Any improvements to this general outline?

Also, I thought of a random name for the mission to Mars: Chidden V

First off, welcome to the RP forums! Second, our apologies that it has taken a week for anyone to respond.

Your idea is promising and kind of unique, but not totally beyond the realm of similar NS RP. That's not a bad sign. In fact it's the opposite as it means there is likely the interest in such a themed topic...if you tweak it just a bit.

I do know that someone formed an International space agency, but my searches have come up empty on finding the thread. When I do track it down, I will post the link. (Any help is appreciated on that.) A search for 'space' and 'international' turns up threads with a similar set up premise. You might want to contact those players who participated in that international space agency thread or similar threads to recruit interested parties.

Now, the major issue I personally have with your plot is that it requires players to invest in a lot of character development of trained space exploration crew members and national space program background, only to wipe that out early on in the RP.

While that has been an effective shock value trope in story telling in modern media, when it comes to RP, players might not want to invest that amount of effort only to see it wiped out so early on, to then totally switch tracks to your average conflict thread.
At the very least, maybe you could extend it to the crew making it to Mars and then having events there effect international policy at home. Or vice versa, like in 2010 or the last Cloverfield movie where events on Earth effected the international station crew.

All in all, it's still kind of a flimsy excuse for all out war and wasted opportunity to allow more RP of the space exploration aspect of the RP. You might get a couple players interested with the RP set up as is, but you're likely narrowing the field of interested players.

Also, you mentioned some need in knowledge of space exploration and operations. You might want to start doing your research on that as the burden would fall on you as OP to add that sense of realism. Or, alternately, seek out a co-OP who is more versed in the subject.

This is your first venture into being the host of a forum RP, I assume. It's a big undertaking. Don't get discouraged, but I think that starting an interest thread and working some of the plot out with other players will make for a much more beneficial experience for everyone involved.

*Emerges out of cave*
Wow, I can’t believe someone came by!

And I completely agree with you. Now that I think about it, it would seem like an awful waste of time to kill off a character that the RP’er might get attached to - as with any good movie with good characters, people will get frustrated.

On the other hand though, me and my friend IRL who runs the nation known as the Unian Union of City States are planning on having our own space race. Think of it like the US and the Soviet Union during the 60’s and 70’s.

And thank you very much for taking the time for replying!

*Shakes hand*

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I must go.

*Laughs maniacally before jumping into the water*

[Neu Engollon]

Alright then. I guess the main take-away was don't kill off all the astro peeps. I'm cool with that.

[Vanquaria]

lmao

[Fantawin]

We're doing a role-play and we need one more person. The ideal candidate will have the following qualities (you don't have to have them all, but the more you have, the better):

Have a WA category of Psychotic Dictatorship, Iron-Fist Consumerist or Corporate Police State.
Be able to role-play as a psychotic high school- or college-aged bully.
Be a WA member, or willing to join the WA, and willing to relocate regions.

If you're interested, please telegram Fantawin.

Thank you very much.

[Fantawin]

Your level of RP experience does not matter. Expert, novice or anywhere in between.

[Fantawin]

Offer is still open...

[Fantawin]

It will be fun, I promise!

[Deutschess Kaiserreich]

Parameters are very strict I see. You see most forum players don't use gameside as frankly they are a joke.