Newcomer's Guide to the General Assembly

[Alicorn Princess Twilight Sparkle]

*** Your Guide to the General Assembly (GA): What You Need to Know! ***

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• Proposal Rules & Basic Guidelines
• General Assembly Roleplay Guide
• Submitting A Legality Challenge
• Why Can't I Amend A Resolution?
• Coming Soon in 2026: Updates to the General Assembly

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Welcome to the General Assembly!! This subgame is a simulator of international law, home to a storied community where players can submit proposals for consideration to mould international law. A proposal can be submitted by any WA nation with at least two endorsements, which you can learn more about here.

The General Assembly focuses on policy decisions that impact individual nations, unlike the Security Council, which is oriented towards international relations and security. If your proposal seeks to criticize, extol, or change the impacts of a decision another player has made outside of the General Assembly, your proposal probably belongs in the Security Council, not in this forum. If, on the other hand, your proposal imposes a certain policy or law on other nations, this is the place.

Authors are encouraged to draft proposals in this forum before submitting. This allows experienced players to catch issues in terms of both policy and writing so your proposal has the best chances it can of succeeding at vote. A good rule of thumb is to keep your proposal on the forum for at least a month before submitting; patience is key! After submitting a proposal, you should send a campaign telegram to all WA Delegates encouraging them to approve it; see here for a guide to the process. Proposals not campaigned for are unlikely to garner enough approvals to reach vote.

If you're worried your proposal or someone else's might be illegal, please see Submitting a Legality Challenge later on in this topic.

To get involved in roleplay, just post in-character in someone's thread! Please keep in mind that roleplay in the General Assembly focuses on characters most often called 'ambassadors', that is, a representative from your nation to the General Assembly. While roleplay debate of proposals is more serious, sometimes your character will want to unwind; not to worry, the World Assembly Strangers' Bar is a great place to talk to fellow ambassadors in a relaxed fashion! To learn more about how to engage in RP, check out this post below!

[Alicorn Princess Twilight Sparkle]

*** Proposal Rules & Basic Guidelines ***

The following are the rules for all General Assembly proposals. A proposal which breaks these rules may be marked illegal in the queue, or discarded at vote.

1. Proposal Basics
   
   1. World Assembly Legislation: Proposals must be written as law from the perspective of the World Assembly or General Assembly, not that of your nation, region or another organisation.
      
      • This means proposals need to be laws written by the World Assembly, not "addressed to" it. You are not required to start proposals with "The General Assembly" or "The World Assembly", but it can help provide this perspective.
   2. House of Cards: Proposals must be able to independently stand alone, and cannot rely on existing resolutions to function.
      
      • Referencing other resolutions in the arguments of a repeal is fine, as is referencing committees created by existing resolutions.
   3. Operative Clause: Proposals must contain an operative clause that states what the proposal is actually doing.
      
      • New legislation has to have some recognizable effect on member nations, such as requiring them to take action or encouraging them to support a policy change, a repeal must state that it repeals its target.
      • Proposals cannot create specific rules for individual nations or regions; for example, it is fine to create a law affecting "all nations with a coastline", but not fine to say "all nations with a coastline along The Pacific".
   4. Additional Actions: A repeal can only repeal existing legislation and cannot simultaneously introduce new legislation. No Proposal is able to amend an existing resolution.
   5. Relevant Argument: A repeal must include a relevant argument that addresses the contents of the resolution it is repealing.
2. Fourth Wall
   
   1. NationStates Game: Proposals cannot refer to the game, or events or actions in it, as part of a game.
   2. Real World: The General Assembly exists in the NationStates multiverse, which has similarities to the "real world" but with its own oddities, and without specifically identifiable "real world" things, such as NATO, Taylor Swift, or Melbourne. Proposals therefore cannot reference the "real world" outside of NationStates, such as real world governments, people, places, languages, and organisations.
3. Appropriate Topics
   
   1. Beyond The GA's Capacities: Proposals cannot force compliance on non-member nations. Further, don't use proposals to raise issues that should be dealt with elsewhere, such as rules violations, technical suggestions, or to request new features.
   2. Site Rules: The Site Rules apply to any content submitted to the site, including proposals. In particular, note the Copyright section, which prohibits plagiarism.
      
      • Plagiarism is the theft of another person's work. If a player wishes to submit another's proposal, explicit permission must be obtained and submitted either through a Getting Help Request or Moderation so we have a paper trail. If not, the offender is ejected and the proposal is deleted.
4. Miscellaneous Rules
   
   1. Links: In-game links to nations, regions and UN/WA resolutions are allowed within proposals so long as they are formatted not to show the url. Links to other webpages, whether onsite or offsite, are not permitted.
   2. Branding: Authors should use the in-built mechanics for recording co-authors, rather than listing them in the text of proposals. Lists of supporters or similar are not permitted.
   3. Language: Proposals must be written in English.
   4. Joke Proposals: Proposals intended solely to be 'humorous' or a 'joke' are removed, however, authors may post these in the [SILLY] GA Joke Proposals Only thread.

[Alicorn Princess Twilight Sparkle]

*** General Assembly Roleplay Guide ***

First, let's get into the difference between 'out of character' (OOC) and 'in character' (IC) discussion in the General Assembly. OOC discussion is common for people who are giving feedback, or making legality arguments, or who are evaluating a proposal for reasons that do not pertain directly to the GA. This looks like you posting as a player (e.g., "I oppose 'Ban Chocolate' because it's written poorly and it's broad overreach") However, IC discussion in the GA is permitted in most threads, and is encouraged. Here's how you might oppose the resolution 'Ban Chocolate' IC: "President Jolene J. Jefferson rises to denounce 'Ban Chocolate' as an unacceptable example of broad overreach in the General Assembly which will impoverish and diminish the lives of Haymarketeers."

There are a few ways you can roleplay (RP) in the General Assembly:

• Make a thread with '[RP]' at the front of the title. This will let people know it's a thread only for roleplay, and not for a proposal, for example. Additionally, marking your thread in this way gives you 'thread ownership', meaning you can control who posts in them.
• Roleplay as a character in someone's proposal thread! There's no thread ownership in proposal threads, but your character (most often an ambassador) can speak their mind about how your nation feels about the proposal as it's currently written. Many people choose to give feedback on proposals in character as well.
• Roleplay in your own community! Your region's RMB could be a great place to engage with others about the General Assembly, you may even get to discuss more with your regionmates that way.

Do please keep in mind that the Site Rules still apply to RP, and given that the GA mostly consists of character RP specific to people's position on the WA, a game mechanic, moderation will scrutinize posts that would otherwise be flaming more than we will in other RP forums, similar to our approach in the Gameplay forum.

[Alicorn Princess Twilight Sparkle]

*** Submitting A Legality Challenge ***

Note: This process does not apply to plagarism or other violations of the OSRS rules. To report those types of violations, please submit a Getting Help Request.

Any player may issue a challenge on the legality of a proposal that has been finished or submitted. If Moderation believes a submitted proposal violates the Proposal Rules, but a challenge has not been submitted, it will still review the proposal and deliver a control panel ruling or discard as appropriate.

To file a challenge against a proposal:

1. If a player wishes to file a challenge against a fully drafted or submitted proposal that has not been ruled illegal on the control panel, they should prepare an argument specifying the rules that are broken and why. This argument should list the rules broken and why. To be more helpful, if a player is able to find a past ruling on the issue, they should consider citing it in their argument. Vexatious challenges may be addressed with moderation action. We will not rule on proposals already ruled illegal in the control panel.
   
   
2. The filing player must make a post requesting a challenge in the proposal's drafting thread with their full argument.
   
   
3. If the challenge is urgent or hasn't been responded to in three days, post in the Moderation forum. File a Getting Help Request if confidentiality is important to your request.
   
   
4. Moderation will deliberate, asking players further questions if necessary. After reaching a verdict, moderation will post a ruling and take appropriate action.
   
   
5. Challenges should not be used as a weapon, and Moderators may decline to consider challenges deemed to be untimely or otherwise vexatious. If a challenge is submitted after a proposal has been through a lengthy drafting process, or too long after a proposal was submitted, it is likely to be considered untimely.

[Alicorn Princess Twilight Sparkle]

*** Why Can't I Amend a Resolution? ***

A frequently asked player question:

(ooc: I consider this a dodge by both players and the mods. I have heard second and third hand that players when expressing concern about these matters have been ever so politely told to buzz off, I bring it into the open so it may be addressed in the open rather than ignored individually...so I may judge for myself without a filter just what the actual mechanical difficulty is and why it IS a mechanical difficulty)

The admins worked long and hard on finding a way to address the problem of permanent UN resolutions, which was the policy prior to 2004. They decided that the amendment process was simply too difficult to code effectively, so they went with the repeal code and the strikeout of the prior resolution. Even with recent updates to the code, we have decided not to implement amendments per the 2026 Working Paper, as current rules on contradiction and duplication make it possible for players to effectively amend resolutions already passed. Additionally, repeals are mechanically much easier than amendments.

Let's have a look at the mechanical problem, using Historical Resolution #4 as an example.

UN taxation ban
A resolution to reduce income inequality and increase basic welfare.
Category: Social Justice
Strength: Significant
Proposed by: Nassland

Description: The UN shall not be allowed to collect taxes directly from the citizens of any member state for any purpose.

Let's amend this proposal by taking out the word "not". How would you code an Amendment to reflect this minor change? Would it be different than adding the words "or treasury" between 'citizens' and 'of'? How about changing "for any purpose" to "for any military purpose?

Now, multiply those effects times all the passed resolutions, and correctly anticipate the possible phrasing choices that will be used in all the unwritten proposals yet to hit the floor. Write some code to address all those potential changes. Incorporate it into a simple game where the actual mechanical effects are hidden from the players, so they can't know what the effects really are. Are you starting to see the problem yet?

That's the true, non-evasive answer. Now you see why we don't like writing it out every week when the question gets raised for the umpteenth time.

Originally posted by Frisbeeteria, modified by the NS mod team

[Alicorn Princess Twilight Sparkle]

*** Coming Soon in 2026: Updates to the General Assembly ***

The General Assembly 2026 Working Paper was proposed by Max Barry after extensive conversation with site staff. The first draft set out six proposals that would be added in stages. In December 2026, Max released a followup announcement that a seventh proposal would be added, and that the timeline will extend to July 1, when all coded proposals will be released at once. This thread fulfills our implementation of proposals 2 & 4, which do not require coding by the tech development team. Below are summaries of each proposal in its current state:

• Proposal 1: Blank Slate (Scheduled Implementation: July 1)
  
  • The General Assembly's queue will be cleared, and its former resolutions archived with no way to add to that resolution base. Authors of the 'legacy GA' will retain a badge for their authorship.
• Proposal 2: Simplified Proposal Rules (Implemented December 18, 2025)
  
  • The General Assembly's rules, and challenge procedure, have been modified heavily. Among changes are removal of veracity, duplication, and contradiction, along with a sunsetting of the the categories rule on July 1, 2026 upon the implementation of Proposal 5. The definition of untimeliness has also been modified, inhibiting politicization of legality challenges.
• Proposal 3: World Assembly Secretariat Voting Recommendations (Scheduled Implementation: July 1)
  
  • Create a new group of five positions, including Secretariat-General and four regular members, who have the power to embed dispatches (or possibly write via a bespoke mechanic) directly into At-Vote Resolution pages. It is broadly intended that these dispatches will lay out the case for or against (or both), but the WA Secretariat (WASec) will have significant scope to determine their own protocol. The game will allow WASec members to combine dispatch promotions to effectively form majority and minority opinions. Please note that WASec will also have jurisdiction over the Security Council.
• Proposal 4: Encourage Roleplay Within the GA Forum (Implemented December 18, 2025)
  
  • Additional guidelines have been set out for roleplaying in the General Assembly in this thread, including the tagging of roleplay threads with thread ownership with [RP].
• Proposal 5: Bespoke Statistical Effects (Scheduled Implementation: July 1)
  
  • Each General Assembly resolution will have its own effects coded in. Each resolution may implement or remove policies from your nation. Editors will custom code these effects, much like issues, for each resolution. Once this is implemented, the category rule will become defunct. We anticipate the updated quorum procedure in combination with the reduction of political challenges to resolutions will streamline this workflow.
• Proposal 6: Rework the User Interface for WA Pages (Scheduled Implementation: July 1)
  
  • Moderation will add links to the discussion thread on the forum for every at-vote resolution, GA or SC. Additionally, past UN, legacy GA, and updated GA resolutions will be able to be searched readily, including using more advanced search techniques.
• Proposal 7: Enforced Compliance (Scheduled Implementation: July 1)
  
  • If your policies are misaligned with resolutions in the General Assembly, you will be marked as 'non-compliant' for that resolution. A certain percentage of resolutions, which will increase over the course of several months as new resolutions are adopted. You will be able to opt in when you join the GA to comply with all GA resolutions, and there will be an option in the 'Settings' menu as well. Alternatively, you can choose which resolutions to comply with manually. We are anticipating that as more resolutions are passed, we will additionally code in categorizations of resolutions for filtering, coordinated with previous changes in Proposal 6. There will be consequences for being non-compliant, including an indication of it on your nation, reduced voting rights in the WA, and more.