RPing Questions? Ask Here!

[Sunset]

What would an economic downtown look like in a democratic socialist nation without a stock market? In capitalist countries, we generally rely on the stock market as a barometer of economic health, so I'm having trouble finding a way to describe it without that as a reference point. Not to mention that in a democratic socialist nation, government programs and regulation should ideally be helping cushion the fall. That's not always the case in real life, of course, but again, I'm having trouble finding ways to describe the downturn in a way that makes it a major event. For reference, this needs to be large enough to swing the election away from the incumbent socialist party.

Unemployment figures, such as the percentage of people on government income assistance, the number of people with part time jobs looking for full time jobs, the number of people on nutritional/housing assistance. The stock market is overall a rather poor indicator of how well an economy is doing because it is fake money. 'Value' is often created based on emotions, hunches, and bets rather than tangible increases in production, productivity, employment, or the like. If you want a semi-simplistic pair of numbers go with the GDP and the HDI - Gross Domestic Product and Human Development Index. If your GDP is up and your HDI is down, your people are being run ragged at the expense of the wealthy. If your GDP and HDI are both up, things are good for the average person. If your GDP is going down and your HDI is down, then things are really bad. It is simplistic - so it depends on who is putting out the numbers. Remember that both sides will put out the numbers that best favor their desired results!

[The Macabees]

What would an economic downtown look like in a democratic socialist nation without a stock market?

There are competing theories as to why economic recessions happen, but empirically it has to do with an increase in bank credit and the sudden implosion of that credit. Call it a natural consequence of price distortion, banker irresponsibility, or animal spirits.

If you don't have a stock market, it suggests that your banking system is relatively primitive to an economy with a stock market and, as a result, credit cycles in your country would be different (if they happened at all).

I would say, then, that the nature of that economic downturn would be different and have different causes.

I wouldn't say the stock market is "fake money" either. You can definitely have overvalued stocks and I suppose the contraction of the stock price when it returns to its true price would create a difference that you could call "fake money," but that way of seeing things is not useful for knowing why stocks are overvalued in the first place and what the nature of the stock market is really like.

Innovations in the stock market in the U.S., for example, -- namely during the 50s and 60s -- allowed normal Americans to earn capital earnings when prior to that most Americans couldn't afford the price of a single stock. That innovation was partial ownership of a stock. Without that, it's hard to imagine things like 401s and Roth IRAs, which should be a staple of any person's portfolio, I don't care if you put only $50/mo. because that's all you can afford. If you're not investing in the stock market, then you're losing out and you'll be worse off in life when you retire (all the same, when stocks crash don't pull out -- stocks tend to always recover; when stocks crash, buy more stocks because they're cheap).

Digressing, stock market crashes are symptoms, not causes. A stock price may be overvalued because the company is earning more revenue because of distortions in the costs of production or in the amount that their buyers can afford. When credit is easy and cheap, consumer spending tends to go up and investment into these products tend to go up, all the way back the production process. When this credit dries up, so does the source of revenue and stocks fall as a result.

The truth is that economic downturns are highly complex events. The 2007 recession did see a stock market crash, but the real damage had happened in repo markets. Repo markets are overnight cash transactions between big companies and financial institutions. Big companies lend overnight to banks to help banks cover short-term liabilities. Prior to the 2007 recession, these banks were using mortgage backed securities -- rated triple-A by government-sponsored rating agencies -- as collateral, so when these MBS' lost most of their value the repo market crashed. Banks couldn't cover short-term liabilities and they became illiquid. (The irony is that had the government been a little smarter it wouldn't have necessarily needed to bail out any banks. The bailout rules were based on regulations that force banks into bankruptcy when they are illiquid. But most of those MBS' regained 70-90% of their value by the end of the year, meaning that most banks were still solvent and could have survived on their own. Alas.)

But you wouldn't find that repo market in 1929.

Tangentially, financial markets are interconnected and building blocks to each other. Can you have a repo market without a stock market? Technically, repo markets are more closely related to bond markets, but why have no stock markets and have bond markets? That would distort financial markets towards the biggest players, which seems contrary to democratic socialism.

Long story short, I think to get a good idea of what an economic downturn in your country would look like you'd need to flesh out that financial system.

P.S.

Better indicators for economic downturns are industrial output and producers' goods price indexes.

The latter measures fluctuations in capital goods' prices, which are more sensitive to economic downturns than consumer price indexes (especially CPIs without energy or food factored in -- you always want to exclude energy and food because they skew the volatility and they are just naturally volatile goods, so their volatility isn't necessarily entirely related to economic downturns. If an economic downturn causes fluctuations in the CPI, then you'd see them in an index without energy and food too).

Industrial output in the U.S.: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/INDPRO
Producers' price index in the U.S.: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/PPIACO

[Kuriyama]

Thank you for the detailed replies! I'm thinking I might just retcon the content I've posted so far and reboot as a social democrat nation. I'm more familiar with how to roleplay those, and it's easier to find real life reference material.

[The Archipelago Territory]

Do you have to send a telegram for “open” posts? Or can you just join? Someone told me I have to tg to join an open post.

[Sunset]

Do you have to send a telegram for “open” posts? Or can you just join? Someone told me I have to tg to join an open post.

I suppose that depends on your definition of the word 'Open'. When I mark an RP thread as 'Open', I mean it - as long as 'you' stick to the rules laid out in the opening post then you are free to post; no TG necessary. That said, I would then read the first post carefully. The author's intention may have been that the RP itself was 'open' to everyone regardless of their situation while still wanting a telegram exchange so as to establish some basic parameters.

A telegram is always safe though - even if the answer is 'just post!'

[The Archipelago Territory]

No one responds to my International Incidents posts. How can I make them more attractive?

[Hobbeebia]

You need to ask yourself a question before you even think about putting out an I.I. post.

"What kind of RPers do I want to respond?"

There are many role players out there that are newer and will reply with short snip it posts that often times lack substance and direction normally chalk full of numbers and 9 times out of 10 normally hyper-aggressive. If you looking for high volume rps keep doing what your doing. However, if your looking for Role players that are looking to write good stories and build lore and flesh out their nations, think about building up your posts with details, and plenty of character development. Remember, you don't always have to be at war or burning your nation down with civil unrest.

Also think about the role your nation plays in the greater world. I tend to RP a hero nation while players like Automagfreek back in the day, played as a chaotic neutral and Raven Corps plays villain nation being a default boogyman for everyone to hate and fear. If you know who you are and how your nation should and will act on the global stage you will attrach other nations that either compliment or oppose your will.

And lastly, don't worry about trying to start your own threads so much. Find an open RP that fits in your timeline and jump in. build your RP experience and make friends and connections. Those players you interact with regularly will oftentimes come and reply and your threads if you do the same for them.

[Shizshow]

((OOC, obviously))

Hi! I'm just starting out. I think the way this site is set up gives a lot of opportunities for good storytelling. I have the start of my story down, and a good arc in my head. I could just wait for more issues, and log in my factbook over time, but I would like to take my leader character and have her interact with some other leaders.

There seems to be a lot of different ways people play this game. I would like to join an area that is friendly towards my playstyle.

My character is a young, unhinged queen whose main objective is to keep her citizens from gaining any power at all. This is because her mother had a mental breakdown and was killed because the citizens thought she had demons in her. My queen is now stuck ruling a nation at 14. She does not understand politics, she does not understand the economy, she blames religion for her mother's death and hates it, and she's used to getting whatever she wants whenever she wants. She has no qualms with executions, and has decided that humans are scum that are killing the earth, so she is fine with making people live in squalor as long as her environment is clean. She also has a very active, and sadistic imagination, and she's slowly going mad in the same way her mother did, and is constantly paranoid that people will kill her.

But...she is also an extremely fun character to write.

I could use tips on how I can develop this character and this world as well as interacting with other nations, and playing by the rules. If someone could show me the ropes and would like to interact with a mad queen, hit me up, or give me advice. Thanks!

[Ponderosa]

This isn't exactly the right forum for this. Worldbuilding is usually done in the Factbooks and National Information board. I would post there if you want to roleplay both as the queen and the entire nation. For example, in my old region, I once roleplayed as the President of Ponderosa, dealing with a massive restructuring of the world's nations after a World War. I also controlled every other person within my country. Everyone else roleplayed first as the leader of their country, then as their subordinates and citizens. If that sort of thing is what you're going for, that's probably the spot for you.

If you aren't looking to start an international roleplay, and want to keep it all within one country, you might consider Portal to the Multiverse. I'm not too familiar with it, but if you just want to roleplay the queen, and everyone else is going to be the citizens, you'd probably want to start there.

If you don't necessarily want other people involved besides reading it, I'd stick to factbooks, or perhaps the RMB of a willing roleplay region.

[Bears Armed]

If you aren't looking to start an international roleplay, and want to keep it all within one country, you might consider Portal to the Multiverse. I'm not too familiar with it

It's for RP that doesn't involve people's NS nations at all.

[Kylarnatia]

If you aren't looking to start an international roleplay, and want to keep it all within one country, you might consider Portal to the Multiverse. I'm not too familiar with it

It's for RP that doesn't involve people's NS nations at all.

Correct. A better forum for what Shizshow is looking to do would be NationStates, and what you'd be looking to establish is what is referred to as a National Maintenance Thread. This is almost like a solo roleplay (though you can invite others to join / co-write with you at certain intervals) where you write about your nation and particular characters in it on topics entirely of your choosing (so long as it's all PG-13, of course) either through short stories or a larger arc over several posts.

[Delmonte]

No one responds to my International Incidents posts. How can I make them more attractive?

I've seen you popping up a bit and I like to write. If there's something that grabs my fancy, I will almost always set aside time to bang out a post and join in. I can only answer for myself. Not for anyone else. I will take this moment to say that this post is going to have tough love in it. I feel like the people responding to you are dancing around some elephants in the room, but baby I've got an elephant gun and a tusking kit. If you do not want tough love, just stop reading. No, really, just stop reading this. Nobody can make you.

Now that you've been warned, let's look at this post in particular:

viewtopic.php?f=5&t=465879

The reason why I wouldn't join this is it's bad. Here are the things that are bad:

1: I have to fill out a f***ing application. If you need an application for your RP you're not getting good writers in the first place, generally. Unless it's in Portal to the Multiverse or something. You're not going to find out about my nation after a colon on a copy-paste form. You're going to find out about it from dialogue and from narrative description. Because that's what writing is.

2: It's boring. Have you ever read a book that began "Here's what's going to happen, first of all let me tell you there's going to be twists and turns but eventually he's gonna get the girl." I don't think you have, because that book has never been published because it's boring. I don't even use OOC threads. But if you do use them for the love of God don't expect it to get me interested. I want to see compelling writing that sets my heart on fire and makes me smile and think "Yeah, my characters could do something with this."

If you want me, personally, to be interested in writing with you, you need to write and you need to write well. That means complete sentences. It means building a setting. It means having characters that, while not necessarily possessing a character arc, are not wooden and have SOME personality. It means telling me about your nation and I mean REALLY telling me about it. Tell me something about your nation that's different for crying out loud.

3: What could I do?! This is a problem that new nations run up against a lot (and I was totally guilty of this early on as well!): Doing things that either can't really be responded to or can't be responded to in an interesting way. Realistically, what is the Most Serene Republic of Delmonte going to do about some nutjob in your nation other than sit back, watch, and maybe release a public statement saying "#ThoughtsandPrayers"? If you want me, personally, to write with you I need something to do. I don't just want to be a backup dancer in an RP. Fuck that noise. I have my own characters that I like and want to get time in the limelight. The best way I've found to get people to write with me is asking them about what they think is the coolest part of their nation and figuring out a way to write around that.

4: It's lazy writing. Again, I'm going to be completely frank with you in the interests of helping you improve. Your writing, by and large, does not reflect effort. It is a sad, sad fact that good writers/roleplayers do not want their writing associated with low effort writing. I am no different. I do not want this:

viewtopic.php?f=5&t=465424

In the same thread as this:

viewtopic.php?p=35780300#p35780300

It would be unfair to expect me to mix the two. You do not need to be an amazingly talented writer to put forth writing that contains effort. It's the difference between "This symbol is the roundel of Argentina. The Archipelago Territory denies all involvement in the attack and expresses its condolences to your Nation." and typing out an actual communique with a header and fonts. You don't have to set the world on fire or have an amazing emblem in photoshop. Just don't speak as the disembodied voice of your nation on the forums. Do something like this:

viewtopic.php?p=3513829#p3513829

Look, the length of the communique in this case is unimportant (although I'd make it a bit longer than you did...) what's important is he does a couple things:

1: Addresses the communique to someone in particular.

2: The communique is FROM someone in his nation (A CHARACTER) in particular.

3: He's got a header making it look vaguely official. Having a national seal is nice, but not required.

4: It's signed.

5: It sounds official.

6: There's no confusion about who is saying what. Some guy applied for an embassy. The foreign ministry is giving him the embassy because obviously, that's the point of an embassy program. He thanks him and then there's a bunch of nonsense that is... frankly a bit flowery for my liking, but maybe that's just his character! I try to make my characters write communiques slightly differently from one another.

There's a right and a wrong way to do things, namely the high effort way and low effort way. Doing things low effort is a choice. You can choose to be better. Yes, it will take more work. But good writers will be more inclined to write with you and even give you advice. If you don't want to, sure, you can keep writing 2-3 sentence low effort posts saddled with other low effort posts. And it's okay. It'll always be okay. You can make okay posts in okay threads and other okay writers will write okay things in those okay threads and it will all be okay. Or you can be better.

I'd like to end on a good note so I'll point out:

1: You're here. Which means you care. That's the first step towards being good at anything.

2: You're already a better writer than anyone who doesn't try, which is probably like 90% of the population or more. So in terms of a bell curve, you're already ahead.

[The Archipelago Territory]

1) I don't have a national seal, but each department/agency in my nation has one
2) that was a rushed post you quoted, this one here I quoted for you is much better viewtopic.php?t=465782&f=5&view=unread
I Quoted it here so it’s easier to read and you don’t have to click the link:

2 Hours Earlier

Command Ops, New Lifewell Executive Command Center
(Image)
The President rushed into the war room, and sat down in his chair. Tons of generals and others were standing, wondering why he had called them there. “We’re going to war” he he said, sitting down. It came as a surprise to all except for Vice President Cooper, the President’s wife, Sofia (who was not normally present in the war room), and his Secretary of Military Affairs, who had all been informed prior to his announcement. Even the Acting Secretary of Foreign Affairs and the Commander in Chief of the International Guard were shocked.

“Might I ask why my Agency, which is critical for a war effort, was not informed prior to today, and why we are going to war?” asked Head of the Federal Cybersecurity Agency. The President hesitated. “Today, I was informed by my Chief Advisor that a Nation about 100 miles out from here, which borders us (it is 2 miles from our waters) was going to invade its nearby territories in order to expand. This unprovoked act of war will not be tolerated.” As the top military officials discussed their options for two hours, the F.R.S. Richmond was on its way to South Reinkalistan. They had no idea what was coming. While they would be worried about an Aircraft Carrier being sent to their Nation, 10 bombers would be flying to South Reinkalistan, ready to strike Tosdoda Harbor and the HMS Sarkos, slowing down the ship for a couple hours.

(Image)
At Franklin Air Force Base, members of the International Guard Air Brigade, a branch of the Department of Foreign Affairs, not a military unit, is preparing to attack South Reinkalistan, and the Media is already writing stories about the unusual activity. They seem to support the war, mostly interpreting King Sarkos’ words as threats, and are inviting military experts to figure out the situation.

Some newspapers, however, are fearing a war on Archipelago soil, and are writing things like this: “The President doesn’t want to wait until South Reinkalistan gets too powerful, and he wants war to show off his military to the international stage, although he would never admit it.” International Guard member Commander Vasquez was being deployed for the third time. He resented the current government. This new President was exploiting the International Guard. Before, the former President only deployed them during a crisis, they were sort of like a fast response unit. But now, instead of using the military to settle his problems, the new President insisted on using the International Guard. Commander Vasquez’s pilots didn’t look so happy either. Instead of allying with South Reinkalistan, the President decided to attack them, even though they had allied with the Raven Corps and several other significant powers.

Meanwhile, the Head of the Federal Cybersecurity Agency wasn’t happy either. “Can you believe it? The President didn’t tell me about a war, then sent me here to this Air Force base just because it has good government-issued VPNs? Normally when I conducted a Cyberattack I had a team with me in my computer room, assisting me. Now he sent me here with you.” He was with three of his agents, a significant downsize from his 50-person computer room. The President underestimated how many agents he would need to pull this off. The International Guard and Archipelago Military (600,000 men) are both smaller than South Reinkalistan’s and the Raven Corps’ army. They wouldn’t stand a chance without a few cyberattacks to intercept communications.

Base Commander John Mardon, who was deploying the troops, was in favor of the attack. He knew that the Archipelago Military, like most others, worked better attacking, not defending. As he looked past his family photos, he shook hands with the pilots who were risking their lives today. While he was worried about the fight, the Tornado GR4s would strike, then regroup and head back to the base before they could be shot down. If any large land forces or naval ships attempted to follow, planes would fly over them and stop them from entering the Archipelago Territory. As he was in his office, the Lieutenant Base Commander passed by. “Sir we’re good to go in 5 minutes.” As he made his way to the runway, John was surprised to see the President there. He saluted him, and the President saluted back. The planes took off, as the President waved. “I thought you were at the Command Center” John tried to say over the roaring engine noises. “I thought I should stop here,” answered the President. “It’s a nice symbolic gesture, and I thought I should pay respects to the Soldiers who are risking their lives. The planes took off, flying to South Reinkalistan.

[The Archipelago Territory]

I know how to write long posts, but I only write them for important threads to save time.

[Delmonte]

That is certainly a bit better. If you did everything like that, I'd write with you. I'd say that if it's not worth writing well, it's just not worth writing. But that's just me.

[Shwe Tu Colony]

1: I have to fill out a f***ing application. If you need an application for your RP you're not getting good writers in the first place, generally. Unless it's in Portal to the Multiverse or something. You're not going to find out about my nation after a colon on a copy-paste form. You're going to find out about it from dialogue and from narrative description. Because that's what writing is.

I do agree that I'd rather discover more of someone's nation via not application since it provides a sense of realistic discovery & need to research versus the "here's my business card ma'am" of an application that you'd ICly probably not request in that way, I've felt that the community seems to favor roleplays with applications. That said, it may have just been other factors that caused my no-signup threads to inevitably die away seemingly quicker than other threads. When trying to find new people to join into roleplays, it seems like applications make it easier for them to establish a base ground versus no sign-ups, which do range from more private threads to new folks just wanting to get something in. In the former case — which seems to be where most of the good writers are anyway — some still are flourishing little roleplays. Good writing needs good communication & thus someone you may already somewhat know — applications therefore aren't necessary.

I will say that I've always held a bit of an apathy towards applications for my things, since my first roleplay & the one that I'd argue really helped set up my love for NationStates didn't have any. It was a pretty wild roleplay, & to this day I still use that chaotic energy to, admittedly, a fault. I still feel that it's necessary for applications since, as I said, it seems that's my only way of giving me some semblance of order in my rather impulsive, but apparently not bad, writing. They're pretty minimal applications though, because in the end, I really just don't care for them. Heck, I really doubt I even use them, especially in my most recent thread, except where to park my city, because I'd rather not have to give a malleable ambiguous statement of "the city floated to where it was supposed to" since that sounds lazy. I'd rather it be a surprise than have to prod you constantly in expectation of a post after your application, especially since I'm not one to post reliably myself.

Now, I have found respectable roleplays where applications weren't necessary, but they're rarer versus the countless other greenhorn no-application roleplays or respectable application-requiring ones. Anyway, now that I know there are still people out there who don't care for applications as much, I'll probably be testing out a no-application roleplay in the fall, to see if I'd still attract the same/similar people who are willing to roleplay with me, but the Shwe experience is... not great if you haven't followed me for a while. & even for those who have, it's still confusing as all heck & you're probably bound to miss a detail or two I mentioned. My defense is that it's accurate to just how weird it is if you forget every now & then, but it's probably grating for my hyperfixations & thus what I'm writing about to shift constantly.

[Nutgearria]

I was wondering how does warfare work here? Is it any way you like or is it something else? I'm curious.

[The Free Joy State]

There is no war mechanism in NationStates, but you can RP war.

To do that, you'd need to go to International Incidents, where they have resources to help you in the stickies at the top. RP is quite involved, so you'd need to read the resources like this for new players.

We in GI can't help you much, I'm afraid.

[Merni]

There is no war mechanism in NationStates, but you can RP war.

To do that, you'd need to go to International Incidents, where they have resources to help you in the stickies at the top. RP is quite involved, so you'd need to read the resources like this for new players.

We in GI can't help you much, I'm afraid.

There's also the regional invasion mechanic, for which you should consult Gameplay.

[Trotterdam]

And there's a few issues where you can decide to go to war against an NPC nation, most notable the Brasilistan issue chain, but there's no actual wargame. You just automatically win, because the game engine isn't designed to handle your nation actually being defeated.

[Nutgearria]

There is no war mechanism in NationStates, but you can RP war.

To do that, you'd need to go to International Incidents, where they have resources to help you in the stickies at the top. RP is quite involved, so you'd need to read the resources like this for new players.

We in GI can't help you much, I'm afraid.

Kindly asking, how in any shape or form should i RP a war?

[Sunset]

There is no war mechanism in NationStates, but you can RP war.

To do that, you'd need to go to International Incidents, where they have resources to help you in the stickies at the top. RP is quite involved, so you'd need to read the resources like this for new players.

We in GI can't help you much, I'm afraid.

Kindly asking, how in any shape or form should i RP a war?

There's a lot of ways to roleplay a war but an important question is 'who are you (interested) in fighting?' Will this be your nation against another? A civil war? Suppression of rebels? There's a lot of options and there's also a question of what you've done before. Have you done any previous roleplaying? And what's the 'state of your nation'? Do you have the 'who what why where when how' of what your nation is? Getting at least a basic outline of those things will help you decide what kind of conflict you want to roleplay out.

[Oppermenia]

So, I’m starting to get back into RP on international incidents and am about to revamp an old RP I’ve run in the past, and something I’ve thought about is the map for the RP.
It’s NS nation’s fighting against each other after claiming territory on the map. We’ve traditionally done it with a real world map and claimed real world countries, but then there’s the thing that nations have their own histories and geographies and ideas of how their nations are. I’m feeling rather ambitious, so I was thinking about a custom map where players in their apps describe their nation shape and landmass and all that and then a map maker puts that together in one big custom map.
So, what do you all think? Should I do a real world map, custom map that takes into account nations descriptions, or maybe just a custom map with preset land masses (which I can do, I already have one)?
If I do the second option, then does anyone know how I can find a map maker that can do that sort of map?

[Kylarnatia]

So, I’m starting to get back into RP on international incidents and am about to revamp an old RP I’ve run in the past, and something I’ve thought about is the map for the RP.
It’s NS nation’s fighting against each other after claiming territory on the map. We’ve traditionally done it with a real world map and claimed real world countries, but then there’s the thing that nations have their own histories and geographies and ideas of how their nations are. I’m feeling rather ambitious, so I was thinking about a custom map where players in their apps describe their nation shape and landmass and all that and then a map maker puts that together in one big custom map.
So, what do you all think? Should I do a real world map, custom map that takes into account nations descriptions, or maybe just a custom map with preset land masses (which I can do, I already have one)?
If I do the second option, then does anyone know how I can find a map maker that can do that sort of map?

What I've done in the past which works quite well is setting the RP on a different continent, which is conducive to a number of scenarios:

1. A "Scramble for Africa"-type scenario whereby the players, roleplaying as their NS nations, all happen to descend on this continent for whatever reason and start to compete over the land, which can either lead to all-out war from the get go or even more covert means of conflict. You can also throw in a couple of NPC nations to spice things up.
2. A continent / world map whereby the applying nations can actively claim land and start to build histories and lore around those places. You could then decide whether you want to treat this as an "alternate reality" type setting so as not to conflict with a players already existing history or geography, or perhaps even more ambitiously gear it towards establishing an entirely new roleplaying region.

In terms of map-making, you could make a request here, or you could even use Azgaar's Fantasy Map Generator if you fancy toying around with some random world gen. It has a lot of customisation options but can take a while to get the hang of things.

[Jasonvillee]

I'm making a roleplay, which is a post - nuclear disastar, and the remaining to new nations try to dominate or survive in the new apocalypse world.

Any ideas for a good name?

I was thinking like "A New Start"
Or
"The World Fell Apart"
Or
"The World Turned Upside Down"

Are these okay? Or are there better ones