Rules

## **Introduction**

Welcome to /v/Modernpowers, a strategic textbased role-playing game. You can take charge of a nation and from the starting point of 12th April 2016 you can determine your own future. We do this by using posts as "plays" with which you can influence and change your nations or the world. We take realism into account and require backup links or information when building up your country, research, military ... well basically anything. All alliances, pact, inventions, institutions, resources, insurgences, wars, etc etc are the same as in the real world at 12th April 2016. As the leader of your nation you can try and break with your past or built on it. Some things will be harder to change and might even need a roll table or months/years to build up. We take building up and taking the time to slowly develop events, improvements, political shifts and research very important and expect a certain level of realism / research on these.

A few guidelines for playing with us:

* Respect each other

* Remember it is just a game

* Don't cheat

* This is a long term game, don't try to rush things.

* Take into account some players need time to respond (Do not exploit afk's)

* Keep your wikia pages up to date!
* Most posts that deal with nukes and other world-ending weapons will be invalidated. Unless you're a North Korea being directly invaded by China - there's no reason to even think about creating or launching game-ending weapons. (We want to play the game, not end it).

* If you have any questions or uncertainties about the rules, feel free to ask clarification in our IRC channel.

* Have fun!

## **Claiming**

To start playing, you will need to claim a country. Check the list of unclaimed countries and choose a nation you would like to play as. Bear in mind that important nations such as Russia and the United States will require more posts and online presence than small nations such as Tuvalu and Iceland.

After you have chosen your country, you will need to submit a claim form, which can be found here. Your claim form should include your Voat username, should show that you have knowledge about the country you are claiming and should have a set of goals you wish to pursue. This is to ensure that you are able to research information about countries, as this is important in ModernPowers.

Here is an example of a good claim post.

You are not allowed to claim more than one country at a time in ModernPowers, and if you are found to be using alts to claim other countries, you will be banned permanently from the sub. Your account must be at least one week old to claim.

After you have submitted a claim post, you will need to join IRC. This is so we know you've submitted a claim and we can verify it, and also so we can give you info about the sub.

Your starting point will be 12th April 2016, all current leaders, deals, institutions, companies, expertise etc etc will be in place. (If the country has a leader you do not like you will need to plot his downfall) Projects planned, orders made, research started etc etc will count in the game.(for example the delivery of the new F-35's, ITER project or the construction of two supercarriers by the UK)

### **Claiming mid season.**

Claiming while the game is underway is no problem. If your nation has been played before you will inherit the state of the nation from the previous player (history should be noted in the wikia). If you claim an unplayed nation, your country will be in the state of the starting point 12th April 2016.

## **Posts**

### **Post Tags** (click for more)

* **Claim** - Your first post. You will make a claim post *after* your claim form has been accepted. This post will not change anything at all about your country. It is intended to announce that you are now a claimant, and you should outline a couple of your goals for the game.

* **Meta** - Questions about the subverse, jokes, suggestions, posts outside of game etc.
* **News** - A summary of something that has happened in your country, or something that is about to happen. News posts generally don't change much about your country, if at all, though there are exceptions. News posts do not change as much as Event posts, and never contain a roll table.
* **Event** - Description of something that is changing in your country. This could be a political shift, a research post etc. Event posts almost always require a roll table. Event posts typically change more than news posts.
* **Roleplay** - A narrative/sidestory that is happening either within your country, or is happening to one of your citizens. Typically does not change much, if anything at all, and is intended to bring some colour and backstory/life to the game.
* **Diplomacy** - A post that involves a conversation/interaction with your country and at least one other. An example of this could be a trade agreement or a state visit.
* **Covert Ops** - Covert ops are operations involving spies or secret military maneuvers. Assassinations, military coups etc. are categorised as covert ops.
* **Conflict** - Conflict posts are battles between nations. Your conflict post title should specify the province you are attacking/moving troops into, and the content of your post should include a list of military assets that you are sending into that province. If you wish to provide a strategy for your attack, you may do so.
* **Expansion** - Expansion posts are annexations of provinces or other countries. These annexations can be the result of conflicts or can be achieved diplomatically. When an expansion post is made and approved, the specified area that the expansion post relates to will become part of your country.
* **Unclaim** - If you wish to unclaim your country, tag it with unclaim. We will hate you forever. Unless you're claiming a different country, in which case you will have to wait one week before claiming a new one. This is so people can't claim different countries all the time.

### **Post Changes and Invalidations**

Sometimes, your post might be given the "Invalid" flair. This means that your post has been invalidated (and therefore never happened). There are a lot of reasons for invalidating a post, it might be because you tried to build something and you didn't have the budget to do it, or it could be because the post is unrealistic in another way.

Perhaps the most common reason posts are invalidated is because there is no build up. Build up is an extremely important part of the game, because it is the only thing that paces changes in governmental shifts, policy changes, wars, public opinion, advancements in technology and so forth. Our policy on invalidations was always that we would have a conversation with the player if we felt a post needed to be invalidated, and then we would either invalidate or not. We will still listen to concerns you have over post invalidations, but please be aware that we are a small team with limited time and different players to attend to, and we may have to make a decision to invalidate a post that you don't feel should be invalidated.

Post changes are far more common than invalidations, and we are more likely to ask you to edit something in your post, or add a roll table than we are to invalidate it. Invalidations are typically for posts that either have a faulty premise or will take too much effort to salvage.

### **Post Validation**

Your post is not considered valid until it has been assigned a flair. Do not build on unflaired posts, because if the first one is invalid, the rest will be invalid by extension. You are only allowed 3 unflaired posts at one time, then you will have to wait for them to be flaired.

Flairing is done by moderators, so are rolls. Rolls are always done in IRC so they will be public.

## **Time**

One week in real life is equal to one year in game. The subverse uses GMT time to determine when the days switch.

* Monday: January/February
* Tuesday: March/April
* Wendesday: May/June
* Thursday: July/August
* Friday: September/October
* Saturday - Sunday 3am GMT: November/December
* Sunday: Meta Day (News, Roleplay, Claim, and Meta posts only)

You will need to add the date of your posts as for example.[Januari 2020] or [July 2045]

With modernpowers being played globally and people not being online 24/7 we use time as a relative. (basically 1 or 2 month) When a post is made it is basically frozen in time waiting for the response. This way other timezones and afk people have time to react and contribute and people are safe from AFK-doggypiling.

## **IRC**

IRC is our "chatroom" and can be found here, it is also linked on the sidebar. IRC is an important part of the sub, it is where we roll for posts, discuss posts and help players with any questions they have. Throughout the duration of Season 1, we used IRC heavily and you will not get the same experience on the sub if you don't use it at least semi-regularly. It is not required, but heavily recommended, as you will learn much more about the sub. If you are involved in a battle, or we need to ask you about a post you've made, we might ask you to join IRC.

## **Try to add necessary sources to your post**

You will need to research things to make posts about your country, and will need to know about other countries too. This means that you will sometimes make posts about things the moderators don't know about, such as the currency of Namibia, UN restrictions on selling arms to Gambia and how many albums former child star Donny Osmond has sold in Thailand.

Please include a link to a source in your post, it means your post will get flaired quicker, and means we don't have to research as many things.

## Advanced Rules

* Democracies require elections every 4 or 5 years and we expect players to maintain them (rolls to simulate voters)
* You can drill or mine a maximum of 1 time per year for new resources. This will require legit links and assumptions that those resources are present in the region.Example of a correct mining post
* When dealing / involving unclaimed nations, moderators will simulate their replies.
* Standings in unclaimed nations will remain April 12th 2016, unless manipulated / stimulated by external players.

## Other Rules

* Things that are happening in your country and will normally be improved or have already been announced will occur normally.
* Include the month and year of your post. Voat has a really shitty search function and this will help *a lot.*
* Deals made in IRC do not count ingame. (only texts posted in /v/modernpowers count as valid)
* Every post on the sub will show up in our IRC, and there is almost always a mod there. If your post is not flaired for a while, it is because we are busy, or we are discussing your post.
* Playing "Africa" by Toto in Dubtrack may result in a mod position
* Deliberately cheating is an instant ban
* Moderators can vote to kick players if their behavior is "unsocial", "uncooperative" or "acting against the spirit of the game" (majority vote is required)