RP Union Germany (RPUG)

RPUG (RP Union Germany) is a german speaking RP community based on the BytroLabs game Supremacy 1914. Its player base extends across all of Germany. The RPUG was created on 2022 after the fraction of the former German RP community, Table RP; resulting in the division of the german community into two different communities: the RPUG and RUSE. Despite sharing history with its sister community, the styles of RP vary greatly, having little to do with the way the rounds are played. The community doesn't have a single leader, instead it is run by a server team, which consists of: Maximilian, TollerNamen, L30N, LCD, H. and Judara.

## General Information

### 2019 - mid 2020: **The Beginning**

The beginning of Supremacy RP in Germany, at least somewhat organized, is most likely to be found in an old Server founded by two friends that wanted to have a little bit more spice in their normal Supremacy rounds. It was founded in 2019 and I can't really recall what its name was, something with Supremacy RP German maybe, but it quickly gathered a lot of members, growing to 50+ RP’ers by 2020. The two friends who founded it and remained admins of the server are called Tobias Jose and Jamell on Discord with an important figure also being Berkan who will appear a lot later on. Berkan was the third wheel of the admin team and also a friend of Jamell. The Server had some more or less successful rounds, but the RP was pretty basic just using the normal 31 Player Map and the newspaper option in Supremacy to make RP, that was not very good to say the least. Some guys just casually doing and having fun with RP. After the 4th round though ( not really clear ) an argument on how the server should be run erupted between the admin staff which led to the server being unexpectedly deleted by either Jamell or Berkan, who clashed frequently but this time it was more dramatic than usual, ending the first phase of a somewhat united Supremacy RP community in Germany.

### late 2020 - mid 2021: **The Golden Age**

There was some silence in the german RP community after the end of the first Server and many old faces left for good such as Tobias Jose and a guy called Tannenberg who is infamous under older members of the community for having really high standards in RP, being arrogant, childish and for bossing everyone around even though he was never an admin figure ( the Reehaw of the german community ). After a short period of nothing happening a new server emerged which was the most successful in the history of the German community, called Table RP. Table RP first started out the same as the first one did with 31 player rounds that were pretty bad sometimes due to trolls ruining the rounds after losing wars themselves. Some names that can be pointed out are Brot Schmeckt und Reaper who did some minor trolling in these first 31 player rounds but would be more important later. Table RP was again the product of Berkan and Jamell who were masters at promoting their servers and managed to get the Server to 60+ members in just a few months, posting recruitment articles and ads everywhere that had something to do with Supremacy RP. This was all in late 2020/ early 2021. After reaching a pretty high number of players the admins tried to get a 100 player map going which amazingly worked and brought many new people in as a privat 100 round was super hard tp get with all the small scattered Servers so Table RP being the one who had to offer one meant great business and a super high boost in members. Soon the Server gathered around 80 members and the 100 player map started in mid/late 2021. The Server still did not offer many possibilities and features, regarding Land Swap, Limits or anything, just a normal 100 player map and RP in the supremacy Newspaper. It didn't have particularly good rules encouraging good RP or punishing wild conquest and the admin team was really weak, not even enforcing these mild rules for a lot of the time willingly or sometimes just not being able to. It wasn't the greatest base for RP but this one round was probably the single greatest and memorable in the history of the community even with some early challenges. The trolls mentioned earlier, Brot Schmeckt and Reaper were still not banned for some reason and so when they lost in a war on the 100 player round, they decided to blow up the round with several alt accounts but the admins were able to manage it and remove these guys finally, even though they were also one of the longest members of the community until then. Everyone made great RP, had fun, fought wars, made diplomacy and it was generally interesting with many factions fighting each other for certain still unclaimed parts of the globe and Zones of influence etc. The round saw the appearance of many later important figures for the community that got brought into the sphere of Supremacy RP in Germany through this success. The RP wasn't anything historical just like before, again just some guys casually playing Supremacy but a little bit different with articles needed to declare war and so on. Most players just made up cool names and crafted characters who they played as. An arrogant spanish king, a war hungry dictator in Peru or a little fascist in Australia, everyone just played around. The round through this open RP gave birth to many insiders still known today in the older circles, most importantly the Conjunto. One player going by the name of “Only Someone”, that was really good in the game itself and also skilled in diplomacy managed to conquer all of latin america within just 20 days and that with RP rules where he published war declarations basically every day. He not only had a ginormous territory but also a super strong economy being a real meta player and knowing what's most efficient and what to build, where and when,  while many other RP’ers just played the game for RP, obviously. He called his nation the Conjunto and even a multinational coalition failed to take him out after plans were leaked. This basically was the end and grande finale of the round but it was a good one.

### late 2021 - early 2022: The Decline

After this first success with a 100 player map the admins wanted to do it again but had problems replicating the process of getting the map as probably more and more servers requested a map from Bytro so the time you had to wait before a response increased drastically. It took forever and so in the long waiting period ambitious players ( including me H. ) tried to introduce reforms to Table RP including limits, the system of vassals and a tech sheet. ( fascinated and copying from and by the NRPU mechanics ) The way too long waiting period that delayed the beginning of the round led to many good and active players leaving as they didnt want to wait several months to do RP. The reforms also looked good on paper but were really abrupt, unfinished, confusing for some and just not fitting for the type of RP the server offered. When the round finally started after maybe 3 Months of waiting ( or longer ) the admin that was responsible for creating it, Berkan had requested the wrong map and you were only able to build naval units. On top of many active players having left and a weird and wrong round being the only thing to work with, the reforms just didn't work at all and failed completely, shying away even more players. After 2 weeks the admins Berkan and Jamell were really unhappy with the situation and got again into an argument after which the server was deleted and the legacy of Table RP which had gathered over 100 players till that point was dead. It isn't clear who did it this time either but that doesn't matter I suppose. Just 2 rounds, one was the golden age, the other the one to blow everything up.

### mid 2022: **The dark ages**

After the death and destruction of Table RP, the biggest and most prominent german RP server, many way smaller and insignificant Servers with around 20 members began to appear, all from old members of the Table RP community. Each one of these was as unspectacular as the next and they all with no good basis, no innovation, no clear goal and no members collapsed after one or two rounds, achieving practically nothing. The names of these Servers were Mdr RP, Supremacy RP GERMAN and all sorts of generic names, but most of them are dead and deleted now, nowhere to be found. For half a year until autumn 2022 the german RP community was practically dead with all the servers that came out of Table RP as shattered pieces having died or been deleted in just a few months. Most players just gave up on RP completely or got to the international rounds, the NRPU offered for example but a german RP community was basically not to be found. Everything was dead and hopeless as all the attempts at a revival did not work. Berkan and Jamell were also still somewhere but they were not able to create a functioning server either or didn't want to. Things didn't look good for this niche community but hope is always right around the corner.

### late 2022 - Present: **The Renaissance**

In autumn 2022 after months of being divided and shattered the community began to see new hope shine through as two new servers appeared that were somewhat stable and looked promising. The first was RUSE RP, the new server of Berkan and Jamell, the two old folks and founders of the community that still shaped and operated their servers the same. Just casual, mostly unhistorical and wacky RP using the newspaper of Supremacy and with a set of rules that were really broad and vague allowing for a lot of freedoms but also loopholes that players could exploit. The second server was the RP Union Germany, founded by many different players still left after the Table RP explosion that just wanted to do some RP. Notable names here are Leon, TollerNamen and Maximillian that were also active on Table RP. The RP Union also started out the same way RUSE and all the servers before had looked like, just really casual RP and really simple rules but over time, different from RUSE in that matter the RP Union began to innovate, pushing reforms and new additions to the mechanics and rules but this time slowly and over time not to make the server explode like Table RP. Through an upgrade in rules more historical RP was encouraged unlike in the other servers where you worked with mostly random characters. Diplomacy and the forbidding of the killing of player nations as well as the addition of vassals led to better RP that was not as diehard Supremacy battle royal but felt more like you were actually playing a nation and having to engage in diplomacy and everything. Setting up how many nations you could attack per week and how long you had to wait after an ultimatum before you could attack were also really big steps towards a more balanced and enjoyable RP for everyone. Most of it came from the NRPU where one took great inspiration from. The final additions were Limits and Land Swap mechanics allowing for new maps and scenarios to be  played as well as for an even more historical context and more historical RP to be made. The rounds felt more organic and the ever new maps and historical periods that one was able to create and play in through landswap using just the normal 31 player map prevented the Server from drying up and dying like the once before out of boredom of the players but instead flourishing with activity, at least for now. While RUSE is the more “conservative” Server still largely casual and simple in its RP approach the RP Union is more advanced but a lot of newer players prefer to go to RUSE, fearing that landswap and limits and all are too much and too complicated. This leaves the RP Union with fewer players, having about 30 players less than RUSE. There is also the problem of not having an established base of players to use for the landswap rounds which require just that, experienced and active players, as the turmoil in the german community did not allow for a strong player base to be established as servers died and or got deleted all the time shattering any such attempts. Still though the future is looking bright for the german community with two now after several months and rounds well established servers and players that are eager and enjoy to play RP things can't really go too wrong. Still the issue with the missing player base to use for landswap rounds and the rivalry between the two servers are some issues that still plague the community. It isn't a united front with a super solidified system like the international NRPU but the two servers make great efforts working together and the problem of the active player base instead of having to rely on newcomers to fill the ranks will solve itself automatically over time. Things can hopefully only go right from here. It is quite amazing what a small community of not more than 200 people has as a history and how through all the good and bad times it came back together over and over again no matter what happened. I think it's truly beautiful seeing some guys just wanting to have fun, fighting so hard for Supremacy RP in Germany, not letting it die at any cost. It has endured until now so I am certain it will endure a few precious years more.

I, the guy who wrote this short history could also be called an important figure being an admin in almost every Server that once was and is in the german RP community. I participated in Jamells second round on the first big Server, I participated in the Table RP round and was partially responsible for its downfall ( I did the horrible reforms ), I was also in many of the “warlord RP servers” that came and went after Table RP and I participated in the build up of the RP Union to what it is today. This small community is awesome and shall hopefully never lose its flame.

## Notable Players

Maximilian, TollerNamen, L30N, LCD, H., Judara, 0nlysomeone.