How to Play

So you want to join /v/ModernPowers? Wonderful! My name is Lace, and in this guide you'll learn how to make a claim on a country, how to start posting, and where to find resources for your posts. Let's get started!

## Making a Claim

So you've stumbled into our subverse and you're interested in claiming a country. That's wonderful! First, we suggest you lurk around the subverse and the IRC. We always want our players to understand how the game works, so reading the posts of many different players is a great way to see how different people play the game! Once you've decided on a country to claim, please check this sheet to see if the country you want to claim is available. If it is, great! Now, you need to go here and fill out the form. Let's go through it together.

The first two boxes are pretty self explanatory! We want to know your name (so we can contact you on voat) and who you want to play as. Next, we want some detail about why you want to claim your nation. Tell us about any diplomatic relations you want to foster or grand plans for revolutionizing the future. Here are some examples of good claims:

India:

> I would like to claim the India because in the past it has not been represented well.
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> I would like to get involved in international affairs and join an alliance to help fight ISIS and other threats.
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> India's Plans:
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> - Further develop the Indian Space Research Organization for the purposes of telecommunication, military, telemedicine and cartography. Since little to no progress was made in 2019 when the former leader asked that space be made on the ISS for Indian Astronauts, this will be made clear and discussions will be held again.
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> -Reinstate its former Nuclear Research Program. The Nuclear Doctrine of 1999 still stands (https://www.armscontrol.org/act/1999\_07-08/ffja99) "Since no-first use of nuclear weapons is India's basic commitment, every effort shall be made to persuade other States possessing nuclear weapons to join an international treaty banning first use." India will propose this international treaty and encourage countries to sign to ban first use of nuclear weapons.
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> -Improving the current social system, caste system, poverty and child marriage laws. Attempt to reduce poverty.
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> -Strengthen relationships with allies and neighbors.
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> The Indian government recognizes the many important issues such as overpopulation, corruption, religious tensions, poverty, internal security and environmental concerns and will address them.
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Afghanistan:

> Our great nation is straddled between the Middle East and South Asia and has a long history of being an actor in both theaters. The Vision for our old nation is to be a beacon of stability in a region that has not seen it for some time. After a long campaign in battling that successfully destroying the last remnants of the Taliban and Al- Qaeda Afghanistan wishes to take it's newly tempered skills to fight Radicalism in the rest of the region.
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The backup claim section is used in case the country you desire is claimed before your submission. Mods review submissions in chronological order. For example, if Bob submits a claim on France at 5 pm, and Sally submits a claim on France at 6pm, we will look at Bob's first. If his is accepted, we would then look at Sally's backup claims. You make a backup claim in the same manner, naming the country you want and providing reasons for your claim.

Once you submit the form, it gets sent to the mods and we review it. If we accept it, you'll then submit a [CLAIM] post to the subverse. This gives other players a chance to greet you and get an idea for what kind of player you'll be.

## The First Post

Great! You've been approved, you've made your claim post, and now you need to make a post. Why's that? According to our activity rules, if you don't make a post beside your claim within a week, your claim is automatically revoked. That means you need to make a post tagged with one of these: [CONFLICT],[COVERT OPS], [DIPLOMACY], [EVENT], [EXPANSION], [NEWS], or [ROLEPLAY]. What do these mean? You can read more here!

You can make any of these posts as your first post. For example, I posted a [NEWS] post about France's Fashion Week as my first post. The most recommended posts for a beginning player is either a [NEWS] or an [EVENT]. This can be literally anything about your country. You'll notice that some posts have colored flairs that correspond with their tag, while others don't. That colored flair means that a mod has read over your post and approved it. Mods always read submissions to make sure they're logical, fall in line with the realism we expect, and are in good standing with current events.

## Keeping Up

In the days following your first post, we want you to keep posting! Comment on other player's submissions with support or interest. Upvoat things you like! Get involved with our community. There's tons of stuff to do! Please keep in mind that we expect our players to post at least once a week. That's one post a year in game time. Every day the sidebar updates with the in-game time. We go by GMT time, and every day equals two months in-game, with Sunday being META Day. The only types of posts allowed on Sunday GMT are [CLAIM], [META], [NEWS], and GDP rolls (more on that later).

## Common Terms

In your time playing Modern Powers, there are lots of things to learn that seasoned players know as commonplace.

* Rolls: These are used to simulate chance in-game. They can be used for lots of things, like elections, a [COVERT OPS] or [CONFLICT] result, to name a few. Rolls can only be performed by mods are always witnessed by everyone in the IRC.
* Roll Table: the outcome of your rolls. The most common rolls are a 10-sided dice, where different numbers or ranges of numbers equate different results. For example, if a 1-5 is rolled, then this thing happens, but if a 6-10 is rolled, then that thing happens.
* Invalidating: the mods will invalidate a post if it doesn't fit with the realism of the subverse, wasn't approved, or was posted on the wrong day.

## Subverse-Specific Lore

As with any game that has been going on for a while, we're bound to have our own lore/inside jokes/what have you. Here's a brief overview of a few notable jokes.

* Old Austria: Old Austria was unable to grasp the basic concept of the game, like trying to put 50% of his GDP towards a military budget and trying to build a navy for a landlocked country. When the mods countered his proposals, explaining how they were unrealistic, he complained for four hours without relenting. Don't be like Old Austria.
* Old Brazil: Old Brazil overthrew the democratic government with a dictator, tried to raise a 4.5 million strong army in four months, and then when the mods invalidated his posts, pitched a fit and tried to pay people to leave the subverse. Don't be like Old Brazil.
* Old India: Old India was only a player for 10 days, yet in that short period the mods dealt with him more than any other user. His posts constantly needed changing or invalidating, and when things were changed, he would try and barter for hours. When he was told he couldn't have a moon base, he snapped and griefed the wiki (this thing here) and went on a downvoating spree in the subverse. Don't be like Old India.
* Tuvalu: Tuvalu is a small island nation in the Pacific. Once claimed by a user, this user proceeded to play it like the most serious thing in the world, starting with "phishing vessels". From there, things only grew to Tuvalu becoming a well-known name. The subverse was devastated when he unclaimed, but he's back now and we couldn't be happier.