page=dispatch/id=1907835

But first, my credentials, so you can choose for yourself whether to believe I can actually write a guide on RMB RP.

Now that I've shown you my credibility (or not), you can choose to read on or stop here! I obviously can't and won't judge you for what you decide. Plus, even making it this far is a testament to you being able to stand up to my boring tones and droning words. So kudos to you! Let's get going.

**Note: There will be TLDR; spoilers under each section. It's up to you if you wanna read them only and skip the rest, though if you don't know much about RMB RP, I'd suggest you read the whole guide.

So, remember, RMB RP can mean any roleplay happening in any region. But for the purposes of this guide, it refers to Mainstream TEP RMB RP.

RMB RP is mainly a nation-based roleplay. Meaning that it deals with the interactions of nations with each other. While it is based on nations, character roleplay is sometimes used to highlight important events, such as diplomatic meetings and in some cases, war. This is because this gives a more personal and detailed outlook on such events.

Character roleplay is basically roleplay describing the reactions of a character to events roleplayed by a roleplayer. These can include a character hurting another character, characters talking to each other, or a character signing a treaty by another character. And it's fine to roleplay as a citizen or a resident of your nation! Just make sure that your character is appropriate for the situation at hand.

For example, you wouldn't want a normal citizen to be leading your nation in diplomatic negotiations. In the same vein, you don't want a bunch of muscular men competing in a women's beauty contest.

If I were you, I'd run.

However, sometimes you will speak as your government instead of through characters. In this case, you talk as you would in any texting application to show your nation's thoughts on certain ideas. Through your nation and characters, you create, you will be able to roleplay on the RMB sufficiently.

OOC is an abbreviation for Out-Of-Character [OOC]. OOC means ANYTHING that does NOT affect roleplay in any way (also known as nothing that is a roleplay post of any sort) is considered OOC. For example, you say "Hello Jim!" to your friend on the RMB, but it is not a roleplay post- it's literally you saying hi to him as human interaction and is not in any way a roleplay action. This is an OOC action.

IC actions should have NO effect on ANYONE in real life. They should not affect anyone's feelings. Of course, we are human beings and end up growing attached to our nations and other nations. That's ok- just try to limit your level of emotion. In roleplay, you WILL, eventually, loose in some way or another. When that occurs, you could become very angry OOCily, and hurt someone else OOCily.

It can really hurt sometimes, even if it's online.

It is extremely important to distinguish an action ICily from OOCily. Not doing so can cause a lot of anger, conflict, and even suffering in some cases. If you are confused about whether someone's post is IC or OOC, ALWAYS ask them what it was. DON'T react, you can cause very needless conflict for a simple mistake.

And even if someone else's post IS OOC, try not to react and log-off if needed. If the nation in question does not retract their statement and/or apologize, tell any RMB RP mod how it affected you and the nation in question will receive consequences.

Hello! Here's my claim for Valsora!

{Insert URL link from step 14.}. 

The claim is circled in {whatever color you chose to use to circle it.}

My nation's name is {Insert nation name.}, and its culture is {insert equivalent of your nation's culture to its real-life culture.}

Hope this doesn't trouble you too much! Thanks! 

**Note: The RMB RP mods are here to help. Send them a telegram or direct message on Discord if you need them to help you with any of these aspects. Alternatively, I'm available too, and am always willing to help (Or most of the time. Still counts! >:[)

1. Culture: This is probably the most important aspect of your nation! Your culture is your people's way of life and it will affect basically in your nation.

   It's not necessary as of now to make a totally new culture though. A culture is a massive thing and can't be created in a say by most people. Instead, copy a real-life culture from a country on Earth for now. Don't worry, you can change it later!

   
   Remember to smile! :)

2. Name: Your nation needs a name to be identified by other nations and characters. To make one, try looking up names from your general region of culture (Ex: Look up European countries and examine their name structures) and then come up with your own! If you can't, you can search up a random name generator or ask for help from the RMB RP mods!

3. Location: Your location is a very important aspect. With it, it decides generally who your first allies or enemies are, trading distances, and how your nation will operate militarily in the world. Choose wisely- your nation can and will be affected by it later. (But don't take it too seriously! You can always ask to move if you want, just not often.)

   The above aspects should've been decided when you were making a Valsora claim. If you haven't made one yet, you can continue below. But make sure to send Nova a claim with the previous three aspects! :D

4. Geography: Your geography influences how your military will act, and how invasions of your nation will occur (if they happen.) It should also affect your population density, a.k.a. how much of your population is in a certain area. For example, mountainous regions can have some people, but generally, they have fewer people than forest regions.

   To find what geography is acceptable at your location, ask surrounding nations about their geography! Alternatively, you can also use an Earth climate map to find your general climate and geography. Your nation's geography needs to be realistic. If you're in an area where it's generally desert and small mountains, you aren't going to be a snowy nation.

   
   Ah, look at that nature! It's sad that Valsora's biomes are constantly ravaged by war and memes...

   If your nation's wanted geography is not on the continent your general culture is on, then simply put your nation on where you want it geographically. Then say that your nation is a former colony from a nation that shares some of your values. (I.e. if I wanna be a desert Yaestrovakian nation, I'll place my claim in Unistan, but claim that I'm a colony of a long-lost Yaestrovakian nation.) There we go!

5. Population: Your population decides your military size. For most wars, the more soldiers you can send out, the higher chance you have of winning (but that isn't always true.) To decide your population, you need to look at your location and size. Generally, the smaller you are, the larger your population density is. Similarly, the larger your population, the smaller your population density is.

   Since there are different population densities for every nation (some nations are rural, some are urban), a tiny nation can hold up to as many as 50-60 million people. In the same way, a very large nation can hold as low as 20 million people, depending on where all of its people are. But generally, your nation's population should be around 20 million to 700-800 million, depending on your size and location.

   Location is important because location, as discussed earlier, decides your geography. Your climate and geography are huge factors in your population: if you're in a harsh region, chances are that your population will be much smaller than another nation with a similar size to yours in a bountiful region (like a forest or plains). Be sure to keep this in mind!

   After you decide your population, be sure to send it to one of the RMB RP mods. They will help you decide a more reasonable population if needed and will keep it in store if you wish for them too.

   If you want to see the population of others', look into other nations' factbooks and ask them directly to find their population!

6. Government: This is not a necessary function to roleplay, but it definitely is recommended. It would be nice to know what type of government your nation is. Dictatorship? Democracy? Theocracy? Monarchy? Anarchism? There are many different choices and each has its own unique set of values!

   You don't necessarily need to decide the specifics of how your government functions now- just describe somewhere (a factbook is heavily recommended), it's basic systems. For example, who is the executive? The legislative? Who deals with the justice of the law? With that, you can roleplay and continue to develop your government!

   
   Sometimes, heroes take the law into their own hands.

7. Leader: Your leader is an extremely important aspect of your nation. Many times, you will use your leader to communicate for your nation, whether it be in a meeting or (sometimes) on the battlefield. Like many things, a leader will take some time to develop. But you don't need to worry about that for now... or for a long time!

   Just come up with a name, and then stick with a personality you attach to that name. Now, decide how that person looks. And there you go! You have a leader!

   Keep in mind that while most if not all leaders lead their government in either the most powerful or most known position, sometimes exiled leaders can also represent an aspect of your nation. (Example: The leader of the government represents oppression of the people, the leader of the revolution represents the people's true will.)

8. Economy: The economy of your nation is not that much important but you should decide it now. It can and will help you to set up roleplays in your nation later. (For example, capitalists rebelling against the socialist government.) There are many different ways an economy can function- so you'll have to research on your own. But for simplicity's sake, here's the two main ones are Capitalism and Socialism.

   Capitalism is where businesses have total freedom from the government. But in capitalist economies, the government does not decide which industries are run completely by the government. It cannot. No taxes, no regulations, absolutely nothing. Obviously, this doesn't really work out in most nations, so most "capitalist" nations really have a large free market, with restrictions set in place to control businesses.

   Socialism is where entire industries are owned by the government. Depending on the nation, this can mean all businesses to only highly essential businesses.The economic tries to make life easier for the people by removing the factor of price, so that everyone gets the same quality in their services. An extreme form of socialism, communism, has the government take over all industries and everyone has an equal working wage.

   
   DING DING DING! FIGHT!

9. Military: Your military is VERY important. It basically defends your nation against another military. However, military equipment and tactics are a very diverse topic. You'll have to research them yourself. Sadly, I have not had the time to do some research myself, so this guide won't help you out in that regard. But, scroll down to the Discord Servers or click on it. I'll show you a server you can join and ask two people for help, there.

   However, my recommendation is that until you get your custom made military, that you try to utilize the military of a real life country who shares your similar climate, and hopefully, ideals and culture.

   Something to note: know that you'll also have to research how military units work, because RMB RP's wars are based on modern technology and basic modern warfare tactics. Again, you can ask the two awesome people I mentioned above to point you to guides to build up your knowledge.

There we go! These are things you should make a basic outline of before roleplaying! :D

**Note: The following rules are meant for Mainstream/Valsora RMB RP only, as the majority of this guide is. To find the rules for other roleplays, ask the roleplay leaders for them! I'll list them later. Now, let's get back to business. ;D

The rule-set can be found right... here!

1. The first part of these rules are about "Godmodding". Godmodding is basically as the rules define it.

   -Taking control of someone else's characters.
   -Breaking the rules to gain an advantage.
   -Not letting someone respond.

   And as such. Please remember, the consequences for godmodding can vary, but you face high chance of being banned from Mainstream RP just by doing it. So please, don't do it.

   The ruleset also talks about OOC and IC, which I have addressed in the sections above. As a refresher, IC is for roleplay actions, and OOC is for non-roleplay stuff. Try to avoid getting them mixed up! And if you do, no worries. Just try to be more careful whenever OOC and IC situations become mixed up and confusing. :D

2. The second part of the rules is about "Technology and Weapons". It is pretty simple: any technology that does not exist or exists in a proto-type stage in real life cannot be made for major use (besides mechs, but the usage of mechs is heavily discouraged.)

   Now, another important thing in this section is nuke restrictions. As quoted by the rules: "Nuclear weapons are restricted, and capped at 50 kilotons. [-]Note, restricted in this sense refers to three things. Nuclear weapons must be able to be countered (shot down) they cannot be deployed more then five times in a war, and the size cap [50 kilotons]."

   This means that your nukes cannot be large, and there is a limit to how much can be used in a war. The reason this rule has been set is because nuclear devices are very efficient devices in ending a story, and ending a nation. No one wants their entire nation to collapse into rubble because another roleplayer couldn't handle loosing a war. However, exceptions can be made to this, but you must ask one of the RMB RP Mods before trying to exit the boundaries of nuclear restrictions. Otherwise, you will be godmodding.

   Fun fact: Nuclear weapons are quickly shot down by a defense system set up by the Angel of charit (created in 2019.). So unless you want to waste your nation's money by firing nukes, it is a good idea to follow the rules on this matter!

   
   Nuclear war is devastating. But [INSERT RANDOM IDEOLOGY] is much more destructive.

3. Part 3(ALLIANCES) is simple as well. 10 members per alliance, no more. This is to prevent massive alliances locking in stalemates, which effectively kills roleplay for a while. There are no exceptions to this rule.

   That being said, short-term coalitions do not count towards the limit. For example, if 20 nations teamed up to war against 2 nations, it's fine. But if those 20 nations later decide to stay in a coalition after the war, it is not fine. Because at that point, they become an alliance and surpass the limit. But no worries: it's difficult to surpass the limit.

   There are only so many nations! :D

4. Part 4(GRACE PERIOD) talks about the grace period for new nations. In short, the moment you start roleplaying as a new nation, the timer starts ticking for two weeks. Within said two weeks, no one can attack you in any way or form. You're very safe from harm. The time period is given so that you are not overwhelmed by roleplay, and can get a good gist of what's going down before being thrust into war.

   Note, however, that if you do any sort of war act, you irrevocably loose your grace period.

   In the same vein, if you decide to never engage in a war, then no nation can attack you. However, you must talk to the RMB RP Mods before enacting such a state. Based on the circumstances and your track record, the mods will determine if you deserve an exception.

5. Part 5(Military, size, economy, resources. WIP) is very straightforward as well. Your military can only make up 3% of your population, including personnel. There are absolutely no exceptions to this rule. This is because having too many soldiers would crash any nation's economy, so you would have to have an obscenely gigantic economy to field more soldiers past your population limits, which would be godmodding.

   **Note: Yes, your economy has to be realistic too. If you need help deciding your economy's output, talk to the RMB RP mods.

   Another short thing, RMB RP does not use NationStates statistics. All stats should be coming from you or a roleplay mod, not NationStates. But, if you do choose to base your states on Nationstates', you HAVE to make sure they are realistic. Otherwise, you're godmodding!

6. Part 6(VOIDING) basically talks about voiding processes. If someone is godmodding in their post, simply tell them that you are voiding that specific part of their post, or their post as a whole. Make sure to show why it is godmodding. If they disagree, bring it up to one of the RMB RP mods, who will solve the issue.

   If you believe that a nation has godmodded too much and deserves to be banned from RMB RP, contact the RMB RP mods. They will deal with the situation. Make sure to provide evidence to back up your case.

   
   One way to see voiding is that you're throwing what you're voiding into a black hole. Hoping that it will never see the light of day again.

7. Part seven(MAPPING) talks about the map. In short, it is very recommended to get a spot on Valsora to roleplay. The map is owned by Nova-columbi, but I am currently updating it. Here's the map dispatch (again), for easy access!

   nation=zukchiva/detail=factbook/id=1158341

And that's it! This should (hopefully), help to prevent you from godmodding in your future roleplays. :D On to the next section!

RMB RP has one active Discord server available for your usage. The link is right... here. The serve is ran by Angel and, shocker, the RMB RP mods! While a lot is talked about there, RMB RP events do sometimes pop up, and it's a very easy place to each a good portion of the RMB RP community. It's definitely recommended to go here. Check it out!

RMB RP also has a sister discord server available! Meant for TEP Forum Roleplay (which is pretty cool as well), we have our own little alcove of channels there. However, it is not very active, but the community often talks about non-roleplay stuff and hosts VC sessions every now and then. It's very cool! The link for the above server will be right... [url=https://discord.gg/epQSprN]here!

And yet, another discord server... the official Valsora server! Yes, we have a mappy map server, which I think is very cool. :) You can find it here. In this server, you can, like any other server, chat with others! You can also access an incomplete history of map updates, add to the general worldbuilding of the continent, annnnd give us suggestions about the map!

And last but not the least, the official TEP server! Yes, I know, I know. You want to finish this darn guide and get to roleplaying! But, I just want to make sure you are aware that the East Pacific is not just about roleplaying. There is government, military, and just hanging out! You don't have to worry about it at all, but if you want to become more involved in the future, the link is right here. You're welcome to join!

**Note: While Discord is a very good program to communicate with others and will enhance your experience, you should always ask permission of your parents. In addition, no 12 year olds or below are allowed on any Discord server, per company policy. Please do not join a Discord server if you are not 13 or older, as you put the entire server at risk of deletion. Thank you!

Discord is awesome, but we all know that the RMB is where it is at. ;D

And now, for the collection of a few resources in-case you don't want to zig-zag!
The Rules:
nation=the_angel_of_charity/detail=factbook/id=1150883

The Map:
page=dispatch/id=1271253

A Resource To Help You Get Started In NationStates If You Wish To Do Other Stuff:
page=dispatch/id=1247163

More resources and servers may be added here in the future. Make sure to check in! :>

Thank you for reading this piece of work. It has taken me a couple of hours, but I say it was worth it. I love you all a lot, even if I do not know you. Because guess what? We are all born to be awesome. But sometimes, we need help along the way, which is why I made this guide. So that you all can have help in order to become awesome at RMB RP. ^-^

And, because I love you so much, I'll leave you a list of tips that I've gathered in currently my one and a half year's of experience in this RMB. Please remember, however, that these are personal tips about various subjects, and they may not work out for you. And that's okay, alright? Alright.

And welp, that's it! Thank you all again for reading this, it does mean a lot to me! Adios, y'all. Hope to see you around. :)

SECTION I. CITATION

...1.1- This act shall be known and cited as the "Regional Message Board Regulation Act, 2021" (RMBRA 2021).

SECTION II. SPAM

...2.1- For the purposes of this act, “Spam” is hereby defined as any action which is meant to waste space and render the Regional Message Board (“RMB”) difficult or impossible to use OR any action which aims to annoy other nations.

...2.2- Examples of Spam shall include but are not limited to:
......2.2.1- "Multiposting"- posting the same message, or posts similar enough to each other that they convey the same message, with an intent to cause disruption to the community and/or on-going conversation.
......2.2.2- "Chainposting"- posting three or more messages on the Regional Message Board without any other nation posting in between those messages.
......2.2.3- "Posts of Excessive Length"- any message of beyond 2500 characters posted on the RMB without the use of dispatches or spoiler tags to hide the length, in order to limit the functionality of the RMB or disrupt conversation.
......2.2.4- "Pingspam"- mentioning or quoting (hereinafter "pinging") one person over ten times within two pages of the RMB or pinging over ten people, without reasonable cause.

SECTION III. HARASSMENT

...3.1- For the purposes of this act, “Harassment” is hereby defined as any action which aims to belittle, offend, cause extreme discomfort to, or provoke any specific nation or group with an intent to cause distress and/or anger.

...3.2- Examples of Harassment shall include but are not limited to:
......3.2.1- "Flaming"- any offensive personal attack against another player expressed via name-calling, obscene comments (such as "f--- you") or depictions of obscene gestures (such as "the finger"), and/or other comments posted out of line which are designed explicitly to insult and provoke anger.
......3.2.2- "Flamebaiting"- any writing or image that, within its context, can reasonably only be understood as offending someone indirectly to provoke or solicit a reaction.
......3.2.3- "Malicious Quote Editing"- the act of altering the contents of a quote to anger or falsely discredit a resident or citizen of The East Pacific. The act of cutting out inappropriate words or content from a quote shall not be considered Malicious Quote Editing.
......3.2.4- "Impersonation"- any attempt to maliciously impersonate another nation or region without consent, or any attempt to falsely claim a position of governmental or otherwise administrative authority.
......3.2.5- "Explicit Material"- the detailed explanation or solicitation of any type of lewd or sexual content, and/or the explicit perpetration of any lewd or sexual acts.
......3.2.6- "Promotion of Distasteful Ideologies"- the promotion of Fascism, Nazism, or similar extremist philosophies prone to racism and harassment of specific groups of people.

SECTION IV. ADVERTISEMENT

...4.1- For the purposes of this Act, “Advertising a Foreign Region” shall be defined as the posting of any advertisement of a foreign region on the RMB.

...4.2- Nothing in this Section shall apply to messages intended to promote the East Pacific.

SECTION V. SENTENCING

...5.1- Any nation who is caught committing Spam, Harassment, or Advertising a Foreign Entity shall be considered to be committing a summary offence and may face message suppression, ejection, and/or indefinite banishment from the East Pacific, at discretion of the Delegate or Regional Officers.

...5.2- In any instance where the definition or possible sentences of the aforementioned offences conflict with other statutory law of the same level, this Act shall be applied first.

...5.3- All Citizens have the right to appeal to the Conclave on any punishments and/or actions taken against them.