INES III: Stormfront Tapestry: Ruleset
Statement of Purpose:
It’s a game. Enjoy the game. If you’re not having fun, you’re not doing it right. With that in mind, anyone can join, and the rules are meant to be as flexible as possible.
Part One: Players
The most straightforward way to participate in my NES is to pick a country, roleplay its government in diplomacy, and send its government’s orders each turn. However, if you are interested in joining as a rebel group, terrorist organization, world cult, or transnational conglomerate, be my guest. In such a nonstate actor, you may conduct diplomacy and send orders, but note that your group may not actually get stats until it seizes some territory. Note that rebel groups who control a white splotch on the map are not organized enough to get stats. Such groups will get stats when they get a color.
Part Two: National Stats
Each established country in the game has states on the first page of this thread that will be updated after each update. All stats will be based on the following model:
Romania/Imago
Government: Parliamentary Democracy
Annual Spending Points: 1
Approval Polling: 53%
Techs: None
Army: 10 divisions
Navy: 10 squadrons
Air Force: 10 groups
Background: In the years since the upheaval of the early 21st century, Romania has stayed relatively true to the ideals of the dead European Union; insuring its western minorities full franchise and heaping upon them lavish spending. However, tolerance of the Roma (Gypsies) is predictably low; and this may prove a catalyst for future upheaval.
Let’s go through this line by line, shall we?
Romania/Imago
This, as you might have guessed, is the name of the country. For the purpose of this example, it is played by me, though someone else will take it for the actual game. If a country is NPC, that will be listed after the backslash. Moving on.
Government: Parliamentary Democracy
This is a short description of the country’s government, aka the regime you are playing as. In the above case, swollen Romania considers itself to be a Parliamentary Democracy. Other nations might be Communist Dictatorships, Constitutional Monarchies, or Military Juntas, to list a few options. Obviously, a country’s government can change, either through player input or via less controllable events.
Annual Spending Points: 1
Now we get to the heart of the NES. Romania has 1 ASP, meaning it can spend 1 ASP every year (aka turn) in any number of ways. Annual Spending Points represent a government’s annual funding, NOT GDP or GNP or anything like that. Obviously, rich nations have more to spend, but if you start pull a Regan and cut taxes left and right, you might start experiencing tax flow problems that aren’t related to the prosperity of your nation. Conversely, if you say in your orders that you want to increase taxes, your ASP might get a short term boost, then decline precipitously as the national economy is exhausted. You can try to write polices into your orders that might result in an ASP boost during the update, but there are also some direct ways you can use ASP to influence ASP:
-An investment of 3 ASP will increase your next turn’s ASP by 1 point. This represents government funded economic development. If your orders detail a specific stimulus plan, you may try to cut corners, invest less than 3 ASP in the boost, and hope I show you mercy, but the only way to be absolutely sure of a boost is to invest all 3 ASP.
-You may overspend by up to double your ASP, but for every point you overspend in your orders, your next turn’s ASP will be reduced by one. If Jonny’s nation has an ASP of 4 and he spends 5, next turn his ASP will be 3, and his ASP the turn after that will still be 3 if nothing changes. This emergency spending tactic might serve in a pinch if you get invaded.
Also note that while many of the sections of the stats elaborated below detail other ways to spend ASP, you can spend ASP in any way you see fit, even if something is not specifically in the rules. Want a powerful spy agency? Start investing ASP into your very own KGB rip-off, and soon you’ll have the best secret agents in the world. Just don’t forget to remind me how much you’ve invested into your side projects in your orders.
Approval Polling: 53%
Yes, we’ve reached a new section of the rules. Approval Polling is the official best guess at how your people feel about your government, and it may rise and fall every so often without being mentioned in updates. Note that while this number lets you put your finger on the pulse of the people, if it ever rises to insanely high levels, (say, 99%) there’s a good chance your people are too afraid to tell you they hate you. So, beware extremely high and extremely low approval ratings. Both are warning signs. There is no direct way to influence this stat through ASP.
Techs: None
This game has an invisible and mutable tech tree. If you want to spend for science, tell me in your orders what area you want to focus on, like ‘Organ Cloning’ or ‘Hunter-Seeker Drones,’ as well as how many ASP you’d like to invest. Every ASP you spend on a science area will increase that area’s rating. So, if you spend 2 ASP on Organ Cloning, next turn you’d have ‘Organ Cloning 2’ in your stats. Higher numbers obviously reveal increased proficiency. Techs are useful in that orders that have synergy with your scientific developments have a better chance at succeeding. There are two tricks to happy teching-
-Techs can be intentionally leaked. Countries with a patron who admits to being such in his or her orders get catch-up development half-off. (Patrons do not have to spend anything to be patrons.)
-Tech alliances are possible, wherein every member contributes ASP to a pool. However, techs developed in the pool stay in the pool, and members who leave the alliance only get 5 points of tech or all the development on two tech areas as a parting gift, whichever is less.
Army: 10 divisions
This is the bread and butter of your military. For each ASP you invest here, you instantly gain 5 divisions of soldiers to play with. Each division is roughly ten thousand soldiers. How effective your armies are can be related to military doctrine tech areas. On a related note, if you start detailing strategies, tactics, and training styles in your orders, your armies will be more effective in the field. You can create a Unique Unit with an investment of 1 ASP, and then you can consult with me or decide for yourself how much it will cost on a per division basis. This is how things like killer robots show up in the stats. You can only have one type of native Unique Unit at a time. However, for extra ASP, you can sell the rights to build your native Unique Unit to other countries. (Even if they already have a native Unique Unit.)
Navy: 10 squadrons
A squadron is a handful of ships. Think a cruiser, a couple destroyers, and a pocket carrier. For each ASP invested, you can get 5 squadrons. How effective your navy is can be related to navy doctrine tech areas. Your one native Unique Unit can be in your navy.
Air Force: 10 groups
A group is twelve jets, a mix of both fighters and bombers. For each ASP invested, you can get 5 groups. How effective your air force is can be related to aeronautics doctrine tech areas. Your one native Unique Unit can be in your air force.
Background: In the years since the upheaval of the early 21st century, Romania has stayed relatively true to the ideals of the dead European Union; insuring its western minorities full franchise and heaping upon them lavish spending. However, tolerance of the Roma (Gypsies) is predictably low; and this may prove a catalyst for future upheaval.
That’s the Romanian background. It will probably get outdated fast by developments in the updates.
Part Three: Updates
The game starts in the year 2050, meaning the first update covers year 2051, the next 2052, etc. Each update will list important civil and military developments. Any changes in the stats based on ordered investments will not be listed here, but all other changes will be, with the exception of changes in Approval Polling. There will also be a map with every update, showing the current territorial status of the world, as well as the presence of cities, rivers and perhaps fortifications. Paint the map your color!
Part Four: Orders
Submit orders via PM each turn on strategy and ASP spending.
Part Five: Stories
I think they add great flavor to NESing, but I’ve gotten carried away with them in the past. One each turn will provide your nation with an in-update boost of some sort.
