Nation RPs are becoming more of a thing, it seems, but I've never been intrigued by the over complicated mechanics that go into most of them; so this one is made with simplicity in mind, and it's something to help participants pass the time as a little side-project. It is, by no means, a full-blown RP that would consume your time.

The inspiration for this comes from NationStates, an online nation game created by satirist Max Barry. While the conflicts and scenarios spotlighted in this RP won't necessarily be of a satirical nature, they will--more or less--be constructed and presented in similar fashion to NationStates.

[h2]A Brief Overview[/h2]
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In the not-quite-so-distant future, humans expanded into the cosmos to begin colonizing other worlds. In a remote system on the verge of explored space, a new garden planet was discovered with gravity and atmosphere similar to Earth's. However, most of the surface is actually one giant ocean, with islands (big and small) scattered across the globe. These plots of land became independent colonies of the settling travelers that made this new planet their home.

We'll get into the specifics of creating a nation later in the OOC, if this gains interest; but to explain the general dynamics:

[indent][h3]Political Influence Points[/h3]
The game is played by simply making decisions using "Political Influence Points" (PIP, for short). Each decision made earns you 1 PIP and cost [i]no[/i] PIP; but, at the same time, decisions require a [i]minimum amount[/i] of PIP (basically, the tougher the problem, the more influence you require in order to resolve it). At the start, a new nation has 1 PIP and they can earn up to a maximum of 12. When problems demand the player to make a call, they will have a set amount of choices. The nature of some possible responses are "authoritarian", "conservative", "liberal", "socialist", "free market", etc., etc. Most situations only have two or three choices, while more complex issues may offer some more freedom.

[h3]Viva la Revolución![/h3]
If, at any point, the player is no longer satisfied with their nation's standing, they can initiate a revolution. Revolutions reset a nation's PIP to 1, and all decisions to situations that arose before are null and void. Thus, if you're no longer content with your fascist dictatorship or have grown bored with your hippie paradise, you can wipe the slate clean and try something new.

[h3]Political Standing[/h3]
Many situations will always be available to tackle, so long as your nation meets the PIP requirement. Others are only available within a set time frame (determined by the gravity of the situation at hand). Situations don't [i]have[/i] to be addressed, however. If no choice is picked, your nation will incur no consequence and its [i]standing[/i] will remain unchanged.

A nation's standing is its overall style of governing, based on the decisions it has made in response to situations. A new nation that hasn't responded to a situation (or a recently revolutionized nation) is considered to have a "balanced" government. Standing is determined following a confirmed decision and calculated by points assigned to the choices you've made up to that moment. More details on this will be provided later, but it's not complicated at all (I swear!).

[h3]Invoke the Powah![/h3]
When players choose to respond, they have the opportunity to play out their government's choice in two parts: 

[indent]1.) The official declaration of the decision itself (i.e. a presidential press conference, or a crowd-stirring speech) -- In the form of a post that declares the player's action of choosing an available response

2.) The fallout of their decision (i.e. a news story about riots in the streets, or a dramatic change in the nation's GDP) -- In the form of a follow-up post no sooner than 24 hours (real time) later[/indent]
[h3]War![/h3]
As of right now, I don't have a solid plan for integrating a fair war system into the game. This is just a relaxing RP that you can do on the side whenever you get time in between the other RPs you might have going on here. However, I'll work on coming up with a system we can use in the future for acting out conflicts between the island nations.[/indent]
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If you're interested in a nation RP, but don't want to lose yourself in the complexities of traditional setups, then consider giving this one a shot! Post here if you're interested and I'll start up the main threads when we get at least five people (not including myself).