[quote=@BangoSkank] So there are basically three common, or at least in my experience common, sort of genres of RP. Character, Faction and Nation. Character Based. Most common here and most common in most places. You write as one single character. Sometimes you write as two or three, rarely more than that. You make a Character Sheet for that one character, or one each for several characters. 1x1 usually falls into that, though it doesn't have to. This is Doctor Murrow, the depressed doctor trying to make it through a disaster and keep as many of his fellow men alive as possible. Faction Based. You write as a relatively small faction. Usually without a real formal limitation but usually ranging from like 10-100. You make a Faction Sheet explaining what this group believes, why they're together, what they're after and what they're going to do to get what they're after. This is the Followers of the Apocalypse. A bunch of survivors in the aftermath of The Big One. They're trying to take control of as many military installations as possible to prevent their weapons from being used against any survivors...but probably gradually giving in to the appeal of power themselves. Nation RP You write as a big fuck of a Nation. Depending on the timeline and setting hundreds or thousands or hundreds of thousands. Even millions if you're doing SciFi or like Peak Civilization Fantasy. Your writing is establishing your politics. Military, leadership, hopefully alternate leadership like another political party. This is the Western Commonwealth of the United States. The states of the Pacific Northwest coming together with Texas and Arizona, moving into Nevada and Utah and looking East to expand further. Utilizing simpler weaponry and masses of transport vehicles from seized military bases to quickly push their boundaries outward. I don't like Nation RPs. They're fun, in theory, because you can use it to tell stories in your own small world and then have occasional interactions with other folks worlds. If I'm that Southwestern States and you're Midwestern States we will eventually meet somewhere in the bordering areas. You're likely writing as several characters. A President or Prime Minister or small Parliament. An opposing political party in your own nation. General common citizen characters. Maybe a military hero with aspirations of becoming president himself one day. So most of the time you are either expanding, shoring up after encountering something while expanding, investing into some technology, or maybe fighting your own political battles. They can be awesome. I just find that often the writers end up loving their main characters or entire nations too much and it becomes a convention of Mary Sues. Conventions are a common trope in these RPs too. Annual, usually, meetings where delegations from each nation get together to meet each other and brag about what they've done. Could be really cool, could be a not particularly subtle dick measuring contest. You know, politics. [/quote] >Just like real life. Though you and Broken both make good points. On the one hand, I can see how it goes beyond worldbuilding, although that's not to say you can't just worldbuild more events in the nation's future or write short stories from different characters perspectives. Yeah it takes a lot of work, but so does worldbuilding or writing any halfway compelling story. On the other, it can fall to dick measuring, and at that point I cite my grand strategy game question. If you want that level of progress in a--let's face it--usually far fairer environment, then a game with carefully balanced mechanics is probably a better way to go. And it gives the dopamine hit of progress without necessarily having to step on anyone's toes intent-wise. Or having to worry about being out-teched. >Well... most of the time anyway.