Although Particracy was originally intended to primarily operate through its game mechanics, the fact that development has been totally abandoned has led many players to utilise the open nature of the forum as a way to add depth to the world of Terra. The fictional news stories, events, organisations and whatever else that players developed is usually referred to collectively as "role-play".
By understanding how role-play functions, players can create more interesting stories and develop better relationships with other players. The problem is that it can be difficult to understand some of the basic principles of role-play unless they are explained, so this thread will serve as a go-to resource for that purpose.
The inspiration for this thread is a previous thread of a similar kind by Doc. Although parts of that thread are now out-of-date, the principles are still broadly accurate and the explanation of kayfabe is useful tool that I would recommend all players read.
Please share any feedback or questions that you have with me through private message, regardless of your experience as a player.
Outline:
- Getting started
- Format and design
- Role-play principles
- Culture and religion
- Forum-based countries
- World Congress
Getting started
Getting started with role-play on the forum can be a confusing task for several reasons. For one thing the forum itself can appear confusing at times and it's not always clear where specific posts belong. Probably the best place to start is with your national news thread. Each playable country in Particracy has its own dedicated forum thread in the "International News" section, where players can post details of significant events across the country.
Individual players have reasonable scope to role-play a variety of events within their country, though certain types of events will require permission from other players. Although there is no clear dividing line between what's appropriate to role-play without consulting other players and what you need to seek permission for first, there are some clear and obvious examples of each case.
If an event involves exclusively your own political party (such as an internal leadership election or a party rally), then there's no need to talk to other players before writing a post about it. On the other hand, if an event would obviously have a widespread impact on the rest of the country (such as an attempted coup, a major terrorist incident or economic crisis), then it would be necessary to consult with and gain the permission of other players before posting about it. If you have any doubt, it does no harm to consult with your fellow players beforehand.
Format and design
Although there are many exceptions, most role-play in Particracy takes place in various threads on the forum in the form of news articles. Even outside of the national newspaper threads, most forum posts are presented as pieces of mock journalism in which an organisation is reporting on a news story or other development that has occurred within the game world of Particracy. News posts like this all have a common structure, consisting of two fundamental elements: a story and a source. In this section, I'll explore these elements as well as additional features that a player might want to include in their news posts.
The story of the post refers to the event within the fictional world of the game that are being reported on. Particracy is principally a political simulation game however the flexible nature of the role-playing environment on the forum means that posts can be on a wide variety of subjects. In recent times, players have written news posts about church schisms, formula one racing, military coups, talent competitions and much more.
As mentioned already the story of a news post will affect the permissions that you need to seek before you publish it. If your story relates solely to characters or organisations under your own control, like your political party or companies that you created, then you usually don't need to worry about seeking the permission of other players. If your story has a wider impact though then you might need to. For example, if you're going to post about a company that you created expanding into a new country, it would be better to talk to the players in that country first.
The source is the in-game organisation or individual that is producing the information communicated to the reader. Among the most common sources for in-game stories are press outlets (e.g. newspapers and online news sites) as well as official information from organisations, like press releases. Different conventions exist for referencing the source of a news story. In certain situations it may simply be inferred from context, for example a post in the "Beluzia" news thread will be assumed to have been produced by a Beluzian news outlet.
