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Dispatch → Meta → Gameplay
Commonwealth of Sovereign States | A Newcomer's Guide
PRESENTS
A NEWCOMER'S GUIDE
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| Quick Start Guide | | Characters || Stories | Worldbuilding |
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W O R L D B U I L D ,—W R I T E ,—R O L E P L A Y
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Absolutely not! You can post your own stories to the Commonwealth of Sovereign States' Regional Message Board whenever you like. However, different players may have their own interconnected worlds. It is always best to check with other players before including their nation in your writing.
The Regional Message Board, often shortened to RMB, is the main place where members of the Commonwealth of Sovereign States can post messages. It is usually reserved for Roleplay posts, but more important Out of Character messages may occasionally be found there too. These should be tagged with "OOC" to make the distinction clear.
Yes! Most of the Out of Character chatting and discussion happens on this server, and although you don't need to join it to write Roleplay posts, it is highly recommended to help you collaborate with the other great people in the region. There is also a lot of off-topic discussion on there, making it a great place to just hang out! Click here to join it!
We also host many regional activities, often through Discord, for members of the region to participate in and contribute to, such as sports events, video game sessions, and party activities.
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• Although the temptation is to write a vast, objective epic of an entire nation, this is actually very difficult to do engagingly. Instead, we recommend that you focus on a few main characters from your nation (or other nations, if collaborating on a larger world), and use them as a focus through which you can show the effects of national events.
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• Having a familiar set of characters to work with, allows you to explore them in far more detail. Remember, it is as much about the small details of individuals as the wide, sweeping global developments. Don't create new people for each post. Having a few fleshed out characters allows you to more easily connect with your world, and helps engage readers.
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• Character development is tricky. Remember that people change and are affected by their surroundings and past. However, the change has to feel organic and justified - people don't change dramatically out of nowhere.
• Try to have a cohesive overarching plot for your posts. Always consider whether your new post B would make sense and fit sensibly into the same country you described in your earlier post A.
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• Don't be afraid to write a longer story spanning multiple RMB posts. Trying to cram a whole tale into just one post makes it very difficult to give a complete and satisfying arc. Making it episodic allows you to make a longer story and enables you to look at the narrative from other perspectives. It also makes it more easily digestible for the reader to understand.
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• Break the mold! If everyone else is writing about conflict and strife, you don't have to feel obliged to join in. Some of the most compelling works have been slice of life stories or about other domestic and picturesque scenes. Write about what you want to.
• Feel free to collaborate with other players or go international. Sometimes working with someone on a story line can be a rewarding experience and expand your own skills, or perhaps even be the way to making a new friend.
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• It's a good idea to explore different parts of your nation. Your readers don't always want to see the exact same thing from you all the time. Variety is the spice of life.
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• Try writing an overview or history dispatch about your nation, summarising what it is like and why. This can help inspire you with ideas and aspects of your nation that you want to focus on more in upcoming RP posts. People also like reading these outlines!
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