Post by studentloandebt on Jul 26, 2019 20:18:50 GMT
Hello there . First of all, congratulations on winning the elections, whomever you are. To help you out in the beginning, I've decided to start this thread that contains all the things I've learned in during my term. When you are done as well, feel free to add another post to this so that there is a growing body of knowledge for those who occupy this role.
Be Involved In The RP Community
To be a good MoRP, you need to be involved with the community. When I first started there was barely anyone in the community. By being involved, talking with RPers, engaging with their RP, and knowing what they're doing in RP, you become a very integrated MoRP and can truly represent the RP community. One of the reasons I decided not to run for MoRP for a 5th term was because I wasn't interacting too much with the RP community and felt distant. I was doing overhead stuff and organizing things (which is mainly what the MoRP does), but not really doing RP and interacting in the RP world. The MoRP should be one of the most active RPers in the RP community. You should do some in-character actions, publish some news reports, have your country and/or people be involved with other nations and/or peoples.
Find Out What The Community Wants
MoRP is not a position for one person to force their RP onto the community, but to stimulate the community and find out what they want. When I first became MoRP I sent out a survey to the region about RP. It was full of ideas I had for RP things and allowed for people to give their ideas for RP things. I wanted to know what the community wanted and was able to help stimulate activity and make people feel more comfortable with the ministry. If the people feel like they have good say in RP, they'll be more likely to engage in RP. Ask people what kind of things they want from the Ministry, propose ideas to them, find out the reactions they have to your work and see what seems most popular.
RP Events
Something that can really help with activity is creating RP Events; things that happen in the RP World. This can range from short paragraph accounts of events like "Man finds a dinosaur fossil in his toilet" to full scale multi-part world events (here are some examples). These can provide RPers the opportunity to be involved, react, and know more about our world and can be really fun if you plan it before hand with others. I would advise you do some in your term. Think of a story you can do that can allow other players to easily get involved. Have a plan for how the story will go. The best RP events would be ones where the players can easily alter how the story goes because those can get the most engagement. However, sometimes you can just tell a story or even just do a one-time event that the players react to.
RP Rules
As MoRP, you can set up rules to make RPing easier for the community. As of the day I type this, there are rules about fighting between players and who has final say, how advanced your tech can be, fantasy elements, Space RP, and about developing your RP if you're involved. You can edit these, add more, get rid of them, whatever helps make RP better. I would advise keeping these but if you can find a better way to run RP then by all means change them.
Departments
Your Directors can be really useful in developing a thriving RP community and help the Ministry get content out there.
Department of Cartography
For the past...forever I guess, the DoC has been the most active department in the Ministry of Role Play and rightfully so because of how important the regional map is to RP. The regional map gives players the ability to place nations, interact with their neighbors, do geopolitics (the Iskarian Intracontinental Union, or IIU, is a good example), and most importantly gives you an entire world to work with. What else is better for RP than having an entire world? Alongside the World Map, you also have maps of the DSA Capital City, which can allow for more local RP than before with street maps, buses, subways, all in a central location that any player can use. If Student Loan Debt is still DoC, you don't have to worry about this Department. However, if he left, make sure you keep the map updated. The only map you really need is a political map that shows the borders of the nations. However, the more maps there are the more possibilities there are for RP. SLD updated the political maps every two weeks, but you can update them whenever (though hopefully more than once per term).
The program Paint can be a useful tool for creating and updating maps and so can the online tool Pixlr (if your internet is good), the poorman's photoshop. However, the FOSS program Inkscape is also a great tool. I would recommend storing the maps on the website Imgur. The quality is good enough, you don't need an account to upload and view photos, and it's easy to link to. However, having the maps in a Google Drive folder can allow for full quality and better ability to zoom in and out.
Democratic Socialist Assembly Convention (DSAC)
The point of this department is to serve as the RP world's version of the UN. It allows for international political RP to occur in a central group setting and can allow any RPer to set up rules for the RP world. However, if this department is ignored, it can have some bad consequences. For example; under my 4th term as MoRP, there was a nuclear war. During my 4th term, I wasn't really involved in the RP of the region and as such didn't really even know nor pay attention to it. After, people were upset that DSAC didn't do anything (I didn't have anyone appointed DSAc Secretary at the time so I directly ran it) and all members of the IIU pulled out of the Convention. This Department is not one that works like the rest of being an Overhead department, but exists in the RP world and deals with RP directly. I would recommend having someone who is involved directly in RP be involved with this department.
Department of Sports Leagues
This department is all about competitions. There are many kinds of competitions one can hold; Olympic-style games, tennis tournaments, sailing competitions, even Drag Pageants (all of which have been done in the DSA). With competitions, I would recommend finding ones people like. People recommended the tennis and sailing competitions and those two were popular in sign-ups. After, find a way to simulate these. Xkoranate is a popular scorinator on NS used by many players who organize sporting contests. It is free to download and isn't too bad to understand. You find a competition in there, enter in player information, say how you want to run the contest, who you want in the simulation, then simulate. After knowing how to do the competition, get people to sign-up. They can DM you, you can make a forum post for it, a Google Form, however best to organize sign-ups. Have a date that you will release scores on. While the scores alone can be enough to produce some fun RP, it works great if you RP how those scores came to be. I had fun doing that with the DSA Ocean Race, documenting major parts of each race.
I would recommend at least one (1) competition per term. If you can, one per month would be great.
Department of Trade and Commerce
...I don't really know what to do with this department. I've tried to think of stuff but there is not really much to do. This department would work best if the region was more capitalistic, but we're not. Most I could get from this department is designing the Labor Credit, the official currency of the DSA, and having a Central Bank to calculate it's value. If you can think of something to do, please do it.
Department of War and Peace
This one is not used as often as the other departments, but is still an important one. It makes sure that any War in our RP is fair for the players involved. Like DSAC, this one requires more attention to RP than the others. I would recommend having War Rules set up, rules that say how a player may conduct warfare with other players. You can look at the rules I set up for inspiration and/or direct copying.
Cabinet Aides
Cabinet Aides can be a great way to get help. It's an entry-level job into DSA government and isn't as prestigious as Director so anyone can be one.
Want to have another Department? It would seem that some people don't like it when the MoRP creates a department that isn't listed in our lawbooks (i.e. wasn't voted on existing by congress). If you want another department, you will need to draft legislation about that. However, you can get around that and still have fancy shamcy titles by creating offices. They're like the Cabinet Aide version of a department. Is there any legal precedent for this? Not at all, I made them up and they're working great.
Some offices I made were the Office of Astronautics and Celestial Events (OACE) that helps develop Space RP, Regional Environment Organization (REO)
that helps develop nature-based RP, and Democratic Socialist Culture Office (DSCO) that helps develop cultural based RP.
Some specific jobs in those are Aide of Space and Stuff
which ensures that space RPs run smoothly, everything is theoretically possible,
and help create what our section of space looks like.
There is the Regional Weather Service Executive
which provides weather forecasts, warnings of hazardous weather (like Hurricanes in late summer),
and other weather-related products.
There is Regional Cryptozoologist
that, in terms of RP, studies the many mysterious entities that roam the DSA.
They hunt down creatures of myth and legend and report on their findings
to the people of the DSA, giving us a better understanding of our mysterious
world. In terms of the position, it can just be a fun role where you can publish short stories
and reports on made up creatures in the DSA.
There is the Regional Anthropology Executive
that, in terms of RP, study the human societies that exist and once existed in the DSA. In terms of the position, it can just be a fun role where you can publish short stories
and reports on different groups that exist (or existed) in the DSA.
I consider those offices to be the best ones. You can make more if you want or you can get rid of them. Cabinet Aides are a great way to get someone involved in the Ministry and, if they want to do something specific and want a fancy title, you can create an office.
Rewards and Ceremonial Roles
There are three things I created that I feel should be brought up; Dean of La Sagezza University Award, Mayor of the DSA Capital, and Grand Marshal of the DSA Capital Pride Parade
The Dean of La Sagezza University Award is an award I created to rewards RP activity. This award can encourage people to do RP and recognizes the impact being an active RPers can have. I awarded one per Cabinet Term (every 3 months) at the end of the 3rd month based on who was nominated by the people to receive it. Out of fairness, I excluded the MoRP from being able to receive it (it's their job to do RP, not the same thing).
Mayor of the DSA Capital is a fun ceremonial role I created. At the end of each Cabinet Term, there is an election as to whom shall be the head of the DSA Capital. They don't have any actual power nor responsibilities, but it can be fun to elect a player to mayorship. Also, if they do RP with the DSA Capital, even better.
The Grand Marshal of the DSA Capital Pride Parade is something that you really only need to care about for the May-July Term. MoRP organizes a Pride Parade in the DSA Capital and I've been appointing people to be the Grand Marshal of the Parade (ceremonial leader IRL). Less significant than Mayor, but still fun.
Be Involved In The RP Community
To be a good MoRP, you need to be involved with the community. When I first started there was barely anyone in the community. By being involved, talking with RPers, engaging with their RP, and knowing what they're doing in RP, you become a very integrated MoRP and can truly represent the RP community. One of the reasons I decided not to run for MoRP for a 5th term was because I wasn't interacting too much with the RP community and felt distant. I was doing overhead stuff and organizing things (which is mainly what the MoRP does), but not really doing RP and interacting in the RP world. The MoRP should be one of the most active RPers in the RP community. You should do some in-character actions, publish some news reports, have your country and/or people be involved with other nations and/or peoples.
Find Out What The Community Wants
MoRP is not a position for one person to force their RP onto the community, but to stimulate the community and find out what they want. When I first became MoRP I sent out a survey to the region about RP. It was full of ideas I had for RP things and allowed for people to give their ideas for RP things. I wanted to know what the community wanted and was able to help stimulate activity and make people feel more comfortable with the ministry. If the people feel like they have good say in RP, they'll be more likely to engage in RP. Ask people what kind of things they want from the Ministry, propose ideas to them, find out the reactions they have to your work and see what seems most popular.
RP Events
Something that can really help with activity is creating RP Events; things that happen in the RP World. This can range from short paragraph accounts of events like "Man finds a dinosaur fossil in his toilet" to full scale multi-part world events (here are some examples). These can provide RPers the opportunity to be involved, react, and know more about our world and can be really fun if you plan it before hand with others. I would advise you do some in your term. Think of a story you can do that can allow other players to easily get involved. Have a plan for how the story will go. The best RP events would be ones where the players can easily alter how the story goes because those can get the most engagement. However, sometimes you can just tell a story or even just do a one-time event that the players react to.
RP Rules
As MoRP, you can set up rules to make RPing easier for the community. As of the day I type this, there are rules about fighting between players and who has final say, how advanced your tech can be, fantasy elements, Space RP, and about developing your RP if you're involved. You can edit these, add more, get rid of them, whatever helps make RP better. I would advise keeping these but if you can find a better way to run RP then by all means change them.
Departments
Your Directors can be really useful in developing a thriving RP community and help the Ministry get content out there.
Department of Cartography
For the past...forever I guess, the DoC has been the most active department in the Ministry of Role Play and rightfully so because of how important the regional map is to RP. The regional map gives players the ability to place nations, interact with their neighbors, do geopolitics (the Iskarian Intracontinental Union, or IIU, is a good example), and most importantly gives you an entire world to work with. What else is better for RP than having an entire world? Alongside the World Map, you also have maps of the DSA Capital City, which can allow for more local RP than before with street maps, buses, subways, all in a central location that any player can use. If Student Loan Debt is still DoC, you don't have to worry about this Department. However, if he left, make sure you keep the map updated. The only map you really need is a political map that shows the borders of the nations. However, the more maps there are the more possibilities there are for RP. SLD updated the political maps every two weeks, but you can update them whenever (though hopefully more than once per term).
The program Paint can be a useful tool for creating and updating maps and so can the online tool Pixlr (if your internet is good), the poorman's photoshop. However, the FOSS program Inkscape is also a great tool. I would recommend storing the maps on the website Imgur. The quality is good enough, you don't need an account to upload and view photos, and it's easy to link to. However, having the maps in a Google Drive folder can allow for full quality and better ability to zoom in and out.
Democratic Socialist Assembly Convention (DSAC)
The point of this department is to serve as the RP world's version of the UN. It allows for international political RP to occur in a central group setting and can allow any RPer to set up rules for the RP world. However, if this department is ignored, it can have some bad consequences. For example; under my 4th term as MoRP, there was a nuclear war. During my 4th term, I wasn't really involved in the RP of the region and as such didn't really even know nor pay attention to it. After, people were upset that DSAC didn't do anything (I didn't have anyone appointed DSAc Secretary at the time so I directly ran it) and all members of the IIU pulled out of the Convention. This Department is not one that works like the rest of being an Overhead department, but exists in the RP world and deals with RP directly. I would recommend having someone who is involved directly in RP be involved with this department.
Department of Sports Leagues
This department is all about competitions. There are many kinds of competitions one can hold; Olympic-style games, tennis tournaments, sailing competitions, even Drag Pageants (all of which have been done in the DSA). With competitions, I would recommend finding ones people like. People recommended the tennis and sailing competitions and those two were popular in sign-ups. After, find a way to simulate these. Xkoranate is a popular scorinator on NS used by many players who organize sporting contests. It is free to download and isn't too bad to understand. You find a competition in there, enter in player information, say how you want to run the contest, who you want in the simulation, then simulate. After knowing how to do the competition, get people to sign-up. They can DM you, you can make a forum post for it, a Google Form, however best to organize sign-ups. Have a date that you will release scores on. While the scores alone can be enough to produce some fun RP, it works great if you RP how those scores came to be. I had fun doing that with the DSA Ocean Race, documenting major parts of each race.
I would recommend at least one (1) competition per term. If you can, one per month would be great.
Department of Trade and Commerce
...I don't really know what to do with this department. I've tried to think of stuff but there is not really much to do. This department would work best if the region was more capitalistic, but we're not. Most I could get from this department is designing the Labor Credit, the official currency of the DSA, and having a Central Bank to calculate it's value. If you can think of something to do, please do it.
Department of War and Peace
This one is not used as often as the other departments, but is still an important one. It makes sure that any War in our RP is fair for the players involved. Like DSAC, this one requires more attention to RP than the others. I would recommend having War Rules set up, rules that say how a player may conduct warfare with other players. You can look at the rules I set up for inspiration and/or direct copying.
Cabinet Aides
Cabinet Aides can be a great way to get help. It's an entry-level job into DSA government and isn't as prestigious as Director so anyone can be one.
Want to have another Department? It would seem that some people don't like it when the MoRP creates a department that isn't listed in our lawbooks (i.e. wasn't voted on existing by congress). If you want another department, you will need to draft legislation about that. However, you can get around that and still have fancy shamcy titles by creating offices. They're like the Cabinet Aide version of a department. Is there any legal precedent for this? Not at all, I made them up and they're working great.
Some offices I made were the Office of Astronautics and Celestial Events (OACE) that helps develop Space RP, Regional Environment Organization (REO)
that helps develop nature-based RP, and Democratic Socialist Culture Office (DSCO) that helps develop cultural based RP.
Some specific jobs in those are Aide of Space and Stuff
which ensures that space RPs run smoothly, everything is theoretically possible,
and help create what our section of space looks like.
There is the Regional Weather Service Executive
which provides weather forecasts, warnings of hazardous weather (like Hurricanes in late summer),
and other weather-related products.
There is Regional Cryptozoologist
that, in terms of RP, studies the many mysterious entities that roam the DSA.
They hunt down creatures of myth and legend and report on their findings
to the people of the DSA, giving us a better understanding of our mysterious
world. In terms of the position, it can just be a fun role where you can publish short stories
and reports on made up creatures in the DSA.
There is the Regional Anthropology Executive
that, in terms of RP, study the human societies that exist and once existed in the DSA. In terms of the position, it can just be a fun role where you can publish short stories
and reports on different groups that exist (or existed) in the DSA.
I consider those offices to be the best ones. You can make more if you want or you can get rid of them. Cabinet Aides are a great way to get someone involved in the Ministry and, if they want to do something specific and want a fancy title, you can create an office.
Rewards and Ceremonial Roles
There are three things I created that I feel should be brought up; Dean of La Sagezza University Award, Mayor of the DSA Capital, and Grand Marshal of the DSA Capital Pride Parade
The Dean of La Sagezza University Award is an award I created to rewards RP activity. This award can encourage people to do RP and recognizes the impact being an active RPers can have. I awarded one per Cabinet Term (every 3 months) at the end of the 3rd month based on who was nominated by the people to receive it. Out of fairness, I excluded the MoRP from being able to receive it (it's their job to do RP, not the same thing).
Mayor of the DSA Capital is a fun ceremonial role I created. At the end of each Cabinet Term, there is an election as to whom shall be the head of the DSA Capital. They don't have any actual power nor responsibilities, but it can be fun to elect a player to mayorship. Also, if they do RP with the DSA Capital, even better.
The Grand Marshal of the DSA Capital Pride Parade is something that you really only need to care about for the May-July Term. MoRP organizes a Pride Parade in the DSA Capital and I've been appointing people to be the Grand Marshal of the Parade (ceremonial leader IRL). Less significant than Mayor, but still fun.