Rules
for Worldsim Online
(from Mr. Smith's original handout with many of my own
modifications)
OBJECTIVE
To
use a hands-on, critical thinking approach to common problems, the
United States and other countries have faced, are facing, and may
face in the future involving domestic, foreign, civil and military
problems. (like a cross
between Risk and D&D)
This
will be achieved by taking a country and trying to improve it over
time by making treaties, trades, domestic and foreign policy
decisions, and in some cases war in a fictitious world designed to
simulate and emulate real world problems which have arose through the
course of history. Play will
be conducted mainly through the worldsim web application, but players
can also communicate through whatever other means they choose.
Worldsim
is not like other computer games in that very little of it is bound
by formal rules. Instead, country actions are expressed as written
summaries to be interpreted by a game master (admin),
who decides how those actions affect the state of the simulation.
Anything that a real country can do, a country in worldsim can do.
GENERAL
RULES OF THE SIMULATION
You
will
be assigned a country with some information about that country. You
and your partner (should you recruit one) are the leaders of this
country. Your decisions will directly affect your country's well
being. War mongering or deliberately harming your own country will
result in mockery from me and your peers and if it gets bad enough, I
will ask you to leave the simulation.
The
sim will begin with technology approximately at the level of
Napoleonic Europe, battles
are fought with muskets and swords, world-wide
trade is a reality, homes are heated mostly by coal and wood, and lit
by candles, etc... The sim is divided into sessions instead of
years, but will correspond with the real world as much as possible.
When creating treaty agreements always refer to the amount of
sessions and not by years.
You
will have points to use to buy units (see definition of terms).
Those units are what you use to make treaties, trades, war, etc.
The various units will have different costs. Unit costs vary from country to country and from
session to session. Factors that affect the price of a unit include
Research and Development (for example if you research improved mining
techniques, krust may become cheaper, but if you research improved
guns, army price may actually increase because of increased costs in
producing the new guns as compared with the old ones but your armies
will be better), abundance of resources in the country, country policies, current events, and other factors.
All
unit allocations, point purchases, treaties, trades, wars, military
movements, social or political decisions are
executed in the corresponding window of the web application.
Some actions, such as
military movements need to be acknowledged by the admin
before they are “official”. Others, such as tax policies,
research, and most other
actions that only involve one country do not take effect until the
end of a round.
Depending
on your allocations, treaty agreements, trades, etc. you will be
given scenarios or problems which you must react to, solve, adjust,
or do something about. ALL
scenarios must be dealt with each session or bad things may happen.
ALLOCATIONS
You
will have new point totals every session to allocate for earning
units. You also may earn points from treaties, trades, or wars.
It
is not recommended to use all of your points each session.
Some
kinds of units can be scrapped for points, but many cannot. If for
some reason you just want to destroy a unit, you can allocated it to
a policy and indicate an appropriate rationale.
TREATIES
In
worldsim, as in the real world, treaties are just words. If you make
a treaty to give another country money or some other resource, you
must then fulfill that treaty through the trade mechanism (or you can
neglect to fulfill the words of the treaty and possibly face
political consequences).
TRADES
Trades
are conducted through the “make offer” and “view offers”
windows.
In
order to trade with a country(s) you must have an embassy in the
country(s) you are trading with (see political diplomacy)
Trades
are considered one time trades. Countries
can make treaties agreeing to trade for multiple turns, but they
still must manually execute the trade every turn.
MILITARY
You
must keep at least one unit of the army in your country at all times
Establishing
bases in other countries can be done through treaties or by force.
The
more units of military, the stronger it is.
If
war is waged:
Military
units, location, modern weaponry, treaties, all categories of each
country are involved.
Length
of war is also determined from the above criteria.
Depending
on the country, you will have to allocate a certain amount of units
to maintain occupation.
In
some cases, certain modern weapons may have an impact beyond the
country being attacked and for a longer duration than intended.
All
military movements must be approved by the
admin. All military
movements will
be announced to the world and will be noted on the map. (unless doing
a covert operation)
Types
of weapons used to not need to be announced, but bluffing or spying
may be of benefit.
It
takes time for a non-bordered country to bring reinforcements to a
country being attacked depending on that country's technology, unless
they have a base in the country being attacked or that country's navy
is already in the sea by the country being attacked. Additional
units of military will take time to arrive. If the country has an
air force, time will vary on how quickly they can get there depending
on the technology of the country's air force.
War
and military movements will be conducted in quasi-real-time
throughout the turn.
Declaring military actions at the beginning of a turn may give you an
advantage because it will mean that the action will have a chance to
complete during the turn, but there is no penalty for having troops
in mid-maneuver during a turn transition.
MINIMUMS
Anytime
your country drops below the minimum unit number for a category
your country may face moderate to severe consequences in scenarios.
It is highly recommended to try and stay above the minimum but as in
life, sometimes it's just not fair.
ELECTIONS
Depending
on your country and form of government, you may have to have
elections which can affect different aspects of your country.
SUPPLEMENTAL
RULES/ADVICE
Embassies-
The more units of political diplomacy you have in an embassy the
stronger your diplomacy is in that country. Countries you are
already friendly with may not need as many units as countries you are
on shaky grounds with or not in good standing. Having more diplomacy
units in a country than that country has in yours may
give your country an advantage to have more favorable trade and
treaty agreements with the other country.
Country
Control- You and your
partners (if
you have any), are the
decision makers of your country no matter what type of government,
even if the government is overthrown. The only way you lose decision
making power is if your country is taken over by another country and
even then you may be granted limited or full decision making
authority from the conquering country.
Organizations-
The country that hosts an organization is responsible for organizing
the meetings and executing them (meetings
can be conducted through the in-game mail system or whatever
communication medium participants agree on).
Any
official conclusions and declarations of the meetings should be
recorded in a new treaty
Units-
unit cost is not what the unit is worth. Cost only tells you how
much the unit costs in your country. Once a unit is in your
possession via trade, war, etc. the unit assumes the cost of what
that unit is in your country.
Some
units can be scrapped for some fraction of their production cost.
Other units cannot
be scrapped.
Research
and Development- The
units of R&D can be allocated to any category. Each unit
allocated enhances the ability to either produce more units of said
category or create new technologies for said category. Allocations
for R&D can only be made once per session. R&D is loosely
categorized into Military R&D, Economic R&D, and Scientific
(includes all non-military sciences) R&D). R&D points can
also be used for intelligence, such as spying or related activities.
Indicate R&D allocation in
the policies window, if appropriate you can also allocate other kinds
of units to R&D.
TYPICAL
SEQUNCE OF EVENTS PER SESSION
receive
e-mail notification that
a new Round has started
log
on and check the “Cover” window and the “Map” window to read
about new developments in your country and abroad. Additional
information may be sent as “Mail” from an admin.
react
to scenarios that have arisen. This
may involve creating new policies or proposing treaties.
Check
your allocations (the
resources window)
Check
your minimum allocations and note any categories below minimum
Consult
point cost for each category
Look
at the “View Offers” window to see if anyone is proposing trades
that will help you.
If
no one is proposing good trades, post some offers, or send mail
messages out to see what other countries want.
Deploy
military if you want to.
Meet
with organizations you belong to.
Check
back every day or every couple of days to see if other countries are
responding to your offers and to see if any good trade offers have
come up, and if anyone is making military actions.
Begin
setting up embassies, trades, embargoes, sanctions, tariffs,
military moves, treaties, etc.
When
the end of the turn near, check to make sure all of the policies you
want enacted have been enacted, that you have updated your tax
polices, that you have allocated all of your R&D. Also make any
last minute trades or purchases.
Wait
until the start of the next turn.
Other General Comments
Don't
think in terms of what might be possible within the mechanics of the
game. Think in terms of what would be possible if this was a real
country. If you have trouble figuring out how to express your ideas
in terms of the game menus, let the admin know (either by e-mail or
in-game mail) and we'll figure it out.
When
you create a policy, it is a good idea to always (except maybe when
you are buying raw materials, but you can include descriptions there
too if you want) include some text describing exactly how you are
achieving the given end. This is especially important for the highly
abstract resources such as Treasury, Economy, People, Health,
Culture, and R&D. You cannot mere “Buy” Health, for example,
you need to include some text such as “build hospitals”
(hopefully something more elaborate than that, and pertaining to the
text on your cover sheet, or relating in some way to other details of
the history or particular situation of your country).
The
player in worldsim does not represent any particular political group
within the country, but something more like the hive-mind of the
ruling class (whatever the composition of the ruling class might take
at any given time). The Cover page may indicate the prevailing
political will of the citizens, whether or not the player chooses to
follow that will, can have different consequences for the country.
Unlike
in previous iterations of this game, the game master does not have to
wait for all players to declare that they are ready for the turn to
end. He can just lock the game, download whatever data they have
submitted, and prepare the next turn. This means that deadlines are
more strict in this version than in previous versions, so try to get
things done as efficiently as possible.
DEFINITIONS
OF TERMS
Scrapdus-
raw and natural materials which may include timber, iron, coal,
water, precious metals, etc.
Finosh-
manufactured goods which may include machinery, clothing,
transportation, etc.
Edibulls-
agricultural products which may include grains, fruits, vegetables,
silage, spices, etc.
Greeslik-
prepared foods. Foods already processed for consumption.
Krust-
all solid fuel sources. Highly pollutant when burned and hard on the
environment to excavate.
Blista-
all liquid fuel. Hard to find and pollutant when burned.
Points-
used to buy units
Political
Diplomacy- the ability
your country has to negotiate trades, treaties, wars, and power in
memberships. This is also representative of your embassies abroad.
Treasury-
the amount of money (units) you have to spend on domestic and foreign
issues, programs, etc.
Economy-
the general health of the economic status of your country, which
includes manufacturing, education, resources, labor unrest, trade,
tariffs, and taxes.
People-
the general status of the happiness of your people.
Health-
the general status of the health of your country. Also represents
the medical technology your country possesses.
Culture-
the arts and liberal arts such as painters, musicians,
writers, sports, etc.
Research
and Development- your
scientists who work to find better technology for your military and
economy. Very important to development of your country. This is
also your intelligence.
Army-
your general ground troops.
Navy-
your navy
Marines-
troops who specialize in
offensive operations
GDP-
Gross Domestic Product. A figure arrived at from considering the
personal consumption, government expenditures, private investment,
inventory growth, and trade balance of your country within your
borders.
Per
Capita- the average
total gross wage each eligible citizen of your country makes per
year.
