Game Rules

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

1. receive e-mail notification that a new Round has started
2. 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.
3. react to scenarios that have arisen. This may involve creating new policies or proposing treaties.
4. Check your allocations (the resources window)
5. Check your minimum allocations and note any categories below minimum
6. Consult point cost for each category
7. Look at the “View Offers” window to see if anyone is proposing trades that will help you.
8. If no one is proposing good trades, post some offers, or send mail messages out to see what other countries want.
9. Deploy military if you want to.
10. Meet with organizations you belong to.
11. 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.
12. Begin setting up embassies, trades, embargoes, sanctions, tariffs, military moves, treaties, etc.
13. 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.
14. 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.