Version 1.6, Its Instructionally Nutritious!
This guide is to help new roleplayers (what few we have) to have fun while not ruining it for everyone else.
I'm not writing this for any particular reason other than I need something modly to do and because I figure everyone should read this.
1. If you're playing to 'win', you've already lost.
With any kind of roleplaying, people tend to become attached to characters, places, and nations they have built up. While this can be a good thing, and allow someone to put more emotion into the characters they are writing, with most of the younger generation this can lead to an attachment that does not lend itself towards rational (and fun) roleplaying.
If you are too attached to a character to even consider the possibility of them losing (or even dying) than perhaps you should put them on the back burner for a little while and make a new one?
I say this because this is, first and foremost, a cooperative story-telling environment.
There are no winners, there can never be a winner, and any IC victories, much like the ones in real life, will be fraught with just as many consequences as defeat.
If you're playing to win you should play video games, not join an RP forum that does not have a dice mechanic.
With that said, the most important thing one must learn when playing with nations and people over the internet is how to lose with grace and dignity.
Naturally, in-character, the individual or nation will react in various ways, some dignified, most not, but I speak mainly in the out-of-character tone when I say 'losing with grace'.
This does not mean, however, that you should always plan to lose. Indeed, that would be just as wrong as going out and trying to win all the time.
We are not our characters here, we are not our nations, they are not our children or pets, we are actors and writers having fun, and they are the setting, the bit players upon the stage that shout with fury, with drama, until silenced by the end of the show or a waiting Fate's blade.
The only real way to learn how to lose with grace is to have a bit of self-control, being able to laugh at oneself, and through experience. With a growing group, we have plenty of time for the last bit, don't worry!
As for some tips on how to open your mind to how to lose gracefully and develop yourself and your characters/nation, here are a few I find very helpful in my writing, both nation-states related and not!
~ With everything you make, think of how you would unmake it, when, why, and with what.
~ With that done, think on if you want it to have a quiet, dignified end, or a glorious last stand, and then think on whether or not this fits the scene, the characters involved, and the theme of the thread.
~ Imagine yourself in the position of the regular citizens of your nation, or as a normal person looking from the outside. How would they react to the situation? Would they run, would they fight, would they surrender? Use this to color the emotions of your characters when they are in a bind, should you get too caught up in the telling, and things start going over the top
~ Start a few threads where the outcome of the story and theme, should it have one, be where your character or nation doesn't come out on top! Explicitly plan a situation where you lose on purpose, but try not to make it look like you're doing that! This can be hard, but is always fun when pulled off right.
~ And, most importantly, to quote one of my favorite games, Losing is Fun! If your nation is conquered, this opens up themes and stories of living under the iron fist of foreign dictators, or the plight of a wounded soldier returning home to find out that not only was his fighting in vain, but the very things he was protecting no longer exist! Or, if it's more campy, there's always the classic villain monologue capped by that ever-so-cliche and always loved "Curses, foiled again!"
Just look at real life history, those with 'sure-fire' ways to win end up losing, underdogs end up winning, and sometimes things no one was expecting could happen! How many times has Poland, Germany, Russia, and various other nations throughout history, been beaten down again, and again, and again, only to rise up once more? Look at all of the things that happened between those, too! So many ideas and events that can be molded to tell a compelling story, to make a fun and interesting thread!
~ Embrace change! Don't view defeats and drawbacks as 'losing', view them as the opening of new threads and ideas, of looking at different parts of your characters and nations. Everything lets you explore and develop your characters, your nations, and your own writing skills, take advantage of it! Old characters will 'die', new ones will be 'born', threads evolve and RPs grow! Don't allow yourself to stagnate with the same old thing over and over! I'll write more on this later on, when I have time ^^
2. Sharing the spotlight, spread the love!
Don't focus so much on your own characters that you neglect to learn about someone else's, and don't try to hog all the attention by having your characters be too goofy or violent. This only lessens the environment of the thread and can turn serious things silly (at the same time, if it's explicitly mentioned to be a silly thread, being too serious could also derail it!)
Read what others type, and while thinking of how your character should and would react, also consider what your character would be thinking.
After all, no one in real life (who isn't deluded/spoiled/off-in-the-head/one of those) would respond to everything with a sob story, or a 'me' monologue (although there are people IRL who do this, but no one likes them!) If your character is a noble, he or she is going to be watching body language, and prepping themselves for possible reactions, if they're a soldier, some are going to be very bottled up, some will be highly reserved, others will be like Colonel Kilgore and just not care what anyone thinks! Everyone will react much differently! Let your characters react sometimes, let them be surprised, let them ask questions, and be curious of the others. It's fun to be the star of the show, but so is watching the show!
Don't get so caught up in internal dramas that you find yourself alone with no one to play with, open things up, let others through, and, more importantly, constantly check yourself and read what you write as if you were someone else.
Think, 'Hmm, if I were the other poster, would I be getting angry? Would I be getting bored?'
Keep track of how your characters are developing, and keep track of other peoples' too! If, OOCly, you think one of them should notice the IC change, then they should, and they should make note of it or remark on it, if it is in their nature.
I don't have many fancy bulletpoints for this one, so I'll just leave this one concluded (for now) with a little bit of advice: Always put yourself into the other person's shoes, and, should it look like, from their point of view, that you're hogging all the action, maybe you are, and that's not as fun as sharing it.
3. Embracing change, and preparing for the unexpected.
Change is wonderful! It is also terrifying, so I shall say what I can to help you through any of those horrible and glorious changes you might be putting your nation or characters through.
Change lets you explore new avenues, new ideas, new thoughts, new people! It lets you write about aspects of your chosen place, person, or story in ways that you hadn't before. This is good! Very good, because it helps you break through writer's block and freshens things up.
This is heavily tied into the first two points, as you must be able to think on your feet when it comes to 'set plots'. Unless the thread has been specifically mapped out and there is an already chosen outcome, things will not go your way, in fact, it's highly likely that in any given thread, the exact opposite of what you want is going to happen! Murphy's Laws show up even here.
Don't use the same old characters all the time, and don't go with an old standby nation based off of something you watched once when you were six, change things up! If you must use something that isn't your original creation, then make it yours! Do things to it, warp it, twist it, make it so that if it resembles the original in any way at all, it's in theme, or in memory.
Adapt, move on, and rejoice in the dawning of new ideas and new themes and settings to use as playgrounds.
4. Never be afraid to ask for help.
We have an entire council of veteran players to help you with any questions you might have, and we have a few players who have been around the block as well (when they're here, anyway.)
If you don't know if something would work, ask us! PM us, bug us in the irc, or make a thread about it!
Need help with writing up a new scene or species? Pester pester us until we pay attention! (It shouldn't take that long!)
Want to try something new, but unsure how to go ahead about it? Ask us!
The worst thing that could happen is we say "No, that's a bit silly, but if you do this, and that, and this, it would work and still have what you want in it."
Unless it's a silly question, in which case you get a silly answer
We're here to help, like any other resource (in fact we can point out a few that are most helpful), you just have to ask
Specificity!
Now we'll elaborate on those points and introduce a few others to help out with.
1. On the importance of weakness
This shall grant a bit more specificness towards the idea of 'losing' and why it's an important part of being a good roleplayer and writer.
Essentially, you should strive to ensure that nothing you create is invincible.
Invincibility is boring, both for you, and for everyone else!
Not even tanks are completely unstoppable!
It may be something like a 'weak point' ala Death Star or Zelda, or it may be just a thing of logic.
If it's heavily armored, then it will have weaker armor in the back, sides, and bottom, following that roman tradition of not wasting metal to protect someone that's retreating
If it's very fast, it might not be very strong, if it's very strong, it might not be all that swift.
Give and take, check and balance, that is what you have to do.
It's no fun to fight or 'reason' with a Superman who doesn't have a weakness to Kryptonite, it stagnates the story, makes people lose interest, and more importantly, doesn't make sense!
Basically, if you're going to make something, build weaknesses into it.
Why? Because otherwise people won't want to play with you.
2. Descriptiveness and you!
You know what's awesome? Being descriptive!
There are dictionaries and thesauruses you can access online, meaning your prose can be as purple or needlessly loquacious as you want! You can describe your characters emotions (not just by going 'rawr, I'm angry') through body language, tone of voice, choice words, and reactions!
You can describe how they're pacing and why, you can use flashbacks and memories to create background and help people who've never read your stuff before learn about and connect with your characters, you can fluff up your posts!
Please.
Please do these things.
This is not an irc roleplay room, going "Derp does this and says this!" and ending it without even making a single paragraph is something you should try to avoid. Avoid like the plague.
Being descriptive and imaginative in your posts helps other people too! It lets them pull off neat tricks if one of their member is versed in body language (or, if you only describe the consciousness of your character, and what they're thinking, they get to figure out his/her moods through what they personally know of body language tied to those emotions), they let them respond to you better, and help both of you develop your characters!
Characters are not blank slates, they should be people, real people, with real reactions and motivations, not copypastas of your favorite tv characters or endless re-iterations of a one-trick-pony with no personality or background that goes further than 'This is Derp, he is badass.'
For the love of whatever deity, entity, or non-thing you believe in, be a lil' descriptive in your posts.
3.] On subtlety and directness
When to be direct: When you feel you have an OOC problem with someone and wish to let one of the mods know (or it is one of the mods)
When to be subtle: PLOTTING AND SCHEMING ICly.
The direct approach is important OOCly (and sometimes ICly, for plot reasons) for getting things moving and letting people know what's up. If you don't tell us something is wrong, we're going to assume something isn't wrong, and if you explode about it later, it's your own damn fault. I will say no more of that and go into the IC tips now.
There are times and places for LOLTYRANNY and saturday morning cartoon villains. Those places are known as 'saturday morning cartoons.'
The world is made of shades of grey, there are 'better' guys, and 'worse' guys, but very, very, very few 'good guys' or 'bad guys,' so stop trying to make NPCs into either one. You should treat every nation you make, NPC or otherwise, as if you were building one from the ground up with intents to play it, as opposed to everyone playing it. They should be realistic and believable, lest you go down the route of sue-dom, forcing Luca or I to take it from you, trash it, and rebuild it into something better (and, quite frankly, usually something fuck-awesome.)
OOCly it is best to be as direct as possible with your motives, but ICly you should remember that with most of these roleplays, you are playing politicians, monarchs, and military commanders, all of whom have multiple goals, multiple motives, and at times, multiple loyalties. An occasional bombastic 'Colonel Kilgore' is fine every once in a while, but most people are /much/ more complex than that, and you should try to put it into your writing. More importantly, emotions tend to be a subtle thing amongst adults who aren't spazzes or autistic (and even then), so you should also avoid characters who wear their hearts on their shirt-sleeves unless it's a character roleplay with younger/naive characters.
Because, lets face it, most people in the higher ups of RL nations only weep for true tragedies, and simply frown and carry-on when something only 'bad' happens. This is not always the case, but really I just want to make sure that unnecessary and stupid angst doesn't get thrown in, as unless it serves some important purpose to the plot and is well thought out and makes sense, it detracts from the story as a whole.
Sadness is fine, sorrow is fine, stiff-upper-lip is fine. 'Oh woe is me, goodbye cruel world' isn't unless it makes sense for the story, and shouldn't come up very often.
If you're intelligent you'll notice where I have been bouncing between 'subtle' and 'unsubtle' and 'inbetween' throughout, although some have a touch of 'sarcasm' I'm sure underlying the bunch.
4. The importance of compromise
This is a co-operative story-telling environment. There is no such thing as ‘winning’ like in Risk or other games, and there is no competition between players like in so many online games. Instead it is all cooperative, with the goal being to make a story that the writers, and hopefully other on the forum, enjoy. That said, it is easy to get into the ‘playing to win’ mindset. This is anathema and cannot be allowed. Most cases are easy to forgive and move passed, we all want to really win the battle/war from time to time, we all suffer from human nature after all, but you should be able to see that, rationalize it, and put it aside. If you are intentionally playing to boost your own ego, show how much ‘better’ you are at it, or can’t admit defeat even if it serves the greater purpose of the story then you should not be partaking in cooperative roleplay at this time. Go play some Supreme Commander instead, mature psychologically, and then come back.
Compromise is the thing that keeps everything here working, and without it, things get boring. Compromise must be tempered by common sense and reason. I.E. Logic, something most of you should have by now. Most threads will have endings, and those endings should be discussed either in the irc or in the planning section of the board. If you have trouble with making it as if those endings will come to pass (i.e., if you aren't military-minded and need to stalemate or victory, or if you're horrible at diplomacy/tact but still want to garner an alliance, etc) there are people here who are good at those things, who are perfectly willing and able to assist you, both in general writing tips, tactics, and in dialogue.
You'll notice that I've spent most of this post talking about sharing the focus of the story, playing to have fun and not to win, and working with your fellow RPers. This is both because these things are intensely important and because most people on or from NS, save from those regions that are filled with quality roleplayers, tend to forget these things or dismiss them entirely.
Those people who dismiss these notions get blacklisted, ridiculed, and called out for the douchebags that they are. Don't be an asshole, be a writer, work with people! If you don't have time to visit the irc, that's why we have a planning section! Start a thread, and we'll work things out over days, weeks, or however long you need to!
Thanks for reading, I'll probably put more up later.
This guide is to help new roleplayers (what few we have) to have fun while not ruining it for everyone else.
I'm not writing this for any particular reason other than I need something modly to do and because I figure everyone should read this.
1. If you're playing to 'win', you've already lost.
With any kind of roleplaying, people tend to become attached to characters, places, and nations they have built up. While this can be a good thing, and allow someone to put more emotion into the characters they are writing, with most of the younger generation this can lead to an attachment that does not lend itself towards rational (and fun) roleplaying.
If you are too attached to a character to even consider the possibility of them losing (or even dying) than perhaps you should put them on the back burner for a little while and make a new one?
I say this because this is, first and foremost, a cooperative story-telling environment.
There are no winners, there can never be a winner, and any IC victories, much like the ones in real life, will be fraught with just as many consequences as defeat.
If you're playing to win you should play video games, not join an RP forum that does not have a dice mechanic.
With that said, the most important thing one must learn when playing with nations and people over the internet is how to lose with grace and dignity.
Naturally, in-character, the individual or nation will react in various ways, some dignified, most not, but I speak mainly in the out-of-character tone when I say 'losing with grace'.
This does not mean, however, that you should always plan to lose. Indeed, that would be just as wrong as going out and trying to win all the time.
We are not our characters here, we are not our nations, they are not our children or pets, we are actors and writers having fun, and they are the setting, the bit players upon the stage that shout with fury, with drama, until silenced by the end of the show or a waiting Fate's blade.
The only real way to learn how to lose with grace is to have a bit of self-control, being able to laugh at oneself, and through experience. With a growing group, we have plenty of time for the last bit, don't worry!
As for some tips on how to open your mind to how to lose gracefully and develop yourself and your characters/nation, here are a few I find very helpful in my writing, both nation-states related and not!
~ With everything you make, think of how you would unmake it, when, why, and with what.
~ With that done, think on if you want it to have a quiet, dignified end, or a glorious last stand, and then think on whether or not this fits the scene, the characters involved, and the theme of the thread.
~ Imagine yourself in the position of the regular citizens of your nation, or as a normal person looking from the outside. How would they react to the situation? Would they run, would they fight, would they surrender? Use this to color the emotions of your characters when they are in a bind, should you get too caught up in the telling, and things start going over the top
~ Start a few threads where the outcome of the story and theme, should it have one, be where your character or nation doesn't come out on top! Explicitly plan a situation where you lose on purpose, but try not to make it look like you're doing that! This can be hard, but is always fun when pulled off right.
~ And, most importantly, to quote one of my favorite games, Losing is Fun! If your nation is conquered, this opens up themes and stories of living under the iron fist of foreign dictators, or the plight of a wounded soldier returning home to find out that not only was his fighting in vain, but the very things he was protecting no longer exist! Or, if it's more campy, there's always the classic villain monologue capped by that ever-so-cliche and always loved "Curses, foiled again!"
Just look at real life history, those with 'sure-fire' ways to win end up losing, underdogs end up winning, and sometimes things no one was expecting could happen! How many times has Poland, Germany, Russia, and various other nations throughout history, been beaten down again, and again, and again, only to rise up once more? Look at all of the things that happened between those, too! So many ideas and events that can be molded to tell a compelling story, to make a fun and interesting thread!
~ Embrace change! Don't view defeats and drawbacks as 'losing', view them as the opening of new threads and ideas, of looking at different parts of your characters and nations. Everything lets you explore and develop your characters, your nations, and your own writing skills, take advantage of it! Old characters will 'die', new ones will be 'born', threads evolve and RPs grow! Don't allow yourself to stagnate with the same old thing over and over! I'll write more on this later on, when I have time ^^
2. Sharing the spotlight, spread the love!
Don't focus so much on your own characters that you neglect to learn about someone else's, and don't try to hog all the attention by having your characters be too goofy or violent. This only lessens the environment of the thread and can turn serious things silly (at the same time, if it's explicitly mentioned to be a silly thread, being too serious could also derail it!)
Read what others type, and while thinking of how your character should and would react, also consider what your character would be thinking.
After all, no one in real life (who isn't deluded/spoiled/off-in-the-head/one of those) would respond to everything with a sob story, or a 'me' monologue (although there are people IRL who do this, but no one likes them!) If your character is a noble, he or she is going to be watching body language, and prepping themselves for possible reactions, if they're a soldier, some are going to be very bottled up, some will be highly reserved, others will be like Colonel Kilgore and just not care what anyone thinks! Everyone will react much differently! Let your characters react sometimes, let them be surprised, let them ask questions, and be curious of the others. It's fun to be the star of the show, but so is watching the show!
Don't get so caught up in internal dramas that you find yourself alone with no one to play with, open things up, let others through, and, more importantly, constantly check yourself and read what you write as if you were someone else.
Think, 'Hmm, if I were the other poster, would I be getting angry? Would I be getting bored?'
Keep track of how your characters are developing, and keep track of other peoples' too! If, OOCly, you think one of them should notice the IC change, then they should, and they should make note of it or remark on it, if it is in their nature.
I don't have many fancy bulletpoints for this one, so I'll just leave this one concluded (for now) with a little bit of advice: Always put yourself into the other person's shoes, and, should it look like, from their point of view, that you're hogging all the action, maybe you are, and that's not as fun as sharing it.
3. Embracing change, and preparing for the unexpected.
Change is wonderful! It is also terrifying, so I shall say what I can to help you through any of those horrible and glorious changes you might be putting your nation or characters through.
Change lets you explore new avenues, new ideas, new thoughts, new people! It lets you write about aspects of your chosen place, person, or story in ways that you hadn't before. This is good! Very good, because it helps you break through writer's block and freshens things up.
This is heavily tied into the first two points, as you must be able to think on your feet when it comes to 'set plots'. Unless the thread has been specifically mapped out and there is an already chosen outcome, things will not go your way, in fact, it's highly likely that in any given thread, the exact opposite of what you want is going to happen! Murphy's Laws show up even here.
Don't use the same old characters all the time, and don't go with an old standby nation based off of something you watched once when you were six, change things up! If you must use something that isn't your original creation, then make it yours! Do things to it, warp it, twist it, make it so that if it resembles the original in any way at all, it's in theme, or in memory.
Adapt, move on, and rejoice in the dawning of new ideas and new themes and settings to use as playgrounds.
4. Never be afraid to ask for help.
We have an entire council of veteran players to help you with any questions you might have, and we have a few players who have been around the block as well (when they're here, anyway.)
If you don't know if something would work, ask us! PM us, bug us in the irc, or make a thread about it!
Need help with writing up a new scene or species? Pester pester us until we pay attention! (It shouldn't take that long!)
Want to try something new, but unsure how to go ahead about it? Ask us!
The worst thing that could happen is we say "No, that's a bit silly, but if you do this, and that, and this, it would work and still have what you want in it."
Unless it's a silly question, in which case you get a silly answer
We're here to help, like any other resource (in fact we can point out a few that are most helpful), you just have to ask
Specificity!
Now we'll elaborate on those points and introduce a few others to help out with.
1. On the importance of weakness
This shall grant a bit more specificness towards the idea of 'losing' and why it's an important part of being a good roleplayer and writer.
Essentially, you should strive to ensure that nothing you create is invincible.
Invincibility is boring, both for you, and for everyone else!
Not even tanks are completely unstoppable!
It may be something like a 'weak point' ala Death Star or Zelda, or it may be just a thing of logic.
If it's heavily armored, then it will have weaker armor in the back, sides, and bottom, following that roman tradition of not wasting metal to protect someone that's retreating
If it's very fast, it might not be very strong, if it's very strong, it might not be all that swift.
Give and take, check and balance, that is what you have to do.
It's no fun to fight or 'reason' with a Superman who doesn't have a weakness to Kryptonite, it stagnates the story, makes people lose interest, and more importantly, doesn't make sense!
Basically, if you're going to make something, build weaknesses into it.
Why? Because otherwise people won't want to play with you.
2. Descriptiveness and you!
You know what's awesome? Being descriptive!
There are dictionaries and thesauruses you can access online, meaning your prose can be as purple or needlessly loquacious as you want! You can describe your characters emotions (not just by going 'rawr, I'm angry') through body language, tone of voice, choice words, and reactions!
You can describe how they're pacing and why, you can use flashbacks and memories to create background and help people who've never read your stuff before learn about and connect with your characters, you can fluff up your posts!
Please.
Please do these things.
This is not an irc roleplay room, going "Derp does this and says this!" and ending it without even making a single paragraph is something you should try to avoid. Avoid like the plague.
Being descriptive and imaginative in your posts helps other people too! It lets them pull off neat tricks if one of their member is versed in body language (or, if you only describe the consciousness of your character, and what they're thinking, they get to figure out his/her moods through what they personally know of body language tied to those emotions), they let them respond to you better, and help both of you develop your characters!
Characters are not blank slates, they should be people, real people, with real reactions and motivations, not copypastas of your favorite tv characters or endless re-iterations of a one-trick-pony with no personality or background that goes further than 'This is Derp, he is badass.'
For the love of whatever deity, entity, or non-thing you believe in, be a lil' descriptive in your posts.
3.] On subtlety and directness
When to be direct: When you feel you have an OOC problem with someone and wish to let one of the mods know (or it is one of the mods)
When to be subtle: PLOTTING AND SCHEMING ICly.
The direct approach is important OOCly (and sometimes ICly, for plot reasons) for getting things moving and letting people know what's up. If you don't tell us something is wrong, we're going to assume something isn't wrong, and if you explode about it later, it's your own damn fault. I will say no more of that and go into the IC tips now.
There are times and places for LOLTYRANNY and saturday morning cartoon villains. Those places are known as 'saturday morning cartoons.'
The world is made of shades of grey, there are 'better' guys, and 'worse' guys, but very, very, very few 'good guys' or 'bad guys,' so stop trying to make NPCs into either one. You should treat every nation you make, NPC or otherwise, as if you were building one from the ground up with intents to play it, as opposed to everyone playing it. They should be realistic and believable, lest you go down the route of sue-dom, forcing Luca or I to take it from you, trash it, and rebuild it into something better (and, quite frankly, usually something fuck-awesome.)
OOCly it is best to be as direct as possible with your motives, but ICly you should remember that with most of these roleplays, you are playing politicians, monarchs, and military commanders, all of whom have multiple goals, multiple motives, and at times, multiple loyalties. An occasional bombastic 'Colonel Kilgore' is fine every once in a while, but most people are /much/ more complex than that, and you should try to put it into your writing. More importantly, emotions tend to be a subtle thing amongst adults who aren't spazzes or autistic (and even then), so you should also avoid characters who wear their hearts on their shirt-sleeves unless it's a character roleplay with younger/naive characters.
Because, lets face it, most people in the higher ups of RL nations only weep for true tragedies, and simply frown and carry-on when something only 'bad' happens. This is not always the case, but really I just want to make sure that unnecessary and stupid angst doesn't get thrown in, as unless it serves some important purpose to the plot and is well thought out and makes sense, it detracts from the story as a whole.
Sadness is fine, sorrow is fine, stiff-upper-lip is fine. 'Oh woe is me, goodbye cruel world' isn't unless it makes sense for the story, and shouldn't come up very often.
If you're intelligent you'll notice where I have been bouncing between 'subtle' and 'unsubtle' and 'inbetween' throughout, although some have a touch of 'sarcasm' I'm sure underlying the bunch.
4. The importance of compromise
This is a co-operative story-telling environment. There is no such thing as ‘winning’ like in Risk or other games, and there is no competition between players like in so many online games. Instead it is all cooperative, with the goal being to make a story that the writers, and hopefully other on the forum, enjoy. That said, it is easy to get into the ‘playing to win’ mindset. This is anathema and cannot be allowed. Most cases are easy to forgive and move passed, we all want to really win the battle/war from time to time, we all suffer from human nature after all, but you should be able to see that, rationalize it, and put it aside. If you are intentionally playing to boost your own ego, show how much ‘better’ you are at it, or can’t admit defeat even if it serves the greater purpose of the story then you should not be partaking in cooperative roleplay at this time. Go play some Supreme Commander instead, mature psychologically, and then come back.
Compromise is the thing that keeps everything here working, and without it, things get boring. Compromise must be tempered by common sense and reason. I.E. Logic, something most of you should have by now. Most threads will have endings, and those endings should be discussed either in the irc or in the planning section of the board. If you have trouble with making it as if those endings will come to pass (i.e., if you aren't military-minded and need to stalemate or victory, or if you're horrible at diplomacy/tact but still want to garner an alliance, etc) there are people here who are good at those things, who are perfectly willing and able to assist you, both in general writing tips, tactics, and in dialogue.
You'll notice that I've spent most of this post talking about sharing the focus of the story, playing to have fun and not to win, and working with your fellow RPers. This is both because these things are intensely important and because most people on or from NS, save from those regions that are filled with quality roleplayers, tend to forget these things or dismiss them entirely.
Those people who dismiss these notions get blacklisted, ridiculed, and called out for the douchebags that they are. Don't be an asshole, be a writer, work with people! If you don't have time to visit the irc, that's why we have a planning section! Start a thread, and we'll work things out over days, weeks, or however long you need to!
Thanks for reading, I'll probably put more up later.