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[ETP] README (FAQ/ Rules/ Guide)

THE GAME

1. What is Eutopia?
2. What does the “3” in the title stand for?
3. What sorts of things can I do in Eutopia?
4. What time is Eutopia set in?
5. How much game time passes in a real life week?
6. The Eutopian constitution contains a lot of time limits (e.g. for parliamentary voting); why is that, and can the limits be changed?
7. What currency does Eutopia use?
8. How do you win the game?
9. What is the Hall of Fame, and how are awards given out?
10. Who are the Gamemasters and what do they do?
11. What are all these terms and acronyms you keep using?
12. What are the different sub-forums for?
13. Why do some threads in the main forum say they are “PRIVATE” or “SEMI-PUBLIC”?
14. What is the Townhall?
15. What are “official game events”?
16. I know this other web-based political RPG; any chance there could be some sort of interaction between it and Eutopia?


HOW TO GET STARTED

17. What should I know before signing up?
18. How do I sign up for the game?
19. What are the rules for creating a character?
20. How many characters can I play?
21. Can I switch to a different character when I want to?
22. Can I play an ambassador, a mayor, or a provincial office-holder?
23. Can I play a crimelord?
24. Can I play a sports team?
25. Can I join the Eutopian military, police, or secret service?
26. Can I play a member of the Senate or High Court?
27. Can I become supreme dictator or Monarch of Eutopia?


PLAYING THE GAME

28. How much time should I invest in Eutopia?
29. Nothing is really happening with my character; what gives?
30. I’ve been here for two weeks; how come I’m still a lowly peon?
31. How do I become President, a Minister or a Member of the General Assembly?
32. How many parties can I join?
33. What is the role of political parties in Eutopia?
34. Elections aren’t my cup of tea; can I start a revolution or civil war?
35. How do I organize a media outlet?
36. Can I control NPCs or someone else’s character?


HOW DOES THIS WORK?

37. How do presidential elections work?
38. How do General Assembly elections work?
39. How do Senate elections work?
40. How do I cast a ballot, and can I change it once I cast it?
41. How do I join or found a party, movement or organization?
42. What do I need to do so my party can run in the elections, and what is meant by certification?
43. How can my party replace someone it sent to the General Assembly?
44. How does the Eutopian budget work, and what does it do?


RULES OF CONDUCT: WHAT (NOT) TO DO

45. What are the rules of conduct?
46. What sort of rules apply to posting in Eutopia?
47. Why do Party A and Organization B have several threads each? Isn’t that considered spam?
48. Can I play a fascist/ Stalinist/ totalitarian character?
49. Can I play a racist, homophobe or sexist?
50. Can I use insults, foul language or swearwords?
51. Can I post risque, graphic, gory, or otherwise questionable material, or provide links to such material?
52. Can I use material that is recognizably linked to real life organizations?
53. Can I discuss real life politics, history, events and organizations in Eutopia?
54. What are the penalties for breaking the rules?


WHAT TO DO WHEN...

55. You have this really neat suggestion for an official event or storyline.
56. You are planning in-game actions that might be considered a major event.
57. You need more detailed information on a part of the gameworld.
58. You have some cool ideas to add to Eutopia’s gameworld.
59. Something Player X did is really bugging you.
60. You think some of the rules are silly or unnecessary and want to get them changed.
61. You consider some of the game content silly and want to get it changed.
62. Eutopia doesn’t fit your ideas, wishes or preferences 100%.
63. You are looking for information on something not listed in the README.

ANYTHING ELSE?

64. Regarding Multiple User Accounts....
 
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1. What is Eutopia?

Eutopia is a socio-political roleplaying game; the core and focus of the game is politics, but other areas of society (such as sports, business, the media or crime) are modelled to varying degrees to add fun and depth to gameplay.

The game is set in the United Provinces of Eutopia (UPE), a fictitious country on the equally fictitious island of Eutopia, which is somewhat nebulously located in the mid-Northern Atlantic, half-way between Europe and North America.

The UPE occupies a place somewhere between industrialized countries and newly industrializing countries, making it a sort-of-industrialized country. It shares a range of problems with other countries (e.g., unemployment, crisis-ridden fisheries, ethnic conflict, poor schools, insufficient fibre content in the average meal), and has some that are fairly unique (e.g., plagues of locusts).

Politically, the UPE is a democratic federation. Its member provinces enjoy a great deal of power. Until a very short time ago, the island of Eutopia was a single, highly centralized country - but due to ongoing tensions between the dominant Anglos and several national minorities (Francos, Iberos, Norse, Topa), the southern parts seceded to form two new countries (Tilapia and St. Esprit). The cost of preventing further fragmentation was decentralization, which was also helped along by the central government’s inability to deal with the havoc caused by a series of severe hurricanes.

The federal government consists of a President (who is elected directly by the citizens and appoints the federal Ministers), a Federal Parliament, and the High Court. The Federal Parliament consists of two Houses: the General Assembly (elected directly by the citizens by proportional representation in a country-wide election) and the Senate (representatives of the provinces). Federal elections are held every three years (two months in real time).

All in all, Eutopia has been a relatively stable democracy - if you don't mind the occasional coup attempt, revolutionary activities, allegations of electoral irregularities, corruption, ethnic conflict, or tensions with foreign powers. ;)
 

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2. What does the “3” in the title stand for?

Eutopia has been running for several years now, and during that time, it has undergone two major overhauls. Eutopia 1 started with the death of Eutopia’s last Monarch (about 25 years ago in game time). Technically, the country remained a Monarchy: the Regent functioned as Head of State throughout Eutopia 1 (hence, E1 is also referred to as “the Regency”). The Head of Government, however, was the Prime Minister, who was elected by Parliament. Essentially, Eutopia 1 was a parliamentary Monarchy that had managed to lose its Monarch somewhere along the way. Due to ongoing disagreements about the laws of succession and the relative (de)merits of various and varied pretenders to the throne, as well as the necessity to overhaul some game rules, Eutopia was paused and revamped.

It reopened after a little nip and tuck as Eutopia 2 (about 19 years ago in game time). E2 was a republic with a President elected by direct popular vote. Monarchist sentiment still ran strong in some quarters, though, and it continues to do so even today. During the eight terms of E2, Eutopia saw military coup attempts, terrorist attacks, a US-“police action,” and corrupt politicians. But it wasn’t all happy times: there were some difficulties as well. Actually, Eutopia had a number of political successes, and for the longest time, it prospered and everybody (well, many) lived happily. Unfortunately, they didn’t live happily ever after: continued tensions between Eutopia’s dominant Anglos and several national minorities came to a head in Term 8 (after the Gamemasters decided Eutopia needed another overhaul to combat stagnation) and, in conjunction with the inability of the central government to handle the destruction caused by a series of severe hurricanes, broke the first republic.

Eutopia 3: The New Republic starts with Term 9 (about 3 years ago in game time). Eutopia has lost its southern provinces, and the remaining (rump) state is now called the United Provinces of Eutopia (UPE).
 
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3. What sorts of things can I do in Eutopia?

You can do pretty much anything you can imagine: join a party, run a newspaper, found a business, play golf, participate in social movements, stand on a street corner and warn people that the end of the world will happen tomorrow after lunch - just like real life. However, your activities should in some way relate to the core focus of the game (politics), and they are subject to the restrictions laid out in the README and any others that the Gamemasters may feel necessary to impose.

Note also that your activities are limited to those of your (one and only) character. You cannot control other Eutopians, so anything you choose to do is limited to the actions of one individual - as opposed to, say, your own private army, your own silent ninja assassins, your fan-club of Lederhosen-clan dancing youth protestors, or other things the GM hadn’t thought possible but have had to politely re-explain in the past.
 
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4. What time is Eutopia set in?

The present. Time is a fluid concept in Eutopia, so this is as precise as it’s going to get. ;)
 

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5. How much game time passes in a real life week?

Due to the nature of the game, there isn’t a fixed conversion rate between game time (GT) and real time (RT). For instance, elections occur every three years GT, which is every ten weeks RT. But real life events may be drawn on and modelled in Eutopia as they unfold, so that 3/10 ratio clearly can’t apply there. Similarly, it may take a couple of months RT to complete a season in any given Eutopian sports league; if we were to use the same ratio we use for elections, several months RT would translate into *many* years GT - which is obviously impractical.

In a nutshell, the concept of time is flexible: it depends on the aspect of the game and the concrete situation.
 

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6. The Eutopian constitution contains a lot of time limits (e.g. for parliamentary voting); why is that, and can the limits be changed?

There are two kinds of time limits in the Constitution: (1) in-game time limits (these are part of the Constitution itself), and (2) real life time limits (these are contained in brackets and are not part of the Constitution). The latter serve a dual purpose: to determine how specific in-game time periods translate into real life time periods, and to do so in a way that makes the game workable. Since real life time limits affect game mechanics, they cannot be changed by players (in-game time limits, on the other hand, *can* be changed by players by way of in-game legislation).

By way of illustration, parliamentary votes are normally a matter of minutes in real life. In an online RPG such as Eutopia, this can't be modelled directly, since it's next to impossible to have all players in question online at the same time. Therefore, parliamentary votes will be spread out over several real-time days.
 

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7. What currency does Eutopia use?

During the Monarchy, Eutopia’s currency was the Crown. At the moment, it is the Eutopian Ducat, abbreviated as Ð (to produce the symbol, hold down the “Alt” key and, using the numeric keypad, type 0208).
 

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8. How do you win the game?

That is up to you. Eutopia is completely open-ended, which is part of its appeal. Determine your own goals; you win when you achieve them. Most of our players see playing the game as a goal in itself, i.e., participating in a roleplaying game that affords them the opportunity to discuss and debate social and political issues with other players (and sometimes rise to power on the way ;)).

In addition, Eutopia has a Hall of Fame, where outstanding role-playing is recognized by the Gamemasters and other players, but this is subjective and there are no “points” awarded for specific game actions.
 
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9. What is the Hall of Fame, and how are awards given out?

The Hall of Fame is where players’ achievements and particularly noteworthy events and storylines are recognized on a bi-monthly basis in the form of awards. There are two awards: Character of the Term (most outstanding, interesting, important, entertaining or noteworthy character) and Event of the Term (ditto for events and storylines).

Every second month, the GM will nominate a number of characters/ events for the awards; as always, suggestions from players are welcome (please submit those to the GM by pm). Players can then vote for their favourite nomination in each category by sending a pm to the GM Admin within the specified deadline (all dates and times are in Greenwich Meridian Time).

On occasion, the GM will recognize the achievements of players who have made outstanding contributions to Eutopia by awarding them a Special Achievement Award.
 
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10. Who are the Gamemasters and what do they do?

The Gamemasters (GM) make sure that gravity works the right way down and that all the stars are aligned properly in the morning. They maintain the integrity of the gameworld, make sure that all the pieces fit together and the gaming atmosphere stays fun and friendly for everybody, see to it that the rules are being followed, and, last but not least, occasionally throw the players some in-game curveballs to be dealt with.

There are three GM: a GM Events, a GM Content, and a GM Admin. They are identical with the forum moderators: heagarty is GM Events, Blade! GM Content, and Melanchthon GM Admin.

The GM Events is essentially responsible for planning and implementing game events and storylines (needless to say, players may provide input here).

The GM Content is responsible for defining the game background and setting (once again, player input is more than welcome), overseeing certain in-game appointments such as mayors, First Ministers and military personnel, and playing the role of Eutopia’s High Court in-game.

The GM Admin is responsible for ensuring that players follow the rules, and for playing the role of CRO in-game. The GM Admin may suspend or ban any organization that breaks the in-game laws or game rules, violates forum rules, or is generally disruptive of gameplay; s/he may also ban individuals for the same reasons. The GM Admin will first issue a warning to the organization or individual in question - the latter will be banned only if they do not comply.

GM can actively participate in the game through controlling NPCs, but they cannot become President, Minister, or MGA. If one GM steps down from his/her post, the other GM will decide on a replacement. GM may participate in the game in any role and function that is not expressly prohibited above.
 

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11. What are all these terms and acronyms you keep using?

CRO = Chief Registration Officer - the person in charge of overseeing the elections (played by the GM Admin)

Events = refers to official game events (posted by GM in the Newslink thread), but also to any actions taken in-game, whether by GM or players, that are of considerable magnitude and may have a major impact on Eutopia

GA = General Assembly, the lower House of Eutopia’s Parliament

GM = Gamemaster

GT = game time (length of time passing in-game)

IC = in character (posting as your in-game character)

MFP = Member of the Federal Parliament, i.e. a Senator or MGA

MGA = Member of the General Assembly

NPC = Non-Playable Character, i.e. any Eutopian that is not a player character; NPCs are controlled by the GM and can by definition not be played or controlled by players

OOC = out of character (posting as yourself)

OT = Off Topic; in order to avoid spam and keep the forum clean and clutter free, posts should pertain to the topic of the thread. Conversations that dwell “off-topic” should be moved to the OOC thread if they are out of character, or to a different and more topical thread if they are in character.

PM = private message

RL = real life (the mythical world outside Eutopia and the Paradox fora)

RT = real time (length of time passing in real life)
 

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12. What are the different sub-forums for?

The main Eutopia forum is where the actual game is played. The Eutopiary is a place for all the things that go on around the game, but are not part of the game itself: rules, FAQ, out-of-character discussions, Hall of Fame - that sort of thing. The Eutopanorama is an archive of all posts and threads made during Eutopia 2; it is viewable by players for information purposes, but is closed for posting.
 

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13. Why do some threads in the main forum say they are “PRIVATE” or “SEMI-PUBLIC”?

These refer to the status of a thread.

A PRIVATE thread is one that is restricted to a specific group of people; only those people may post in this thread or cite/ quote/ reference anything that is said in it. As far as everybody else is concerned, these threads are off-limits and classified information - the material they contain is not public knowledge and can therefore not be quoted, cited or referenced in any way, shape or form. For all intents and purposes, if the character you play is not a member of the group that “owns” a PRIVATE thread, s/he can have no knowledge of what goes on in that thread (unless someone tells him/her).

In a SEMI-PUBLIC thread, posting rights are restricted to specific groups of people, but everything they contain is public knowledge. For instance, normally only Members of the General Assembly can post in the General Assembly thread; however, whatever they post there is public knowledge, which means that everybody can quote, cite or reference it.

Any thread that is not marked PRIVATE or SEMI-PUBLIC is PUBLIC, which means that there are no access restrictions: everybody can post in that thread, and everybody can quote, cite, or reference any material it contains.
 

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14. What is the Townhall?

The Townhall is an in-character thread that functions as a sort of marketplace for Eutopian citizens: any post that is intended for all citizens or for several groups (announcements, identical questions you want to ask several parties, press conferences, posters, that sort of thing) should be posted here. The main purpose of the Townhall is to cut down on duplicate posts and spam.
 
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15. What are “official game events”?

Official game events are posted in the Eutopia Newslink thread. They are events or storylines designed by the GM Events to add challenge, fun or flavour to gameplay. How well parties, organizations or individuals deal with these events may affect their success down the road (e.g., in elections).
 
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16. I know this other web-based political RPG; any chance there could be some sort of interaction between it and Eutopia?

Sorry, but no. Interacting with another RPG would predictably increase the workload of the (already quite busy) Gamemasters by a significant margin and create a host of problems. However, feel free to link to the other RPG in your signature (provided it’s in keeping with general forum rules) and to contact the GM Admin if you want to ask about the possibility of advertising it in Eutopia.
 

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17. What should I know before signing up?

Familiarize yourself with the game: read the README, the background threads in the Eutopiary, have a look at the laws and constitution, and check some of the goings-on in the main forum. When in doubt, post a question in the Helpdesk thread, and a friendly member of the Eutopia community is certain to assist you.

More specifically, don’t assume things (government, elections, law enforcement etc.) work a certain way in the United Provinces of Eutopia just because they work that way in your (real) country; you’d quite possibly be wrong. ;)
 
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18. How do I sign up for the game?

Post a short (five lines maximum) character description in the citizen registry; the description should contain your character’s name, place of residence, memberships in organizations, and any other information you care to provide. Once that is done, you’re good to go. Note that the citizen registry will be restarted periodically; you will need to renew your registration at that time.

If you want, feel free to post a longer description of or background for your character in the character biographies thread.
 
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19. What are the rules for creating a character?

Players are free to create any character they like but are expected to be reasonable: a billionaire businessman who is also a brilliant scientist working on a cure for cancer, personally edits a daily newspaper, holds an active commission in the military, is running for President, *and* crushes crime at night in a spiffy spandex get-up is likely to encounter business disasters, chemical spills in the lab, acute ink shortages, severe indigestion or other problems at the hands of the GM.

If you are unsure if a character is realistic, feel free to ask other players or the GM in the Asylum (Eutopia’s OOC-thread).
 
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