Starblaydia
TNPer
Introduction to Sports Roleplaying
(with thanks to Audioslavia, who has been writing the new version of the Guide to Sports RP with me, some of these insights are his as we rebuild and improve our community guides)
Introduction
Welcome! I'm Star, and I've been Sports Roleplaying for the 14 years I've been on NS. If you'd like to know a little bit more about me and my nation, then my post in Introductions is the best place to start.
Every RL nation has its own favourite sports and pastimes they take part in, and I've always found that knowing what makes up the sporting DNA of a nation can really flesh out the background of the national character than the environment of everyday life. Sports is on TV, in the parks, in the newspapers and the bars of every RL city, so why not our NS ones too?. They can be the ones you personally as a user are interested in, or ones that fit with the character of your nation, and they can be real or invented.
I like to sum up Sports RP in a single xkcd graphic:
How we actually do this, the following will hopefully explain:
What is NS Sports?
The NS Sports forum covers such varied sports as Football/Soccer, Athletics, American Football, Baseball, Basketball, Cricket, Rugby, Hockey (both Ice and Field), Combat sports, Motorsport, Tennis, Drum & Bugle Corps and a host of other existing and invented events where the athletes of our nations face each other in individual and team competitions. It's also the place to share your domestic competitions, giving insights into how the clubs, teams and individuals in your nation are faring in their own nation's leagues.
All international competitions are voluntarily hosted by our members. Usually, the participants of a sport will vote on which user would be the best host - especially for the larger competitions such as the Olympics, World Cup, and other major sports. Hosts generate the results for competitions using programs that we call SCORINATORS (more on these later), and the participants then RP based on those results, often earning RP BONUS that increases their chances of better results in following games.
How is Sports RP different to other roleplaying on NationStates?
1. Scorinators
Unlike other parts of the NationStates forums, the winner of a game or match is not determined by the participants writing about their tactics, strategy and great play first. In fact, first the host generates the result of the match. Then, the participants write about what happened in the match.
Scorinators have been developed over the history of NationStates from simple dice rolling, to custom-built javascript and XML-based programs dedicated to generating scores for specific or multiple sports.
Scorinators usually work on the principle of the "Three Rs" - Rank, Roleplay and Randomness. They balance the rank of the competitors, based on results from previous tournaments; they add a bonus for Roleplays that have been posted to increase a competitor's rank; they also throw in a hefty dose of randomness so even the biggest and best team can be beaten, occasionally, but the total underdogs.
2. RP Bonus
In order to encourage participation by nations posting RPs, the RP Bonus was created to add extra chances for the RPing teams to get a good result. It never guarantees a victory, as it is usually a minor bonus compared to the ranking points available and the ever-present randomness, but will always increase a competitor's chance of getting a better result than they would otherwise have got without RPing.
Hosts are free to grade the RPs they read on any objective or subjective scale, usually taking into account word count, layout, quality of writing and if the RPer has demonstrated they have read and are interacting with the posts of other RPers in the competition, especially their opponents. Hosts are given the trust to grade RPs and generate results fairly, and only the most trusted host will be allowed to scorinate matches involving their own teams, to remove the possibility of bias.
3. NS Sports Ignores Tech Levels
Particularly relevant for FanT, PMT and FT nations, NS Sports do not take into account the age, gender, ethnicity, size, species or technology level of the participants. NS Sports has seen such outlandish competitors as sentient blancmanges and killer tomatoes, aztec gods, fluffy bunnies, cyborg AI and all manner of Elves, Ponies, Gnomes, Dwarves, Bears and much more. They all compete equally in NS Sports and the only advantage that can be gained is from the RP Bonus as a nation writes about their athletes.
How Do I Get Involved?
Have a look for a thread that includes the word 'Signups'. A look at the OP (the first post of the thread) and the last page or two of posts should let you know whether or not signups are Closed (all spots have already been filled by other nations) or Open (there are still remaining spots to be filled). The OP of the thread should contain instructions on how to enter your nation/club/individual into the competition/event. Follow the instructions, make a simple post (usually along the lines of "We'd like to sign up!"), and you’ll likely be in.
The roleplaying begins when the RP thread is created. There may also be a separate thread specifically for your team's roster, which is the list of players you're bringing to the competition, and any extra details you'd like to give about them to help others RP.
Events can last anywhere between three weeks and six months and occur with varying degrees of frequency. NS Sport's version of The Olympic Games typically happens every summer/autumn, with the Winter Olympics often being held in winter or spring. The World Grand Prix Championship is held once a year, making it one of the few tournaments to happen as often as its real-life counterpart, but holds smaller events throughout the year, while the oldest and most prestigious competition, The Nationstates World Cup, is held around three times per year and has just completed it's 80th edition.
The rough order of events for a tournament is:
1. Signup thread
Example: World Cup 80 Signup Thread (Signups are now closed)
This may begin from an Interest thread if it the sport is new, invented or hasn't been on the forums in a long time. Potential hosts volunteer and post their bids of how they will format, scorinate and run the tournament, and how many teams their format is willing to accept. They may also give vague details about their RP bonus, and anything else they would like to add. For large competitions like the World Cup, they're usually in a separate thread, such as EqueStar - A Hosting Bid for World Cup 80 / LXXX. The tournament can then begin when the host closes signups.
2. Roleplay thread(s)
Whether an Everything thread that all of covers RPs, Rosters and Scores (e.g. World Bowl 35 Everything Thread, or separate threads for all three (e.g. World Cup 80's Roleplaying, Rosters and Results threads, now's the time to post your team roster and your pre-tournament RPs.
You can do previews and predictions for the tournament, an assessment of the opposition, character RPs of players making their way to the host nation and training for games, recaps of your performance in previous tournaments... almost anything is appropriate here before the action starts. Any Roster or RPs posted now will count as bonus for the first Matchday, increasing your likelihood of a better result.
Scores are then posted, and your RPs posted after that point (or, for the larger tournaments that require a lot of reading or lot of score generation), after an RP Cutoff Post) will count for Matchday 2, and so on.
How Do I Host a Tournament?
Above all else, this statement rings true:
If you have to ask how to host a tournament, then you are not ready to host a tournament.
Secondarily, I might add this:
When you think you're ready to host a tournament, you probably aren't.
This is not to be dismissive of anyone's abilities, or make it seem vastly harder than it is, but hosting an international tournament is hard work. Hosts often have to dedicate at least an hour a day to their hosting duties. They have to read every RP, good and bad, calculate RP Bonuses and add them to the ranks, set up and run the scorinator, post results at regular, agreed intervals and, hardest of all, they have to deal with the questions, comments and complaints that invariably come from the nations within that tournament. If an event goes badly, the buck stops with the host. With so many hosts being decided via a democratic vote, hosting a tournament badly can have a negative impact on how likely a user is to be given the reigns again.
International sporting tournaments on NS Sport are usually old and steeped in tradition. The NS World Cup (association football) was first held in the spring of 2003, and even comparatively minor sports like Lacrosse, Waterpolo and Field Hockey have systems in place to decide which user hosts the next tournament. If you want to host a tournament, it's a good idea to get involved with it for a few cycles first and see how other hosts perform.
You can, of course, host a small tournament for whatever sport you like, whenever you like. Good luck to you. It's very easy to throw up a signup thread, get people interested in joining your tournament, and then be unable to actually begin the event due to not being familiar with how to Scorinate, not regularly posting, or falling foul of other pitfalls of hosting. A lot of the Sports community will be willing to offer help and advice, while unfortunately others prefer to point out what potential hosts are doing wrong.
That said, there is little to no flak given to people who don't know how various sports work, or what their RPs should consist of, and the community at large is always eager to help newer players understand how things work.
What Does & Doesn't Belong in Sports RP
What DOES Belong
Sports Terminology Glossary
OOC (adj) = Out of Character. A comment by you, the writer.
IC (adj): In character.
Trigram / Trigramme (n) - A three-letter acronym that typically represents your nation. For example, in the real world, Australia’s trigram is ‘AUS’, Austria’s is ‘AUT’, France’s is ‘FRA’ and so on.
Scorinate (v) - to calculate the results of a game or sporting event using a combination of RP bonus, ranking and a random factor. Scorination is often done with a scorinator (n)
Scorinator (n) - A program or spreadsheet that calculates the result of a game or competition using a combination of RP bonus values, ranking values and a random factor. A very powerful scorinator that covers many sports is xkoranate, which can be downloaded here.
Newswire / Newswires - A thread that used more for reports on domestic competition
RP Permissions - A list of what you'd like your opponents to do or not do when writing about your nation. Can they choose your goalscorers? Can they kill your players or invade your country? All sorts of things are covered here. A common RP Permissions box for football/soccer looks like this:
Godmodding - Because the scorination of results does not allow you to ignore the scoreline, Godmodding in NS Sports means the outrageously unlikely and downright impossible. A one-punch boxing knockout after 3 seconds, a striker scoring three goals in three minutes to win the game in the last minute of the match, the ball deflecting off a passing bald eagle before falling kindly for your player to win the game - whatever it happens to be.
That's pretty much it! Any questions, clarifications or whatever extra knowledge you need, I'm more than happy to answer.
(with thanks to Audioslavia, who has been writing the new version of the Guide to Sports RP with me, some of these insights are his as we rebuild and improve our community guides)
- Introduction
- What is NS Sports?
- How is Sports RP different to other roleplaying on NationStates?
- How Do I Get Involved?
- How Do I Host a Tournament?
- What Does & Doesn't Belong in Sports RP
- Sports Terminology Glossary
Introduction
Welcome! I'm Star, and I've been Sports Roleplaying for the 14 years I've been on NS. If you'd like to know a little bit more about me and my nation, then my post in Introductions is the best place to start.
Every RL nation has its own favourite sports and pastimes they take part in, and I've always found that knowing what makes up the sporting DNA of a nation can really flesh out the background of the national character than the environment of everyday life. Sports is on TV, in the parks, in the newspapers and the bars of every RL city, so why not our NS ones too?. They can be the ones you personally as a user are interested in, or ones that fit with the character of your nation, and they can be real or invented.
I like to sum up Sports RP in a single xkcd graphic:
How we actually do this, the following will hopefully explain:
What is NS Sports?
The NS Sports forum covers such varied sports as Football/Soccer, Athletics, American Football, Baseball, Basketball, Cricket, Rugby, Hockey (both Ice and Field), Combat sports, Motorsport, Tennis, Drum & Bugle Corps and a host of other existing and invented events where the athletes of our nations face each other in individual and team competitions. It's also the place to share your domestic competitions, giving insights into how the clubs, teams and individuals in your nation are faring in their own nation's leagues.
All international competitions are voluntarily hosted by our members. Usually, the participants of a sport will vote on which user would be the best host - especially for the larger competitions such as the Olympics, World Cup, and other major sports. Hosts generate the results for competitions using programs that we call SCORINATORS (more on these later), and the participants then RP based on those results, often earning RP BONUS that increases their chances of better results in following games.
How is Sports RP different to other roleplaying on NationStates?
1. Scorinators
Unlike other parts of the NationStates forums, the winner of a game or match is not determined by the participants writing about their tactics, strategy and great play first. In fact, first the host generates the result of the match. Then, the participants write about what happened in the match.
Scorinators have been developed over the history of NationStates from simple dice rolling, to custom-built javascript and XML-based programs dedicated to generating scores for specific or multiple sports.
Scorinators usually work on the principle of the "Three Rs" - Rank, Roleplay and Randomness. They balance the rank of the competitors, based on results from previous tournaments; they add a bonus for Roleplays that have been posted to increase a competitor's rank; they also throw in a hefty dose of randomness so even the biggest and best team can be beaten, occasionally, but the total underdogs.
2. RP Bonus
In order to encourage participation by nations posting RPs, the RP Bonus was created to add extra chances for the RPing teams to get a good result. It never guarantees a victory, as it is usually a minor bonus compared to the ranking points available and the ever-present randomness, but will always increase a competitor's chance of getting a better result than they would otherwise have got without RPing.
Hosts are free to grade the RPs they read on any objective or subjective scale, usually taking into account word count, layout, quality of writing and if the RPer has demonstrated they have read and are interacting with the posts of other RPers in the competition, especially their opponents. Hosts are given the trust to grade RPs and generate results fairly, and only the most trusted host will be allowed to scorinate matches involving their own teams, to remove the possibility of bias.
3. NS Sports Ignores Tech Levels
Particularly relevant for FanT, PMT and FT nations, NS Sports do not take into account the age, gender, ethnicity, size, species or technology level of the participants. NS Sports has seen such outlandish competitors as sentient blancmanges and killer tomatoes, aztec gods, fluffy bunnies, cyborg AI and all manner of Elves, Ponies, Gnomes, Dwarves, Bears and much more. They all compete equally in NS Sports and the only advantage that can be gained is from the RP Bonus as a nation writes about their athletes.
How Do I Get Involved?
Have a look for a thread that includes the word 'Signups'. A look at the OP (the first post of the thread) and the last page or two of posts should let you know whether or not signups are Closed (all spots have already been filled by other nations) or Open (there are still remaining spots to be filled). The OP of the thread should contain instructions on how to enter your nation/club/individual into the competition/event. Follow the instructions, make a simple post (usually along the lines of "We'd like to sign up!"), and you’ll likely be in.
The roleplaying begins when the RP thread is created. There may also be a separate thread specifically for your team's roster, which is the list of players you're bringing to the competition, and any extra details you'd like to give about them to help others RP.
Events can last anywhere between three weeks and six months and occur with varying degrees of frequency. NS Sport's version of The Olympic Games typically happens every summer/autumn, with the Winter Olympics often being held in winter or spring. The World Grand Prix Championship is held once a year, making it one of the few tournaments to happen as often as its real-life counterpart, but holds smaller events throughout the year, while the oldest and most prestigious competition, The Nationstates World Cup, is held around three times per year and has just completed it's 80th edition.
The rough order of events for a tournament is:
1. Signup thread
Example: World Cup 80 Signup Thread (Signups are now closed)
This may begin from an Interest thread if it the sport is new, invented or hasn't been on the forums in a long time. Potential hosts volunteer and post their bids of how they will format, scorinate and run the tournament, and how many teams their format is willing to accept. They may also give vague details about their RP bonus, and anything else they would like to add. For large competitions like the World Cup, they're usually in a separate thread, such as EqueStar - A Hosting Bid for World Cup 80 / LXXX. The tournament can then begin when the host closes signups.
2. Roleplay thread(s)
Whether an Everything thread that all of covers RPs, Rosters and Scores (e.g. World Bowl 35 Everything Thread, or separate threads for all three (e.g. World Cup 80's Roleplaying, Rosters and Results threads, now's the time to post your team roster and your pre-tournament RPs.
You can do previews and predictions for the tournament, an assessment of the opposition, character RPs of players making their way to the host nation and training for games, recaps of your performance in previous tournaments... almost anything is appropriate here before the action starts. Any Roster or RPs posted now will count as bonus for the first Matchday, increasing your likelihood of a better result.
Scores are then posted, and your RPs posted after that point (or, for the larger tournaments that require a lot of reading or lot of score generation), after an RP Cutoff Post) will count for Matchday 2, and so on.
How Do I Host a Tournament?
Above all else, this statement rings true:
If you have to ask how to host a tournament, then you are not ready to host a tournament.
Secondarily, I might add this:
When you think you're ready to host a tournament, you probably aren't.
This is not to be dismissive of anyone's abilities, or make it seem vastly harder than it is, but hosting an international tournament is hard work. Hosts often have to dedicate at least an hour a day to their hosting duties. They have to read every RP, good and bad, calculate RP Bonuses and add them to the ranks, set up and run the scorinator, post results at regular, agreed intervals and, hardest of all, they have to deal with the questions, comments and complaints that invariably come from the nations within that tournament. If an event goes badly, the buck stops with the host. With so many hosts being decided via a democratic vote, hosting a tournament badly can have a negative impact on how likely a user is to be given the reigns again.
International sporting tournaments on NS Sport are usually old and steeped in tradition. The NS World Cup (association football) was first held in the spring of 2003, and even comparatively minor sports like Lacrosse, Waterpolo and Field Hockey have systems in place to decide which user hosts the next tournament. If you want to host a tournament, it's a good idea to get involved with it for a few cycles first and see how other hosts perform.
You can, of course, host a small tournament for whatever sport you like, whenever you like. Good luck to you. It's very easy to throw up a signup thread, get people interested in joining your tournament, and then be unable to actually begin the event due to not being familiar with how to Scorinate, not regularly posting, or falling foul of other pitfalls of hosting. A lot of the Sports community will be willing to offer help and advice, while unfortunately others prefer to point out what potential hosts are doing wrong.
That said, there is little to no flak given to people who don't know how various sports work, or what their RPs should consist of, and the community at large is always eager to help newer players understand how things work.
What Does & Doesn't Belong in Sports RP
What DOES Belong
- International (either World or Regional) competitions for nations to sign up to and compete in
- Domestic competitions where a single nation posts the results from within their nation
- [Interest] threads, for player invented sports (e.g. Underwater Basket Weaving) and sports that have not had an international competition for a long time
- [Signup] threads, for nations to sign up their athletes/teams
- [Discussion/OOC] threads for the more popular sports
- [RP] threads, where all participants post their RPs about the competition
- [Roster] threads, where participants can describe their athletes/teams in as much detail as they wish, often using uniform graphics, player descriptions, style of play and RP PERMISSIONS
- [Scores] threads, where hosts post the scores they generate. These are only used for the largest of tournaments and should not be posted in by participants
- [Everything] threads, a combining one or more of Signup, RP, Roster, Results and Discussion threads, usually for smaller tournaments
- [Domestic] threads, where nations can document the results of their domestic leagues and competitions
- Tournaments using real-life teams or athletes (e.g. The UEFA Champions League, the US Open, etc.)
- Tournaments that are not scorinated, or have scores generated through Video Games such as FIFA, Football Manager, Madden, etc.
- Discussion about real life sports (This should go in General)
- Copycat versions of existing tournaments (e.g. The 2018 World Cup, The Olympics, etc.)
Sports Terminology Glossary
OOC (adj) = Out of Character. A comment by you, the writer.
IC (adj): In character.
Trigram / Trigramme (n) - A three-letter acronym that typically represents your nation. For example, in the real world, Australia’s trigram is ‘AUS’, Austria’s is ‘AUT’, France’s is ‘FRA’ and so on.
Scorinate (v) - to calculate the results of a game or sporting event using a combination of RP bonus, ranking and a random factor. Scorination is often done with a scorinator (n)
Scorinator (n) - A program or spreadsheet that calculates the result of a game or competition using a combination of RP bonus values, ranking values and a random factor. A very powerful scorinator that covers many sports is xkoranate, which can be downloaded here.
Newswire / Newswires - A thread that used more for reports on domestic competition
RP Permissions - A list of what you'd like your opponents to do or not do when writing about your nation. Can they choose your goalscorers? Can they kill your players or invade your country? All sorts of things are covered here. A common RP Permissions box for football/soccer looks like this:
Godmodding - Because the scorination of results does not allow you to ignore the scoreline, Godmodding in NS Sports means the outrageously unlikely and downright impossible. A one-punch boxing knockout after 3 seconds, a striker scoring three goals in three minutes to win the game in the last minute of the match, the ball deflecting off a passing bald eagle before falling kindly for your player to win the game - whatever it happens to be.
That's pretty much it! Any questions, clarifications or whatever extra knowledge you need, I'm more than happy to answer.
