Talk:The State of the Nation

Helpful Asteroid Miners: If anyone turns out to have an asteroid headed towards them, this type of player will help deflect or blow it up, mostly because it generates goodwill amongst that country's populace so they'll rebel if they're ever at war with him.

Fascists With a Rattling Sabre: This kind of player emphasizes the strength and eliteness of their military. Their country is an Offensive Military with a state attached to it. They are mean and assertive diplomatically but would never attack unprovoked because that would surrender the Narrative Right to Victory. They spend most of their posts rattling sabres, trying to provoke incidents in order to gain NRV.

Fascists With American Industry: This kind of player emphasizes ther strength of their industry and/or their supposed access to some elemental force of state power that they imagine gives them the edge simply by having it, such as German Doctrine, Roman Professional Military, Fanatical Faith, Vampire Populations, American Industry, Israeli Commandos, or thinly veiled expies of historical military commanders - they have that thing and attach a state to it. In the days of yore they gained their NRV by having books on the subject and quoting the pages and authors but the power of wikipedia has leveled the playing field somewhat. These players tend to first secure their NRV by making a few small posts to establish precedent and then swiftly switch tracks either to rattling sabres or an all out assault. The latter is rare however.

Imperial Republics of Davion: This kind of player attempts to gain NRV by choosing the right targets. This planning often starts before the SD's story thread does - they position themselves either next to their target or in a location with maximum flexibility, or one that gains them the most points through min-maxing of the point-by system if their is one. They analyse who is vulnerable due to current or expected weakness of diplomacy, is unpopular, a newbie, or a known poor writer. They then make a few posts to establish precedent of their preparations and then launch an all-out assault almost as soon as possible.

MacroSDing

General War is death. In a straightforward sense it is the death of the SD, as the immense weight of interplayer tensions, demoralising losses and sheer volume of action and posting that must be coordinated will almost certainly crush SD momentum. In a more theoretical sense it is like the death (or defeat) of the hero in a conventional story. Even though it can never happen (barring exceptional circumstances), the illusion that it might must be sustained for the SD to maintain tension and continue in good health.