Stoneworks MC Wiki:RP & Power Guidebook

RP & Power is a written book by stoneystoner which serves as a guide to becoming influential in the server world's history. The in-game written book's content was small about how to grow towns and cities, but on this wiki page it has grown to be more of a general guide. The contents of RP && Power are thus:

 S everal nations are powerhouses of culture, war, trade, and politics. Let us take this time to look at these players, cities, and nations which ride and create waves in the server. Many of these points are mutually exclusive and cannot be done together, so one must plan out their strategy according to their needs.

Attracting New Players
Players that join anew make up the bulk of those who join others' towns. To attract new players to your town-


 * Be aware of when new players are joining
 * Many new players join after a stoneworks Minecraft video drops. Be aware of these and be online afterwards, as influxes of new players will likely join.
 * Make your name in chat stand out
 * Change your prefix-title to something with bright colors that stands out from the rest. using /ep settings, changing it to Mage, Knight, BountyHunter, Farmer, etc. could help.
 * Personally reach out to new players
 * Don't say "would anybody like to tour my town?", this is impersonal and doesn't catch their attention.
 * Help individuals learn the ropes, go to spawn and guide them to the portal to Rathnir. Use their name and /msg them to build a quick relationship as to draw them to your town.
 * Don't ask "would you like to join my town", if you give them the choice, their chances of joining are significantly lower. Tell them to accept your invite so they can come tour it.
 * Give them a thought-out tour: pre-plan where you'll bring new players to showcase big builds and your wealth.
 * Ask them what they're looking for, and have things on hand you can pull out when you need it. New players may want to engage with lore, religion, pvp, grand builds, empire building, etc. If you have all of these things and can pull them out upon asking a new player what they want, they'll find reason to become invested in your town.
 * Have empty plots where you can immediately show any new player their building space.
 * Claim your town is powerful
 * Many new players come and ask "What is the most powerful/influential/biggest town on here?". This is ultimately a matter of opinion, and you can convince new players that your town is powerful.
 * Talk in local chat or /msg
 * If you talk privately, you can more control the flow of information given to new players. This is especially helpful for convincing them that you're powerful or that it's very difficult/costly to start a new town- discouraging them from leaving your town.
 * Being the sole provider of help and info early on makes them more reliant on you, and makes you into more of their leader. Best part is, this manipulation is entirely positively received due to its seemingly helpful and friendly nature.
 * Give them things
 * Giving people food is friendly, but enables them to go off on their own. Giving them building materials helps to anchor them to the land you set up for them.
 * Giving people anything semi-precious (diamonds, xp bottles, alcohol) will demonstrate wealth and make you more amicable to them. Act like it's not a big deal to give people these precious items, as you are so wealthy it's normal to hand them out.
 * Give players a small task with a clear purpose/reward
 * Giving new players a task allows them to feel like part of something bigger. One good example is to ask them to mine some obsidian, which you can say is useful for building a new fort. Make sure you don't ask them to do things that could be beneficial to them, such as get diamonds for you, as this seems more like a labor tax. Make them contribute to something that is relevant to the whole town/state, such as roads, war materials, fort building, etc.
 * Make sure this task isn't too big- that'll discourage them and make them feel exploited.
 * If players want to build their own towns- incorporate it
 * Most players want to do their own thing. Tell them to settle nearby so you can trade and work together. If you successfully build this relationship, your larger town will naturally be hegemonic to the smaller town especially if you help them start it up. This could be the start of transitioning your city state into an empire.
 * Have a good town "brand"
 * Having a spiffy wiki article, a well designed flag, artwork, digital posters, and presence in videos helps draw attention to your town over others. Some players read the wiki and discord before joining a town, so a sleek presence here is important.

Growing Towns into Cities

 * Have a consistent architecture style
 * Whatever style you choose for a city will distinguish it from others- whether German like Kaiserslicht, mesa-Arabic like Ardat Mosul, or Mesoamerican like Tlahatl. The building style will only distinguish the city if it makes up the majority of the city or a certain district, though, which is difficult to maintain when letting new people build in town. I'd suggest having a downtown built and organized by a few players with this building style, and letting new players built on the outskirts of town, where the buildings will be more scattered and dis-uniform.
 * Have a grand town center
 * Having space for a town hub is important for people to gather, trade, and spawn. If this is the most trafficked area of the town, it is important to devote many resources to the buildings and landscaping of this area. Having the largest buildings around the town center makes the time and effort into working on your town have more of a payoff in people's image of the town.
 * Found your town with friends
 * Having a few friends running a town instead of one person delegates the work in building, planning, and managing players.
 * If you are friends in real life with the players who run the town, your group cohesion will be higher than towns founded by people who know each other only online. Higher group cohesion means being more effective in building, planning, war, and diplomacy.
 * Have large scale building projects
 * As well as having large aesthetic buildings in the city, having over-the-top, non-utilitarian builds such as statues and towers showcase the wealth, skill, and effort placed into a city. Having a large building project can serve as an iconic addition to your city- much as how New York City is culturally represented by the Statue of Liberty, or Paris by the Eiffel tower. Apollo in Jagdas had this with their massive Lady Lydia statue, and Yanren has this with the Tree of Yanren.
 * Have claims on empty space
 * This is vital for attracting new players who want to create their own homes. The more diverse, empty territory the city has claimed on its outskirts, the more likely people will find a territory suitable for their home.
 * Have many players
 * Instrumentally, this aspect makes the city look big when one views its population on the Dynmap, which adds to its prestige and server influence.
 * Attracting established players requires rewards. This could be money/material or power. Promising people positions of power is a good way to ensure loyalty and them having a stake in the state's success. To make up titles to hand out: pick 1 grand adjective: Chief, Head, Supreme, High, Royal, Holy, etc / add whatever field: Diplomacy, Building, Agricultural, Culture, War, etc / add the position title: Secretary, Governor, Consul, Tribune, Senator, etc.
 * Brand your players as part of an administrative council
 * Instead of listening to your citizens wants and needs and acting on them on your own, turn it into a formal body. With the trade off of a little power, putting people into a "Council of Elders", "Circle of Guardians", or "National Assembly" gives people the impression of power and devotion to your state.

Growing City States into Nations

 * Be proactive and part of server events
 * Nations which are active and adaptive- going to war, making alliances, finding artifacts, -will make a larger name for themselves. This is especially impactful when the history of a nation is portrayed in outside media, like art and videos, which pull people in.
 * Having different activities which the nation pursues at different times (war, diplomacy, building projects, religious missions) will attract a larger variety of players. However, specializing in one of these could create a small but more dedicated base of players (Crab Season specialized in war).
 * Have a uniting brand
 * SOMETHING to culturally tie the towns together with the nation- it could be the nation banner is hung everywhere, each town having the nation name in the town subheader (Yimmu-Audal does this), or all towns are required to build in a certain style.
 * Have a good Wiki page
 * A few players join AFTER reading the Rathnir wiki. Having a well organized wiki page with maps, art, history, and where to contact players serves as an advertisement to these wiki-focused players.
 * Have empty claimed territory
 * Vital for attracting new players who want to create their own towns. The more diverse, empty territory the nation has claimed, the more likely people will find a territory suitable for their settlement.
 * Have a physically LARGE capital city
 * The capital is the axis around which the idea of an in-game nation is created. Having the capital be the most aesthetically-dominate in the region establishes its reason to be the head of an empire.
 * If a nearby town has builds or player count on par with the intended capital city, the capital city loses a lot of its right to lead the region.
 * Go to WAR
 * People don't want to make enemies, but overstate the effect that wars have on the relationships made on the server (individuals from Uldarash and Bardonia are still cordial, as well as between Yimmu-Audal and Escharien). Usually, the only hostilities that remain after a few days are political, and don't affect the friendliness of the playerbase.
 * War is absolutely crucial for demonstrating power, the will to act, and the capability to attack or defend.
 * War is the MOST concrete, visible, and personal way to make an impact on the history of Rathnir.
 * Any SERIOUS war needs a legitimate cause for attacking a particular enemy. It's best to frame this as defensive to get others on your side or at least stay out of a conflict. However, it isn't unprecedented for someone to go to war for retribution, for economic gains, because someone's being annoying, or to expand territory.
 * Specialize in Diplomacy
 * Contrary to going to war, some cities specialize in diplomacy by establishing relations with all other players and alliances.
 * Build a large conference area that is both good looking and entertaining to do negotiations in.
 * Be active on other nations' discord servers
 * Do not engage in war unless you can frame it as a diplomatic necessity against a true threat.
 * Establish networks among players
 * No ruler rules alone- the fabric of multi-town nations is player relationships. Go out and meet/buy/threaten people from other towns so that they will join up with yours.
 * Integrating players into a system of government with a lot of titles to hand out is useful- it gives them a reason to listen to you, and it gives them a personal stake in the nation. Just be careful not to entrust active and delicate positions (diplomacy & war) to unfamiliar and un-loyal people. To make up titles to hand out: pick 1 grand adjective: Chief, Head, Supreme, High, Royal, Holy, etc / add whatever field: Diplomacy, Building, Agricultural, Culture, War, Lore, etc / add the position title: Secretary, Governor, Consul, Tribune, etc.
 * "If you join your town to my nation, you can be the Chief Culture Consul of the Empire" (does this mean anything? heck no, but it's often enough to sway an otherwise ambivalent player. Plus hey, maybe the Chief Culture Consul will organize a festival or something)
 * "If you join your town to my nation, you can be the Chief Culture Consul of the Empire" (does this mean anything? heck no, but it's often enough to sway an otherwise ambivalent player. Plus hey, maybe the Chief Culture Consul will organize a festival or something)

Growing Cults into Religions

 * Ground your worship to something in-game
 * Some of the most identifiable religions base their worship on something physical in game. For example, G0NF centered worship around himself, and the Cult of Gruh centered theirs around a pit to the void. Having this allows for players and the world to engage with the religion itself, which is more fun and easier to do when the religion centers around physical things in the game world than a named god with little physical attachment.
 * G0NF is a great example of this- He was the object of worship, so when Crab Season attacked and executed him, it was a server event that drew people to the religion. This was only possible because the object of worship, G0NF, was a physical being in game. Despite having not being active on Rathnir, he maintains 6 followers on the server.
 * Try ascribing religious meaning to things which do not happen in the regular modded survival world which we've set up. The Void pit worshipped by the Cult of Gruh is a great example of this- the pit gets a certain aura of mysticism from its impossibility in survival mode.
 * Don't write long winded theological books
 * TBH- so many players write 30+ page books about cosmologies and moralities, and many players you hand this to won't be interested enough to read it all. While having these aspects are important in world building religion, they may be better suited to the auxiliary information that the wiki is good for.
 * Instead, try focusing on religious matters that are instantaneously understood- big temples, alters of fire, decorative statues, public ritualistic sacrifices, colorful pillars, etc.
 * If you want to write books, make them entertaining and story driven. Don't advertise it as "The __ Bible", but as "The Epic Story of __"- the second is much more intriguing.
 * Claim to be able to solve the server problems
 * Think over what the main in-game issue of the server is currently. Bandits? Nations fighting? Towns being griefed? Admins being dickheads? Claim that your religion and philosophy can overcome these.
 * It doesn't matter if you actually can fix things, as long as you can convince people you can. Much of it has to do with mobilizing multiple players for a specific goal. Be clear and precise with that goal. For example- gather 10 people and hunt down the Rogue Goblin Brothers' hideout and redistribute their loot in the name of peace and "the prophet".
 * Have a main Sacred Site
 * Many religions feature a most sacred and holy site. Having a certain mountain, city, landmark, temple, lake, or tree be the most holy location in the religion grants it space on the map of Rathnir. These holy locations often have stories behind them (such as Jerusalem in the old testament, or the Kaaba in Islam). Marking sites that were important to your group's formation and history can become one such holy site- kind of how Turtlonia became oddly revered/infamous in Escharien, who killed the Turtlonians in war and banished them from the server.
 * Having this most sacred site be far away from settlements makes them more special and rare to engage with. Going on a "religious fieldtrip" of sorts to this site could be fun and bonding, and the travel there acts to set the stage of bigger roleplaying.
 * Build Altars, Temples, and Churches
 * Placing sites of worship far away from the city can make it a bigger deal to engage with the religion. This is part of the logic of the Muslim Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca.
 * Sites of worship should physically connect to the religion. For a temple to a sun god, a pyramid of gold and glowstone is more appropriate and effective than a massive, beautiful stone church.
 * The bigger and more over-the-top, the better for attracting attention.
 * Build these not just in your own town, but others' towns and in the wild.
 * Allow an open play style
 * Unless your religion is supposed to be made of a small group of zealots, placing restrictions on play styles (like No eating meat) alienates casual players that aren't as close to the core of the religion.
 * Subscribe to an in-game mission.
 * The Cult of the Pumpkin was the best example of this in Jagdas, basically an extremist animal-rights religion in game. This motivates players to act in a certain way and effect server history, and if the cause of a big event is because of religious values, that event will basically serve as an advertisement for the religion. I call this the Al-Qaeda approach.
 * This can restrict play style a bit.
 * Use Anonymity
 * Making a religion involves creating an aura of majesty and mystique. Having a known player who founds and carries it detracts greatly from that aura. Keeping the origins of religious sites and books a mystery can bring about a vague feeling widespread-ness and absoluteness. It's also more convincing when someone is trying to spread someone else's ideology and philosophy than when they ascribe religious meaning to their own (The Cold One of Abyss Mysticism & Aezenfjord does this).
 * Form Rituals
 * Rituals in real life often make use of utilizing Taboos in a socially safe context to invoke feelings of mystique and specialness. In Minecraft, this may manifest as purposefully engaging in behaviors and effects which are frowned upon or avoided- wasting golden apples, eating rotten flesh, hitting dogs, creating creeper craters, or taking wither/poison -effects may be a few examples of these behaviors. (Rule breaking for rituals is still not allowed)
 * Rituals in real life often follow a pattern of build up, climax, and wind down. If they're based on tradition, performance of rituals have rules on what you do and how to do it, and if it's not carried out correctly, the ritual is seen as ineffectual and a mockery.
 * Do weird shit
 * Having a certain amount of Weird Shit- to the point where people question What's going on? But don't think it's so random just for the sake of weirdness. For example- tying a bunch of sheep to a floating fencepost over a great burning altar and letting them bounce around forever.
 * Mandate conversion/outlaw apostasy
 * This ties your religion with your state. SikkeOst made Soleannen the state-required religion of Escharien, and Escharien's large population has driven Solennean to becoming a massive religion. The popular faith Sakrelism outlawed apostasy, which once again ties people to the state via roleplay.
 * Don't copy Christianity
 * Lame! Most of us are familiar with it, so it's easy to draw from, but uninteresting to read lore about.

Growing from Player into Historical Figure

 * Write an in-game list of goals you want your country/faction to accomplish
 * This could be establishing alliances, taking over territory, spreading religion, gaining new settlers, going to war, building a new city, etc.
 * For each goal, have a step by step of proactive actions you can take towards this. With each step, you should be able to think about what materials you need, where to go, and who to work with. Keep it very grounded in the real playstyle of the game.
 * This book lays out a list of goals and steps that can help increase one's power and influence. Refer back to this when you wish to become a bigger part of history.
 * Don't be afraid to make enemies
 * As long as you're not a dick about it, people understand that the politics and looting in this game is for roleplaying and making Minecraft history. Influence on the server is a ZERO SUM GAME that must be gathered from allies and taken from enemies. Enemies on the server have thus far remained amicable when talking, even after serious wars, killing, and griefing.
 * A state, alliance, group, or faction that is not growing might as well be shrinking, because there are always other factions growing around them.
 * Every single notable faction has had enemies. Otherwise, all they have are buildings and citizens, which every group on the server has.
 * What good is netherite gear if you're not killing anyone with it? If you lose it, that sucks, but it only means you can't kill people as efficiently now.
 * Find/create a common enemy to unite people around
 * Nothing unites people more than a common enemy to rally around. If you can identify a common enemy of people, and poise yourself as the leader against that enemy, you will harness incredible power.
 * Controlling public perception of current events is a key part of power and influence, use propaganda to villainize those who could be a common enemy.
 * Partake and host tournaments, games, meetings, rituals, lectures, training, etc.
 * If you organize and prepare for these kinds of activities, essentially providing for other people's fun, roleplay, and aid, they will look to you as a natural leader.