Stoneworks MC Wiki:RP & Power Guidebook

RP & Power is a written book by stoneystoner. It's content is laid out and formatted here:

 S everal nations are powerhouses of culture, war, trade, and politics. I want to take this time to look at these players, cities, and nations which ride and create waves in the server. This will also include some research on religion for the third section. This is not a checklist of things to do to become big, it's a few tips that adopting may help you grow.

Towns to Cities

 * Having 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.
 * Having 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 more frequent use of their majesty.
 * Founding a town with a few active friends
 * Having a few friends running a town instead of one person delegates the work in building, planning, and managing players. It also creates a sort of higher class of players, which new players may see as the city nobility. Having several people to often be online makes the city active and important to the server, increasing the chance that people will join.
 * Having 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.
 * Having 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.

City States to Nations

 * Being a part of 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).
 * Having 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.
 * Having 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.
 * Having 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.

Cults to Religions

 * Grounding 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 ingame-survival impossibility.
 * Having 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)
 * Building 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 small pyramid of gold and glowstone is more appropriate and effective than a massive, beautiful church.
 * The bigger and more over-the-top, the better for attracting attention.
 * Allowing 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-Qaeada approach.
 * This can restrict play style a bit.
 * Having 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).
 * Forming 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.
 * Not copying Christianity
 * Lame!