A guide to common map game rules

This article was transwikied from the http://implausablealternatehistory.wikia.com/wiki/Map_Game_rules .



Map Game rules

 * 1) I am going to limit the nations or global organisation count to 1 per person, as that when a person gets two countries; they usually neglect the other one.
 * 2) The Golden Rule: Treat others as you want to be treated . . . IS NOT IT! But you must be plausible.
 * 3) No one can invade either neutral and referee controlled- Switzerland (since going neatral in the 1840's), The Vatican City (after indipendence in 1922), Lichtenstein (since going neatral in the 1860's) or Bhutan (after independence from the UK in 1947).
 * 4) Nuclear programs may start in 1941. It will take at least 3 years to develop nukes if you are one of the “Big Cheese” (like OTL USA, Germany, Soviets/modern Russia and Ukraine, UK, France and Japan). It takes after 1955 if you’re not a “Big Cheese” nation, but are well developed industrial nation (like OTL Poland, Romania, China, Taiwan, Chile, Saudi Arabia, Australia, S. Africa, Israel etc.).
 * 5) You need a Casus Belli or a carefully faked up one (Hitler did it in OTL to Poland) before declaration of a war.
 * 6) Referees' words are law, unless proven wrong.
 * 7) Anyone who is less than a primary power can not use terrorism to destroy heads of government or state, top generals or to blow up seats of government.
 * 8) Playing as colonies is forbidden, unless you declare independence.
 * 9) Mod\Referees can strike out implausibility. However, the reason must be stated and sourced (i.e.-Wikipedia, BBC, Encyclopaedia Britannica, and so on).
 * 10) 1/2 a game year per real day.
 * 11) Research your nation on sites like- Wikipedia, the BBC, CNN, ITN, Encyclopedia Britannica, and so on.
 * 12) Make a nation's dated profile on the game's National Profile page to ad some character and depth to the game.
 * 13) You can be a rebelling colony, rogue province or recently (say, conquered up to 50 years earlier) occupied nation and declare independence.
 * 14) We will have resolutions/stuff when the UN is created at United Nations Page.
 * 15) As for nuke use, It has been oft abused. Each nation can only let off a maximum of 5 a year with a total yield of 500kt, for each nation per year.
 * 16) Game is archived every 10 years/20 turns.
 * 17) Assassinations and oil embargoes are legitimate weapons of war too.
 * 18) Edit the game in Source Mode. Editing in Visual Mode and creating code problems may result in your edits being undone or full of garbled data.
 * 19) Be plausible, no hyper development, hyper conquest or nuclear Armageddon (i.e.: Mongolia will not launch Gengis Khan in to space in 1240AD on my watch)!
 * 20) A League of Nations page will be created in 1918 and The Council of the league will have 4 permanent and 4 impermanent members. To keep things simple, the impermanent members will rotate on Mondays. It is a 3 year term. Look at: the United Nation Rules for more information. For the impermanent Security Council, I will decide every turn with Random.org.
 * 21) A United Nations page  will be created around 1945-47. There will be a Security Council, with 5 permanent members, and 10 impermanent members. To keep things simple, the impermanent members will rotate on Mondays. It is a 3 year term. Look at: the United Nation Rules for more information. For the impermanent Security Council, I will decide every turn with Random.org.
 * 22) Must be registered (got a named account, not just an IP number) User
 * 23) If there is anything else, post on the talk page.
 * 24) Expansion in extreme climates like Greenland, Niger, Nepal and Amazonia will be very slow due to logistic and climate problems for any woodbe invader.
 * 25) Puppet states and protectorates can be created.
 * 26) For now, I'm the mapmaker. (Notice how I said NOW)
 * 27) New turns start at 20:00:01 UTC.

Uncommon Actions

 * Give birth to famous people
 * Kill famous people
 * Hire mercenaries to harm someone's country
 * Move your capital to another city.
 * Create your own currency, calendar, language etc.
 * Kill a ruler and put another one in charge (by coup or other means)
 * Declare religious war
 * Create a national day
 * Organize sport games
 * Abolish the constitution

Common Actions

 * Give speech to your people
 * Extend the territory
 * Improve the infrastructure (roads, railways, waterworks, etc)
 * Research new technology
 * Settle up new villages
 * Build up your military
 * Army coups (old government is exiled, not killed)
 * Civil wars
 * Create your own flag
 * Trade treaties, economic sanctions, defence treaties, free trade zones, ect
 * Halt the military recruitment
 * Develop new weapons
 * Literacy and educational campaigns
 * Go to war over territory, oil, minerals, ethnic issues, access to the coastline, ect
 * Create global alliances and global organizations
 * Colonize some land or an island that is uninhabited

Not Suggested Actions

 * Declare wars for no reason or out of spite towards the other player.

Other bad or ASB stuff for a real life type Earth

 * 1) Advancing technology too fast or to invent something or discover something more than ten years ahead of real life.
 * In 1930, the industrial nations in the world can begin to research civil nuclear technology and others can join in in 1945 or buy the tchnoagy of those useing it.
 * Nuclear programs may start in 1941. It will take at least 3 years to develop nukes if you are one of the “Big Cheese” (like the OTL USA, Germany, Soviets, UK, France and Japan). It takes 4 after 1955 if you’re not a “Big Cheese” nation, but are well developed (like OTL Poland, Romania, China, Taiwan, Chile, Saudi Arabia, Australia, S. Africa, Israel etc.). Other nations (like OTL Peru, Burundi, Niger, Nauru and Nepal) must either buy them of an atomic powers become industrialized and wait until it's past 1972 and take 2 years to build a nuke.
 * Space exploration will begin for industrialized nations in 1930, and others can statrt in 1950. The first satellite goes up after 1950, the fist man orbits earth after 1955, fist moon landing occurs in 1960, first man on the moon 1969, Skylab/Mir 1973, Space Shuttles  in 1975, the ISS in 1995 and Mars rovers in 2000.
 * 1) Expanding too fast like the Mongols, Imperial Japan, Nazi Germans or Napoleonic French will fall apart if they go to far and to fast. Consolidate it over years like post-Napoleonic France, the UK, Austro-Hungary and China.
 * 2) Massive cultural are out of order unless since take a few decades, also have to have good reason, and tend to not be drastic at first. Religious changes in nations, other than atheism and secularism rising in the twentieth century, will almost always just be a denominational change (Catholic-Protestant-Orthodox), unless they have been conquered by another nation (early Medieval Arabs in Spain) or a few minor breakaway lands (Deseret for the Mormons). Being overly liberal in Arabia or overtly psychotic in post WW2 Scandinavia is daft, since only a few would want to follow such cultural shifts.

Map usage rules
 A few general rules concerning the map as to ensure "image success:" 

General

 * 1) Try to make one for each turn (in most games this is every half-year).
 * 2) Coloured circles on nations mean they are a protectorate, client/satellite state, etc. of another nation.

Blank map sources

 * 1) It's not always beneficial to draw border lines willy-nilly; if possible, try to find resources such as on Wikipedia to get inspiration.

Editing
Use Microsoft Paint.

Bit rate stuff

 * 1) Always copy the full-size version of the map to avoid pixelation.
 * 2) Make all nations different colours.
 * 3) Use PNG format to accelerate the bit rate to avoid pixelation.

Note

 * Lord falconis's guide to map gaming
 * Congo and Gabon produce oil and manganese respectively Petroleum industry of the Republic of Congo and  Mining in Gabon.
 * Lithuanian Navy and resources: It did have natural resources and a navy in 1933!
 * 1880-1910 Brazilian issues
 * UK and Commonwealth OTL troop numbers in WW2