Rules (Principia Moderni III Map Game)

Presenting the rules for Principia Moderni III.

Basic Rules
The basic tenets of the Principia Moderni series. These were the original rules set down by the original creator, Cosman246. Although they have been modified, they constitute the foundations of the series.
 * The main goal of these rules are to keep the game realistic, every turn must be plausible and no-one can achieve world domination in ten turns,
 * A turn is one day. Each turn is composed of actions, which can be militaristic, economic, diplomatic or constructive.
 * Turns begin at 00:00 UTC. Do not edit past turns.
 * Any conquered lands have their inhabitants, and they must be dealt with.
 * Keep in mind the linguistic effects of conquering and colonisation.
 * Every five years a map is to be made. A moderator marked as the Mapmaker will edit the map.
 * Every map must be saved as a .png on the current map template.
 * Each player will "call" a nation, this will be their main nation.
 * The moderators of this game have the power to grant and regulate all technology for each state as well as regulate plausibility. They also have the right to create random yet plausible and fair events in any and every nation throughout the course of the game.
 * Espionage is allowed and will be detailed later, there is a clear distinction between espionage and meta-gaming.
 * Alliances and unions are allowed as is bargaining to achieve these, although remember to be plausible.
 * If a nation is inactive then it is considered to have become isolationist and is fair game for conquering and attacking. However there will be resistance.
 * There are supernational confederations (e.g. The Holy Roman Empire, The Kalmar Union, The European Union, The African Union.etc). They function like alliances and can be broken and formed.
 * You can commission privateers to raid a nation's shipping but they will reduce relations with the nation you hired them against.
 * The game ends in the present year.
 * Profile pages for your state are highly recommended. See here for an example.
 * If you are new, you may start the game in the turn that you joined.
 * No editing any past turns to contradict events which have already happened.
 * Not everyone can have an industrialized, liberal, stable, peaceful nation.
 * Unless your nation has been annexed in a war or vassalized as a result of war (see the mods for the last one), you may not switch nations.

Turns
Each nation has one turn during which it may do one of the following actions. There are no rules on what you can write about; it just has to be relevant to your nation ; be significant, plausible and appropriate. Two guidelines for all posts are:
 * Work on the nation's military
 * Work on the nation's economy
 * Work on the nation's infrastructure
 * Expand the nation
 * Start or remain in a conflict.
 * Always include a name for your nation. If your nation is the United States, you can use "America," "The Americans," "The US," "The USA," etc. Avoid "The White House declares xxx," or "Montana expands north into unclaimed territory," but instead "The American government declares xxx" or "American colonists in Montana push north into unclaimed territory."
 * When you expand into another nation, always include the actual name. A map is included on the Principia Moderni talk page with the names of various nations. But don't write "The US expands into China more," if you are invading Tibetan Kingdoms. It would be even better to write, "The US invades the Tibetan Kingdom of Lhasa, expanding south as far as Mount Everest."

Colonial Turns
Within each turn, you may expand colonies by a given amount in areas that are black or dark grey on the map. These are given in square kilometres. Only use numbers divided by 50 in your turns (e.g. do not use numbers like 734, round to 750). This is because 50 sq km is equal to one pixel.
 * The above chart is for the base colonial expansion along the coastline or up a major river when using a full turn to do so. If you have already used a full turn in your main nation, your colonial expansion is 75% of the normal rate per turn.
 * The five largest nations in terms of power are the "Major Powers", the next five are "Minor Powers" with the rest categorized in "Other Nations". This is to maintain relistic sizes for colonies. Moderators will decide who is what.
 * If the colony itself is younger than five years, it can only expand by 200 square kilometers, regardless of any bonuses.
 * If a colony itself is older than 50 years, a bonus +100 square km is given for expansion in that colony.
 * If a colony is older than 150 years, a bonus +500 square km is given for expansion in that colony.
 * Desert, tundra and mountainous regions have expansion halved. Forests and plains have expansion at 75%. If you are colonising significantly outside of your home state's temperature range then the rates are halved further.
 * Additional bonuses will be received with industrialization.
 * Expansion into areas which are fragmented (in civil disarray) can be done through colonial expansions, at half the normal rates. Expansion into organized states or areas with small fragmented states requires an algorithm.

Colonization Rules

 * Colonies are defined as any possessions separated from its contiguous home nation by an ocean (Britain-Canada) or multiple seas (Italy-Ethiopia). This also includes places significantly distanced from a main home country (France-Lebanon).
 * No colonies until 1500.
 * No external colonies until your country is "boxed in" by other states on all sides.
 * Only two new colonies are allowed per 50 year period. And one colony per 20 years. The maximum number is seven at one time, two of which can be "large size." Large colonies are larger than OTL Peru (1,285,216 km2) OR  25,704 pixels.You can conquer extra colonies after that but you increase the chances of a colonial revolution..
 * Colonies begin as a slice off a coast, and expand slowly over a period of 30-250 years to full size.
 * The maximum number of external colonies after 1950 is three, which can't be large. Small exclaves of former large colonies count as 1/3 of a colony, but these may not include large cities.
 * Colonies are designated on the map with red borders, as opposed to the usual grey.

Multiple States
It is possible to control multiple states. However, some rules must be observed.

Vassal States

 * You may have vassal states subordinate to your nation, but contiguous to your nation or another vassal.
 * They are ruled by your first nation's government, but are allowed to keep their own interests.
 * Size rules do not apply, and a vassal my control up to two extra colonies. However should a vassal state be more powerful than their liege-state then revolts are likely to occur.
 * Vassalising a state via peaceful means is hard and will take one year for two percent of what that state is in size compared to your home nation, with a minimum of three years. (e.g. If Foix is 8% of the size of France then it will take four years to vassalise Foix).
 * The religion, culture and geopolitics of a region will effect how long it takes to vassalise or if vassalising is even plausible.
 * You can annex vassal states after they have been ruled over by you for a couple decades.

Puppet States

 * You may have puppet states subordinate to your nation. They do not need to be contiguous to your nation. However, for each puppet state a nation has, a point will be deducted from the main nation's score in every war, regardless of whether the puppets are involved or not.
 * Puppet states can be obtained through the same methods as vassalisation

Dynastic or Personal Union

 * Dynastic or personal union is multiple nations ruled by a single dynasty or person, respectively.
 * This can be accomplished by overthrowing or marrying into the dynasty in another country.
 * The rules are the same as standard expansion, but it may be a better idea than invasion or vassalisation if the second nation is an ally.

Independence

 * Border states may gain independence at any time.
 * Colonies may gain independence beginning in 1775.
 * Players may decide to relinquish control over the independent state and come back to it later, although standard expansion rules apply.

Full Unity

 * A nation not in dynastic or personal union and without vassal states is in full unity as they do not have as long a chain of command. When not in full unity, the nation is more susceptible to invasion, despite having more turns. Newly independent nations are in full unity after 15 turns.

Moderators

 * There should be a sufficient number of moderators at all times.
 * Anyone may comment on a post believed to be implausible, but only moderators may roll them back or cross the post out.
 * Moderators are in charge of inducting new members.
 * Moderators should be active often to inspect moves for historical implausibility.
 * Moderators may cause natural events, revolts.etc. Moderators may cause events affecting all players of a certain region or only players who have expanded implausibly.
 * Moderators may have specific roles, which they are in charge of.
 * Inactive moderators may be removed.
 * Moderators may be impeached. The impeachment procedure can be initiated by any player but must be approved by at least two other mods. Only moderators (minus the one being impeached) can vote on whether the impeached mod will or will not be removed.
 * A moderator may propose that a user be banned from the game, either temporarily or permanently. The moderators will vote upon this.

Requirements

 * Not having expanded implausibly for fifteen turns, as determined by other moderators.
 * Played for at least thirty moves.
 * Must use a user account for most of their edits.
 * Must be active at least six days a week on average.
 * Pass a vote on the talk page.

Plausibility
Common sense. If it is not plausible then it shoud not be in the game. This is an attempt to simulate a real-life alternate history. Also, just because it is plausibile or even if it occurred in real life doesn't mean that it follows the rules. Just becuase you play as England, France, China or Muscovy does not mean you will become a superpower.

Common Implausibilities:
 * Advancing technology too fast. You should never invent something or discover something too far ahead of real life, If you have a special circumstance, which could occur, please contact a moderator to ask permission.
 * Expanding too fast. Massive expansion takes time to achieve, and nations that have expanded vast amounts in short periods of time (like the Mongols, Nazi Germans or Napoleonic French) have had their empires collapse, break apart and be defeated soon after doing so.
 * Having real-life people exist. No real-life people born after 1405 will exist in this map game. There are billions of name combinations, other than very common ones or repeat names in royal families, it is unlikely that any of the same names that are for famous people in our world would be for famous people in others.
 * Massive cultural shifts. Cultural shifts take many decades, have to have good reason, and tend to not be drastic. Religious changes in nations, other than secularism rising in the twentieth century, will almost always just be a denominational change.
 * Being overly liberal for the time period. Especially in the west, religious freedom was a foreign concept in most nations prior to the nineteenth century. In almost all nations, women did not become leaders and important figures with equal rights until the twentieth century. Don't get ahead of real life, like technology

Articles
Users are recommended to create articles for all of their colonies, as well as their main country. Articles are highly recommended for regions, events, and famous people that didn't exist IRL. There is an opportunity for bonus and/or awards for creativity and work put into articles.

A main country article should include (recommended headings in parentheses): A colonial article should include: All articles are placed under the category.
 * Capital and other cities (Urban Areas)
 * Administrative divisions (Subdivisions)
 * Official language, culture, and religion (Culture)
 * Ruler or monarch, government system (Government)
 * A quality picture of choice — map and flag highly recommended (can be under any heading)
 * History - may be detailed or brief, but must include important dates such as establishment date and any date of change of government (History)
 * A description of foreign relations (Foreign Relations)
 * List of colonies and colonial history (Colonies)
 * List of settlements in their native language and OTL equivalents (Cities and Towns)
 * Cultural description (Culture)
 * History —may be detailed or brief, but must include date of formation and any applicable dates of transfer or full conquering of a sovereign state (History)
 * A picture of choice —map highly recommended (may be under any heading)

Maps

 * Maps are updated every five years and are to be posted as soon as possible during the year they are active. They apply to the end of every turn. So the 2005 map will apply to the years 2000-2004.
 * Only mapmakers may post the main map. Anyone may dispute the map if they see a problem.
 * No-one else is allowed to post on the main map. This is to prevent errors and overexpansion.