Players would create a country and play as its leader. Each country would pick a different color for representation on the map, and claim a real-world country off the map in which to start. From there on, the game became turn-based, with one turn a day. Players could expand into one neighboring unclaimed territory per turn, enlarging their own country in the process. Each player would receive a certain amount of 'Resources' or RES, the game's currency, every turn, and could use that to purchase various helpful items. More on them later. 'Happiness' (HAP) was the other resource, representing the morale of your population. It would normally increase a bit each turn, though unpleasant things like war could reduce it instead. If it got below zero, there would be consequences.
War was also a major part of the game, of course. The overall objective was to Rule The World, after all, and that usually has to be done by force. Players could declare war on their neighbors, at which point the person running the game would roll dice for each warring player every turn. Whoever got the better roll would win the battle for that turn, taking a bit of the enemy's map territory in the process. There were also various modifiers (comparative size of battling countries, RES and HAP levels, etc.) that would impact the dice numbers, so it wasn't all left to chance. Taking all of a player's land would result in their defeat, though the fact that land could be traded between players could and did impact that. A generous ally, for example, might donate some land to the losing country and enable them to hold out longer.
The game runner would also sometimes incorporate semi-random events into the game, natural disasters, the appearance of NPCs, or things like that. They could potentially have major effects on the game.
Gameplay mechanics aside, roleplay was the heart of the game. Actually taking over the entire world wasn't always practical in each game, but interaction between all of the colorful and widely-varying leaders kept them fun even if nothing much was actually going on.
Now, if I start one of these games here, I'd be making some small changes. I'm working out a 'Military' (MIL) mechanic which would change warfare a bit; players would have a certain amount of MIL points representing their military strength, which would be factored into the dice rolls. This would be gradually reduced in battle, impacting the player's ability to keep fighting. There would be ways of building it back up, though.
The aforementioned purchasable items would include things like Public Works Projects, which would increase HAP, or different weapons to increase the effectiveness of one's military. I'm working on the list of what all to include; will have to get back to you on that.
And I think that more or less covers the basic idea. I still don't know for sure that I'm going to start the game; I still have a fair bit of fine-tuning to do before I know how practical it's going to actually be. But if the interest is there, I'm currently leaning toward giving it a shot.
So, feel free to discuss, ask questions, and such. If anyone is interested in joining, a basic bio should look like this:
Nation: MadeUpLand
Leader: Exalted Chancellor Joe
Starting Location: Mexico
Capital City: Mexico City
Color: Red
Your country need not actually have anything to do with your starting location, if you don't want it to. You can start, for example, in Italy and play as a descendent of Julius Caesar trying to found a new Roman Empire, or you can start in Vietnam and play as a bunch of mutant rabbits trying to wipe humanity off the face of the earth. Pretty much anything goes. Same with your capital city: you can use an existing city, or make up your own. In that case, just tell me where to put it in your starting country, like 'southwest corner' or whatever.
