Project Multiverse is about stories - and good stories often involve large powers fighting against each other.

We want to keep Project Multiverse a low-drama environment and encourage Nations to fight each other. The way we do this is by checking our egos at the door, embracing conflict as something we can enjoy, and protecting ourselves against the types of conflict that we don't want to engage with.

As defined in our rules, conflict requires consent.

Unlike in some settings where there are factions, nations, etc. A player nation's borders are not defined on the map and are, instead, up to the IC nation to define and enforce in character. This means that aspiring nations can settle non-core worlds and locations within what might be considered someone else's territory, and the leaders or players of a nation can not dictate or decide OOC that someone can not make a planet or location or settlement in that location.

This rule is not only to encourage RP between nations and players and to avoid not only players and nations setting up in a corner and never interacting with one another but also disallowing King Of The Hill scenarios where a player or nation will try to carve up land space for themselves and try to deny it to other players or nations.

This is also to encourage nations to spread out their territories more across the map¹⁾ due to proximity being only an OOC construct for meaningless territory. This also means that map landmarks such as nebula or named locations, even those created by the cartographer at the request of the leader or players of a nation can not be claimed by them as their exclusive or rightful territory.

Never will the cartographer of the setting map²⁾ or the map-host/manager³⁾ place a border or colored span of territory for a player nation be it a main faction or a burgeoning unaligned faction. And the only likely event of such an occurrence is for NPC enemy nations and threats for events.

Please also keep in mind that any territories a player nation attempts to field and desires on the map should have a wiki page with detailed information for characters, players, and other nations to interact with, and attempting to put more systems and territories on the map will just be seen as an attempt at KOTH if it's only there for the sake of taking up map space and a player or the leader of a nation refuses to put in the effort to make it available as an RP location for others to interact with; Such territories will not be considered Setting Canon and will be considered Nation Canon, and remain off the map and should not be considered in nation conflicts such as resources or population or anything important that has happened on it that might add weight to a conflict as they are only relevant to that nation for such purposes as just being there for that nation to RP on exclusively.

Our universe is divided up into territories. Territories are usually systems, but may be other types of 'points of interest' as well.

All Nations are allowed up to 3 core, “Dedicated Territories”. All other territories are “Disputed Territories” that exist for the sake of inter-nation conflict.

At the end of the day, the number of territories any given Nation holds really doesn't matter beyond the stories we use them to tell.

A Nation's Dedicated Territories cannot be attacked or claimed without explicit permission from the Nation's manager/s. So long as that Nation is actively managed, these are territories that can be held without fear of loss. They serve as a great place for a Nation to do setting development, run civilian plots, and so on.

They are not necessarily safe from attack. Pirates, mercenaries, and more can still run amuck within these territories. Anything that negatively effects a Dedicated Territory needs to be approved by the Nation's managers.

Nations can have up to five dedicated territories, including their Home System.

Disputed Territories are those systems and places that are far enough removed from a Nation's home system⁴⁾ that they aren't guaranteed to be held.

Disputed Territories are always open to attacks or visits from other Nations or players. A nation claiming a system outside of their territory automatically gives consent to others to interfere with and/or claim that system, so long as they go about it in a way that is fun and reasonable for everyone involved.

The Core Rules, particularly those on fairness, provide guidelines on how to handle conflict between players. Further rules and/or guidelines are found later in this article.

Combat between characters or Nations is something we should be comfortable with. The alternative is that everything in our universe is forced to be friends with each other or, worse, walled off.

Combat takes two main forms: Asymmetric, with a set of 'allied' players seeking out objectives against other groups and Symmetrical, where two opposing sets of players write against each other.

We believe that our choices in how we develop our setting shouldn't impact our ability to participate in conflicts, so we don't look at fleet counts, ship strengths, character veterancy, etc when determining who 'wins'. Once two parties agree to a conflict, it's time to decide how to create the story.

Asymmetric Combat is when one Nation attacks another without players from the other Nation being involved in the RP. This can be broad fleet combats, infiltration missions, and more.

We highly recommend this approach for most conflicts between Nations or player groups. It helps to keep egos and drama out of the equation, while still driving good stories.

Two Nations can engage with each other in Asymmetric Combat at the same time. This could be as part of a larger war effort or smaller skirmishes. If players wish to engage with each other directly, that's Symmetrical Combat.

Symmetrical Combat is when two groups of players wish to roleplay a conflict between themselves in a single thread. This has more potential for out-of-character player conflicts, so if you wish to proceed with this style of Combat please ensure that you're okay with things not going the way you want them to.

As two groups of players are involved, the standard way to resolve this is to leave it up to fate. This should come in the form of a simple roll off between a designated leader of each group involved. Any modifiers must be agreed upon beforehand, but are not necessary.

Once a winner has been decided, it's time to talk about how it happens. Victory can come in many forms - a fleet retreats, a diplomatic solution is reached, and so on. Player characters on both sides can show great results, even if one side loses the conflict.