Hello! I am DamnDirtyCat and am an avid Stellaris roleplayer. My first experience with Stellaris roleplay was rocky; I didn't have a guide to help me through any of it. However, through the help of other players, decades of experience playing Dungeons and Dragons, and trial and error in games, I feel confident enough to write this guide and help people who are interested in Stellaris roleplay.

Some of you, I am certain, are completely new to this while others have some or lots of experience. Thus, this guide is divided into three parts. Part 1 is intended for beginners and explains the basics of roleplaying as well as how to integrate it into your games. Part 2 focuses on creating your civilization both in and out of game. Finally, Part 3 contains a mix of tips and tricks for you to use to take your roleplaying to the next level.

All art in this guide was created by me. Please do not repost the pictures without my permission!

What is Stellaris roleplaying? This is a big question, so let's first discuss what roleplaying is. The word itself gives a great starting point for us: roleplaying is when you play a role. More specifically, you are playing the role of a person you are not. If you have ever seen a movie, television show, or play, you know that the parts are played by actors pretending to be fictional or historical people. Roleplaying is essentially the same thing. If you can put yourself in the mindset and attitude of someone else, congratulations, you are roleplaying!

There are two main differences between acting and roleplaying to keep in mind. First, you probably aren't going to get paid for your work. Roleplaying is usually for fun. While you can make a career out of roleplaying, this can sap all the fun from your experience. Basically, don't expect to make money this way unless you are particularly dedicated, hard working, and inspired to do so. Second, roleplaying is different from acting because you do not have a script (I'm not going to split hairs about actors doing improv). This means that your roleplaying should be fast, flowing, and natural. This takes practice, so don't expect to be a master of it your first few times.

We already know what Stellaris is, so now we can move on to the question: What is Stellaris roleplaying? For most roleplayers, this will be putting yourself into the role of a diplomat or leader of your civilization. This means you will be making all or most of the in-game decisions in Stellaris from the point of view of your leader. You might rightly ask, 'Don't I already do this?' In a way, yes, you are already doing this simply by playing Stellaris normally. However, you must remember roleplaying is about taking the role of someone who isn't you. The decisions you make in a normal playthrough are not necessarily the decisions a person in the universe of Stellaris would make. When you are roleplaying in Stellaris, you will be making your policy choices from the point of view of your chosen leader.

For example, it might be easy to make a commercial pact with a neighboring empire with opposed ethics, given a good enough diplomatic relationship. But if you were to think about that decision from the point of view of your leader, would they want to trade away valuable resources to a nation diametrically opposed to your own? Say they are robots and you are fanatic spiritualists who abhor artificial life. Are you really going to ship them energy credits to create even more robots, a direct violation of your faith? Probably not. Perhaps you are a materialist and you figure out how to travel down the psionic ascension route. Would your people approve of leaving behind the very principles of science they have lived with for generations in return for an unreliable power that defies logic? Unlikely. Every action you take should consider the values and ideals of the people you are trying to roleplay, not the 'best' or 'meta' option.

Roleplaying in a singleplayer game can be challenging on its own, both in terms of staying consistent and in terms of additional gameplay difficulty. You will often be making sub-optimal choices as the game progresses. This is a good thing! It means you are stepping outside yourself and considering your choices from the perspective of your chosen leader. You are roleplaying!

Roleplaying in a multiplayer game is vastly more difficult. Not only will you be making the same sort of choices from an entirely different point of view, you have the added difficulty of other players (hopefully who are themselves roleplaying). Now you must consider your character's point of view and the perspectives of other entirely alien beings, especially during diplomatic negotiations. It is a daunting task, but I am confident you will catch on quickly as you play through multiple games.

Different people and games will have different expectations of you and your roleplaying ability. Some games prefer a lighter touch of roleplay, with nations of similar ethics simply being friendly to one another. Others go full throttle and expect you to have a fully fleshed out backstory that explains your government, biological traits, and an entire history for your nation before the game even begins. Most games fall somewhere in the middle. The games I tend to play in the Paradox Interactive Roleplay Server[discord.gg] (Discord link included) require a premade sheet to be filled out and a short paragraph or more of backstory. It's a good balance that encourages creativity and gives you a great starting point when considering the perspective of your leader without asking you to do a load of paperwork.

The number of options Stellaris offers for civilizations is staggering and unlike any other game. This is fantastic for roleplaying, but it can be a bit daunting. Let's break down the nation creation process into two parts: Concept and Execution.

The Concept part of creating a nation requires a bit of forethought and creativity on your part, but don't stress too much about making the most unique nation ever created. The amount of sci-fi out there covers an enormous number of possibilities and it is likely that any ideas you come up with will have already been done. This is okay! As many creatives will tell you, 'Nothing is original'. Your goal should not be to make something completely unique. Instead, aim to create a nation that has an interesting twist to it.

You can see this in everyday media all the time. The Tyranids are a ravenous swarm bent on consuming the galaxy, and the Zerg are also a ravenous swarm bent on consuming the galaxy (In fact, there was a lawsuit filed about how similar they were!). However, the Tyranids are a wholly psychic collective that naturally emerges from their collective consciousness. The Zerg, on the other hand, require physical creatures whose will is then psychically imposed upon lesser Zerg. Though slight, these twists make them two unique species.

If it is helpful to you, take an already existing nation and put a twist on it. What if the Rebel Alliance in Star Wars were just as corrupt and hierarchical as the Empire? Or how about Star Trek's Federation of Planets run by the Blorg? The amount of media you can twist and combine is nearly endless, so take advantage of that! As long as you are not directly copying an entire idea, you are fine.

Most concepts should be able to be conveyed in a sentence or two, or in three descriptive words. This emphasis on simplicity ensures the major points of your nation stand out. Too many things in combination or extremely long ideas can result in nations that seem bland, overextended, or even Mary-Sue (too perfect).

Once you have your Concept, you can move to the Execution phase. Here you will be making your actual in-game nation using your Concept as a template. The sheer number of options in Stellaris should allow you to make virtually any Concept a reality. All you have to do is make sure all or most of your nation choices logically follow your Concept. Let's try an example by creating a nation.

Our Concept begins with one of my favorite sci-fi ideas: the Starbase. They are artificial bastions of resources and respite in the cold void, which is pretty cool. I recently picked up the Megacorp DLC, so we'll throw that into the mix as well. Finally, I'm tired of playing a warmonger, so this nation will be peaceful. I would wrap this Concept up in a single sentence: 'A peaceful Megacorporation that operates out of Starbases'.

Next, Execution. Obviously we want to make the Authority of this nation a Megacorp, so first we'll select that. We're a peaceful nation and the focus on Starbases makes defense a much more desirable route. We'll pick Fanatic Pacifist for this one. I still have one Ethic point, so we'll stick that in Xenophile. It's not in our original concept, but it fits well with a Megacorp. For Civics, the obvious first choice is Trading Posts, allowing us to construct lots of Starbases. Alongside this, we'll pick up Free Traders to represent the various additional logistics ships needed to transport goods and services between Starbases.

Moving on to the Origin, Void Dwellers is basically screaming to be chosen. We are already focused on Starbases, so it makes sense that our entire nation has become reliant on them. How about our species traits? Well, our species has evolved in space, which comes with certain advantages and disadvantages. Building reliable Starbases that an entire species can rely on is certainly an accomplishment, let's take the Natural Engineers trait. Space is at a premium in any spacefaring vessel or base, so we'll take Communal since our species would have to get used to the close quarters. For our last positive trait, we'll take Thrifty. Our species specializes in commerce already, so why not emphasize that? That leaves us with -2 points and we'll need some negative traits to even this out. Our first negative trait might be Sedentary. There's not a lot of room to move about in a station. Finally, Weak seems like an appropriate trait: living in space for extended periods of time leads to muscular and skeletal decay.

How about the appearance of our species? Well, they are Weak and Communal which sound exactly like birds on our world. An Avian portrait seems appropriate for our species. For a species name, we'll go with 'Tookanu'. It evokes the idea of a Toucan, fitting for our Avian portrait. The Avian name lists are pretty cool and fit in with the Avian portrait, so we'll choose one of those. Our homeworld and star need a name, but instead of trying to come up with one on our own, we'll choose to use a random generator (Fantasy Name Generators[www.fantasynamegenerators.com] is one of my favorite sites for this). There's no shame in using a randomly generated name for something!

The Tookanu live on space stations and are pretty interested in peaceful, free cooexistance. We'll call them the 'Tookanu Liberty Stations'. Our flag should relate to our nation and/or species in some way. I really like the color scheme that the Caldari, a megacorp-based faction, use from Eve Online. They use a lot of greys and blues, so we'll use those in our flag. We begin the game with three habitats and one Starbase which could be represented by a symbol with four objects or corners. Let's take Blocky 8 for our flag's symbol. That leaves our city appearance and ship appearance. Our cities won't really be seen since we're using habitats, but we'll choose Avian anyway since it fits the portrait. As for ship appearance, I imagine the Tookanu are less interested in aesthetic and more into economic efficiency. The Imperial ship appearance is perfect for this.

That's it! Our Tookanu nation is complete! By following logical steps and bringing everything back to our Concept or other parts based on the Concept, we have an interesting nation ready to go. As you can see, it's not exactly a groundbreaking nation filled to the brim with uniqueness, but I can't think of any sci-fi nation specifically made of birds nesting in giant space Wal-Marts.

Over the years of playing, I've picked up a lot of spare information that should help you with your Stellaris roleplaying skill. This section contains little bits of this. These are not hard rules or laws you need to abide by; these are just my personal thoughts on things!

- Your nation and your choices do not need to be sub-optimal in every way. Natural selection favors species and nations that excel. On the other end of this, do not just choose the 'best' or 'meta' choices. Roleplaying is about stepping outside of yourself and into the skin of a person in-universe. Try for a balance.

- Make sure everyone is on the same page with game settings and rules. You might be surprised when someone corvette rushes you in 2220 if they didn't listen to something like a 30-year peace rule!

- I emphasize using nations with a twist for roleplay, but there is nothing stopping you from copy-pasting a pre-existing sci-fi nation and roleplaying as that. Just don't expect to earn any points for creativity.

- Being on a voice chat with the people you are roleplaying with can be lots of fun! Roleplaying in voice as you pretend to be nation leaders can be fun and immersive.

- If you are in a game and see someone clearly doing the 'meta' or breaking rules while everyone else is roleplaying, send a message to the host to sort things out. No one wants to have a powergamer in the middle of a roleplaying session.

- Remember that even though this game includes eugenics, slavery, and genocide, it's still rated for 7+ (10+ in the United States). Be mindful of minors in your group and try to keep things appropriate!

- Public roleplaying sessions are not your time to flirt with people or engage in ERP. For the sake of everyone, just don't.

- Try not to take the decisions that other players make personally. They are roleplaying just like you are and some of their choices may make sense for their nation, even if it directly harms your nation.

- Don't be afraid to ask for help while roleplaying. Most people are happy to help you make a decision or give you feedback on your roleplaying.

- Making mistakes is okay! This is more a life rule than anything, but I think it's something that is understated.

- When making Human nations, try to be sensitive to your fellow players. Just because you think playing a historically genocidal nation is funny doesn't mean everyone else does. I recommend sticking to fictional nations whenever possible.

- Total War nations (those with the Determined Exterminators, Fanatic Purifiers, and Ravenous Swarm Civics) aren't great for roleplay. They tend to be single-minded, annoying, and one-dimensional.

Roleplaying in Stellaris can be a fun and rewarding experience. By following this guide, you will be well on your way to becoming a Stellaris Roleplaying master. Remember, roleplaying is about fun, so go out there and play hard!

Special thanks to the hosts and players of the Paradox Interactive Roleplay Server, the Dungeons and Dragons groups I've had through the years, and Paradox Interactive for making Stellaris. Without all of you this guide would have been impossible to make.