Imperium Offtopicum

Old IO Ts: Have large war, GM ragequits. Middle IO Ts: Have large war, everyone ragequits. New IO Ts: Have large war, everyone nukes the hell out of each other. —Double A on the history of Imperium Offtopicum

Imperium Offtopicum, or IOT, is a type of forum game played on Civ Fanatics Forums. Imperium Offtopicum (abbreviated IOT, or less commonly IO) is a geopolitical simulation that spawned out of the Altered Maps thread in Off-Topic, when taillesskangaru invited forumers to rename a country after themselves in an effort to revive the thread after weeks of inactivity. It backfired spectacularly, with those who made claims beginning to act like they are actually leaders of their own country, annexing more land, signing treaties, insulting other posters' countries and declaring wars. The situation very quickly got out of hand (in fact, at one point Mecca was nuked) and vehement protests by non-participating OT-ers led to the exercise being moved to Forum Games, where such spammish content belongs.

So far, there have been 7 numbered installments of IOT and tens of spin-offs, all varying greatly in how long they are able to last before they die. For a more descripive history of the game, see here

Provides examples of:

• Alternate History Wank: An Israelwank occurs in SonIOTII:20th Century thanks to a combination of being a continuation of a previous game where it had a massive economy and an abuse of expansion rules: they eventually end up ruling a colossal empire. The game ended because nobody wanted to go up against such a powerful country.

From Quebec to Manchuria, from Poland to Brazil, our armies are victorious. They have conquered all the Unclaimed World.

• Breaking the Fourth Wall: Depends on the player and the game. Sometimes inverted when a player contacts a roleplaying leader of their nation.
• Butt Monkey: When he was around, Mathalamus. In recent months, Double A (possibly becoming The Woobie due to constant abuse, if Sonereal's unprecedented savior-like actions in Sons of Mars III indicate anything).
• Calvin Ball: Often, IOT rules often change without warning and/or due to unstable GMs.
  • Actual tournament set up by Double A in Iron & Blood: Redux. Rules are still unreleased.
• Cold War: Almost every game that lasts long enough and has a few world wars ends up having at least one of these.
  • Notable examples: GUN-NADTA in IOT IV, Accord-UNA in Iron and Blood.
• Dirty Communist: Appear in virtually every game.
• Divided States of America: Happens almost every single game, due to the large amount of territories in America, along with many players being from there. Generally, there is always a Northeast state based in New England or New York, a Southern state that sometimes is a call back to the CSA, and a Western State that is invaribly ruled from California or Cascadia.
• Game Master: Runs the game. There have been too many to list, and many games that last long enough can have 2 or 3 GMs over its course. IOT V tried a system with 5 GMs that each had different roles, it did not work well. Iron and Blood's second GM, kiwitt, won the Best GM Award, and for good reason.
• I Don't Like the Sound of That Place: An in-universe example occurs in Mobius: Total Chaos, where first manifestation of Black Chaos in Greater Reikland is in a settlement called "Neu Mordheim", which is subsequently razed by the Witch Hunters. Lampshaded when Karl Franz wonders why anyone would name their city after a Wretched Hive so bad it was destroyed by a comet.
• Mega Crossover: Mobius: Total Chaos features Reikland, the area around The Zone, The Combine, and a space-faring Ottoman Empire among others competing for control of Mobius. In addition, the Black Arms seemed to have fully embraced Chaos Undivided as of Update VIII.
• Non-Indicative Name: An IOT based on Command and Conquer Red Alert had the Allies facing off against the Warsaw Pact... except that Poland was an Allied country. The resulting confusion had the Pact be renamed to Comintern.
• The Plan: Probably multiple every game, but one stands out: In Son RISK 2: Oddly-Named Sequel 2: Electric Boogaloo, Double A controlled South America and roughly half of Asia as Black Hole. Catalonia, led by Joan K, invaded him out of desperation. The only way for the conflict to be resolved was to either fight it out and inevitably lose to the large coalition thing comprised of the rest of Europe, all of Africa, and Australia, or to surrender. He did the latter.One turn later, Catalonia lost its capital and Black Hole was free again. Another turn into the game and Double A has conquered half the world.
• Rage Quit: Mathalmus and Domination3000 were the worst offenders, though most players did it once or twice in their career.
  • NPCs in Sons of Mars 3.
    • Double A in Sons of Mars 3.
• Richard Nixon the Used Car Salesman: A "Marshal Pandey" is mentioned several times in the Mughal Empire's roleplay in Iron and Blood. He conquers Afghanistan before leading a (doomed) expedition into Burma.
• Trolling Creator: Arguitably TaniciusFox in the games he manages.
• Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: Hosts think their game is dying, so don't update. Players see the game isn't updating so don't/can't play. Guess what happens next.
• Shout-Out: Tonnes. The several incarnations of Taniciusfox's Marian (or Mobian, depending on the game) Empire often features a mythology suspiciously similar to Sonic the Hedgehog, Coruscant and Kaurava appear in Imperium Universalis, while the leader of the New Lunar Republic of Sons of Mars III is a humanised Princess Luna, to name a few.
  • Whole-Plot Reference: The Spirit of Man is specifically based on Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of The War of the Worlds to the point of featuring the songs from the album in several updates. Several games are inspired by the Command and Conquer Red Alert and Tiberium series, and Imperium Offtopicum: The Peshawar Lancers is Exactly What It Says on the Tin.
• The Roman Empire: An Industrial-era New Roman Empire appeared in Iron and Blood, controlled by Omega124. It got heavy backlash because people assumed territories Rome was interested in was an non-negotiable SOI and lasted only a couple of turns before it got dogpiled and Omega Rage Quit due to being backstabbed by his only ally.
• Vestigial Empire: Spain in Iron and Blood pulls a truly Up to Eleven example with an exile empire being built (and maintained!) in EASTERN SIBERIA!
• World War I
• World War II
• Did we mention World War III?
  • Given that in several games the collapse of society takes place during WWIII for players to rebuild from, World War IV is not unheard of.
• You Keep Using That Word: Sphere of Influence. It seems to mean the land a nation wants, not the area it can feasibly control.