A Guide to Roleplaying!
INTRODUCTION
Welcome to
EdgeGamers GTAV roleplaying server! Before you get started we would like to help ensure that you have a positive experience here in our community. If you haven?t already, please take the time to read through the server rules and the code of conduct so that you?re familiar with what is expected of you while on the server and in the city. Below is information that you can use as a guideline to help you improve as a roleplayer and member of EdgeGamers Organization.
BASIC RULES
CHARACTER BUILDING
Who is your character? Where were they born and what did they go through before entering the city that made them the person they are now? An important aspect of roleplay is having a character and building upon them even after you have established yourself in the city. A backstory will explain how your character has accumulated their skills, traits and characteristics that make them who they are and why they act the way they do in the city. From here you can continue building up your character and adding to his story and reaching his/her overall goal.
As an example:
Your character had a rough upbringing, raised in a poor neighborhood and introduced to drug, violence and a life of crime at a very young age. Under the circumstances, your character was forced to fend for his/herself and found themselves involved in using and selling drugs to help support your family. From here this gives you many options and paths to choose from, the skills you?ve learned through this lifestyle could create a character specialized in weapons, perhaps he/she was involved in many gunfights, making him a great shot or a great fighter, perhaps they don?t take shit from anyone and won?t hesitate to fight or kill a person due to their long history of violence. Maybe they you want to climb to the top and become a drug kingpin, or maybe the years of gun violence pushed you to military or police and you?ve become a reformed person looking to make a change in the world and prevent others from following the same path you were once on. Building a character is essential and really gives people an understanding of who you are and why you do the things you do, it also helps guide you and your decision making in scenarios. While not required, you should at least build your character up!
If you?re actively building onto your characters story you?ll never run out of scenarios you can create with others!
TERMINOLOGY
In roleplay there are many terms you need to be familiar with. Here they are defined:
In Character (IC)
In character is everything that happens to, with, and from your character as you play. While in character all actions, reactions, thoughts, and speech is in character only. You should never talk to people out of character in the city unless you?re given permission to by all participants away from other citizens and not during scenarios with others.
Out of Character (OOC)
Out of character is everything that happens outside of the city or in /ooc chat (Discord, Teamspeak, Website). Out of character is often used to ask questions but the questions should not be used to gain information for in-character knowledge. For example if you see someone post their location in /ooc, you can?t use that information in-character or else you will be doing what is considered metagaming. What is said out of character is unknown to your character, also never go out of character to insult someone for what they?ve done in character, it?s roleplay!
Cop Baiting
Cop baiting is intentionally doing something that you know will attract the attention of the police. An example of this is flying past cops when you see them at a red light knowing they?ll chase you or causing havoc purely as a means to interact with police. Interacting with police is certainly an aspect of roleplay but do not go out of your way to do so. Other examples that are common are doing burnouts when a cop is in a scenario, would you do a burnout in front of a cop in real life? Would you actually speed by a cop in traffic if you?re aware he?s there?
Random Deathmatch (RDM)
Random deathmatch is when you kill someone without engagement or any roleplay leading up to their death or without a valid reason. However this can get confusing as many cases can be dismissed or justified depending on the history between two players or situations that have led up to the person being killed by his attacked.
Example A describes a situation that is RDM and example B describes what could be confused as RDM.
Vehicle Deathmatch (VDM)
Vehicle Deathmatch is just like Random Deathmatch except in vehicles.
Like RDM this term can sometimes be misused and people can be reported wrongly for this when in reality hitting someone with their vehicle was otherwise unavoidable or a lifesaving decision and like RDM the context matters and should be considered before reporting someone for it. Examples below:
Example A describes a situation that is VDM and example B and C describes what can be confused as VDM.
Fail Roleplay (FailRP)
Fail roleplaying is when you?re doing something unrealistic that your character would otherwise not do or be capable of. To avoid this stay in character at all times, follow the server rules and be realistic! Examples of this:
Metagaming
Metagaming is the act of using out of character information for the gain of in character knowledge. Due to the separation between character and player, what you see in the forums, discord, or teamspeak or /ooc chat is not something your character can use as this information is otherwise unknown to the player. Examples of this:
Powergaming
Powergaming is a wide variety of things but the easiest way to define it is someone who performs actions that they otherwise wouldn?t be able to without resistance, or forcing something on someone that they can?t fight out of. If you?re going to tie a person up, in reality they would have a chance to fight back and resist, whereas in GTA a power gamer simply types /me bounds hands together and now the person cannot do anything or respond to the scenario, forcing them to do as they?re told. A power gamer is someone who plays to win in every scenario, when in reality you don?t always win or get your way. Of course if you?re with a friend and a weapon is drawn on the victim and you tie them up, it?s not going to be considered power gaming as the person wouldn?t be valuing their life if your friend has a weapon pointed at them as you bound their hands together. The reason why this is frowned upon is because playing to win does not have a place in roleplay, in fact, winning doesn?t matter at all and giving people a good experience is way more important than maximizing your characters power. If you?re being chased by police, sure you can sometimes evade them but not every time. Shooting 5-6 cops dead when you?re cornered and their weapons are drawn on you or getting away from them is unrealistic and sometimes just giving up is more enjoyable than ruining the other person?s experience. This goes for both law enforcement and civilians.
BREAKING ROLEPLAY
While roleplaying you should never break roleplay or go out of character. This includes but is not limited to calling someone out on fail roleplaying, explaining using voice of how to do things such as commands, and different keybinds. This also includes describing when your mic is not working, or when there is a lot of desync. There is ALWAYS a way to stay in character and describe what is happening without ruining other people?s experience. If you feel someone is breaking rules or fail roleplaying don?t blurt out and interrupt the scenario to call them out, simply wait until after the scenario is over and contact someone about what they?ve done, going out of character to call someone out is just as bad as them fail roleplaying, it could ruin what ends up being a great experience!
Examples of breaking character and how to stay in character:
Desync
You?re driving behind someone properly, paying attention to them breaking up ahead, in your eyes you stop several feet in front of them but in their eyes you?ve now crashed into the back of their vehicle. They scream out ?what the hell man," as they get out of their vehicle. Instead of breaking out of character and blaming it on desync, perhaps roleplay out that you hit his vehicle, exchange information and insurance paperwork, it?s not like you?re going to go to jail or owe the man/woman a bunch of money, it?s a simple car accident! If you want to tell them it was desync, without breaking character simply say "Look man, I don?t see any scratches on my car or yours, in my eyes I stopped several feet in front of you!? there?s too many ways to avoid breaking character, there?s never a reason to blame desync!
Microphones
If your microphone is not working, or you find yourself out of range after attempting to talk someone then go into their range, don?t say ?My microphone wasn?t working,? roleplay that maybe your voicebox is having some trouble, perhaps you?re losing your voice! Say ?I lost my voice for a moment back there, sorry about that!? You should never say ?mic? in a roleplay scenario, unless talking about bluetooth (teamspeak) and even then, if you have issues with your mic as an officer or civilian and then realize you?re out of range, go in range and roleplay that maybe they?re not cooperating, there?s just too many options for a character to break roleplay and mention mic problems.
If you want to ask someone if they have a mic, some great options are:
?Do you have a voice box?? or ?Did you lose your voice, do you have a voice??
Player IDs
You should never call someone by their player ID number and if you?re meeting someone for the first time don?t call them 123 simply ask what their name is, greet yourself and go from there. Unless you?re being asked by an admin there?s never a reason to call someone by it. If you find yourself in a scenario where you may need to give it to someone for the sake of reporting them, or you want to tell an officer what that player did, say ?Hello there, I would like to file a report on a citizen? and when they asked who it was, tell them ?I was able to catch their citizen ID number, it was 123!? That way you stay in character and potentially create a scenario between you in the officer.
COMMANDS
/me
Me is a command that is used to show actions being done by a character. /me?s are essential to roleplaying actions that are not able to physically be done due to the script limitations in the world of Grand Theft Auto V. Examples:
Depending on the action, it may also be appropriate to voice what you are doing as well.
/twt
Twt is the command for tweeting. Tweeting is used as an in character text communication to the entire city (server). Tweets are for things such as looking for a place to hang out, new friends, a job, discover illegal goods, to advertise events, and also services you may be offering to the city. Anything you see here can be used in game!
/ooc
Ooc is used for out of character text, and is seen by the entire server. It is not a place to hold conversations or gain information to use while in character. It is also not a place to complain about a situation that has occurred. Take all complaints to the forums/teamspeak to be dealt with by an admin there. Examples of when it?s okay:
/report
Report is a command used to report a player when they have broken a server rule or continue to break them. This will most commonly be RDM, VDM and FailRP. When reporting something give details to what happened and why you think what they are doing is wrong. Below is a great example of when and how you should properly report someone for a rule they've broken.
You?re in Legion Square and someone driving at a high rate of speed drives onto the sidewalk killing several citizens.
INTRODUCTION
Welcome to
EdgeGamers GTAV roleplaying server! Before you get started we would like to help ensure that you have a positive experience here in our community. If you haven?t already, please take the time to read through the server rules and the code of conduct so that you?re familiar with what is expected of you while on the server and in the city. Below is information that you can use as a guideline to help you improve as a roleplayer and member of EdgeGamers Organization. BASIC RULES
- Value your life. It is essential to value your life and others while roleplaying. There is no revive command in real life and you should think of this while roleplaying as well. Do not expect for there always be a way for you to just get up and get back to whatever you were doing. Don?t do stupid things that will get you killed/waste resources!
- What another citizen does to your character should not affect how you treat them out of character. Do not insult someone out of character because of actions that have taken place in the city. Alternatively, leave all in character drama to the city only, as well as all out of character drama to out of the city.
- Respect all citizens, staff, and other community members. If you have a problem with another member, how certain things were taken care of in a scenario, or anything else that requires someone's help take it to an admin or someone in human resources on the Discord, Forums or Teamspeak and they?ll assist you with your problem.
CHARACTER BUILDING
Who is your character? Where were they born and what did they go through before entering the city that made them the person they are now? An important aspect of roleplay is having a character and building upon them even after you have established yourself in the city. A backstory will explain how your character has accumulated their skills, traits and characteristics that make them who they are and why they act the way they do in the city. From here you can continue building up your character and adding to his story and reaching his/her overall goal.
As an example:
Your character had a rough upbringing, raised in a poor neighborhood and introduced to drug, violence and a life of crime at a very young age. Under the circumstances, your character was forced to fend for his/herself and found themselves involved in using and selling drugs to help support your family. From here this gives you many options and paths to choose from, the skills you?ve learned through this lifestyle could create a character specialized in weapons, perhaps he/she was involved in many gunfights, making him a great shot or a great fighter, perhaps they don?t take shit from anyone and won?t hesitate to fight or kill a person due to their long history of violence. Maybe they you want to climb to the top and become a drug kingpin, or maybe the years of gun violence pushed you to military or police and you?ve become a reformed person looking to make a change in the world and prevent others from following the same path you were once on. Building a character is essential and really gives people an understanding of who you are and why you do the things you do, it also helps guide you and your decision making in scenarios. While not required, you should at least build your character up!
If you?re actively building onto your characters story you?ll never run out of scenarios you can create with others!
TERMINOLOGY
In roleplay there are many terms you need to be familiar with. Here they are defined:
In Character (IC)
In character is everything that happens to, with, and from your character as you play. While in character all actions, reactions, thoughts, and speech is in character only. You should never talk to people out of character in the city unless you?re given permission to by all participants away from other citizens and not during scenarios with others.
Out of Character (OOC)
Out of character is everything that happens outside of the city or in /ooc chat (Discord, Teamspeak, Website). Out of character is often used to ask questions but the questions should not be used to gain information for in-character knowledge. For example if you see someone post their location in /ooc, you can?t use that information in-character or else you will be doing what is considered metagaming. What is said out of character is unknown to your character, also never go out of character to insult someone for what they?ve done in character, it?s roleplay!
Cop Baiting
Cop baiting is intentionally doing something that you know will attract the attention of the police. An example of this is flying past cops when you see them at a red light knowing they?ll chase you or causing havoc purely as a means to interact with police. Interacting with police is certainly an aspect of roleplay but do not go out of your way to do so. Other examples that are common are doing burnouts when a cop is in a scenario, would you do a burnout in front of a cop in real life? Would you actually speed by a cop in traffic if you?re aware he?s there?
Random Deathmatch (RDM)
Random deathmatch is when you kill someone without engagement or any roleplay leading up to their death or without a valid reason. However this can get confusing as many cases can be dismissed or justified depending on the history between two players or situations that have led up to the person being killed by his attacked.
Example A describes a situation that is RDM and example B describes what could be confused as RDM.
- You?re minding your own business doing your job at the slaughterhouse when another citizen shows up on the job, without saying a word to you or engaging you, he decides to pull out his weapon and attack you until you?re dead. Prior to this neither of you have ever met or exchanged words, this is RDM.
- You?re in Legion Square depositing money into the bank when you bump into a citizen, words are exchanged and you punch the guy, knocking him unconscious but he?s still alive and has medical service on the way to his location to pick him up. You decide to flee the scene to prevent going to jail and head up to your job, coincidentally as you?re wrapping things up he happens to work at the same factory as you do and he decides to attack you quietly without saying a word resulting in the death of your character.
Vehicle Deathmatch (VDM)
Vehicle Deathmatch is just like Random Deathmatch except in vehicles.
Like RDM this term can sometimes be misused and people can be reported wrongly for this when in reality hitting someone with their vehicle was otherwise unavoidable or a lifesaving decision and like RDM the context matters and should be considered before reporting someone for it. Examples below:
Example A describes a situation that is VDM and example B and C describes what can be confused as VDM.
- You?re in Legion Square on the sidewalk talking to another citizen, a guy is parked in a parking space and he decides to drive into the two of you and run you over without saying anything resulting in your death.
- You?re in Legion Square on the sidewalk, you?re talking to a citizen and the two of you decide to carjack another player as he?s minding his own business in a parking space, as you?re pulling out your weapon, he decides to make an attempt to flee the scene and runs the two of you over resulting in your deaths. In this situation the driver is fearing for his life, it?s an instinct to choose flight in these situations so him running the two of you over is perfectly acceptable if he felt that his life and safety was in danger.
- You?re jaywalking, or crossing a road when you shouldn?t be. For example your car breaks down in the middle of the desert on the Grand Senora Freeway, you decide to run across the street to buy a jerry can for $20 and while doing so another player runs into you resulting in your death. In this situation, you shouldn?t be crossing the highway or jaywalking and need to be more cautious and value your life.
Fail Roleplay (FailRP)
Fail roleplaying is when you?re doing something unrealistic that your character would otherwise not do or be capable of. To avoid this stay in character at all times, follow the server rules and be realistic! Examples of this:
- You?re minding your own business when someone runs up on you with a weapon drawn, demanding you to give them your money or to put your hands up so that they can give you orders. When the weapon is drawn on you, you must fear for and value your life and act out as if you really had a gun pointed at you. If your friend is with you and the weapon is drawn on you, he could technically draw a weapon out and shoot the mugger as he cannot intimidate both of you with the weapon at one time but if you?re alone you should act realistically and fear for your life but if an opportunity presents itself where he leaves his guard down, take a chance but consider the consequences!
- Brandishing a large weapon (assault rifle, sniper, baseball bat) without saying /me pulls out x first. You can purchase duffel bags at a local clothing store, these are great for storing larger weapons on your person and can help when you need to use larger weaponry and don?t have time to roleplay taking one out. If you don?t have a bag you can always use commands such as /me pulls AR from vehicle as well.
- You find yourself in a gunfight with another person and you suffer multiple gunshot wounds to the chest and head, at this point you shouldn?t be talking, if you?ve taken several shots to the body/head it?s very likely that you are dead. Once police and medical services arrive on scene and ask what happened, simply let the person that shot you speak first, or any witnesses on scene to describe what happened to you. Don?t start speaking and ask to be revived, you should be headed to the coroner or hospital, not put back into the scenario. Doing this is also falls under power gaming, act like you?re shot, don?t ruin the scenario.
Metagaming
Metagaming is the act of using out of character information for the gain of in character knowledge. Due to the separation between character and player, what you see in the forums, discord, or teamspeak or /ooc chat is not something your character can use as this information is otherwise unknown to the player. Examples of this:
- Using the players list to identify a person by their name when they haven?t introduced themselves to you while in character or using their name that pops up when they?re speaking to you over the mic.
- Using a citizen's number (ID) to identify where they are, for example, you may be able to see a player's number near you but your character cannot actually see numbers/through walls, therefore you must not use their ID as a means to tracking them down in any context.
- George and friends decide to rob a bank in Paleto Bay, during the robbery two cops are killed but George and friends remove the CCTV footage from the bank and body cams from the bodies of the officers, they clean up the scene of the crime and get away successfully with no witnesses. George and friends decide to go onto the forums/discord and celebrate. The knowledge of whom committed the crime learned through discord cannot be used as a means to convict them, as discord and forums are all out of character.
Powergaming
Powergaming is a wide variety of things but the easiest way to define it is someone who performs actions that they otherwise wouldn?t be able to without resistance, or forcing something on someone that they can?t fight out of. If you?re going to tie a person up, in reality they would have a chance to fight back and resist, whereas in GTA a power gamer simply types /me bounds hands together and now the person cannot do anything or respond to the scenario, forcing them to do as they?re told. A power gamer is someone who plays to win in every scenario, when in reality you don?t always win or get your way. Of course if you?re with a friend and a weapon is drawn on the victim and you tie them up, it?s not going to be considered power gaming as the person wouldn?t be valuing their life if your friend has a weapon pointed at them as you bound their hands together. The reason why this is frowned upon is because playing to win does not have a place in roleplay, in fact, winning doesn?t matter at all and giving people a good experience is way more important than maximizing your characters power. If you?re being chased by police, sure you can sometimes evade them but not every time. Shooting 5-6 cops dead when you?re cornered and their weapons are drawn on you or getting away from them is unrealistic and sometimes just giving up is more enjoyable than ruining the other person?s experience. This goes for both law enforcement and civilians.
BREAKING ROLEPLAY
While roleplaying you should never break roleplay or go out of character. This includes but is not limited to calling someone out on fail roleplaying, explaining using voice of how to do things such as commands, and different keybinds. This also includes describing when your mic is not working, or when there is a lot of desync. There is ALWAYS a way to stay in character and describe what is happening without ruining other people?s experience. If you feel someone is breaking rules or fail roleplaying don?t blurt out and interrupt the scenario to call them out, simply wait until after the scenario is over and contact someone about what they?ve done, going out of character to call someone out is just as bad as them fail roleplaying, it could ruin what ends up being a great experience!
Examples of breaking character and how to stay in character:
Desync
You?re driving behind someone properly, paying attention to them breaking up ahead, in your eyes you stop several feet in front of them but in their eyes you?ve now crashed into the back of their vehicle. They scream out ?what the hell man," as they get out of their vehicle. Instead of breaking out of character and blaming it on desync, perhaps roleplay out that you hit his vehicle, exchange information and insurance paperwork, it?s not like you?re going to go to jail or owe the man/woman a bunch of money, it?s a simple car accident! If you want to tell them it was desync, without breaking character simply say "Look man, I don?t see any scratches on my car or yours, in my eyes I stopped several feet in front of you!? there?s too many ways to avoid breaking character, there?s never a reason to blame desync!
Microphones
If your microphone is not working, or you find yourself out of range after attempting to talk someone then go into their range, don?t say ?My microphone wasn?t working,? roleplay that maybe your voicebox is having some trouble, perhaps you?re losing your voice! Say ?I lost my voice for a moment back there, sorry about that!? You should never say ?mic? in a roleplay scenario, unless talking about bluetooth (teamspeak) and even then, if you have issues with your mic as an officer or civilian and then realize you?re out of range, go in range and roleplay that maybe they?re not cooperating, there?s just too many options for a character to break roleplay and mention mic problems.
If you want to ask someone if they have a mic, some great options are:
?Do you have a voice box?? or ?Did you lose your voice, do you have a voice??
Player IDs
You should never call someone by their player ID number and if you?re meeting someone for the first time don?t call them 123 simply ask what their name is, greet yourself and go from there. Unless you?re being asked by an admin there?s never a reason to call someone by it. If you find yourself in a scenario where you may need to give it to someone for the sake of reporting them, or you want to tell an officer what that player did, say ?Hello there, I would like to file a report on a citizen? and when they asked who it was, tell them ?I was able to catch their citizen ID number, it was 123!? That way you stay in character and potentially create a scenario between you in the officer.
COMMANDS
/me
Me is a command that is used to show actions being done by a character. /me?s are essential to roleplaying actions that are not able to physically be done due to the script limitations in the world of Grand Theft Auto V. Examples:
Code:
/me removes stretcher from the ambulance.
Shows as: (Character?s name/steam name) removes stretcher from the ambulance.
/me removes assault rifle from vehicle
Shows as: (Character's name/steam name) removes assault rifle from vehicle.Depending on the action, it may also be appropriate to voice what you are doing as well.
/twt
Twt is the command for tweeting. Tweeting is used as an in character text communication to the entire city (server). Tweets are for things such as looking for a place to hang out, new friends, a job, discover illegal goods, to advertise events, and also services you may be offering to the city. Anything you see here can be used in game!
Code:
/twt Looking to make some new friends in the city, text me at [number] if you wanna hang out!
/twt The Vanilla Unicorn is open! Come fill your wildest dreams with our dancers! #MakeItRain/ooc
Ooc is used for out of character text, and is seen by the entire server. It is not a place to hold conversations or gain information to use while in character. It is also not a place to complain about a situation that has occurred. Take all complaints to the forums/teamspeak to be dealt with by an admin there. Examples of when it?s okay:
Code:
/ooc Admin, I fell through the map and now I?m stuck, could you help me?
/ooc I finished my character skin and it didn?t save, how do I save his skin?/report
Report is a command used to report a player when they have broken a server rule or continue to break them. This will most commonly be RDM, VDM and FailRP. When reporting something give details to what happened and why you think what they are doing is wrong. Below is a great example of when and how you should properly report someone for a rule they've broken.
You?re in Legion Square and someone driving at a high rate of speed drives onto the sidewalk killing several citizens.
Code:
/report [ID Number] VDM - This person was driving at an excessive speeds and ran over multiple
citizens in Legion Square on the sidewalk, then proceeded to drive off without saying a word.The original document I made with Ericka can be found here for the original source.
I'd like to credit Ericka for helping me write this as she put a lot of effort into the original and finalized version.
Hopefully this thread helps others in the community and makes the server a serious roleplaying environment.
I'd like to credit Ericka for helping me write this as she put a lot of effort into the original and finalized version.
Hopefully this thread helps others in the community and makes the server a serious roleplaying environment.
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