Do it right. Here are some general tips and guidelines to help. I'm a college student, a business/film major, and I was also Mickey O'Neil, leader of the Northie Hooligans. The Hooligans were largely regarded as one of the best RP gangs on the server at the time. This is what I do and encourage my men to do in order to have the full roleplay experience, and I hope that these tips can help you get into your characters head a little more efficiently, and ultimately help bring out the real potential of this server, something I think lots of people want.
1.01: Watch the killin'.: First and foremost is my golden rule about killing on a roleplay server: If someone doesn't know why you're killing them, then you're doing something wrong. Don't spawncamp ( I.E. killing someone as they spawn and are unarmed; this can be at the newb spawn, their gang HQ, or their house), don't kill someone over and over again - when the character's dead, the character's dead. Ideally you should wipe the slate.
1.02: IC vs. OOC/Chat Etiquette.: Some of the very basic features and ideals of the server that need to be understood. IC means in character, and OOC means out of character. A good RPer keeps IC/OOC separate. Most of the channels of communication like /say, /shout, /whisper, /ad, and occasionally /f and /g are IC channels, whereas /b and /o are OOC channels (/b automatically inserts (( around your text )), indicating an OOC remark in /say). You should always attempt to remain in character in all IC public channels; that doesn't mean that you're limited to only saying things your character would say at all, but just please use /b. Like I mentioned before, I am a college student; but the person sitting behind the the keyboard is not your character. Your character is someone different. Just remember: when a situation confronts you, don't think "What should I do?"... think "What would my character do in this situation?" Also, please refrain from using terms like "lol" or other AOLisms in /say, at least do it in /b. And try to type like a normal human being - at least reasonably coherently. This IS a 17+ server, I think you guys can handle it.
1.03: Animate Yourself!: There are a lot of cool features built into the server to make it more realistic. Use them! /animlist is very important, this will show you the list of commands you can use to make your character do animations like smoking a cigarette, sitting on the ground, laying down, etc: all vital to RP in some way or another, at some point. /me is the emote command, makes your text purple, and lists our what you type as if it were you doing an action. I may type:
/me lights a spliff and takes a long pull.
/smokem
To make the text box say "Mickey_ONeil lights a spliff and takes a long pull" and then have my character lean back and appear to start puffing on a cig.
There are also several emote commands that aren't listed anywhere known to me in the server interface. Some examples are /cellin, which makes your character pull out a phone and hold it up to his ear, and /cellout, which puts the phone away. A list of these commands should be built, as i'm positive there are a lot more that I don't know about.
1.04: Metagaming *hisss*: Metagaming is defined as using out of character knowledge for your character's benefit. This is a very broad term, and can apply to a multitude of things, including (but not limited to):
- Character names. It's necessary for the game to function to have someone's name be above their head, but your character cannot see this. Introductions, from an RP perspective, should be very important. If you've never met someone, you shouldn't know their name. If someone you've never met has a reputation, a good IC response may be "Ah, so you must be Mickey ONeil..." or you could simply introduce yourself and ask for their name.
- Holding Grudges. Grudges from, say, an alternative character, the forums, or IRC should not be carried into your character. Unless you've had a specific, in-game, RP confrontation that causes your character to dislike someone else, you should not be too biased in any direction.
- Forum Information:
Bad: Lets say you have a policeman and a gang member in Grove. If you read on the Police Private Forums that Grove St. is getting raided on arms trafficking charges, what do you do? You sure as hell don't arm Grove St. up with an armada and have them waiting with perfect cover for the time of the raid; you either play your cop character and raid all of your OOC buddies, or "play dumb," ignoring the information you read for the sake of staying in character.
Good: Say you read something in "the Streets," "Newsroom," or "Character Biographies." This is usually information that people have publicized because they WANT it to be public. It's considered acceptable for your character to "pull" that information from various sources as long as you roleplay it right; but stay within reason. Sometimes government files leak; lots of street gangs have some sort of illegal access to certain documents. Or perhaps, if your character has a relationship with someone who posted in "the Streets," you could casually bring up the topic in conversation in-game.
1.06: Deathmatching: Deathmatching, or DMing, is defined as attacking someone for NO RP reason. Someone who just shoots at random cars or runs around punching everyone could be a DMer - I can't really think of many situations that would cause people to run in circles slugging everyone... maybe a bad acid trip. But if that's the case and you're RPing it, RP it well FFS. There are servers for you to hop on and kill hoes, and that's basically the entire premise of Single Player. Go there and kill everyone, we're here to RP. If someone is DMing you, DO NOT DM THEM BACK. /report it, get screenshots, etc. and post them on the forums.
2.00: Immerse yourself! Becommme the character: Something that's very important to your character is immersion. Immersion means to get into and be interested in; basically, putting yourself in your character's head and making it more realistic. Attempt to immerse yourself into your character as if it were a movie rather than a game. By this I mean put yourself in your characters head, don't stop RPing. So many things happen in game so often that could be improved upon with just a little sense, a little patience, and a little creativity.
2.01: RP Deals Constasntly: Compare this first "roleplay" arms deal with the second. Which is better?
KopKilla: u need mp5?
ThugLyfe: ya how much
KopKilla: 500
ThugLyfe: k
ThugLyfe pays KopKilla
KopKilla hands ThugLyfe an mp5.
Compare that to this:
Daniel_Wolf walks up to Edward_Honda and lights a cigarette, puffing slowly.
Daniel_Wolf: I hear you're the man to see if I need some quality heat.
Edward_Honda: Hai, sir. I may be. What are you looking for tonight?
Daniel_Wolf pulls on his cigarette and looks up and down the street.
Daniel_Wolf: What do you have?
Edward_Honda smiles and walks to the back of his car, opening the trunk.
Edward_Honda throws back a blanket covering a pile of weapons.
Daniel_Wolf: Good christ almighty.
Edward_Honda: Everything from shotguns, to MP5s, to rifles my friend.
Daniel_Wolf: I'm going to need one of those shotguns, and an sdpistol. Normal price?
Edward_Honda nods.
Daniel_Wolf pulls a large roll of cash out of his pocket and hands it to Edward.
Edward_Honda sells Daniel_Wolf an sdpistol and Shotgun.
Ok, that was definitely a lot cleaner, cooler, and more fun to read, right? Think about a drug deal. Sure, you could run up and spam people to get your skill up (Hell, i've even done that before), but if you have some time and you're trying to improve your RP, it could be done much better. Crack deals shouldn't happen on the lawn at the Yakuza teahouse, or the town square infront of the Police Department, or at Burger Shot. Consider having someone meet you in an alley behind a bar or under a bridge in the spillway. Consider, for an arms deal, getting a Rumpo (Van found by cardrop) and taking it to the Lumber Mill up North and having some people meet you there for arms. Roleplay it. Be creative and get immersed. It's a little out of the way, and may take a little longer, but hell... i'd be willing to pay twice as much for guns if the RP was done really well. Yes. I will pay people more for drugs, guns, rides, etc., if they are roleplayed well.
2.02: Character Developement: If you can't look at your character as his or her own person, if they don't have a personality, then you should reevaluate why you're playing here. Your character has to be a unique individual with his own likes and dislikes apart from yours. It can be based on any number of characters from books, movies, stories, or whatever, but your roleplay will never be totally up to par if your character doesn't have a personality. To go even further, your character SHOULD have a history that shaped him or her into who they are today. However brief it is, any sort of a past is vital in making your RP be top-notch, so I encourage you to at least take some notes or jot down some ideas about who your character really is (Personally, I have a whole messy stack of notes i've scribbled about Mickey.)
2.03: Speaking: I also seriously encourage your character to try and pick up an accent that you may not be familiar with. It's one thing to talk like an idiot so people can't understand you - that's bad. It's a totally different thing for your character to have an accent and be hard to understand. Example, someone rolling up to my HQ:
Smokey_ONeil shouts: Oi der madey, th'fark is yeh doin 'ere?
Mickey_ONeil: Cam'an, th' fark are yeh doin lad?
Mickey_ONeil slaps Smokey on the back of the head.
Mickey_ONeil: Get'ot th' wey, bhey!
or when a Yardie says to you:
"Ey mon don' be duckin' on dem chi-chi's for da' freeze jah 'ear boi?"
It's typical to have to read it two or three times before understanding, if you actually end up understanding it at all. But that's not unlike real life, where if one of us were to talk to a Rastafarian Crime Lord or a dirty Irish Gypsy we might go "O_O.... wha?" Accents can be a lot of fun and give your character a lot of personality, which i've really come to realize through playing Mickey. It can be as easy screwing around with the spelling of some of the words to give your character a Southern drawl, a British accent, a Boston accent, or even something crazy like Strelok and his Eastern European background. It's all really personal, but just giving your character a unique drawl or dialect can set your RP ahead of others by far.
2.04: Be Unique: Unfortunately, not everyone can be a badass. Not everyone can be a Mafia Boss, a boss nigger, the Chief of Police, James Bond, etc. Sometimes you have to work up to being a badass. The thing about being a badass is that badasses become badasses because they got their own asses kicked a lot in the past. That's how they learned to be badasses. I hate seeing situations where an entire gang can be confronting a civilian, and the civilian punches someone and chicken runs away: one asshole in a leather jacket wouldn't be able to run away from an entire gang. At that, the gang shouldn't even need to use firearms to intimidate the civilian, but we resort to doing so very often because we're afraid they'll suck at RP and run away. Which brings me to:
2.05: Taking the fall/Fear death: At some points you may be ridiculously outnumbered. You may be getting extorted, or held at gunpoint. Hell, I have a cop character that I consider to be pretty badass, but when I tried to get the leader of the Yakuza to come into my custody and then found myself looking down the barrels of 6 Yakuza AK's... I just had to say "...fuck." And I put my hands up. Sure, sometimes it's (OOCly) easier to just die, go to the hospital, lose a grand, and go back to mat running or DMing, but what's that really mean? Play for the fun, not for levels, money, or points. This server is a roleplay server, not a poopsock one. Be afraid to die, like real life. Sometimes you just have to hand over the keys to your newly modded banshee or the balance of your last paycheck to some thugs; but hopefully you won't DIE! At least afterwards you can call the police.
2.06: Revengekilling: Alright so dying in real life would suck pretty bad, and it's a lot easier on us in good 'ol SZR. Keep in mind, though, that your character should STILL be afraid to die. Let's say you get kidnapped and don't comply so the kidnapper kills you. You go to the hospital, lose a couple bucks, and then respawn - and look! There's the guy who kidnapped you. Do you pull a gun out of your locker and mow him down? NO. He fucked your shit up. You went to the hospital and sustained severe memory loss, YOU DON'T EVEN REMEMBER HIM OR THAT SITUATION (ideally.) If you beat him down there, it will likely turn in to an endless saga of griefing that won't end until one of you log. Be the bigger man. Keep moving forward.
2.07: Weaponry and its Uses: Guns. Currently, SZR has a pretty lax system with gun licenses and getting guns and whatnot. Pretty much everyone can get them, so you can expect every average Joe to be strapped like Rambo. This is... unfortunate. But workable. If you have a pistol, then it's easy enough to /me pulls a pistol out of a shoulder holster in his jacket. And then taking it out. Make an effort to RP drawing weapons to make it so they don't appear out of nowhere quite as often. For bigger weapons or certain melee weapons, you may have to get a little more creative; you can't hide an m4 in your jacket. Maybe:
- /me unlocks the trunk of his car.
/me opens the trunks and reaches inside.
/me removes a bat from his trunk.
- /me sets a large, plastic case on the ground.
/me undoes the latches on the case and opens it.
/me removes an AK-47 from the plastic case.
3.01: Cinematic Appeal: Remember how I said immerse yourself like a movie? Well, there are definitely some cool situations that go down in this game, so make sure to record them! Remember that holding F10 FULLY removes your GUI, allowing you to get some really good screenshots. In these situations, turning your fuel (( /fuel )) meter off might be a good idea. If using FRAPS, a freeware video-recording program, you'll need to disable it's feature that makes F10 take screenshots. Also, make sure to use all of the different views, each and every one has different appeal. Examples of cinematic appeal (I.E. SA:MP Movies that are fucking cool):
Conclusion: Overall, just taking an extra couple of minutes in some cases can really improve the experience for everyone. Just spend a little time getting acquainted with the little person that you spend so much of your time staring at on your screen. Immerse yourself as if it were a movie, and your character can be 10x cooler. If you have any suggestions for this, let me know by posting in this topic or PMing me.
-Mickey