Project-P

Option C, but allow police to ignore the time for realistic response time/presence purposes.

BASIC GUIDE TO GANG ROLEPLAY This guide will give you a comprehensible insight into the basics of gang roleplay. Information on joining a gang, neighborhood presence, character depth, feud development and culture will be covered. This guide was made to be able to be used by any type of gang be it Blood, Crip, or Sureño. Joining a gang The first question that you have got to ask yourself is ["would my character realistically join a gang?"]. Does your character's background and lifestyle realistically give him/her an incentive or reason to join a gang? Your character might join a gang for Identity or Recognition, being part of a gang allows the gang member to achieve a level of status he/she feels impossible outside the gang culture. Protection is another big reason as to why people join gangs, they live in the gang area and are, therefore, subject to violence by rival gangs. Joining guarantees support in case of attack and retaliation for transgressions. Gangs could also build a support system for your character, to the majority of gang members, the gang functions as an extension of the family and may provide companionship lacking in the gang member’s home environment. Many older brothers and relatives belong or have belonged to the gang. Monetary gain is one of the biggest reasons for joining, your character might find the gang to be the only reasonable and achievable source of income to support themselves and their family. Joining a gang could give your character a reliable source of narcotics to sell, it'd also be a way to protect your drug operation Peer pressure is one of if not the biggest reasons for joining a gang. Your character could find it impossible to avoid joining a gang because all their friends and family members are from the said gang. The gang could also be second nature to them, they've grown up around it and its the only thing they know, they're a product of their environment. How does actual recruitment into a gang work? Most people are pulled into the gang by another member's "sphere of influence". You get jumped into the gang by having an already validated gang member sponsor you and vouch for your induction. Who could realistically vouch for you to be inducted? Someone that’s in the gang already that’s of some sort of stature or has an influential force in the gang’s ranks. Stature / influence in gangs is driven by really only a few factors: tenure in the gang, age (similar to or sometimes the same as tenure),your value to everyone in the gang and it’s more influential members in the gang that have more tenure than your own character, and the respect you've gained by committing crimes in the name of the gang or doing anything that benefits it. Anyone that’s in the gang can recommend someone that isn’t in the gang be inducted into its ranks. Just being in the gang doesn’t give you the power to jump people in whenever you want though, most gang members still have to talk to their peers about said person being jumped into the gang, unless they already have a respectable amount of influence. Older members of the gang whose name hold a lot of weight in said gang are probably the only type of characters who could jump people whenever they want without having to consult with anyone else. If you’re a jumped in gang member, it’s your responsibility to take outsiders under your wing that aren't already taken by other influential members and claim them as your pups. Make them your little homie and have them carry your name. Be responsible to recommend them to be jumped in so that you can cycle fresh blood into the gang regularly. If you know an influential member or someone that’s respected by the higher ranks, tell them that you want to jump your little homie in and they’ll run it up to the flagpole . This is how you build out your circle of influence within the gang over time by having an army of members referring to you as their big homie, this will ultimately end up bolstering the influence you have in said gangs ranks. Everyone else that isn’t in the gang already, who aspires to be a member, should be trying to prove themselves to a respected member of the gang and become their little homie. I In terms of what outsiders need to do to qualify for membership: it should not always be murder. Los Santos’ counterpart, Los Angeles, has over 100,000 gang members and averages around 300-500+ murders a year. Based on these statistics it’s safe to assume that the vast majority of gang members do not have murders to their name and are not active shooters. It’s unrealistic when everyone is catching a body to get into a gang, your gang shouldn’t be filled with all killers. All you need to do is just prove to the gang that you’re willing to go lengths to wear the gang’s name. That means being quick to fight to protect your big homies or fellow members, holding guns and drugs for big homies, making money for your big homies and so on. The idea that every gang member has to fire a gun or kill someone to get into a gang is something that’s outdated in gang role play and has always been inaccurate. This doesn't mean that it's not a reasonable way to join the gang though, some younger and more reckless aspiring gang members might be eager to catch a body to earn respect/find a quicker way into the gang's ranks. Just take into account the current balance of characters within the faction, ask yourself if your character goes down this route… would it contribute to the RP and general make up of characters in the faction? CHARACTER DEPTH The biggest thing to remember about character depth is that your character is a fully functional person. They have a life outside the gang, they have family and could have a job. Your character shouldn't be an ice-cold robotic killer that's posted up on the block 24/7/365 who only talks about the enemy, it's not realistic. You should tie in the fact that your character's personal life does and will affect how they operate on a day to day basis, it'll dictate the decisions you make as a role player. Do you want a roster full of generic "all for the gang" types of characters or character's that are driven by personal motives? The latter tends to last longer and have more engaging and fun roleplay, the former tends to dry up and die out quickly. Inner faction character interactions should be what drives any faction, especially gangs, so that being said if you have characters that contrast each other the roleplay will be much more engrossing. Not everyone in the neighborhood is a menace to the community. The community itself wouldn't exist if it was like that. 95% of characters, if not all of them, shouldn't be torqued as avid rival gang killers. It just doesn't make sense. Those characters burn out quickly on the outside and spend their youth and adult years in prison. There isn’t really a generic blueprint for a “good gang character”. Instead you should look at your character as a way to show off a certain aspect of the ghetto that your gang calls home, all the characters apart of the faction should complement each other and help create a realistic portrayal of an urban American gang. The roleplay around your character should make sense and be believable at the end of the day. That isn't to say that all of us will have zero, or that most of us should have zero bodies. This is a GTA roleplay server and there's no avoiding the long list of things that causes us to kill rival faction members, noobs, trolls, etc. What this is meant to say is that you shouldn't roleplay having an insane amount of bodies to your character's name over their lifetime in-game. Not every shootout needs to be roleplayed that you came back with somebody's tombstone to your name, even if they did die scripts. Roleplay that you shot at the crowd and they scattered. Them dying means they cannot RK, and that means you can roleplay you strike fear in their crew. You can still carry a mean reputation without recording each kill as a notch on your gun. ENVIRONMENT Your character should 9/10 have been raised in your gang's neighborhood . From birth your character would have grown up learning things that your typical American kid doesn't. Your character would know what brands certain gangs wear, what street belongs to who, and just about anything that can be used to maneuver the gang ridden streets of their community. They'd know how to distinguish graffiti made by gangs. They'd know how their neighborhood and those surrounding it are carved up for gang territory. Your character would also not be new to the trend of drug abuse that runs rampant in gang infested neighborhoods . They'd most likely have friends or relatives who abuse drugs, they'd know all the nicknames for them and where to get some if the need arises. Always remember that your character is a product of their environment, their neighborhood shapes them as a person. Your character wouldn't be new to all the bad that comes with the streets like incarceration, death, and drug abuse. Even if your character hasn't experienced any of these things first hand yet, they probably know someone who has or have heard plenty of stories. Most of the time they'd feel like life doesn't have much to offer besides what's in their environment so they'd much rather jump into the streets head on. The best way to create a realistic environment for your faction is to not think about what you would do in a certain situation, but rather what someone who grew up in that type of environment would do. EVERYDAY ROLEPLAY Adding onto what was said in “character depth” it’s best to mix up what your character does regularly to prevent things from becoming mundane, repetitive, and boring. Ninety percent of your roleplay should not just be riding around looking for enemies to shoot at and get into brawls with. This is a heavy roleplay server and not some glorified TDM server. As was said in “character depth” your character's motives and life outside the gang should be what motivates what you do in character. Your character might be short for rent this month so you decided to try to figure out a way to make some quick cash or your character might just want to chill with his or her fellow gang members and reminisce on old times. Honestly, if you take into account that your character has everyday personal motives and use that to influence what you do in game? Your opportunities can be almost endless. All the shooting and beating up rivals is just something that’s done to keep the gang on top, it should not be the basis of your roleplay, your faction's quality can quickly go down the drain if it does become the basis. It can’t be reiterated enough on how important it is to make sure that you’re roleplay any actual character. PROPER PORTRAYAL Your gang's identity or culture is everything when it comes to how they operate. It determines the way they talk, dress, and interact with other gangs. It doesn’t matter if you’re roleplaying a fictional gang or real life one, it's imperative that you portray & create an environment that’s believable and could realistically exist in modern day life. For example, roleplaying a gang that drives around all day in a caravan of red/blue cars is unrealistic and a bad portrayal of what a modern gang is. Realism is an important factor when it comes to gang role-play, the basis of gang RP is making a believable gang in a believable environment with believable characters. Your gang's culture is what separates them from other gangs and makes them stand out, a gang's culture is engraved in whatever neighborhood they reside in. The culture becomes almost second nature to its residents. GANG FEUDS Gang feuds can be ignited for numerous reasons, big or small, from a girlfriend to drug money. Killing shouldn't be the first option to opt when you first interact with another gang. All feuds should be built up at a realistic pace. Don't jump straight to killing when there isn't a need to, it's just unrealistic it's also boring and throws all the build-up and potential role play you had down the drain. And even if the war escalates to the point where killing is justified, mass-murdering blocks isn't something you should be doing frequently or at early stages of the feud development, because that isn't realistic either, gangs aren't pulling navy-seal esque operations. Give your attack some thought and don't just copy what you see in the DM videos on Youtube. Move-in on one or two of them alone and shoot them down, catch one of them out of their neighborhood, spray at their houses when they aren't outside, you should roleplay the fear and paranoia of attempting to kill someone, you could be killed in the process or receive life in prison. Attacks on gangs should be used as development for your character and faction. One thing you should avoid is looking for any excuse to shoot. There are plenty more ways to let beef play out than to load up and "set the record" straight. Too many people are concerned about getting those death-ridden screenshots for thread clout that they abandon any sense of realism and development in the process. More emphasis should be put on things other than mass murdering folk. Dialogue is what drives roleplay on this server, so going out and interacting with an enemy builds good roleplay. It creates depth and history between the characters involved in the feud, making it more fleshed out and enjoyable. React to other factions with a realistic, reasonable, and well-roleplayed response, don't wipe entire blocks over graffiti and other petty reasons. It throws all possible roleplay opportunities down the drain. Also note that your gangs don't have to beef with every gang around it, if a nearby gang has the same enemies as yours you should be open to allying with them. Some gangs are on such terms that they might even share turf (Harpys 13 and the Rolling 20 bloods are a good example of this, they both feud with 18st and multiple crip gangs and share turf). Every interaction with other gangs doesn't have to end in you beefing with them, they could be potential allies or business partners. ROLEPLAY AROUND DRUGS Roleplay around drugs offers a lot to gangs, from selling them to abusing them. When it comes to selling drugs there's a lot you can roleplay around whatever drug you use. You can roleplay cutting down your drug to increase your supply which in turn increases your profits, you could also sell people underweight drugs or whatever your character sees fit. When it comes to roleplay around drugs you should be open to the fact that your character could be addicted to drugs. Drug abuse is an easy and reliable escape from the harsh realities that gang members live in, they could also use them to hype themselves up before criminal activity. The type of drugs you sell and abuse tie into your gang's culture as well. You should also take note that drugs bring the worst out of people. A lot of gang members aspire to make it big in the drug game due to it most likely being a better alternative to the limited options they have for making money. Due to it being such an easy source of income, gang members are willing to do shady things for them more than anything else. If a gang member is dead broke they might rob someone they know for their drugs, they might even go as far as to rob their fellow gang members. They might even rob their plug if they don't have enough money for a re-up. Most disputes within gangs are over drug money and if it's deep enough a gang member might be willing to kill someone from his gang over drug money. OUT OF CHARACTER The way you conduct yourself out of character is just as important as the way you do in character. OOC toxicity ruins the roleplay around a faction more than anything. It's imperative that you separate in character and out of character. Your faction should be open to roleplaying with any gang no matter who it is out of character. Communication between leaders is imperative if you want to be on the same page when it comes to what roleplay the interactions between your factions pertain. Derailing another faction's thread because you don't like them OOC does nothing but make your faction look bad. Roleplay should be the motive behind interacting with another faction, not trying to boost your OOC ego. A toxic OOC attitude does nothing but makes your faction look bad and keeps players from potentially roleplaying with you.

The time and weather should be synced with Los Angeles California.

Bigger forum avatar options like the old forums, and maybe we can get different colorway options for the forum?

I say just give them a realistic high price and restrict them by player level (if we even have player levels?).