RP, how does it work?

[Jingle]

Well, what is role-playing in SA:MP?
It's the act of playing some sort of role you choose, and then advancing it to any sorts of activities you think might be suitable for your character.

I've mentioned something about a character; well, a character is of course the person you choose to role-play as.
Here are some things you should consider asking yourself:
- Is your character skinny, muscly, fat?
If he's skinny he would probably be able to jump over obstacles but might not be strong if it comes to fighting bare hands, or lifting heavy things; but, If your character has muscles, he would obviously have a sportive type of activity and would be able to lift anything heavy. If your character is fat, he wouldn't be able to do things a skinny or muscly type of guy could; well, you get the picture now.
- Where is your character from?
The character you role-play as must be from some country and has some sort of culture (Unless of course you're role-playing an alien, but don't go crying if people call you retarded); imagine your character is Russian, he would obviously have a Russian type of culture, a Russian taste in food, and of course knowledge of the language itself.
- What kind of activities your character is interested in?
There's all sorts of things ranging from being a civilian to actually being involved in crime; the way you make your character is your choice entirely.


Now when you finally understand some common points of what your character should be, you have to understand how to actually role-play, such as things you should and shouldn't do.

Useless role-play
I would consider a few things as useless and not contributing to anything, things such as this:
* Player gets out of the car. X
Come on! It's obvious you're getting out of the car, we're not blind and that /me is completely useless.
What would be useful to this situation, is when you do another action while getting out of the car...
* Player slowly rolls his head after getting out of the car, quickly searching his right pocket. √
Even this example is not usually needed, unless you have some sort of reason for "rolling" your head.
Also I'd like to add, a lot of people here are stereotypical to the "serious RP", and they think serious roleplay is this:
* Player opens door.
* Player puts first leg out.
* Player puts second leg out.
* Player jumps out.
* Player closes door.

NO, serious role-play, is simply giving out most of the effort in role-play, and not dicking around.

Success/fail - Bad example of role-playing.
This success fail is like the oldest method and it's an excuse to powergame and not get punished. Imagine a situation where a player uses success/fail.
* Player1 punches Player2 in the face.
* S/F ((Player1)).
* F ((Player2)).
* Why fail? ((Player1)).
* because fail ((Player2)).

Success/fail is for players here who think they are superior, "wow i learnt 2 s/f im god rp lol ^_^" - no you're not, S/F is the most stupid method of role-playing ever because ANY action done on you, you can always resist it with a /me, or play along with it. Good role-play:
* Player1 swiftly swings his fist to Player2's cheek area.
* Player2 quickly ducks before the punch was completed.

Also, you are not superman/john hancock/who-ever-the-fk, your character doesn't have super powers, therefore you need to stay somehow in the line of realism.

Instead of playing the superguy who's packing at all times (98% of the server, frankly), try actually playing the victim for once - if you get hit with the butt of a gun, you fall down due to the hit or actually stagger, instead of shrugging it off like a friendly smack on the back and running away afterwards. Try resolving situations without using any weaponry at all - If you get robbed, play along. Afterall you'd probably stand still, petrified, if you were to get robbed bye two armed men in real life. Play along and call 911 straightly afterwards, inform the police of the incident and a patrol officer will question you shortly. That way it's potentially enjoyable roleplay for you, the criminals and of course, the cops.

Always give people the benefit of the doubt - if they refuse to roleplay at the moment they may be busy with OOC stuff (PMing, resolving important issues within their group etc.). Of course, if they're rude to you and state that they have no wish to roleplay, ever, feel free to ignore them and give them some of their own medicine if they wish to kidnap/rob you.

To all the cops: Don't resolve to using your firearms at all times. If the suspect actually roleplays with you and runs away without bunnyhopping, do not shoot them down with your pistol. Then again, if a suspect tabs out of your pepperspray and bunnyhops away, feel free to shoot since they wouldn't roleplay with you anyway.
I've personally witnessed that if you put effort into roleplaying with the criminals they will respect you and you will usually have quite a fun time with them in the future.

To all the criminals: Do not open fire on any blue dot that comes near you with their sirens on. If they pull a gun on you, try to act reasonable and surrender. If you have six officers aiming at you, don't try to be foolish and run, hoping that the desync will make the officers miss.

You also need to know, you are -not- your character, therefore anything that happens to your character, such as: "losing money, dying, et cetera" doesn't give you the right to whine like a little baby in main chat. Simple.

Role-play is not as simple as just doing this: "* Player looks at cop" "* Player says: hey donut".
You have to remember, you need to go further than just standing somewhere and doing nothing but insulting cops, get suspected, kill, die, moan.

OOC/IC
This was just meant to separate things, it's not meant to "Player says: (( lol i ate pizza im so coolguy", it was originally done either for people to explain a confused role-play situation, or say something useful which has nothing to do with the role-play itself. Here, the "brackets" are mostly not supported, that doesn't mean you're not able to see if a situation is IC or OOC, otherwise you're mentally challenged.

[soad103]

Awesome Jingle great guide.  I also hate the stupid s/f roleplay.  But we will be seeing a lot of posts from a lot of people how this is bad I predict

[Leon.]

NO, serious role-play, is simply giving out most of the effort in role-play, and not dicking around.

I'm putting this in big letters on my signature

[Comrade]

Sticky pl0x

[Expl]

ty jingle :banana: :banana: :banana:

[Pablo]

Requesting sticky, Very good topic, showing what roleplay really is.

[Jingle]

And by the way JayL, you are clearly here to get the piss out of me since you act like you don't know the obvious, no, I never said you get banned for powergaming.

[Julian]

Good guide.

[Que]

Good work, Jingle.

[EliteTerm]

Also, you're not superman/batman/who-ever-the-fk, your character doesn't have super powers, therefore you need to stay somehow in the line of realism.

This is what I don't like from you. You even told me you don't mind roleplaying something that's unusual when we had a talk, and now you say this? There's a reason why Argonath is a world of its own: Being able to roleplay whoever they want to be within the server rules.

We had a big Zombie Outbreak a week ago, with evolutions of them from walking with /drunk to driving vehicles Tell me that's not fun.

[Squeak]

Batman doesn't have powers.

[Oliver]

Success/fail - Bad example of role-playing.
This success fail is like the oldest method and it's an excuse to powergame and not get punished. Imagine a situation where a player uses success/fail.
* Player1 punches Player2 in the face.
* S/F ((Player1)).
* F ((Player2)).
* Why fail? ((Player1)).
* because fail ((Player2)).

Success/fail is for players here who think they are superior, "wow i learnt 2 s/f im god rp lol ^_^" - no you're not, S/F is the most stupid method of role-playing ever because ANY action done on you, you can always resist it with a /me, or play along with it. Good role-play:
* Player1 swiftly swings his fist to Player2's cheek area.
* Player2 quickly ducks before the punch was completed.

+10000000000000000000000 THOMAS ARE YOU GETTING THIS, S/F IS FOR NOOBS

On a serious note, I don't roleplay with people that expect a '/em s/f?' after every roleplay action. They could've taken the time to actually choose for THEMSELVES if the action succeeded or failed. Alternatively, when you're pinned down to the ground by 3 SWAT units you can't just expect to '/me quickly wiggles himself free from the grasp of the cops and runs away'. Have some common sense.


This should be basic common sense (which ironically is quite uncommon these days), yet a lot of people have no idea what they're doing. Jingle took time time to put together an impressive guide and he should be recognised for that. I completely agree with everything in his guide, especially the '/em s/f' and the 'your character doesn't have superpowers' part. Also, certain people have pissed me off in the past with 'BRACKERS R NOT SUPERTED IN ARGONATH ' when I was enjoying a roleplay with my friends, said something OOC with brackets and had some retard moan on the mainchat 'Oliver, brackets r not suppoerd by gandalf pls dont do that'.

The roleplay has really died down - the majority is either a criminal or a cop. EVERY SINGLE PERSON is packing, always. I can't say I'm not to blame though - cop most of the time, criminal when I get bored. *sigh*

[JayL]

And by the way JayL, you are clearly here to get the piss out of me since you act like you don't know the obvious, no, I never said you get banned for powergaming.

There's a reason why Argonath is a world of its own: Being able to roleplay whoever they want to be within the server rules.

We had a big Zombie Outbreak a week ago, with evolutions of them from walking with /drunk to driving vehicles Tell me that's not fun.

[Nietzsche]

JayL is trying to be a troll, be he's failing so hard.

[Oliver]

We had a big Zombie Outbreak a week ago, with evolutions of them from walking with /drunk to driving vehicles Tell me that's not fun.

Yet when I kill a zombie with no warning whatsoever they start moaning. People only play a role as long as it benefits them.