Character portrayal

[Dylan DiVittorio]

Just a very quick and simple question.

If I were to have a character as a police officer, would me working in a garage on the side be considered as poor character portrayal by the admins and get me punished for it? I know police officers have part time/side jobs in real life.

[Frezemis]

No not really to be honest with you. A lot of cops have side jobs, security, stores and so on. It depends how much time you put into it and you have to remember as a Police Officer I your main focus would be on your police job as it's a probationary stage until you become a Police Officer II.

[codependency]

It's allowed, whether or not it's poor roleplay is up to how you portray it. Generally, it's preferable if you do this when you're a low ranking officer or if you're roleplaying struggling with bills, which would be very hard if you're roleplaying a single male. 

 

I think a great way to portray this is if you roleplay having children or some type of responsibility that your character actually feels the need to pick a job on the side to make more money.

[Anselmi]

Completely down to how you portray your character and their circumstances.

 

LS is basically the equivalent of LA and that's how I base my character's income as opposed to the actual script payments they receive when I portray my characters;

Police jobs in that region are some of the highest paid in law enforcement in the country, but I imagine the cost of living there is ultimately higher as well. A single man living on his own in a flat with no obligations would be able to live comfortably on a salary like the above without having to worry about taking up a second job. Where as John Doe with his house, a wife and 3 kids to feed may struggle depending on his circumstances.

 

It's generally frowned upon to have multiple jobs that your character bounces between with no logical explanation, so it's entirely down to how you portray it and how well you do it.

 

EDIT: just to add to this, something I'd consider illogical and poor portrayal would be if Joe Bloggs was a police officer and working at a garage simultaneously, yet he owns three sports cars and a big house in Mirror Park. It doesn't make sense. If you're going to roleplay taking up a second job because your character is struggling financially, you'd need to convey that.

 

It would be different if Joe Bloggs was working a part time job like security at a club during the evenings because he needs the money, he drives a beater and lives in a cheap apartment - I don't think anyone would argue with you there.

Edited May 22, 2020 by Anselmi

[Dylan DiVittorio]

9 hours ago, Anselmi said:

Completely down to how you portray your character and their circumstances.

 

LS is basically the equivalent of LA and that's how I base my character's income as opposed to the actual script payments they receive when I portray my characters;

Police jobs in that region are some of the highest paid in law enforcement in the country, but I imagine the cost of living there is ultimately higher as well. A single man living on his own in a flat with no obligations would be able to live comfortably on a salary like the above without having to worry about taking up a second job. Where as John Doe with his house, a wife and 3 kids to feed may struggle depending on his circumstances.

 

It's generally frowned upon to have multiple jobs that your character bounces between with no logical explanation, so it's entirely down to how you portray it and how well you do it.

 

EDIT: just to add to this, something I'd consider illogical and poor portrayal would be if Joe Bloggs was a police officer and working at a garage simultaneously, yet he owns three sports cars and a big house in Mirror Park. It doesn't make sense. If you're going to roleplay taking up a second job because your character is struggling financially, you'd need to convey that.

 

It would be different if Joe Bloggs was working a part time job like security at a club during the evenings because he needs the money, he drives a beater and lives in a cheap apartment - I don't think anyone would argue with you there.

Everyone else and you make sense, yes.

However, the character already works as a mechanic before he joined the police department and does not own multiple fancy cars. Just a rented apartment, a girlfriend and one car, that costs well below 70k. So he doesn't portray a character that's extremely wealthy. 

How would it work with above? Of course mechanic job will only be part time and the majority of the character's time will be invested working as a police officer. Also, if he starts to climb up the ladder in the department to a higher dignified rank, he would then obviously quit the garage job.

Would that make sense and not cause the poor portrayal of the character?

[HaveADream]

44 minutes ago, Dylan DiVittorio said:

Everyone else and you make sense, yes.

However, the character already works as a mechanic before he joined the police department and does not own multiple fancy cars. Just a rented apartment, a girlfriend and one car, that costs well below 70k. So he doesn't portray a character that's extremely wealthy. 

How would it work with above? Of course mechanic job will only be part time and the majority of the character's time will be invested working as a police officer. Also, if he starts to climb up the ladder in the department to a higher dignified rank, he would then obviously quit the garage job.

Would that make sense and not cause the poor portrayal of the character?

 

One thing to consider is the mental toll that this amount of working would have on the character - policing is a difficult job even in the best of circumstances, starting off from the bottom of the ladder and having to work your way up with no connections or anything in the department isn't going to be easy for your character. Having your character do what would realistically be unforgiving, unsociable hours, then having them work at a garage is more likely to have your character break from stress than anything else. Put it this way - if you worked full time in real life, and didn't really need the money due to being paid quite well and not having responsibilities like mortgage/kids/etc, would you take a second job for the hell of it? Where would your characters social life be at that point, how would they mentally cope with the toll of the job and the lack of time they'd have to themselves?

Edited May 22, 2020 by HaveADream

[Dylan DiVittorio]

31 minutes ago, HaveADream said:

 

One thing to consider is the mental toll that this amount of working would have on the character - policing is a difficult job even in the best of circumstances, starting off from the bottom of the ladder and having to work your way up with no connections or anything in the department isn't going to be easy for your character. Having your character do what would realistically be unforgiving, unsociable hours, then having them work at a garage is more likely to have your character break from stress than anything else. Put it this way - if you worked full time in real life, and didn't really need the money due to being paid quite well and not having responsibilities like mortgage/kids/etc, would you take a second job for the hell of it? Where would your characters social life be at that point, how would they mentally cope with the toll of the job and the lack of time they'd have to themselves?

Agreed but officers in real life do have second jobs and yes the mental toll would obviously be higher. Then again, there are two ways of looking at this; 
1) Mental toll would be an IC issue and should not come out as a poor portrayal of the character.
2) After all, it's a game, we want it to be realistic but not real life. 

[Dylan DiVittorio]

Just close this, I got my answer.

[Bash]

Player got their answer and there hasn't been a response in almost a month..

Locking and Archiving per Request.