Realistic Roleplay (Criminal and Legal)

[RoamPT]

If you approach someone that doesn't know you and demand them to pay you, obviously they will tell you to take a hike, I wouldn't be scared either and I would kick you out as well. You don't sound intimidating coming alone and approach someone that is at their property at their comfort, protected and confident of their surroundings.

If I was a mob character I would go in with some muscle and I would approach the owner in a private space and I would first introduce myself, what was the nature of my presence there and I would explain how their club need my protection and what I can do to protect it, I would wait for their reaction and decide after that where to take it next, if they refused I would make threats on damaging their club, loosing clients etc etc. I doubt the other party will have that same reaction if you come with bodyguards and if you actually threaten the way that mob would.

I don't know if your explanation was complete, but the way I see it, there isn't enough Roleplay effort in your approach, that being said the other party won't even bother making a proper approach as well.

[Gerda]

Problem is that majority don't want to RP "weakness". People see RP as the way to find brave, better and more reckless side of RL themselves (maybe even as subconscious therapy), people want to "win" situation, plus GTA is an action game tempting to take FPS path.

IRL "intimidation" is a raw nature of some people, which is hard to RP with words. I think everyone met people IRL that are just scary- you stand near them and you can feel the raw barbaric aggression. Don't forget IRL majority of robberies are done without any fight, or knives, or guns. People give their belongings to the criminals out of primal fear. Just remember that interaction from your RL (if you had such), when your civilian char got robbed or extorted. 

 

Maybe it would help if we would have some classic RPG attribute points to spend ? Lets say you got 10 points and you can spend them across your char attributes, such as charisma, intimidation, beauty etc.

 

As for extortion itself- it exists in 2019. LA is pretty shitty in terms of crime and law, as far as I know IRL. And considering IG situation- LS is way shittier than LA. 

 

[Thirteen]

Keep in mind, everything I say in this post is from the perspective of a small time business owner. 

I've encountered several extortion attempts so far, and here's my issue with them. Every other week (or month), some new faction approaches my character with the same idea of threatening my shop with a low effort protection concept. Doesn't matter the nationalities or faction type. They all have the same approach, using the same lines they've picked up by watching the same gangster movies like "Would be a shame if something happened to your business...Eh? EHHH?!".
 

And unfortunately, that's the problem. Because it eventually just turns the business owner numb to the whole thing since it's happened so many times.

So while I can see where you're coming from, I think it works both ways as well. If the "criminals" are going to use the same cliches over and over again, is it really that far-fetched that some "civilians" start to lose interest in the scenario as a result of it?

If anything, I would much rather welcome symbiotic relationships between the business owner and the "criminal" based around more organic roleplay than just "you pay or I burn down your business". 

 

And while we're at it, that's another issue I have with this whole thing. The whole instant assumption that everyone not involved with law enforcement simply falls into one out of two categories with nothing in between. It's not always as black and white as being either a criminal or a civilian.

There are grey areas and those also affect the decision-making process of scenarios like this.

[McCatalyst]

2 hours ago, Thirteen said:

Keep in mind, everything I say in this post is from the perspective of a small time business owner. 

I've encountered several extortion attempts so far, and here's my issue with them. Every other week (or month), some new faction approaches my character with the same idea of threatening my shop with a low effort protection concept. Doesn't matter the nationalities or faction type. They all have the same approach, using the same lines they've picked up by watching the same gangster movies like "Would be a shame if something happened to your business...Eh? EHHH?!".
 

And unfortunately, that's the problem. Because it eventually just turns the business owner numb to the whole thing since it's happened so many times.

So while I can see where you're coming from, I think it works both ways as well. If the "criminals" are going to use the same cliches over and over again, is it really that far-fetched that some "civilians" start to lose interest in the scenario as a result of it?

If anything, I would much rather welcome symbiotic relationships between the business owner and the "criminal" based around more organic roleplay than just "you pay or I burn down your business". 

 

And while we're at it, that's another issue I have with this whole thing. The whole instant assumption that everyone not involved with law enforcement simply falls into one out of two categories with nothing in between. It's not always as black and white as being either a criminal or a civilian.

There are grey areas and those also affect the decision-making process of scenarios like this.

Judging from this they forget that "protecting" includes you being safe from other criminal organizations. The problem under this might be factions shuffling every other week as well lack of clear territorial borders. Too bad everyone wants to own the city while that bite being too big. If Mexicans with estimate amounts of members wanted to rule the city they would struggle but then you have 5 member factions like mine while in its infancy acting like they can cover a hood.

 

Edited March 18, 2019 by McCatalyst

[Smilesville]

2 hours ago, Thirteen said:

And unfortunately, that's the problem. Because it eventually just turns the business owner numb to the whole thing since it's happened so many times. 

As a manager of a business that's suffered countless extortion attempts, I can't emphasize enough how true this is. I've also dealt with the problem in a wide variety of ways (and seen it dealt with in the ways I haven't personally utilized.)

 

Let's be clear about one thing, though - the police aren't a realistic option, given how quickly you'll be out of jail (with even more of a reason to return with more goons and burn the place down.) We can then go back to the police, and they'll shrug their shoulders and tell us they can't do anything, or the cycle of incarceration > revenge > report to police begins again, so that's out. Honestly, just plugging you looks like a pretty decent option on the face, and it's much more realistic than... calling the police when we know you'll be out in two days to get your buddies together and torch the business to the ground.

 

Edited March 18, 2019 by Smilesville

[Gerda]

1 hour ago, Smilesville said:

As a manager of a business that's suffered countless extortion attempts, I can't emphasize enough how true this is. I've also dealt with the problem in a wide variety of ways (and seen it dealt with in the ways I haven't personally utilized.)

 

Let's be clear about one thing, though - the police aren't a realistic option, given how quickly you'll be out of jail (with even more of a reason to return with more goons and burn the place down.) We can then go back to the police, and they'll shrug their shoulders and tell us they can't do anything, or the cycle of incarceration > revenge > report to police begins again, so that's out. Honestly, just plugging you looks like a pretty decent option on the face, and it's much more realistic than... calling the police when we know you'll be out in two days to get your buddies together and torch the business to the ground.

 

 

That's why businesses IRL pay for protection- because in some places criminals will torch your place if you go to police, even if they got jailed they got friends to avenge. 

Btw, paying to the mafia also creates feuds between the gangs which is beneficial to the server. I really don't see why players who RP business owners so against extortion. It's not a fail for a player if her/his character got extorted.

[Estes]

9 hours ago, Benny Black said:

@Estes I'm not getting into that argument, and you know why. I'm just saying every day people shouldn't be so easily drawn to violence.

You probably misunderstood me, there is zero argument against your POV.
I mean that if a civilian decides to simply "forget" about the incident the second criminal leaves, then it's a problem. But as long as they report it to police, etc, that's OK.

However, there are always exceptions. 

[Estes]

5 hours ago, Thirteen said:

Keep in mind, everything I say in this post is from the perspective of a small time business owner. 

I've encountered several extortion attempts so far, and here's my issue with them. Every other week (or month), some new faction approaches my character with the same idea of threatening my shop with a low effort protection concept. Doesn't matter the nationalities or faction type. They all have the same approach, using the same lines they've picked up by watching the same gangster movies like "Would be a shame if something happened to your business...Eh? EHHH?!".
 

And unfortunately, that's the problem. Because it eventually just turns the business owner numb to the whole thing since it's happened so many times.

So while I can see where you're coming from, I think it works both ways as well. If the "criminals" are going to use the same cliches over and over again, is it really that far-fetched that some "civilians" start to lose interest in the scenario as a result of it?

If anything, I would much rather welcome symbiotic relationships between the business owner and the "criminal" based around more organic roleplay than just "you pay or I burn down your business". 

 

And while we're at it, that's another issue I have with this whole thing. The whole instant assumption that everyone not involved with law enforcement simply falls into one out of two categories with nothing in between. It's not always as black and white as being either a criminal or a civilian.

There are grey areas and those also affect the decision-making process of scenarios like this.

Exactly. My problem is that most of criminals just use some cringe 90s methods they seen on the TV. 

[Gerda]

10 minutes ago, Estes said:

Exactly. My problem is that most of criminals just use some cringe 90s methods they seen on the TV. 

 

I'm not defending the poor RP mentioned in Thirteen post, but I don't understand why people think that 90s style extortion is not possible in 2019

[Gangstafary]

6 hours ago, Thirteen said:

Keep in mind, everything I say in this post is from the perspective of a small time business owner. 

I've encountered several extortion attempts so far, and here's my issue with them. Every other week (or month), some new faction approaches my character with the same idea of threatening my shop with a low effort protection concept. Doesn't matter the nationalities or faction type. They all have the same approach, using the same lines they've picked up by watching the same gangster movies like "Would be a shame if something happened to your business...Eh? EHHH?!".
 

And unfortunately, that's the problem. Because it eventually just turns the business owner numb to the whole thing since it's happened so many times.

So while I can see where you're coming from, I think it works both ways as well. If the "criminals" are going to use the same cliches over and over again, is it really that far-fetched that some "civilians" start to lose interest in the scenario as a result of it?

If anything, I would much rather welcome symbiotic relationships between the business owner and the "criminal" based around more organic roleplay than just "you pay or I burn down your business". 

 

And while we're at it, that's another issue I have with this whole thing. The whole instant assumption that everyone not involved with law enforcement simply falls into one out of two categories with nothing in between. It's not always as black and white as being either a criminal or a civilian.

There are grey areas and those also affect the decision-making process of scenarios like this.

I totally agree with the thread opener, but your take is good to consider though.

It's a thing that happens on every RP server since GTA RP servers don't have a canon. We have both FM and PM though, but as far as I know but you can just start your faction on day 1 and pretend you've been around since the 80s.