An Argument for Vagueness

[Crater]

Just now, Bospy said:

I agree with your assessment on vagueness until you reach this point. They don't need to go through an 800 hour academy, but they should have some concept of the Bill of Rights and specific caselaw. It could easily be summarized in a manual if necessary. Many players are obviously not from the grand old USA, and if you don't really let them know X or Y exists in the USA, they may be inadvertently portraying a police officer incorrectly by violating rights that a cop would obviously know not to. This isn't to say this is a common thing. Some of the best legal roleplayers I've met were from places like Israel or even Georgia (the country, obviously, but maybe also the state.)

That's a good point, there are definitely areas where more is necessary. In situations when entire roleplay scenarios depend on your knowledge of a certain set of rules, laws, precedent, et cetera - I can see where that's valuable for sure. Get a basic understanding of the differences between the knowledge you possess and the knowledge your character might possess, and figure out what you think might actually be useful to influence the narrative or do your job correctly.

Just now, Bospy said:

I agree with you here. Fake it until you make it also works. I don't think, though, that people should substitute what they do know for what they could learn. For instance, people shouldn't be enticed to roleplay a London gangmember in LS because they know about it more than Surenos. It's not really that immersive.

For sure. I think making shit up on the spot when it's important is probably worse than anything I described in my original post. Either keep it vague or know your shit - don't make things up or pull it from your own country in order to "fill the gap." Claiming that your character knows something when you don't is fine - keep it vague, if needed ask for help on the specifics, or research beforehand if it's important to the story. Claiming that you as a player know something when you clearly don't is horrible and cringey.

[Gryffin]

As you pointed out, realism doesn’t = quality roleplay, however that largely depends on the setting you’re playing in.

 

I’ve done RP on WoW, wrote my own stories with writing partners in sci-fi worlds(anything from OC Cyberpunk settings to something already pre-made, ME, Prey, so on and so forth), post-apoc. worlds(again, usually OC settings) and plenty of medieval fantasy.

 

When it comes to settings like this, there’s not much to research apart from the lore of the setting, if you’re using something premade, and the general principles of said setting. I love sci-fi primarily because it actually allows you to make up literally anything you want and it’s going to be ‘realistic’ in said setting, as unrealistic as it may be in real life, but here’s the thing. The setting we have in GTAW doesn’t have any fantasy elements, we’re portraying the same world we live in, albeit in a fictional state. 

 

It’s my personal opinion that you should know what your RP is. You’re free to do /me installs car mods. /me picks a lock with their bobbypin. /me treats John Doe of any wounds. /me breaks into the house and robs it of any posessions. /me puts out the house fire. And this list can go on. All examples of mechanic, thief/illegal and FD RP. They don’t exactly add much to the narrative so to speak, however it’s, IMO, simply lazy rp. You don’t explain how you do this and that, and that on it’s own impacts the quality of roleplay in general.

 

Once again, you can do as you wish, it’s entirely up to you, although I don’t think this idea should be promoted by any means. One of the fun things about RP, to me, is that by playing characters in occupations you know nothing about you learn a lot of things that could be valuable irl. FD in LSRP was a good refresher on how I could save a life if needed, having a full-time mechanic character here taught me so many things that I would’ve had no idea how to do. Hell, the best I knew was how to change my wheels, fluids and that’s about it. 

 

As you say, putting quality into RP like this may not build a narrative for the people around you, however it does for you, and teaches you things that can be useful in life while you’re at it! Conway stated earlier that you don’t need to know /everything/ about what you RP, having a basic idea of what you’re doing is already good. Those of us who like to push it further aren’t necessarily better roleplayers, however it doesn’t mean we’re worse either. 

 

Here’s the tldr as I have nothing else to add on this matter: people should be free to do as they wish without any shame, whether they want to go all out or if they want to keep things basic, however there always should be a basic understanding of the things you RP. 

 

(written through phone post awakening, excuse any errors in grammar or styling in general.) 

[Perky]

L&A'd due to inactivity.