Fear RP, an ongoing point of discussion within the community.

[ItsLiam]

Let's talk about the Fear RP rules. It's a very over-discussed topic, it's been ran through thread after thread after thread, it's been posted about a million times - I know, I know. However, I just wanted to let loose a few of my own insights on the rule itself, as I come from a community where there were no specific rules that forced people into Fear-RP.

Currently, the rules state:
 

Quote

It is mandatory to roleplay fear in situations/actions which you would usually refrain from doing realistically. Repercussions of your character's actions must always be considered, situations which result in death due to a lack of fear in roleplay may result in a permanent character kill (CK). 

 

Examples of breaking this rule:

• You draw a gun to rob someone in an area that players are likely to frequent (a busy street, nearby an open business) AND you do not roleplay the imminent danger of being caught, or the risk of witnesses. 
• You run off and/or draw a gun while being aimed at.
• You engage in GTA:O style driving with unrealistic stunts and/or disregard realistic physics rather than in-game physics.

 

For now, I'll ignore the first and third example of the rule break, as I think these are pretty straight forward, and are something pretty important to the server as a whole. We all know most people discuss the rule about getting robbed, held at gunpoint while in a car, everything. We all (hopefully) understand the risks of shooting in front of an open business, and we all understand that you shouldn't do a triple backflip jump while getting chased by cops, and just driving off like you're fine.

 

What I want to talk about is perhaps a bit controversial. However, let me explain it from my own perspective.

Remove all rules regarding Fear RP.

As I had previously mentioned, I come from a community where Fear RP rules weren't really a thing, where if you had a gun pointed at you, you could just grab your own gun and try to kill them. You could just try to run away, try to drive away, you were basically under no obligation to do anything when you were being held at gunpoint. I understand that that's a bit too anarchistic for most people, and as such, the server had guidelines rather than strict rules. Guidelines were more-so under the circumstances that you had to roleplay realistically.

Think to yourself, for a moment. You are being held at gunpoint, you have the gun against your cranium, you're being robbed. Do you really value that gun more than your entire life? Do you really value that ten thousand you have on you that you just won by playing blackjack over your entire life?

Let's say that in the moment despite your better judgement you simply black out and your first reflex is to grab a weapon the moment you get robbed. You get shot, and you lose your character through a CK. For me, personally, this is more than enough punishment. People put hours upon hours into their characters, losing them is worse than any warn, any ban, anything.

I also think that by having these strict rules regarding it, people are just generally quite mad whenever they come into situations like this, they won't want to roleplay to their fullest limits, they won't want to actually engage in something that might lead to more - they are bound to these strict rules that if they break them, you instantly get punished multiple times. It's like, why punish someone while already CK'ing them for doing it in this instance? I really don't get it, and it functioned perfectly fine in the old community I was in, having no strict fear-rp rules, and instead just guidelines.

TLDR: The Fear-RP rule ensures that all interactions related to it are robotic and practically the same, discouraging organic roleplay as players have to act in a certain way.

[PunishedCosby]

Good in concept. But then it just further incentivizes throw-away characters who are less valuable than the cash and CCW in your pocket.

[Nerissa]

all fun in theory except for the fact that "organic roleplay" is going to be people not wanting to take an L doing piss-poor roleplay that isn't realistic to try to avoid that at the cost of their lives which isn't something that's realistic. you already see the same people doing report wars over guns lost, now there's gonna be more guns lost all across the board, more reports thrown with hopes that it sticks to get refunds.

in my opinion they don't CK as often as they should with people roleplaying unrealistically and without fear of losing their lives, so i hardly disagree. fuck around, find out, if you value your gun or your jewelry more than your life, you deserve the CK.

[Jolly.]

The fear-RP rule is there to remind players to roleplay realistically in those situations. It's also there to prevent any sort of powergaming.

[Anders]

Nobody knows how to roleplay a human being, fear rp rules and similar rules will always be contested cuz again, human rp is an enigma. I can show a thousand videos of people acting stupid in face of life ending threats and the like, being shot at, stabbed etc or threatened with it and they either live or die. 

I can also show countless of videos where that's the opposite, where you obey whatever the other person wants from you using their gun/knives etc.

 

imo i'd say make it contextual but the reports section is already fucked as it is and admins have too much on their plate so compromise 

[Genocide]

It's about context. If you're in a situation where you're in a vehicle with the engine running and you think you can drive away before you get shot in a hold up, fair enough. If your face is against the wall with armed robbers behind you and you pull a gun = punishment.

[Metwally]

Bro wants to turn the server into John Wick simulator.
No.

I'll give you the short version as to why these are absolutely necessary.
It curbs chaos and prevents people with the deathmatching mentality from running around provoking fights. The removal of it will create a gigantic shitstorm of headaches for the people who run the server (not like they don't already have a billion things to contend with regularly).

There is an argument to be made for having fear rules be considered on a case-by-case basis, especially in situations where you can duck a corner for example or your character perceives a way to escape that the gun holder doesn't. But even then, nobody's reflexes are fast enough to straight up dodge a bullet and will rely entirely on the gunman's abilities which in situations like these, the normal human mind will always assume the person holding them at gunpoint is proficient otherwise they'd never be holding the gun in the first place. That's the short version.

The long version is a headache of a discussion, and the enforcement of CKs as a direct punishment for breaking a basic rule I'd argue is much harsher than the alternative. If I got my character CKed over something as dumb as a robbery where the robber was a twitchy motherfucker I'd quit, and so would half the server. CKs are meant to possess some dramatic energy to them; a climactic angle. Ultimately we are all here to portray a story whether we consciously know it or not. The story has to have a start and an end. The end shouldn't be anticlimactic to absolute fuck, and instead should signify something. Maybe the anti-climax is the significant event in of itself, but that's case by case. At least this is my opinion, after all.



QUICK EDIT to address that last statement:
How the hell do you think most robberies go IRL??

Edited May 26 by Metwally

[Koko]

Daily reminder that the best way to dissuade constant violent robberies is to literally carry no valuables as a community. Fear RP is fine as a concept but in our server setting most people don't behave like the average human and everyone wants to be the fringe case to avoid losing.

 

A portion of the illegal community will literally farm your items as a robbery victim like youre a scripted feature of the server, and a portion of the legal community will try to become the Bride from Kill Bill because their designer bracelet got taken.

 

There's just very little quality interaction to be taken from it other than robberies between criminal groups where it can spark meaningful conflict, and even then 9 times out of 10 it becomes a report where someone sits for longer than the RP lasted arguing with an admin about the minutiae of every emote to try and get it voided.

 

Just make robberies less attractive as a lowest common denominator RP activity and the people who do it for script gains will move on

 

[scorpio rising]

In general, and as someone who's experienced roleplay across different communities, I believe that certain terms attached to "RP" (like "Fear RP" or "RP Quality") often feel vague and conveniently weaponized when the circumstance suits. There's certainly a shared baseline of understanding; what gets built on top of that is, in most cases, a set of different interpretations rooted in convenience.

That said, I do think this common ground is necessary to keep some things stable.

[Kyyrie]

Quote

Remove all rules regarding Fear RP.

 

No, thanks.

Fear RP is there to ensure that people care about their characters lives, rather than trying to be someone who's unable to be robbed. It prevents powergaming, and it prevents playing to win.