Throwaway Characters, Good, Bad?

[Aquila]

I had a couple characters I intended for different purposes, but most were just kept because I liked roleplaying. I intended the following:

 

- A tourist character from the UK (stayed in LS because they missed their flight and are poor)

- A youngster starting up a gang only for someone to betray them and take over (nobody betrayed them, so I failed - goal was to create a unique gang and keep it alive)

- A European foreigner (deleted because it had no value to the server)

 

Nothing wrong with having throwaway characters if there's a reason to have them, whether it's to add a twist to someone's story unintentionally, or to fill a gap in the server. The way I see it, a lot of people's characters are throwaways because they don't care if they get lost or die - they fill a purpose and get deleted or killed off.

[DLimit]

5 hours ago, AlphaBatal said:

Can the issue be boiled down to just throwaway crime? That's the bulk of it, yes. I'm sure you can think of other instances. People that form investment companies or take loans, only to namechange or poker away the cash to their OOC buddies, and then take a CK. Hell, people have used poker for asset transfers since time immemorial, but that's a waiting man's game, which gets you funds and not what people that do throwaway crime want.

You can file a refund request and a player report on a player that scams another player over the limit, after they either C.K. or name-change. It's in the rules and has happened before.

[jcat]

1 hour ago, Aquila said:

 

- A tourist character from the UK (stayed in LS because they missed their flight and are poor)

 

That's an interesting concept, really.  It could've been very interesting because you could've said something like the character couldn't do script jobs because he didn't have proper work visas and so on, and so he was forced to survive by working illegally and scrounging off friends.

[Jacooob]

Throwaway for the sake of providing a one-time enhancement to a roleplay situation/event? Maybe.

 

Throwaway for the sake of being a useless character? Absolutely not.

[DLimit]

4 hours ago, Aquila said:

- A tourist character from the UK (stayed in LS because they missed their flight and are poor)

At that point, the character would be an illegal immigrant with an expired VISA, and could be deported back to the U.K. if ever pulled over by the police.

[Aquila]

  

3 hours ago, jcat said:

 

That's an interesting concept, really.  It could've been very interesting because you could've said something like the character couldn't do script jobs because he didn't have proper work visas and so on, and so he was forced to survive by working illegally and scrounging off friends.

I was roleplaying with a group and we didn't really go in-depth with our backstories. They were mostly made for fun (within reason), and when we roleplayed them, we never laughed that hard before while playing here.

 

But someone in our group suggested that our backstory is that we're illegal aliens and we can't do anything because our visa expired, it was definitely a good idea. The backstory didn't go beyond "some British students having a gap year in the States".

 

Having temporary characters really makes you relax a bit and be creative. Sometimes they become permanent.

 

1 minute ago, DLimit said:

At that point, the character would be an illegal immigrant with an expired VISA, and could be deported back to the U.K. if ever pulled over by the police.

Exactly, but really there wouldn't be an OOC way to check, and police wouldn't have thought to check IC either. Would've been a good conclusion to their story.

[DLimit]

6 minutes ago, Aquila said:

  

I was roleplaying with a group and we didn't really go in-depth with our backstories. They were mostly made for fun (within reason), and when we roleplayed them, we never laughed that hard before while playing here.

 

But someone in our group suggested that our backstory is that we're illegal aliens and we can't do anything because our visa expired, it was definitely a good idea. The backstory didn't go beyond "some British students having a gap year in the States".

 

Having temporary characters really makes you relax a bit and be creative. Sometimes they become permanent.

 

Exactly, but really there wouldn't be an OOC way to check, and police wouldn't have thought to check IC either. Would've been a good conclusion to their story.

Through their system, it would either A) Not pop up once typing in your character's name or B) Would mention that they don't have a valid address in the city. It may also add that the person possesses an expired VISA, if the information is documented when attaining the VISA. Thus, you would have to "/do" that your character's name either A) Doesn't pop up in their system, B) Doesn't have a residence recorded on file, or C) Has an expired VISA on file.

 

Lot of my friends were deported for simply handing over their I.D. card to an officer with an expired VISA, in Toronto... U.S. is even stricter when it comes to illegal immigration. Thus, it'd be P.G. not to mention it in "/do".

EDIT: On a greater note, it'd be easier for a person to attain residency in less than a couple months in the U.K., as the U.K.'s pound is worth a bit less than the U.S. dollar (around 70 pence per dollar), allowing the character to pay it off if they ever plan to return.

Edited June 25, 2021 by DLimit

[arandomgamer]

In roleplay, throwaway/NPC characters are used all the time. On GTAW we don't really have dungeon masters who create storylines/roleplay randomly, but it's a common thing in other mediums to tell a story using those throwaways/NPCs.

 

I think GTAW would benefit from having Staff-run storylines/random events, such as a Robbery being roleplayed properly.

[Aquila]

7 minutes ago, DLimit said:

Through their system, it would either A) Not pop up once typing in your character's name or B) Would mention that they don't have a valid address in the city. It may also add that the person possesses an expired VISA, if the information is documented when attaining the VISA. Thus, you would have to "/do" that your character's name either A) Doesn't pop up in their system, B) Doesn't have a residence recorded on file, or C) Has an expired VISA on file.

 

Lot of my friends were deported for simply handing over their I.D. card to an officer with an expired VISA, in Toronto... U.S. is even stricter when it comes to illegal immigration. Thus, it'd be P.G. not to mention it in "/do".

EDIT: On a greater note, it'd be easier for a person to attain residency in less than a couple months in the U.K., as the U.K.'s pound is worth a bit less than the U.S. dollar (around 70 pence per dollar), allowing the character to pay it off if they ever plan to return.

We wouldn't ever have a script here because not many people would want to roleplay illegal immigrants, since there's no fun or benefit to it. Guess it's just a novelty scenario really.

 

On NGG there were two nation states (San Andreas and Tierra Robada), so illegal immigration was actually a crime. It wouldn't work here though.

 

7 minutes ago, arandomgamer said:

In roleplay, throwaway/NPC characters are used all the time. On GTAW we don't really have dungeon masters who create storylines/roleplay randomly, but it's a common thing in other mediums to tell a story using those throwaways/NPCs.

 

I think GTAW would benefit from having Staff-run storylines/random events, such as a Robbery being roleplayed properly.

I'd like to see a sort of "campaign" in a way, but the server's active enough for random events to actually happen.

[DLimit]

2 minutes ago, Aquila said:

We wouldn't ever have a script here because not many people would want to roleplay illegal immigrants, since there's no fun or benefit to it. Guess it's just a novelty scenario really.

 

On NGG there were two nation states (San Andreas and Tierra Robada), so illegal immigration was actually a crime. It wouldn't work here though.

 

I'd like to see a sort of "campaign" in a way, but the server's active enough for random events to actually happen.

I've had 2 Mexican illegal migrants deported in the past two years. It does work, but just be sure to "/do" what was listed, above, for realism. The R.P. goes deep.