Cigar Roleplay

[Copa Cabana]

Hello. So, one thing that's lately gotten under my skin is cigar roleplay within the server. Cuban cigars by current federal US law are prohibited (Obama had eased restrictions, Trump harshened them again in 2020). That means the sale, import and buying of Cuban cigars is completely illegal for US citizens, despite consumption not being so. With that in mind, the GTA:W script allows Tobacco Suppliers to bring in Cuban cigars through their illegal means. However, in the US it is only Cuban cigars that are illegal, you can easily buy Dominican, Nicaraguan, Ecuadorian, Hondurian and other cigars in any tobacco store in the United States.

 

Now let's talk about how that transfers into roleplay. Many people have taken it up to themselves to RP Cuban cigars being legal (which is not true) and sell them openly in their bars. I've even seen LEO characters buy Cuban cigars at these venues and walk away without writing a fine. I opened a Dominican Cigar lounge (cigar shop + bar) and it is a custom item store. I RP selling Dominican cigars that are completely legal and I create them as custom food items. Recently I've been informed by the PM that I am not allowed to create Dominican cigar items, if I wish to sell cigars I must obtain them from Tobacco Suppliers or become one myself. Naturally, I asked if I can buy illegal Cubans but RP them as legal Dominicans and was told that is up to the IFM. So here's a dilemma - do I only sell illegal cigars publicly? Do I close down my store/turn it into bar only?

 

Penny for your thoughts, ladies and gentlemen.

[Bratan]

That's pretty stupid considering it's just cigars. You can get them a million different ways and being limited to only purchasing from the supplier doesn't make sense as it's not a realistic scenario. I'd say just sell the illegal Cubans publicly because clearly nobody knows they're illegal.

 

Maybe things like this would be settled a lot more efficiently if we had a functioning RPQM team.

[peasoup]

The fact that you can only buy cigars from illegal suppliers never made any sense from a realism standpoint. It's just a way of trying to make tobacco suppliers relevant, but I think it does the opposite.

 

Cigar lounges don't open because they're legal businesses and don't want to be forced to buy all their supplies from shady dealers and be at the mercy of criminal organizations, so a place that might be perfect to network with cigar enthusiasts and might even sell your premium but illegal Cubans under the table just doesn't exist.

[Halcyon]

Yeah uh, maybe this needs a revisit by management. It makes no sense. 

[Topinambour]

Having to purchase from the supplier can create a rather positive loop, both when it comes to economy and RP - the supplier has an interest in being friendly with his best customers, they can negotiate deals, special imports, whatever else, so I'd think keeping that could be a good idea.

 

However, it's true that being limited to a small variety of (illegal) cigars can be an issue, since for most "connoisseurs", it's like alcohol. There's a lot of different types, tastes, etc. It would be nice if their selection was modified or expanded to include a bigger variety of stuff. Or, even, having it work like /Createdrink. If I want to RP serving someone a Macallan 18 at a bar, I can get a generic "Whisky" item, and /createdrink it into "Macallan 18 Neat". Maybe an idea for cigar shops? 

 

However, it would require a suggestion ^^ But it would be nice to give better options for both the suppliers and the final sellers.

Edited November 27, 2021 by Topinambour

[Copa Cabana]

6 minutes ago, Topinambour said:

Having to purchase from the supplier can create a rather positive loop, both when it comes to economy and RP - the supplier has an interest in being friendly with his best customers, they can negotiate deals, special imports, whatever else, so I'd think keeping that could be a good idea.

 

However, it's true that being limited to a small variety of (illegal) cigars can be an issue, since for most "connoisseurs", it's like alcohol. There's a lot of different types, tastes, etc. It would be nice if their selection was modified or expanded to include a bigger variety of stuff. Or, even, having it work like /Createdrink. If I want to RP serving someone a Macallan 18 at a bar, I can get a generic "Whisky" item, and /createdrink it into "Macallan 18 Neat". Maybe an idea for cigar shops? 

 

However, it would require a suggestion ^^ But it would be nice to give better options for both the suppliers and the final sellers.

 

I thought of that as well, but the issue is the only cigars you get from illegal suppliers are the La Tradicion Cubana and Estencia. Two brands that's it. Since they're made-up brands and those are kind of enforced by the continuity rules you can't really roleplay it as boing something else. It'd be like taking a heroin drug item and pretending it's a painkiller pill. Also, legal cigars are by nature cheaper, so if I buy expensive Cubans from suppliers and then sell them as cheap Dominicans it will literally be a financial loss for me. Not exactly a great way to do things. Another problem if you give a "Estencia (Cigar) x1" to a person and RP it as a La Flor Dominicana cigar, if they don't smoke it and instead want to give it to a friend, the name might be lost somewhere there. Also, if a cop frisks them and finds "Estencia (Cigar)" in the inventory, he will RP it as an illegal item and there won't really be no way of proving that you actually bought a legal cigar here.

 

I think the best solution could possibly be creating a cigar bar type of shop script where you can /createitem (drink, cigar, goods) and that's it. The drink would be for drinks, cigar for cigars and goods for things like humidors, cutters, lighters, ash trays.

[matt]

10 hours ago, Copa Cabana said:

Naturally, I asked if I can buy illegal Cubans but RP them as legal Dominicans and was told that is up to the IFM

 

There is your answer. Your best bet is to contact IFM and work it out with them as they're the ones dealing with this sort of stuff. (if you haven't done so already)

[Koko]

tl;dr: tobacco suppliers aren't relevant (which they aren't).

[shiroq]

On 11/27/2021 at 8:45 AM, Copa Cabana said:

Hello. So, one thing that's lately gotten under my skin is cigar roleplay within the server. Cuban cigars by current federal US law are prohibited (Obama had eased restrictions, Trump harshened them again in 2020). That means the sale, import and buying of Cuban cigars is completely illegal for US citizens, despite consumption not being so. With that in mind, the GTA:W script allows Tobacco Suppliers to bring in Cuban cigars through their illegal means. However, in the US it is only Cuban cigars that are illegal, you can easily buy Dominican, Nicaraguan, Ecuadorian, Hondurian and other cigars in any tobacco store in the United States.

They are not Illegal in San Andreas because the gov icly or the admins oocly have not made them illegal it's simple as that. While the tobacco supplier is "illegal" technically not a single item that they receive is illegal and nothing can be done about it icly due to the fact that IC laws around this do not exist which is a simple oversight because cigars are "relatively" new and they never took off because nobody really consumes them all that much and there isn't a player base to support purchases of 1-2k cigars every month alongside 10-20k cigarettes.

As for your issue going by the rules you do need to have actual cigars items to sell them as such as you can't be selling "blah blah blah cigar (food)" because actual cigar items exist. The cigar system should simply be changed for the suppliers so that they could rename them into their own brands so that whoever gets in touch with them could place specific others.

This would allow for the cigar supplier to be a legal/illegal supplier whre they could choose to rp importing illegal cigars such as cubans if made illegal by IC law while at the same time also importing legal ones. This would create more roleplay for them and the fact that custom orders could be made in my opinion would make a lot more people interested in seeking out tobacco suppliers.

Edited November 28, 2021 by shiroq

[Florida]

/me smoke cigar