RolePLay Rules

Your Character:

Your character is not just a name you use while Role-playing. Before ever thinking up a name or getting on the server, you should create a character story, and decide whether you are going to try and be a cop, a criminal, etc. You should create your character plan out how his life was. Create a little story describing him such and create a background of your character. Where did he grow up, how was his life, how smart is he, does he get along with people that sort of thing. This is one of the most important steps of role-play. It is also the most ignored part of Role-play sadly.
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Role-playing

In role-play, participants adopt and act out the role of characters, and parts that may have personalities, motivations, and backgrounds different from their own.

A role-playing game is a type of game in which the participants assume the roles of characters and create stories. Participants determine the actions of their characters based on their characterization, and the actions succeed or fail according to a formal system of rules and guidelines.
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IC - In Character

In role-playing games, In Character (or IC) refers to the world of the characters, rather than in real life. That is, a character talking to another character is an IC interaction, set within the IC world, while two players talking about a football game or their real lives is an Out of Character (OOC) interaction.

This is a Role-play server; normally you are not just a person sitting at your computer playing a game to see how many kills you can get. You play a character and try and emulate life (loosely of course, we don’t all have guns in real life). If you want to speak IC there are a few different ways to do it.

To speak to other characters nearby you just typing normally without any command, or by using "/c <Message>"(when on a phone)
-To advertise something such as a service or product you may be selling /ad <Message> (This will result in a green line going to all players as an advertisement).
-To whisper other characters nearby so only that person hears you is done with /w <Message>.
-To shout out something or yell use /s <Message> This increases the range of which you can normally be heard.

Whilst speaking in any of these forms, do not use acronyms or smiles like lol, wtf, omg, etc or :O :S  etc , doing so will result in any or all of the following. Admin jail, kicks from server or bans from the server (eventually).
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OOC - Out Of Character

Out of Character (OOC) is a role-playing term, referring to the world of the players (Real Life), rather than the world of the characters. Actions in the game that are described from the point of view of the assumed character are referred to as In Character (IC). Actions or discussion of the character from the player's point of view are OOC.

Out of Character is used when you are not Role-playing. You are expressing yourself as a person sitting at home/work and wish to talk about Real Life issues etc. There are two ways to do this.

-Local OOC is done by typing /b <Message> this will send a message to players around you, but not to the entire server. Your text will be shown as XXX says: ((Message)). The difference with Out of Character chat are the brackets around what you said, to indicate its not to be use for role-play purposes.
-Global OOC (server wide OOC) is done by simply doing /o <Message> The color of the text of OOC is a different color, and includes the double brackets to identify it as OOC.

The basic rule is, if it’s your character saying something use an IC method, if it’s you as a player, use an OOC method. Can be tricky to get used to but it helps the Role-play along.

NOTE - do not use OOC information for IC purposes. (Meta-gaming)

Also, ID's and /commands and terms like Death-Matching or things to do with administrators are Out of Character and all of these things above need to be said with /b or /o. Using Smiles or acronyms in character will be punished with admin jail; if you continue and don’t stop you will be banned.

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Power-gamer

A power-gamer is a player who tries to force others to participate in role-playing they don't want to engage in. For instance, a player who unilaterally describes his character as doing something with (or to) another character that would usually require the other to play along, such as having a fight or a sexual encounter, is considered to be power-gaming. To avoid power-game the best way is to ask other person who you are Role-playing with, if he/she agrees for such actions you wish to perform.

Power-gaming is also a non-realistic forcing of another player to Role-play without giving him/her any chances for their move. As an example of power-game:
/me knocks out everyone around
/me ties XXX up so he can't go anywhere ( Without attempt, and required things to do so )
/me takes out a knife and stabs XXX (Without having knife )
/me is recording a murder ( Without video tape aka movie, or SS, which must be previously recorded Role-play wise )
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Meta-gaming

In role-playing games, meta-gaming is the use of Out of Character knowledge in an In Character situation. To help you understand, here is some further explanation. In real life, when you see someone that you've never met or talked to before, do you know their name? No. You have to ask. In real life, there is no tag above their head that says their name and health. If you talk to someone in RP that you haven't met before in character, you are meta-gaming.


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Using Advertisements

A lot of people use /ad to look for items. I see people do "Advertisement: I need a gun." This is not allowed, it is non-rp.
Here is how you should think of /ad: It is like you are in character and listening to the radio/television. When you see/hear an ad, it is like a commercial in between songs/shows, professional. You have to be a business and pay for it. So, in real life, if you needed a gun, you wouldn't call up the TV station or radio station and pay for them to run an ad saying you want a gun. You’d get arrested. So instead, you can either make an ad such as “I am looking for a heater for my house, it just isn’t warm enough Call me!” or you can possibly even ask around. Ask your friends (In Character of course) "hey, where can I buy a gun? You know anyone?" and look around. Remember, OOC, you might know who has what job. But your character doesn't, so if you go to someone you know to be a gun dealer Out of Character and ask them In Character for a gun, you are meta-gaming, seeing you don't know them in character.
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Driving Rules

-Easiest rule. Drive like you would In Real Life. Not running into walls, smashing through traffic lights, smashing into cars etc.

-Keep on the RIGHT hand side of the road, this is America.

-Stop at stop lights and look for oncoming traffic (Do not wait until the light is green due to the fact that lights are unsynchronized in San Andreas Multiplayer Version 0.2.2)

-When driving don't drive off cliff's, hills, drops etc... Any kind of high fall is not acceptable, you wouldn’t drive off a cliff In Real Life and then continue driving down the road, so don't do it here.

-Do NOT ram into other people at full speed for no reason at all you must have a very good Role-play reason.

-Park appropriately just on the curb of the sidewalk. Out of the way of traffic. DO NOT PARK IN THE ROAD OR RIGHT ON THE SIDEWALK!

-Swerving across the road and provoking police chases etc (doing illegal activities in front of cops just because they are cops) is not acceptable!
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The Legal Side

the things to do on the legal side of life are as follows:
-Help citizens around the countryside
-Become an officer of the PD - To apply visit the Faction Applications forum.
-Start off a business or join a legal company, like the public transportation company, detective, lawyer, the paramedics, or the PD.
-Help officers of the PD if needed (Do not get into a high speed chase because you THINK the PD need your help… Do not break the law to help the police. If they need your help they will ask for it!)
-Most important, stay out of trouble!

The Illegal Side

-Join a gang we have a large amount of gangs in our server feel free to apply to one. Keep in mind you may need an African American, Latino name etc to join a certain name.
-There are various illegal jobs you can do such as being a Gun-dealer, a car jacker, a drug dealer etc...
-Join a mafia and role-play the mafia lifestyle. Note that mafia is working as a legal company for cover. Mafia illegal activities should be strictly secret. Do not run up to someone when you are a mobster and rob them etc. You will be doing high risk crimes but you will be doing them secretly.
-Mug people - not just shoving a gun in someone’s face and demanding money role-play it, put a mask on and role-play robbing them or something.
-Hitman – Be a hitman. Our server does have a Hitman faction, BUT you must be very good at role-play and know how to stay hidden and not let people know you are a hitman.

King Regards,
Sicilian Mafia Roleplay Admin Team