Tips on how to properly roleplay

[★★ Reddington ★★]

If you just want the tips, skip to "Tips for roleplaying".

 

Roleplay has been around for a long time, dating back to when people were doing it when there was no name for the act.  In fact, people have done roleplay without knowing it. 

 

What is roleplay?

The official definition is "act out or perform the part of a person or character, for example as a technique in training or psychotherapy."

That includes doing plays, training exercises where a student/cadet/etc has to play the role of a bad guy, and most commonly, as a child when you play with your action figures.  I cannot tell you how many times as a child I would set up scenarios for my Power Rangers.  I was so invested into it that I would break off the limbs of my Rangers to simulate battle damage.  Too bad I didn't think it through and realize that was permanent.  (I still have a Yellow ranger missing an arm. )

 

There is another aspect to roleplay that isn't touched upon in the definition:  Putting yourself in the character's shoes and "being" them.  It's difficult to put it into words, but when you're a dedicated roleplayer, you forgo your identity while roleplaying and get yourself into the mindset of that character.  Prime example of this is FiveM.  You create a character and you become them.  You're invested, and while roleplaying you ARE them and act as them in every way imaginable.

 

People already roleplay in FL, but with a civilian role coming at some point, I wanted to offer some advice .

 

Tips for roleplaying:

 

• Unless your character is supposed to be an in-game version of you, try to get into the mindset of the character you're portraying.  Are you going to spend your days in FL as a drug dealer?  Then you need to act in the way a drug dealer would.  Don't be friendly, don't be gushing in awe when you see a police car or be buddy buddy with them.

 

• When doing certain actions such as eating food, paying for gas etc, type in chat /me pays for gas, /me collects evidence.  I'm sure in your mind you're already doing that, but putting it in chat adds to other people's immersion and encourages others to do it as well.

 

• Don't hijack someone's scenario.  If there is already a situation, say hostage scenario - police are on scene and negotiations are in progress.  Don't waltz on the scene and intrude or create a scene within a scene.  As the game progresses and once civ does come out, I can tell you that this will happen accidentally from time to time.

 

• Remember this is roleplay and meant to be fun!!  I watch a lot of Fivem streamers and something I've noticed is that the viewers tend to take roleplay scenarios way too seriously.  If something bad happens to their streamer's character, or something goes wrong with the scenario they're doing, the viewers will lose their mind and take it to heart.  There will be times where something happens and you disagree with how it went.  I recommend talking to the other person about it and see if you can resolve it.

 

• Be respectful towards each other.  This somewhat plays into the previous tip, but respect everyone you roleplay with.  It's fine to disagree with them from time to time, but don't take things personally, and certainly don't try to get revenge purely out of spite.  If it's in your character's nature to get revenge, by all means.

 

• Add to the roleplay, don't stand there like a statue. If you're not doing anything, give yourself roleplay and something to do.   This can include a lot of things such as, as a police officer, going to the scene of a fire and providing traffic control.  I've done this a lot. Hell, most cases, by the time I have my cones all set out the fire is extinguished, but I do it to help FD and to simulate what usually happens in real life.  If you don't know how to RP, or you're shy, gradually ween yourself into it. 

 

• Be prepared to improvise! There will be lots of times in RP where something will happen that wasn't planned, so you need to be ready to roll with it on the fly.

 

• When talking "Out Of Character", put OOC: before your message so everyone knows it's not your character talking.  Currently, this one isn't as important as most people talk normally in chat.  However, I imagine down the road this may change.

 

• No information is available regarding how the civilian aspect of FL will go, or what will happen to player characters that are shot and killed.  I'm still going to list this, though.  Ask for permission from the player before killing their character.  This also falls under RP etiquette.  We take a lot of time making our characters and getting them to the point they are in the RP world, hence why some people may not want their character to die.

 

If you have other tips that I missed, feel free to add yours and I'll edit my list.

[RaymondJes]

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