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badguy's guide to violence [WIP]

badguy™

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Joined
Apr 21, 2017
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574
Hello everybody! I'm badguy and I've mostly spent my time on SA-MP roleplaying criminals. I enjoy that type of roleplay as it's something that I find very fun and I actually enjoy it. I've had experience roleplaying most of the criminal archetypes, but I do find the modern day crime organisation type to be my favorite.


In this guide I'll try to address the issue of violence - when to resort to violence, how to resort to violence and what's next. During my time in RCRP I've found that people are often in a hurry to grab the gun, which is not always the only (or the best) option in their current position. Clearly, this is a vast topic and a simple guide cannot possibly address all possibilities, but I'll do my best to list those, which I find the most important. I'll also be editing this guide and adding more to it as time goes, which is why I've marked it as WIP (work in progress). :)

So, let's dive in!


1. Violence - What is violence?

Definition said:
behaviour involving physical force intended to hurt, damage, or kill someone or something.

I'll take an educated guess and assume that every player of RCRP has engaged in some form of violence with their characters. Be it physical, verbal or psychological. Violence is an inseparable part of every conflict, and in GTA conflicts are very common. Violence can be used to reach a certain goal, for example - get someone to do something, retaliate, inflict damage.

Violence is a main part of the arsenal of anybody who roleplays a criminal. It is important for people who portray criminal elements to understand that violence has different forms and sizes, and those can all be used accordingly. The more accurate the usage, the better the result!

It is also worth a mention, that not only criminals are violent and resort to such acts. Violence can exist in the everyday life of a civilian, law enforcer or literally any person.



2. Types of violence

As previously mentioned, there are different types of violence. In order to roleplay a realistic character people need to be aware that performing excessively violent acts, without proper reason, can lead to the immersion being broken for other parties involved (even yourself!) and overall, lead to an unpleasant experience.


2.1 Verbal violence / verbal abuse
By far the most common form of violence present in RCRP. People often resort to verbal abuse in scenarios which absolutely do not call for it. Interestingly, being a somewhat educated, polite, person is not fashionable. It has come to my attention that the most common phrase, "Fuck you!", is more widely used than the simple "Hello". This should not be the case. The topic of verbal violence is interlocked with that of character development and it is very important for people to understand the weight words carry. Here would be a notable place to mention that although it will mostly be considered against the rules in RCRP to kill somebody for verbal insults, that is by far not the case in real life.

This statement is especially true in the respect of criminal organisations, which are complex structures that rely on coordinated actions by a number of people. That, by itself, implies that a leader is followed by others. Such leaders are influential figures in their local communities and especially in their organizations. That status can be crucial in encounters where the abused is infact, this very leader. Such heavy disrespect towards a figure of that caliber often results in punishment. Of course, different organisations have different methods of sanction, but showing respect to the higher-ups is a basic principle of how they work.

Keeping social hierarchy in mind, it should be more common for people to say "Sorry" when pushing a stranger, rather than "Watch where you goin', foo".


Additionally, when approaching a stranger, it is also important to understand that direct provocation ("Fuck you lookin at" and the sorts) can be viewed as unprofessional, and on occasion it might even be classified as against certain rules.


The summary of this is - Don't always be the big bad guy with zero manners. People don't insult eachother left and right, it'd be chaos out there if that was the case. Try to be a bit more laid back in your speech and omit certain expressions if the situation allows it.



2.2 Psychological

Psychological violence is not something that is widely practiced in SAMP in general. It is very hard to apply psychological pressure on somebody in GTA, as mostly the victim is not directly dependent on the perpetrator. Within criminal organisations themselves, this may be easier and somewhat happening, but "on the street" between two random individuals it is highly unlikely that such forms of violence will take place. In order to apply that form of violence a person has to be somewhat experienced in social relations, and also intelligent enough to understand the act itself.

Psychological violence can be extremely useful and yielding in certain situations, one of them being kidnaps. Situations in which the freedom of a victim is taken away are always interesting, but sometimes the psychological aspect is overlooked. It is important for people to consider that their actions - speech with their partners, physical actions (moving, shuffling), grimaces, threats and so on, can reflect more on their victims, rather than pure physical violence, in all of its' forms. I personally know a lot of people who have such depth of character development that allowed for such experiences, and it was truly amazing. A simple form of psychological violence can be extremely effective, even in GTA, and this should be practiced more than it currently is. There are many examples of how you can apply that, with some being loud noises (a kidnapped person, made to listen to death metal?), simply leaving them stranded (kidnapped, tied, alone, why is nobody coming?) or perhaps a form of fact-manipulation - lies, deception.

This can, and should, also be more used by LEOs. It is a powerful mechanic that will allow for the expansion of their situations. If a duo is, for example, being interrogated - can you employ tactics to turn them against eachother? Can you offer them something, then take it away and have a partner step in? Psychological manipulation is basically the foundation of any interrogation technique that was ever employed by any LEO. Difference between psychological violence and manipulation can be very slim, and people should abuse that more often.



All in all, for this form of violence to be effective and properly applied, the people involved should be reliant on eachother. There has to be some kind of dependence going on, otherwise it can truly be ineffective.



2.3 Physical

Alright boys and girls, we've come to the most popular and widely spread form of violence on RCRP - physical violence. Now, I would like to start by saying that physical violence is often a good thing - it can lead to so much more roleplay. Physical violence is most common with criminals, although LEOs often use it as a means to subdue a criminal as well.

There are different types of physical abuse, obviously, and people should be very careful in their choice with those. As much as it can open doors for potential development, it can also close them very fast. Killing someone is very common in RCRP's underground. It is often forgotten that not all "crimes" are punishable by death in the underworld.

There are, of course, cases in which a character must be killed. Those, however, are truly less than the actual murder rate. People often forget that once a character is killed, it's over. Anything and everything you could get from that character is gone, and that's due to the fact that when said victim respawns, the killer can still interact with it again. More attention should be paid to the fact that, in the eyes of the killer, once killed, the victim is truly gone and with it are also gone any benefits that might have been available at first, and they are not going to be obtainable again after.

Additionally, a kill has severe impact on the killer. Even serial killers, who are 99% mentally ill individuals, suffer certain mental consequences after a kill, and that should be taken into account.

I'd like to focus more on why a kill is not always the best option to resolve a conflict. Most of the time the desired result can be achieved by other means. Severe disrespect? The person can be beaten up, threatened, his property destroyed. Assault? As long as the assault did not involve firearms, there can be follow-up assaults, kidnaps and etc.

However, there are also certain cases where a murder is needed. A character has to die for the natural progression of the roleplay. A prime example of that would be, what's widely known as a rat - a snitch. A member of a criminal organisation that has violated the trust given to them by said organisation by speaking to the law enforcement authorities. In that scenario, there is no other appropriate measure that can be reasonably taken against the informant. The murder aspect is very specific to every roleplay scenario and has to be carefully considered.

Apart from the most common beat-ups, kidnaps and murders, there are also different methods that I don't really see used in RCRP as much as I'd like to. A very interesting approach to a victim of violence would be opiates and poison, where both serve a different purpose. It is by far harder to drug a victim and then act, than it is to point a gun and make them cooperate, but it can be so much better. Imagine the following scenario - a kidnapper sets a high profile victim. Said victim is in a bar, club, whatever, and is consuming drinks. The kidnapper knows for a fact that the victim will be there. Most commonly they'd wait after the victim leaves to point guns and snatch them, but what if they drug the victim? Drugs, like Roofies for example, are widely used for that purpose in real life, and they can be used in game for the very same purpose! They can plant a drug in the victim's drink and persuade them to cooperate and so on. The options are literally limitless, and people should take advantage of that. It can bring huge diversity into the underground roleplay - sourcing the drugs, preparing them, planting them and so on.



3. Conclusion

All in all, we'll never escape violence, and we shouldn't! It's an essential part of both life and our roleplay here in this community. However, we can all improve the way we play by resorting to the correct form of violence and apply it with the correct strength. The better the roleplay we experience, the better we are all going to feel about playing, and that's what matters. Something I personally do every time I have to resort to violence in a certain roleplay scenario is that I evaluate what the result of my actions is going to be, and if I can't extract more from this roleplay than just that - pure violence. Of course in all of that, I also take into consideration my characters and their personalities and so on. People should value the weight of a murder and if possible (I guarantee you, most of the time it is actually possible!) resort to other methods to continue the roleplay.

Thank you all for reading my wall of text, and I hope that this guide will be of use to people. I've put in a decent amount of effort to formulate the idea from my head and will continue to work on it - make it look more optimized, etc. As I was writing this, I realized that perhaps it was focused on a criminal perspective a bit too much. I'll try to edit that a bit and make sure that it reflects certain parts of legal roleplay as well.

Please do not hesitate to throw in any suggestions or perhaps some constructive criticism!
 

Winged

Retired Admin
Joined
Feb 21, 2013
Messages
2,158
Very cool to see psychological violence get mentioned, it's definitely not something that gets covered much at least from what I've noticed and it should.
In general that sort of RP and the nuances associated with it, even if not always intended as violence, is something that is nice to see and shows deep character development and in itself requires the player to already have come up with (or experienced) a significant story for their character's past since that also affects actions that the character does in the present. Even better when it's being RPed by two players equally capable of capturing it.
 
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