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At what point does hostile RP count as initiation? A roleplay quality discussion

Banci

Well-known member
Location
United States
I've been a member of RPUK on and off for going on 5 years now. I have 2000 hours in Arma 3 and at least 800 of those have been spent on this server. In my opinion I'm a pretty good role-player and I've had a lot of experience over the years. Lately I've been thinking though, and there's one roleplay scenario that I've never seen in 5 years on this server. Maybe other people have, and maybe some people consider it to be against the rules. 

Most of the time when robbing someone, engaging another group, stopping someone at diamond mine, victims are asked to place their hands onto of their heads. Sometimes they're let go after the robber takes their stuff, but most of the time in situations like these the victim ends up dead. They are zip-tied, bagged, and flown to some remote location to be met with a rook to the back of their skull. But what would be an acceptable "Sorry mate, we're not taking prisoners today" moment?

So for example: my group and I commonly RP that our "territory" is the top left bit of the map. We have a whole ROE and law system for people found trespassing and doing illegal activities on our land. Let's say that we find a rebel robbing someone at diamond factory. We go to intervene. When we arrive on scene, the rebels immediately holster their weapons and raise their hands. That doesn't excuse what they've done up to that point, and in our book the punishment for harassing hobos is death. So at that point, would it be acceptable after talking to them to be like "Sorry lads, but we're not taking prisoners today. Should you see him on your journey, give St. Peter a wave for me" and then shoot them.

The rules state that to shoot someone, you have to threaten their life and give them an order to follow, and if they don't follow it you are allowed to shoot. But what about "High Quality RP" such as this?  Assuming it all goes to plan 😛

Let me preface what I'm going to say next with: I know what it sounds like, but read it all before you yell at me

When I'm playing on the server, I really don't want to be bothered with following all of the server rules to the letter. What I've noticed too often while playing on the server is that roleplay really isn't the priority any more, and in situations like after gunfights the first thing out of anyone's mouth nowadays is always complaints about the other party's initiation, whether or not they broke server rules, or something to that effect, even in situations where the roleplay was 100% on point. The whole game has become very personal and adversarial for most people which makes for a toxic environment. It's all very technical. People spend too much time nit picking the rules to try and get everyone that wrongs them in a situation banned. In the end as long as both sides had fun with the RP and a good fight, what's the point in reaching for the rule book.

I'll give another example:

I'm robbing someone on the side of the road. They've gotten out of their car and I'm standing there with a gun pointed at them. I say,

"Oi cunt put your hands on top of your head. Don't even think about pulling a weapon." (I swear not one word about hands up or die, this is a hypothetical)

Now in my head, I've made my intentions clear. I'm obviously approaching the victim in a threatening manner, I've given them direct orders. The person I'm robbing then says this:

"Or what?" as he pulls out his weapon.

Per the server rules, in order to shoot someone, you have to give them an order to follow, threaten their life, and only when they refuse to follow your orders can you shoot. Well now I've just backed myself into a corner. Now we're at a stand-off with two options. At this point I can either say, "Or I'll shoot you," to which the victim would respond promptly with a 5.56 to my skull before I have a chance to react. Or, I can just shoot the cunt. In a real life situation, I know which one I'd pick. If I do choose the latter though, the whole time he's on the floor bleeding out he's going to be whining to me about how I didn't pRoPeRlY iNiTiAtE and how he wants me to join a liaison.

Everyone knows how annoying it is after every gun fight to be pulled into TS by some salty hobos so I ask the general population of the server these questions. When does high quality or hostile RP count as initiation?

 
tell him that you'll knock him out, cuz then its down to him to counter initiate to kill you and you get the advantage 😛

 
tell him that you'll knock him out, cuz then its down to him to counter initiate to kill you and you get the advantage 😛
Oh you've got to love un-inventive, box checking, rule following RP. This is the exact reason why Altis is going down the drain...

We've become too familiar with the script of "Put your hands up on your head or my friends and allies will open fire on you"... no one actually has real interactions. Take a look on GTA, you'll be able to see there RP is flourishing because they don't have box checking exercises.

 
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