General Roleplay Tips

Here are some general tips and tricks for improving your roleplay and your experience. Some are major, most are minor. If you have any suggestions post them or send them to me.

• Always strive to roleplay a character. When thinking about what to do/how to act/how to react, consider what your character would do instead of what you would do. Your character has opinions, emotions, thoughts and family, he feels pain and he can be intimidated. He might have some sort of mental issue or learning difficulty, which is common among gang members. Think about your character's circumstances and don't hide behind the fact that the events taking place on screen can't affect you as a person. It'll give you more to talk about if you think out your character's background, history, family, mental state, experiences etc. It'll also make your roleplay far more enjoyable and less predictable. The 'best' roleplayers tend to be character roleplayers. You don't have to write out essays about your character but have a good idea of their background and experiences so you can use it to react to certain situations. Your character shouldn't just be an empty shell who's 100% committed to the car and being a soldier. Your character might be pressured into a kamikaze attack or a stabbing but then he might start bawling his eyes out when he's put in isolation. There are major things you should consider, like the effect of long term isolation (it's designed to break people. Those who aren't broken by it are usually sick individuals, sociopaths, psychopaths etc.) or the effect of stabbing and killing somebody. Even if your character has shot and killed somebody on the outside, a prison killing is far more intense and personal. Consider these things and you'll have more fun.
  
  
• The pain caused by OC Spray is made worse by rubbing and wiping. The pain is reactivated by washing your eyes. Neither of these actually work, so roleplay accordingly if your character does either out of inexperience (which is likely the first time). The only decent ways of dealing with OC are using specialized solutions, which only officers have access to, or washing with milk (which only reduces the burning). Milk is pretty hard to come by outside of the canteen. It's not listed in the commissary menu either, so your character wouldn't have access to it. You really just have to wait the pain out. Correctional Officers are trained to target the eyes, so that's what's going on when a CO deploys OC. OC Spray can affect a person for at least an hour, and the burning is usually intense for at least 15 minutes. OC Spray will often cause a person's eyes to close involuntarily and may induce upper body spasms which force the victim to hunch over. OC Spray can be fatal for people with asthma or other conditions related to the air passage.
  
  
• The OC Spray employed by SADOC is bright orange.
  
  
• OC Spray is particularly effective when deployed in a cell. It's almost like being tear gassed. Roleplay accordingly.
  
  
• It's still possible to continue attacking when you've been sprayed with OC, though you're pretty much blinded so your attacks are very ineffective. It's quite common for real riots to drag on because the assailants keep getting up and continuing their assaults. You shouldn't do this very often though, only if your character would have a decent reason for it (feels like he hasn't proven himself, hates a particular victim for some reason). Continued or repeated OC Spray is likely to cause a person to collapse. It can even become fatal with excessive use, and can be toxic if swallowed. It's not just spicy water, it's a manufactured chemical designed for the express purpose of disorienting and temporarily blinding somebody.
  
  
• SACF is covered by CCTV, with few blindspots. SADOC roleplays an NPC 'Control' which would alert officers of any incidents they see immediately. If you're assaulting somebody in an open space, you need to make sure to PM a CO about it so they can respond accordingly. General Population cells do not have cameras, though the cameras in the unit have some line of sight inside some cells. A fight inside a cell is likely to be noticed depending on the position of the cell.
  
  
• Being tased properly is very likely to immobilize you. The script forces you down so a realistic reaction is made easy for you. A taser shock is 10,000 volts and lasts about 10 seconds. It's designed to cause muscle failure. Repeated shocks can be given by the operator as long as the probes are still attached to the target's body. Technically a player can fire the script taser quite quickly but you're supposed to wait a few seconds longer in order to simulate and roleplay reloading the taser cartridge. This only applies if they're firing separate prongs, not sending another shock down the same wires. You should be on the look out for abuse but it's unlikely.
  
  
• Being hit with a less lethal round (such as a beanbag shell, rubber buckshot, rubber round, plastic round etc.) is quite painful. They're designed to immobilize a target in a single shot and repeated use can cause serious injury. You should roleplay the pain accordingly.
  
  
• Your character is fed 3 times a day at set times. Talking about if/when the canteen is going to open isn't very realistic, and it isn't immersive. It's just done that way on LS-RP for obvious reasons. Talking about if/when the canteen is going to open should be an OOC discussion if anything, within reason and being mindful of metagaming.
  
  
• Roleplaying "waking up" when you log on isn't realistic. Prison cars require their members to wake up at set times and be active & alert during all 'programming hours' (until lights out). Waking up at 4pm is likely to get you disciplined severely, so be mindful of it. I tend to use work detail as a way of working around active times.
  
  
• No prison yard allows free roam like SACF does. Again, this is done for obvious reasons on LS-RP. Instead you have yard releases and recalls, where an inmate who wishes to go outside or inside lines up at the entrance/exit to the yard accordingly. Recalls and releases are held at regular intervals throughout yard time. You should attempt to incorporate this into your roleplay and IC speech in some way because it's not very immersive to have free access to the yard whenever you'd like, even if that's the way it is on LS-RP for OOC reasons.
  
  
• Withdrawing and transferring commissary money is impossible. It used to be a common method of laundering money for Mexican Mafia members but it's been corrected. Once money has been deposited into a commissary account it's there forever, and can only be spent on commissary or is given to you in cash upon release.
  
  
• All prison TVs are manufactured in clear plastic and are only usable with headphones. There is no such thing as a TV with speakers because it'd be an easy way to start a riot. It's possible to simulate a bit of a speaker-like effect from the headphones using funnels etc, but it's not very loud. It might enable a few people in the same cell to watch the TV. The same can be said for all music players etc. Prison TVs don't have remotes, though prisoners have been known to jerry-rig them up.