Question Criminal RP: What interests you?

[LIL FINN THE BASEDGOD]

criminal organisation as a major faction can work as long as you don’t approach it like an imperial/confederacy/nation-state faction would. think of it as a vast criminal network that infests multiple local planetary governments, as Crimson Dawn probably does in canon, or in some case, even establishing their own legitimate rule over some systems, like the Hutt and the Pyke does. it can be logical IC.

whether the site has enough people interested in such concept to sustain a major is a different story.

 

[Tefka]

Crime rp misses two elements critical to making it popular at Chaos.

1. Opposition. Sure we have Jedi and Imperials but theyre more world conquering and less policey.
2. Prizes. Due to the lack of creativity by every generation of roleplayer, the only tangible prizes are planets despite the Admin team painstakingly introducing credits. I mean honestly, what good are credits if you dont introduce an auction house or a stock market. Do you think I’m just supposed to “imagine” these things?

Crime RP will have resurrections, reincarnations, death throes, spasms. But ultimately, everyone does the same as poster above, and says “do u have a discord” or “where major faction”.

My favorite is homie on page 1 who says

Don't feel like I've seen any factions that have compelled me a ton, but I also haven't paid too much attention.

“Crime rp is boring, but also I dont rp.”

 

[DeadpoolMLP]

When I joined the board around May of last year, criminal RP was more or less dead outside of minor factions that didn't have too much activity.

I tried to make a criminal character that eventually morphed into my second GA character, but the biggest gate to entry was the fact that people seemed to expect me to join up within the minor factions on the board, and I wanted to go it solo. Now, a year later, the problem I've identified as the issue with criminal RP is more about the fact that no one wants to commit to the inherent risk of it. You might get caught, and that opens up a whole horizon of stories you can tell. Instead, people seem to keep to themselves and never engage in situations where they could be interacted with the rest of the board.

On top of that, in regards to a criminal major, I never see any criminals working together. Everyone wants to be the outlaw, but no one wants to be the underling to some crime boss.

 

[Diana Fox]

no one wants to be the underling to some crime boss.

Speak for yourself; I'm always looking for steady employment :|

Will murder, steal or smuggle for credits.

 

[4ND-R0]

Crime rp misses two elements critical to making it popular at Chaos.

1. Opposition. Sure we have Jedi and Imperials but theyre more world conquering and less policey.
2. Prizes. Due to the lack of creativity by every generation of roleplayer, the only tangible prizes are planets despite the Admin team painstakingly introducing credits. I mean honestly, what good are credits if you dont introduce an auction house or a stock market. Do you think I’m just supposed to “imagine” these things?

To piggyback on this, I would say that's why Bounty Hunters and Mercs rarely work as well. They occasionally mesh with bigger faction stories, such as being hired to take on enemy soldiers or assassinate others, the day to day adventures of tracking down someone don't work as well without constant opposition. Also, like criminal factions, there is not like.....a unifying aesthetic to bounty hunters and mercs.

Just my two credits on things.

 

[Nej Tane]

On top of that, in regards to a criminal major, I never see any criminals working together. Everyone wants to be the outlaw, but no one wants to be the underling to some crime boss.

I disagree. The entire Sith faction serves the Emperor, I think writers are more than willing to play goons and hired guns if they’re willing to be soldiers etc.

I just think that there’s a lack of cohesion for criminal stories. Plus there’s a lot of characters and storylines that use criminals as bad guys, and just stomp all over them. Opposition is written as demigods, and you’re trying to be a bank robber.

 

[DeadpoolMLP]

I disagree. The entire Sith faction serves the Emperor, I think writers are more than willing to play goons and hired guns if they’re willing to be soldiers etc.

I just think that there’s a lack of cohesion for criminal stories. Plus there’s a lot of characters and storylines that use criminals as bad guys, and just stomp all over them. Opposition is written as demigods, and you’re trying to be a bank robber.

I mean, that's accurate to the franchise. Han tries to shoot Vader point blank, and Vader just casually uses the Force to absorb the bolts with nothing but a hand.

I think a lot of people don't want to have to deal with that, and would rather play on a more even battle ground. But that's not how the story of Star Wars treats these kinds of characters. If you're gonna play the bank robber, you gotta be willing to fight the uphill battle. Be quicker, more clever than the average jedi.

Characters like Han or even Peter Quill as your playby shows survive not through brute force or overwhelming firepower, but through resourcefulness. But people don't want to play that, they want an easy win button against FUs, of which there isn't really one despite claims otherwise.

I think criminal RP's biggest flaw is the fact no one wants to get caught. Not in the sense of IC, but in the sense that OOC, no one wants to play ball and allow themselves the risk of failure.

 

[Nej Tane]

I mean, that's accurate to the franchise. Han tries to shoot Vader point blank, and Vader just casually uses the Force to absorb the bolts with nothing but a hand.

I think a lot of people don't want to have to deal with that, and would rather play on a more even battle ground. But that's not how the story of Star Wars treats these kinds of characters. If you're gonna play the bank robber, you gotta be willing to fight the uphill battle. Be quicker, more clever than the average jedi.

Characters like Han or even Peter Quill as your playby shows survive not through brute force or overwhelming firepower, but through resourcefulness. But people don't want to play that, they want an easy win button against FUs, of which there isn't really one despite claims otherwise.

I think criminal RP's biggest flaw is the fact no one wants to get caught. Not in the sense of IC, but in the sense that OOC, no one wants to play ball and allow themselves the risk of failure.

I think you’re vastly over generalizing an entire group of role players with this line of thinking

 

[Pal Veda]

I like Tefka’s point about the lack of real police-type characters/groups. I have not looked hard, but I would love to find an Imperial NFU foil for this character. I tag Katarine Ryiah here because she does an awesome job of writing a police-type Jedi when the situation calls for it.

I also recognize the points raised about not wanting the character to get caught. I love a good cat-and-mouse story, but I’d prefer my heroic character make last minute daring escapes, and it isn’t fun for the other side to lose for OOC reasons unless all the writers are on board. That’s where planning ahead comes into play.

I disagree with the point about everyone wants to be a crime lord and no one wants to be an underling. IMO, it’s harder for the crime lord character to get in on the action and requires more OOC presence. From what I see, it’s a lot of independent/solo characters running around looking for job/mission RPs without committing to a formal group. I certainly do that for Pal, as it’s easier for me OOC and makes a lot of sense for the character IC.

Another issue I see is that most of these criminal type characters are second, third, fourth, etc. characters for writers that have primary well-developed FU characters. They are almost never the writer’s primary character or focus. Not to beat this topic to death since I’ve discussed it in other threads and on Discord, but Chaos is full of OP FUs. I see Padawan level characters attacking with floating lightsabers they control with their mind. That can turn someone off from writing a NFU criminal that interacts with FUs. I reiterate that I am not criticizing anyone for how they write their characters — I agree with others here that the whole point is to have fun, and if that’s how you want to write your character, by all means do so. But it’s a simple fact that it makes antagonistic interaction between FUs and NFUs less desirable.

 

[Katarine Ryiah]

I tag Katarine Ryiah here because she does an awesome job of writing a police-type Jedi when the situation calls for it.

Aww thank you. You are too kind.


I would LOVE to see more cop characters.

I am also down to catch criminals and do cops and robbers types stuff.

 

[Tefka]

I think you’re vastly over generalizing an entire group of role players with this line of thinking

I think you're vastly over generalizing an entire group of role players main characters with this line of thinking

I don't entirely agree with the person you're responding to but I align with their points more than yours so far. Problem isn't the characters, or the organizations. Jedi are in place to police. Jedi are a great foil. There's a ton of Jedi, to start off. Imperial and Alliance NFU police to follow, sure.

The problem is, crime requires a LOT of NPC interaction. A LOT of environmental storytelling. I'm going to rob a bank! Okay, who controls the bank. Who staffs it. Nobody's roleplaying a bank teller, a bank guard.

I'm going to be a murderer! Okay, who're you murdering? A throwaway account if you're feeling snazzy? It's gonna be an NPC.

The problem is, it requires creativity, imagination, and I generalize this community as needing functional mechanics to represent what is usually creativity's job to fill. Without that external stimulus, it becomes a chore, it becomes boring, and crime rp dies. Problem's the culture, that's why I can generalize, and my own personal generalizations will be right more than they're wrong.

Case in point, crime RP is dead af on Chaos rn, for reasons outlined above.

 

[Matthias Colcrip]

I’m new here so I’m not sure how much I can actually comment on the state of criminal RP here on Chaos. I can, however, speak from the various comments I’ve seen posted in this discussion thus far. It seems to me the environmental storytelling aspects (ie needing to control and write for many many NPCs) combined with the consequences (both IC and OOC) playing a criminal can bring are the biggest challenges writers face when doing criminal RP.

Personally it’s interesting to me nobody has tried pulling a Maul and have a dark sider focused purely on crime rather than traditional power. I can only assume that the underworld credit system is relatively new and if that’s the case I’m further surprised nobody has utilized it for a criminal-based faction.

I myself was contemplating having Matthias become a criminal and or join a criminal faction and hopefully crime RP does work out because Star Wars is such a ripe universe for those kinds of stories. There’s a reason fans wanted a movie or show set in the Star Wars underworld. Again though, I haven’t been here long and I’ve only written a handful of RP posts so far.