Rules

Definitions

Term Definition

Out of Character To reference things in real life/outside of your characters knowledge

OOC

Metagaming To use outside information not gained while in character. 

Powergaming Forcing actions on others or doing unrealistic actions

Random Deathmatch Killing someone without RP

RDM

Vehicle Deathmatch Using your vehicle to kill someone or destroy their vehicle without RP

VDM

New Life Rule When you die, you forget the events that lead to your death.

NLR 

Headpop / Nap / When a player Disconnects/Crashes

Fly In/Out

Prayer A “/assist” to receive help from Server Staff

Eyes Screen

Muscle Keybind

General Rules

All players are expected to stay in character when in-city, unless they are conversing with Staff regarding a situation/bug.

Derogatory Language of any kind will not be tolerated under any circumstances. We will not provide a list of words that are or not allowed. We expect you to understand what's appropriate or not.

Harassment and OOC (Out-Of-Character) insults will not be tolerated.

Exploits / Cheating can result in bans/character wipes. 

Popcorn Roleplay is compliant with Rockstar and CFX Terms of Service.

Cheating / Exploiting

Any external assistance or abusing game mechanics to gain unfair/unrealistic advantages is not allowed.

Examples:

• Making multiple characters and giving away the starter money is forbidden.

• Use of any Mod Menu

• Combat Logging: Quitting the game to avoid being arrested, robbed, or dying.

• Selling drugs through walls.

• Abusing emotes to break into areas.

• Using special texture packs such as sky packs to make people more visible or modify the sky (for example, Pink/red sky, all-day mods, kill effects) in an unrealistic way. 

• Kill effects (other than what comes default to GTA), including headshot effects.

• No texture packs that make objects invisible or remove collisions.

• Sound packs that amplify/show the direction of footsteps.

RDM / VDM

You must have valid RP reasons to kill someone. 

Using your vehicle to kill someone is not tolerated unless there is no other option for your survival. You are not allowed to use your vehicle to save someone else.

Examples of RDM / VDM:

• Driving over a random group of people in a car.

• Randomly shooting or driving over people you’ve never interacted with.

• Driving into or shooting up a gas station’s pumps to kill as many people as possible.

Examples of what RDM/VDM isn’t:

• Doing a drive-by on an enemy gang during an active gang war.

• Being killed by someone who you insulted.

• Being killed by police for attempting to interfere violently with a scene.

Metagaming

Using knowledge gained outside your character's experiences, outside communication (Discord), or other out-of-game platforms is not allowed.

Examples of Metagaming:

• Using discord to tell your friends you're being robbed so they can rescue you.

• Coordinating a gang war through discord.

• Stream sniping or streaming to your friends, so they know where you are.

Examples of what isn't Metagaming:

• Talking to your in-game friends while not playing.

• Streaming your gameplay to friends who aren't playing or in the city.

• Talking to and discussing in-game events out of character while not in the city.

Power Gaming

Forcing / Baiting people into Roleplay situations that they cannot opt-out of.

Body Camping: Staying behind at scenes and not allowing LSPD/EMS to pick up dead players is not allowed. Additionally, you are not allowed to move dead players' bodies long distances to force them to respawn. 

Garages: Garages are not to be used when being chased. LSPD can request an admin to forcibly remove your vehicle from the garage. Also, if you were to pull out another vehicle, LSPD may disable it by any means necessary.

Examples of power gaming:

• Holding someone hostage for no reason and refusing to let them go.

• Arresting someone during a traffic stop, before any interactions.

• Tackling when you are already tacked on the ground.

Examples of what power gaming isn’t:

• Holding someone hostage during a robbery for a reasonable amount of time.

• Being robbed at gunpoint. 

• Using your police car to block an escaping criminal.

Not Valuing Life (NVL)

Not valuing your life and the life of others is forbidden. You must value your life, and additionally, you must value the life of others and the consequences killing someone would bring.

Examples of Not Valuing Life:

• Being robbed and telling the robber to kill you because you don't want to hand over your stuff.

• Instantly killing someone over a passing joke or insult.

• Killing yourself or your friends to avoid going to jail.

Examples of what Not Valuing Life isn’t:

• Driving off a ramp during a high-speed pursuit.

• Running down the highway during a pursuit after your car breaks down.

• Killing someone after multiple insults to your gang, car, family, and pet goldfish.

New Life Rule (NLR)

When dying and respawning on a bench, you must experience a "new life" and forget what you saw, heard or experienced leading up to your death. Using any knowledge to take revenge can be metagaming. 

Returning to the scene of your death is considered a violation of NLR. You must wait 15 minutes after your death to return to an area with an active scene or situation.

Gangs/LSPD are allowed to return to areas of conflict given that the officer has waited 15 minutes.

Examples of violating the New Life Rule:

• Being killed by a rival gang, respawning, and then telling your gang who and where you were killed.

• Arresting someone after they have bled out and respawned.

• Telling someone how their "cousin" died.

• Remembering someone you killed.

Examples of what follows the New Life Rule:

• Being saved by an EMS and then taking revenge on the person who killed you.

• Participating in a gang war started over your death.

• Return to your death scene to pick up your car after 15 minutes.

Fail Roleplay (Fail RP)

Failing to roleplay, not taking roleplay seriously, or generally treating the city as a non-roleplay environment. This is a broad term that includes, but is not limited to: exploiting, power gaming, and breaking character.

Examples of Fail Roleplay:

• Baiting Police or other players to chase and fight you.

• Intentionally breaking scenes with no build-up, reason, or stream snipe.

• Using /me to talk instead of using /me only to show actions

• Using your friends as hostages or having voluntary hostages

Examples of what isn't Fail Roleplay:

• Roleplaying in an unconventional manner or an unconventional character within the world.

• Creating unconventional roleplay situations and events that still fit within the city.

• Refusing to roleplay a situation that has devolved into Power Gaming/Forced roleplay.

Player Characters

Breaking character is not allowed. Players are expected to stay in character at all times while in the city unless dealing with staff directly. 

We do not allow players to have connected characters (aka Cousins). Your characters do not know each other and cannot pass information between themselves.

You must do your best to roleplay a situation, even if the other player attempts to break character. 

Examples of Breaking Character:

• Threatening to call the admin or interfering with an admin handling a situation.

• Saying someone is Fail RP, breaking character, referencing servers, safe zones, and other game mechanics.

• Asking an officer to give you a lower sentence because you are friends.

Examples of not breaking character:

• Talking out of character when an admin is present and has declared the situation is OOC.

• Recording a violation of rules, then submitting a ticket outside of the situation.

• Stopping someone from Force RPing with you in an inappropriate or derogatory way.

Animal Characters

We allow players to RP as animals as Supporter Perk (Bronze+). 

Animals are not held to the same standard of fearing for their life as normal players due to expected lower intelligence. Conversely, animals are not fully protected from RDM/VDM rules (e.g. Cougars being killed on-sight).

Animals should not:

• Perform human-like actions that animals realistically cannot perform (shooting, operating machines, using phones, etc.).

• Speak any human language. If no humans are around, animals may speak to each other using human language.

• Use /me to talk. /me should only be used to communicate actions or pet tag information

Situational Rules 

Robberies, crime, and shakedowns are accepted aspects of city life. However, there are rules that you must consider before killing or committing crimes:

Robbery

Camping: You are not allowed to camp job sites or spawn areas to rob players.

If someone complies with your demands, you are not allowed to kill them unless you have another valid reason.

Violent Crime

Killing Police: Your roleplay cannot just be "Killing Police." You may defend yourself if threatened by police, attempting to flee, or in conflict with the police. Simply killing cops to kill cops is considered RDM/VDM.

Killing EMS: You may not kill or injure EMS unnecessarily. EMS must fear for their lives. However, EMS reserve the right to not respond to a scene if they feel an area is dangerous or hostile.

Killing New Players: While allowed, you cannot seek out and target new players to make them lose their starting cash or kill them for being new.

Shakedowns and protection: Gangs, criminals, and illicit organizations can shakedown drug zones, player-owned businesses, and other gangs to demand protection money. However, you may not ask for white-listed jobs or non-player-owned businesses (vineyards, hotdog sellers, etc.) for protection money.

Mass Casualty Event: Any sort of "Mass Casualty Event" where a large number of gang members or criminals commit mass murder or destruction will be reported by civilians in the area to LSPD HQ. 

You must adequately roleplay any of the above situations, and demands must be reasonable. The responsibility is on you, not the victim, to properly roleplay criminal situations.

Gangs

What kind of city would Los Santos be without the seedy underground, gangs, and criminal networks? For information to start your own Gang or Club, open a ticket. Be aware that there may be more RP based rules for Gangs presented by the Belmont.

Gangs are not allowed to have names/symbols that represent real-life criminal organizations or that are derogatory.

General Rules

Gangs are allowed to:

• Claim colors, vehicles, and clothing (we will NOT white list them for your gang, do not ask)

• Make alliances

• Demand protection money

• Fight other gangs

• Claim and defend territory from other gangs

• Own legal front businesses

• Have gang discords and community groups

Gangs are not allowed to:

• Conduct gang activity in unrealistic areas

• Act as friend groups and not gangs.

• Use platforms like Discord to coordinate gang wars, send information, stream, or metagame.

Admins will not:

• Mediate between gangs

• Mediate between gangs and businesses

• Mediate between gangs and police

• Whitelist colors, clothing, cars, or any items in-game for specific gangs.

• Give you a location/HQ simply for being a gang.

Gangs who are found to be “friend groups” or to be in non-Belmont sanctioned peace agreements with other gangs will either be delisted or given a warning. If you don't want to act like a gang, we will not treat you like one.

Gang Wars

To initiate a gang war, simply declare war on another gang's territory, and the rival gang will be alerted of the territory's status. 

Gangs are allowed to:

• Kill on Sight while there is an active war

• Return to the Gang War after NLR if 15 minutes has passed

• Shoot from outside the territory inwards, if only directly outside the territory

Gangs are not allowed to:

• Kill on Sight outside of gang territories without RP, especially at Hospitals, MRPD, etc.

• Camp Bodies

• VDM

Businesses

Custom business requests require a Diamond Supporter role to request. Your idea is not guaranteed and must be approved and reviewed by server staff.

Business License Requirement:

• Must have at least 7 accumulated days of playtime in the city.

• Approved by city officials.

• Business proposal.

• Business licenses must be paid upon receiving your business. City officials will set the price.

Businesses are allowed to:

• Provide services in exchange for money in the amount they decide.

• Can decide who is allowed to work for them.

• Can ask/hire a gang for protection.

• Can aggressively compete with other opposing businesses.

• Have business discords and community groups.

Admins will not:

• Mediate between businesses

• Mediate between gangs and businesses

• Mediate between businesses and police

• Provide you with any sort of incentives for being a prominent business