Rule Suggestion (3.24 Staying In-Character)

I don't think outlining this is a good idea personally because if it became an actual terminology that people couldn't use, lots of people would receive warnings for it and it would cause a lot of annoyance to the player base. If you want a better word to say as a civilian, just say you took a video with your phone it's honestly super realistic to say that especially since people use their phones a lot to record police IRL doing misconduct.

We had a discussion about this awhile ago in staff channels and we determined civilians whipping out "Body cams" is not okay, and players should be holding cameras in order to use any screen shot or recording in an IC context. Rule addition wouldn't hurt though.

Bnjemann said:

We had a discussion about this awhile ago and we determined civilians whipping out "Body cams" is not okay, and players should be holding cameras in order to use any screen shot or recording in an IC context. Rule addition wouldn't hurt though.

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I think if you do add something like this you should allow people holding their phones as well, cameras seem a bit wacky

Bnjemann said:

We had a discussion about this awhile ago in staff channels and we determined civilians whipping out "Body cams" is not okay, and players should be holding cameras in order to use any screen shot or recording in an IC context. Rule addition wouldn't hurt though.

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Something like this might need an announcement because people are so used to it and do it so often already, I had no clue you didn't allow it so I had no clue to report it

Bnjemann said:

We had a discussion about this awhile ago in staff channels and we determined civilians whipping out "Body cams" is not okay, and players should be holding cameras in order to use any screen shot or recording in an IC context. Rule addition wouldn't hurt though.

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To add: We discussed that since Supervisor situations are kind of mixed OOC and IC in those situations they may be allowed.

Yes let’s put more rules on what you can and can’t roleplay because some people are power gaming.

No. Super addressed this privately during an F6 months ago to me when I asked if dash cam is allowed in roleplay, the reply was that it IS allowed but ONLY if you do /me on that life before the roleplay happened where you are using that dashcam.

It’s a VERY EASY AND LOGICAL game mechanic reliant on the very purpose of the /me rule.

No character has a dashcam or bodycam except uniformed PLPD Officers as shown by their model, if a player wants to roleplay having a camera while being a civilian that has a dash cam or a body cam, it NEEDS to be /me’ed.

That, in my opinion, is completely fair play. It’s most definitely not “unrealistic,” many people have dash cams on their cars in real life and or wear go pros.

Furthermore, it’s a role play game reliant on player creativity. What good does it do to employ a rule that literally restricts a player’s freedom? If a person plans out a /me prior to a roleplay, they have rightfully exercised their /me command to add depth to the roleplay situation and increase the enjoyability of the investigation in a realistic way.

That said, Its worrying so many people need a quick lesson on what /me even is and I do agree whipping out a body cam (clip) to power game others is not okay, but it is Not power gaming or unrealistic if a player did the /me prior to the incident happening while having a camera in inventory. Just like it’s not power gaming to use their phone or CCTV or even the body cam from your player model as a cop.

MalekIsWeird said:

That said, Its worrying so many people need a quick lesson on what /me even is and I do agree whipping out a body cam (clip) to power game others is not okay, but it is Not power gaming or unrealistic if a player did the /me prior to the incident happening while having a camera in inventory. Just like it’s not power gaming to use their phone or CCTV or even the body cam from your player model as a cop.

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Using CCTV as proof of prosecution in character isn't allowed unless someones operating the camera and had seen the crime at hand. The footage from the cameras would be archived sure, but you would need to consult a CCTV operator in that instance anyways, which is why we dont just allow CCTV influenced /desc's to resolve crimes.

MalekIsWeird said:

No character has a dashcam or bodycam except uniformed PLPD Officers as shown by their model, if a player wants to roleplay having a camera while being a civilian that has a dash cam or a body cam, it NEEDS to be /me’ed.

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This just causes more problems. What happens if a Player is caught on camera without knowing? Surely this would mean every interaction would also need a /desc to notify the user the camera is visible and rolling. It just leads to problems where a player could be mugged and the victim doesn't RP the camera is there, Or someone could otherwise be holding someone under gunpoint for a prolonged period of time, and because that user /me'd the cameras existence but didn't declare it as such beyond that, Its by definition solely powergaming. Dashcam is somewhat understandable to me as long as its filmed from the perspective of the vehicle, Civilian Body cameras are almost always entirely going to be a powergame tool though. Presenting a youtube link or medal link to prove innocence, as well as having to "pause roleplay" so you can clip it and upload it is just a hinderance. Bear in mind too that this would also allow the clip uploader to crop the situation and present it in a manner which makes them look innocent; Realistically, The whole situation, and the lead up to it, up to HOURS, would be reviewed in the investigation phase of the incident.


Having civs run around with "Body cams" doesn't really benefit the RP of everyone else involved and it just lets people use clips to gain an advantage in roleplay. Enforcing what would constitute as a realistic body camera clip of an incident is a jargon nightmare and the hoops you would need to jump through to make it realistic is more trouble than its worth.