How to portray a gangster in a realistic manner.

[Chris Sanchez]

1.Creating a character and join the gang.

Before you create a character, you need to have a small background for him. You need to know what your char's root are, where does he live, how his psychology works and etc//. You need to have to reason behind every action your character makes, and the background should serve as a base. If you have a background then it's time to develop your char. From a player's perspective, you know your aim, which is joining a gang, yet you should look at everything from you char's perspective, ask yourself why would my guy/girl want to join a gang? No one joins a gang for fun, nor are gang bangers coming from middle-class families, that's why you need a background. Gangs consist of lower class people, whose families can't support their own children and live in poverty, and a gang is an easy way out of it.
A boy living in a poverty can easily be deceived by gang's lifestyle, as gangsters love to show off their belongings. So your char got deceived by it and tried to roll with a gang, he can't just go; tag a wall and become a member it's unrealistic.

1.1 How do you join a gang?

When you see a group of gang members posting up, don't approach them instantly-stay away little bit at role-playing glancing at them. Try to get their attention. What can you role-play from the start? Role-play being a normal school boy, get a backpack and just stand at a random house which isn't too far or too close to the group, if group posts up at CJ's crib, post up at Dominic Bradley's house. Every time you log, role-play coming from the school with a simple /me; /me slowly walks towards his house, peering around the neighbourhood on the way, then make a line which would grab group's attention; /me spots a group of gang affiliates, quickly sending a glance over them and looking away. From the last /me gang already knows that you have some sort of interest in them, hence they will start to inspect your behaviour. After doing so, do your homework on a porch outside, to present yourself as a regular school kid. When the group comes to you to get to know who you are where you from, say you live in the neighbourhood, no one joins a gang from another hood if they don't reside there, gang won't let them do so.

1.2 Presenting yourself, interaction.

When you speak with gang members, don't forget that you are a school kid. To have a better experience and understand how you should act, place yourself in char's place. Speak with utmost respect, and show that you fear them. They are gangsters not your parents to be friendly, they might want to rob you, bully you and etc... When you speak with them, you don't need to have a gangster slangs in your dictionary, vice-versa you IC'ly might not know what terms like; frog, barny, snitch, gat, chrome, forty, crystal, mary jane and etc mean...So you must role-play being confused, and locked up in yourself as you are shy to show you don't know certain things. As you get more and more close to close gang member's, ask questions; Why you smoke pot? Is it good? How does it feel like? and etc...This will bring more realism to the conversation and show your char. When gang asks you to smoke pot, for example, say no. You need to role-play fear, that pot (It can be anything other, cigarette or something) might make you feel bad, and parents might find it out. Family plays an important role in presenting yourself when the gang goes for a walk around the hood, you might not go as your Mom bade a dinner, or your Dad needs your help at a house. High members of gangs should send you on a mission, like bringing beer from a store. When they do so, bring a wrong beer or say that they didn't give you beer cause you under age. Not to speak more, you have to fuck up from beginning and IC'ly learn your mistakes. Slowly as you get more and more close to the gang, role-play skipping school and posting up at the hood, then ask higher-ups to give you some sort of job, it can be cleaning their vehicle, or acting as a messenger from one gang to another. When you will get a gun, imagine what kind of stress it might be for you to hold it for the first time? You don't know how it works, you don't know what safety button is, how to aim and stuff...
When it comes time to kill for the first time, you have two options either you kill or you can't pull down the trigger.

1.3 Consequences.

If you pulled down the trigger, you get a praise from the gang, yet there's more to it. Taking one's life is the hardest thing to do, and every killer went through the depression after the first kill, you aren't an exception. After you kill, you need to seriously start self-char development, you might lock up in yourself and be depressed. Your character won't be same anymore, at the first IC'ly act that you are depressed, can't sleep at night, which will damage your physical and mental health. It's up to a player to further go in details what will happen to char,
If you don't pull a trigger, you will be mocked, bullied by your friends. Your char will feel the same way as he was first when he got to know the gang, distanced and not respected. You will have to start everything from a scratch, which if you ask me is better. You will wait for another opportunity to kill, and when it comes you will do it only to stay with your new "friends".

2. What can you role-play daily?

1. Role-play coming from school, doing homework.
2. Get a bike (mountain bike, or BMX).
2.1 You can toss newspapers to the porches.
2.2. Just have fun.
2.3 Role-play cleaning it, fixing it.
3. Role-play having a dog,
3.1 RP's get the dog out for a walk and use /do to make dog's actions.
After you are more or less with gang members
4. Get dice.
4.1 Play dice for fun.
4.2 Make bets with dice.
5. Be ill from time to time.
5.1 Have a cold or some sort of disease.
5.2 Broken part of a body.
6. Get headphones and listen to music.

I might delete it or expand it depending on the response coming from th community. I wrote it for Grove, and it needs some adjustments.