TRP Community Retrospective

TRP is a community that prioritizes player safety, inclusivity, collaborative storytelling, and fun on lore-friendly RP servers. At present this included a RedM and FiveM server.  Our moderation teams are highly engaged in the community on and off server; our development teams are active and passionate. We offer confidential player reporting systems, unique development features, and tools to support player safety. At the end of the day, you should play where you have fun! If TRP sounds like your jam, here’s some good starting points to dive in at:

• Consent and Safety Guide
• GTA Server Rules
• RDR Server Rules 
• Apply today!

Whether on staff, a die-hard daily player, or a casual dabbler, your engagement and participation in Discord and on server are huge contributions! Doing your best to tell stories together and follow the rules is really all it takes to have a significant positive impact. Here are some specific options you have in your tool belt if you want to go above and beyond!

• Host an event on server! 
  • GTA Events Channel
  • RDR Events Channel
  • RDR Poster Submissions: Open a ticket for RDR, select “Character Request,” then “Poster Request.” Submit your .PNG

• Request Ambassador support: Open a ticket for your server, Select “Character Request,” then “Event or Story Support.”
• File player reports when you encounter rule breaks.
  • GTA: Be sure to type /report into the chat box on server at time of issue in addition to filing a website report. 
  • RDR: Be sure to hit “Page Up” and take a screen shot of the displayed numbers at time of issue to include with your website report. 
• Submit bug reports! 
  • GTA Tech Reports: Click “GTA Tech Report” and complete the form! 
  • RDR: At time of bug type /bug into chat box on server and complete the form.
• Shoutout your fellow players when you have a great experience!
• Lend a helping hand by sharing your knowledge of server resources and technical issues! 
  • GTA Support
  • RDR Support

• Say “Yes! And…”   We use “Yes, and” as a basic improv starting point to help us collaborate in the heat of the moment. It looks like saying “YES” whenever someone comes to you with a proposal, a threat, a tall tale, an invitation,  a promise, “..AND” then adding to it.

Collaborate: Respond to and engage with the RP around you. If you encounter someone trying to do a bit, an event, a scam, a robbery, pitching an idea or an adventure, etc., go along with it! Take it upon yourself to accept the invitation to collaborate. Don’t ignore it or shut it down; get outside your comfort zone! Then ask yourself, “who is the entertaining?” If the answer is “Me! Hi! My group is winning it’s me,” change that and give others the opportunity to influence the scene’s outcome. You can take these basic principals – Yes! And, Collaboration – into Discord conversational spaces as well!

Server pop can be a vicious cycle and there’s no simple solution. We’ll do what we can to provide consistent dev updates, host Ambassador curated events/encounters, and increase the presence of allowlisted roles like EMS and PD (GTA)/Marshals and Doctors (RDR). If boosting the server pop is a priority for you, here’s a few things you can do:

• Invite your friends to play!  “Friendly Meta,” like arranging a time to get on the server with your friends, is not a rule break. Avoid scripting your plans, don’t continue OOC communication while on server, and don’t use information gained OOC to the benefit of your character IC – and you’re gtg! 
• Attend an event!  Support the efforts of your fellow players, meet new characters, and socialize. The event channels can be considered IC knowledge, as long as you’re not using them to your advantage (e.g. planning an ambush with your criminal.)
  • GTA Events
  • RDR Events 
• Host an event!  Events are social hubs, ensuring new and old players alike have unique experiences and the opportunity to meet new characters!
• Stream your RP! You don’t need to have hundreds of viewers for your stream to spread awareness to new players and inspire existing players to hop on.
• Use #gta-general and #rdr-general to talk about RP stuff! Complaints about server pop are the number one deterrent for players considering logging in. Consider instead: collaborating on new character ideas, complimenting another player on their story telling, seeking new info about improv skills… the possibilities are endless.
• Log in and see what happens! Sometimes, the best stories unfold with a few good RPers and some patience. Once the ball starts rolling, it’s tough to stop!

EU prime time is a challenge for both the GTA and RDR servers. We don’t have a plan to address this specific timezone at this time, however we believe that as the overall player populations grow, this timeframe will also. We’ve got server owners, devs, and members of all other staff teams in this timezone as well, so it’s certainly on our radar!

For ways you can help, see “Can players help the server population grow?”

 Not at this time. However! If you have concerns about a community manager’s actions or conduct on off-server, we have simplified our process to give you a direct line of review with server owners. 

• Report a CM: Click the “Report a CM” button and complete the form.
  • This will open a ticket viewable by server ownership only, which will remain confidential. With your permission, we may add Lead CMs to the ticket for additional review in some cases. 
  • Non-CM staff can be reported via the standard player report system. Only CMs can see player reports. 
  • CMs are held to a higher standard of community conduct and server rule compliance; rule violations are handled via the same processes as any other player. 
  • Server rule violations do not inherently disqualify staff or CMs from their role.

Let’s start by establishing a shared vocabulary! We like to avoid using terms like “Quality RP” or “Realistic RP” as descriptors of success or goals. We’ve instead opted to set goals based on verbiage we can more easily quantify. Specifically: authentic, collaborative, and lore friendly roleplay. 

• Authentic RP isn’t necessarily realistic, but it is true to character, true to the time period and setting, and serves the purpose of collaborative story building. 
• Collaborative RP is the practice of co-creating stories with others; this looks like all participants in a given scene are included in determining the scene’s direction and outcome. Rules like CR 1 and CR 4 against “win mentalities” and “powergaming” help us identify behaviors that aren’t collaborative. Collaborative also means inclusive and safe! CR 11 (against personal insults/attacks) and CR 16 (identifying restricted content) help us identify unsafe behaviors.
• Lore Friendly means our RP is rooted in the setting/lore of the root game we’re playing. This might look like PD uniforms on the GTA server that look like the uniforms worn by IRL California state officers (Los Santos is based on Los Angeles!), and might sound like “telegram” “wagon” instead of “DM” or “vehicle” on the RDR server. 

With that shared vocabulary in mind, we strive to lead by example (Ambassadors are fundamental in this!) by being active on server and community spaces, swiftly and consistently address player reports, empower players with resources, and celebrate the great stuff! Behind the scenes, we’re collaborating on some fun events to help drive stories on server, workshops to co-learn and stretch our improv muscles, and pursuing ongoing anti-rasist/anti-bullying education with our leadership team.

Rarely, yes. Rule breaks that caused a significant negative impact on others’ RP (e.g. VDM/RDM, exploiting, stream sniping, NVL) are grounds for removal from allowlisted roles. A player who has been removed from an allowlisted role due to rule breaks may be subject to review prior to re-hire. Re-hire approval would be dependent on the player’s activity and rule compliance over the previous 60-90 days.

In short, for all roles we look for collaborative roleplayers who are active both on server and in Discord. Their rule violation history doesn’t need to be flawless, but we do expect that players demonstrate they’re coachable and readily willing to take responsibility for their actions. In general, we ask for a commitment of 3 days per week that staff members are available to accomplish the expectations of their role.

Applications are always “open” for submission, however we announce the dates we’re reviewing applications in Discord announcement channels about 2 weeks in advance. For more detailed, role-specific information:

• Staff Applications
• Ambassador Recommendations

Our last round of CM application review was at the end of January. We reviewed 41 applications, moved 14 forward to interview, and extended an offer to train for CM to 11. Of those 11, 5 were already on staff as Community Support or Ambassador, and all of these 5 are in the final phases of CM training. Of the 6 who were not on staff when they started CM training, we have 1 moving to the final steps of training while the rest chose not to complete the process. 

CM training looks like: 

1. 2 weeks to 1 month with the Community Support team, meeting all expectations of the role. Then,
2. 2 weeks to 1 month with the Ambassador team, meeting all expectations of the role. Then,
3. 2 weeks to 1 month as an Associate Community Manager, collaborating with fellow CMs for review on all player action before it’s shipped and meeting all expectations of the role.

We don’t intend to mass-hire again; we do intend to have 2 to 4 candidates going through the CM training process at all times.

Applications will be reviewed as space in the training program opens, and review dates will be announced in Discord announcement channels 2 weeks in advance.

Player Reports filed as “harassment” or which, on review, relate to Community Rules  11 and/or 16, are escalated to the top of our priority list. That does not inherently mean they are resolved first. It does mean that they’re reviewed by Lead CMs and server owners before action is determined. It also means that Lead CMs and server owners set aside any pending reports they’re working on to focus on the player safety related issues until they’re resolved. 

Our Lead CMs, in coordination with server owners, pursue ongoing co-learning to better recognize and address abusive behaviors and handle harassment reports.

Players who wish for added privacy may submit their harassment report with no detail, except to request ticket with server owners. Simply write “I’d like this to be reviewed by server owners,” in the report. A private Discord ticket will be opened with the reporting player and server owners as soon as possible.

When a decision is reached regarding the reported issue, the reporting player will be consulted on the action taken and the verbiage used with the reported player to ensure that a) no information that could identify the reporting player is provided to the offending player and b) the reporting player feels confident and safe continuing to participate in the TRP community.

Instructions are available by typing “!live.role” in any TRP discord channel.

Submit your request in a support ticket via #contact-support (click either “GTA Support” or “Red Dead Support”).