Continuity Summary
Continuity Summary
Description
This thread serves as a general overview of the continuity established for GTAW. These are the basics expected of any player wishing to roleplay a character in our version of sunny San Andreas. As these are the expected and defined basics of our community, there are further in-depth threads around that go into much greater detail about particular points, and these are hyperlinked into each point. You are expected to roleplay each of these as being objective fact. We understand that some of these decisions may not reflect the opinion of quite a lot of community members. The benefit of defining continuity and getting everyone on the same page outweighs the inconvenience caused by continuity not matching up 1:1 with what some community members expect. The decisions are the result of months of discussion with compromise being the most important goal. For example, many players wanted the playable area considered to be part of the mainland while others wanted the island to be taken in-character. A compromise was reached that has a bit of both. Conveniently it works best for game play purposes too. We also had to strike a balance between
San Andreas replaces California.
San Andreas is a sunny, progressive state on the West Coast, encompassing Los Santos, San Fierro and some other major cities. While strongly influenced by California, San Andreas is a separate state. For example, we do not use California law in-character and instead use law written IC and available on the forums. As an American state, federal law also applies unless otherwise stated. While IC government agencies take a strong influence from their Californian counterparts, the IC history and culture around these departments may vary from real life. This also applies to sports teams from California which are replaced along with the state itself.
Los Santos is the State Capital.
While continuity does have provisions for a city much alike Sacramento within the state of San Andreas, for gameplay and lore purposes, Los Santos will serve as the state capital. Los Santos is a major city and has the biggest influence over how the state operates. Think along the lines of New York City having such an influence over the entire New York State.
Los Santos County is an island.
The island itself can be considered to be bigger than what we see in-game to realistically represent the fact that the Los Santos city is massive. Los Santos County would be a huge area too with many small towns surrounding the city to the north. The island is right beside the mainland and connected by bridges. The west, south-west, south and south-east sides of the island face the ocean while the other parts of the island are approximately a mile away from the mainland. Players cannot access the mainland.
GTA and Rockstar Games lore is not taken in-character.
Exceptions for this (eg. using lore brands) will be stated by Continuity Management or Faction Management. Anything else relating to Rockstar games, in particular singleplayer events from GTA V, does not exist in our universe.
Federal agencies exist.
We do not use any federal agencies from the GTA Universe. This means the CIA, FBI, ATF etc. all exist. Federal agencies in San Andreas are found on the thread that lists them. Players cannot roleplay being a member of any federal agencies without clear permission from Continuity Management and Legal Faction Management.
COVID-19 is not taken in-character.
It does not exist in our world. This is to allow players to have an escape from real life without real life following them. When referencing things outside the game world (eg. politics), anything in relation to COVID-19 cannot be referenced. For example, pointing out the fact that people are wearing masks and there is no crowd at a sports event would break continuity and should not be taken IC.
Real-life politics exist.
Where not simulated by our world, real-life politics follows the same path as it does in real life. For example, Nancy Pelosi is a representative for North San Fierro, Kamala Harris was born in San Andreas. However, to be in line with the above paragraph, any politics that relate to COVID-19 or are the result of the pandemic cannot be referenced IC.
The rest of the U.S. outside of San Andreas is named as is real-life.
Liberty City, Vice City, Las Venturas and other locations changed by Rockstar are not taken IC. The only exceptions to this is San Fierro and Los Santos.
Car brands in-game replace real life.
Tesla is replaced by Coil, Audi is replaced by Obey, BMW is replaced by Übermacht. Players are not permitted to roleplay their cars as something they are not.
Other brands compliment real life.
There is not enough depth to the majority of brands outside of car brands for us to take them in-character alone. As a result, other brands exist alongside Rockstar brands. Brands that are obviously satire (eg. Pisswasser) can be seen as lower quality brands.
Client-side mods are not taken in-character.
Base GTA V assets and mods added by the server are what are taken in-character. If someone with an unmodded game sees a plain t-shirt, it can be taken IC as such. Players can RP slight variations to what they are wearing. For example, motorcycle clubs can freely RP their patches and supporter gear as long as they are similar to the base game model. Someone wearing a black hoodie from the base game could RP having branding on it such as the Nike Tick, but they could not roleplay it as a blue t-shirt. It has to be in line with what the base game and server-sided mods provide. Players with the same mods can agree to take them IC among themselves, but cannot force others to take their client side mods IC.
