How To RP With MS-13

Your character & how to roleplay a resident in MS territory.

There's one thing I always tell members of this faction, and that is that you need to think about what you want your character to be BEFORE you make it.  Decide early what kind of person you want your character to be along with how old he/she is going to be. (If you wish for your character to eventually be inducted into the street gang, he/she MUST be a teenager, there's really no exceptions. If not? You can pick whatever age you'd like)

First off decide what nationality you want your character to be from. (The most common are Salvadoran, Honduran, Guatemalan, Mexican, Nicaraguan and others.)  Despite this, we strongly encourage you to be Salvadoran, Salvadorans are what the gang is predominately made up of. Decide aswell on your background story and your character's personality traits. Are your character's parents illegal? Is your character himself or herself illegal? Does he or she speak English? Or just Spanish?

Decide aswell on your background story and your character's personality traits. Are your character's parents illegal? Is your character himself or herself illegal? Does he or she speak English? Or just Spanish?(edited)
Why would your character want to join MS? Well here are the main reasons teenagers anywhere join street gangs.

Kids that want to be tough
Kids that want to be respected
Kids that want to be feared by other people
they love feeling like theyre powerful

Kids and Teenagers with these personality traits and similar personality traits are more likely to join MS-13 than a sheltered boy who knows nothing about street gangs or the way they operate.

They'd also most likely attend local schools with gang members. As a teenager from the ghetto, your character (Even non affiliated) would most likely very vividly understand the street gang culture that goes on within the neighborhood, he'd hear shots and sirens at night, he'd see drunken cholos hanging out in alleyways and at the park. He'd know which gang is which, what their graffiti looks like aswell as who they don't get along with, where their territory is located and he'd most likely know exactly how the area he lives in is carved up when it comes to street gangs.

The gang he or she most likely especially knows about though, is the one that resides directly in the very neighborhood that they reside in, the MS-13. Specifically the Elm Locos clique.

Keep in mind, it's not meant to be HARD for outsiders to become affiliated, but it's best you dont approach leading members straight like that, you're not gonna get any respect that way. Instead, befriend the members that are more around your character's age range. They're your character's key into the gang. If he or she plays their cards right, your character should very easily become a full blown gang member.
A good idea and something great to roleplay would for your character to be a tagger, basically a member of a local tagger crew, a young cholo or chola. He or she would most likely come into contact with the gang eventually and over time be jumped in, leaving his or her crew behind to become a member of MS13. That's what the majority of latino gang members in LA are before they join a gang. They're taggers. Though keep in mind that taggers usually have their own crew or name that they tag on the wall. Being a tagger ICly is no excuse to run around tagging 'MS13' on every wall you see. That's gonna do nothing but start un needed faction wars. And that's the opposite of what we're striving for.(edited)

Just know that your character doesn't actually have to kill anybody to become a valuable part of the gang. MS-13 is focused around money and they thrive through their drug sales. Yes, MS-13 is a very violent gang, but that doesn't mean every single person that hangs out with or is affiliated with the gang is a murderous psychopath, which is why people need to consider WHAT they're gonna RP before they come IG and roleplay with the faction.

Lastly, please don't try to carry your character as a hardened gangbanger right off the bat. It's okay to be a rowdy teenager that's extremely down for his or her gang, but keep it realistic. Your character isn't a killer, he/she's a teenager from South Central LS who most likely hangs out with a local street gang

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How to roleplay an MS-13 member

Now let me start off by saying that if you're a soldier in my faction then have NO doubt at all about your roleplay abilities, but there's a few things you should keep in mind when roleplaying an MS member. First of all, MS-13 isn't your typical Sureno gang. Where it's all about respect & whoever has the most respect gets power. In MS you're FORCED to respect other mareros and mareras through a very strict set of rules.(edited)
Once your character is inducted into MS-13, he or she would most likely feel a great sense of pride, belonging and power. He or she would be immediately schooled on the gang's rules and his or her initiation process would be complete.

Your character would now have to pay a certain amount of money as "rent" to his or her clique leader and would also be required to attend meetings. (For females this inst always needed, females don't HAVE to attend meetings if they don't want to. Unless they're called upon)

Now there's alot of things your character could take part in after he or she is jumped in. He or she could start selling drugs out of the casita, he or she could start trying to extort local street vendors and local latino owned stores. He or she could even start selling fake ID's, trying to pimp girls or even selling alcohol to minors. Anything goes within the gang aslong as money continues flowing.

However, your character's main job as a member would be to bring money in for the clique and also to bring new members in to the clique. It's entirely up to the jumped in members to do the recruiting, Higher Ranked members have more important matters to attend to ICly.

By now your character may or may not have a couple stripes under his or her belt, he or she may have shot at people for the gang, but this doesn't apply to everyone. 70% of MS-13 members in Southern California haven't killed a single person yet. Many of them don't even have tattoos yet (or atleast tattoos that are VISIBLE like that). Which brings me to my next topic, tattoos.

Tattoos are an MS-13 gang tradition and they're still very much a factor nowadays. However, most of the gang's members avoid the more visible tattoos (Such as facial tattoos) and tend to stick to tattoos from the chest downwards. You'll still see members getting their heads and faces tatted, but this is becoming more and more uncommon as time goes by, mainly to avoid heat from law enforcement, who as a result of Trump's presidency, may target MS-13 much more, especially if they're heavily tattooed.

Tattoos above the neck nowadays are reserved for long time members of the gang or those that have put in extreme amounts of work for the clique, they'll showcase how everything they do is for the gang that they claim to love by tattooing the initials of the gang on their cheeks, chin, forehead or on their skulls.

Also gonna add that many MS-13 members (Especially those that are female, or simply younger members) are heavily influenced by African-Americans and their culture. Many of them talk more like bloods than Sureños/Sureñas. And that's okay. MS13 is generally on good terms with bloods because of their rivalry with the 18th Street Gang and they often adopt blood slang simply to disrespect 18th Street.

Please roleplay proper fear aswell.  Don't roleplay some gun toting psychopath simply because your character's from MS. Members of MS13 arent even allowed to murder people without their shotcaller's permission and an elaborate plan to go with it.. You also don't need to harass every single person that passes by the neighborhood (Unless you suspect they're an enemy gang member & you're almost 100% sure of this.

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Female characters

I'll start this off by saying that we in no way intend to restrict anybody's roleplay or force them to roleplay in a certain fashion, but if you wish for your female character to be a member of the clique, you're advised to follow what is said here.

Most females end up joining MS (or any gang in general) for many of the same reasons males do, they want money, respect and power. To feel like they're apart of something much, much bigger than themselves. Maybe they want to be feared aswell, maybe she has other reasons to join. That's up to you, the person portraying your character.

Females also often join the gang because it's the same street gang their boyfriend or brother is from at the time. (Keep in mind that if you roleplay the sibling of an already inducted member, you're putting that member's life on the line if you go and mess up ICly)

There's not really much of a difference between male and female members of MS-13. However, They're different in that females are forbidden from gaining leadership roles. The closest a female MS gang member will get to being a leader is being put in charge of the other girls within the clique, or in rare cases where they're allowed to speak for a boyfriend within the gang at a meeting if he somehow cant speak for himself.

Females within the gang typically don't involve themselves much in gang meetings, nor do they have much of a say when it comes to MS13's politics. The only time they really attend meetings is if they're specifically told to. Females typically wait nearby the area that the meeting is taking place, only ever approaching if they're called upon for a jump in, courting or simply to give their side of a story.

When roleplaying a female within the gang, keep in mind that MS-13 is a VERY male dominated gang, males are put before females, always. That's how it is within the gang and it most likely won’t change ICly at all.
Basically, your character is a dirty central american girl from the slums of East/Central LS, not Richman or the suburbs, act like it and you'll find yourself enjoying your character much more. Aswell as find yourself advancing within the faction rather well.
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THE ENVIRONMENT & WHAT WE WANT TO PORTRAY

We aim to portray Glen Park somewhat akin to its real life counterpart, MacArthur Park. Which is a semi decent and middle class neighbourhood of West Los during the day, although at night time,  tweakers, gangbangers and all types of creepy characters take over the streets

The Park and the alleyways surrounding it itself are roleplayed as being covered in trash, used condoms, syringes, tents put up by the local homeless. The area is filled with scum from all walks of life, homeless people, drug addicts (Some of what include former gang members who have now become faces of meth and nothing more), drug dealers, gang members, rapists and the likes.

Local gangs that are roleplayed as being past inhabitants to the area and neighbourhoods surrounding include but are not limited to;

Around 4-5 other MS-13 cliques (They include the Ramona Locos, Lafayette Locos, Figueroa Locos, Parkview Locos and the Artesia Locos
Around 3-4 18th Street cliques
Crazy Riders 13 (Glen Park clique)
Wanderers 13
Wilmer Park 13
Sintown Mafia Crips
Rollin 40s Neighbourhood Crips; W/S Bullies clique
So Hated 13 (Jefferson gang, was once fierce rivals with the Mara Salvatrucha  and Wilmer Park 13)
Playboy Surenos (Glen Park clique)
Clanton 14
Satanas

Some of these gangs were past factions and some were simply made up by myself to give the park some sort of history, feel free to integrate this knowledge into IC conversations, it can really enhance your roleplay and give people around the faction a good vibe.

Typically the described gangs didnt get along at all, unless they were simply cliques of a larger gang.

There's a movie called MacArthur Park, and although it doesnt really show the gang aspect like that (Apart from the appearance of Crazy Riders 13 and Mara Salvatrucha graffiti, it really depicts MacArthur Park in the same way that we wish to depct Glen Park. If you wish to check the movie out, find it at the link below.

https://vimeo.com/111047546