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Telling Non-RPers About Your Hobby


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I had a sad moment with my Physical Therapist. I was telling him about my RPG and he was like "That's cool, how much many can you make off of those sites?" And I was like "NONE!" No monies for Kore Kore. 

 

He and other people I talk to find it mildly interesting. Creating a story with other writers. That's how I explain it. 

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I just tell them the truth. I RP. Typically they ask me what that means if they don't know, and I explain it. The end result has usually been, "Wow, you're such a nerd" or "That's awesome. Have you thought of writing a book?" But then, I haven't really made much in the way of new friends in the past decade or so (that's part of why I'm here, to forge new friendships).

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I've definitely had those conversations where I just got weird looks. Recently, though, my best conversation was with someone who has English as a fourth language, I believe? Third or fourth. Anyways, I suspect she doesn't have the same meaning attached to the word that native English speakers do (generally assuming roleplay is sexual), so when I explained it roleplay, she was super excited by the idea and totally understood why it would consume someone's time.

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For the most part I sort of explain things as collaborative creative writing and leave things at that.  I have honestly been a bit shy to elaborate on that so haven't had too many experiences.

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I mostly just tell friends and family I enjoy 'writing' with friends. They seem to understand that easier than roleplay with friends lol.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I had this situation come up a lot when I was doing college interviews these past couple of months. I described it as 'collaborative writing projects', and then essentially described it as doing a creative writing project with friends, where we each take on the role(s) of one or more characters and work in a previously chosen setting. I tend to stray away from the term 'roleplay' when I talk about it because a lot of people just immediately prescribe this a sexual connotation and it just gets awkward, but by focussing solely on the writing aspects, I seem to get a lot of interested parties.

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Basically the same as aalyoshka . There have been times when I have just called it "RP". It really depends who I am talking with on which version I tend to give.  A lot of people just nod, and really aren't surprised when I explain it to them. xD

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  • 2 weeks later...

I do tell people periodically especially if I  think I can interest them enough to get them involved. Generally though if I need to explain it, describing it as "collaborative writing" tends to resonate well.

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I always just say... "collaborative writing" or "we're writing a book"... Roleplay makes people look at me funny.

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My writing, as a whole, is something I like to keep locked away in the closet. I don't like trying to answer questions about it, and I don't like explaining myself to any particular degree. It was kinda well-known back in school that I was a writer and lord kids are cruel. So, I suppose, my adversity to letting people know that I spend many hours tapping away at a laptop for people over the internet extends from that. My closest friends know... to some degree... what I do but I'm not 100% certain they know exactly how it all works. 

 

My husband and I did meet online on a game though! So I do have to touch down on it on occasion. We usually just call it 'collaborative writing' and leave it at that.

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Being a closet RPer, I just don't. The best they are going to get is "I like writing" and if they aren't curious enough to prod further that usually suffices, if they are they get a really vague "oh, poetry and prose and stuff."

 

The only people who knew were my mom and my ex, and he relentlessly made fun of me with his friends about it, so thusly: my ex. After, I was fortunate enough to meet someone who ALSO RPs, so now we have a shared hobby that is beautiful, with no secrets and he doesn't make fun of me. It's pretty great.

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  • 4 weeks later...

I absolutely do not use the term "role playing," because as mentioned many times in this thread, people just look at you like you're trying to get kink shamed. Which, you know, no shame, but that's just not what this conversation is about. I tend to tell people I'm part of an online collaborative writing community, but most of the time if I can avoid talking about it with people who aren't some variety of nerd, I absolutely will.

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I've only ever told one friend about it and it was many years ago. If I were to come out of the RP closet to any of my RL friends, I would definitely frame it as online collaborative writing. I don't think any of them would get it if I were to go into details.

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  • 3 weeks later...

>.< I just don't tell people

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The only person I've told is my husband because he saw me on a site one day while we were dating. When I was in middle school, my parents found out and tried to ban me from it because they didn't understand it.

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