Membership What weird things have you learnt because of rp?

[mystical 8]

Not counting all the fandom research I have to do for various characters I pick up/those I play against, let's see...

 

• How to swear in [INSERT LANGUAGE]
• Human anatomy(to figure out how to hurt characters without killing them/maiming them permanently)
• Holidays in [INSERT CULTURE]
• Religious practices/beliefs, particularly Muslim/Jewish/Hindu lately
• How to treat [INSERT INJURY] 
• Symptoms of various illnesses/diseases
• Recipes from [INSERT CULTURE] 

Those are just off the top of my head. God knows all the weird stuff I've looked up over the years >_>;

[Honorem 219]

- A bunch of maritime terminology.

- A bunch of new words to my vocabulary.

- And learned about lots of cool shows that my members got me into.

[Hysteria 56]

I know way too much about drug use.

Seriously, @Morrigan actually assumed I was a druggie because of this. Does this mean I'm really good at getting into character?? xD

 

I also learned a lot about the BDSM community - much more than I would have by asking someone. I learned about the many different ways a dog can have it's fur stylized for a competition, and I also learned a bit too much about the weather of random states.

[Dusty 55]

I just learned more than I every really needed to know about Yeast (the baking variety) and its history. 

I play a blind girl in 1868 that loves to knead dough and works in the bakery.  The way they used to produce it themselves before commercial yeast was available was rather disgusting. I imagine it smelled really bad too!

[Umbra 7]

To tell you the truth it's hard to remember all the things I've researched.  There have been a ton of things I have researched for RPs.  I know it.  I spend way too much time on it.

• Names and their in-depth etymology  (I have become enamored with this subject thanks to RPing)
• A bunch of wand lore for a Harry Potter RP
• Medieval terms & weaponry

...and tons more that I am simply forgetting at the moment.  But I seriously spend wayyy too much time on names.  It can take me days.  Or weeks.  Before I finally find that oh-so-elusive perfect name.

[jenneral_jennson 154]

12th century abbeys and the first one founded. What the monks did, how long it took to become what at which level, what they studied etc. Various disease outbreaks, the plague and small pox, typhoid etc. Though I've researched some odd stuff throughout the years, the abbeys were my favorite.

Edited January 28, 2017 by jenneral_jennson

[Indio 11]

Learned a lot about the Lakota Indian culture and history before and after Europeans came to North America.

Learned a little too much about North Dakota's history (spoiler alert: it wasn't all that interesting)

Symptoms of things like sepsis, blood loss, stages of smoke inhalation and burns

That there were werewolf witch trials in France and Estonia!

Learned about the climate and flora/fauna of northern Canada

I have a plethora of mixed martial arts videos on hand if my characters ever get into a fight

[Josie 198]

Side effects of Viagra.

[KARA BELLA 18]

I don't know if this classifies as weird but I once looked up the types of leukemia because I decided a character was going to have it.

[bordeux 0]

that there are some people out there that really have no idea how to rp...like they'd put 'bob walked along the street picking his nose' and reply with that to someone who posted like 300 words. its amazing.

[Spiritwolf99 2]

I'm the type of person who tries to make everything I write as authentic as possible, and since I write in more action-y settings a lot of the time and a lot of normal people in even fantasy settings that means a lot of the stuff that they end up doing is pretty mundane and researchable.

 

I've learned at least the basics of Georgian Era sabre fencing and have watched countless videos on it, and even got my own training waster and while I'm still at a beginner level IRL I can do all the basic stuff and can kind of 'test out' whether a sequence flows well physically before writing it.

 

I also watch a bunch of sparring/fighting videos for different weapons/fighting styles I use in writing. Right now I've been watching a LOT of kickboxing matches with the weight/gender range I'm writing for to get a feel for the movement and types of approaches they would use in a combat situation. Sometimes when i see a particularly cool combo that fits with the narrative I just rewatch it like 20 times while writing the post while doing my best to describe step by step the sequence of events that happened. I did that a lot with knife fighting videos as well, and some people get tricked into thinking I know a decent chunk about stuff like that when in reality I just watch (Martial Art being studied) 101 videos and sparring/professional level matches with the gender/weight range of the character.

[Yume 99]

My favorite had to have been the exact effect of Atropa Belladonna, including the fact that in (small enough amounts so as not to kill the victim) it can be used as a hallucinogen.
Various illnesses and their specific symptoms.
Religious beliefs. ...most in-depth was hindu
Some details on various fighting styles. And... weapons. How they're used, how they compare to each other, etc.
Oh, and I lost most of a day researching the Inquisition trying to figure out how a specific character, in a specific timeline could possibly have matched up with them. The witch trials, surprisingly, seem to have been an incredibly small part of said inquisition, for all that such a big deal is made about them at times.

[firefly 36]

Most recently I learned that you shouldn't drink water out of a cactus despite what many Western movies would have you believe.

[Raven 18]

People who overdose on meth can have vivid hallucinations for a whole year afterwards, even if they stay clean after that.

[Marin 14]

I learned about all the many health concerns you may have after being swallowed whole. Acid is, oddly enough, at the bottom of that list.

 

I also learned how to cook ten varieties of curry and the uses for a dozen different medicinal herbs. 

Edited June 5, 2017 by Marin