Forums » RP Discussion » Role Play Instruction

If you would be interested in RP instruction to improve your skill, please fill out this survey.

If you wold be interest in helping to instruct, there is an option at the end, or you can send me a PM.

You are, of course, welcome to discuss all of this here and I will track any thoughts and opinions stated, but I can process survey results most easily. I will also gladly answer any questions you may have.

The idea of people paying to learn something that comes through sheer experience and friendly advice from other role-players is a bit awkward and uncomfortable to me.

Filled it out for you, but I agree with Spellplague - paying for something that all of us learned for free through practice and playing isn't something I'm in favor of either. I do support the idea of helping those who want to improve!

Yeah I agree with this.

It's also kind of more fun to learn just through roleplaying and having fun with others,
learning together and getting better at everything involved in roleplaying by just... you know, roleplaying.

Making it into a sort of school like thing...
I use roleplaying to get away from stresses and pressures, and something like this sort of makes me feel pressured so I'd likely never use it. Roleplaying is fun and you get better with friendly advice and experience. Even reading your partner's posts, learning you spelled something wrong by seeing someone else spell it differently... among other things.

I guess some people might enjoy learning it in this sort of manner, but charging for it feels a bit off to me.

To be fair, some people won't improve unless they're instructed and have their posts reviewed. I ran a teaching-type RP group on RPR for a while and people were genuinely interested in roleplaying with people who could help them improve beyond the 'friendly advice' and practice.

Just like with any creative art form (drawing, writing, knitting, sculpting, crafting etc.) you can slowly figure it out on your own, but there's a reason classes are offered for these things. Sometimes a friendly nudge in the right direction isn't enough to really improve, and sometimes the improvements happen too slow on your own.

I was surprised by the number of people who really took to this teaching type style, and I definitely think it's a super neat idea to offer it. But since there are no real qualifications or standards for roleplaying, and because I doubt OP has a degree or even taken a course that qualifies them as a teacher, asking money for it is a bit much. A professional author or a college professor is someone I'd gladly pay to help me improve, but they also have numerous qualifications for it.

RPing for Beginners:
Step 1: Have an idea!
Step 2: Write the idea!
Step 3: Post the idea!
Step 4: Get reply!
Step 5: Repeat!

Advanced RPing with Beginners:
Step 1: See something that you think is drivel.
Step 2: Scoff with disdain and elitism.
Step 3: Find an old post of yours. Recoil in horror.
Step 4: Remember where you came from and how you were.
Step 5: Be the person Mr. Rogers knew you could be.

I'm going in. This is the missing piece of the puzzle I need to step my roleplay game up and find professional sponsorship

I appreciate the responses so far (even the sarcasm) and it is honestly what I was expecting. If it wasn't what I expected, I would not have bothered with the survey to begin with. I still felt it to be worth asking, and I wold like to continue receiving responses.

I do have reasons for this, and I will not claim that none of them are selfish.

• Friendly advice now and then is a spotty way to learn, and simply learning from those you play with can, in some cases, lead to bad habits. (That does not seem like a big issue here from what I have seen though.)
• I have seen various assistance-type topics and groups come and go with only a few finding any benefit. Something with financial encouragement should maintain longer.
• I have seen individuals be passed over because of their poor skills, even when they wish to improve. Sometimes those individuals can simply be difficult to work with. A paid option would prompt someone to assist those individuals anyway.
• My time is limited and I would rather not work with someone who claims they want to improve, but who doesn't really. The possibility of it being a paid service should weed out many of those individuals as well as provide more focus for those who do pay.
• A little extra cash would be immensely helpful, and if a woman can make a living as a "professional cuddler," I felt this might have potential as well.

This is not intended for fine tuning so much as it is for those at a low level to grow more quickly and with more support.

I admit that I do not have any sort of teaching degree, nor do I have an English or literary degree. I have assisted with various instructive services over the years though, and I have been RPing for years.

I understand that, it just isn't for me as I stated.
But I did say some people might find it helpful.
It isn't a bad thing to offer at all.

I think it would be more fun to make a big group and help each other though.
The learning group you mentioned sounds like a lot if fun.

But yes if they were an actual english teacher I might consider paying.
I suppose if it was free I might give ot a try.
But I prefer the idea of a learning group.
I'd love that a lot.

Forgive my typos, i am on mobile.

I don't agree with any points you've mentioned except for the very first, to be honest. You mention money as being a motivator, but I just can't see it work out that way.

1. A large part of your target group is likely too young to be able to afford any lessons. Most of the people who joined my group were in their early to mid teens. Not a huge cash cow there.

2. There is no guarantee that your style of roleplay/your teaching works out for people who pay you. Besides a ground set of common courtesy rules (which are given freely in our own Help database and anyone who's RPed for a year or more can offer freely as well), many people have different ways of telling their stories. As an individual it's likely you have your own style, and that's not much in the ocean of possibilities - and therefore not worth much either, unfortunately. I wouldn't pay you in the event your methods just don't work for me at all.

3. I'm really uncomfortable with the idea of exploiting the fact people with a higher learning curve don't garner as much attention. Again, these are often young teens with no money, and they often need to work on non-RP related skills first, such as asking nicely before they do things and not being unpleasantly demanding about small things. AKA the common courtesy rules that are available for free. My first reason for ignoring anyone is them not being able to be nice or thoughtful, which has very little to do with actual roleplaying. It's more etiquette that they are taught very quickly by those they try to RP with.

4. I'm convinced that asking for money will just turn away more willing people who can't afford it than weed out those who don't want to. Money is tight for pretty much everyone right now after all.

I'm not saying you can't try, I'm just incredibly skeptical about how realistic this is. It does indeed sound very selfish to try and get money from people for things they can learn for free, but if you want to give it a go be my guest! You may surprise me yet.

I would like to collect more responses before I make a decision on this. That you.

Things aren't looking good for Role Play Instruction (TM).