Do you keep RPing a secret? Is it safe?

[henrypotema]

Do you keep your roleplaying a secret from those you know in real life? Your friends, family? Are there some who do know, others who don't?

If you do, why?

(just curious!)

[Gwazi Magnum]

No. The way I see it is that if I need to hide my interests from people that I know then I'm wasting my time by hanging out with them anyways.

And oddly enough, by doing so I had actually learned that one of the friends I made at college was in fact a former member of the RP Guild. Though had apparently left a long time ago due to issues with the community.

[Malikoy]

My brother is a member here, I don't really hide it as much as I don't really go out and tell everyone that I do this cool thing they probably never heard of. I keep it to myself, something to do on the side.

[bosesbjorn]

I don't actively try to hide it, but at the same time I don't talk about it around people I know in real life. Mostly I just don't want to actually explain it to them, but I also take a certain comfort in the fact that no one in the guild knows me in real life. I just feel like there are less expectations put on me that way, and this is often the place I go to scratch my escapism itch.

[Chapatrap]

Not really. To be honest, RP'ing isn't exactly a popular past time amongst my age group and I don't really feel comfortable telling people 'Hey, instead of spending my evenings hanging out with friends, I sit in and write paragraphs about fictional characters in fictional stories while in collaboration with other people!'

I guess I've told a few of my nerdier friends about some of the amusing stories in the land of RPGuild but I don't go out of my way to tell everyone about RP'ing.

[Mirandae]

My friends happen to be people who think that this kind of stuff is just plain weird, I would presume judging by the way that they are... and I am. Nothing about me fits this hobby, so I 'hide' it from everyone (never mention it). Video games is typically the utmost point to which one can step in terms of 'nerdy' things in my circle of acquaintances.

[Touch of Insanity]

If it comes up, I don't hide it. I only bring it up if I see it's the right time and place. Most likely though, they don't know what it is. Therefore, I explain it in a simple way. I've learned that if I say I role play, most people think of it in the sexual roles played by two lovers. So I usually say I do creative writing online in collaboration with others, so they don't jump there.

[Mixtape Ghost N]

I don't go around talking about it, but I don't hide it. When someone does walk over my shoulder and asks me what I'm writing, I usually just tell them that it's a story and usually no one asks what it's about, so I keep things moving. I get a considerable amount of space, and some of the things I write about the people around me don't exactly agree with.

[XecutionerRex]

My brother is the only real life friend who I roleplay, world build, etc. with and both of us tend to be looked at as ''Cool'' and what-have-you by our peers so we don't mention it to anybody other than eachother. Only two people even know that I write in general, period.

I do hide it to an extent, actually.

Our mothers (we share a dad) have vague ideas of what it is.

[Pachamac]

My friends and family know of it, and are interested in it, always asking how it's going. I tried to get my friend back into rping, but they never did. XD

I don't think anyone should be embarassed about any of their hobbies, and particularly with roleplaying there should be no reason for anyone to be ostracised by friends/family for it. Being creative shouldn't be something to be ashamed of.

[SeaFoamDaisies]

My family and friends know I roleplay. Most of them just see it as a "writer thing" so don't really think much about it.
I don't hide it, but I don't like it when I'm roleplaying and suddenly a family member/friend sneaks up behind me and start saying things like "Ooo let me read what you're writing"

I got one of my friends to start roleplaying here; but she used to get tensed up over every little thing so she decided to stop.

[Pastel Moon]

No one in my family knows I roleplay.
No one in my squad knows I roleplay.
I am the only one that knows I roleplay.

Well... when I was 9, my brother and his friends knew I roleplayed and they made fun of me saying it was weird. They said, "She plays wolves on the Internet, that's weird." Like I'm pretty sure they forgot all about it, but I am not entirely sure if my brother still knows or not. If he does, he doesn't care.

But this is the reason why I don't tell my friends about this hobby, because I don't want to be called weird again.
And if they asked, I'm pretty sure I'd deny it.

I'm not ashamed of it, I just don't wanna be called weird.

Like someone else stated above, it's not a popular hobby in my age group, being that I am a Freshman in high school and have been roleplaying since 4th grade.

I do know of one other person in my school who roleplays, but she's a year younger and we don't even talk.

[Turtles]

I just prefer to not mention it because a lot of people think it's weird. However, if someone were to ask, I wouldn't lie about it.

[Genkai]

My family and friends know I RP as I explain what I'm doing and that I'm actually writing a lot, just in a more personal/casual sense. They don't ask about it but they are aware of it. I do mention it from time to time when I meet people, if I feel like they might be into it too. Why not right?

[MissCapnCrunch]

Unfortunately, yes.

I've had to travel back into my pre-teens years of internet use. You know what i'm talking about. Where when a parent or sibling comes into my room I have to quickly change to another tab which sometimes is suspiciously just the homepage of Google. If I didn't fear being ridiculed and perhaps even my internet privileges taken away, I would definitely share my hobby with my friends and family- but because of my own circumstances I keep it on the down low.

[AlteredTundra]

I really don't get why I would keep it a secret. It's led to me deciding to pursue something in the writing field be it a journalist or whatever. My family knows that I roleplay online. I mean, it's not really a big secret to them that I'm very creative as they have all seen my poetry over the years. As far as my friends knowing, some of my closest friends are my frequent collaborators in Rping. Even my RL friends — as few that I have — are well-aware that I do online roleplaying and they frequently ask me about it.

So yeah they know and no, I don't keep it a secret.

[henrypotema]

Hmm, that's interesting. I know so many people who say "roleplaying is dead" or "nobody roleplays online any more" but obviously that isn't true. I think the reason people think it's dying is because nobody tells anyone else that roleplaying exists!

Do you think there would be more roleplayers if we told our friends about it?

[Mokley]

Yes and no. For example, I had some friends who loved tabletop RP and LARPing; they tried to get me to stop RPing online because it was too solitary. I see their point, but they really just wanted me to drive 4 hours once a week to keep up a campaign. ;)

My brother knows but can't fathom why anyone would play a game without graphics. He thinks I'm medieval.

My mom thinks I'm collaboratively writing a novel with some other folks and is continually anticipating a publication. I allow her to continue believing this because it's funny.

Otherwise, I don't bring it up to anyone if they're not worth the explanation. Coworkers, acquaintances, anyone I'm not actively hanging out with generally won't be told unless I can be confident they'll know what I'm talking about. The worst reaction I've had is "you're wasting your writing," which is pretty mild, so I see no reason to be ashamed.

I think there might be more RPers if we all were more open about it IRL. Writers and artists, especially, might jump at the chance to breathe life into their original characters.

[Gwazi Magnum]

henrypotema said Hmm, that's interesting. I know so many people who say "roleplaying is dead" or "nobody roleplays online any more" but obviously that isn't true. I think the reason people think it's dying is because nobody tells anyone else that roleplaying exists! Do you think there would be more roleplayers if we told our friends about it?

Oh yea, for sure.
Most people also seem to think stuff like LARPs and D&D are just a thing for the small population of rejects, until they actually run into someone who takes part in it.

And all hobbies grow with exposure, if more people were open about it would become a more popular hobby.
It's just that there are too many people who'd rather not, cause they fear how their 'friends' will respond.

I air quote 'friends' purposely cause I cannot fathom why anyone would view someone as a friend if they felt they had to hide their interests from them to avoid shame or harassment.

Mokley said My mom thinks I'm collaboratively writing a novel with some other folks and is continually anticipating a publication. I allow her to continue believing this because it's funny.

It gave me quite a laugh!

[Kyrianei]

Hmm...I'd have to go with yeah, I do. I've got many reasons for that - I'm a reserved person at best. I keep things to myself and don't often see my writing as good enough to be seen or viewed by other people and I worry it might become a point of interest and they'll want to read what I've been typing away at for the past few hours.

But my real problem is the mentality of All Roleplay = All Sexual.

Keep in mind I'm 20 years old now, I'm officially an adult with way too much time on her hands and I love to write. I enjoy writing and seeing how my partner will respond to the post, and it just keeps me anticipating all the way - I may know the storyline we're going down as we've discussed in OoC where we're going with it, but the actual written work is something more fun to read, like I've been waiting to read the next chapter of a good book.

But way back in my Secondary School days (I was like 12-13), when I first got into Roleplaying, I was an innocent kid. I didn't know any real sexual terms. And I knew what I was doing was called Roleplaying, and I made a room on some site and called it the "Anime Roleplaying Room" where I was hoping someone would join and whilst I was waiting, my real life friend joined my room and started calling me a freak for being into that sort of thing, that I was disgusting and blah blah, complete misunderstanding from her and me.

Anyway, I tried to correct myself to her, but nowadays I just think that it wasn't worth it cause I went completely ignored. As soon as it wasn't something sexual or a sexual hobby, she didn't care. Yeah, I had amazing friends.

I get scared because I fear the dirty comments like she gave, and that I'm some kind of weirdo. These days I just call it a story between me and a friend, that we're collaborating on writing it as a sort of Improvised Writing Story. My family don't care too much to listen to what I have to say so I don't bother explaining it, but if I ever want to explain that I do writing, if I'm asked to elaborate, it's always a "Collaborative Improvised Writing".