Here's a question.

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Minerva

The Apex of the World
Original poster
LURKER MEMBER
FOLKLORE MEMBER
Posting Speed
  1. Multiple posts per day
  2. 1-3 posts per day
  3. Multiple posts per week
  4. Slow As Molasses
Online Availability
Roughly 9:30 AM-2:30 AM (CST)
Writing Levels
  1. Give-No-Fucks
  2. Intermediate
  3. Advanced
  4. Adaptable
Preferred Character Gender
  1. Male
  2. Female
Genres
Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Alt History, Anything really. It honestly depends on how I'm feeling. I am always up for a good, solid Cyberpunk RP. I'm also up for Crossover RPs.
Do your friends and family know you role play on here or other sites?

I'm just a bit curious on this. If they do, how do you explain to them what it is? Do they also role play?

My family is a family of writers (both of my parents have been published.) I used to hide Iwaku from them, until about March, when my mom walked in on me, and I had to explain what it was and stuff. She now fully supports me, but due to habit, I try to hide it.

So, what do you guys' friends and family think of Role playing, and how do you explain what role playing is to them?
 
Well, my family didn't know about Iwaku or my roleplaying in general for quite a while. o_o I ended up telling my mother a while ago, though, and she was pretty chill about it. I explained it as what it is; collaborative writing. But, I doubt anyone in my family would ever roleplay... Save for maybe my aunt. XD
 
Yeah, I don't make any effort to hide it. I'll sometimes bring up amusing things that happened in roleplays just because I wanna share them with people. I have no shame in my hobbies and such, and like Hospes I tend to describe it as collaborative writing/storytelling.

My younger brother roleplays and is on Iwaku. I could see one or two others getting into it as well. My family is pretty creative and into writing in general, and it's not a very large step from writing short stories for fun to roleplaying.
 
For a while there I didn't tell my parent's. But then again around that time I was twelve and it was more not wanting them in my business. I told them a couple of years ago (I'm now nineteen) and they had varying reactions. My mother was very supportive and relaxed about it because she said it would help further my writing skills (I want to publish a book some day) and it would give me daily practice and help me connect with others that enjoyed the same thing. I discuss plots and such with her and I describe it as collaborative writing.

My father, on the other hand, blew up on me. I'm not going to get into this bit past saying I fought for my own computer and learned very quickly how to stand up to the man. Mainly, I told him I wasn't stopping and if he didn't like it then oh well. We don't talk much about it anymore.

The rest of my family I can't really see roleplaying except for my little brother. He would be good at it I think (wonderful imagination) but he has trouble spelling sometimes and going into in length detail so instead he works on coding and such on the computers. He has more fun creating pictures and scenes than writing out the stories. More often than not we'll discuss plots and he'll help me brainstorm.

I'm really laid back about my roleplaying now. I mention it freely and it's something majority of my friends know I do and they are all very supportive of it. :)
 
I make no attempt to hide my hobbies, nor do I understand why I would. I enjoy writing. Roleplaying gives me yet another outlet for my creativity as well as giving me the opportunity to improve and learn from others. Though, as others have mentioned I do tend to describe it as collaborative story-telling.
 
Everyone in my household is on this site. o____o

My mom used to think I was running a porn site, and that was long before I ever started writing smut. c____c WHATEVS MOM. YOU LIKE PORN.

My Dad knows but doesn't really "comprehend". Even though he built our first few computers himself, when he started working non-stop he lost touch with tech and the internet and now it's waaaaay beyond him. O_O

Everyone else I just call it collaborative writing and leave it at that!
 
* emits the most irritated sigh ever *

Some of you who have read my past rant threads know what to expect in regards to a question like this and how my parents are some of the most illogical and unsupportive people to the point that it is literally baffling. Rather than support me in anything I do or my hobbies, my parents would rather look at what's wrong with what I am doing rather than make the effort to understand or be supportive. You would think my mom would be more supportive in writing, since she is a fucking English major but when I told her that the reason I spend so much time online is because I WRITE AND CREATE STORIES she was totally dismissive and pessimistic. To this day both of them still focus on the "all you ever do or care about is that fucking computer in your room." comment and then wonder why I don't talk to them about anything or particularly enjoy their company.

In short, yes my parents know about it and no they don't particularly care for it.

As for my friends though, only two of my "real life" friends are also a member of this website. My other friend used to be an avid role-player but she's becoming an animator so she is to busy with her school projects to participate anymore, plus she has a job. My newest friend I made in my Biology class and I talked about it because I was frustrated with something that occurred over Iwaku. So I had to explain it to her what it was, how we all do it, and what not. She's very interested in it and asked me to link her some of my role-plays so she can read it. In that sense what I lack in support and understanding from my parents I can find in my friends.
 
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My family doesn't know (except for my brother) but that's mainly cause we don't really talk about what I do on the internet. Well, they do know that I help out modding on a forum, but I don't think I've mentioned that it's a roleplay forum. As I said, it just doesn't come up cause we don't talk xD

As for my friends, I have mentioned it to them, non of them are into roleplaying though except for one who's a live action role player. Most of them understand the gist of it, you write a story together with one or more people, and that's how I've explained it to them.

As I mentioned, my brother does know, but he wants me to do some real roleplaying instead of silly forum roleplays, and with real I mean tabletop roleplay. We obviously have different tastes xD
 
My family immediately assumes roleplay means I dress as a firefighter and fuck my wife or something.

[spoili]I look them dead in the eye and tell them it's a police officer and she's my dispatcher. .[/spoili]
 
My family knows to a certain extent. Only my husband actually knows the full extent of what I do, the site I visit and the contents of the stories I write. He supports it although he doesn't care for it. As long as I don't roleplay while I am at home, he's ok with it. (He says I spend too much time on the site when I'm home and I don't want him feeling neglected, so I don't roleplay at home). The rest of family knows it, like everyone else says, as collaborative writing. Very few friends know because some can be kind of judgmental and the libertine version of my stories would offend them. So I don't mention it to them at all.

I don't know of anyone in my close circle who would enjoy roleplaying. They don't really like writing to that extent.
 
Yeeeah... No. I like to keep my Internet life and my IRL life separate. My family and I have a silent agreement that what I do online is my business and my business alone, for the most part.
 
My mom thinks Iwaku gives her laptop viruses, lolol. If I ask to borrow her laptop, her response is DUN GO ON THOSE WRITING THINGS YOU GO ON! EVERY TIME I GET MY COMPUTER BACK, IT MESSES UP! The reality is she keeps downloading stupid shit and playing Facebook games while using Firefox which gives her a million pop ups. ...she even thinks OPERA gives her viruses, ugh.
 
No, they wouldn't care nor understand, all they know is I do a lot of writing
 
Family? Not really.

I am very open about myself, but I just don't talk to my family much in general. So most of what I do is barely brought up.
I think when I was younger (back on the Guild) I described it to them briefly, but they were more confused than anything else and just nodded their heads.
They do know I enjoy roleplaying though simply because I used to also host D&D at my place, so on a weekly basis friends would be coming over and playing that.

My friends know about it though.

And most of them are D&D players so they already have a solid idea of the concept. While one them was actually someone who I invited to forum RP's only a few months after I had started. The two of us +about a dozen others we met online created this Star Wars Universe Style roleplay that lasted a good 2 years. This friend had also moved over to the Guild for a long time as well, but he stopped before I had ended up switching to Iwaku as he found his own calling was more video game RP's such as Starbound Servers.
 
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My family don't really know, mostly because I hide it from them. Only one friend I know irl is on this site and thats because I roped them into it. My family would probably assume it was something sexual (which to a certain extent is true) but I'd rather avoid the whole "Oh so you 'roleplay' with strangers online hmmmmmm???" conversation.
 
I guess I'm kind of lucky in that almost everyone I know is aware of what I do, aside from my immediate family, and all of them are supportive or even join in now and then.

With my brother I've only gone so far as to explain it to him as collaborative writing, at which point he rolls his eyes and stops asking questions. My brother is the opposite of a book worm, so anything writing related just doesn't get any discussion from him.

My parents don't know, but thats mostly because I started RPing after I'd moved out so it never became a topic of conversation. They are aware that I'm a writer and are incredibly supportive of that but I'm not sure they'd entirely approve of my using those skills to write forum RP when they think I'm concentrating 100% on a novel (which I am, but RP is a good way for me to stretch myself into areas I wouldn't usually go on my own and I enjoy the interaction with other people). I get the feeling they'd think I was wasting my time and I really don't want to get into that discussion with them. Ever.

All of my friends are avid RPers too, most of whom I met through my hobby in the first place. And my other half also knows. He himself RPs but only in tabletop games. He has a DnD thing he does every Monday and I think I know about as much about how that works as he does the forum thing. Which is to say nothing at all.
 
My family don't know, nor do I think they would really care if I was a roleplayer. Some of my non-roleplayer friends do though and I have been asked several times what the point of it is.
 
I'll mention "the forum I go on sometimes" to my family every once in a while, but I don't know how approving my parents would be of my habit if they saw it in action (My main muse right now is a woman who's so desperate for emotional connection that she'll lie to and have sex with basically anyone if it furthers that goal. My Catholic parents miiiiight disapprove just a little). I haven't told them about this specific site or my username on it, which is how I'm keeping it (until I turn 18 in about a month and then it won't matter lol).
 
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