NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="JamesonCourage" data-source="post: 7650329" data-attributes="member: 6668292">If I'm going to be speaking publicly, it's never a problem. I don't do it professionally, but I've given the toast as the best man at a wedding, been in plays, been awarded at assemblies of about a thousand people in school, etc.I think what made a big difference was being homeschooled until 6th grade, which was my first year of public school. Up to that point, I had been in some plays (church, private groups, etc.), but I never really liked it. In 6th grade, I was publicly around and interacting with people a lot more than I was used to, and that helped me get used to speaking to that scary, faceless crowd. By 7th grade, I was the "leader" of two distinct groups of friends that didn't interact much with one another (outside of our GATE classes).By 11th grade, I was well-known (but not popular), and really didn't mind doing things that made me look "foolish" or "weird" to other people. I just didn't care what they thought about me, but I did absolutely love seeing their reactions. This led me to do a ton of odd activities at school (not talking for three days, wearing oven mitts at school the entire day, bringing a stuffed animal dog to school and petting it, wearing a sigh on my shirt that said "Papa" on it, etc.). While I really wouldn't do that kind of thing now, I definitely loved watching the reactions people would have at it, including both the students and the teachers.By the time I was 21, I went to parties a lot. I don't drink / use drugs, but I ended up being the focus of the party a few times. I don't mind attention at all. It's just not scary to me. I still liked messing with people, too, to see how they react, but in more subtle ways (introducing my friends by incorrect names, checking my ID to get my name when people asked my name, etc.). But I integrated very easily into all the subgroups at the time, even if I didn't like a lot of the people (drunken 21-year-olds).Now, at 27, I don't go to parties very often at all, but I go to small gatherings for talks, and usually with strangers (I'm invited by other friends). And I don't mind talking to all of them at once, or even debating all of them at once (on philosophy, politics, religion, etc.). It's just not scary anymore. When I was younger, I was shy. Not anymore. No, now I've come to appreciate the attention, when I want it. I direct it, I control it. I experiment with it, even.Has GMing helped with this? Probably, but not with fear. It's probably helped me with pacing, reading people in certain ways (exploring subjects that people show an interest in), and some other areas. But, overall, I think it's all secondary to my personality, and my background prior to when I started running games.On an interesting note, though, I think that playing in RPGs definitely helped me. They weren't official, but my older brother would run games for me where I'd RP someone, but we'd use Legos, Micro Machines, etc. I went by "Ted" as a kid, but that wasn't my real first name. My real name is James, and when I had to come up with a name for myself for these games, I was "James" (I wasn't the most inventive person in all respects as a kid). And, "James" was invariably a badass. He was the hero, the leader, whether we were playing a Lego fantasy game or with Star Wars Micro Machines. So, when "Ted" enrolled in public school, my real name, "James", was called out. I answered, and that's what all my friends called me. And I think that me being "James" (and "James" being a badass) really helped me slip into a role where that's genuinely how I viewed myself, to a degree. Even at 11 years old, I was "James" now, and he rocked.Interesting discussion. I honestly do think that playing those games helped me, but I don't know how universal it is. It took a name swap at 11 years old, for example. But that's okay. It worked out well for me, and now I really don't mind how much (or little) attention I get. If it's a lot of attention, then cool. Let's see what I can learn from it. As always, play what you like <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /></blockquote>

Verification