Did you pick up any skills OOC for IC reasons?

Ashiya

I was thinking about this recently, since I'm staring at a couple of 'How the Crap Do I Poem? For Dummies' books so I can write poems IC. Have you ever picked up a skill OOC to enrich your IC life or to fit an IC concept? If so, which skill, and how did you come about learning it?

CyndarinAscends

Absolutely. I practiced setting people on fire to make sure I was doing it right IG.

Ashiya

CyndarinAscends said:

Absolutely. I practiced setting people on fire to make sure I was doing it right IG.

Hands-on experience is the best kind of practice.

Tremula

I spent so much time studying famous art pieces when I was looking for inspiration for my Lisaera tapestry that I actually know why that one painting that appears to be all black is actually an art piece.

EDIT: I have more, but on the way to work. I'll update as I think about them later.

Breandryn

I started out watching project runway because I liked tailoring in Aetolia and thought it would be a fun way to learn more while bashing. Now, I read blogs about historical clothing, cooking, jewelry, armour, weapons and even have sites I enjoy browsing to learn about architecture and gemstones, with a bookmark folder specifically for crafting inspiration...

Only 40million essence away from that second tradeskill. I don't have a problem. I'm fine. I swear.

Siam

When I was King of the Night, I wore this tiara everywhere I went and asked people to kiss it.

Aerdureth

I have always wanted to play the violin, so I made Aerdureth play it as well. And after I watched her doing that for a while, I started taking lessons RL.

Rolsand

no real reason why I picked up bc/bm and tracking.

Luce

I'm currently (slowly) learning to cook. I also picked up a lot of fashion terms, especially regarding gowns and dresses while doing tailoring stuff. But the biggest things I learned here were descriptive writing, puns, and limericks. I find though that I can't do longform roleplays as easily, too used to the short-form here.

Stratas

I can't clam I learned to write for Lusternia, but I have definitely worked on my short fiction and poetry skills since coming here

Kilee

Rolsand said:

Tracking is the stronger skill out of the other options. I picked warrior because at the time I thought that a common class like this would be okay.

TIL rolsand is a tracker IRL

Siam

Stratas said:

I can't clam I learned to write for Lusternia, but I have definitely worked on my short fiction and poetry skills since coming here

Same! My drawing and writing and typing skills have improved over the years.

Shaddus

I got married irl so I'd be used to the total lack of romance in my life in Lusternia. #foreveralone

Eldanien

I got better at earning money so I could become an arti-w****.

Does that count?

Rancoura

Not a skill per se, but I learned a whole lot about spider anatomy to help me design the inside of Ilosia (Glom's largest aethership).

Kilee

There is a sex joke that I'm waiting to see made in this thread.

Luce

I mean, those of us who know how Loboshigaru anatomy works probably already knew.

Kilee

I didn't even think of that one luce .-.

Sylandra

I used to always struggle with descriptive writing. Designs and rooms were tough for me to write up since I was such a narrative-driven writer. Practicing that I think has been useful OOCly in my creative writing, and has very much expanded my vocabulary.

Weirdly, being CL I think helped me a bit with "How To Be A Leader" skills. Mostly because I was 19 and totally ill-equipped to handle it, and I had to learn on the fly how to rely on the right people and ask the right questions. It had ups and downs but even though it was a silly pretendy fun time job, I think I learned a lot about how you can't please everyone and sometimes you have to be firm and shut things down. Especially because at that age I had not had many opportunities to develop those skills.

These aren't skills, but indirectly, Lusternia's community has introduced me a lot of OOC things: mafia games (and how to host them), RuPaul's Drag Race (and omg All Stars 2 is AMAZING), Welcome to Nightvale, Fantasy Football, and I even did my first D&D campaign with some Lusternians awhile back. Probably countless more things. It's a cool group of people and I enjoy seeing where being a part of this community takes me.

Everiine

I was always a good typist. But playing Lusternia has turned me into a far better one, to the point that people watch me type and think I'm some sort of freak for being able to type so quickly.

Siam

I, too, studied spider anatomy and researched more on the Wyrden trees(blackthorn, hemlock, etc.) and flowers.

Lerad

This one is easy. I started learning VBScript by cannibalizing Ethelon's old system. Somewhere along the line, I made my own VBscript system. Nowadays, I just ride on m&m's coat tails, but learning coding for MUDs has been surprisingly useful in everyday life, if only to explain how programming works to the colleagues in simple terms.

Ashiya

Shaddus said:

I got married irl so I'd be used to the total lack of romance in my life in Lusternia. #foreveralone

Just like me! Except not married IRL, so I suffer double.

Ymuli

I do historical costuming irl, and I have been known to make outfits for myself that I then recreate IG, or the other way around. I didn't exactly learn specifically for Lusternia, but it does help with designing as well as setting themes for orgs!

Sylandra

Everiine said:

I was always a good typist. But playing Lusternia has turned me into a far better one, to the point that people watch me type and think I'm some sort of freak for being able to type so quickly.

I always enjoy the initial look of awe on student's faces when I first type in their presence, especially if I'm typing while making eye contact with them. It's a fun hat trick.

Daraius

I took up mandolin in high school but I was never as good at is as my Achaean character. I took up origami to help with anxiety but I was never as good as Daraius.

Rancoura

I, too, wish I could learn an amazing art over the span of a few minutes.

Tremula

Sylandra said:

Everiine said:

I was always a good typist. But playing Lusternia has turned me into a far better one, to the point that people watch me type and think I'm some sort of freak for being able to type so quickly.

I always enjoy the initial look of awe on student's faces when I first type in their presence, especially if I'm typing while making eye contact with them. It's a fun hat trick.

If I attempt to type quickly, I can type at 200 words per minute. My natural typing speed is rather nice (140-150), and when I'm relaxed I can still easily churn out 80-90. I forgot that I didn't mute my mic and began typing out one of my poses towards...I think it was Luce, actually, and after I finally stopped my friend asked, "Did you just make an angry rant on Tumblr?" Lusternia added an urgency to make sure that the person on the other end of the screen didn't think I was ignoring them, and that's what brought my relaxed wpm to 80-90 from 60-65. 

Now I just need to think up what to say so I can type as fast as I can.

Breandryn

Yall need to try http://play.typeracer.com/

Siam

1.) I studied geography and geographical formations so I could learn to describe rooms better, although my drafts never made it in-game. My notebooks are full of drafts!

2.) I studied design terminologies from various real-life trades and studies(architecture, etc.)(shout-out to @Aramel for introducing me to 'distaff' - I will forever love the Black Tower for teaching me 'crenelations'!)

3.) I studied insect anatomy! Not just spiders and while I was never afraid of spiders and other insects in general, I learned to appreciate their otherwordly beauty!

4.) I studied various botanical and zoological terms for this game! Although I cannot name them all at the drop of the hat, some words stuck like chilicerae!

5.) I scoured the Internet for various articles touching on theology and mythology from different cultures. They're a great way to spend boring weekends.

6.) I now know pretty names for colours! Chartreuse and mauve! Also pretty words like nacreous!

7.) I studied types of scythes and weapons and armors! I read tropes about them, too!

Man, I learned a looooooooot because of my love for this game.

Aramel

I do a lot of tailoring, some bookbinding and occasionally jewelrymaking OOC. Not really because of Lusternia, just that my OOC interests tend the same way as my IC ones.

When I was in university, my art history professor had us write object labels for museum pieces - basically a "describe this object" assignment in about 150 words. I always loved those assignments because they were essentially a less flowery and more historical-context-heavy version of Lusternia design writing.