Removal of teacher skill

I had a many great experiences seeking out teaching, as a new player, from longer-term characters in our chapter. Many of those opportunities allowed me to introduce myself, and also gave them an idea of what to expect from me.

I also know a great many players who viewed this skill as an extra task that they despised, and often eschewed the roleplay requirements of.

I think that, mechanically, there is no reason to _require_ teaching. Roleplay should never be forced, nor should a character's progression be gated behind other characters in town, as that could allow for OOG toxicity.

Instead, this roleplay should be encouraged by the local communities and the rulebook. A great community has never been built because of what is written in the rulebook, a great community is built because of great people looking to support each other in their games.
 
I would like it more if something replaced it. Coming from a number of games and org, the idea of "teaching" requires that characters engage with one another. Especially characters whom outside of "teacher/student" would have little reason to interact. While You can't force development from that point forward.... You cant find if something is there that wasn't there before; without having a snowball fight.

Teaching was a catalyst for RP. Without the catalyst, it is the hope that otherwise stable RP Aspects will react with one another on their own...For some players/character... they will. For some, they wont.
 
I would like it more if something replaced it. Coming from a number of games and org, the idea of "teaching" requires that characters engage with one another. Especially characters whom outside of "teacher/student" would have little reason to interact. While You can't force development from that point forward.... You cant find if something is there that wasn't there before; without having a snowball fight.

Teaching was a catalyst for RP. Without the catalyst, it is the hope that otherwise stable RP Aspects will react with one another on their own...For some players/character... they will. For some, they wont.

This.

Teaching provided an impetus to socialize with people.

Without that impetus, some people simply won’t get involved.

Pushing people together is the -heart of Alliance.-

It’s why we have a class system designed to force reliance on others.

It’s why we got rid of pocket healer magic items.

Trying to replace this with “a roleplay culture” sounds all nice and positive. But I, and others in my chapter, have benefited from being nudged into roleplay with others because of this mechanic. It helped push us out of our shells. Saying “just improve the culture in your chapter” is...look, it’s ignorant, really, of the very real truth of social anxiety.

And I think that’s the heart of my investment in this subject that seems so small to some of you. You’re getting rid of an impetus that some people need to blossom in this game.
 
I get the logistics problem. I do. However, I've noticed a trend in the new rules set to take away mechanics that encouraged or were RP based.

I also see zero reason for a new player to seek out or want RP to learn a skill. Existing players will, we're comfortable with the concept and understand the RP, character connection, and stories it creates.

But all that will be lost on new players, and Alliance will have reduced another avenue for good RP.

It feels like the new push is for this to be a boffer LARP first, RP LARP second.
As a player, I am now in a game setting that's actively shut down mechanics that push for RP. There's no reason to take the time or make the effort as a new player to RP through a new skill. It also means I have no reason seek out characters I want to learn from.

I'm glad you folks have a more optimistic view, but all I see is a continued focus on combat and a loss of the finer RP mechanics of the game.

All for the want of 1xp.
 
Nothing stops you from roleplaying teaching someone something. They simply aren't refused the to spend xp until you have.
 
Nothing stops you from roleplaying teaching someone something. They simply aren't refused the to spend xp until you have.

You are missing the point.

This isn’t about the teachers.

It’s about people, particularly those new to the community, being pushed to interact with others because the system required it to.

You are clearly unaware of the benefits of this, and that’s okay.
 
I'm perfectly aware of the 'benefits', and don't appreciate being condescended to, because I find in practice those benefits are wildly overstated.

Nothing about the existence of Teacher forces anyone to actually interact with a new player looking to add a skill to their character's sheet. The majority of players I've seen don't bother having the Teacher skill in the first place.

At best, the same people who would RP that interaction without the skill are the ones who had the skill on their character sheet because they wanted to have those interactions in the first place.
 
An alternate take:
It’s about people, particularly those new to the community, being pushed to interact with others because the system required it to.

You are clearly unaware of the detriments of this, and that’s okay.
 
I remain torn on the concept of the teacher tag. While I see both sides of the issue, at the end of the day the game is PVE/teamwork/community/ group activity. At the end of the day, who did the teacher skill actually hurt? No one who was actually engaging in the previously mentioned traits. Those players are actively involved with or without this skill in the game. What this does do, is that anyone who doesn't desire to be engaged in the PVE, Teamwork, and group activity which is LARP, but instead wish to play as a more solo/isolated activity - are now able to freely do so. Where as previously the teacher skill was a stop gap against that. The people being "benefited" didn't actually need the help, although it does make their RP Lives much easier. Slowly but surely I have seen various mechanics which reinforce the community & Teamwork aspect of the game, has become "opt in" as opposed to the previous default nature of the game.

All in all I guess the general concept is that removal does more benefit than harm. To which like all rules edition changes, only time will tell. Besides its not like changes don't follow stringent following to discover the impact of those changes and further future tweeking to actually obtain the desired end result. To which this is just one step in the process and seeing both sides, i have confadence it will eventually work itself out.
 
I'm super split on this.

On the one hand, I was having trouble finding anyone who could teach me skills (and seemed remotely willing to interact with me). So I'm glad I won't be hampered by having to run around begging for someone to Educate me. Because I was. And no one could, or would, teach me the skills I needed, leaving me in limbo; I got a lot of "yeah i could do that" followed by never being taught the thing (because teaching an unimportant newbie vs dealing with plot ****, plot **** is always going to take priority, and I get that). Getting rid of this mechanic eliminates this skill limbo, not to mention the hassle of finding logistics people, getting the cards, etc etc...

Buuuut I liked the idea from an RP standpoint. And having eventually found players willing to do the Teaching, I'm pretty sure this is going to be a "can you teach me this?" "teaching isn't a thing anymore, if you bought the skill you know the thing" "yeah i'm asking you ic tho, as like a rp thing." "... but i am not required to, so... no." ... thing.
 
Buuuut I liked the idea from an RP standpoint. And having eventually found players willing to do the Teaching, I'm pretty sure this is going to be a "can you teach me this?" "teaching isn't a thing anymore, if you bought the skill you know the thing" "yeah i'm asking you ic tho, as like a rp thing." "... but i am not required to, so... no." ... thing.

While I don't think your hypothetical would ever happen (and if it has, that's very unfortunate), if you're worried it will, rephrase it as "can you help me get better at this?"

>Hello Big Hammer Bill. I see you're very skilled with that big hammer of yours. Could you show me a few of those moves and strategies you use to hammer your foes?
"why yes, let's have a short sparring session and do a couple drills to help you improve"
"No, I can't. The baron just walked in and I have to suck up to him"
He either says yes, or no. but it stays ic for ic reasons.

Anyone who answers to rp with anti rp "oh, i just have a lot of profs and 3 slays/no Im going to talk with plot" Is just bad at rp. and you can't make rules against that. (well, you could technically, but it wouldn't help)
 
An excellent decision and I laud the Owners for making it and whoever proposed it.

We should never be in a position where a player cannot spend OOG resources (XP) because they are not sufficiently well-known either in or out of game for someone else to enable that expenditure.
Definitely, i have had numerous bad experiences with teaching rules in various larp systems. It got to the point where I just started teacher proofing my characters so that I had all the skills I wanted without having to go begging another PC for the opportunity to spend my XP. It's just not an aspect of roleplay that I enjoy.
 
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