Man, it's Hard to find a Master - (Advice Thread)

[Jsc]

Had a guy approach me today and say, Jay it's hard to find a Master.

Okay, sure. This isn't the first time any of us have heard that or experienced this kind of emotion. But, now, I didn't reply to the guy. I didn't. I mean... I've replied to this question a thousand times. I've written guides and tutorials for Padawans. I've written blogs and holocrons and opinion pieces too. But. I didn't reply to this guy. Nah. I'm sorta over it. Instead, I decided to throw this one up here and see what the community had to say. So here goes: Advice. Personal success stories. Offers to teach new people. The works. Whatever. We've all got something to say. Shoot.

Q: If you had somebody approach you again and say: Man, it's hard to find a Master. What is the most constructive thing you could say to them?


Cheers.

 

[Aithne Charr]

Hmm... keep asking. You will always strike on someone sooner or later and even if it takes time, learn from others who don't or even do have masters. This is the only way i was able to train up Solan and Alexandra, who both almost never had a master.

 

[Tanith Alde]

[member="Jay Scott Clark"] [member="Solan Charr"]

I think the problem is the ratio. We have too many initiates, nowhere near enough nights, and then too many self interested masters, that needs to be looked at before we can hope to properly fill every slot

 

[Aithne Charr]

[member="Scarlet Ghost"]

Honestly, thats true. Which is sad. But it is the duty of those masters to train others and some do that as best they can. (Excluding those who Reallife gets in the way for, which is a lot of us.)

 

[Tanith Alde]

[member="Solan Charr"]

Except Knights can train people too. There are plenty of talented writers about who could easily be knights or even masters, but they aren't noticed or are too shy to speak up for themselves

 

[Aithne Charr]

[member="Scarlet Ghost"]

When i said masters, meant knights too, should have clarified. My bad.

 

[Corvus Raaf]

My advice?

1. Post. Nothing puts a potential Master off quicker than someone who asks for training but posts an average of 0.92 a day. If a writer is going to invest in you, show you're worth the time.

2. Post. Join training threads (there are always training threads) or public threads and develop your character. A proactive Padawan/Acolyte is way more likely to be successful.

3. Don't rely on a Master. Corvus' training came from a variety of sources. None were her Master's. I managed 600 posts and c.50 threads of training to make Knight. All happened because I made them happen. Not one training thread was with my Master.

4. Join a Faction. You're more likely to get a Master if you join (and give to) a Faction. There's a quid pro quo thing that goes on.

5. Ask directly. I don't mean spam every Master, but ask those that you believe to be a good fit. Being asked is akin to flattery, and we all like to be flattered. But don't take NO as a personal thing. I have c.15 Padawans across 3 characters. Adding another one every time I'm asked won't work. Sometimes timing is key. And sell yourself. "Will you be my Master?" might work. But, "I'd think I'd make a great Padawan to your character because..." works so much better.

6. Don't ask once and give up. Again, timing is a fickle thing and someone that gives up easily is not going to have potential Masters knocking at their door.

7. Controversial one...stick to your character. I see writers ask for a Master, get no initial bite and then switch from LS to DS in the hope of attracting a Master. For me at least, that would put me off.

8. Final thought? You tend to get out what you put in. Every time. Invest in your character and you'll see others do the same. People on the boards want to help each other, but human nature says we're most disposed to help those that help themselves.

#justsayin'

 

[Akira Kono]

NPCing a master is always an option but finding one is something that deterred me from making this very character. NPCing one can just get too boring and predictable if you're, essentially, teaching yourself. I suppose that fellow apprentices could NPC master-level characters for each other or even just team up and grow together without an official master.

That all being said, because I really had to organize my thoughts out loud because, why not?

I think the best way to go about it would be to advertise in the forums or just RP with other people until you find someone that's down for being your master.

It is a pretty tough question though, especially since it's completely optional to everyone who could, potentially, be a master for an apprentice.

 

[Tanith Alde]

[member="Akira Kono"]

I personally feel like there should be a hard limit to the posts you need to be a knight. Well not posts but rather words written, or some such thing. Because at the Knight level finding your own sources of power and such becomes much easier than at Initiate level, and it makes character developement so much more fun. No one likes having to follow around the self absorbed Lord KillMcDeath who whaps you over the back of the head every five minutes for not predicting his plot lines and fueling them further

 

[Akira Kono]

[member="Scarlet Ghost"]

Now, don't take me the wrong way, I'm all in favor of standardization and equality but I feel like something like this can't really be judged by posts, or words, or anything quantifiable other than pure character development.

Sure, if there were a limit I would have a goal for this character and I would probably write a TON more just to get the level of Force user that I want but at what cost? I would get totally sloppy and write some pretty inane stuff just to match a limit.

Judging promotion is probably hard enough as it is considering all the material that is written to be submitted for said promotion. A rubric that everyone can work off of would make things simpler, sure, but then the writing would feel more like work and less like fun.

Ehh, it's a sticky situation which I haven't spent enough time on this site to be qualified enough to discuss but I do think there should be some kind of target other than "if someone thinks your ready." Of course, I'm generalizing.

 

[Aithne Charr]

Oh and, BTW. With as i said before with people stepping up to help teach people. Im always open to teach your characters... as long as they ICly fit. So just if you see this or what ever, PM me, we can get a thread going and see.

 

[Tanith Alde]

[member="Akira Kono"]

Yes but I mean it as sort of a baseline, IE Once you hit: X Words/Posts a bell goes off for an admin or you can post ina thread and say "Hey guys! Tell me if I'm good enough to be a knight" Ranther than all this Bumble-kerfuffery we have going on

 

[Bolt]

Two knights, two Masters. None have had a single apprentice that panned out.

Someone say they can't find anyone? Shoot em this way bub!

[member="Jay Scott Clark"]

 

[Nikolas Faselli]

[member="Akira Kono"]

Yes but I mean it as sort of a baseline, IE Once you hit: X Words/Posts a bell goes off for an admin or you can post ina thread and say "Hey guys! Tell me if I'm good enough to be a knight" Ranther than all this Bumble-kerfuffery we have going on

We don't do that here for a reason.

Lilin is a character of mine who didn't have a Master. She had one or two successful training threads. It clearly tells me absolutely nobody has to have a Master or even have training threads. Just be active, participate in faction threads, have fun, and then you'll be noticed no matter what. If you write in the background and only rely on getting a Master, you're going to have a hard time proving yourself to be a competent and amazing writer.

Of course, if you do want to have a Master, just bombard the hell out of Masters. Don't spam them, but if you really want a Master, work towards getting one. If you see a Master you like, PM them. Most likely they will be friendly and love that you wrote to them. And I am rather sure a lot of people either take you on as an apprentice or deny your request because of being too busy in the real life.

Group training threads -- join them. Skirmishes, dominions, invasions -- your best friends. If you are active in them, you will also get noticed.

Don't be afraid to self-nominate. If you think you have done enough work to become a Knight (and later on Master), contact somebody who can review your character and, if you're lucky, are able to promote you. You don't need a Master for that.

And just have fun. Don't worry too much about your rank or getting a Master.

 

[Jsc]

Some of ya'll are drinking the Kool-Aid.

 

[Akira Kono]

[member="Jay Scott Clark"] Are you trying to tell me that Kool-Aid isn't the best drink ever invented?

 

[Darth Vazela]

Q: If you had somebody approach you again and say: Man, it's hard to find a Master. What is the most constructive thing you could say to them?

Join a faction. Participate in faction events. Specifically, target that faction's dominions. Within the first two weeks, you'll know whether or not that faction wants you among it's ranks. People normally evaluate your worth via the amount of posts you contributed to dominions, the amount of activity you've shown, your roleplay in faction events and the quality of your writing before deciding whether or not your worth time investing in.

I've tried to train ten+ people (on two characters) on this website in the two and a bit years I have been apart of this community, and yet I have yet to get one to Knight or Master and it is because their activity has dropped off the face of the Earth, so it feels like the time and effort I put into training them was lost and a waste.

I know it isn't me who is the problem because I am active in another community that has trained an entire new generation of Sith in the same amount of time I have been apart of this website, so my advice is the aforementioned and the key part is not to become a problem for the person who can help you develop your character.

As a personal niche I would also want the person I am training to have a little as of an idea of what they want their character to be going into an apprenticeship. Having in mind their personality etc is crucial but don't come to me wanting you master all the lightsaber forms and so on. Let me develop you in a way that you're comfortable with, not the other way around, where you're telling me how too. Kills creativity.

 

[Micah tol Powl]

Q: If you had somebody approach you again and say: Man, it's hard to find a Master. What is the most constructive thing you could say to them?

Your master is unnecessary. It's a self-imposed limitation, not a site imposed limitation. Training threads are a 'nice to have' but not a requirement (and some would say they're not even a 'nice to have'). Posting activity has always been the sole measure by which I've seen knights promoted. I've got one character with a PC master, who does a lot of training threads and is a padawan still by my choice. I've got another character whose master requests went unanswered, never did a single training thread, and was promoted to knight inside of two months.

Don't roleplay based on whether or not someone wants to be your Huckleberry. Roleplay your character, period, and the rest will sort itself out.

 

[Sage Bane]

Picture this:
You're a Master. You've taken on countless apprentices only to see some of them disappear without even so much as a LOA post. You're usually overthreaded, and you probably write way too many characters to begin with.

Ok, now picture this:
A new apprentice pops up on the board seeking a Master. The avatar is a faceless mask or a full body where the details of the face are hardly discernible. The biography is fine, but fairly cookie cutter, and the moment you click away, you kind of forget what you just read.

What is it about your character that makes that character interesting enough for the overthreaded Master to look at you and say, "Wow, I really want that character as my apprentice?" I mean, stay true to your character. I'm not advocating that your character has to be something he/she is not, but what makes your character tick? What gives he or she depth? Would there be a chance for some interesting conflict with the Master character, and not just blind allegiance?

This may sound a little harsh to new writers, but I feel like it needs to be said. Besides, pushing yourself to make your character unforgettable can only help you grow as a writer.

 

[Coren Starchaser]

Self Training is your friend. Jumping right into a Master-Student writing relationship raw? Thats... that hurts. You need to establish yourself. There are so many ways for your character to learn, get into the community, and you'll find something when you find yourself here. Also, self training is your friend.