A few questions/asking for tips!

[justcog]

Hey, it's me again, sorry if I'm kind of flooding this with threads, just a few questions and concerns for myself I had and wanted to voice!

So simple stuff first, just a question when it comes to the roleplays, I noticed some labeled with [PROSE] and [QPBF]. I'm not sure if what these means was explained in the welcome message or anywhere, or maybe I just didn't see it. Regardless, just asking what these mean!

Secondly, a concern for myself that I'm hoping one of you more experienced people can give me some tips on. I'm not really new to roleplay, though I'm not exactly a novelist either. With that being said, I'm also used to more gritty roleplays, which Redwall isn't (if I remember right), and I fear I might have made my first character in the gritty nature I'm used to. I'm not asking you guys to change of course, that'd be unfair; just asking for tips/ways for me to transition to the more light-hearted nature of the Redwall books! That, and accents. I can not figure out how to type accents or which accents go to what animal. I read some of the books when I was younger (like 5 years ago) so my memory is pretty foggy

Sorry for the inconvenience everyone, just trying to do this right!

[Otus Shortwing]

Hey Cog! Don’t worry, questions are good, don’t even worry about it.

QPBF just stands for “quick posts for busy folks” so those RPs only need a few sentences in a post. More than 5 is probably too much! They are very casual, so we made a silly name to attach to them.

Prose RPs are meant for longer posts, and most likely have a more serious topic or an adventure to go with them. They need longer posts so spending a bit more time writing those posts is preferred.

I wouldn’t worry too much about Stanwick’s backstory. It is not “dark” by Redwall standards since nearly every book has a ruthless warlord bent on destruction and murder. XD It IS more serious than a lot of DAB backstories only because the backbone of DAB is, well, DAB—Dibbuns Against Bedtime. Therefore most of our characters spent their dibbun days (their childhood) inside Redwall Abbey, being raised by goodbeasts, never knowing hunger, and getting up to shenanigans. But, a lot of characters grow up to see more serious things—wars, battle, sickness, death. You’ve just let Stanwick see things the other way around—first war and death, and now, peace and plenty (and maybe soon some shenanigans). That’s perfectly fine! I think it will be interesting to play.

There’s only two accents closely associated with particular animals—Molespeech and the way Salamandastron hares speak. Molespeech is so difficult that I’ve never attempted it, and you’ll notice there’s 0 active characters who are moles. It’s hard! Hares generally speak with a lot of silly pip-pip cheerios eh chap? And the like. Which can be a lot of fun. Regardless, Stanwick isn’t a mole or a hare so you won’t have to worry about any real accent “rules.” You can do what you like—leave the D off of “and” and the E from “the,” mispronounce a few long words, talk really flowery…just make up what feels right for Stanwick. If you’re thinking of Torn Asunder, Riki and Otus just talk “vaguely like pirates cuz they’ve done some sailing.”

Thanks for asking~ feel free to ask more questions if you like.

[Crystal M. V. Rosepaw]

Heyo, no worries about questions! Just lets us know where there are things we may need to be more clear on in the future!

We use a bit of a roundabout tagging system on DAB to mark our RP threads, since Proboards doesn't do that natively. They let you tell just at a glance at the title the style of RP before you hop in! [Quick] or [QPBF] are the low stress, quick RP types where the plot is much more loose (generally just a scenario and see how the group takes it) type of thing. They typically have a maximum word count (around 100 words or less) and are meant to encourage more frequent posting. [Prose] generally is the tag for more long form RP, where you can focus on details, character thoughts, etc. and really just get into everything. Prose RPs, because of the length of posts, tend to get updated less frequently, but they're often a bit more involved.

As for character accents!: It's a personal preference thing! Like Otus said, most other than hares and moles in actual Redwall canon don't have a specific accent, so unless you're writing one of those two, you're fine without one. I'm also terrible at writing out accents (as can be seen with Riki's, which reads fine but spoken out loud it's... impossible), and often go for speaking quirks. One of my three characters, for example, doesn't ever use contractions (it's, I'm, don't, can't, etc) in her dialogue. You can really get across a lot of character in their dialogue too, though it can take some time to develop a 'voice' for a character and that's normal!

As for your character backstory: A lot of DAB's userbase has grown with the series, and has chosen to tackle some more gritty and/or nuanced ideas with our characters, so don't worry! A colorful cast of characters, even if that color means some characters are more whimsical and others have some sharp pointy edges, can make RPs more engaging and allow more chances to have characters play off one anothers' dynamics. I've posted with one of my alts (alternative characters) in Torn Asunder, and he's the one of my three that is a bit more light hearted. My other two are much more in line with Stanwick. I really am looking forward to seeing you do more with him, as I don't really recall someone doing that sort of character arc in all my many years here on DAB! (Though I adore working on characters, so if you'd like someone to dig more in depth with and discuss character elements, I'd be more than happy to do that with you in a DM at any time!)