(Untitled)

[kabuki_dream]

Um... okay, so say you're playing a British character and you're American. Or I guess this could also apply if you were playing an American character if you were British.

Should you attempt to do the whole differences in spelling, or not? I've heard different opinions on this: that you should because it sounds more genuine... and then that you

Comments

[aries]

It's the same with being Canadian and roleplaying with a non-Canadian. I'm not going to change my spelling. But when character ethnicity and the spelling/terminology directly affects the dialogue only then will I switch writing style.

[oshunanat]

I'd only attempt it if you could seriously keep up with it and be consistent. IMHO, the thing I'd worry more about is being true to the slang that the character uses. If they use it, use. A Spike that doesn't say "Bloody Hell" wouldn't ring true to me.

[wolveswithhats]

The only reason I'd ever see the need to change spelling is if it were a letter or journal entry or whatnot from the character's point of view. Otherwise, sticking some Us into a word won't make the character come across as any more British than without.

As for phraseology...yes and no. As said by oshunanat, Spike, for example, does say "bloody hell", so that's incharacter for him. But if you're just randomly peppering your sentences with it to sound more British, you're going to come across as an idiot.

[eridanusus]

We have a character who uses "capital flash" and "wanker" and "tosser" and things. It's not jarring though, it flows really well with how he talks, so it's just a lovable part of his character. I don't know if we have anyone who says "bloody hell" really since I dropped Ron...

[themiskyra]

I'm an American and I played a British OC once. I didn't bother trying to type out the dialect because I didn't want to annoy the crap out of everyone by doing it badly. I just would mention in her action text that she spoke with an Oxford-trained sort of accent.

I also didn't worry so much about the spelling because the game was chat-based. I did throw in the occasional slang term/curse/turn of phrase, but I made it a minor part of her 'flavor' of speech, because I didn't want to sound overdone or tacky. It's like using strong spices in a dish... a little is perfect, but too much and you can't taste anything else.

[youngwilliam]

I've never cared for typed-out accents unless the character is clearly supposed to have an accent so thick that 90% of the in-character listeners will tend to misunderstand them. If the character is supposed to be understood (so it's just one person with a thick Cockney accent among a couple dozen other folks, all of whom sound like extras from My Fair Lady?), I can't see much of a reason for it. At most, maybe for short slangy words (As in, "Yah" if they say 'yeah' in that way that sounds more like 'Ja')

As per different regional spelling, I'd say skip it. To pick a color of sofa looks just like picking a colour of sofa, to check a meter looks the same as checking a metre, and driving a truck looks just like driving a lorry. At most, just have the different regional phrases in the talkie-bits (IE: Saying your character gets into the truck, and then says, "Nice lorry you've got here!")

[kabuki_dream]

Yeah, that typed-out-accent thing really gets to me. Which is why some of the HP books can drive me up the wall. Really, Miss Rowling, is it so hard to type 'He had a thick Scottish accent' rather than abusing the apostrophes?

And I agree with the sprinkling your pup's speech with dialect words. What annoys me is when an American decides that putting 'bloody' in every sentence makes him sound more British.

[eridanusus]

God no. My main character has an accent that's a blend of Cornish and German (lol I know) and I never type it out, except VERY occasionally when he's drunk enough that it gets thick. Actually I don't think I've done that since it was just plain Cornish (we had a time-jump during which he was in Germany for a couple years), I wouldn't have a clue how to write out a Cornish/German blend.

[bhanfhlaith]

I actually like when it is done but ONLY if done correctly.
This is absolutely a "Do your homework or don't feckin' do it at all" moment.