Welcome, One and All!

[Airan]

Nine beasts, enslaved in a distant coliseum. The terms are simple: fight until you die. Glory awaits the strong while the meek shall perish, their cries drowned by the roar of the crowd. It's survival of the fittest and survival takes many forms. Let the games begin.

Hello, hello, everyone and welcome to Mossflower Odyssey IV: The Beasts in the Crater. My name's Airan and I'm the lead administrator of Redwall Survivor- but it won't be me running the show- this time it'll be Zevka. So let's give him a nice round of applause for setting all of this up and making this all possible!

If you've just now stumbled onto our humble, little forum, and you're wondering what all this is about, don't fret- I've prepared some general information for you that might help you get started.

What is a Redwall Survivor Contest?

A Redwall Survivor Contest is basically a collaborative story set in the universe of the Brian Jacques' Redwall series in which a number of different writers will each write a character of their own creation and insert them into a pre-established storyline created and overseen by a proctor or coordinator. Every week, the contestants will write a chapter for the story from their characters' points of view, interacting with the other characters, and pushing the plot forward until it reaches its inevitable ending- roughly after a few months. It's basically a round robin RP of sorts, except with much longer chapters and a heck of a lot more planning and coordination when it comes to the writing and events that take place in the narrative.

There is a catch though. This is a competition. Every week, after the contestants have finished posting their respective chapters, the story's readers will then have the chance to influence the plot of the story by voting to eliminate their least favorite character from the contest. The writer who receives the most amount of votes at the end of the round must then off themselves from the contest by either removing their character from the story or- more traditionally- killing their character. The stakes are high.

This continues until three characters remain and the readers decide which of them should be crowned the winner.

So, how do I make it into one of these contests?

Before the final ten characters are chosen, they must first go through the application process. During the application process, you will write a short blurb about your character, which must fit one of the categories the coordinator has provided. This is not to say that you write a bio like you would for an RP, where you describe their physical appearance, likes and dislikes, favorite color, etc, but instead, think of it like a short story, where you will write a scene showcasing who they are. Maybe it's just a regular day in the life for them, or maybe it's a defining moment of their entire existence.

After you've submitted your application(s) and the submission inbox closes, the top 3 best applications from each category will be decided by the coordinator. For the next week, these applications will be put up publicly so that other members of the audience can read them and decide which is their favorite, which they will then vote on. The application with the highest number of votes from each category will then ultimately survive the initial culling and be accepted into the story as a contestant, and from there the story will begin.

What do I get for winning?

Fame. Power. Glory. The satisfaction of a job well done. And likely a ton of fan art from our artsy users. But no seriously. There's no real reward for winning other than basically bragging rights and maybe a few forum goodies later down the road. However, that is not to say there's no reason to not apply. As someone who's participated in three of these things and coordinated one, I can safely say that they're a fantastic opportunity to work with others, make new friends online, and improve your writing- all while creating a story that you can be proud of once it's completed.

Now with all that said- we've got some helpful stuff littered about the site, but some of it might be slightly hard to find, so I dug through it and found some useful links that might aid you with your understanding of the site and the contest as a whole-

Tips on Applying - Some general tips for writing an application from Opal during a prior contest. While some of it might not pertain to this particular contest, a lot of the advice here is still relevant. Here's a few examples of successful applications from past contests-
Mossflower Odyssey III: Prisoners
Mossflower Odyssey I: Judge's Picks
Redventure 5: Top Nine



Basic Guide to the World of Redwall- Are you a newcomer to the Redwall series or fandom and need to get caught up to speed. This guide by Vizon is an excellent start.


Redwall Accents Guide and Dictionary-  A dictionary of accents in the Redwall universe I compiled so that anyone who wants to spice up their characters dialogue can do so with ease.


The Writer's Workshop-While rather sparse at the moment, the Writer's Workshop is an excellent place for you to show some of your writing for critique from some of our users, or participate in a few writing games and exercises to get a good warm up before tackling your application. Don't post your application here however, as you should be doing your best to keep the characters' you've written anonymous.


With all that out of the way, happy writing to everyone, and if you have any further questions, don't be shy to ask them. Me, Zevka, or any number of our other users will definitely do our best to answer any of them you may have.

[Airan]

Slight update to the thread. I added a selection of applications I thought were particularly good and could be used as examples for what a successful application looks like. If you're a newcomer and still confused about what a good application looks like, just look right above and there's a few new links for you.