First thing's first. Hi, my name is Monika and I've been roleplaying southern characters for a very long time. With the extensive knowledge on roleplaying as one, I've decided to update this thread's - https://forum.redcountyrp.com/threads/how-to-roleplay-a-country-redneck-person.129278/ approach on how to actually do it. It's more or less an update.
What exactly ARE rednecks and hillbillies?
Redneck is a term for poor southern farmers/blue collar workers whose necks turn red from working long hours in the fields, construction, or at the docks, causing them to get a sunburn from it. It's also a term for individuals who are at the poverty line, grinding to gain bare minimum of the state's acceptable income to provide for their family and children. You can often see rednecks wear stylized hats depending on their jobs to cover their heads from the sunlight, but more often of times this is to shade their faces from scrutiny, offering some sort of psychological protection. In some cases, callused hands are telling signs that a certain individual can be classified as a redneck, but these days redneck is a loose term for anyone in poorer areas of the country that have achieved seniority in their villages or towns or a deragotary term for people whose political views are at the farthest of rights, or have "offensive" opinions and behavior on certain agendas, regardless of where they live or what their economic status in life is. Such person is Cole Blackburn, a true redneck whose political view always aligns to his behavior. Greedy, mischievious, and manipulating. Making him a great example of what a true redneck is.
Hillbillies on the other hand lives on more isolated areas away from society. The term "hillbilly" comes from the word "hillfolks" of Scottish origin. That means these individuals are uneducated, at the same time their views on things aren't as biased or politically-based as their counterparts, the rednecks. Hillbillies are often associated with dimwittedness, illiteracy, and simple-minded individuals because of where they live. Hillbillies are most likely what you refer to a white person than rednecks if their views don't have any political agenda tied to it. In extreme cases, they form backwaters cult or have altruistic approach in life, as everything new to them is alien by concept. The term hillbilly ties to illiterate country/southern people or people living in remote villages away from civilization. Not to be confused by peckerwoods, hillbillies are what you call someone who's lived far from civilization in general, and have no knowledge on how everything works. Such character who is a perfect fit for this is Nancy Gillmore. She lives in what she calls as the "boonies" deep in Flint Forests. Though educated to some degree, she have no clue how to modern-day technology other than her smart phone because she lived her entire life off-the-grid.
Depending on where you want to start your RP, location is a must. Local communities around your area plays a vital role on what your character should be. As well as the age of said character. You can portray your character starting from younger ages of 20 all the way to 70. Depending on the age, the older your character get, the lower the development there needs to be done. So if your character is at the age of 60, there's little to no development needed to further your character's in-depth personality or views. That means they are well-versed on the chaos and the ways of life in the towns, municipalities, or state they're in. Depending on what your character's political or non-political background or what their occupation is at, there are room for improvements on these areas. In general, you'll find things such as mud wrestling, monster trucks, NASCARS, or tinkering with things, and fishing more fun for a hobby.
Another part is their political views. If you want to portray a super far-right redneck, your views often clashes with the opposing left. If you want to portray your character as not affiliated or don't want to be involved with politics, then you can be a hillbilly, regardless of where you live because you have no strong political views or opinions on things. You can have a sit-down with other rednecks or hillbillies in union meeting, but not voice any concern, rather it's more of a hub where your presence is valued to the meeting to ask questions or raise unbiased concerns between political parties as a neutral ground.
Roleplayin as a rich redneck or hillbilly won't leave any significant changes to their lifestyle. If anything, they'll live the same, but with better living conditions. More often or not, they'll end up to where they were at from the beginning depending on how uneducated they are.
The more educated your character is, the more coherent their words will be. Of course you are bound to mispronounce some words because of your heavy accent to make an easy tell-signs on what your character is from to the people present in your RP who are unaquainted on the knowledge of who and what your character is all about. It is heavily frowned upon these days to have your character talk like they got stroke like for say example; "dagnabhet, I tawld ye'w ta stahp wit' derrr sheenanigaens" but nobody stops you from typing it in regards. Me personally? I don't mind it. You can portray your character the way you like it and how they speak. Skewering your words to fit the theme also is recommended.
It's not hard to speak and understand redneck or hillbilly lingo since they are dumbened down. It's up to anyone to make an effort to say it. If you're roleplaying a more educated redneck, you can use normal words, but not add the last letter "G" to some words that consist of it such as funding - 'fundin' or placing - 'placin' but not words that have strong use of the last letter like "things" for example. You can shorten it and say "tings" instead to make it appropriate by removing the center consonant to make it dumber. For the most part if you're roleplaying illiterate, replacing the "Y" letter with "eh" works better. Examples are story - "storeh", or money - "moneh"
- Hello/Hi - Howdy, Nyellow, Yellow/Yellar, or Howdeh'
- Person/Man/Woman - Fella, Filleh', or Fellur
- People or Everyone - Folks
- You - Ye' or Ye'w
- Your/You're - Ye're, Yew're, and Yer
- Here - Ere'
- To - Te or Teh
- Of - O'
- Vehicle - Vehicule
- Twenty - Twenny
- The, They, Them, or There - Duh', Dey', Dem', or Der'
- Isn't and Aren't - Ain't
Since Red County Roleplay is mainly a county-based server, this is to help enhance and better the environment to those who wish to roleplay themselves as southern people and their mannerisms, behavior, perception, and language. Hope to anyone reading this may find it useful if they wish to create their own character. Redneck and Hillbilly roleplay may seem a bit trollish, but with proper development and care, it wouldn't be the case. You can still have fun roleplaying as one, such as the chaos and unpredictability of one.
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