Newbie to Proboard Forum Guide

Proboard Newbie Forum Guide 

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If you're new to proboards but still want to join the site you should look this over to get a better feeling for how this all works. It looks hard and complicated but it'll be pretty easy to understand once you have the basics down. I hope this helps, and if you still have questions never be afraid to message a staff member!


I. Navigating The Forum.
Oh my god, i've only done small 1x1 roleplays, what is all of this!

Whoa, relax! Take a breath and look around. We use proboards, and all the main 'sections' are known as categories. This category is 'Information Center'! Now the things under the category title are known as boards, this is where you make your threads for the site. There can be multiple boards under one category, and normally they're organized in a theme. (Example; Clans, Character Relations, Advertisement, etc.) 

So, as an example; You're looking to make a cat, you find the category 'Character Section' by scrolling through the home page and finding the little category headers. Then you find the board 'Pending Characters', there will be sub-boards, but you can ignore them if you want.(a board inside a board, to help the organization is a subboard) Bam! You just navigated through the forum.

Right now you're in the category 'Information Center' in the 'Information Vault' board, and in the Guide and Help sub-board.

II. Important thing to Read up On.
Well, let's make a character then! You just specifically showed me where to do that.

Actually! You should go read the histories of the different packs depending on what you're wanting to make a character for. It's important to know these things. All the needed information you need is under the category 'Information Vault', I suggest you go through and read through all the information, or at least most of it. Here are a few good links, though you should dig around to see if there is something else you might want to read up on.



III. THE SITE SHOP.
What's this little bar at the bottom center of my page? It has a pig, chart, money?

The shop here on ANP is filled with all sorts of goodies you can buy with rabbits, which is an in-forum currency! We do have limitations to what you can create in a character, but those limitations can be bought at a price. An example would be a cis gender male calico, as it's a very rare thing. There are many other items, so you really should read around to make sure a trait of your character isn't a buyable limitation. Never hesitate to ask a staff member.

To actually get to the shop you should see in the left hand corner of your screen the pig, chart, money, and what looks like the front window of a shop. The fourth icon, the little shop looking one is what you click to be directed to the shop on site.

IV. CHARACTER CREATION.
Okay, can I make my character now?

Yes you may now make your beloved furry friend! I will not make you wait any longer. For a character that is not a high rank you go to the 'Character Section' category, and then the 'Pending Character' board. Clicking onto it, you will see a white circle with a + sign inside of it, this is our 'create a thread' button, but before you do that look down at the already existing threads. You might see other members pending characters, but at the bottom is the character sheet template. You MUST use this, and not any other, this is to help us be organized and make sure none of the information is missing. HERE is a quick link to the character sheet.

Click onto the character sheet thread and scroll to the very bottom, you'll see a long list of coding, just copy it. Once you copy it go back into the 'Pending Character' board and make a new thread. Paste the coding you had just copied from the character template. **PASTE IT IN BBCODE NOT PREVIEW** If you paste it in preview it'll give the code unnecessary spacing. It'll come out as random coding that you may or may not understand. To get the template just click the 'BBCode' you see at the bottom of your box when you're creating the thread, then back to 'Preview' it should fix the coding. Then, fill it all in.

You may NOT play your character IC until a staff member as approved of it first. If approved it will be moved to the 'Accepted Character' with a comment from staff that your cat was accepted. When accepted you may play the cat IC. Though, if it's not accepted you'll get a reply to your thread with 'Pending' and various reasons why your applications was not accepted. Be polite and make the proper changes, you keep doing this until your cat is accepted.


V. HIGH RANK AUDITIONS.
I wanted to try and apply for a high rank character, what do I do?

The way high ranks work on ANP and many other forums is that you must put in an application, it's not a first come first serve rule. Auditions for high ranks are open for specific amounts of time, and at this time anyone can post their character in that position. You may also apply to multiple different high ranks with various cats, though the max high ranks you can have is two.

You get to the high ranks applications by going to the 'Character Section' category. Then to the board 'Character Creation', and at the top is sub-board called 'High Rank Auditions', then in there we have more sub-boards! The boards are labeled by the high ranks. So, if you want to be apply for a medicine cat or medic you go to that board. Inside of these boards are threads with the applications, read through them and do as they state, you reply right onto the thread, you do not make a new thread. HERE is a quick link to the High Rank Auditions.

VI. PLOTTERS AND TRACKERS.
What are these things, add them to my vocabulary.

A plotter is a place where you take your characters and create plots. Though most people use templates from other sites, but you of course don't have to. Most plotters include friends, enemies, and lovers, and how they'd interact with specific characters in those relationships or how/why someone would be that characters friend/enemy/lover. Though, you can do them however you feel like, be creative!

A tracker is a place where you keep track all your roleplays. People again use templates mostly for these, but you don't need to! I will post some template sites you can go on to find plotters/trackers, seeing them might help you understand as well.

Site 1 | Site 2 

VII. ADOPTION CENTER.
Uh, What? Is this for adopting an apprentice or a litter of kittens?

Nope! These are for your main characters NPC family, friends, etc! Let's say you have an apprentice character who has two sisters, they're marked as an NPC as you won't play them, but you want to give someone else the chance to play one of them as their own character. You make a thread HERE. On the thread you can do a full on application, and no you don't need to use the sites, and fill in every little detail. Or, you can give some creative flow for the person adopting your NPC and give basic looks, personality, etc, and let them make an application.

If you're adopting the character of someone else and they agree to it, you must post a character sheet thread in the 'Character Creation' board and wait for it to be accepted by staff.