Why Wasn't My Character Approved?
The BoD's top fifteen reasons for saying "No, fix it."
15) Not filling in all relevant information on the form
Yes, I know it looks like a lot, but really it's not. You won't ever have to fill in the entire thing. If your character's a candidate, they fill in the candidate section, but skip the dragonrider and crafter sections. If your charcters a journeyman Healer who is also a brown rider, they miss the candidate section. Simple.
Also, there's a reason we ask for this information. It'll make your job easier, and it stops you from tripping over the rules when playing.
14) Asking for a metallic or ranker as first character
No matter how good the sheet, no matter how well written it is, if we've never seen you before in our lives we will not be giving you a ranker. Bronze and gold dragons, fire lizards and whers fall into this category. Prove yourselves to us and we'll let you play with the pretty shinies. But you have to prove you'll play them first.
13) Character is not from Pern
Yep. This really happens. Characters who can use magic, dragons with scales (Pernese dragons have hide), characters with mental powers... the list goes on. This is a PERN rpg. There's no magic. Deal with it. There are no elves, either. Or vicious, virgin-eating dragons.
12) Out of Canon dragon colour
There are five dragon colours: gold, bronze, brown, blue and green. We will not accept anything else. You send us a polka-dot dragon in shades of fluorescent orange and purple, we'll send it back and ask you to re-write it in one of those colours. And append a note saying we know a good rehab clinic.
11) Character suffers extreme form of abuse
Not every person on Pern is serially raped by their evil father and brothers. Actually, I'd say about.... 99.999999% of people do not have this happen to them. Sure, it happens. Occassionally. But the mental problems associated with it are serious. If your character is raped/attacked/abused and the event doesn't seem to have been incorporated into their personality/way of thinking, you will be asked to remove it. To be honest, even experienced writers fall into this trap.
10) Character history nothing but series of tragic accidents
Similar to above. It is unlikely that your character has something bad happen to them constantly. If life were a graph, most of it would be level with the occasional dip or rise. They're unlikely to be constantly in the negative side, or constantly on the positive side. Your character is going to go through enough when you write them - and if its all been done before, why bother?
9) Your charcter is descended from a canon character
Your character may not be descended from any of Anne or Todd McCaffrey's characters. Because they said so. Also, we're in the ELEVENTHTH pass here. The last characters from the Pern series were in the 9th pass. That's 115 turns of thread, and 400 years of Interval = 515 years AFTER those books.
It's be like saying "Hey, I'm a direct line descendant of William Shakespeare." Uh-huh. The thing is, so are a hell of a lot of people, but they can't prove it, because every generation the number of descendants increases.
8) Your charcter is, for all intents and purposes, a canon character
Just as your character can not be descended from a canon character, you may also not tweak one by changing their name and present it as your own. That's known as paraphrasing, and is still intellectual theft. Also, it's muuch easier to write a character who comes from yourself.
7) The words 'flowing hair', 'misty eyes' or 'glowing skin' were used.
These are the phrases that will have the BoD first throwing up, then brutally attacking your character. Unless your character is pregnant, the words "glowing skin" come under the heading of "Character not from Pern" anyway. How many times did McCaffrey mention that people glowed? None. That's right. I counted em. None.
As for "flowing hair" and "misty eyes"... Faranth. Neither helps your description.
6) Character has very rare physical attributes
Be honest. How often, in real life, do you see someone with purple eyes? Or pure white hair? Now, how often do you see someone with BOTH? Not very often, right? Same on Pern. Rare traits will not stay rare if we let everyone play 6 white-haired, purple eyed characters. So, to avoid a Weyr full of freaks, we say no. It's nothing personal.
5) Your maths needs work
B'ob is a twenty year old brown rider. He Impressed Billth at age 14. Billth should be 5/6 years old, maybe pushing 7, right? The age of your dragon is the age of your character minus the age they Impressed. Simple. There's slight leeway, since your charries age is not recorded to the day (ie, if you say they Impressed at 14 it could be anywhere between their 14th birthday and the day before they turn 15)
4) Your charcter is unbelievably talented
No one makes Journeyman before 20, 19 at the earliest. No one. And that's if they're absolutely brilliant at their chosen profession. Most won't walk the tables until they're 21-25. Similarly for Master. 40 is the minimum.
Oh, and that's if they're training full time. If they're doing something else as well (eg, they're a dragonrider or a candidate) it will take longer.
3) Your character has "Menolly syndrome"
No one has nine firelizards. Or six whers. Be sensible. If your character's from the North, firelizards are rare. It's too cold for them. The egg will have been a treasured gift (like getting a horse for your birthday) or the result of an incredibly lucky trip along the Coast or in the desert to stumble over eggs. Most of them will be associated with rankers.
In the South, it's much easier too acquire eggs - there's so much warm coastline, and the warm climate means they're less likely to desert their Pets.
But Telgar is in the North. Firelizards here are rare - the climates just too cold for them. Clutches are not impossible to find, but neither are they common.
2) Innapropriate disabilities for your characters station in life
Blood diseases, blindness, missing limbs and psychological traumas in candidates. No. Not ever. They'd never be Searched for one thing, and secondly they'd be unable to do the work required of them as Weyrlings. The same for other occupations - your Harper can't be deaf, your Miner can't be missing a leg. Anyone with a blood disease is likely to be put to light work and constantly in and out of the infirmary.
Be sensible. If your character has a disability that renders them unable to perform the basic functions of their station, they won't be in that station.
That being said, we love flaws.
1) Your character is perfect, or close
This is the big one. There is no one in existence who hes no flaws. Your character is not beautifaul AND intelligent AND likeable AND modest AND a goldrider AND a Master Harper. This is what is known as a "Mary Sue" (or, for males a "Marty Stu") and we will laugh at them, abuse them and send them back to be rewritten.
Again and again and again, if neccessary.
Now, that being said - a quick temper which dies quickly is not a flaw. It does not balance out every other perfect piece of your character.
Besides - the gay browner who's homophobic, the geenrider who's just as slutty as greens are rumoured to be, the selfish, stuck up bronzer are much more fun to play and play with.
A couple of helpful links:
What shall we do with a Mary Sue?
A good guide on how NOT to write a Mary Sue, and why this is a good thing
Identifying Sues
How to spot a Mary Sue
Mary Sue Litmus Test
Test your charrie. Are they a Sue, or close to one?
Hatching FAQ
Hatching's seem to spark a lot of questions from members, and I'm going to do my best to answer as many of them as I can.
1) How does the BoD work out clutch numbers/distributions?
Easy.
Number of eggs is found by rolling two twenty sided die or six six sided die. That is: 2d20 or 6d6.
The total is the clutch size. If we get something stupid, like 2 eggs, we might re-roll, but generally, we take what we're given.
Colour distributions are random, and worked with a random number generator for bronzes, browns, blues and greens.
For each egg, we randomly generate a number, with the following results:
0-9 bronze
10-30 brown
31-60 blue
61-99 green
This means that while each clutch will be different, and some may contain larger amounts of some colours than is normal, or completely miss out a colour, over time the proportions of each colour hatched will tend towards the correct proportions.
Queen eggs are predetermined, and are simply added on as an extra. For example, if we know we're having a queen egg, and we roll 21 eggs, the clutch will contain 21 normal eggs and 1 queen egg.
2) What does the BoD look for in a candidate (to Impress)?
When considering who will Impress, we will look at two things:
1) How active that character has been, and
2) How well written the sheet is.
For example, if you're character has been approved for three months, and you've posted with them twice, the chance of their Impressing is slight. Unless you've been other wise active in the Weyr, and had a reason for not playing them (which the BoD needs to know), like, for example, your mother was really sick and you just didn't have the time to play a candidate without neglecting ranking characters. On the other hand, if you HAVE ranking characters, the BoD is likely to trust you already.
Less important is how well the character is developed on their sheet. If you write the mere minimum you could get away with on the sheet, don't expect to Impress too highly. We want to know that you've put as much thought and work into the character as we have into the dragonet (each takes an hour (minimum). Also, the more we know about your character, the better we can match them to a dragonet.
3) Are clutches themed, and what's with the guessing contest?
Most of our clutches are themed, although this is not true of all of them. Bipeth's last clutch, for example, was not be themed (although certain dragonets are based off themes, there is no continuous theme throughout the clutch). If a clutch is themed, an announcement will be made to that effect, and a contest run to see who picks up the theme first. This will work in the following way:
The contest will be announced, and guesses will be mailed to the BoD email (guesses posted on the mailing list will not be counted). The first person to guess correctly will win whatever the contest prize was.
For a non-themed clutch, a smaller competition will be run - those dragonets that are based off something that we think you can guess (like a well known character or something) will be listed, and the person who gets the most correct will win.
4) Candidate gender. Does it matter?
Yes. Females on fighting dragons at Telgar are not the norm. They are looked down on by the Weyrleader, and as such he tries to restrict the number of female candidates standing.
Females in a weyrling class will be restricted. No more than 1/3 of the class will be female riders, and most of those will be on greens, with one or two blues and MAYBE a brown.
5) The egg pictures. Where do they come from?
Astrid makes them up on a program called Ultra Fractal 2, with occasionally a small amount of editing with photoshop. She's got a small store of spares, which she's willing to let people use if she gets credit, and permission is asked.
6) "Why didn't my character [insert name here] Impress?"
Well, firstly, there's a couple of possible reasons:
1) You only put down one colour choice for them - if you do this, and none of the dragonets written in that colour match your character, you won't Impress. Simple.
2) None of the dragonets we had was a good match for your character - we put alot of effort into writing our dragonets. Matching them to the right character is important - we try to pick a rider we feel that dragonet would actually Impress to.
3) You hadn't been active enough with that character for us to give them a dragonet - again, alot of work goes into writing those dragonets. If you haven't been posting, we're not going to want to give you one. We don't write them so they can spend their lives gathering dust. Just to give you an idea, a dragonet takes ATLEAST an hour to write. Each.
Oh, and then there's the slightly more specific version:
"Why didn't my character Impress a [insert desired dragonet colour here]? You gave them a [insert dragonet's actual colour here]."
Ummm... well.
Look at 3 above. The higher the colour you wish to Impress, the more your character should be played.
Also, if you don't want your character to Impress anything other than a certain colour, if you feel you wouldn't play them if they Impressed a different colour, DON"T WRITE ANY OTHER COLOURS DOWN. The BoD can not read your mind. If you won't play a character if they Impress a blue (for example) DO NOT WRITE BLUE DOWN in their preferences. Simple, huh?
Please note that if you do write down a colour you don't actually want, Impress it, and then don't play it, it may hurt your future chances of Impressing.
If you have a question about our Hatchings that is not answered here, please email dragon.of.storms@gmail.com - we'll answer your question and stick it up on the site for others to see.
Queens and Telgar Weyr
1)Why do the Queens keep dying?
Cause someone's killing them. Obviously.
2) Can I have a queen?
Hmm, tricky. We only have a certain number of queen positions available at any one time, and if those are full, we won't be accepting applications from anyone.
If there's a free spot, your application will certainly be considered, but I will NEVER guarantee someone a queen slot. When a slot becomes vacant, it will either be offered to someone who's proved themselves around the Weyr, who's been here a while and posted regularly, or be held open to anyone who wants to apply, and a character chosen from amongst those submitted.
3) What's the average lifespan of a queen rider at the moment?
Hmmm... variable. Tachea's been around for years, but Jinea lasted hardly anytime at all. I will NEVER guarantee a queen rider a long and full life, so if you apply for a queen position bear in mind that I reserve the right to kill them off anytime, anywhere, anyway. I will, however, always give notice of this.
4) I still want a queen. What can I do to get one?
Well, I won't ever guarantee you a queen, but here's what we look for when we consider who gets one:
1 - Activity. We won't give a queen to someone who isn't active. This is with both your queen candidate AND your other characters, particularly your rankers. If you have other rankers - wingleaders, CMs, AWLMs, Master Craftsmen, etc and you don't play them, we won't be likely to give you a gold. The candidate herself also needs to be active.
2 - Post quality. If you post two or three sentences, you're less likely to Impress a gold. This is because we'll develop less of a feel for the character.
3 - Sheet quality. If you write the bare minimum on your candidates sheet, they're unlikely to Impress. I refuse to give a gold to a character whose entire sheet is shorter than the dragons personality. Similarly, if the sheet is bland and generic with nothing to set it apart from anyone else, they probably won't get gold. Use your imagination and flesh them out. Everyone has something interesting about them. Everyone has quirks, and amusing anecdotes about their childhood. They don't have to be superwoman (in fact, we love flaws) but they do need to be able to stand out to us as their own person, not fade into all the others.
4 - Honesty. If you want your character to Impress nothing but a gold, run them as a gold only candidate. We have no objection to that. But if you put down multiple colours, we will assume you will be HAPPY with multiple colours. We're not mind readers. And putting down multiple colours and then listing your candidates as Not Standing for any clutch without a gold egg will be frowned upon.
5 - OOC behaviour. Pestering the BoD about it isn't going to get us to give you a gold. In fact, the more you whine at us about it, the less likely you are to get one. Gold riders are a privelege, not a right. We won't tell you where your candidate stands in the ranks for gold. we won't tell you WHEN the next gold will be, and we won't promise to give you one.
6 - Be involved. Not just in the posting side of Telgar, but in all aspects. Get out there, recruit players, ask us about running any plotlines you may be considering.
7 - A candidate bought in after the clutch is laid will only be considered for Gold Impression under very special circumstances.
