Rules and Post Format
Out of Character Rules:
1.) Because of the darker setting of Arisen Dark: Fort Weyr, writers need to be at least 15 years old or older. Your characters can be younger, otherwise we’ve have no weyrbrats ;), but *you* need to be at least 15 years old. We would prefer that parents not get annoyed with us for letting their younger children play at this dark setting. By joining the list, you will be agreeing to these terms and conditions by default and to the codes of behaviour suggested.
Addition to Rule 1.a) The BoD would like to remind you that this game deals with a lot of things that are not pleasant, such as abuse, rape, and homophobia. Emotional triggers are bound to come up. This of course is not the main theme of our game but these themes are very prevalent within it, so if you feel that you will be uncomfortable here, we recommend using your discression and chosing a different game (perhaps our old Sister Site Arolos Weyr). However, in the interest of being considerate to those who who *do* want to play here but possibly might have those emotional triggers to the above listed aspects, we request that if you have any hard-core content in your post that relates to abuse, rape, and homophobia please put **WARNING** in your subject line (even if you are on the X-list), as well as the content you are warning for (i.e rape, abuse, extreme violence, incest, homophobia, etc).
Addition to Rule 1.b) We do have a more adult list that you must be 18 to join and where all explicit and the ‘darkest’ posts will be kept separate. The main list will not allow graphic sex scenes nor sexual writing of any sort featuring characters under 16. Nowhere on any list will we allow descriptions of activity more explicit than kissing between those 15 or younger. This is Pern and it happens there as much as it is in real life, but we don’t need nor want the law to come after us. If you do not want to read the more graphic parts, do not join the adult list.
Addition to Rule 1.c) While violence of all sorts is a fact of life for our characters, we request that you the writer keep it within reason and with a minimum of gratuitous description on the main list out of respect for other players.Cultivate menace and implication rather than terribly graphic, gory description and you’ll be on a winning road. If you want to do graphic and gory descriptions, that is what the X list is for.
2.) If you have a problem with something in the game, please talk to the BoD- *not* to the other players. We want the game to be a nice, drama free environment that we can all enjoy, and for that to happen we (the BoD) need to know when someone has a problem. We might not be able to completely fix it, but we will attempt our best to do so. Flaming, which is anything inflammatory, offensive, or that the BoD decide is such, is not tolerated in the game and will be subject to first a warning and then more serious actions up to and including removal from the game.
3.) RP is carried out in 3rd person, which is past tense. Experimentation with different styles is ok, but we have noticed that 3rd person writing has been the most successful. Full posts, which are entire scenes written out off list between one or more writers and then posted on the lists in a complete post (or multiple parts depending on the post size) are allowed, following the format specified below. However, our main method of posting is on the yahoo lists in a round-robin format, which is where a writer starts a thread, others reply, and the post goes back and forth.
4.) This is more a guideline than an actual rule, but: Lurking is fine with us! We don’t mind if you join the lists and wait a bit before making a character to get a feel for the setting. Read some posts, get comfortable with what the current plots are, say ‘Hi’ to people, make a few friends. Really, we are fine with it if you want to lurk and it doesn’t matter for how long. If your lurking turns into trolling or evidence of plagiarism surfaces however, you will be moderated or banned outright.
Addition to Rule 1.a) The BoD would like to remind you that this game deals with a lot of things that are not pleasant, such as abuse, rape, and homophobia. Emotional triggers are bound to come up. This of course is not the main theme of our game but these themes are very prevalent within it, so if you feel that you will be uncomfortable here, we recommend using your discression and chosing a different game (perhaps our old Sister Site Arolos Weyr). However, in the interest of being considerate to those who who *do* want to play here but possibly might have those emotional triggers to the above listed aspects, we request that if you have any hard-core content in your post that relates to abuse, rape, and homophobia please put **WARNING** in your subject line (even if you are on the X-list), as well as the content you are warning for (i.e rape, abuse, extreme violence, incest, homophobia, etc).
Addition to Rule 1.b) We do have a more adult list that you must be 18 to join and where all explicit and the ‘darkest’ posts will be kept separate. The main list will not allow graphic sex scenes nor sexual writing of any sort featuring characters under 16. Nowhere on any list will we allow descriptions of activity more explicit than kissing between those 15 or younger. This is Pern and it happens there as much as it is in real life, but we don’t need nor want the law to come after us. If you do not want to read the more graphic parts, do not join the adult list.
Addition to Rule 1.c) While violence of all sorts is a fact of life for our characters, we request that you the writer keep it within reason and with a minimum of gratuitous description on the main list out of respect for other players.Cultivate menace and implication rather than terribly graphic, gory description and you’ll be on a winning road. If you want to do graphic and gory descriptions, that is what the X list is for.
2.) If you have a problem with something in the game, please talk to the BoD- *not* to the other players. We want the game to be a nice, drama free environment that we can all enjoy, and for that to happen we (the BoD) need to know when someone has a problem. We might not be able to completely fix it, but we will attempt our best to do so. Flaming, which is anything inflammatory, offensive, or that the BoD decide is such, is not tolerated in the game and will be subject to first a warning and then more serious actions up to and including removal from the game.
3.) RP is carried out in 3rd person, which is past tense. Experimentation with different styles is ok, but we have noticed that 3rd person writing has been the most successful. Full posts, which are entire scenes written out off list between one or more writers and then posted on the lists in a complete post (or multiple parts depending on the post size) are allowed, following the format specified below. However, our main method of posting is on the yahoo lists in a round-robin format, which is where a writer starts a thread, others reply, and the post goes back and forth.
4.) This is more a guideline than an actual rule, but: Lurking is fine with us! We don’t mind if you join the lists and wait a bit before making a character to get a feel for the setting. Read some posts, get comfortable with what the current plots are, say ‘Hi’ to people, make a few friends. Really, we are fine with it if you want to lurk and it doesn’t matter for how long. If your lurking turns into trolling or evidence of plagiarism surfaces however, you will be moderated or banned outright.
In- Character Rules:
1.) The *main* idea of this setting is that in-character actions have in-character consequences, and we even have a punishment generator to help facilitate those consequences (skewed though it is in the favor of rankers, as it should be). If, for example, your crafter gets into a fight with a rider, oh Faranth help them, no rider would overlook that kind of disrespect in their Weyr, especially not *Fort* Weyr. Officially, that crafter would certainly be punished by their craftmaster- but remember, that the same crafter might unofficially be the subject of a beating courtesy of that rider and his friends too.
2.) New players are not allowed a ranking character as their first character at Arisen Dark: Fort Weyr. If you are a writer from the old Dark Fort, the site where this concept began, this rule is adjusted a bit, as per the information lower down on the page to facilitate your old characters.
3.) Firelizards are much more rare in the North than the South, where the beaches that firelizards prefer laying their eggs on abound . Most characters from the North will not have more than one firelizard, and if your character does have one you need to explain how and why your character owns one in their history. Whers are not considered pets because of their reputation for violence if lacking training, however there are some around the Weyr and they are a little more common than they used to be, with the murders that have been happening, so they most often owned by the Weyr guards. Riders are not allowed to impress to whers, being too close in temperament to their dragon lifemates.
4.) Please refer to the Candidate Information page for the complete list of Candidate requirements and rules. In-game, Fort Weyr and those in charge very much prefer male candidates to female candidates, so feel free to make as many male candidates as you please. Female candidates will have some restrictions, listed in the Candidate Information, but with the current lack of people in the Weyr in general some people are going to have to swallow their opinions as female candidates are given a little more attention than they had been. When making candidates, be aware that this Fort Weyr game is not a Hatching-orientated game- meaning we will only Hatch one PC clutch per real life year at the most. The good news about that is that it gives to time to develop not just your candidates, but weyrlings and all your other characters as well without the worry of ‘have I posted well enough to Impress this Hatching’?
5.) When making and playing your characters remember one thing: flaws are a good thing and help give you plots. Perfect characters will be looked at skeptically before they are rejected and you are asked to make them interesting with some flaws. Everyday people have things (even little things) wrong with them, both physically and mentally, and that is what we want to see in characters. Remember that flaws aren’t just scars on a body or an intriguing disability, but the weakness and habits and nervous tics and all the other things that make up a gooey, interesting RP character with three dimensions.
6.) Keep in mind that Pern does not have our level of medical care or technology, so that means that severe injury is usually pretty difficult to recover from and multiple births are uncommon. Another factor to remember is that with a lack of medical technology women can easily die in childbirth. Twins are rare. Triplets even less so. If we see sets of siblings higher than twins and triplets we won’t have a problem assigning them defects or developmental problems...if all the siblings survive at all. Also remember that even if all siblings survive birth if the mother can’t find a milk mother to help her the babies could still easily starve or suffer from malnutrition.
7.) Women can ride green, blue, and gold dragons...however the few women on green and especially blue are subject to severe prejudice and hostile attitudes that have not only developed but grown rock-solid over generations at Fort. Men can ride green, blue, brown, and bronze. We do not restrict Impression based on a character’s sexual orientation, however there are ingrained in-character expectations based on the color that a character Impresses. Bronzeriders will mostly be heterosexual, male greenriders will mostly be homosexual and so on. But, EACH AND EVERY gold, bronze, and brownrider in-game had best act heterosexual - or they are courting trouble- and the unchanging view of green and blueriders (male) is that they are homosexual/bisexual freaks, without regard for their actual orientation. Female greenriders are at least a little better looked upon than those ‘freaky’ female blueriders, as those greenriders at least do their duty for the Weyr every time their green flies (and any other time it’s ‘requested’ of them, if they have self preservation in mind). Female blueriders are really just the bottom of the ladder of appalling prejudice, freaks with no real purpose who have taken a dragon away from some deserving boy.
8.) Riders may be Journeymen in one of two cases: 1) if they Impressed after walking the tables and becoming a Journeymen or 2) if they became a Journeymen before the current Pass started, which currently was 22 turns ago.
2.) New players are not allowed a ranking character as their first character at Arisen Dark: Fort Weyr. If you are a writer from the old Dark Fort, the site where this concept began, this rule is adjusted a bit, as per the information lower down on the page to facilitate your old characters.
3.) Firelizards are much more rare in the North than the South, where the beaches that firelizards prefer laying their eggs on abound . Most characters from the North will not have more than one firelizard, and if your character does have one you need to explain how and why your character owns one in their history. Whers are not considered pets because of their reputation for violence if lacking training, however there are some around the Weyr and they are a little more common than they used to be, with the murders that have been happening, so they most often owned by the Weyr guards. Riders are not allowed to impress to whers, being too close in temperament to their dragon lifemates.
4.) Please refer to the Candidate Information page for the complete list of Candidate requirements and rules. In-game, Fort Weyr and those in charge very much prefer male candidates to female candidates, so feel free to make as many male candidates as you please. Female candidates will have some restrictions, listed in the Candidate Information, but with the current lack of people in the Weyr in general some people are going to have to swallow their opinions as female candidates are given a little more attention than they had been. When making candidates, be aware that this Fort Weyr game is not a Hatching-orientated game- meaning we will only Hatch one PC clutch per real life year at the most. The good news about that is that it gives to time to develop not just your candidates, but weyrlings and all your other characters as well without the worry of ‘have I posted well enough to Impress this Hatching’?
5.) When making and playing your characters remember one thing: flaws are a good thing and help give you plots. Perfect characters will be looked at skeptically before they are rejected and you are asked to make them interesting with some flaws. Everyday people have things (even little things) wrong with them, both physically and mentally, and that is what we want to see in characters. Remember that flaws aren’t just scars on a body or an intriguing disability, but the weakness and habits and nervous tics and all the other things that make up a gooey, interesting RP character with three dimensions.
6.) Keep in mind that Pern does not have our level of medical care or technology, so that means that severe injury is usually pretty difficult to recover from and multiple births are uncommon. Another factor to remember is that with a lack of medical technology women can easily die in childbirth. Twins are rare. Triplets even less so. If we see sets of siblings higher than twins and triplets we won’t have a problem assigning them defects or developmental problems...if all the siblings survive at all. Also remember that even if all siblings survive birth if the mother can’t find a milk mother to help her the babies could still easily starve or suffer from malnutrition.
7.) Women can ride green, blue, and gold dragons...however the few women on green and especially blue are subject to severe prejudice and hostile attitudes that have not only developed but grown rock-solid over generations at Fort. Men can ride green, blue, brown, and bronze. We do not restrict Impression based on a character’s sexual orientation, however there are ingrained in-character expectations based on the color that a character Impresses. Bronzeriders will mostly be heterosexual, male greenriders will mostly be homosexual and so on. But, EACH AND EVERY gold, bronze, and brownrider in-game had best act heterosexual - or they are courting trouble- and the unchanging view of green and blueriders (male) is that they are homosexual/bisexual freaks, without regard for their actual orientation. Female greenriders are at least a little better looked upon than those ‘freaky’ female blueriders, as those greenriders at least do their duty for the Weyr every time their green flies (and any other time it’s ‘requested’ of them, if they have self preservation in mind). Female blueriders are really just the bottom of the ladder of appalling prejudice, freaks with no real purpose who have taken a dragon away from some deserving boy.
8.) Riders may be Journeymen in one of two cases: 1) if they Impressed after walking the tables and becoming a Journeymen or 2) if they became a Journeymen before the current Pass started, which currently was 22 turns ago.
Post Format:
Here's the format for headers that go at the top of full posts (joint posts, JP’s, or Co-Posts, CPs, as they are sometimes called). Round robin (RR) posts, (or posts that switch from writer to writer on the list) don't have to have a header unless you just really want yours to.
Authors: (this would be you the writers)
Personas: (player characters-- ones you have full sheets for)
NPCs: ('extras' without full character sheets)
Mentioned: (other peoples' characters mentioned in your post. see below for rules on this)
Location: (‘in Rider X’s weyr’, ‘at the Weyr lake’, or ‘at the Rider’s table in the Dining Hall’)
Relative Date: ('two days after the Hatching,' 'during the storm', or even the specific Pern date)
Summary: (brief summary of post)
To mention a character: Make sure not to mention that a character has done something that the author hasn’t actually written or something that your character wouldn’t feasibly know about even if you (the writer) know it happened. For example: Say Mialee’s writer wrote about Mialee tripping in the hallway as she carried a basket of clean laundry and spilled the laundry all over the floor. As it is a public place where this happened then it’s okay for your character to have seen and/or comment on it. But, if that same laundry spilling accident happened in Rider X’s weyr, then unless Rider X or Mialee is a gossip and their writers have written them telling other people your character won’t have a reason to know about what happened.
A note about author’s ‘personal’ NPCs, like a child or a weyrmate: It is expected that you exercise caution in regards to that NPC and what actions you might want to say that NPC has done. And as always, if you have any doubts feel free to ask.
Authors: (this would be you the writers)
Personas: (player characters-- ones you have full sheets for)
NPCs: ('extras' without full character sheets)
Mentioned: (other peoples' characters mentioned in your post. see below for rules on this)
Location: (‘in Rider X’s weyr’, ‘at the Weyr lake’, or ‘at the Rider’s table in the Dining Hall’)
Relative Date: ('two days after the Hatching,' 'during the storm', or even the specific Pern date)
Summary: (brief summary of post)
To mention a character: Make sure not to mention that a character has done something that the author hasn’t actually written or something that your character wouldn’t feasibly know about even if you (the writer) know it happened. For example: Say Mialee’s writer wrote about Mialee tripping in the hallway as she carried a basket of clean laundry and spilled the laundry all over the floor. As it is a public place where this happened then it’s okay for your character to have seen and/or comment on it. But, if that same laundry spilling accident happened in Rider X’s weyr, then unless Rider X or Mialee is a gossip and their writers have written them telling other people your character won’t have a reason to know about what happened.
A note about author’s ‘personal’ NPCs, like a child or a weyrmate: It is expected that you exercise caution in regards to that NPC and what actions you might want to say that NPC has done. And as always, if you have any doubts feel free to ask.