
INTRODUCTION TO THE WORLD OF PERNMUSH

More than you ever wanted to know about PernMUSH, by
Amberyl, Jeniath's rider, Benden Weyr, wizard of Pern.

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CONTENTS

I. What's PernMUSH?

II. How do I get started?
   A. How do I get a home?
   B. Help! I don't understand MUSH!

III. What's going on?
   A. Some common terms
   B. Etiquette
   C. Problems with the game

IV. How do I become...
   A. A crafter?
   B. A Holder?
   C. A dragonrider?

V. Who's in charge?
   A. The craft council
   B. The Conclave of Holders
   C. The weyrleader council
   D. The wizard council

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I. What's PernMUSH?

    PernMUSH is a Multi-User Shared Hallucination based on the world of
Anne McCaffrey's Dragonriders of Pern series. It is a game, accessible via
the Internet, which allows its players to take roles in a virtual world
which is based on the world just prior to the Tenth Pass of the Red Star.
The emphasis is on role-playing and creativity, whether in playing a
character, building a section of the world, or programming nifty toys.

    Familiarity with Anne McCaffrey's books will enhance your experience
and definitely lessen any confusion you might feel; they aren't necessary
reading but they certainly are recommended! The books, grouped into rough
trilogies and a suggested reading order, are:

1. Dragonflight                 4. Dragonsinger
2. Dragonquest                  5. Dragonsong
3. The White Dragon             6. Dragondrums

7. Moreta, Dragonlady of Pern
8. Nerillka's Story

9. Dragonsdawn
10. Renegades of Pern
11. All the Weyrs of Pern

    The first six books make up the "core" books describing the Pern
world. Dragonsinger/Dragonsong/Dragondrums (The Harper Hall Trilogy)
are set chronologically between Dragonquest and the White Dragon, so
adjust your reading order if you like things in chronological rather
than in publication order.

    _Moreta_ and _Nerilka_ are set roughly in the middle of Pern's
history, and tell the story of Pern's devastating influenza epidemic
from two different viewpoints.

    _Dragonsdawn_ tells of Pern's origin and the colonization of the
planet. _Renegades_ jumps back to the "present" of the earlier books
(the Ninth Pass), and describes the beginning of the rediscovery of high
technology. _All the Weyrs of Pern_ (often just called _AtWoP_) explains
how the Pernese return to a highly technological society.

    This last book is officially ignored by PernMUSH. The level of
technology is roughly equal to the level of technology in _The White
Dragon_; there have been a few technical innovations, but nothing
extremely major. This preserves the "back to basics" flavor of Pern,
and a level of technology roughly equal to just before the Steam Age
of the real world.

    There are two more books used as reference books. The major one is
_The Atlas of Pern_, used as the guide to building for all construction
on Pern. This is, sadly, out of print, although diligent hunting might
turn up a copy in a second-hand bookstore. The other book, available
in hardcover, is _The Dragonlovers Guide to Pern_ (The DLG).
The DLG is used as the more or less authoritative source for material
about the world of Pern, and is a terrific reference work.

    These books make up what you will often hear referred to as
"the canon". If someone tells you that "that isn't canon", they mean
that they believe that it doesn't or shouldn't exist in the world of Pern.

Armed with your knowledge of the books, you are now ready to proceed
to figuring out what the heck is going on in the game.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

II. How do I get started?

A. How do I get a home?

    Upon connecting to PernMUSH for the first time, you will be in a room
called "Birthplace". From there, you can pass through a series of rooms
and determine where you were born. Information about the various places
you can live is available in the Birthplace, and in News (type "news"
to read news).

    New characters initially live in the equivalent of dormitories, with
many people sharing a common room. To get a room of your own, you should
talk with the person who is in charge of your birthplace. You can usually
get this name from reading news, or typing "examine here" and seeing who
the room is owned by.

    Getting an official "position" on Pern also generally gives you a
private room. See the information below on joining the various Pern
organizations.

B. Help! I don't understand MUSH!

    MUSH is the generic name for the language you use to communicate with
the game. Programs written in MUSH are ugly to look at, but it's easy for
non-programmers to learn and use.

    The first obvious resource for learning MUSH is the "help" file.
Reading through parts of the help file should help you get started. If
you're not into learning stuff by inhaling bits and pieces of information,
and you have access to anonymous FTP, you can FTP to caisr2.caisr.cwru.edu
(IP numbers 129.22.24.22), and look in the directory /pub/mush. There
are various files there, including a MUSH manual, some maps of Pern,
and more information about Pern. The latter two are somewhat dated,
but the former is kept fairly up-to-date; get the highest version of
"mushman" that you find.

    Reading through the MUSH manual is probably the easiest way to
learn MUSH. If you have problems, you can generally ask other players
for help. The people with "STAFF" as their "Doing" in the WHO list are
players who have volunteered to help people with any problems they
might be experiencing; feel free to ask them any questions you might
have about Pern, the MUSH, programming, or anything else. If you
encounter an extremely serious problem that a Staff member can't help
you with, page a wizard; there are usually several lurking about.

    There are two USENET newsgroups which have postings related to
PernMUSH. One is rec.games.mud, which is the general newsgroup for
MUDs, of which Pern is one. Information related to the technical
aspects of MUSHes can often be found here, as well of news of general
interest to players. The other newsgroup is alt.fan.pern, which is
a newsgroup where discussions of McCaffrey's writings takes place.
There are a fair number of PernMUSH postings here; it is considered
polite to put "PernMUSH" in the subject line if you are posting about
PernMUSH.

     There are also two mailing lists that may of be of interest
to Pern players. One is tinymush-programmers@gnu.ai.mit.edu, which
contains technical discussion of MUSH programming. The mailings
usually require a fair amount of competence with MUSH; this is a
great place to find out various programming tricks and techniques.
The other mailing list is mushhacks@caisr2.caisr.cwru.edu. This
is a mailing list for people who do programming work on the server
itself, in C.  This list is probably of interest to you only if
you're a C programmer with time to burn and an interest in
extending the capabilities of MUSH.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

III. What's going on?

A. Some common terms

    A fairly unique culture has grown up around the MUDs, and Pern's
social climate is more unique than most. There are a plethora of terms
that are specific to the MUD community, and are used freely in speech
on PernMUSH. Players on Pern are assumed to have at least minimal
familiarity with Anne McCaffrey's works, even if it's only from
reading through the encyclopedia at Harper Hall; players are also
expected to pick up the minimum technical vocabulary of MUSH from the
manual, and thus only "social" terms will be discussed here.

    Central to life on Pern are the terms VR, RL, IC, and OOC. They
stand for "virtual reality", "real life", "in character", and "out of
character", respectively. VR is the world of MUDs, and, more spefically,
PernMUSH. RL has the obvious meaning. IC means that you are acting as
your character would, with that character's beliefs, social status, etc.
OOC means that you are speaking as you-as-you - what the RL you feels
and believes.

    You can generally assume conversations in public places like the
Fort Hold Courtyard (#0) to be IC, or at least mostly IC. Thus, people
may express opinions or perform actions that you may find surprising -- a
crafter may call a dragonrider a parasite on the hard-working people of
Pern, a weyrling might go through harassment reminiscent of a Marine
boot-camp trainee, a Holder might drop to his knees and declare his undying
love to some woman, and the like.

    Extended IC situations with a developing storyline, which involve
many people, are usually referred to as "tinyplots". These range from
intrigues between lovers to the hunt for a murderer; don't be surprised
if you're standing around talking in the Courtyard and suddenly some
drama erupts around you. People tend to "react" in somewhat exaggerated
ways; this phenomenon is occasionally referred to as "tinyoveremoting".
Participating in a plot is a great way to get to know people and to
establish your character; it makes life on Pern much more interesting.

    Several words are related to game and network performance. The
game occasionally may "crash" -- something went wrong and it's no
longer running. This situation is temporary; see section C below.
Players will also often speak of "lag". This may either be slowness
caused by the game itself (someone is doing something that's
computationally expensive) or by "netlag" -- problems with the
Internet connections. There are also occasionally "netburps", when
the game drops connections for a large number of people. Generally,
people will say, "I got booted", if the net has dropped their
connection. Wizards also have the power of the "@boot" command, which
tells the game to drop a player's connection; if a wizard has done
this to you, you will be informed. The term is used generically
for any lost connection.

    The word "spam" refers to large amounts of text scrolling quickly
down one's screen. "Spam" is the text itself, "getting spammed" is
the act of becoming overloaded with too much text in too little time.

    The following is a list of abbreviations which are in common usage:

afp: alt.fan.pern
bot: machine or "robot"
db: Database
tf: TinyFugue, a program which replaces telnet
rgm: rec.games.mud
wiz: wizard, one of the administrators of the game

NC: PernMUSH, Northern Continent
SC: The Southern Continent MUSH, another Pern-based world
FL: Fire-lizard

BBL: Be Back Later
BRB: Be Right Back
FYI: For Your Information
IMHO: In My Humble (Holy) Opinion
LOL: Laughs Out Loud.
ROTFL: Rolls On The Floor Laughing
WRT: With Regard To

B. Etiquette

    PernMUSH, in many respects, is more like a community than a game.
It has a set of social customs and generally accepted mores; people
who play Pern tend to bond quite tightly and take what they are doing
fairly seriously. People who are overly flippant or make continual
nuisances of themselves can find themselves shunned very quickly.

    Pern's golden rule is BE POLITE. If something is rude in real life,
it is almost certainly rude on Pern. Don't swear at people; don't make
nasty personal remarks about people; don't argue personal issues in public.
Use common sense. Explicit sexual innuendos in public are always frowned
upon; also, the normal rules of "contact" between people in RL also apply
to VR. Don't violate someone's personal space. Also, don't reveal the
RL identities of people; some players don't want them known.

    Programming in public is often frowned upon, since a misprogrammed
object can interrupt conversations. Also, don't ask people you don't
know to test stuff out for you; this is comparable to walking up to
a total stranger on the street and asking him to please come look at
the nifty swingset you just built for your little brother.

    Whining is also frowned upon. Like in RL, you will have your
disappointments on Pern. Maybe you didn't get a fire-lizard, or one
of your objects broke, or your tinySO (the person who is role-playing
your VR significant other) just yelled at you. It's okay to complain
and moan; Pern players are generally sympathetic and friendly. Doing
this in public, however, especially for extended periods of time,
tends to brand you a whiner.

    The "kill" command is off-limits. If you want to role-play a
death, make sure that the person dying has agreed to do so! No
permanent damage is done, but it is considered rude in the extreme.
In fact, before drawing anybody into a tinyplot, make sure that
they want to be in it; this is especially true when role-playing
a scene at a party given by a Holder or at an Impression or similar
public event which is privately controlled.

    Combinations of two or more of the above characteristics is
likely to get you labled a "twink". Twinks may find that other
people ignore them, or have programmed things to keep twinks
from entering certain areas, using certain objects, or paging
certain people. If you are stupid enough to bring this down upon
yourself, wizards will be profoundly unsympathetic.

    All you have to remember is, just because you're sitting behind
a keyboard and have probably never met any of the people you're
talking to, doesn't give you license to be a jerk and throw away
two decades of socialization.

C. Problems with the game

    Occasionally, something goes wrong, and you won't be able to
connect to Pern. Don't panic; the game is usually up within a
few hours, or, if it's late at night, the next morning. Also,
be careful of false alarms.

    A "Connection Refused" message means that PernMUSH is down.
Try back again in fifteen minutes, or in a few hours. Don't send
mail and don't post to USENET; just relax and wait.

    A "Network Unreachable" message means that there's something
messed up someplace along the Internet, and you're not able to
connect to Pern. These problems seldom last for long; keep trying
and hoping.

    Sometimes, you'll be on Pern, and the game will freeze suddenly.
Wait a couple of minutes; if a wizard is doing something like
searching through the database for a lost object, there may be
a delay as long as twenty minutes or half an hour. From a UNIX
machine, you might try to use the "ping" command (usually found in
/usr/etc) to test the network. If there's no problem with "ping"
responses, you can usually assume that something's making the
game very slow. If not, then it's the network, and you'll just
have to wait it out.

    Don't whine to wizards about not being able to connect to Pern;
they're trying their hardest to keep the game running and, if there
was anything they could have done to prevent the problems, don't
you think they would have done it?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

IV. How do I become...

A. A crafter?

    Read "news crafts" on Pern to get a listing of the various active
crafts. Pick one that interests you, and then contact the Master of
that craft. You may also wish to talk to journeymen and masters in
that craft; they are often authorized to take apprentices, and can
certainly tell you more about being part of that craft.

    Crafts have different entrance requirements. RL knowledge of
a craft-related subject is a plus, but not necessary. Depending on
the craft's popularity, your interests, abilities, and personality,
you may or may not be accepted. Once in a craft, however, you may
not join another without quitting the first craft. This practice
is generally frowned upon.

    Criterion for promotion within a craft varies. A programming
project or some other major piece of work is often required for
promotion; characters who spend more time on Pern, even if just
socializing, are also likely to be promoted faster. Promotions
are also faster in smaller crafts.

    There are some crafts which have not officially been started
yet. If you have the time, and are willing to put in a fair amount
of administrative work, you can request to become a Craftmaster.
Requests are considered by the Craft Council at their monthly
meetings (see the later section of this document).

    But why be a crafter in the first place? Well... being a crafter
gives you a sense of identity. You have an official position on Pern,
and a solid background to role-play around. Your first friends on Pern
are likely to be fellow apprentices, and you have mentors in the form
of journeymen and masters, whose job is to help you. If you're later
planning on becoming a dragonrider, a solid record in a craft is a
plus (although you cannot be ranked higher than apprentice if you wish
to become a candidate). Otherwise, crafting provides a goal; your
projects receive publicity from being "craft approved", and you can
earn rank and responsibility.

    Certain crafts tend to attract people with certain kinds of interests.
MUSH programmers tend to gravitate towards the Smiths; players primarily
interested in socializing and role-playing tend to join the Healers or
the Harpers. Large-scale building is not often done by non-Mastercrafters,
since the Hall is usually built at its founding. There are exceptions,
however, especially in the newer crafts.

     Don't make any hasty decisions when joining a craft; shop around
a bit and make sure you like what you're joining. Also, don't assume
that the bigger crafts are necessarily the best; many of the smaller
crafts have excellent Masters.

B. A Holder?

    Some people choose to continue to live in a Hold. Those people who
enjoy role-playing having families and settling down to a stable life
are generally attracted to Holding; this is also the best choice if
you're interested in large-scale construction of parts of Pern.

    Being a Lord Holder or Holder of another major place, like Hold Gar,
requires some effort put into Hold management -- getting players to live
in the Hold, having Gathers, building an attractive place to live, and
participating in the Conclave of Holders. A Holder often has a Steward
or Headwoman to help him; those two positions also exist in the Crafts
and Weyrs, and are responsible for organizing the daily affairs in the
Hold. If you enjoy role-playing management, being a Holder or in a
related position may be perfect for you.

    There are also many players, especially those without a lot of time
to play, who choose to be holders -- more-or-less everyday inhabitants
of Pern. If you're new to Pern and feeling very lost, you may wish to
settle down in a Hold for a few weeks, look around, and then decide what
position you wish to permanently occupy.

C. A dragonrider?

    Dragonriding is perhaps the most difficult occupation to enter.
PernMUSH follows the traditions of Search, Candidacy, and Impression,
although these are modified slightly to fit the game world. Each Weyr
does these differently, depending on the tastes of the Weyrleader and
Weyrwoman. Each Weyr also has its own distinct flavor; once in a certain
Weyr, transfer is frowned upon, so make sure you like the place that
you're planning on Impressing at.

    Some Weyrs allow you to request Candidacy; others require you to
be found on Search. The best way to attract notice is to put something
in your description saying that you'd like to be a candidate, and then
hang out in public places. Searchriders, like other people, dislike
obnoxiousness, cluelessness, and rudeness, so don't be a twink.

    Candidates are required to complete a project of some sort, and
to have, by the time of their Impression, a working knowledge of MUSH.
A candidate project may double as a craft project; it may be building,
programming, or something else determined by the Weyrleaders. The
projects generally take a fair amount of time to do, but the riders
of the Weyr are usually happy to assist.

    Impression is subjective. It is not random, and it may not be
fair, at least not in your opinion. The Weyrs try hard to make it so,
but there's always an element of subjectivity when a Weyrwoman decides
who gets dragons and who doesn't. It is a priviledge and an honor just
to be chosen; there are always many more candidates than there are
dragons. If you don't succeed, you may try again. You may only Stand
for Impression twice for each Candidacy project you do. The Weyrs are
looking for different things in their people, so someone who is rejected
by one Weyr might Impress a bronze at another Weyr's Hatching.

    You are not allowed to choose your dragon color. Women are usually
asked if they are only interested in a gold, or if they are not intersted
in a gold at all. The only rules with regard to gender and color is that
only women may Impress golds and only men may Impress bronzes.

    You may only Impress a dragon once. If you don't get the color you
"want", tough. Most people will be profoundly unsympathetic if you whine
about this, since there are many, many disappointed candidates at every
Hatching.

    Goldriders are required to take on a fair amount of responsibility.
If you wish to Impress a gold, you will need to commit quite a bit of
time to Pern -- at least several hours a week. Gold riders are expected
to be responsible, mature, competent with MUSH, and able to manage a
Weyr. There are very few queenriders; those who Impress a gold can
expect to be constantly in positions of responsibility, and will be
required to conduct a Search/Clutching/Hatching cycle once every few
months. The latter is very time-consuming; do not present yourself as
a queen candidate unless you have a lot of time.

    The period following Impression also tends to eat large chunks of
time. New weyrlings are taught the basics of dragon programming, various
weyr customs (in a pseudo-military boot camp style), drills of all
sorts (both ground and aerial), and, eventually, how to fly and go
Between.

    The Red Star is about to make its Tenth Pass. The crafters and
holders will be on the ground with flamethrowers; dragonriders will
be fighting Thread in the air. Training and drills in preparation
for Threadfall are expected to become more common in the future.

    Dragonriders tend to do a fair amount of programming, although there
are many who just like to hang out and role-play. Riding is a good choice
if you have time to spend on Pern, are self-motivated and enjoy doing
projects on your own, and like standing around talking to people.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

V. Who's in charge?

A. The Craft Council

    The Craft Council meets once a month to talk about issues which affect
all the crafts. The Mastercrafter represents his craft on the council;
normally, only these Masters participate in the discussion, although
others, including non-crafters, are welcome to listen to the proceedings.
One representative from the Conclave of Holders, and one from the weyrs,
also have votes.

    The Craft Council is the only entity on Pern which can create new
crafts and Mastercraftsmen. Its role is purely administrative; at each
meeting, the Masters give a report of the status of their craft, and
bring up any concerns they might have.

    The council elects three representatives, one each to the weyrs,
Holds, and wizards. The position of chair of the council is democratically
elected, and changes from time to time.

B. The Conclave of Holders

    All major Holders - Lords, and those Holding large areas like Balan
or Gar - are members of the Conclave of Holders. This council generally
has a rotating chair, with meetings held monthly at different Holds.
Its purpose is to decide issues which affect the Holders. They determine
who may become a Holder, who may build a major Hold, when Gathers are
held, and other matters of interest to the main residential areas of Pern.

    The Conclave elects three representatives, one each to the weyrs,
crafts, and wizards. Meetings generally consist of Hold status reports
followed by a discussion of any issues a Holder wants to raise. These
monthly meetings are open to the public, although only Holders may
speak and vote.

C. The Weyrleader Council

    Unlike the Holds and Crafts, the Weyrleader Council consists of just
that - the Weyrleaders and senior Weyrwomen of PernMUSH. They meet
privately, generally once per month, to discuss issues affecting all
the Weyrs. These meetings are by invitation only; they sometimes include
weyrseconds, wingleaders, and junior weyrwomen. There are no general
open meetings for all Weyrs, although separate Weyrs occasionally hold
meetings for the riders of just that Weyr.

    An all-dragonrider vote in the past elected the representatives of
the Weyrs to the Conclave of Holders, Craft Council, and wizards.
This representative - and the representative of the Holds and crafts -
are privy to the larger Weyrleader meetings.

D. The Wizard Council

    PernMUSH is essentially a benign dictatorship. Moonchilde is
the final authority on all matters. He does, however, leave the
day to day running of the game to the eight other wizards of Pern.
The wizards have commands available to them that aren't available
to ordinary players; they exist to help players, administrate the
game, and settle any conflicts which may arise.

    When "wizarding", a wizard is Out of Character, and has absolute
authority in that situation; wizard decisions must be appealed through
Moonchilde. PernMUSH has a fair number of rules. You might decide that
you don't like some of them. Wizards will not, in general, be interested
in arguing the fine philosophical points of these rules with you, nor will
they be interested in, for example, your explanation of why you thought
it morally necessary to spew four-letter words at a player in the Courtyard.
The wizards try to be fair, and will generally try to let situations
resolve themselves. Wizards will not, however, hesitate to discipline
players who are being intentionally disruptive.

    Wizards are also the final authority on whether or not something
is allowable on Pern. They decide whether or not something is canon,
or is inappropriate behavior, or is against the rules of the MUSH.
Wizards normally attempt to stay out of personal disputes or arguments
internal to an organization; they exist to supervise the game as
a whole.

   The Wizard Council consists of Moonchilde and the eight wizards of
PernMUSH. It holds monthly meetings, open to the public, and discusses
issues of interest to all of Pern. Representatives from the crafts,
Holds, and Weyrs all make summary reports to the wizards; if you don't
attend any of the other meetings, this is a good place to find out
what's been going on. These meetings are where all major policy gets
discussed and voted upon. There is an open-forum question and answer
session after every wiz meeting.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This should give you more than enough information to get started on
Pern. The people of PernMUSH are friendly; if you need any help, just
page a staff member or a wizard, and they'll be glad to assist.

Clear skies!

