Partner(s) in crime?

The Feather · Post by **The Feather** » Sun Feb 12, 2006 11:53 pm

Hey all! I am, as the sig suggests, a newbie in nearly every way--to this forum and to the whole mythical creatures drawing/writing/websiting community.

I'm not unfamiliar with roleplay or draconic beasties, though, as I've spent the past couple years playing on a PernMU*. Unfortunately, my life got too busy to RP five or ten hours a week, and so I'm hiatus-ing from that. But I still need something to entertain my brain, so I thought I'd try this out.

I popped over to geocities and registered ChemmisWeyr (the site's in the very early stages of construction--visit at your own risk!), and am nosing my way around. I've already found a number of places I'd love to write up a candidate for, and I think it would be great fun to do my own set of hatchings once I've settled in a bit.

However, my artistic skills are, we shall say in an understatement-of-the-century kind of way, lacking. And I really feel kind of out of everything, in spite of reading up on some threads here and following links hither and yon. I'm wondering whether anyone's interested in playing "help the newbie" a bit, maybe giving me pointers to the nifty sites, or the spiffy people, or helping me out on the graphics front, or giving me suggestions as I prep my own Weyr (at the moment I'm feeling like I'd be more comfortable sticking to the Pernese format, though as that seems to be a bit out of style, I'm flexible).

Any general help and/or partners in crime would be super appreciated. And whenever you want a candidate for your next batch of whatevers, I'm there.

TyGryph · Post by **TyGryph** » Mon Feb 13, 2006 12:38 am

Welcome to the insanity! I think we were just wishing for some new blood to show up, and here you are. Yay!

I can't help on the art bit -- I'm overly involved in my own project at the moment (The Flurry at Nidus Ryslen -- the information is all in the Frenzy section of the forum, so I won't rehash in your thread)...

but I'm excited for the new venue, and to see what sorts of fun things you throw into the mix. RP folk often have brains full of good writing material. ^_^

So... yeah. If you have questions about running your Weyr or ... practically anything, just throw the question on the board and somebody will answer.

I'm kindof "old hat" at this; my agency's been around for more than five years. (Which is a good long time in this ephemeral world of cyberpets.) Feel free to catch me on IM; I'm online randomly enough you should be able to catch me. ^_^

Rachael · Post by **Rachael** » Mon Feb 13, 2006 1:06 am

If you want to collaborate on art-stuffs, I'm more than willing to help. =) I've got the sporadic time on my hands, and I'd like to try and draw more like the original dragons which drew me to dragons most strongly years ago. =D

Shard · Post by **Shard** » Mon Feb 13, 2006 1:10 am

Hello!! Greetings and welcome to the Nexus!

I've got art, several sets of existing pernese type templates, so if you're interested they're yours if you wish. I'm sure someone will be able to work up something for you!

And in the meantime, just feel free to look around and ask whatever you want, jump into the Phorum silliness, all that jazz!

Shiolar · Post by **Shiolar** » Mon Feb 13, 2006 3:03 am

Welcome, greetings and generalised hello!

You'll probably find that everybody here is going to be happy to help you out, but I'll throw in my own offer as well. I'm more than happy to do up some images for you, for dragons, firelizards, and whatever else you want to adopt out. And once you have a clutch running, I'll toss a Candidate or two your way.

As for spiffy people, that'd be just about everyone here. They're all very welcoming and helpful. I'm still something of a newbie at this myself; I've been here about six months.

For the nifty sites, again that'd be pretty much all of them. There's such a lot of variety here, so it's usually possible to find the perfect clutch for just about any Candidate. For the moment, though, I'd second the Ryslen Flurry. There's some very nice dragons in the Flurry and Ty needs some more Candidates for it.

Post by **Dray** » Mon Feb 13, 2006 8:20 am

^_^ Hey, welcome to the Nexus!

The only thing that I can suggest for sure, when starting up a new agency, is to start off with smaller clutches. It generally takes a little while to get known, and if you're waiting around for people to fill giant clutches it can tend to get disheartening! 4-5 is generally a good place to start, and be sure to pimp out deadlines, since people tend to submit only hours before a clutch closes (XD Tsk tsk~!)
Better yet, use a deadline-based system like Phe (xenoqueen) does with the Abstract Destiny, where it doesn't matter how many candidates apply, so you don't feel like you have to wait for that /laaaaast/ egg-spot to fill up. That could be difficult with a Weyr-scenario, but you could always use dud-eggs, I s'pose. Or have IC weyrfolks not know the number of eggs beforehand. ^^

As for images--looks like everyone else has you covered already. XD Glad to see everyone is being so helpful!

Hope your stay at the Nexus is fun!

(>_> And if you're looking for exotic-ish kinds of dragons, please check out the Offworld Avengaea Bonding Project! X3 I want to read more stories, and give out more dragons, but it seems that people have lost interest in it. <_>')

Asha Wermyst · Post by **Asha Wermyst** » Mon Feb 13, 2006 10:25 am

If you're looking for partners in crime, I'm definately available. My art sucks, too. And I'm looking for buddies anyways.

Yakima · Post by **Yakima** » Mon Feb 13, 2006 5:22 pm

Hello! I'm not sure if I would have time to draw you anything and I'm not sure if my old set was claimed from Falas but I am glad to see a Pern Weyr! Yay!

Falas Weyr/FGPC WeyrHall are my two pernese site that are currently on stand still because I have my Shimmer Frenzy going presently and waiting on candidates for that (it's at the FGPC - Falas Genetic Program Center). THe FGPC's site is revamped and nearly done with the Weyr's (yay!). Lots of records to sort through.

Anyway...I have an old set I am no longer using if you are interested in it.

Hatchling

Weyrling

Adult

*scampers away to hopefully get Falas done!*

The Feather · Post by **The Feather** » Mon Feb 13, 2006 7:39 pm

Wow, you guys are awesome. Thanks for the many welcomes and all the offers to help!

I'll probably be getting in touch with some of you--mostly the graphics people--via e-mail pretty soon, once I get the site looking minimally presentable and can turn my energies to the next step. And I'm definitely already brainstorming candidates/whatever-ya-callums for some of those clutches.

Oh, and by the way Yakima, those dragons are beautiful. I definitely want a looksee at the rest of the colors, if you don't mind e-mailing 'em.

I do have a few questions that I done thunk up while ideas were knocking around in my brain:

1) Is an NPC concept ever used during web hatchings? You know, not all the spots filled up, so you just say a couple random Dragonths went to a couple random R'ders? That could clear up any no-fills I run into.

2) To what extent is powerposing used? In the MU* world, it's a humongo no-no. But I'm not entirely sure how flights and hatchings are done here; it seems like the clutchmum is mostly responsible for writing such things and controlling the actions going on in them, but...I dunno.

3) Is there One Awesome List anywhere of the active weyrs and whatnot, or at least a Pretty Good Compilation? I've found a bunch through just following link chains from a few websites, but feel like I'm bound to miss quite a few.

Thanks again! You guys are great.

Shard · Post by **Shard** » Mon Feb 13, 2006 8:06 pm

Right now, we have a small active group of sites listed in the Databases section stickied at the top.

And wow you ARE a M** person, I have no idea what powerposing means unless you mean power posTing?

In online hatchings, the person who either runs the dragonry OR has the female on the sands and is willing to, writes all hatchings. It's usually up to the owner of the dragonry to decide who gets what, however. I think most of us have NPC'd out a few clutches, I do it with my Dragonhope Weyr clutches numerous times.

One thing to remember here though, we are *not* pernese-all-over types. We were (I was) burned horribly by Pern fandom and the McCaffreys a while back, and thus because of myself and others being strongarmed and shoved around by the brownnosers in the pern community, we *left* pern. We created Alskyr and then Icarus, but in the meantime we were also just doing our own things. THe Nexus is alive with mostly pernese backgrounded dragons, but in the last few years we've done our own thing.

That's not to say there aren't active pure pernese sites (I have one), but they're quite rare these days. It'll be nice to see if you put one up, I'd like to continue fleshing out Dragonhope's ranks.

Aaand so you know, they call me the Geezer for a reason. Even though there are bunches of folks turning up who've been in the cyberpet adoption arena longer than I have... I probably have more riders on pages than any handful of folks combined.

So I try to keep up on new weyrs, and there've only been a few which opened since I started collecting that I *don't* have something from em.

Mystic Dragon · Post by **Mystic Dragon** » Mon Feb 13, 2006 8:42 pm

:3 And I'm one of the ones who was never part of Pern to begin with. What with the fanburning and the need for off-world acceptance, things just kinda gravitated away from Pern. There are still many active Weyrs though, but opening your doors to off-world agencies too will give you more candidate options.

The Feather · Post by **The Feather** » Mon Feb 13, 2006 9:37 pm

Powerposing - writing the actions or thoughts of another person's character for them, such as I think I've seen in the hatching stories I've caught sight of here and there. Just for clarification.

But yeah, You answered my question on that one, Shard. Thanks!

The more I read and hear about these other agencies, the more interested I am in them. I'm starting out with a Pern base simply because that's what I know, and it's easy enough for me to keep up with while I'm learning all the rest of the ropes. But you can place your bets on how soon I'll be littering pages with all kinds of other creatures (I have a buck on two weeks

).

Shard · Post by **Shard** » Mon Feb 13, 2006 10:04 pm

I think the main thing is, if you're going to run an agency or two, and want to do a traditional pern one, make your other a non-pern. Or, be prepared to accept... *whatever* comes your way for candidates.

It usually starts out easily enough. A were-creature here, a vampire there, a fairy, elves.... then 'taurs and toasters.

And you probably think I'm kidding...

((Actually I don't think anyone's SENT a toaster, but there's at least one candidate form rules that lists em. hee.))

I like the formality of a traditional pern grading scale, though I prefer our Alskyran color range (Adding a good quantity but balancing them out in terms of size, gender and ranking).

http://www.geocities.com/world_of_alskyr is the main page - unfortunately none of us have the geocities password for that site, since Falora left the dragoning scene a while back.
http://www.geocities.com/planeticarus/ I think is the icarus site, which may have a _ in it. It's got 4 winged draks who are elementally-colored, otherwise a similar feel to alskyr and pern.

Many of us have "Nexus worlds" which are on our own singly-created worlds, since there are so many of us and we all produce something, we don't always have the ability to lay down a castle or dragonry on a group world. If you see 'Nidus' in the title, it's a nexus world for sure. They usually accept whoever and whatever, from whereever.

The one main component is that the candidate be able to bond a dragon and take care of it properly. ((that doesn't always mean 'living', but usually 'sentient'.))

Yakima · Post by **Yakima** » Tue Feb 14, 2006 12:04 am

LOL thanks. I would want to clean up the lines a little bit or something before I send them your way and if you have a paint program such as Paint Shop Pro or Adobe Photoshop you could just take the templates so you could color your own later. Thanks to the FGPC mostly, there are quite a few strangly colored Pernese dragons that run around and there offpsring are able to be different colors, too! Love genetics! heehee...

I use NPC candidates all the time. I end up killing some off to keep a reality going with weyrlings dying durning training and keeping ones I need or like. I also dont write flights anymore unless the owner of the female wants one because I have found them quite boring (Falas is one of the last weyrs open since that McCaffrey scare...sad...

Been around a while and they got boring). Most of Falas' links are up todate for Pern based ones but I know there are Weyrs that are pretty much dead...

I have about 5 agencies myself: Falas and the FGPC on Pern; Lantir-setia Island on Alskyr; Treval Dragonry and Alair WolfKeep on Anar (my nexus world); and then there is Baskar Castle on Icarus which I don't think I'm going to keep anymore. Icarus is cool but for some reason it's not what I had pictured so I think I'm going to shove the info somewhere and horde it for a while. *shrug* Alair WolfKeep is for the winged wolves, anouther thing you might run into in some places. Currently have a Frenzy going on if you want to snag a few for whatever purposes. They make pretty good firelizard egg gaurds or beach patrols!

Or compantions to the Headwoman...heeehee..

Anyway...if you need HTML help or anything along those lines I'm willing to help. I like designing web pages!

*runs off to bed*

Post by **DragonFlight** » Tue Feb 14, 2006 5:51 am

In regards to the 'powerposing' question/commentary:

Due to the nature of how the Nexus is run, and because it is the duty of the agency and/or flying female to provide parts of a story, yes, there is your definition of 'power-posing' in these stories. Essentially, if you submit a chaser to a flight, or a candidate to a hatching, expect to see a bit of puppetting from the story-writer, though I know all of us try to keep to the candidate's original stories and chasers personalities and the like.

I myself am still very wary and unused to this, as I've been a long-time RPer and PPing in any sense of the word has been like....heretical. ^^;;;

It's certainly not beyond a writer to ask questions about stories and submissions, regardless of what end you're on - an example I bring up is that some people, when writing candidates for me, ask me questions about my senarios and characters - then use them appropriately based on my replies. Other times I've asked a person or two about something their character might do so that I can write them better.

It certainly takes some getting used to, but overall, it can be alot of fun. :)

Mystic Dragon · Post by **Mystic Dragon** » Tue Feb 14, 2006 8:41 am

If you still need flits then I've got a few old templates I'd really like to see used. They've been promised out more than once and never got any action. -.- I'd almost think they were cursed or something.

The Feather · Post by **The Feather** » Tue Feb 14, 2006 10:40 pm

Mystic Dragon - Ooh, thanks! I ain't afraid of no ghosts--er, curses. Whatever. If you're willing to try your luck again, I'm very willing to see them.

DragonFlight - Yeah, I feel you on the PPing thing. It'll take some work to get over the ingrained training. On the other hand, I can see the benefits.

Yakima - I do indeed have Photoshop. Whenever you have a chance to clean up a bit, I'd appreciate the dragon donation. Much thanks. And html help! Ah, a godsend. I know enough to understand html etc. once I see it, but still need to get anything beyond basic tables, frames, and pretty text from tutorials. I may have to chat with you about that in the very, very near future.

Now it's my turn to get me to bed. Later, folks.

Mystic Dragon · Post by **Mystic Dragon** » Tue Feb 14, 2006 11:47 pm

Alright, well here's what I've got in templates. There's one more, but I can't find it.

First set:

Second set:

Third set (no hatchling):

Yakima · Post by **Yakima** » Wed Feb 15, 2006 12:41 am

Ok...well all the templates are in PSP which Photoshop 7 won't open (funny, psp opens photoshop files...grrr...I think). I'll work on that later. As long as you can use layers you should be good...lol

Most of my layouts are simple and if you like the FGPC's I could manage something like that if you want...

The Feather · Post by **The Feather** » Wed Feb 15, 2006 11:13 pm

Mystic Dragon - Have I told you how cool you are today? By the way, I see no visible curse, but I'll proceed with caution.

Do you mind if I mix and match a bit? I like the first set, but am downright in love with the hatchling of the second set. Of course, if you prefer, I can just go with the first set in a heartbeat.

Or use both randomly. Either way!

Yakima - I have Photoshop CS2, does that make a difference in compatibility? Probably not. I haven't worked much with PSP in...garsh, it must be years. Take your time, of course; I'm still getting the rest of the site set up, and will doubtless apply to a few other places before getting around to doing my own hatching. Besides, when you're doing all this nice stuff for me, how can I even think about trying to rush you?

As to the layout, I hereby declare you too busy to do it just yet (from what I've seen of your posts hereabouts). And also my site too unfinished. I'm thinking I'll get everything set up to my liking, and then if you're still ready and willing to help out, I'll be a lot more certain about how I'd like it all linked this way and that. That way I won't be asking you for changes every other day, if the code totally and completely eludes me.

Yakima · Post by **Yakima** » Wed Feb 15, 2006 11:35 pm

Hmm...well I think it kinda unfair that you determine me to busy to do help with the site as I volenteered to help. Considering I redo my sites before I have the previous layout changed for the rest of the site I see my state of RL vs Nexus stuff irelevent. But if you have it the way you like I won't touch it. *shrug*

I'll send you the colors you want when I get to it. I checked this late tonight so I don't have time. Will also be at bf's friday night so won't get them to you then - probably tomarrow if I don't work on Wolf Frenzy or get distracted by CoH/V!

And if I have a bad day at work I most likely will get 'distracted'...Work is evil...

The Feather · Post by **The Feather** » Wed Feb 15, 2006 11:44 pm

Oh, no no no. Sorry, I was being more facetious than anything with my comments about your busyness, Yakima. I just meant that it seems like you have a lot to do, and I don't want you to feel like you have to be spending all kinds of time on the charity case when you have places of your own to run and work on.

But if you're willing, then that's cool with me!

I would like your help with the site; FGPC looks all nice and clean and pretty, while what I have up at the moment is very...blue. But it is true that I'm hoping to figure out how I want everything grouped and linked first, so give me a few days to get that set, and then I'll come running to you.

That's a way better turnaround time than I could have hoped for on the dragons. Thanks oodles, and no sweat if life keeps you too busy to get to it for a while.

Mystic Dragon · Post by **Mystic Dragon** » Thu Feb 16, 2006 8:32 am

Alright, so... first set adult, second set hatchling. I'll have to do some resizing, but it shouldn't take too long. :3 Glad they're finally getting used!

Yakima · Post by **Yakima** » Thu Feb 16, 2006 4:26 pm

LOL ok. Well if you like that style I can easily whip something up. It's a very easy design (bases on tolkientown.com)!

Also, I found that email you sent me (that MSN tried to eat on me but I found it in my junk email - hate it when Hotmail does that!), and sent something to you about the dragons. I started playing around with the weyrling template last night and working on changing it a bit to look nicer for Chemmis so it's a bit more unique to your Weyr tho it's the same template.

Okay, well, anyway...off to a shower! escaped work for the fourth time this week - just gotta escape next week! mwahaahaa!

Sargon · Post by **Sargon** » Sun Feb 19, 2006 7:32 pm

*wave*

Hi! welcome!

a little late on my part but-Welcome to the Nexus.

I'm one of those weirdos who sits in the back and randomly causes trouble, and every blue moon Sanrix Azon hatches a clutch of sorts. Just wanted to say hey and wazzup. And stuff.

If you're ever interested in evil, odd or just plain different dragons try Azon, weird things happen thur ;D. I'd also be willing to help with templates or something of the sort.

anyway.

hi, how's it going have a good stay you know. the whole kit and caboodle.

The Feather · Post by **The Feather** » Thu Feb 23, 2006 12:45 pm

Hi, Sargon! A belated thanks for a belated welcome.

You'll find I'll be active in spurts, as my schedule permits. For example, through Friday I'm busy as all get out, but the weekend is looking beautifully empty.

I'll be sure to check out Azon when I get a free second or two.

So Yakima, I didn't get any e-mails from you, which is really odd as I check the spam folder as often as I check the inbox. Try again if it was important? And I'm mostly cleared up about how I want the site set up, so expect a more detailed e-mail from me. Keep an eye on the junk folder.

And yeah, I really like how clean and user-friendly that design is.

Off to be busy for another two days.