Pern

Shiolar · Post by **Shiolar** » Fri Oct 06, 2006 2:27 pm

I wasn't sure if anyone else had noticed this or not, so I thought I'd post it up. It probably doesn't really affect us all that much, but it's a point of interest:

While engaged in the possibly rather dubious and ill-conceived activity of setting up a roleplay Weyr, I happened to be browsing someone else's forums and came across a reference about Anne McCaffrey's rules which required a bit more investigation.

So... long story short, all the former rules regarding what you can and can't do with Pern have been repealed, save for two: no making money off it and no porn, both of which seem fair enough.

And I was feeling so pleased with rebelling by scrapping all the rules I didn't like for that roleplay site. Takes all the fun out of it knowing I'm actually allowed to do it now...

DNS · Post by **DNS** » Fri Oct 06, 2006 2:33 pm

XP Yeah, she did that. it was all big news on neopets for awhile, and then everyone who was a pernie died.
I didn't know it was so extensive, though~ I just thought she made public fanfic and roleplay allowed. ._. 'course, that big of a change makes me incredably gleeful inside. GWeeee~!

PS the roleplay weyr rocks mmk. .________. alternatespeciesmakemehappy.

Mystic Dragon · Post by **Mystic Dragon** » Fri Oct 06, 2006 2:39 pm

:3 Yeah, I heard about that too. Right after she took away Alec's control of her merchandise. Hee hee....

An RP weyr you say? I've never played in one of those.

DNS · Post by **DNS** » Fri Oct 06, 2006 2:41 pm

They're fun, but different from normal roleplay, i think.
Who/what is alec?
PS, is that roleplay for the mirus anniversary dead? >.> And even if it's not, can I use sigbjorn and janny elsewhere?

Post by **Dray** » Fri Oct 06, 2006 2:46 pm

O.o How does a Weyr-RP work? *curious*

Astra · Post by **Astra** » Fri Oct 06, 2006 2:51 pm

lol yeah i heard about that it's awesome.

But no porn? Isn't that, like, all mating flights ARE? XD

And I've tried joining a few Weyr-RPs before but it never takes off. My characters tend towards Mary-Sue and in most RPs every character is a Sue unless they have, like, nothing distinguishing about them whatsoever, and that's just boring.

DNS · Post by **DNS** » Fri Oct 06, 2006 2:57 pm

But no porn? Isn't that, like, all mating flights ARE? XD

Astra. I love you for that.

And they work strangely, Dray~ Kinda very different from most roleplays. -points to roleplay thread- a lot like some of the hatchings there, with the hatchings. And then there are random flights, wherein you roleplay a bunch of dragons following the female's movements and trying to catch her. And then there's everyday weyr life, which will be, in this weyr, a lot more interesting because this weyr has a plot (omg!) and alternate species (omgx2) and is actually fun!

>.> roleplaying true canon pern is incredably dull, actually.

And my explination did it no justice, but yes. :/ They don't usually get off the ground, butthen they're usually started with absolutely no forethought to anything except HAY LETS HAVE A HATCHING LOL and we'll wing it from there. which enver works. but the ones that do get off the ground are pretty kickass.

XP it's the world i came from.

Shiolar · Post by **Shiolar** » Fri Oct 06, 2006 3:00 pm

The Mirus-Anniversay-RP is still supposed to happen... It's on my list of things to do this weekend... *disorganised* But you can use your characters elsewhere if you wish, Nessie.

An RP Weyr is kinda like... Uh... I dunno how to explain it actually. You just have a Weyr which is the centre of the roleplay, and you have hatchings and various plots occurring within. It is a lot different from normal roleplay, as Nessie said.

Alec is one of Anne McCaffrey's sons. He was a bit... uh... obsessive about rules. I did not get on with him in the least... I used to dread finding emails from him in my inbox.

DNS · Post by **DNS** » Fri Oct 06, 2006 3:02 pm

...
wow~ Seems to me like McCaffery only has creepy sons. ._____. but it's intimidating that you knew him at all. whee.
I'm disorganized too. XP but coolies. I only asked becuase i finally actually paged january. -coughs- it's the end of the world~

thankyou~

Astra · Post by **Astra** » Fri Oct 06, 2006 3:02 pm

I was much too under-the-radar to ever get his attention lucky me, though I'm not surprised at all that you got it, Shiolar, as I recall the WRW mailing list used to be at least as active as the old WA yahoo group in terms of the main place where people talked about dragoning. Ah, those were the days. And completely weird that that was you

Feels like such ancient history now.

Shiolar · Post by **Shiolar** » Fri Oct 06, 2006 3:06 pm

Only knew him vaguely... As a roleplay Weyr owner trying to get approved...

And then later as a Weyr owner who was exploiting a loophole in the rules and then lying about it... Heh. At the time, the rules only said no white DRAGONS... So we had white flits and whers... "White flits? Sorry, no, we don't have any of those. The person who told you... well recently we had to kick her out... She started kicking up a fuss coz she didn't get a bronze from the last hatching. I'm so sorry she's wasting your time with her lies. It won't happen again." I don't think he believed me...

And then as an adoption Weyr owner who got the email that said "Your roleplaying Weyr is approved, and then you go and start publishing fanfiction Weyrs online. You should know better, blah blah blah." That was right after White River Weyr closed, and I told him so...

Lotsa people knew Alec in that kinda way, although all the rule-abiding people hardly heard anything from him...

If anybody wants to check out the Pern roleplaying thing, the URL is http://z10.invisionfree.com/OresteiaWey ... hp?act=idx
Plotwise, there's an evil Weyr that wants to take over the world and there's a serial killer who collects ears (I think?) on the loose...
The roleplaying standards aren't too high, the minimum requirement being the ability to spell correctly and use grammar in a fairly intelligent manner. Anything else is up to the individual. And Astra, I'm sure your characters are fine.

Shadow · Post by **Shadow** » Fri Oct 06, 2006 3:53 pm

Hmm. a rp weyr? Interesting. *investigates link*

Shard · Post by **Shard** » Fri Oct 06, 2006 10:20 pm

Yeah Alec Johnson was the fucktard that shut down the Kshau Protectorate's site (and lost me about 6 character pages wooo) way back when. Her son, not the smart one, in charge of her business management. Mmm - go figure, she's what, like half a mil in debt to the government because she never paid her taxes, and that's why you don't see the old bat too many places on US soil any more...

Alec was responsible for the breakup and huge problems I had with Windtoss Weyr, the place Kalkin comes from. In order to 'become official' you had to jump through all these stupid hoops including *removing all posts* from the net... Like, if we want to know what a group's been doing, how ELSE are you supposed to know if you want to join?

I went back and forth with him because I was the only one among us who had the guts to do so. I openly pointed out the flaws in all their 'logic' about shutting down weyrs. (He kept saying, well Ubisoft has the 'rights' - and I said, no they have the right to produce a *video game*, so in what way is a video game an email system? hmm? They gave up on that excuse eventually... because Ubi didn't give half a shit anyway.) He challenged me in that "you can read all you want but you can't change the law" so I *sent him copies of the copyright laws* and where they were not being infringed.

He shut my website down. Trying to bigfoot me like they have other people - but they lost this whole battle, and I'm glad. Karma baby, karma.

I can love the world she tried to create but I don't have to hold a shred of respect for the old bat or her errant idiot son for what they did to me. I lost friends over it, but I suppose I gained a whole lot more than that in the long run...

Shiolar · Post by **Shiolar** » Sat Oct 07, 2006 2:19 am

Yeah, I quite agree, Shard... Love the world, and love roleplaying in it, or more appropriately, I love roleplaying in a highly modified version of it, but I think the old bat's senile and Alec has a few screws loose... No idea what Todd's like, other than the fact that most of the reviewers on Amazon.co.uk say he couldn't write to save his life... *shrugs*

I remember when I was getting Ginealar approved, we turned the YahooGroup archives to mods only while we were being approved, and then two weeks later put them back on so all the members could view them. They caught onto that and I got another email from Alec... but it was worth a shot. Later on, I got a private mailing list server, and members could request duplicate emails from it. Instant archives.

DNS · Post by **DNS** » Sat Oct 07, 2006 5:41 am

he's an okay writer. That said, anne mccaffery's not the greatest herself by any means, but eh. :/ I did like dragonskin, a lot. maybe because of the whers.
coff.

and wooow. nicesounding. i'll reply more later.

Astra · Post by **Astra** » Sat Oct 07, 2006 7:10 am

I find Anne's work to be rather dull myself. I don't exactly understand why or anything it's just very tedious to ever try to get through one of her books. I loved Pern when I was younger but even then I remember I read the White Dragon, and there was a scene where Jaxom gets a fever, and it went on and on and on and on. And Nimisha's Ship was more like "Let's see how many times this chick can get laid without giving away any erotic details: a novel." And the Planet Piraes trilogy ... guh. Who would have thought a book about space pirates would bore me to tears? She has good plot ideas but her writing style is ... i can't think of a better word than tedious. sorry ann if you're reading this but if you've somehow found this page you're probably already offended so shrug.

Shiolar · Post by **Shiolar** » Sat Oct 07, 2006 8:36 am

sorry ann if you're reading this but if you've somehow found this page you're probably already offended so shrug.

That made me laugh... I should think she'd definitely already be offended, since Shard called her an old bat, I called her senile, and we've all been insulting her various offspring to one degree or another...

I do agree, though. The first couple of books were pretty good. I can still enjoy reading DragonFlight now, even if all my instincts as a writer and roleplayer make me want to disembowel all the Mary-Sues *cough*Lessa*cough*. But all the later ones were dreadful...

I bought the last book in the Freedom series a few years ago, coz I'd enjoyed the first ones and was looking forward to seeing how it ended. In the end, I actually said at the time, "This book is crap. I bought the bloody thing so I'm gonna finish it, but that's the only reason I'm still reading it."

But remember, even in bad novels there's always inspiration to be taken. Namely "We can do better than this. If this drivel can get published, so can we."

DNS · Post by **DNS** » Sat Oct 07, 2006 11:37 am

You people make me incredably happy inside.
particularly this:

And Nimisha's Ship was more like "Let's see how many times this chick can get laid without giving away any erotic details: a novel.

Though I have to admit, the only series I've ever read of mccaffery's is pern. and only the ones that involve the dragons a lot. i got part of the way through masterharper of pern, and i haven't touched neriwhatever's story.
and i read the harper's trilogy and dragonskin, but they involved flitters and whatnot too. :/

She is really boring, though. I leant dragonflight to tio, and he can't get past the first few pages. I dunno if this is because lessa is the ultimate mary sue or because it's tedious (i had trouble with the beginning too). >.> The only reason I keep reading is cuz of the draaaagons. They're addictive, like most of the music i listen to.

godly concepts. dismal writing. A lot of what i like is like that, apparently. XP

Shiolar · Post by **Shiolar** » Sat Oct 07, 2006 11:42 am

I quite liked Red Star Rising (Dragon's Eye in the US?), namely because it actually had more development for some of the lower ranks... The plot was awful, as was the writing... but it was nice to see some blue and greenriders get some attention for once, and that book was probably the inspiration for roleplayed Weyrling training everywhere...

I didn't much like the Harper trilogy. Menolly was kinda the epitome of Mary-Sue. Blah. I wanted her to get killed when she got caught in that Threadfall...

Post by **Dray** » Sat Oct 07, 2006 11:51 am

T_O I think I must have been the only one who actually /liked/ reading those books.

JKatkina · Post by **JKatkina** » Sat Oct 07, 2006 11:55 am

I liked them. ^.^; I like a lot of McCaffrey's stuff. Freedom series +awesome.

... I refuse to touch Acorna, though. <.> I don't have to even read it to know it's crap.

Shiolar · Post by **Shiolar** » Sat Oct 07, 2006 11:55 am

No, when I first read them I liked them... But I was... uh... about 13 at the time. I'm getting fussy about my fiction in my old age...

DNS · Post by **DNS** » Sat Oct 07, 2006 12:01 pm

I enjoy them, dray, so you're not totally alone. XP As much as I complain about them.

and yep, shio, it was Dragonseye here. I adored it for the side characters. Particularly that blue/greenrider pair. <3 lovelovelove. P'tero and M'leng or something?
they made me incredably happy inside.

and i read dragonflight when i was.. 12 or something. maybe 11? Sixth grade. ;-; a while ago.

Shiolar · Post by **Shiolar** » Sat Oct 07, 2006 12:05 pm

I just like complaining? And calling Anne McCaffrey a senile old bat...

DNS · Post by **DNS** » Sat Oct 07, 2006 12:48 pm

XP Who doesn't like that? that's what she is, afterall~

Mystic Dragon · Post by **Mystic Dragon** » Sat Oct 07, 2006 1:02 pm

Meh. I found her writing to be kinda dull. I liked the concept behind it though. I've only ever read the Dragon Singer books. I started on the White Dragon, but got bored and put it down. If I want brain candy (read: mindlessly enjoyable books) then I go to Margret Weis, Tracy Hickman, or Rowling.

The absolute BEST dragon bonding-ish type books I've read are the Dragon Prince novels by Melanie Rawn. She has the perfect combination of fantasy and politics that just makes me all warm and fuzzy inside. Didn't like the end of the very last book though. Too abrupt and unfinished.

Shiolar · Post by **Shiolar** » Sat Oct 07, 2006 1:05 pm

Maybe I'll look those up... been looking for some good books to read.

I read Eragon once, although I regretted actually buying it, coz I'll never read it again. I just hate elves, so books with elves that aren't Tolkien are kinda bleh...

I have, however, heard good things about a dragon-bonding-ish book by someone called Naomi Novik. Called 'Temeraire' or something like that. I'm thinking of buying it.

My copy of Skies of Pern currently remains unread. Maybe one day I'll force myself to read it...

Mystic Dragon · Post by **Mystic Dragon** » Sat Oct 07, 2006 2:08 pm

Ooooh... speaking of Eragon, has anyone seen the posters for the movie they're making of it? :3 I can't wait to see previews.

DNS · Post by **DNS** » Sat Oct 07, 2006 2:19 pm

there needs to be a list of good dragonbonding books. I'm really enjoying the dragonjousters series by mercedes lacky. i'll look up that series, mystic, thanks for mentioning it~ I'll need something to read after dragonjousters.

and his majesty's dragon ro something.

and eh, eragon was okay. I liked the dragon, except her personality kind of grated my nerves, and i was too much like tolkien. I like tolkien, but middle earth and the series make me tired. :/
I also thought eragon was a major ripoff of like, three different things, but it was pretty neat in some parts.

i read skies of pern last year~ it was okay. I liked it, and it's better if you regard it as something of a seperate series, but it dragged in parts and was uberannoying in even more. :/ BUT it did focus on the dragons more htan hte others did, i think, and they even had.
-gasp-
HINTS OF PERSONALITY.
coff.

Mystic Dragon · Post by **Mystic Dragon** » Sat Oct 07, 2006 2:35 pm

XD I lurv the dragon personalities in Dragon Prince. They don't actually start bonding til later in the series, but they're so amusing when they do. The dragons "own" a human each. :3 Like little pets. That they can maul with their minds. Mwehehee...

If you're not into royal bloodlines and lots of politics though, this series might bore you. It's difficult to keep track of who is influencing whom sometimes. Rawn puts a list of relations at the end of almost every book and it's at least several pages long. >.> But the main couple reminds me of Mystic and Aaron so I love them dearly.