In the meantime, have a STAGE II update!))
Looking for a chance at a new life, a free range to raise your family and a bountiful land for your children to bond and grow? Accepting applications today! Your new future starts now!
Immigration posters have begun to show up all over the Nexus, on parchments, in holographic ads, by flitter, and through all sorts of other media. The Nexus Department of Colonization and Development has also been issuing pamphlets on WHO is eligible for immigration benefits, WHAT is needed to make the journey, WHERE the newest exciting opportunity for colonization is, and WHY it's such a great opportunity to do so.
WHO
-Young leaders, or those who have had past experience. Gold riders who aren't likely to see Weyrwomanship in their lifetimes, for example, or those who have made an impact on their community but are otherwise held down by their population.
(You may wish to consider a leader-like character who hasn't had a chance to shine.)
-Young families, preferably those who are looking to have many offspring. Bonuses will be given for every child that the couple brings, up to six children under the age of eighteen or pre-maturation.
(If you have any characters who have offspring, or ones that you eventually would like to allow for offspring, they will be welcome!
-Hard working, strong individuals are being called for, especially those with useful skills.
(Special abilities geared towards building a new life might be something you wish to consider. Battle-mages and gods of destruction should probably not consider applying.)
-Fertile females, of course, are in demand, both in terms of nursing other's offspring and gestating their own.
(A caring, mothering or nursing sort of character might be useful, in the event that a clutch or someone's offspring is unable to be cared for due to accident!)
-Educated individuals such as doctors and scientists are in great demand! We want not just a hardy community, but an intelligent one!
(You may wish to choose one or two characters who excel at healing, magic, scientific theory and practical application, etc.)
WHAT
You may wish to bring all of your belongings with you, but immigration is a process of letting go and rebuilding a new life. Essentials will be provided, but each adult may bring along three articles weighing under 10 kilograms each and each youth under eighteen/physical maturity may bring one item under 5 kilograms. These articles might be family heirlooms, personal belongings, or items of luxury that one doesn't expect to see on a regular basis in a new land. Deliveries can and will run to Shard's Rock on a seasonal basis, but will be relatively costly.
WHERE
During Prospecting Mission V47, a very hospitable planet was discovered, its main colonization point noted near a huge boulder (for lack of a better term. Mountain? Drumlin? Meteor?) that appears to have left a wide, flat crater around it for several miles. The lake surrounding the rock face is dotted with islands and fed by streams that run from several different locations, making fresh water easily obtainable and the location defensible. Someone on the colonization board may have been either nostalgic or facetious when she labelled the soon-to-be town Shard's Rock, but the name stuck!
WHY
A chance to step out from under the weight of heavy population, to build a new life where opportunities abound... to own your own space, to live honestly and without worry of debt... there are many reasons to immigrate! The colonization board's 'Second Chance' program quietly reviews cases for those who suffered imprisonment or injustice under harsh circumstances, voting on whether or not individuals with a criminal record need join the immigration.
(If you are planning on submitting a shady character, they will be put to a vote; other players will decide whether or not your character is TOO shifty; if they pass, you will be able to include them!)
OOC SPECS
PER PLAYER: 5 dragons (bonded or unbonded; humanoids bonded to a dragon don't count towards the max.) and 10 unbonded humanoids maximum for the moment. There will be a chance to include new characters in the future, but we'll start with that for now.
PAGING: Each character should be paged; Dragons should have their own page, or a page shared between themselves and their bonds. Unbonded humanoids should each have their own page. Each character can bring one pet. They may bring with them a genetic base for a pet/non-sentient species to be re-assembled at at the point of immigration, if you decide to spend build grist on a genetic hall, as well.
THINGS TO CONSIDER: Bring characters that you are interested in writing for, and for RPing. Your characters do not all have to be good, but those that are evil or otherwise have destructive tendencies will be put to the vote before joining.
-For dragons: Bring dragons whose species you would like to preserve. You may wish to bring five of your own species, or species that used to be prevalent in the Nexus but have since dropped off. You may bring hybrids, of course! You may wish to chat about what dragons you're bringing, and ask others to bring dragons with similar blood in 'em, if you want to help preserve a bloodline. You may bring pre-mated pairs! You may wish to consider bringing more males than females, as some flight season stories will require males to join flights, and only a certain number of flight stories will bear offspring in the form of clutches. Having many females will mean that there are more flight stories, less males to win those stories, and less of a chance of your flight story being picked! (We may, of course, consider having a 'flight' story where the male is the instigator and females compete over him, but the above is considered the norm, so far as I know!)
-For humanoids: Bring humanoids whose species you would like to preserve. Bring your favourites to write for, or children of favourites. Aging in this offshoot will not be hard and fast, but will likely look like 'one breeding season = one year' (five real time months = one in game year.) If you'd like to stick to this aging process, you may wish to bring humanoids who are of a bonding age (between fourteen and eighteen.) You may bring families, but you may also wish to take a few humanoids from each of your different agencies/locations. You may bring hybrids who have some dragon blood in them, so long as the humanoid is mostly human; ie) any humanoid who can shapeshift into a dragon form is considered a dragon, as is any dragon who can shapeshift into humanoid form.
BUILD GRIST BONUSES
Each character that you bring vets the community 100 build grist.
Each player who brings one leader-like character (dragon or humanoid) vets an extra 50 build grist. (No extra bonuses for secondary leader-like characters.)
Each player who brings one healer adds 30 grist to the pool. (No extra bonuses after the first healer.)
Mages, scientists, and those who have training in their special powers (whether learned or inborn) add 20 grist each.
Mated pairs bring 10 extra grist per pair.
Fertile females add 10 extra grist each.
Each character with a background that allows for colonization (eg: farmers, construction workers, handymen; those with practical special abilities) adds 10 extra grist.
Each youth brought by a parent under the age of eighteen/physical maturity adds 5 extra grist.
WHAT IS BUILD GRIST FOR?!
Build Grist will be funneled into a pool. When everyone has submitted their characters, the grist will be tallied. You will then as a community get to decide what your colony will start out looking like: choosing whether you want prefab buildings vs. a Weyr-like cave system bored into the rock face; what sorts of facilities you would like to see Shard's Rock have -- you can make suggestions, of course!
Some facilities that will come with the basic colony will be a communal hatching sands and a candidate barracks, along with very basic two-room houses with limited electricity and plumbing. Facilities for cooking and cleaning would be communal, and potable water, as well as a working sewage system would need to be installed.
Some options would be private/singular hatching sands; enlarging of the candidate barracks (which doubles as a hostel for newly arrived and unbonded characters); upgrading the barracks or portions thereof into studio-like apartments, for more privacy; meeting rooms; updating the Lower Caverns style community facilities (for food, showering, storage and gathering); upgrades to basic homes that allow for potable water (a water plant), technology (power plant), sewage treatment (sewage processing plant); a bridge from Shard's Rock to the mainland; defenses; farmland; technological or magical groundwork (for example, fibreoptic cables to build a network); religious centers (if you're bringing a god or a god-in-disguise, you may find this useful!); a genetic hall (wherein creatures like firelizards, beasts of burden, or pets can have their basic genetic codes reconstituted into a fetus or egg, which will then be up to the characters to maintain -- essentially this would allow players to start to sell and trade pets in the game.)
Left-over build grist will banked and may come into play later. Players will have a chance to donate their grist earned from writing stories to the community bank, either for the community to decide on new additions to make to our colony, or in the form of new/upgraded buildings if they have enough grist for it. Players may also use their grist to upgrade their character's homes.
But what does all of this mean?!
Once we choose what our town looks like, I'll be building a map of it. All of the items that you guys vote on having will show up, and the layout will be such that you can choose which house, or barracks bed, or apartment, or weyr/nidulus you want for each character. They'll be added to the map. The symbols for the quality of the house/apartment/etc. will be updated with the seasons, so if you want your character to live in a palace, you'll see the symbol on the map lookin' all fancy and palace-y. There is no benefit to this aside from having flavour-text for your writing and RPing. It won't be the focus of the game, but it will be lurking on the side should you guys choose to play with it. It is only under the spot-light right now because we're setting up a brand new colony, and I want to give everyone a method to vote on what they want their colony to look like! Once characters are submitted, we'll have a better idea of how much costs what; nothing essential will be unaffordable. :3
CHARACTER FORMS
Your Name:
Contact Info:
(Max 5 dragons, bonds and mates included.)
DRAGON Name:
DRAGON URL:
DRAGON Gender:
DRAGON Species:
DRAGON Rank: (Colours or other ranks here)
DRAGON Special Abilities:
Bonded?:
-If YES, Bonded Name:
-If YES, Bonded URL:
Mated Pair?:
-If YES, Mates Name:
-If YES, Mate's URL:
DRAGON Notes/Comments: (Are they related to other dragons/characters you're bringing? What planet/agency are they from? Anything else we should know?)
(Max 10 unbonded humanoids. Humanoid bonds are not counted towards the total limit of humanoids)
HUMANOID Name:
HUMANOID URL:
HUMANOID Gender:
HUMANOID Species:
HUMANOID Rank: (If applicable!)
HUMANOID Special Abilities:
HUMANOID Notes/Comments: (Are they married to another character, or the children of another character who you're bringing? What planet/agency are they from? Anything else we should know?)
(Please fill this out if applicable)
Any Shady Characters?: (Characters whose personalities, stories, histories, species, etc. could be considered as a warning flag to the rest of the community go here. Decide if simply being a soldier who has killed with frequency, or a street-rat who turned thief is enough to warrant them as shady. Dragons who have death magic might constitute as shady, too.)
-If YES, Names for Each:
-If YES, What makes them shady?:
TL;DR
Pick up to 5 dragons and 10 humanoids, fill in the above form. Form will be left OPEN UNTIL NOVEMBER 1st. You may change your form at any time previous to the 1st.
Once forms are closed, build grist bonuses will be tallied up, and the colony voting will be opened.
Once the colony's traits have been voted on, the third leg of the game will begin!
