Threads of Pern
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This is what I do. My PC's dragon is generally a prop, not a character.
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If I ever played a Pern game and had a Dragon I would so have it as an object and just tool around in that thing like a 'dyne back in the old days on DM.
I now it is really unnecessary but for some reason I always thought vehicle code was neat and fun to play with. -
@ThatGuyThere said in Threads of Pern:
If I ever played a Pern game and had a Dragon I would so have it as an object and just tool around in that thing like a 'dyne back in the old days on DM.
I now it is really unnecessary but for some reason I always thought vehicle code was neat and fun to play with.There's sky rooms and such just for that.
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Let me play your dragon!
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I think dragons as 'props' are things that occur on Pern MUSHEs alot (in some Pern Play By Post forum games, they are less 'prop', more fully fledged characters, ( which is something I thought was interesting.)
And its part of the reason I moved away from Pern MUSHES in general. (also the ungodly shiny hunting vibe was strong in many of them, to the point where on on game I was on:
- Had a dual hatching, 3 golds ( one was an obvious gold egg, another was a 'secret' set of twins).
- The Twins hatched and both impress.
- One of the PCs who didn't impress, (oocly throws a fit), and then has her character attack, the new female riders, because the character felt (and perhaps some player bleedover), that the one girl 'stole' her hold. Just out right attacked her with a knife she'd magically snuck onto the Sands.
- It was soo funny, and then I realized how sad it was, and realized, MUshing experienced was ruined by that game.
I really missed 'Dragons of Mists'(an not--Pern/alt-pern ,Gryphon & dragon bonding MUSH) That was a great game.
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I will say, my friend who is on Staff... loathes those sorts of situations. The 'sekrit' gold, the 'oh em gee the gold Impressed someone in the stands!!!!111,' and the 'colorless' hatchings (where they fake some sort of reason that no one can see the color of a hatchling until after the impression).
We have mocked the 'twin gold' situations (they've happened more than once) on channel a few times.
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No I know, Its why I brought it up it reminded me of the silliness, that occurs in Pern games sometimes (especially in GOMO games (Gold of My Own).
Though that particular one was not a 'GOMO game', at all it was reasonablity established game, if I remember correctly.
Now Colorless hatchings aren't bad, if you have a reason. Now EVERY SINGLE one is colorless (Arolos weyr, did it alot), I have an issue with it, when its just 'common'.
Also twin golds would be 'tiny' , malnurished (at least potentially).
My other problem is that pern 'canonically' doesn't do mutations. Which makes 0 sense from a biological standpoint (especially with the what several thousands of years potentially between landing and the 9th pass (or even later).
All the dragons are descended from 18 females and perhaps (I know because I own a copy of Chronicles of Pern, and they specfically mention 18 Queens total). and all breeding together, mutations would crop up, realistically. Also even with alien technology driving the 'evolution/modifcation of Firelizards-> Dragons, I would expect to see the 'genetic lock' on Greens broken, just by genetic fluke.
No my problem with many Pern Hatchings is the 'hoops' you need to jump through to impress. STaff secretly watch you because scenes happen in real time and 'grade' you. I was once told : You didn't play enough so you got Green. (Literally).
Hence why I enjoy my PBP, everyone can participate in my threads if I mark them open, and its fun and realxed, and I don't need to hope scheduling concerns don't happen.
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I think a lot of games explain away the Green infertility as being due to eating firestone.
I don't really care. The idea of greens with clutches is horrifying.
Saying the quiet parts out loud since 1996.
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I recall being on both NorCon and SouCon back in the day. I didn't care if either of my characters impressed - actually asked to not with one of them.
I preferred not having a dragon. They were more trouble than they were worth, if I compared my two characters and how much of them I enjoyed.
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@Auspice said in Threads of Pern:
I think a lot of games explain away the Green infertility as being due to eating firestone.
I don't really care. The idea of greens with clutches is horrifying.
- That's the canon explanation.
- AGREED.
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@Songtress Can you explain to the rest of us why golds are more wanted vs. greens? I don't know much about Anne McCaffrey's Pern.
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@flahgenstow said in Threads of Pern:
@Songtress Can you explain to the rest of us why golds are more wanted vs. greens? I don't know much about Anne McCaffrey's Pern.
Because the Senior goldrider = Weyrwoman = Teh Bawss
Add that to the fact that they're rare (a clutch can have any number of the other colors) and voila. You have your reasons for people clamoring for one.
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Well I think part of it didn't help that as many games have tried to break the 'Greens are stupid sterotype', but its hard to do, seeing as you have almost no canon examples of GReens really doing anything of that sexbait for male dragons. (because we all know this culture is soo patriarchal it hurts).
But then if that is the 'explained' case, I love how no one tries to defy it and see :Are greens fertile, I mean with 'real science'. Because by the time of the ninth pass, Pre AVIAS, it could go either way.
I don't care, but it one of those weird universe points that people quibble over.
Basically: Gold are the ONLY Fertile females ( and they're like one(1%) of total dragon population, + also have this ability to 'compell' other dragons into submission. THey are Queens, they are at the top of the dragon heirarchy and nothing can take that from them.
They are also the leaders, their female riders 'run' the Weyrs (because she who makes al lthe babbies, makes all the rules? Except Pern is a Patriarchal Society, so she's more : Sit at home make babies, your power is (depending on era) , not important.
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@flahgenstow:
I'm not @Songtress, so feel free to tell me to shove off, but I love imparting info if given the opportunity:Biologically, golds are the fertile females of the Pernese dragons. The social structure of the weyr (the individual dragonrider community) reflects that; goldriders are exclusively women and are expected to take leadership roles within the weyr. The most senior gold dragon's rider is the female leader of the entire weyr, and the male leadership role is fulfilled by whichever bronze (or rarely, brown) manages to breed with her during a mating flight. Think of it like being in a Lords and Ladies game and effectively getting into the highest noble rank. Also, the "glamour" of having a gold dragon, because you know, shiny objects. There's actually a term for this; Shiny Object Syndrome.
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@Cupcake
YOU Nailed it!Basically because Weyrs are minature military-cities, and only way you 'lead is by :
A) being a Gold Rider
B) being the rider of the dragon who fuck said gold... (unless they've got some other council, but even then in most games: Gold & Bronze Leadership, with everyone else being 'around' and or 'lower ranked'.So its partially wanted to be cool.
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@Songtress: Aww, gosh, you're makin' me blush!
I uh, may have been a gold player once. It was actually my first ever Pern char, I didn't really have a grasp on the OOC culture of Pern games and my IC knowledge was based on the books rather than how game Pern had developed. I made a lot of assumptions, a lot of mistakes, and I don't know if I would go gold again. Maybe. I like leadership roles, but being a goldrider can actually be a lot of work!
That being said, I think greens are fucking awesome. They're the most dexterous and speedy of the dragons, they do most of the heavy lifting when battling Thread (along with the blues). I actually love the greens and blues a great deal.
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Yeah: Its part of the problem: THe books are all about Bronzes, & Golds... or these weird one off paradoxical situations (See: Lessa from Dragonflight.
Yeah no matter what game you're in, bieng a Goldrider is TON of work. I just got a pretty Agate(non-canon game), and she's amazing. And I don't think I want a Queen, at all.
clears throat This (http://ramora.b1.jcink.com/index.php?showtopic=3435)[Frith]. That is all
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@Songtress: Is this the part where I tell you my favoritest character in Pern is the stroppy, hysterical, bitchy first greenrider in a million years Mirrim? Because it's Mirrim.
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@Cupcake
No I liked Mirrirm too and.. kinda that greenrider in Skies of Pern, who's green is like: 'oh let me get that my rider' (BOOM TK's this big cat pelt on to her back, before take off).Th big recevently re--discovered computer: "Uhh, by the way we did theorize that telekensis was possible, HOW ELSE were they getting off the ground?
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I started with Pern, long long ago, and was on both the 'main'/original north and southern continent sister games (Pernmush and SoCon? I sort of forget the actual names). Had a bluerider on the former, bronzerider (... E'vrin? or something like that, I want to say) and eventually the masterharper (something with a J?) on the other.
But yeah, these games really set the standard for all future games to emulate in terms of shitty have & have-not-isms, favoritism, cliquishness, and so on. While I got some fun out of the relationship RP, they seemed to have very little substance beyond the thinly-veiled high school popularity contest aspect. In retrospect its really hard to see much appeal in them. The setting is very thin on meaningful stuff to do, where the book-level megaplots aren't really feasible and the smaller scale stuff is too settled and regular. So you just end up sipping... whatever that word was for coffee and waiting on the occasional flight for a bunch of non-interactive show-off posing followed by the thin possibly of hawt TS.
