A Guide to Joining Pern
This isn't much, truly, but it helps if you know what you can join as, right? Right.
If you're joining to live in a Hold, remember that you cannot join with a fire lizard, and your chosen Hold must have a Lord or Lady Holder in residence. Those are the only guidelines. Within those, you may join as a simple resident, a family of residents, a drudge, a cook, a maid, a Headwoman, anything, really. If you wish to join as a Journeyman of some Craft, make sure you know what you're doing, and post a small piece of what you know about that Craft.
If you want to try and claim a Hold, make sure you have a family. Post out a detailed description of each member, (they can join with flits, but no more than four per person), a bit about what you know about Holding and general, and your Hold in particular. Either Igen or Benden ONLY will approve you, and soon after, your Hold will have working messageboards. (We keep them empty until then.)
If you wish to join as an apprentice to a Craft, then it's normal procedure. Your Craft must have a Master to join and you can't join with flits. However, if you want Journeyman status right off the bat, you'd best show that in your joining post, and put a bit about what you know about this Craft. You'll have to be approved by Benden, Igen, or your CraftMaster. Otherwise, you'll reach Journeyman by RPing it on the boards, taught by the Master. After Journeyman status, to reach Master status, you'll have to stick around a while longer, and probably travel among the Weyrs and Holds. If you want to join as a Master, then you better be explicit in what you know of the Craft, receive approval from BOTH Benden and your CraftMaster, and then it's okay. If you're approved to join as either a Journeyman or Master, you can join with flits. (Note to Dolphineers - Only if approved to join as a Master can you join with a dolphin partner. Otherwise, you'll get one from one of the two pods around Monaco Bay.)
If you want to try to start up a Craft and be THE CraftMaster, then you're going to email Ginny and talk to her about it. Probably, she's going to ask what you know about the Craft, how active you're going to be, and how good of an RPer you are. If she gives you the go-ahead, then you can post your joining form, and have whatever flits you want.
Under NO CIRCUMSTANCES can you join as a full-grown rider and dragon pair. So don't even ask.
However, when there is a clutch at a Weyr, you may join as a Candidate for that Weyr and hope for Impression. If you don't Impress, then you can go to a Hold, Hall, or stay at the Weyr. As a Candidate, you may not join with flits.
When there is no clutch at any Weyr, you can still live there. You can join as a sibling to another rider (the rider better know about this), as a cook, drudge, etc. If you want the job of Headwoman, it's probably yours, unless that Weyr already has one. Weyrs also need Journeyman Harpers and Healers. You can join as one (with flits) IF you are approved by Benden, Igen, or that Weyr's Weyrwoman. You'd better post a sample RP and tell what you know about that Craft.
At Honshu Weyrhold, it's a special case. The same rules for Weyrs apply, as well as for Holds. Mostly, Herders and Farmers live there, as well as the usual Harpers, Healers, and dragonriders.
That's all! Thanks for reading through this, and have fun on Pern!
