Craft Policies.
Admission Levels:
Students.
Smithcraft Students are those crafters that are not yet 13 turns of age. They get to live at the hall if they choose and are under all the same rules and regulations as an Apprentices if they choose to do so. They can take all low level lessons, but these lessons do not count for promotion.
Apprentices.
Smithcraft Apprentices, normally taken from about 13 to 18 turns of age, will be billeted in the new dorms at the hall. They are expected to attend lessons and other duties in the
CraftHall.
Movement around the Southern Continent is not restricted to Smithcraft Apprentices, however
any trip to the Northern Continent, (which unless you know a friendly dragonrider would be a
several week boat trip IC'ly), must include some official Craft business and permission from staff. Usually Apprentices are not allowed to go alone, so you would you would need to have a Journeyman with you (PC or NPC). All in all just make sure you have a good reason to be so far away, for apprentices do not normally go north.
As with all the crafts of Pern, Apprentices are expected to spend the majority of their times with
their studies, and therefore are not permitted to handfast or to conduct sexual relationships. You must stay focused and responsible, that includes not drinking to much wine and coming to work in the forge intoxicated or with a hangover.
InstaCrafters.
Every InstaCrafter must be approved by staff, if you wish to become an InstaCrafter you must submit your characters history, and why you wish to be in the position of your choice to our staff email VPSmithStaff@lycos.com
Advancement.
"A Smithcraft apprenticeship is one of the longest, but at it's end the graduate journeyman
is a practicing member of one of the most respected Crafts on Pern."
(The DragonLover's Guide to Pern - pg 143)
To help reflect the ethos of this craft without unduly submitting players to years as an apprentice, it is assumed that much of the knowledge and experience that apprentices would receive occurs 'off-camera'.
The Smithcraft has a total of five ranks for the full apprenticeship of it's crafters; those are Apprentice, Senior Apprentice, Journeyman, Senior Journeyman, and Master. The (IC/OOC) minimum A guideline of requirements for advancement into each catagory are as follows: These are not the final rule, all decisions made by staff are final. (Note: RolePlay and being Pro-Smith help advancement)
- Apprentice. All new enrollments in the craft start at this rank after a brief interview with the
MasterSmith. The only exception may be a visiting son or daughter of a Lord or Lady
Holder who wishes to learn some aspects of the craft but Hold duties forbid them from
joining, or a person who is under 13 turns of age. These candidates would be awarded the title 'Student'.
- Sr. Apprentice. This rank is typically achieved after an apprentice has shown they are knowledgable of the basic aspects of the craft.
OOC: The Apprentice must complete 3 basic lessons and have 1 small scale TP credit. The task typically involves creating a commission for a customer of the Hall or running a demonstration of some smithcraft skill to an audience. Any log of the chosen task should be forwarded to VPsmithstaff@lycos.com in order to be considered as reason for advancement.
- Journeyman. This rank is typically achieved after a Senior Apprentice has chosen some field of speciality. In order to make an informed choice the candidate will need to have attended a variety of lessons in many spectrums of the craft with an emphasis on the field they eventually choose to concentrate on. Also needed is a Journeyman 'project', a project which requires the journeyman to explore being a smith, they must be deemed suitable by a Master. Some however choose to take on smaller projects such as research projects, and lesson teaching as well.
Specialities include: Teaching, MetalSmith, Machinery, Alchemy, StarSmith(NPC), WoodCraft, Gems/Jewelry, GlassCraft, Minecraft, CeramicCraft, StoneCraft, and Mathmatics. Once a crafter has achieved this rank they can expect a posting away from the Hall to start their career. To maintain some IC accuracy you will also need an IC age of 16 to advance to this rank.
OOC: You will need to have at least 3 lesson credits in the field you wish to pursue, and have taken classes in at least 3 diffrent areas of the craft. The Project's main aim is to produce RP, and will need to be checked for appropriateness before it is begun by submitting your idea to *smithstaff. Of course all logs should be sent to VPsmithstaff@lycos.com.
- Senior Journeyman. This rank is typically achieved after a Journeyman crafter has spent some time on his/her chosen field of speciality and has completed a posting at one of the many Holds or Weyrs of Pern. The crafter then informs the Hall of his/her wish to return or the craft posts a diffrent crafter to the area and the crafter returns teaching aspects of the craft to new apprentices.
OOC: Since this rank exists mainly to allow players to learn 'How to teach' smithcrafting and to start to teach lessons at the Hall, not everyone will aspire to it. Teaching however is integral to being a Master in the craft. Advancement to this rank requires no lessons, but does require you to develop and teach at least three lessons in addition to any demonstrations you developed as an apprentice.
- Master. Teaching and Research to the craft are the two main aspects of being a Master Smith. To progress to this rank therefore requires a Senior Journeyman Smith to have attended a 'Teaching Protocol' lesson sometime in their smith career, and to have demonstrated their ability to teach the basic apprentice lessons, as well as a lesson in their own chosen field of speciality. The other side, research, a crafter should be able to prove their ability to undertake some research project of their choosing. You also need an IC age of 20.
OOC: Simply put, the Senior Journeyman player who wishes to be a Master should realize that a fair bit of their time will be taken up with teaching. A total of three journeyman level lessons to teach and develop in order to become a Master. In addition, the 'Master-Project' should involve a large TP on some new area of smithcraft knowledge. An important point to note here however is that the nature of research is trial and failure - so the player's research project does not actually have to successfully produce results in order to pass. It is the experimentation that is important, not the end-result. Because some people tend to go towards events or plots rather then research we have you write up at least 1 research project for the library as well.NOTE: The above are a guide to the MINIMUM requirements for advancement in the Smithcraft.
- Sr. Apprentice. This rank is typically achieved after an apprentice has shown they are knowledgable of the basic aspects of the craft.
Search and Impression
The Smithcraft has no objection to any Smith, as long as they not a master, being Searched by a Dragon for a hatching. The craft is expected, however, to keep track of the poeple under it's care, and so any such action should be accompanied by a note to *Smithstaff to allow the staff to officially take you off Smith duties.
An OOC Note: Due to the small nature of the craft, we strongly discourage Senior Journeyman from applying. Also while there are no limits on the number of people searched, the staff will be requesting to SearchCo that no more than two actually be impressed at any one hatching.
After Impression, all unsuccessful candidates are welcome back at the Hall if they so wish to return. Successful candidates will retain all rights and privilages of whatever rank they obtained in the craft before impression, but due to the nature of dragonrider duties will not be able to progress any further in the craft.