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NOTICE! Revised 2002-02.24 by the BoD Originally written by Rachel I. Club
Structure and Copyright Notice These are some rules we would like you all to follow when role-playing by email. Please keep in mind that these rules may change as our club evolves. The BoD will always keep the membership informed of any changes, and we are open to discussing rules with our members. Since we require identifiable personal information to join, all new members are required to be age 13 and up as of February, 2002, to comply with United States Federal child protection guidelines. Our formal privacy policy is in the works and will be posted soon. Other membership requirements are listed in the FAQ. At the bottom
of this page, you'll find the Infractions
section. While we have only had to discipline members on extremely
rare occasions, it can happen. Torayan Weyr was founded by Rachel in February, 2001. Rachel is the Charter Holder, and she is the final arbiter regarding all matters of Weyr management. We have an appointed Board of Directors to assist Rachel in daily club management, persona approval, and maintenance of the web site and the mailing lists. The BoD works together as a team to solve any problems that may come our way. Our primary mission is to help you, as our members, have fun playing in the world of Pern, and if anything is getting in the way, we want to know about it so we can help you. :) If you have any questions or problems, at any time, feel free to come to the BoD member of your choice, or to send a message to the BoD list. Board of Directors: Rachel
- Charter Holder/Webbie Ranking positions in the club are available to any member who wishes to apply for them. The BoD encourages both veteran and new members to try for ranking positions. These positions are generally filled by written application, judged by creativity and writing quality. Accepting a ranking position may include additional in-character and out-of-character duties. See the Persona Creation section for more on this. Copyright
Notice: All references to worlds and characters
based on Anne McCaffrey's fiction are copyright © Anne
McCaffrey 1967, 2000, all rights reserved, and used by permission
of the author. Torayan Weyr is credited to Rachel Weatherby, 2000-2002. All original characters, places, and situations are property of their creators. II. Basic Rules of Role-Playing A. The number one rule of role-playing (RPing) is to never role-play another person's character without their explicit permission. In the gaming world, this is like taking control of another person's words or actions, and it is almost the worst thing you can do in a game. B. Please treat
your fellow role-players with respect, and try not to confuse in-character
and out-of-character actions and emotions. If your character is picked
on or disliked, it doesn't mean the real people in the club don't
like you. Likewise, if your character gets in trouble in role-playing,
it doesn't necessarily mean that you, the player, are in trouble too. C. We want you to be creative in coming up with story ideas and characters... but if you're going to go beyond "normal" Pernese life, we would appreciate a heads-up. We may have other storylines in the works which might conflict with your idea, (we are full of evil plots!) or we may need to schedule your plot idea so we don't have too much going on at the same time. When in doubt: ask! Plots requiring prior approval from the BoD, no exceptions:
D. If you plan
to get into anything sexual or explicit, have it fade to black before
it goes too far. We have several younger members, and it wouldn’t
be appropriate. If you wouldn't see it on standard, network prime-time
TV, you won't see it in one of our RPs. If you want to go beyond that,
feel free to take it off-list. III. Charter Rules Required by Anne McCaffrey These rules are extremely important to follow, because they determine our right to play in Ms. McCaffrey's world. Other fan Weyrs may interpret these rules differently than we do, but we all follow the same basic tenets. If you have any questions about these rules, email the BoD and we'll talk about it. You can also refer to the fan club rules posted on Ms. McCaffrey's web site. (no direct link available: click on "FAQ" in the bar menu) A. No character can be related to Lessa, F’lar, Robinton, or anyone from Ms. McCaffrey’s books. Additionally, no character names may be reused from her books. See the Persona Creation section for more on this. B. Pern fan clubs are not allowed to use Benden Hold, Benden Weyr, or Ruatha Hold in role-playing. To make it easier for our members to follow this rule, our scenario does not include these locations: they simply do not exist. Please see our Places page for a list of allowable locations replacing these. Connell wine (our analogue to Benden) is just as good, trust us! C. 1. Also as stated and requested by Ms. McCaffrey, we can have no online role-play. All of it must be done through emails only, or through members-only print "zines." Do not role-play in chat rooms or using instant messenger programs, do not post stories on your personal homepage, and please do not share them with others outside the group. More than any other, this is the rule which might endanger our existence as an approved fan Weyr... so please, keep your fellow members in mind, and just don't do it. C. 2. We are not allowed to archive our emails with our mailing list provider, Yahoo! Groups. Each member is responsible for keeping copies of each message he or she would like to save. You may need to download messages from your email account more often. D. Our role-playing
will follow the basic tenets of Pern, as we all know and love from
the books. If you're not yet familiar with Pern, please check out
our FAQ. Members and characters of all genders and sexual orientations are warmly welcomed at Torayan Weyr. The dragon pairings listed below are consistent with the majority of Pern fan clubs currently in operation. Dragons are only
allowed in the five standard colors: no exceptions. B. PCs and NPCs... PC stands for Player Character, and NPC stands for Non-Player Character. Virtually all role-playing on our lists will take place with PCs. NPCs are the "bit parts," like extras in a movie. If you plan to use an NPC for an extended period of time, such as in conjunction with a continuing plot, you must write up an abbreviated persona sheet and submit this to the BoD. If you're going to keep an NPC permanently, you must write him or her up as a full PC. C. Ranking Personas: As stated above, all members are encouraged to write up and apply for ranking characters. While we don't have the kind of requirements found in some fan Weyrs, like reports and zines, we will probably ask you to take on certain in-character and out-of-character responsibilities in keeping with your new position. For example,
say you've applied for the position of Weyrlingmaster Assistant: Out-Of-Character responsibilities: Post frequently on the Weyrlings list, help keep the plot moving, help come up with creative lesson ideas, etc. Ranking Positions include, but are not limited to: all gold and bronze riders, Wingleaders, Wingseconds, Weyrlingmasters, Headwoman, Lord Holder, Craft Master. More guidelines for persona creation are located on our Persona Sheet, including limits on the number of PC characters each member may create at a time. Please read both this page, and the Persona Sheet, before you begin.... have fun! We would greatly appreciate it if you would notify the BoD if you plan to leave the club. We all have real lives, too, and we'll understand, though we'll be very sad to see you go. Except in the case of goldriders, you can tell us how you want to write your characters out of the story. You can choose from making the characters adoptable for other members, arranging their deaths, or having them slip into assumed NPC obscurity. Goldriders may only be killed off or transferred out. To keep the club fair for everyone, these characters will not be able to return if you rejoin Torayan Weyr in the future. If you do not specify how your characters are to be treated when you leave Torayan Weyr, or if you abandon characters without responding to our attempts to contact you, the BoD will take charge of the characters and do with them as they see fit. We are generally open to former players who want to return. We will discuss reinstatement of characters on a case-by-case basis. VI.
Writing and Formatting Guidelines In order to keep
sanity within the weyr, we have a few writing guidelines to keep in
mind. We won't put a dead tunnel-snake in your bed for not adhering
to these rules, but everyone will be happier if you do. A. Please make an attempt to date all your posts with the Pern date. (i.e. 2010-06.01) This is so the BoD can compile a timeline, and to help us avoid conflicts. If you're not sure of the date, please ask the originator of the thread, or the BoD-- we'll work something out. B. In our Weyr,
human to dragon telepathy is enclosed in [[square brackets.]] C. When replying to a long section of text, we would really appreciate it if you would put your reply before the previous text in the story. Please don’t include every single email from that one RP every time you reply: just put in the section you're directly replying to. D. Put << >> (brackets) around the text that you are replying to... it helps us tell the difference between what you are replying, and what your reply is. We prefer manually typed brackets over the automatic ones inserted by most email programs. E. Please RP in the past tense. It’s less confusing, and makes it easier to read. F. Please spell-check your posts, if you can, and make an effort to use proper punctuation and grammar. Again, no dead tunnel-snakes, but clear and correct writing helps to make role-playing go much more smoothly. Please remember that the BoD and the Charter Holder have discretion over all these rules, and have the right to refuse or revoke membership at any time. We will do our best to resolve any situations before they cause major problems before they get to this point. The first time a player breaks any rule in Section II or Section III, the BoD will remind the player about the rule, and offer him or her an opportunity to fix the mistake or apologize to anyone else involved. The second time, the BoD will warn the player. The player will have one week to post a retraction and/or an apology to the list, or privately to the other player(s) involved if the situation warrants. The third time, the player will have his or her mailing list status changed to Moderated for a period of one month. (This means that the player will not be able to post directly to the lists: a BoD member must review all posts before they are sent to the general membership.) If, after one
month, the player has shown that he or she can post without moderation,
the player will be returned to full status in the club. Thank you for reading this page! Any questions, comments, or thoughts? Contact the BoD. 
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