Writing guide

Writing in Dragonchoice’s Pern is unlike roleplaying in a PBEM club, or writing in a traditional Zine.

Most clubs ask you to create character sheets and submit them for approval, then write stories or roleplay posts involving those characters, often to meet set posting or writing requirements.

The Dragonchoice project takes a looser approach. There are no colour or rank based limits on the characters you write about – only restrictions on certain main characters whose stories have already been planned. There are no writing requirements or deadlines: you can write as much or as little as you like about your chosen location or characters, at your own pace.

We ask only that you follow three broad rules:

1. Write well. Good grammar, accurate spelling and the ability to plot and characterise strongly are basic requirements. Quality counts.
2. Write realistically. The Dragonchoice project is “fan fiction with bite” - Mary Sues, wish fulfilment and fluffiness won’t fit in.
3. Write respectfully. The time and effort of over thirty people has gone into the project – make your mark, but not at the expense of what has gone before.

The guidelines listed below cover some of the specifics of Dragonchoice's Pern, but in the first instance, get in touch and let us know what you're interested in writing about.

Writing at Madellon Weyr

• Some characters from Dragonchoice and Dragonchoice II are fully or partly off-limits due to future plans for Dragonchoice III. These include:
  • T’kamen
  • Valonna
  • C’los
  • C’mine
  • L’stev
  • Sarenya
  • Sh’zon
  • M’ric
  • Tarshe
  • Carleah
• Use of all these characters can be arranged, and/or stories involving them co-oped
• All current Madellon riders have names, so try not to invent random new ones – a complete roster of all Madellon’s current riders is available on request
• Clutch charts detailing the breeding and status of every Madellon-bred dragon are also available on request
• A timeline of Madellon events is in the works

World timeline

• Dragonchoice’s Pern is set in the Seventh Interval
• The events of Dragonchoice and Dragonchoice II occur in the 98th and 99th Turns of the Interval
• As major world events are scheduled to happen in Dragonchoice III, the current timeline limit is 99.05.08 (ie the Hatching in Dragonchoice II)
• The First Long Interval and Moreta’s Plague didn’t happen
• The practice of presenting female candidates for fighting dragons never died out completely (although the numbers of female green riders fluctuates from time to time and Weyr to Weyr)
• The absence of devastating plagues led the Pernese to explore the Southern Continent much sooner than in the standard timeline
• Southern Weyr was established in the Fifth Pass in the same location as it is the Ninth Pass Southern Weyr, where the explorers first settled in the South
• The Peninsula Weyr was founded in the late Sixth Interval
• Madellon Weyr (from M’dellon, the first Weyrleader) was established early in the Seventh Interval
• Ted Tubberman’s grubs exist in that they prevent grounded Thread from spreading, but they don’t give living plants any protection

Dragons

• When Search is required (it isn’t always) candidates are generally sourced only from within the Weyr’s own territory – poaching candidates from another Weyr’s territory is bad manners
• Colour-gender pairings as follows:
• Queens choose female riders
• Bronzes choose male riders
• Browns choose male riders
• Blues choose male riders
• Greens prefer female riders but choose male riders when females are not available
• Impression follows roughly the system laid out in the Theory section of the website – briefly, a dragonet seeks to find a rider who meets as many as possible of the following criteria, in order of importance:
• the necessary telepathic potential (essential)
• openness to Impression (including willingness to Impress any given colour, belief in own ability to do so and absence of fear on the sands)
• the corresponding gender
• favourable personality traits
• Dragonets don’t die unImpressed unless there are no viable candidates remaining
• There is no direct colour-sexuality link, though a male green rider is more likely to be gay by preference than a bronze rider
• There are no mating flight stand-ins

Weyrs

• Interval Weyrs have significantly smaller populations than Pass Weyrs:
• Small: 100-150 dragons
• Medium: 200-250 dragons
• Large: 250-300 dragons
• Very large (ie the Peninsula): 300+ dragons
• Clutches are smaller than in the books – populations are stable, not increasing – average clutch size 15-20 eggs
• Queen flights are also much less frequent
• Transfers between Weyrs are relatively rare and will only happen with good reason
• Fort, Ista and Telgar are under development by project writers
• The Peninsula Weyr has seen a certain amount of development in Dragonchoice II

Fire-lizards

• Rediscovered with the exploration of the Southern continent
• After an initial craze for them their popularity waned
• They come in and out of fashion – a luxury item
• Relatively common in coastal holds and populations and relatively rare inland
• Rare at Madellon (a couple of dozen)
• 90% of queens return to the beaches where they were clutched to lay their eggs - they do not clutch for their owners' convenience

More questions? Email to feedback@dragonchoice.com