Cibryen Weyr - Play By Email Guide

Welcome to Cibryen Weyr, and thanks for you interest in us! Have you ever been involved in a PBeM before? If not, you have reached one of the most newbie-friendly weyrs on the web.

The first pre-requisite of PBeMs is writing ability. If you can't write, don't bother. The entire point of these clubs is to be able to write in Anne McCaffrey's world of Pern. We're really not interested in one-liners, and 99.9% of Fan Weyrs are PG-13 or better. If you're coming here to write porn from flights, go away. We don't need that here. You need to be creative as well. If you don't like coming up with stories, again, there's no point in even trying. You'll just make us, and yourself, miserable.

This is a list of a few guidelines that will ease your way into Cibryen and make it a lot easier on all of us old fogies that have been around forever and get set in our ways. *g*

Personae

Personae are the backbone of PBeMs. People write personae to be certain kinds of people, with habits, personalities, and backgrounds. Generally, personae are very different from the person that runs them. For example, I'm a 5'7, redheaded 22 year old woman. I play G'brel, a 6'1, black haired 27 year old man. Big difference! Most people have more than one persona. In fact, there are people with 10 or more here at Cibryen! (usually more) Personae interact with each other in RPs, the short term for Roleplays. RPs can be as little as one line, or as much as several pages. The fun thing about RPs is that they give you an opportunity to be someone, and do something, that you could or would never do in Real Life (RL).

When writing your persona, be sure to think realistically. Sure, we all want as many firelizards as Menolly did, but realistically, that kind of thing is rare and not very practical. Also, make your character unique. We've seen every cliché in the book, and then some. Fiery redheads, ditzy blondes, and super-people. Super-people are well---lets put it this way: Perfect people are perfectly boring. Give your persona some flaws. They don't have to be major. As a matter of fact, dragonriders as a whole tend to be a pretty well-adjusted lot. Give them a temper, make them bite their nails, a nervous tic maybe, or make them painfully shy. There are infinite possibilities.

If you need help writing your persona, please, let us know. That's what we're here for. We can give you an idea of what we need, and already have. Try adopting a persona - it lets you join faster, gives you an idea of what we're looking for, and lets you play without the strain of having to create a persona from scratch.

Roleplaying your Persona

First and foremost rule of roleplaying your persona: YOU MAY NOT ROLEPLAY ANYONE ELSE'S PERSONA WITHOUT FIRST GETTING THAT PERSONA'S OWNER'S PERMISSION. This is called "posing." Even little gestures, speaking, anything. We're forgiving about the little stuff like handshakes though. You may approach someone, but you can't have them reply if they aren't yours. Basically, you can't do this: (Jeremy is your persona, Jennifer is mine)

This is a no-no. You can have Jeremy walk up to Jennifer and say hi, but unless Jennifer's owner says otherwise, you can't reply for her. Its just plain rude. This goes for dragons, too. Dragons are run only by their owners. They have distinctive personalities, and are well loved by their owners. Don't "pose" one without permission.

When roleplaying with other people, you have to keep in mind that personae sometimes react in ways that the persona's owner would not. Don't take a persona's actions and words personally. Some of us run VERY mean characters that will do or say anything to hurt another character, but that doesn't mean we don't like you.

Along those same lines, remember to have your personae react the way they would react, not the way you would react. When you write your personae, you write a personality. A person who is written as shy won't walk up to a complete stranger and ask them out on a date, even if YOU would. Be consistent with your personae. That's why we have you write out a persona sheet, so you have a reference of what your persona is like.

When RPing, try and be original. If we wanted dime romance novels, we'd buy dime romance novels. Love scenes are not all silky hair and sparkling eyes. That's just plain annoying. Don't make us vomit, okay?

Formatting RP Emails

As a general rule, we write in the past tense. We aren't allowed to RP online, so writing in past tense just makes it a lot easier. Present tense can be confusing, especially since we talk and banter a lot by email.

When replying to an email, we usually stick <<brackets>> around the text we are replying to. It helps to distinguish what you are writing from the old stuff. And only include text from the email you are replying to, not the four emails before that. We got them too, and we can re-read them ourselves if we need a reminder. That's one of the reasons we joined an email list.

When you are replying to email, its a lot easier if you write the new stuff first, then add the old text after that. It saves us from having to either scroll down to the new stuff, or read back through the old stuff again. And turn off those annoying arrows, you know, the ones your email program sticks in when you reply? They build up, and make it impossible to read the text easily. We can get over 100 emails at once in our inboxes, so every little minute we don't have to spend deciphering your email helps a lot.

Now, this may seem like an obvious thing to some, but before you hit the send button on your email, go back and look over it for obvious spelling errors and punctuation. We are all writers. It makes it hard to read and enjoy your writing if we have to decifer wut yer tryin to say. See what I mean? Good writing can be overshadowed by poor spelling. Most email programs have spellcheckers...USE them.

Etiquette When PBeMing

When you roleplay in a PBeM, there are a few things you can do to make your relationship with your weyr friends much easier.

We've already discussed this one, but it doesn't hurt to reiterate. Don't pose other people's personae. Its beyond rude.
Don't put words in other personae's mouths
Discuss major RP plots with the BoD. If you want to kill off a character, let the BoD know so that we can adjust our plans accordingly.
If you want to run a major plotline, discuss it with the BoD and other members to see if they like it. We've done a lot, and we don't want to do the same thing over again. For example, we've already roleplayed a great plague hitting Pern, and its boring to do the same things over again.
Don't attack other people's characters unless you've discussed it with that character's owner. We're an enterprising bunch, and certainly don't mind conflict--its what makes the weyr go 'round! Just don't surprise us, okay?
Use common sense. Generally weyrfolk don't get jealous of Flight outcomes. Besides, its been done to death. By us.
Don't flame someone for something they've written. If you have a problem with something they've written, take it to them in private. Its embarrassing to be cut down on a public list.
Leave sexual stuff out of the weyr. You can imply, but always have the scene fade to black. We won't tolerate explicit stuff. You can write it, but take it private. I know I don't want to see it.
Follow the RULES! They're there for a reason. We didn't just decided one day to do it. Every rule we have has either been put in place by Anne herself, or after careful discussion by the BoD and agreed upon by the ENTIRE BoD unanimously.
Try not to use Earth colloquialisms. Pernese don't go around saying "dude" and "dammit" and things like that. Pern has its own set of colloquialisms. If you're not sure, let us know! A few common ones are "shards", "by the Shell", "Faranth knows". Here's a whole list of oaths and maledicta. We're happy to help!
Don't jump in on plots uninvited. We plot a lot of things ahead of time...don't assume its open. If its an open RP, and anyone can jump in, we'll say as much.
HAVE FUN!!! If you're not having fun, there's no point. Tell us if you have a problem. That's why there's a BoD in the first place. If you have a problem with another member that you don't think you can solve face to face, bring it to us. We're friends, not dictators?