Poses for the Candidate Hatching Information Meeting: May 2000

@emit [center([repeat(*,46)],79)]%r[center(Agenda - PreHatching Meeting - May 2000 Clutch,79)]%r[center([repeat(*,46)],79)]%r%r%t%t* IC tips on the hatching%r%t%t* Hatching night%r%t%t* OOC Dos and Don'ts on the sands%r%t%t* Impression: what happens OOC%r%t%t* About the dragon objects%r%t%t* After the hatching%r

"IC tips on the hatching. This includes what you should wear, what you should remember ICly about the hatchlings and the like.

"First: all parents and relations (NPC or PC) are invited. Some NPC would go pick them up when the dragons started humming.

"The dragons will start humming 15 minutes before the hatching begins (6:45pm EST). That will give you time to all get your baths and get into your robes. You can ICly go to the pool and bathe (that's the purpose of the 15 minute warning), or just pose that you went out and came back in. It's up to you. But be sure to be back in the barracks no later than 6:55pm EST so we can get organized and all to go on the sands. X'dros will be setting you all up. I'm going to try not to have you OOC at all before the hatching, so please page the WLMs and WLs about your descs.

"Descs! Your robe is plain white. No fancy stitchings, no extremely short robes or long ones. "It looks basically like a white shift with holes for arms, legs and head, and open at the bottom like a dress. No ties or ribbons or anything. Those with long hair, male or female, should have their hair bound back (braid/pony tail) with a white ribbon or plain leather thong. No jewelry. Sandles are the shoes. So it will still be hot on the sands for you to shuffle around on. The WLMs and WLs will be checking your descs out before you go on the sands. Remember: in *pages*. And if you get it done early, contact one of us to give it a once over, either in +mail or page us."

"Heat! Yes, yes, the sands are very hot. They won't burn skin or anything, but they will be uncomfortable. Much sweating and sticky sand should result.

"Dragons: The dragonets are big (1-3 meters (3 to 9 feet long)) and are very clumsy. The will be sticky, covered in egg goop. They do have Very Sharp Claws. Be sure to stay out of their way, because sometimes when they get going, stopping is hard. ;)

"You'll enter the sands in alphabetical order. You will ICly be standing about a dragonlength (20 meters) away from the eggs in a semicircle. Hand holding and clumps are encouraged. ;)

"Also: watch the bboards! The conditions on the hatching ground will be posted the day before the hatching.

"If anyone has a particular NPC they want to see impressed (and feel free to include the color), please +mail Kata no later than Wednesday the 3rd.

"Any questions on IC tips for the hatching?

"Okay, moving on: Hatching night! There are a few things you'll need to know about the night of the hatching. First is the date and time: Saturday, May 6th, 7pm ET (4pm PT). That's this coming Sat. for the date. Candidates need to be here at 6pm ET (3pm PT) so that you can do pre-hatching RP, have descs checked, etc.

"Generally, Monaco hatchings take about 2 hours. I'm *hoping* for 1 and a half. Zabrenevath's last took an hour and a half, but started about 15 minutes late. ;) I'm going to try my best to get it done in under that, but code always breaks, the mush always lags, etc... If for some reason the mush is *down*, I'll be emailing all of you to let you know, and we'll have to reschedule. If the mush goes down during, same thing. However, if the MUSH goes down, I can't reach the outside world, soooo. ;)

"Now, we're going to have something a trifle different for this hatching at Monaco. When the dragons hatch, their descriptions are going to be such that you cannot see what their 'true' color is. This is usually called a colorless hatching, and has been done on SouCon and a few other places. We're doing it for many reasons, but not the least of which is that it makes it more realistic for you all, lending to the IC confusion and chaos of hatching day.

"If you can't make the hatching: you MUST have a puppeteer. Preferably a puppeteer and a backup. A puppeteer is someone who logs into your character, and RPs for you on the sands. Monaco will not impress a dragon to a person not physically on the sands. It is *your* responsibility to get someone to puppet you on the sands. What you need to do for your puppeteer is: change your password for the day and give it to them, put your robe desc on, drop all your objects beforehand and set yourself halt, so all your puppeteer has to do is log in as you, and go onto the sands.

"You'll be called out alphabetically, make your semicircle. Bows are covered in just a minute, as are pose limits. ;)

"Any questions about general hatching night info?

"Now for a few dos and don't about on sands behavior:

"Don't: Attempt to touch a dragon unless it has spoken to you. You'll know when you impress, because there will be a BIG HUGE spammy message when it speaks to you. If you pose touching a dragon that has not impressed to you, that is clear license for the person puppeting it to slash your character. And *I* don't want that. ;)

"Don't: pose getting run over, clawed, fell on or otherwise mauled by any of the dragonets. Again, you'll have an upset Bri after you afterwards for stopping the hatching to take care of your character ICly. ;) If you do want to be injured, you MUST let C'bol and I know beforehand, so we can have some NPC take care of you. I don't want to squash anyone's RP, but hatchings are hectic enough without having to worry about injuries. ;)

"Please don't: sing, dance, or 'think' to the dragonets. Also, this isn't a FL hatching, so they don't respond to meat. Don't even think of taking food out on the sands with you. And thinking about food won't help you. 8)"

"Don't: Pose any extra dragons hatching!! We have people writing emits for all the eggs and that is already taken care of. 8)"

"Code don'ts: Don't bring any puppets on the sands with you. Drop them in here and pick them up later. It will interfere with hatching code. Don't pagelock yourself. An admin may need to page you if there's something wrong with the code.

"Okay, now for the fun stuff. The 'dos'. 8)

"Do: make your own individual bow to the sire and dam when you come on the sands."

"Do: Pose! But limit your pose to 1 egg/hatchling pose. There will be tons of spam, even though the galleries will not be audible to you to help you cope with it."

"Do: If you impress, say aloud the name of your dragon. Males: change your name first! If you don't, you'll get tons of pages saying to change it."

"Do: emit NPCs! Remember, if you have any favorite NPCs you want to impress, let Kata know in +mail no later than Wednesday, May 3rd."

"Code dos: Set yourself opaque, and halt.'(@set me=opaque' and '@set me=halt') You'll likely want to go quiet on all the knots as well. ('mcw +quiet') My may want to set an @idle message to tell people and well wishers you're on the sands. ('@idle me=I'm on the sands at Monaco!') or, for those of you who are being puppeted: '

"And Finally, the biggest do of all: Have fun! The decisions for impression have already been made before the hatching, so just relax and have fun. Easier said than done, I know, but... ;)

"Any questions about dos and don'ts on the sands?

"Now: Impression. OOCly, you'll know if you impress. There will be an emit that will emit to everyone else on the grounds and tell them that the dragon has chosen you. You won't see it. You'll see a big spammy pemitted message that is for you alone. It will tell you the dragon's name, and if you're male, your honorific. If you're male, change your name BEFORE posing to tell everyone in the grounds your dragon's name. But do tell everyone the dragon's name. They won't see it. Only you will.

"X'dros will be around to usher you off the sands into the 'Small chamber' off the sands - the exit is dark, and is aliased to: small chamber, small, sc. There you will find tubs of meat and oil, to take care of your lifemate.

"About the dragon objects:

"The dragons will be 'played' through the hatching, or for as long as the puppeteer has time for. You'll be able to see after the hatching who your dragon was puppeted by.

"After everyone impresses, the WLM and AWLMs will move you off to the barracks. Then you're their responsibility for the next 8 weeks. ;) They'll likely have a few words to say to you, and those puppeting your dragons will chown them over to you.

"For your own sanity: do NOT ex your dragon until you have some time to digest the spam. There's a ton of information on the objects, and you'll spam yourself silly. The dragons come complete with information about their tempers, lineage, inspirations, etc. It's a lot of text, and if you just 'ex <dragonname>', be prepared for at least 5 screens of spam. If you're interested in seeing previous examples of dragons at Monaco, go to www.midkemia.net/~monaco/dec99wlings/

"Any questions about Impression OOC and the dragon objects?

"After the hatching:

"After the hatching, those that have impressed will head off to the barracks. If you don't impress, please stay on the sands, the WLs will have a few words to say ICly to you. Let me start now by saying that we can only impress 8 people, and this has been a very stellar group of people. I wish we could impress all of you - yeah, some of you have heard that before, but this is entirely true. I do hope that, if you don't impress, you'll consider staying on at Monaco as a resident or crafter, or will consider us next time around sometime in September. Fort Weyr, Healer Hall, Weaver Hall and Fort hold also need good people, though I want to keep you all for Monaco. ;)

"Also, C'bol and I are more than happy to talk to you after the hatching about your characters, if you don't impress. This includes questions as to why you didn't, future character plans, everything. That's our job. 8) Or even if you do impress and have questions. ;) However: please give us a few days to recover, and a few days for yourself to think about it. A hatching is a very emotional and draining event for everyone involved, C'bol and myself included.

"Also: please keep in mind: there are no guarantees of any particular color being a PC dragon. That is entirely up to the search committee. If you have questions about why you did or didn't impress or did or didn't get X color, *please* wait a day or two to let the WLs and staff recover. We'll be glad to talk to you, but all too exhausted right after the hatching to give your questions the time and attention they deserve.

"Depending on time, the feast may or may not be RPed. I for one will go off to collapse. ;) It is entirely up to the WLM(s) whether or not the new weyrlings can attend the feast. They ICly cannot go until their lifemate is asleep, and OOCly can't go until the dragon is chowned and the WLM talks to them, and you'll likely want to go through the info on them as well. ;)

"Okay, any final questions?

"I just want to say on behalf of the weyr staff that it's been a lot of fun having you all here as candidates. This has been an excellent group and we do selfishly hope that you'll stay on at Monaco no matter what the outcome of the hatching. ;) If you want to head to other places, however, just drop C'bol and I a note, and we'll take care of your Monaco knot and the like. The staff wishes you all the best of luck no matter where you end up - the area you do stay in will only benefit from you folks.