Persona Profiles

Choosing a Persona Age

Information regarding age restrictions on certain types and ranks of personas

Do I have to enter an exact birth/hatching date?

Persona birth dates are stored in the database in the form of the persona's birth day, month and Turn. Originally the persona's age and birth day and month were stored, but this meant that every year the persona's age had to be updated and a lot of the time people forgot! Storing the day, month and Turn means that the persona's age can be calculated automatically.

However, because it's much easier to enter an age than calculate a birth Turn, you can enter a persona's age into the profile form and the birth Turn will be calculated automatically for you.

So exact birth dates are necessary to calculate a persona's age on any given day. But since it can be time-consuming to enter birth dates for every single pet and NPC a persona has, if these are left blank a random birth date will be generated.

Choosing a Persona Name

Each persona must have a name! This can be anything, although we have some guidelines:

• Male dragonriders will change their names on Impression as in the Pern novels - so, for example, Tamoran becomes T'moran.

• To avoid confusion, persona names should not end in -th (like those of dragons)

• Try to avoid Earth-like names (such as John or Susan), "joke" names, names of characters from well-known novels and excessively long or complicated names.

• You cannot use any name from a Pern® novel, or any name of an existing character from the club. These will be automatically checked for when you submit your persona form.

Choosing a Persona's Location

All active personas must live at a PC location. Make sure you read the information about a location before creating your persona - it will contain important details about life there.

You can find out more about the different locations by selecting the "Locations" tab.

Choosing a Rank and Job

Each persona will hold a rank, which can be anything from Lord Holder to simple Hold Resident. You can choose among the available ranks by using the drop-down box on the persona form.

Remember that "ranking" personas - those with higher status in the world of Pern - come with responsibilities. You can read about those in Ranking Personas

If you want to create a craftsman, select the "Crafter" rank. You'll be able to specify whether they are an apprentice, journeyman or master using the Craft Information section of the form. Please see Craft Information for specifics.

What if I can't find a rank that matches what my persona does?

If you can't find a rank that fully describes your persona's role in life, you can add more detail in the "Job" box on the persona form. For example, if you'd like to create a foster mother at the Weyr, choose "Hold Resident" for the persona's rank, and then enter "Foster Mother" as the persona's job.

Creating a Crafter

If you'd like your persona to be a crafter, you can select their craft using the drop-down box on the persona form. Remember, female crafters are only permitted in the Weyrs, the Dolphin Hall, and the Printer Hall.

You'll need to choose a rank for your character, and this will need to be logical considering your character's age - see the Age Requirements.

Characters of journeyman rank and above may choose to specialize in a particular area of their craft.

Can a dragonrider also be a crafter?

Dragonriders who Impressed before the Pass began often apprenticed to a craft to help support the former Weyrholds, and sometimes rose to Master rank. However, lately they would have given up any craft they had before Impression, with the exceptions of healers, in order to devote their energies to fighting Thread. If they continue to practice their craft, it can only be as a hobby. No dragonrider can expect to put in the hours of study necessary to achieve Mastery in a Pass - if you'd like your dragonrider to be a Master, they'll need to have achieved it before the Pass began.

Craft Specialties

A list of possible specialties

What is a Student?

Students are young people, usually the children of wealthy holders or craftsmen, who are being taught the basics of the craft without formally apprenticing. Their tuition is paid for by their families. This is most common in the Harper Hall, where young ladies are taught to sing, play a little on the harp or gitar and to teach young children.

Creating a Pet

Information regarding adding pets to a persona.

Attached NPCs

The "Attached NPCs" area on the form can be used to list the family and friends of a persona. Usually it's a good idea to include their father and mother and any siblings they might have. In the Holds in particular, where the population is recovering from the effects of the Plagues and women are valued most for the children they can bear, families with three or more children are common and an only child is rare.

The same rules about choosing a logical name, age and rank for NPCs apply as for PCs. If you choose parents of high rank (for example, a Lord Holder or Weyrleader) you should be aware that you may be asked to change this before the persona can be approved.

To avoid confusion, NPCs cannot have the same name as other NPCs or PCs. If you would like to link an NPC to more than one persona (for example, if you have created a brother and sister as PCs and need them to share the same mother and father) you will be able to do this after submitting the persona form.

To do this, click on the "Add Connections" link in the box to the left of the profile of the PC to whom you'd like to add NPCs. You can then select the NPC's name from the drop-down box below the title "Link NPCs" and type in their relationship to the persona. A similar process can be used to link existing PCs to a persona, or to add existing pets to their profile. If the PC or NPC you are linking is not owned by you, you should check with the owner to make sure they're happy with the link!

To delete an NPC, simply check the box in the column to the right of the NPC table on the persona form (below the "X"). This will not delete the NPC altogether, but simply break the link between the NPC and the persona. You can always re-link them to the persona profile using the "Add Connections" page.