Search Cycle Walk-Through: Search

Search - IC

After the eggs have been clutched, the dragons of the Weyr go out across Pern on search, where Istan riders and their dragons seek out people who have some special quality that only the dragons can recognize. If a dragon recognizes that quality in your character, the dragon will tell his or her rider, who will invite your character to become a candidate for the hatching.

Search - OOC

From the flight until a few days after the clutching, you will be able to register for search from any Istan room. Just type '+register <name>=<email address>'. While registration is not mandatory, there are a number of benefits. Once you've registered, we'll be able to keep you updated if there are any changes to the schedule or other information that interested parties should have, we'll be able to contact and coordinate with you if the game goes down and perhaps best of all, those who have registered are able to check that their application has been recieved by using '+register/check'.

Overview

In practical MUSH terms, our dragons can't 'sense' the qualities in someone which indicate the character might make a good rider. We have to do things a little differently, and so we use an application and your roleplay to help us gain an understanding of your character, your skills, and of your own expectations as a player.

Permission

One very important note: you must let your area admin know that you are applying for search. It should not come as a surprise to them that you have applied. It is your responsibility to take care of this in advance.

Application

The first part of the process involves the Search Application. Ista Weyr currently uses an online application. When you apply for search you will answer the questions and send it in by the deadline listed, both for those interested in being searched as 'stand-only', and those interested in impressing. Except for your answers to the questions in the confidential section which will be seen only by the admin, your application will be read and evaluated by all the members of the Search Committee.

If, throughout the search process, or while at Ista as a candidate, you find that you have some OOC questions you'd like to discuss with someone, the admin team should be your first points of contact; but anyone on the Search Committee should be able to answer some questions. Please be aware we do not offer feedback on your application or the status of the committee's decisions regarding any of the applicants or candidates.

Your application will not be the only criteria we use to decide who to search. You can expect that we will want to see you out and roleplaying. This is best done in your native environment, but anyone not native to Ista is welcome to visit the Weyr whenever they like.

If you visit, keep in mind that applying for candidacy is completely OOC. ICly, you'd never know you have any reason to want to learn about Ista in hopes of being searched. Think about how many thousands of people live on the continent. Then think about how relatively few people would be searched for even a very large clutch (maybe fifty or so). People wouldn't be 'hanging around a Weyr hoping to be searched'. So, when roleplaying, your visits should be for other IC reasons.

Evaluation and Search

The Search Committee meets to discuss the applications and individual roleplay experiences, then decide on whom to search. You can find a list of Search Committee members in its entirety by looking here on our website. This decision-making process may take a while, but once an applicant's name is turned over to the searchriders, they enter the next stage of the search process: getting searched and becoming a candidate.

This is where the searching of the candidate-to-be is roleplayed, usually in a public place. Your character will not know he or she is going to be searched until it actually happens. That said, for the week or so following the clutching, we recommend that you make an effort to be available for RP as if we cannot catch you to search you we will not be able to include you in candidacy. A searchrider might need to contact you OOCly to arrange the scene, especially if you have been difficult to find, but whenever possible we like to make it a surprise. Again, you don't need to check on your status with the searchriders. If you are to be searched, you will be in due time.

You may be searched anywhere on Pern, but you need to be in a public place. If you are indoors, you and others in the room may be asked to step outside with the searchrider. This is not the time to be spending all day in your cot or unfindable.

As you can imagine, there are going to be disappointments. We cannot search everyone. Who to search is the first of many difficult decisions the committee has to make during the hatching process. Unfortunately, the decisions only get harder. If you are not searched this time, please don't think it means you will never be searched or be able to impress a dragon.

Everyone who has applied but will not be searched will be notified privately in +mail once the IC search period is over. This way you will know, and will have ample time to prepare for search at another Weyr. We highly encourage all of the folks we have been unable to search this time to try at another Weyr or to give Ista another shot next cycle.

Next: Thoughts to Keep in Mind

Previous: The Clutching
Back to: Search Info: Index