Introduction | Being Weyrwoman | Applying for Gold | Do's and Don'ts | Conclusion
Certain aspects of our search process have changed since the original writing of this letter. Notably, as we now have several junior goldriders, any gold Impressed at this point should expect to wait some time before being asked to step up as Senior Weyrwoman. That potential is always there, though, so it is best to prepare as though you could be asked to take on the job at any moment.
When I was younger, well before I Impressed Mhiyath, I remember reading just this sort of letter often. Usually, its primary purpose was to scare off most of the potential applicants to make life easier for SearchCo, I think. Thankfully, in this day and age we have more than enough time to review applications and Candidates. Goldriding is not particularly frightening, though it is sometimes difficult, and our primary concern now is making sure that you know what you're getting into before you hit 'submit'.
There are no secrets about goldriding. I will do my best here to tell you about what it really involves, what sort of skills you need to have to do it well, and what we look for in applicants. Despite this, I know that I'll end up missing something. Please, if you notice something I've skipped or have additional questions, let me know! The best thing you can do is to be as well-informed about the process as possible, and that has the added benefit of making our lives easier, too--everybody wins. One of the fastest things you can do to disqualify yourself is to prove that you have not read the information we've provided. It's here for a reason, so even if I do sometimes get long-winded, bear with me. I promise, it's worth it to know this stuff. If you want to break it up, you can use the links at the top to jump straight to a particular section.
A note on the formatting of this letter: We welcome male players to submit applications for gold with their female alts. For simplicity's sake, however, we will be referring to applicants and goldriders by the female pronoun as appropriate for the characters.
The next goldrider we Impress is also likely to be our next Senior Weyrwoman. On the other hand, it may be a year, two, or longer before I consider retiring. That means that the individual we Impress needs to be capable enough to take over if something happens to me, but able to keep herself busy in the meantime. One of the largest challenges for a new goldrider is keeping herself interested once the first thrills of Impression have worn off. This is a long-term commitment, and ideally, you should be ready and willing to continue playing this character for the next three or four years of your life. It doesn't end when you Impress--that's only the beginning.
Weyrlinghood, for a goldrider, is just like weyrlinghood for anybody else. It's a time to get to know the other weyrlings, the rest of the Weyr, and to get used to RPing your dragon and your character together. We try not to give gold weyrlings special privileges over the others--that means that you graduate and get your weyr at the same time as everybody else, and while active goldriders generally sit on the Weyr staff, this privilege is not extended until after graduation. Your character doesn't outrank any of the other weyrlings ICly, and neither do you OOCly. For some people, this can be a shock, as the staff privileges and responsibilities of goldriding are so emphasized that they don't know what else to do with themselves. During weyrlinghood, you are only a weyrling: enjoy it! Once you graduate, you'll take on a number of additional responsibilities.
Being a junior weyrwoman ranks up there with Weyrlingmaster in terms of difficulty. Seniorship does come with a great deal of visibility and time commitment, but most goldriders are at least somewhat prepared for this. Being junior to someone else is much more complicated. You'll be on staff, and you'll need to stay as active as possible, even during the off season. You'll be given knot admin privileges and access to the builder. However, your projects will still need to be run by the Weyrleaders, and you may be assigned things to do from time to time. Before you apply, make plans for what you want to do with yourself in this time. Plots? Building or code projects? While you don't have free reign and you still have to answer to others, being junior gives you plenty of opportunities. Unfortunately, many new goldriders don't take advantage of them, and boredom is a significant complaint. Always remember that if you're bored, you can ask for something to work on at any time, and the Weyrleaders will almost certainly be able to come up with something for you to do.
If you stick around, chances are that you'll be given the opportunity for your dragon to clutch. How much responsibility you are given at that point depends on a lot of things. How much do you want to do? How active have you been in the months leading up to Search? Is there a need for a gold egg? Are the Weyrleaders unable to lead Search due to time constraints? Generally, a junior will fall into a space somewhere between 'completely in charge' and 'serving as an ordinary SC member.' This is an excellent time to prove that you're ready for more responsibility. On the other hand, being irresponsible during Search can do a lot of damage to your Weyr. The Search schedules are posted well ahead of time under '+help search schedule', so look at your calendar and try to clear out as much time during that period as possible. Search will, both while you're a junior and later as Senior Weyrwoman, be one of the most important things going on in your life for those months. If you prepare well, it's easier to handle the stress and come out of it unscathed.
As a junior, there are some major limitations. You will be unable to leave the Weyr while your dragon is on the sands, which can sometimes make RP difficult. You will not be the final decision-making authority in the Weyr, which can be a challenge if you have difficulty taking instruction from others. The prime complaint, however, is always that there isn't enough to do... and you can fix that on your own if you really want to. There's never a shortage of work to be done.
Presuming you have behaved responsibly and stayed active, there will probably come a time in the future when you will step up as Senior Weyrwoman. I hope that I'll have the opportunity to hand power over gradually to ease you into it and teach you everything as we go, but there's also the possibility that it could happen on a moment's notice if something happens to me. What does it mean to take over this position?
Mostly, it means more work. More of the same things you did as a junior: helping new folks, creating RP, working on building and code, Search. For you, it will be different than for me, because I am primarily a builder/coder... that's what comes easiest to me, and my major projects have been in those areas, doing significant renovation to improve playability. Maybe your focus will be on plots or recruitment. Being 'in charge' gives you a certain amount of leeway about what you choose to work on once the necessary things are done. I must stress, though, that these projects come after the daily maintenance.
You'll need to be on every day, or nearly so. You'll logon and check your mail before anything else. Responding promptly to mail is extremely important. It will be your job to ensure that the knot is updated, with new residents added and everyone's information set properly. New people may need private rooms or weyrs set up. There are periodic recruitment campaigns to manage, sometimes disputes to be mediated. Broken code may need fixed. Search will take up great quantities of your time on top of everything else, once or twice a year. You'll also be responsible for representing the Weyr to the wizard staff, when code bugs need fixing or game policies need to be updated, to ensure that there is a voice speaking for the best interests of your Weyr. If something doesn't get done, even if you assigned it to someone else, it always comes back to you.
Why is it worth it? It depends on the sort of player you are. For many people, it isn't. Some Weyrwomen last for many years, others for only a matter of months. You need to enjoy the administrative work, or you'll burn out very quickly. While roleplay is the point of MUSHing, if that's your primary focus, there are other positions which will probably suit you better. The job of the Senior Weyrwoman (on games like PW, at least, where IC leadership means OOC leadership) is to make roleplay possible and enjoyable for others, not for herself.
After reading all of that, ask yourself if it's really what you want. If it's not, that's okay. Better to waste a few minutes reading than months on applying! If being a goldrider still sounds great after all of that, not just the Impression moment but the whole deal, then I'm glad to hear it. I'm going to do something now that most Weyrs won't: tell you how to Impress.
We can't make guarantees, obviously. There's only one gold egg. If you prefer not to make any effort, you don't have to. You are perfectly able to create a gold instarider out of chargen, or apply at a random Hatching, or just keep on putting in applications until you find a Weyr that's desperate. If you've read this far, though, that's probably not what you want. You want to be the Weyrwoman who is remembered fondly later, the one whose Weyr has a reputation for being a really cool place to play, the one people look up to and respect. This, at least, is my hope. For that, you'll have to try. The good news is that no matter where you're starting from, if you try, you can get there. There is nothing you need that you have to be born with. Everything that makes a good goldrider is learnable. Here, therefore, we will go through all the skills you need to succeed.
Maturity: This is the first hurdle to pass on your way to Impression. Many of us start playing Pern when we're fairly young, but age isn't actually the important part. You can be a mature fourteen-year-old and an immature thirty-year-old, and I've seen both over the years. Being a mature player means that you're able to separate yourself from your character, deal with criticism, and most of all that you have a measure of self-control. Dealing with the stresses of goldriding is impossible when your feelings are in charge instead of your head. Whining with your friends about something is a good example of immature behavior; constructive questions and suggestions are a better way to handle a situation.
Responsibility: Responsibility is just doing what you say you will do. On a MUSH, part of responsibility involves having a stable enough real life to be able to make those commitments in the first place--knowing you won't lose internet access, for example. The other part is the follow-through. Sometimes being responsible means choosing to do the thing you promised to do instead of something else that'd be more fun, but in the long run, people will like you better for it and you'll feel better about yourself.
Communication: You should be able to make yourself clearly understood in English, first and most importantly. If English isn't your first language or you have a learning disability, you may have to try harder, but it's not something that can be ignored. Spelling and grammar are extremely important, as is competent typing. Typos are forgivable in poses, but not when you have plenty of time to run a document through a spellcheck before submitting it. Take care with this when submitting your application, but remember it for later, as it will hold just as true after you Impress.
Creativity: Probably the skill that's the most fun to work on. For a MU*er, creativity means that you can come up with original characters and plots. Original doesn't just mean 'new', though. These ideas need to work within the framework of the game to succeed. The ability to write a decent description is also important, but you don't need to be especially flowery. The best way to learn these things is by doing--creating characters, RPing, writing descriptions. Many players will be happy to help give you tips for improving in these areas.
Diplomacy: Actually, you should have an array of interpersonal skills, but this is the one that will come up most. You need to be able to negotiate, make compromises, and in other ways find workable positions between opposing sides. Whether it's determining who to Impress or resolving a dispute, there is rarely a perfect solution for anything, and your job will be to find the solution that works best for everyone involved. It's difficult to practice this in real life, but not impossible. What problems have you had, or others you know, in MU*ing in the past? Can you think of something that the staff could have done to create a reasonable compromise between your position and theirs? What about things you could have done as a player? There's no shortage of issues to ponder, usually.
And finally... Flexibility and Backbone: When it comes down to it, one of these isn't enough. You need to be able to compromise when something calls for a compromise, and stick to your guns when it doesn't. Nobody picks the right one of these every time, but that's okay. Flexibility is necessary for the same reason as diplomacy: this is a multiplayer game, and it's not only your interests that matter. Flexibility is what allows us to all play together and have a good time. Backbone comes into areas where you not only know you're right, but you know that the other course(s) of action being proposed just won't work the way they need to. Flexibility is Impressing the person who needs work but that other people support and are helping. Backbone is refusing to Impress gold to a competent Candidate who you just can't personally get along with well enough to work with them. Neither will make everyone happy all of the time, and you need enough of the maturity from above to be able to live with that.
There's not much to it than that. If you have all those things, you are capable of Impressing. You may not Impress at a particular Weyr due to scheduling conflicts, for example, but you'll be fine if you continue to try. Most folks, however, are not perfect in all these areas, and so even if you think you're doing 'okay'... see what you can do to improve. If you have some serious areas that need work, though, be honest with yourself. Work on them first, and apply later.
Now, this is not to say that this is all there is to goldriding. You will, by the time you become Senior, need to learn how all the commands work, how to run a Search, building and basic coding, and so on. If you know some or all of those things to begin with, that's great. We are more than willing to teach you, however, and lack of skills in that area isn't a reason why we would opt not to Impress an individual to gold.
So, now you know that you really want to Impress gold, and you're working on all the skills we just mentioned. What else is there for you to do? And what could you do to totally wreck any chance you might have had? Well, it's impossible to make a complete list, but here are some good suggestions for what to try and what to avoid.
Most of all, don't take this too seriously! I know, it's hard to read that after all this, isn't it? It's the truth. This is probably not the last Search you'll ever apply for. Consider it all a learning experience, and if you Impress, that's just a bonus.
There you have it. All in one place, everything you need. Our sincere hope is that you will come out of this Search with more than you had when you entered it, whether you Impress or not. In the end, if you put forth all the effort we've described, you will leave this Search knowing that no matter who Impressed, you did everything you could and you would have been a good choice. What you do is your own choice, of course. We've done everything we could to take the mystery out of the process and put the ball in your court.
If at any point in this process you have a question, ask it. If you want feedback on how you're doing, you can ask that, too, and I'll do my best to give you a straight answer. In the meantime, go treat yourself to an ice cream sundae or something--you've done well in just making it this far, and we all appreciate that! On behalf of all of us on the High Reaches Search Committee, thank you for taking the time to do this right, and we're looking forward to seeing your application.
This letter was originally written by Hassaleah. Many thanks to her for letting us continue to use it!
It's suggested that you continue from here to Ro's document on When You Should Go For Gold.