1. You have to have a page to put
your dragon's images on. No Neopets pages, please! For that matter, please don't
put them on any site where the visitors have to sign up with somewhere just to
see it. Your page should be child safe, no adult material, cuss words, etc.
Please don't send in anything above pg-13. No cyberpet galleries! There should
not be any pictures on the page that do not pertain to your candidate.
2.
There must be a persona on your website, for the dragon to bond to. Generally, I
prefer a short story about how this person got to where they are today and/or
how they found their way to Darkling Dawn. An example of this is
here, I would definitely consider a candidate like that for
a high-ranking dragon. I do accept just a stat sheet too, however, although if
you do one, make sure you include a description of their personality and
past. These two parts are mostly what I use to determine what dragons they get,
along with quality of the page. An example of a good stat sheet candidate, or
'filler', is here. This would be perfectly
acceptable for a blue or green, and if I think the candidate is interesting,
they may still Impress higher.
3. Your candidate shouldn't have more than
three other pets. As far as pets go, basically, if it's adoptable, you can have
it. Candidates may bond two dragons unless you say otherwise. I may accept an
already-bonded candidate, provided there's a story explaining why they'd be
standing again and what their first bond thinks of it.
4. Once you send in
the form, I am assuming that your story is finished, or as finished as it's
going to be. If you do not wish me to judge your candidate by what's on their
page at that time, don't send them in until they are finished. If you want to
reserve a spot in a specific clutch, just put reserve in the section for the
URL, and tell me which clutch you want them in. If I don't have a completed page
a week after the clutch fills up, I'll open the spot to anyone. Be warned, I'm
very impatient when it comes to this, I really don't like waiting on reserves
when everything else is finished.
5. Don't worry if you don't Impress from
the first clutch after your candidate is accepted. There's probably just a lot
more candidates than there were dragons, or I'm planning to have your candidate
Impress from a different clutch. It doesn't mean your candidate won't Impress,
or that their story was terrible. Who knows, you may end up with something
better than you would have gotten otherwise. ^_^
6. Darkling Dawn accepts
candidates from anywhere, and of all species. As long as they are sentient, and
preferably obviously able to take care of a dragon, they are allowed to stand.
They can be from Darkling Dawn if you want, or one of the villages that are near
the Dragonry. I don't think I've mentioned much of anything about them, but
they're there. If they are from offworld, please mention how they arrived at
Darkling Dawn. If nothing else, they could just go out wandering one day on
their home planet and mysteriously find themselves at Darkling Dawn. That
happens often.
7. To make sure you have read the rules, please put 'The zebra
monkies will strike!' in the comments section of the form. This phrase will
change whenever I change or update the rules, so make sure you read them
everytime you send in a candidate.
8. As long as your page is readable, with
no neon colors, then I'm really only looking at the story. In case you haven't
noticed, I suck at web designing too! ^_^ If you apply for a gold, try to write a story
worth a gold. The same goes for rares! I'm not particularly
picky as long as it's plain that you put some effort into it. A story that's
only a few short paragraphs long will not get a gold! And remember, grammar and
spelling counts! Use spellchecker if you need to.
9a. There's no time limit
for the hatchling and weyrling stages, but try to get your adult images up at
most a month after you recieve them. If your adult pic is not up by then, your
dragon will go to the abandoned sands. Generally, I'll send a warning about a
week or so before the deadline for those who haven't gotten theirs up yet, but I
do forget sometimes. Of course, if you can't get online for a very long time,
e-mail me and we'll figure it out.
9b. When a clutch uses the set 2 images,
(the ones with horns and clawed paws, generally just looks *better* than the old
ones, IMO) there's only one stage, the adult. So you have one month from the
hatching to get that image up.
10. Don't change your dragon's name, of
course. You can suggest a name, and chances are I'll use it.
11. There is no limit to the
number of candidates you can send in, but please be reasonable. No five
candidates for a clutch of nine, etc. (Feel free to send in more candidates if
the clutch is filling up slowly, though.)
12. Your candidate can't be
standing at another Dragonry the same time as here. If I happen to see the same
candidate at another Dragonry, I'll ask you to choose one Dragonry or the
other.
13. Please have a link back to Darkling Dawn, somewhere on your
candidate's page. Also, please don't change the pictures. You can resize them,
flip them, and add the dragon's name, but don't change them in any other
way.
14. You don't have to use a searchrider, any dragon can suggest a
candidate. If you do want to use one of my searchriders, there is more
information on them here.
15a. *Important!* I am
no longer going to send out any individual e-mails, so if you want your hatchlings, join
the yahoo
group. All
announcements, including hatchings and images, will be sent out through this
group. If you don't join, I will not hunt you down anymore. I'm sorry, but it's just too much
trouble.
15b. I will also start sending out announcements on the
Nexus
Forum.
However, if I neglect to put a growth or announcement on the forum, it will
definitely be on the group, so it's still important that you join the yahoo
group.
16. From now on, I'm going to sometimes have males Impress
females, and females Impress male, unless you say otherwise. If you really don't want your
male candidate to Impress a female dragon or vice versa, please so in the form.
Otherwise, don't complain if it happens. If you don't mention anything in the
form, I'll assume you don't mind.
As Darkling Dawn is no longer on Pern,
there's going to be some changes. First off, candidates may bond more than
one dragon, although I (usually) will not do this unless you ask me to. If you
really
don't want
your candidate Impressing two dragons, you'd better tell me, though. There have
been exceptions.
Second, some dragons may not bond at hatching. If you wish
to sponser one of these dragons, there is a separate form below. Rules for
sponsering are:
1. There will never more than half the clutch
sponsored out of any given clutch. Half is the max. If I get more sponsorships
than candidates, some of you will be waiting for several clutches.
2. You
must own a dragon adoption agency. I will occasionally make exceptions if you
want the dragon to stay at Darkling Dawn, but not often. I will also allow you,
if you don't own an adoption agency, to send in a character to act as
caretaker.
3a. You do not have to have a page ready for the sponsered
hatchlings right away, though it would be preferred. After the clutch hatches,
please send me your URL as soon as possible!
3b. You may also link to a
caretaker, a person or representitive from your Dragonry who will take care of
the dragon without bonding it. This is not required, however.
4. You must
link back to Darkling Dawn.
5. Please don't apply to sponser more than three
dragons at any time, regardless of how many clutches are on the
sands.
(This
doesn't include any candidates you may have in the clutch.) As
fun as sponsorships are, normal candidates are good too. Sponsered dragons can
either stay unbonded, bond to one of their siblings, and occasionally, there may
be a bonded group of three. Please state whether you want the sponsered dragons
to be paired or not, along with any other things you want, like color, gender,
or names.
6. Go ahead and put the codeword from the above rules on this form
too. It's nice to know people are reading the rules. | |