The original version was written by Aeia -- she deserves full credit for this masterful work of art. It has been adapted to reflect new policies by Britt, and Tarmel the current CraftMaster
Thanks to Parik, who helped my introduction to MUDding by being at the right place at the wrong time, and Kira and Oriana for helping me foster my addiction; thanks to Vicla for bing my first Apprentice, and to all of the others for being the rest.
The Herdercraft parent object is #6591. This change was conducted in January 1997, so the Herdercraft is now parented to the Player Parent object on which is encorporated a good deal of Craft functionality, so we no longer have a feature object. (See 'help player parent' for more information about that parent object.) Like the Herder channel and the Herder mailing list, this parenting is done automatically when you are interviewed. Here are a few things you can customize about yourself with your new parent:
knot_msg --> This is the message that will be displayed with your description when you are wearing your Craft knot. Customizing this is easy: @knot me is "..." If you are wearing your knot, that message will show in your description. To put on your knot, use the don verb. To take it off, use doff.
random_connect_msg --> This is the message displayed on the [Herder] channel when you log on, if you currently have that channel turned on. The default is :comes on duty, so when you log on, everyone sees:
[Herder] YourNameHere comes on duty.
You can personalize this with the @notedit command. Behave in the editor the same way you do when writing MOOmail; in fact, you can write multiple messages in the property, one on each line, and it will chose randomly from these messages.
random_disconnect_msg --> This is displayed when you log off. It works the same way as your connect message.
Who Are the Herders?
There are several tools on the Player Parent that allow you to check out members of you Craft:
clist - lists all members of the Herdercraft, their ranks, their postings, and their specialties.
@clist - displays the same list, this time showing name, mentor, posting, and specialty
clist/t - shows the Herders by name, title, posting, and specialty
@cwho, cwho, cwho/t - These work just like @who, who, and who/t, except they only look at the Herders who are online
Business-Related Verbs
@owners --> Gives a huge list of all of the runners and to whom we've sold them. Given the obj# or name (if in the room) of a specific runner, it will give the owner of that runner. Given 'pets' as an argument (@owners pets), it will report the pets instead.
debt (someperson) is (someamount) --> Adds this person to the records as owing that amount of money, and informs him/her that this has been done. You should use this when selling pets with a partial payment schedule, or when reserving a pet at a certain price when the owner has not paid. That way, another Herder can hand the pet over and know whether he or she needs to collect the payment for you, and if so, how much. Please use this verb when taking orders! It's also a very good way for the person filling the order, if he/she is creating an animal from scratch for your buyer, to know what quality the buyer is looking for. Remember that you can't use a whole number and a fraction; you need to make it all one fraction, or do it as the whole number, then the fraction. Example: to make Aeia owe 2 1/2 marks, you either do: debt Aeia is 5/2 or debt Aeia is 2 and then debt Aeia is 1/2.
paid (someperson) is (someamount) --> Records that this person has paid off that much of his/her debt. Works the same way as above.
IOU --> Reports all the debts owed to the Herdercraft. If someone comes by to purchase an animal he has reserved and you don't know how much he is supposed to pay, check out this verb and it may have it recorded there. Alternatively, when you sell a pet, it will check for any debt stored for this client and tell you if he/she owes anything.
okay (person) for (animal) --> This command 'okays' someone to sell or put on reserve an object that you own. If you have animals or any other object you want other Herders to be able to sell without having you around, use this verb. Most Herdercraft pets will be set so that any Herder can sell them by using the variation okay all for (animal). Most runners will be set so any staff member can sell them by using okay staff for (animal). Once this command is used, you must use the sell command below to change ownership; do not simply have the new owner @chown the object. It won't be taken off the 'okay for sale' list and someone might accidentally sell it to someone else.
oklist or ol --> This shows who has been okayed for different animals. If you give it a specific one (ol (animal)), you will see the list for just that animal. Please note that the entire list is very spammy.
reserve (animal) for (person) --> This sets aside that animal for a specific buyer. You must be okayed on that animal to reserve it for someone, but you don't have to own it. Once it has been reserved, it can't be sold to anyone else.
unreserve (animal) --> Cancels the reservation.
reslist or rl --> This shows all of the animals on reserve, for whom they are reserved, and who recorded it.
sell (animal) to (person) --> This sells the animal to the person. It changes the ownership of the object, records the sale, and sends the new owner a mail message containing some information. You must be okayed for the object to sell it, and it cannot be reserved for someone else.
sales --> This shows the 15 most recent sales, so everyone can check up and see who sold animals that have recently left the kennels or fields.
Watch the descs in the main aisle, the south wing, the courtyard outside the stable, and the turnout paddocks. If you notice things are less than clean, do some cleaning! The verb 'clean' (also aliased to sweep, rake, dust, and wash) in these rooms will improve the appearance of the room a little. The worse the condition of the room is, the more you have to clean to get it to look good.
Stalls...
We have stalls implemented in both the main aisle and the South Wing. For the mechanics of using them, see the chapter with the Gerneric Stalls Helpfile. In general, your main responsibility to these stalls is to keep them clean.Cleaning is now 'silent.' No messages are reported to the room. If there is no one around, you do not have to RP the action. If someone is in the room, or some staff member is listening through a puppet, RP is requested. It makes you look good if you're trying. If there are more than four runners inside, you must close doors to prevent traceback. When you close a door, the runner inside can't hear what's going on outside any more, though you might be able to hear him. In general, if the runner belongs to a Herder, keep its door open. If there is more than one runner belonging to the same person in the same room, keep only one of them open. If there are runners in the South wing whose owners like to RP with the Herders, keep their doors open as well.
Feeding...
If a runner starts making noise that he/she is hungry, it's probably dinnertime. The verb feedall will feed all of the runners in that room (and works even for runners inside a stall in the room), or the verb feed (runner) will take care of an individual runner.Just because only one runner in the room nickers with hunger does not necessarily mean he's the only hungry one. It is ususally a good idea to do them all.
Perform the above tasks regularly. If staff members are online, they may be listening - so RP it up!
Descriptioning Pets...
Descriptioning an animal is not a requirement of herders; this is because it is automatically expected of a Herdercraft member. There will usually be posts to *herdercraft begging for descriptions; the Kennels page will also tell what litters descriptions are needed for, or, you can always take a peek in the kennels to see which ones need descriptions. Look at the one-liners they were born with, then go from there.Descriptions need to be at east five lines long to count towards a credit (see the section on promotions, about class credits). Once you have copmleted your description, send
Sales...
Sales are, of course, another one of our largest activities. Any Herder can sell pets, and any Herder can take orders for runnerbeasts. Visit the kennels often and look at the pets in the pens and cages to see which ones are pregnant and which ones have litters. (Use the command look (animal) in (cage name) to do so. Note that babies like 'Libby's first puppy' are always aliased to their ordinal name, so 'first' will work.) To check the Earth breed on which some pet is based, type: petinfo (animal). If a prospective buyer is interested in a breed we don't currently have, send *herder-staff some mail, and the staffmembers will try to have a little of that breed next.Remember to use the rl verb as described in the chapter on the parent verbs to check the reserve list and make certain you know which pets are not available. Then RP asking the client what he is looking for and which pets might be the best for him. Once he has selected one he wants, you can use the sell verb (again, described earlier) to sell that pet to him as long as you have been okayed for that pet. If you are not on the okay list, check it to see who is, and refer that buyer to those people to complete the sale.If your buyer wants to put a pet on reserve, use the reserve verb. If you have already agreed on the price (see below for guidelines), use the debt verb to recored that agreement. To sell an adult pet, you need to take an order (find out what they want, what age range, what gender, what type). For this, we have the order verb:
order pet for (clientname) *and* order runner for (clientname)
This will cause you to be prompted for the information mentioined above - what they want, what age, when gender, etc. You can type whatever you want, and then put a period by itself on a line, and you will be done with that verb and can continue typing normally.Note: you can't talk on channels or anything while you fill in this order! Once completed, the order will be sent to the staff list so they can fill it. If you have a price in mind, use the debt verb to mark it down so people know.
What To Charge?
A feline should cost between 1/4 a mark and 3/4 marks, and a canine between 1/2 and 3/4 marks, depending on how fancy the animal is. Rabbits are usually around 3/4 marks. Ferrets are about 1 3/4 marks, and runnerbeasts are 8 to 16 marks. The exact cost is up to you; it's your effort, your commission. You can keep all of the money you make from selling a pet. If the client is putting the animal on reserve or ordering, the client must pay on delivery. This is because a different person might take the order/make the reservation, and a different person might sell the pet. When doing sales, remember above all to be courteous, both to your client and to your fellow Herders. This isn't a competition; don't elbow your way into a sale that isn't yours. Respectful and active RP is appreciated by everyone around you, including your leaders; irrespectful behaviour is appreciated by no one.
Probationary Apprentice
This is a new rank within the Hall, and it is to make sure you know what you're getting into with the craft, and so you learn the basics before becoming an apprentice. Your first job is to read this text. When that's done you job is to get to know the hall, learn about all the OOC stuff you need to know, RP with people....
***How To Advance --> In order to advance you will need to complete three classes, as well as get ok'd by the staff.
These three classes are IC/OOC behavior, RP class, and a descriptioning class. Any or all of these classes will be waived if the staff sees they are not needed.
Apprentice
Well you are now an official memeber of the Herder Hall, Congrats! You should be doing all of the explicit chores discussed above, plus anything else you think you should be doing: taking canines for walks, cleaning cat cages, exercising runners, cleaning tack, grooming runners, pulling manes, arranging shoeings... You get the idea. Apprentices are supposed to learn. When a staff member is either listening or present, your RP should exhibit all of the knowledge you know or have picked up. You should take every chance you can to get out there and do things with your fellow Apprentices. Sitting alone in the barracks does not a Journeyman make. ICly, most of the Apprentice's day is spent either doing chores or attending classes.
Apprentices don't have much freedom. You should not leave the area except on official business and with permission. The Hold is fine, and you are more than welcome to hang loose at the Flying Mug at the end of the day; but the Weyr is a long ride, so try not to wander that far. You will have time to do that when you have shown us you are mature enough for the trust and responsabilty.
*** How To Advance --> In order to advance, You will need to
1) There is a class board in the Lounge, it is a personal opinion that people need to know the basics about the animals of Pern if they are going to play a Herder.
2) However, and this is the point I am going to stress. The classes will /not/ be the main thing the staff looks at for promotions. As with all promotions we will be looking at other things as well. But here are some of the specific things we’ll be looking at:
RP! I cannot stress this enough, the point of being on HT is to RP as a member of Pernese society. If you’re bored try and come up with something to RP that a member of the Hall on Pern would do. If you /really/ can’t come up with anything politely ask a staff member if they can think of a good scenario for appys to do. They won’t always be able to but, ya never know.
Knowledge of the Hall. When you are Rping, even if there isn’t a staffer around try and Rp with what knowledge you have, take a little time IRL to learn a little bit about animals or some other facet of the Hall, heck log onto Netscape when you’re idling on line with nothing to do and do some web surfing about animals there usually will be a good site listed on the MOTD.
Non twinkishness. I’ll be honest right here and now, there is no way we will promote people who continually do silly twink like things. Being new and unsure is ok we were all newbies once, and everyone is allowed some mistakes (I had no clue about this place when Tarmel was first created..heck I didn’t even know what to do at a Firelizard hatching) but continually doing things, like posting extraneous things to mailers, acting like a jerk, doing totally UnIC things, not paying attention to spelling/grammer/etc, these things are not likely to get you promoted. In fact these things will pretty much mean you’re gonna stay an appy forever.
General Good vibes. This one is hard to explain but here it is. If we get continually bad vibes from you there’s no way we’ll promote you. Everyone has bad days, but when it’s all the time bitch and whine take it as fact that your promotion chances are pretty null.
Senior Apprentice
You are now no longer the new kid. In fact, you have exhibited the maturity, effort, and responsibility to merit being trusted with new status. While still an Apprentice - still a student - you are now somewhat equivalent to a teaching assistant. As such, now is the best time to be looking at the classroom offerings and thinking of what you could add. You are also the best person to help a new Herder out. You're still close to his/her level, but you have confirmed experience. You have a little more freedom, too, though you should still check before you go on significant trips.
This is also the time to start thinking about a specialty, and a Journeyman project. You can ask the Journeymen and Master for ideas on what to do. Most Journeymen projects involve research on a topic not covered by the current library or classroom, and a book submitted on the matter. HT book (#108) convert very well to web pages through a verb written by Oriana.
*** How To Advance --> Sr.Appys should have chosen a specialty by now, even if it's just general herding. That means that it's time for you to start teaching what you know. While you are still encouraged to attend classes, you now must start teaching as well in order to be promoted. These classes should be in your specialty, and will be recorded on the board in the lounge..
1) Sr. Appys are required to do a JM project and class (both of which can be modified on an individual basis)
2) While attendance and teaching of classes will still be a good thing to have in your corner, we will look at a bunch of other things too. Including but not limited to, other RP from chores to hanging out in the lounge, descs and any other favors you do for staffers, OOC/channel behavior, how well you stay IC and within Cannon and that you have made more good contributions to the Hall than bad ones.
You have now graduated from student to teacher. You have your own room, can leave the Hall without asking permission (though if you're going to be away overnight you should still send word), and can get married. You can live outside the Hall. The world is your oyster.
You have even more to learn. See the Staff Manual to get a start.
Journeymen are considered fairly well-versed in their field. They are staff members, are responsible for teaching, and need to set an example. Many Journeymen have access to the builder. They should not stop working, and they should not stop expanding their knowledge. Continued contributions to the literature and courses of this Craft will be noted and rewarded.
You are expected to teach classes, too. And recruit. And interview any new herders. You're also free to take on a few mentors, now that you are the instructor.
If you want, you can request to be posted to a minor hold (Blacksands, Gar, Redsands, Paradise, Grinstead, and Sea Cliffs). This is optional and by choice only.
***How To Advance --> Promotions to Master will be determined by the following procedure:
Every 4 months the CM will post to *herds asking for names of people who should be promoted, the people who get a fairly large proportion of nominatios will be asked if they want promoted, if so their names will be sent to *herds and all the staff will vote on the promotion. The person will then be given a test that will consist of questions that are Admin things, and situational (ie, What would you do if...?) questions. This is mainly a technicality, but it makes the person think about things, and the CM and other staffers are interested in knowing who someonewould deal with a problem both ICly and OOCly.
Senior Journeyman
If you have been promoted to Senior Journeyman, you have been working hard since your Journeyman promotion, and the Craft leadership has decided you should be rewarded. You have obviously been teaching, recruiting, teaching, and recruiting! Good job! It is a step closer to Master, and a definite indication that if you keep this up, that is what you'll be.
*Note: Sr. Journeyman is a promotion given out by the discretion of the CM, (who does take suggestions from everyone else) *
Master
A Master is someone whose work for the Craft truly distinguishes him or her. A Master has written classes, made animals, handled things Aeia couldn't take care of, and generally proved extreme worthiness. A Master should be well-versed in every aspect of the Craft.
The assistant weyrherder position is for Apprentices and Sr. Apprentices.
What is it? Well, it lasts for approximately 3 real-life months. After that time is up, you'll return to the Hall and another apprentice will take your position. What does it involve? If you're an Assistant Weyrherder, you assist the Weyrherder (see below!) Mainly, you'll help care after the runners in stables at either High Reaches Weyr or Ista Weyr (yeah, still mucking stalls and grooming and feeding!) and look after those cute little herdbeasts that the the dragons munch on.
This position is mainly role-play. You'll live at the weyr in the resident dorms -- and you'll role-play! It's a great opportunity to get a taste of weyrlife, too! Other then rping -- you're going to hafta clean stalls and feed the runners! *yay* If you like it whenever you come back, sure, you can go again! Anytime!
Well... it sounds neat and all, but, well, how will I make sales and earn class credits? *dumdum* That's the sort-tricky part, my friends. You're absolutely, positively welcome to come down to the Hall any time there's a lesson! Make up and excuse -- "I came for a visit!!!" -- and presto, you're here. And sales, well, phooey. Can't you survive 3 months without them?
* Weyrherder *
The Weyrherder is always a Journeyman, Sr. Journeyman, or Master.
Like the Assistant Weyrherder positions, it last approximately 3 real-life months. You'll basically be doing the same things mentioned under "Assistant Weyrherder," but you'll also be responsible for the Assistant Weyrherder under your care.
Both positions should be filled by those who are active and responsible; when they leave the Hall, they are automatically representing the Herdercraft and should make us proud!
* Beasthealer *
A beasthealer's duty is to heal beasts, be it canines or herdbeasts (the Terran equivilent of a cow) or bovines. There is a beasthealer's book located online. More information will hopefully be posted here! Our current beasthealer is CraftMaster Tarmel.
* Jockey Trainee *
Under the watchful wings of Racing Stewards Asriene and Komend, a jockey trainee will learn how to train racing runners and be a top-notch racing runner jockey. Runner-racing has become, over the Turns, move popular to the Ista area, so, Sr. Apprentices and Apprentices are encouraged to seek this option out should they be interested.
* Apprentice Master *
The Apprentice Master is chosen by the Craftmaster and Craftsecond. What are they responsible for? The Apprentice Master is, ICly and OOCly, in charge of pairing mentors with mentees (see below!) and deciding with Staff-Member would be best for an apprentice seeking a mentor. The Apprentice Master also makes sure new apprentices are settling into the Craft with ease. Another prime task of the Apprentice Master -- ICly and OOCly -- is to recruit and interview potential herders. Plus, they carry out the discipline for badbad apps. Our current Apprentice Master is Kymra.
Apprentices and Sr. Apprentices (and even Journeyman) are mentees; Journeyman, Sr. Journeyman, and Masters can be mentors.
If you would like a mentor -- and it is not mandantory (but we at the Hall highly encourage it!) -- you should contact the Apprentice Master with your wish; you can even mention your preferences of who you would like to have as a mentor.
If you are new to the Hall, we reccommend you hang around for a few days and familiarize yourself with our Staff, then you're welcome to decide which Staff-Member you prefer.
What does a mentor do? Simple! Mentor you! Mentors are there to answer your questions, generally Be There for you should you need them, and just have fun with you; they can help you with your Journeyman project if you're working on one at the time, or help speed up the time left until your promotion by giving you one-on-one classes.