Mating Flights -- OOC
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The most important thing for you to keep in mind is that flights are a spectator event, and something done for the enjoyment of the RP.
They are NOT a private contest. Flights are a group "show" put on by the participating riders and "directed" by the female rider. Please feel free to ask any questions about any aspect of the mating flight process of any Weyrlingmaster, or any other rider who is willing to answer them for you. Whatever makes you feel more comfortable.
The OOC details of mating flights are important. Please read them all.
Mature greens can rise every 4-6 RL weeks at maximum. These flights should be scheduled in advance if possible, and can be advertised on +flights.
Female riders should find out how the +flight commands work, and male riders should get in the habit of checking the +flights board for information. It's not a bad idea to put +flights in your @aconnect and checking to see if there's anything you can make or are interested in.
Gold flights are determined more by OOC than IC factors, and will be scheduled by the Weyrleaders. They should still be 'advertised' in the standard way, and may even be announced in the @listmotd.
Femaleriders can also 'advertise' in advance through their @doings, and through their RP of proddiness around the Weyr and on the DTU. Letting maleriders know about your flight is a good idea, so that they're aware and can try and be on for the flight. Some riders send out +mail to those riders they're particularly interested in having attend.
A word about 'proddy' RP. Well, three words: DON'T GET CRAZY. Proddiness is nothing more than a hormonal surge. There's no reason to go around eating raw meat, killing small animals, running naked through the living cavern, unfastening the Weyrleader's belt at dinner, etc. Have fun, sure, but try not to go overboard. Lunatic proddiness RP is not very IC.
Femaleriders, try and schedule your flights around other flights. When flights are staggered by day and time, you can expect much better attendance from males.
Femaleriders will feel pretty crummy if they have a flight and no one shows up. Maleriders, you don't have to go to them, but it's a sort of a courtesy try to attend those you can. If you're uncomfortable about your ability to RP in a flight situation, feel free to talk to us about it -- we've been there.
When it comes to the actual day of the flight, the female will usually RP a bit on the DTU or in the bowl, and ICly/OOCly invite interested males to her Weyr (not weyr) for the flight. It's usually courteous to hold the flight (the dragon part) in a +watchable room, particularily for a Gold flight.
After any initial DTU RP, the flight discussion should be moved to channel 'flights'. The femalerider should remind the maleriders to get on that channel.
Once the cast is assembled, the show starts in the feeding grounds.
Dragons move to the feeding grounds and RP blooding; these poses can get fairly graphic, but don't have to be gruesome if you don't want them to be. The riders usually gather in the center of the Bowl and RP the effects of the bond with their dragons. Blooding is only the prelude; don't drag it out forever.
Once the dragons take to the air, the riders move into whatever area has been set aside for that purpose at that Weyr. Usually it's a 'guest' weyr of some sort, though goldriders with ground level weyrs will often opt for their own.
Femaleriders, some of the males attending may not be familiar with your Weyr. Pro to 'flight' or page directions to the ground weyr.
There are a couple of OOC reasons for the riders to move to the weyr, as well. One is that it cuts down on spam, as you're usually receiving everything through your dragon, as well as seeing it yourself. The other is that almost inevitably, someone makes a goof during the flight, for instance posing oneself blooding, instead of the dragon. This happens all the time, so don't let it ruin your enjoyment of the flight if it happens to you, and don't harrass someone else if they make a mistake.
During the entire flight, the femalerider is in control. With this control comes the responsibility of communicating with the maleriders.
S/he can bar certain males from the flight, can determine if s/he would like a male to drop out of the flight, and will decide who wins the flight.
You do NOT have to have your dragon zip all around the airspace; all of that can be RP'd with the dragons in one OOC sky room. Some people prefer to make very detailed poses, so everyone knows precisely where their dragon is, what they are doing, even what they are thinking. Other people prefer to make more economical poses that cut down on spam and lag. I'd recommend opting for a happy medium, and would further reccommend never, ever putting anything in « » sort of brackets in your dragon pose. It's as bad as putting your private thoughts (Sayra thinks to herself, "Golly, what are these doing here?") in your poses as a human. That's what the pro command is for.
Riders of male dragons, remember that the female's rider is in charge of the flight. They can't make you do anything you don't want to do, but neither are you allowed to try and tell them what to do. Mating flights run on one basic principle -- common and mutual courtesy.
Male dragons, if you want to try a particular manoeuvre, you might want to check with the female first. The more communication there is during a flight, the easier and more fluid the RP. You can communicate any number of ways -- proing on the channel flight, paging, or whatever else the participants have agreed upon.
Once you're out of the Bowl, some greenriders like to switch to a low-key, casual OOCness. Others like to RP intensely in the ground weyr as well. Maleriders, watch the greenrider for signs. Femaleriders, make sure you make your wishes clear, either through posing, or paging, or talking out loud. In general, I prefer to remain IC, keeping posing to a minimum, but it's all up to whomever is participating.
Maleriders, please be aware that if the greenrider asks you to knock off a certain line of RP, do so. It's their show, but it works both ways. If you don't like how the female's rider is running it, they can't prevent you from RPing a tired dragon and simply leaving.
If a femalerider indicates that she does not like the tone that your RP is taking, KNOCK IT OFF. No questions asked. Things can be fun in the ground weyr if people RP, but it may be that the female rider has lag, or line noise or a headache, or just doesn't want to deal with it, or simply doesn't like it. She doesn't have to justify it. Also, if you are going to RP something bizarre, no matter how IC it might seem, please do clear it with the femalerider first.
Femaleriders should tell the males when the green or gold is in a position to be caught. Males, you should ONLY post ATTEMPTS to catch the female. Let me repeat that again: ATTEMPTS. And only when the female's rider has informed you that you can. The general way it goes is, ONE pose per every female's pose for awhile, then a pose of a catch attempt, then the female rider decides who has won the flight, and tells the WINNER to pose an actual catch.
The female will usually project something to the flight channel, such as: « OK boys. I'll pose once more, and you can make a grab at me. » It is entirely her decision as to when this takes place.
Flights vary in length with the number of people and the amount of lag, but a good goal to aim for is about 30-45 minutes for a green flight, and an hour to 90 minutes for a gold flight, starting from the RP in the feeding grounds. They often go longer.
Femaleriders, you may wish to have a friend among the spectators to try and gauge when spectator interest is waning. Also remember that the maleriders may have other things they wish to RP that day.
Males, the decision on the winner is entirely up to the female's rider. It is NOT your place to make that decision for him or her. Posing grabs instead of attempts is a perfectly legitimate reason for females to start barring you from flights.
A suitable pose would be: Blueth reaches out with his tail, seeking to entertwine it with Greeneth's.
An unacceptable pose would be: Bronzeth snakes his neck around Goldeth's, fouling his wings with hers so that she cannot get away.
Once the capture has been made, the other males should fly home or down to the bowl. It's considered rude to keep trying or hang around the sky. (Think about where the actual dragon mating takes place -- the sky.)
The mated dragons should 'fly off into the sunset'; please don't RP out the dragon sex publicly. If you really want to do it, send the dragons home first. TinySex (Or ReallyBigSex in the case of the dragons) is not a spectator sport. Often the dragons return to sleep on the ledge of the weyr where their riders are.
The malerider who wins a green flight has no further responsibilities. This is not true of gold flights. Even if it's only a junior gold flight, the male is committed to attending the Clutching and the Hatching and RPing those. He may be expected to participate in other OOC Hatching duties -- descing eggs or hatchlings, and other such things. If you're concerned about that, talk to the gold rider before the flight about what your duties would be if you won.
Maleriders, try not to get involved in this as some sort of ego contest, or complain and whine that you should have won. Remember that the aim of the flight is RP and spectator enjoyment. You can have just as much fun, if not more, RPing having lost the flight. Besides, people get tired of whining and it just about ensures that you never will win a flight.
Many femaleriders have said that they particularly appreciate it when maleriders come just to RP, and not to win. This might be something you want to consider doing occasionally. I, myself, RP flights almost exclusively to lose -- Vilyath has never won an an on-camera flight, ever. (Though he does win flights, usually NPC ones, and so far all off-camera.) It can be a lot of fun playing the losing part. If you do attend a flight and do NOT want to win, maleriders PLEASE tell the female's rider. Otherwise you just might end up winning anyway!
That goes for females -- before you pick a winner, double-check that the one you want to win really did want to win the flight.
Choosing a winner can be difficult, and depends on a number of factors.
For gold flights, the gold rider has a lot less leeway about who wins. With senior flights, the winner will be the Weyrleader, and is often decided on in advance. With junior flights, the Weyr may need a gold that Clutch, and so the gold rider will have to select a bronze.
Greenriders have complete freedom to choose who wins their flights. As a male's rider, I'd like to say a few words about that. Even though we shouldn't get competitive about flights, some people do, and want the flight to be fairly chosen on the basis of RP.
Some greenriders draw a name at random for the winner, or narrow it down to a couple of riders and then choose randomly. Another way greenriders choose the winner is for larger RP intentions -- you may choose someone as a catalyst to starting an IC relationship. You may have RP'd your dragon having a particular interest in a male dragon long before the flight, and so choose him to win if he comes to the flight. You may deliberately choose someone you ICly can't stand, just to see what happens. Weyrmated greenriders will often choose their weyrmate if the dragon is of an appropriate colour. Some greenriders, especially if it's their first flight, may feel more comfortable arranging the winner ahead of time so that they know exactly what will happen and how that person will react, so the whole thing isn't as intimidating for them.
Whatever way the greenrider chooses a winner, it's THAT person's choice. Even if you don't agree OOCly, swallow it and remember that it's their flight. ICly, however, is another story. *grin*
Maleriders, please try and look at it from the femalerider's point-of-view. There may be up to five or six excellent RPers that show up to the Flight, but only one person can win. Most femaleriders take making this decision seriously, and are not being cavalier or callous about it.
And now for a few words about Sex: TinySex should NEVER be expected by any flight participant, whether male's rider or female's rider, male char or female char.
NEVER EVER EVER EVER EVER.
If you have any concerns about this, ask the other rider. (OOCly! Via page is probably best.) Flights are draining RP, and it is far more common for people to chat or idle than it is for them to TS. If you are in a situation where a rider is pressuring you to TS after a flight, you are perfectly within your rights to say no, and to leave the ground weyr OOCly. Do NOT pressure other people. This is harassment, and will be dealt with harshly if it's discovered.
On the other hand, ICly your characters have sex. That's just all there is to it. They do. And it shouldn't matter if they are a same-sex pairing. In fact, it's very atmospheric and IC to have same-sex pairings.
I'm not saying you shouldn't RP having a Craft- or Hold-bred background, and being ICly uncomfortable about it the day after or something like that. I've had a lot of fun doing that myself. I am saying that during a flight, you think like the dragon, not like the player, or even the rider. Also, eventually your character will become accustomed to Weyr life and Qeyr morals, so that even if your character was very sexually uptight or homophobic, he or she will gradually become more accepting.
One point I just can't stress enough is that there's nothing at all more frustrating or more likely to turn people off RPing at your flight (for femaleriders) or to incite people to bar you from their flights, or to never let you win one (for maleriders) than whining. Whining may seem like a good idea when you've just lost your 97th flight in a row, or if you've planned one for a specific day and only one male showed up, but it isn't. I will be extremely unimpressed if any of 'my' weyrlings are caught complaining to the 'All' dragon channel that no one lets them win, or no one comes to their flight. It makes you look stupid, it makes the Weyr look bad, and it doesn't impress anyone. Better to keep in mind that it's just a game, and hope for better luck the next time. If you think there's a problem somewhere, you're always welcome to ask for advice, even once you've graduated.
IC whining is a little different -- and if your character is prone to whining, well, make sure people realise it's only IC, or those things mentioned above may happen anyway. Be careful!
All that having been said, the most important thing to remember about a flight is that it's supposed to be fun, for all participants.
This guide written by Sayra (Clutch of April 1996).
