The Non-negotiable Rules
New PernM*s Restricted Places Restricted People Dragons and Firelizards Extra
On the whole, Anne McCaffrey and her publishers have been reasonably lenient in allowing us to play on Pern and adapt it to online role-playing. She doesn't agree with everything we do, and in interviews is often quite specific on "My Pern" and it's differences to the versions online, but with an awful lot of things, she's willing to let these differences slide. There are however a few laws that she and other people with an official investment in Pern have laid down over the years, and any game in violation of these risks being shut-down. Some people are bothered by this, some aren't. After all, if you don't defend a trademark, you lose it. My belief is that we should be grateful for what we've got. Anne spent a long time thinking up Pern and how it would work, and it's little wonder that she sees the changes people make online as nothing less than corruption of her world. Also, although the games must follow these rules, it's up to them what they consider to be canon or not in matters that Anne hasn't laid down specifications on. If you disagree with what your game admin thinks is canon, please take it up with them, not Anne. And in any other matters involving a game, I'd again talk to your admin before bothering Anne or Grolier (who currently own the gaming rights. Visit their Dragonflight game page here for further info). No sense harassing the people who can take the toys away altogether. M*s don't benefit Anne (except for the arguable possibility that they may attract some more readers) and it won't take much for them to get to be more hassle for her than they're worth.
As a disclaimer: do not take this as the absolute authority as to what is and is not allowed on PernM*s. Most of this I got from secondhand information, there may be rules out there that I don't know about, and as copyrights shift or people pressure Anne for clarification, rules change (usually to get tighter). I've written this out as information and a guideline for general reading and discussion, but I am not presuming to speak for Anne. There may be mistakes below, and if you're reading this to check up on a game-issue, please get a second opinion before going ahead with something that could get your admin into trouble. For further information, I'd recommend either Anne's own home page (obviously!) and also Sariel's Guide to Pern which provides many links to Anne-interviews.
New PernM*s Not being allowed as far as I know. Ask Grolier if you wish to open a new game.
Restricted Places Benden Weyr and Ruatha Hold are off-limits altogether. I've heard that the Harper Hall at Fort Hold is as well.
Restricted People You can't use any of the characters in Anne's books in any way. Not even to have a character be descended from them.
Dragons and Firelizards Only the five traditional colours are allowed. Rules from the books apply, except that girls can Impress brown, blue and green as well as gold but they cannot be weyrleader although male brown/bronzeriders can.
Extra See also What's on Pern for Anne-specifications on more trivial matters.
Since Anne sold the gaming rights to Grolier, any permission to build new M*s can only come from them. As far as I know, they are not allowing any new M*s at this time. Obviously, there's nothing stopping you from asking, but there are plenty of PernM*s following various themes out there at the moment, and they have pretty much exhausted most scenarios and settings, so we don't really need any more. Previously established M*s that received permission from Anne McCaffrey to be opened can stay open, but any others risk being shut down if they're discovered. No PernM* is allowed to exist that doesn't have a letter of permission from Anne. The All the Weyrs List marks those that have a copy of this letter accessible online with an a-ok sign, but those that aren't marked should also have a letter, if not one that is accessible to a guest to the M*. If you want verification that the M* you're playing on is legal, ask game admin. Most games nowadays however are legal, so I wouldn't worry too much unless it seems to be a lot newer than it should be (occasionally, this is due to a game that received permission before the rights were sold, only to have delays in building and opening).
I can't remember the exact reasoning behind this—copyright protection of some kind I think—but Benden Weyr and Ruatha Hold (and I've heard the Harper Hall at Fort Hold, although I'm not sure on that one) are not allowed to be PC areas on any game. This wasn't always the case, and there are quite a few games that used to have a Benden Weyr but these were forced to change the name of the Weyr, or have a mass-transfer. Fortunately Pern's a big place. Without Benden and Ruatha, there's still a huge range of places to choose from, each with their own terrain and climate. Obviously Benden and Ruatha still exist on most Pern games, you just can't play there. But there's nothing stopping you saying that you visited Benden Weyr last turn to cheer on your second-cousin twice removed at a hatching.
The characters in Anne's books are also taboo, to allow her to continue writing about them without somebody piping up and saying "Hey! Lessa did that on our game! You stole!" So you can't play them, you can't be descended from them and you can't use their names on a different character. Not even a tone-deaf, teetotaler miner can be called Robinton. For dragons at least, the All the Weyrs List keeps track of what dragon-names have been used, as for the rest, you'll have to rely on your memory. Don't worry if you've never read the books, chances are that you won't use a name by accident, and if you do, then game staff will let you know straightaway. Naturally it happens that Anne herself will make up a name that somebody else is already using, in which case there's no problem (in fact she's been known to get ideas for names from people who write to her under the name of their online persona). Foofoo was here first and therefore did not steal. Just for the record, I don't think there's too much concern over using a 'Terran' name that featured in Dragonsdawn and/or Chronicles of Pern: First Fall. If a character is called Joel, then nobody's going to freak out because of Joel Lilienkamp.
There are five dragon colours that are permitted on the games: gold, bronze, brown, blue and green. Ruth was special and no white dragons are allowed on PernM*s. As for black, red or purple with pink and puce paisley polka-dots, no. Dragons have copper-based blood, and only come in the five colours listed above. The odd freak occurrence like Ruth is not allowed to happen on the games. You can't even have a copper dragon, sorry. The same goes for fire-lizards.
As for rider genders: Gold will only Impress to a female; Bronze will only Impress to a male; brown, blue and green can Impress to either gender (although I've heard some games only allow females to Impress green or gold). Sexuality isn't a factor either, although plenty of people feel that bronze and gold riders should be heterosexual, bisexual at most. Fire-lizards can Impress any colour to any gender. NB Anne has said that a brown would never Impress a girl, but she has never outlawed this on PernM*s (she does know it happens), and my advice is not to bug her about it just in case she decides to tighten up on her policy.
Flightwise, a green can be flown by any of the male colours but can't lay eggs. Not even if she stops chewing firestone. Kitti Ping designed them to be infertile, and just as well too, seeing how often greens rise. A gold can be flown by a bronze or a brown, but never a blue, and for a brown to catch is supposed to be rare. Fire-lizards follow the same rules, the exception being that the greens lay eggs as well as the golds, although greens make rotten mothers and their eggs aren't ICly supposed to hatch very often.
As far as gold-clutches go, a clutch sired by a brown will be slightly smaller than one sired by a bronze and it will not have a gold egg. If a bronze is the father, then there may be a gold egg, but there can't be more than one gold egg per clutch, and no more than one dragon per egg. Twin yolks don't exist in the dragon species. If a weyr wants to hatch two golds for whatever reasons, then they'll need to have two queens on the sands and have them both be flown by a bronze. And a high number of gold dragons in a weyr at one time also isn't IC. I'm not sure if Anne's ever stated anything on the matter, but Ramoth wasn't keen on having many other queens at Benden (Chapter 3, Dragonquest), while at Telgar at the beginning of the second pass, there were six gold dragons (Chapter 3, Red Star Rising / Dragonseye). Most of the time, your average weyr seems to have between three and five golds.
Finally, although a female can Impress a brown, she can never be a Weyrleader. A male brownrider can be a Weyrleader if his brown catches the senior gold. That's an Anne-decree and it's usually understood OOCly in a leadership flight that female brownriders are allowed to chase ICly, but they won't catch.
These are the rules that Anne has stated and can't be broken by any game. That doesn't stop the individual games adding their own rules to the mix however. Each game has it's own opinion on such things as whether women-riders should take an apostrophe in their honorific or not, i.e. can Foofoo change her name to F'oo, or just Foo? Each weyr, hold and craft will have their own system on how things work. It's up to you to find out what's permissible and what's not in your own game. There are also a few other smaller things that Anne has given a decisive answer on: see What's on Pern for more details.
New PernM*s Restricted Places Restricted People Dragons and Firelizards Extra
