So, you'd like to become Pernese and immerse yourself in the world? Let's get you started on your adventure into this fascinating game. The first step is to logon to the game. Please click on the Logo at the bottom of the page.

Ah, see how easy that was? Now it's time to create your character. In the 'Getting Started' series of pages, we will be creating and using a character named Colin. To create, type:   create Colin pern

Now, you're in. The rest is imagination and fun. RP, or roleplay, is the primary goal on PernMUSH. PernMUSH is not a combat MUSH, nor is it an arcade game. There is no concept of 'conquest' and there is no point system. People come together on PernMUSH to create characters who live on Pern, and to interact with these characters in a reasonably canonical way. PernMUSH is an ongoing experiment in 'let's pretend' by an everchanging group of players who have one thing in common: they like to pretend they're someone else living on Pern!

It's important to be aware of two basic rules when entering a roleplaying environment. The first is that this is a game. It's an exciting, occasionally frustrating, very gripping game into which people invest hours of their time, but it is only a game. It's not a substitution for a happy life, but rather, an addition to one. If you're very upset, log off. Have some hot chocolate. Read a good book.

At the same time, when people roleplay, they invest much of themselves into their role. Be respectful of other players and their characters. On the other end of the computer screen, there's a real person, who is just as deserving of respect as you!

Now that we've gotten the cardinal rules of PernMUSH roleplaying out of the way, we can start to focus on roleplaying itself. The very most basic thing you need in roleplaying is a solid character. There is one word for this: background! In order to have meaningful interactions with other characters, you need to know where your character is coming from. 'news characters' has a lot of important information about characters! Some of the other basic things you need to think about are:

How old is your character?
What does your character look like?
What's your family?
Where are you from?
What are you like?

These are the sorts of things that it really helps to have thought about before you introduce your character onto the PernMUSH scene. Staff, and other characters around the game, are frequently very willing to help someone develop their character.