Getting Started

First, you'll need a dragon, if you don't have one already. If you Impressed, you should, and if you've somehow lost them, uh, talk to staff or something. If you're an instarider, you can go ahead and @create your dragon object while you're getting set up for approval. For example:

@create Dragonth

Then set the dragon's parent to #20, the dragon parent.

@parent Dragonth=#20

Your dragon will also need a few other settings. You can just copy these and change the dragon name.

@set Dragonth=AUDIBLE
@set Dragonth=BOUNCE
@set Dragonth=ENTER_OK
@lock Dragonth==me
@lock/enter Dragonth=LOCK-RIDERMOUNTED/1

Descriptions & Straps

Now, if you'll look at the dragon… you'll notice a bit at the end that's missing an age and size. That's temporary; when you get set up on the DTU, you'll get those. There are also two descriptions that can show up, although one of them is invisible right now, because it's optional. The base desc, though, isn't optional.

&DESC-BASE Dragonth=This is Dragonth, a blue dragon.  He should really have a nicer desc, but for example purposes, we're lazy.

Now, looking at Dragonth, he looks like something! You'll probably want to put a little more effort into that than we did, of course. (If you need some help, just poke on the Newbie channel, a lot of us are old hands at writing dragon descriptions.) But we have another option, too. We can describe what his straps look like, and also optionally, a message for when his straps aren't on.

&DESC-STRAPS-ON Dragonth=Dragonth wears a shiny new set of riding straps, decorated with shiny brass medallions.

&DESC-STRAPS-OFF Dragonth=Dragonth isn't wearing his riding straps right now.

Again, these are optional. If you set them, you can switch between the descs that show up by typing:

&STRAPS Dragonth=(on/off)

Messages

The default messages are all set and can be used simply as-is, if you don't feel like writing special ones. If you want a particular message for mounting/dismounting/etc, you can set them in one of two ways.

In any case, remember that every message starts with the prefix MSG, and that there are seven types:

Enter: The message you get when you enter (mount) your dragon.
Oenter: The message the interior of your dragon object (the people already mounted) sees when you enter the dragon.
Oxenter: The message the exterior of your dragon (the room it's in) sees when you enter your dragon.
Enter: The message you get when you enter (mount) your dragon.
Oenter: The message the interior of your dragon object (the people already mounted) sees when you enter the dragon.
Oxenter: The message the exterior of your dragon (the room it's in) sees when you enter your dragon.
Prefix: The prefix that's added to the beginning of poses inside your dragon when you act.

Messages can all use the enactor name/pronouns in 'help substitutions2', so %N for the name of the person mounting, for example. Messages do NOT automatically prefix names! If you want the name to be the first word, you have to add it.

The quick way:

&MSG-ENTER-ALL Dragonth=<message>

This sets one message for all types of things entering (where 'enter' can also be replaced with any other type above).

The longer way:

&MSG-ENTER-RIDER Dragonth=<message for the rider>
&MSG-ENTER-PASS Dragonth=<message for a passenger>
&MSG-ENTER-OTHER Dragonth=<message for something which is neither a rider nor another player>

Again, all messages can be left alone to use the defaults.

Puppeting

If you have your own typical puppet system from another MUSH, you can use it here, but the global system can make this a lot easier, and doesn't break on semicolons in poses.

To use the global puppet controller, type '+help puppet'.

This will let you control your dragon, move it around, pose, etc.

Talking & Between

Dragons can speak telepathically to one another using the DTU system. See '+help dragon pro' for specifics on using the commands. These commands work exclusively on other dragons. While dragons can very rarely talk to people who aren't their own riders, it is a very rare occurrence.

You'll notice, if you've played riders elsewhere, that we don't have betweening commands. As the only area built right now is Igen Weyr, it would be kind of silly to have commands just to between from the eastern sky to the west. Even if expansion happens in the future, however, we've made the decision that it's considerably simpler to just +jump to wherever you're headed, and then RP that you arrived there by dragon. There are no plans for any areas to be accessible to dragonriders that non-riders cannot reach via NPC rider or other means.