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russdm
2021-09-23, 01:26 PM
So I have been wondering what kind of rpg would work best for trying to play something for Pern. Dungeons and dragons probably won't work out that much. I am curious since I am feeling that it would be some kind of freeform with low dice rolling myself.

Palanan
2021-09-23, 02:13 PM
Depends what you’re looking to do in the game. I grew up on these books, and as I recall there was a mix of personal combat, small-scale military engagements, political intrigue, wilderness exploration and of course, plenty of dragons and dragonriders fighting Thread.

I’d say that 3.P could handle all of that well enough, given good encounter design. The mechanics of dragons would work a little differently, since you’d need to factor in a limited amount of firestone and the time required to consume it. Telepathy and moving between shouldn’t be that difficult—although players who want to try timing it could cause some headaches for the DM. But that’s a simple fix of your dragon not having a clear enough mental image to risk the jump.

What other elements would you want to include in a Pern-based game? And what kind of story would you want to tell?

Xervous
2021-09-23, 02:58 PM
Combat in Pern doesn’t come nearly frequent enough to lead me to suggest a D&D system. Playing through a threadfall with mechanical complexity would certainly become tedious and repetitive with minimal depth for various reasons. The setting and its component parts are vehicles for exploring character interactions, engaging with character development, and potentially exploration in the form of rediscovering lost knowledge (but this inevitably drives interaction and development). My vote would go towards something in the vein of a storytelling system.

Mechalich
2021-09-23, 07:47 PM
The average Pern story includes three major elements: Thread, romance, and an additional crisis such that standard operating procedure is no longer sufficient for handling threadfall. The archetypical version is Moreta: Dragonlady of Pern, in which the additional crisis is a pandemic. Thread mostly functions as a backdrop element in the novels - there are very few scenes of thread fighting on dragonback - that provides an ongoing stressor to the society of Pern the elevates various societal difficulties from 'dangerous' to 'existential threat.' As in 'if too many dragonriders get sick Thread will eat the crops and we'll all die.'

Another thing about Pern is that its society is divided into castes. With dragonriders, artisans, peasants, and slaves all operating in different societal structures, each with their own separate hierarchies (this is major source of the settings political conflicts, since the authority between high-ranking leaders of the different groups both overlaps and is unclearly bounded). This actually makes it suited to a class-based system, since different character types have vastly different build packages. A simplified class-based system, or a classless one with strong archetype emphasis, might be ideal. Worlds/Stars Without Number might be a good choice.

Corey
2021-09-23, 08:02 PM
I agree with the comments above, for the most part, although "slave" isn't the right word.

One oddity in the world-building is that there was very little in the way of towns and villages. Everything I can recall was set in nobles' keeps, guildhalls, relatively isolated farms or mines, and of course the dragon weyrs. There surely were some towns and villages in the world, but they were almost never shown.

"Infiltrate the evil noble's castle and foil his plans" stories would fit the setting. There's at least some space for wilderness adventures. And you could of course fill in the blanks for the missing towns. Those are the main ideas I have.

The setting is very low magic. Zero-magic, really, except for the quasi-magical creatures that are dragons and firelizards.

The only system I've played that would fit is GURPS. But there are many systems I haven't played ...

russdm
2021-09-23, 09:03 PM
Yeah I was thinking of something freeform. Gurps is interesting. Maybe that system by fantasy flight games, gen-thing.

I was wondering more for if I was going to include some friends doing some gameplay/roleplay that would be set in Pern. For a novel that I am working on.

They would have made a special area to play in and be doing things. Just didn't figure what the way of that it would be.

I am trying to shy away from D&D 3rd/3.5/3.P, since those systems really only work for Dungeons and dragons

Faily
2021-09-23, 09:10 PM
I agree with the comments above, for the most part, although "slave" isn't the right word.

One oddity in the world-building is that there was very little in the way of towns and villages. Everything I can recall was set in nobles' keeps, guildhalls, relatively isolated farms or mines, and of course the dragon weyrs. There surely were some towns and villages in the world, but they were almost never shown.

"Infiltrate the evil noble's castle and foil his plans" stories would fit the setting. There's at least some space for wilderness adventures. And you could of course fill in the blanks for the missing towns. Those are the main ideas I have.

The setting is very low magic. Zero-magic, really, except for the quasi-magical creatures that are dragons and firelizards.



This actually made me think...

Re-fluff 7th Sea?

Corey
2021-09-23, 09:15 PM
Yeah I was thinking of something freeform. Gurps is interesting. Maybe that system by fantasy flight games, gen-thing.

I was wondering more for if I was going to include some friends doing some gameplay/roleplay that would be set in Pern. For a novel that I am working on.

They would have made a special area to play in and be doing things. Just didn't figure what the way of that it would be.

I am trying to shy away from D&D 3rd/3.5/3.P, since those systems really only work for Dungeons and dragons

In theory, GURPS (General Universal Role-Playing System) is meant for everything. And they certainly put effort into thinking about medieval-tech/no-magic worlds.

Mechalich
2021-09-23, 10:33 PM
In terms of class-less systems it very much depends on what kind of story you're trying to tell. Specifically it depends heavily on what sort of crisis you're attempting to stop, and whether or not the party is intended to be primarily dragonriders or primarily something else (there are Pern novels that go both ways). Also I suppose it depends on when in the timeline you're intended to set the tale. Personally I'd avoid both the main novel timeline and the initial Dragonsdawn/First Fall timeline and set the story more in the less explored middle (I think there's a threadfall or two in there that don't have any books about them at all for maximum flexibility).

Dragonriders are a bit tricky in some ways in that they are a specialized and semi-cloistered elite that has been placed above the rest of the society and has both unique labor responsibilities, outside of leadership most of the dragonriders are essentially specialized animal handlers and spend most of their time caring for their dragons, and a unique set of cultural mores. That's in addition to the extremely disruptive abilities possessed by the dragons themselves.

El Dorado
2021-09-24, 11:16 AM
I agree with the comments above, for the most part, although "slave" isn't the right word.

One oddity in the world-building is that there was very little in the way of towns and villages. Everything I can recall was set in nobles' keeps, guildhalls, relatively isolated farms or mines, and of course the dragon weyrs. There surely were some towns and villages in the world, but they were almost never shown.

"Infiltrate the evil noble's castle and foil his plans" stories would fit the setting. There's at least some space for wilderness adventures. And you could of course fill in the blanks for the missing towns. Those are the main ideas I have.

The setting is very low magic. Zero-magic, really, except for the quasi-magical creatures that are dragons and firelizards.

The only system I've played that would fit is GURPS. But there are many systems I haven't played ...

I thought the lack of towns was due to the threat of threadfall. Most population centers in the northern hemisphere clustered around the dragon weyrs to be closer to their protection.

Corey
2021-09-24, 11:49 AM
I thought the lack of towns was due to the threat of threadfall. Most population centers in the northern hemisphere clustered around the dragon weyrs to be closer to their protection.

That makes sense. I forget the particulars, but it would make sense to do all of:


Expect the dragons to keep any thread from landing anywhere that matters.
Build much more commonly with stone than one would think likely in a medieval-tech society.
Flee into the nearest castle/weyr/guildhall/etc. when thread does fall.


That still left a gap in the stories showing the lives of people other than actual weyr/castle/guildhall residents. There were a few isolated farmers or herders, and one set of miners ... and that's already most of what I remember.

Mechalich
2021-09-24, 04:52 PM
That makes sense. I forget the particulars, but it would make sense to do all of:


Expect the dragons to keep any thread from landing anywhere that matters.
Build much more commonly with stone than one would think likely in a medieval-tech society.
Flee into the nearest castle/weyr/guildhall/etc. when thread does fall.


That still left a gap in the stories showing the lives of people other than actual weyr/castle/guildhall residents. There were a few isolated farmers or herders, and one set of miners ... and that's already most of what I remember.

My understanding of Pern's layout was that it resembles more the early Mediterranean city-state model in that the cultivators live in sheltered stone settlements - the holds - which are often built into cliffsides or cavern systems for additional protection, and then the farmers walk out to their fields every day some significant distance in the same way farmers who lived in fortified Greek settlements did in the Bronze Age.

The other bit is that the total population of Pern isn't that large. The initial colony was only 6032 people (thank you Pern wiki), and while 2500 years have passed by the Ninth Cycle when most of the novels are set population growth appears to be fairly modest and development is restricted by a severe planet-wide shortage of metals. The Major Holds are fortresses+cultivated zones holding only a bit over 10,000 people apiece, and there are only 15 of them by the Ninth Cycle. Even if minor holds have an equivalent population that's an urban population of only around 300,000. Even if the population is 90% rural, spread across many tiny cotholds (which seems a low-end estimate since Pern's population should be comparatively highly urbanized versus an actual Medieval populace), there would only be 3 million people total. That's roughly the 14th century population of England, spread across the whole continent.

Khedrac
2021-09-25, 03:27 AM
On the "fantasy" front, if one goes back to Dragonflight Lessa actually has quite a hgih level of psi ability that is pretty much never referenced after that novel.
Now one can argue that it all goes to her bond with dragons, but that could mean there are other psi's out there who have learnt as much, but not been selected.
At the very least she can control animals and influence quite large crowds of humans - and possibly exert momentary control over unprepared humans!

Back to the settlements:
Although the main habitation sites are underground (usually in natural caves, expanded by the ancients) they do have quite a lot of above-gorund buildings - however these are all sone (with metal shutters for the windows). Presumably the roofs are all slate or stone as well - no thatch or shingles.
The "land" around the buildings is all stone - paved or cobbled, with children assigned the task of removing every last speck of greenery from within the settlement proper.

More curious is the structure of Fort Hold which is a massive complex considering how far the "cot" that held the girls being taught at Harpers' Hall was from the Hall - I don't think can all be paved, but it is probably a whole collection of small and large groups of buildings.

Grod_The_Giant
2021-09-28, 08:10 AM
If we're talking generic systems, Fate is probably the best option--the books are driven by character conflict, so you'll want something that emphasizes that.

For less generic... maybe Chuubo's Marvelous Wish-Granting Engine? It's a weird dice-less game that emphasizes everyday slice-of-life events as much as adventures; it's sometimes referred to as the Studio Ghibli RPG. That feels like a good match for Anne McCaffrey's storytelling.