Dragonriders of Pern "society"- anyone recall?

[michaeljpastor]

Many many moons ago (1987 -1988 to be more exact) while at college I was introduced to a group in the small town where my college was (Wooster, OH to be exact). It wasn't an RPG based on Dragonriders of Pern, but more of shared universe of fanfic, with shared continuities amongst the chapters. It had elements (before its time) of more narrative-based RPGs of today. Does anyone recall what the group was called, and did you participate? I left school before I could contribute, but I definitely had some story ideas that I wanted to contribute, and I'm sad that I never got to do it.

 

[Wolfpack48]

I’m surprised there hasn’t been an rpg made from those books. Sorry I can’t help with the main question!

 

[Wofano Wotanto]

This was never really my scene but I've lived with folks who were deep into the whole Pern fan community, which used to be huge and seems to have only faded relatively recently. The individual local groups were called "something-something weyrs" and used to meet annually at DragonCon, but I think that's ended now. You can still find active weyrs with googling around, although I'd be a little surprised if the one you recall from the 80s is still active. McCaffery was very resistant to allowing fanfic online up until she relaxed about 1992, but since then I get the impression a lot of the former LARP-like (or maybe thespian/fantasy recreationist is a better term?) activities have shifted into online fiction.

Can't point you at any specific group, but this reddit thread here has some links to individual weyrs in the comments that could probably be more helpful than I am. I see a Pern RP discord mentioned as well. Sadly, my old Pern fan roomie died a few years back so I can't just ask them.

On a tangent, I never registered before that Todd McCaffery wrote the old Combat Command: Slammers Down! choose-your-own-adventure book. That was a good series in general, and the Hammer's Slammers one was one of the better examples. The things you learn while googling around at random...

I’m surprised there hasn’t been an rpg made from those books.

Probably licensing hang-ups. McCaffery herself was reluctant to let anyone else write in her setting for years, only easing up in the 1990s when she was starting to slow down and have her son co-author. It's kind of odd really, since she was otherwise quite supportive of her fan base. There was a not-great board game from Mayfair, and a "Ace of Aces" style "dogfighting" book set where you were a dragonrider trying to intercept falling Thread, both in the 1980s.

 

[michaeljpastor]

The individual local groups were called "something-something weyrs" and used to meet annually at DragonCon, but I think that's ended now.

Yes! I completely forgot about the local chapters being named Weyrs! Thanks for the memory recall!

You can still find active weyrs with googling around, although I'd be a little surprised if the one you recall from the 80s is still active. McCaffery was very resistant to allowing fanfic online up until she relaxed about 1992, but since then I get the impression a lot of the former LARP-like (or maybe thespian/fantasy recreationist is a better term?) activities have shifted into online fiction.

IIRC, there were some 'abuses' of her setting early on that prompted that reaction (her response back then was cautious approval but no new dragon colors). People started adding different colors of fire-lizard and dragons, cross-pollinating with the D&D metallic/chromatic colors, the precedent being the White Dragon Ruth. One thing I remember is that she fully supported gay characters, but they had to relegated to greens and blues. Oh, and absolutely no dragons fighting dragons.

Can't point you at any specific group, but this reddit thread here has some links to individual weyrs in the comments that could probably be more helpful than I am. I see a Pern RP discord mentioned as well. Sadly, my old Pern fan roomie died a few years back so I can't just ask them.

Thanks for the link! I will definitely check it out. At this point, it's purely nostalgia, as it seems that the fictional space is kinda filled out timeline-wise - everything's been wrapped up with a nice bow with all of the subsequent books in various eras (at the time, I don't even think Dragonsdawn had been written - and I just checked, and it was just about to debut in 1988).

Probably licensing hang-ups. McCaffery herself was reluctant to let anyone else write in her setting for years, only easing up in the 1990s when she was starting to slow down and have her son co-author. It's kind of odd really, since she was otherwise quite supportive of her fan base. There was a not-great board game from Mayfair, and a "Ace of Aces" style "dogfighting" book set where you were a dragonrider trying to intercept falling Thread, both in the 1980s.

As a concept, it doesn't have a lot of replayability. Even in the books, fighting Thread was becoming a slog.

 

[Wofano Wotanto]

As a concept, it doesn't have a lot of replayability. Even in the books, fighting Thread was becoming a slog.

An RPG would definitely need to revolve around the human politics/cultural disagreements for longevity, yeah. Just dealing with Thread won't really sustain a campaign.

The license would probably forbid moving the timeline forward to something like starfaring humanity (or others) re-contacting Pern (which AFAIK never happened - only read the series in its early days so maybe I missed it) or a really distant point where Pern takes to the stars again, but that would seem like an obvious approach for adding more things to do in an RPG campaign. Can't see Todd (or whoever owns the IP) letting that happen though.

 

[GamerforHire]

I’m surprised there hasn’t been an rpg made from those books. Sorry I can’t help with the main question!

There was a wargame for it Back in the 1980s:

Dragonriders of Pern

Dragonriders of Pern presents the struggle among the Leaders of the six different Weyrs to be recognized as leader of Pern. Each player vies with the others for the support of the Lord Holders while simultaneously keeping Pern free of Thread. If the northern continent of Pern has been so...

boardgamegeek.com

 

[Thomas Shey]

I recall there was a fairly big Pern based MUSH...in fact, search shows there still is...but don't know about the non-digital text based community you refer to.

 

[Wofano Wotanto]

There was a wargame for it Back in the 1980s:

Dragonriders of Pern

Dragonriders of Pern presents the struggle among the Leaders of the six different Weyrs to be recognized as leader of Pern. Each player vies with the others for the support of the Lord Holders while simultaneously keeping Pern free of Thread. If the northern continent of Pern has been so...

boardgamegeek.com

Yes, that was part of a series of licensed games based on famous scifi novels that Mayfair did back between '83 and '84. IIRC there was also Company War based on C.J. Cherryh's Earth-Union series, Hammer's Slammers from David Drake, and Haldeman's Forever War. I don't think I'd call any them particularly inspired designs but they were certainly playable and were helped out by Slammers and Forever War having some scenarios based on buying units with a points budget, which always helps replay value. Forever War was also ambitious enough to have varying tech levels (reflecting the way relativistic space travel left some isolated forces "out of synch" with the "current day" back home) and a scenario that emulates the last battle in the book where exotic technology forced both sides to rely on old-fashioned swords, bows, etc. to finish the other side off, which was pretty ambitious.

They were also noteworthy for having modular "jigsaw cut" map boards, which took longer to put together and really benefited from being covered with a sheet of plexiglass, but let you vary the layout on Slammers and FW for more variety for replay.

 

[aramis erak]

I’m surprised there hasn’t been an rpg made from those books. Sorry I can’t help with the main question!

SJG tried, Anne McCafferey made it clear further attempts were unwelcome.

There was a wargame for it Back in the 1980s:

Dragonriders of Pern

Dragonriders of Pern presents the struggle among the Leaders of the six different Weyrs to be recognized as leader of Pern. Each player vies with the others for the support of the Lord Holders while simultaneously keeping Pern free of Thread. If the northern continent of Pern has been so...

boardgamegeek.com

It's not a Wargame; it's no more a wargame than, oh, say, Race for the Whitehouse or Monopoly.
It's also both coop and competetive.
It's mostly about securing the political power, while not letting thread take over - tho' adroit players may opt to not lend strength to a player when the local lord is held by someone else so that they can be renegotiated...

I've played many a game of it; it was my introduction to the setting, even.

 

[aramis erak]

@michaeljpastor There were for quite a while several online "Pern Weyrs" - most of which were extreme rules light RP, which, if reading the story thread only, could come across as just fan fic. My wife used to be highly active in 2 or 3...
I don't know if they are, but I know her Pern interest has been less since the son took over. I stopped reading when Todd was co-authoring. I just burned out on it. And note, she and I both were fans of Pern well before we met.