Has anyone ever done DEATHWORLD as the setting for a game?

[Cacique Caribe]

I’m referring to the original story/book by Harry Harrison:

https://www.gutenberg.org/files/28346/28346-h/28346-h.htm





Welcome to PYRRUS, a jungle planet where everything, even the gravity, is out to kill you.  It is “the deadliest world ever to be colonized by humans”.

Dan
PS.  If you want to listen to the audiobook:
https://youtu.be/kthqEHIjGMQ
And here’s another deadly jungle planet story, on the planet Inra, by R.F. Starzl:
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/29768/29768-h/29768-h.htm#The_Planet_of_Dread
https://youtu.be/X6nKnZsl7rA

[diehard]

Wow, nostalgia rush. I have the hardcover with the Richard Corben cover that I got from the science fiction book club many many years ago. As I remember it was a good read. Have to dig it out and give it a re-read.

[Cacique Caribe]

Diehard

I just finished listening to the audiobook.  All the while, I kept asking myself, what would a battle be like on a deadly planet like Pyrrus!

It’s like the planet becomes a THIRD player in the game, right?

Dan

[War Monkey]

I'll have to listen to the audio. I never hear (PUN) of it the books that is. Sounds (Pun) like it would be great.

[Cacique Caribe]

WM

Planet of Dread is good too, and a much shorter “audiobook”.  I think author R.F. Starzl does a very good job with his story of describing the deadly animal and plant life on planet Inra, as well as the survival “action” of the protagonists.

https://youtu.be/X6nKnZsl7rA

When you read/listen to the stories, try to imagine what it would be like to traverse that kind of terrain while already in combat with an invading enemy or a rival local faction.  I just can’t imagine why no one has done it as a wargame setting yet, that I’m aware of.

Enjoy!

Dan
PS.  WM, what do you think of the idea of the planet being managed by a separate player?

[Grumpy Gnome]

I enjoyed the books in my youth, they would make a great setting.

And the idea of active terrain being run by a third player sounds good to me.

[Daeothar]

I had to briefly look this up, but yes; I read this way back in the day, and enjoyed it a lot. The first one that is; the others were not available in our local library. I best remember the wrist-mounted holsters for some reason.

And I always 'knew' that this setting was the inspiration for the 40K Deathworlds such as Catachan (but that was the fun part; especially in the beginning 40K was like a repository of references to cool scifi originals to me, and I've found out about a lot of classics through 40K. Plus: recognizing references that I already knew was even more fun, and obviously braggable ).

The idea of having two players duke it out with a third player controlling the planet's plant- and wildlife sounds really fun and thematic!

[diehard]

Daeothar funny you should bring that up, I thought the same thing and proceeded to build Catachan Jungle Fighter  army after my Epic 40K days. When the guard could still use Land Speeders which I still have converted here somewhere. Yeah really like the ideas you guys are throwing out, especially having one player play the deadly planet itself. And the wrist mounted guns that "jumped" into their hands were damn cool too. Would recommend reading the first book in the series to anyone here and sincerely doubt that they would be disappointed.

[The Voivod]

There's a bunch of really cool short stories on reddit, where alien species are amazed at how humans originate from what they percieve as a deathworld.
So basicly....

They're actually quite uplifting, often celebrating the human spirit and diversity.  I really recommend them.

[Daeothar]

I just went and ordered the trilogy, because that's how I roll... 

And Voivod; I've listened to a lot of those being turned into audiobooks on Youtube a while back, under the moniker 'Humans are Space Orks'; a perspective where we, ordinary humans, are considered the equivalent of orks because of the amount of damage we can take, poison we can eat and drink (voluntarily!), our proficiency in fighting and more. Highly entertaining, those. For once, we're not the weak, squishy targets of each and every cosmic horror out there; we ARE the cosmic horrors... 

[iDreamofMinis]

Awwwww yeah!  These books are great.  I listened to them a while back and it always reminded me of the Catachan Jungle Fighters. 

And I always 'knew' that this setting was the inspiration for the 40K Deathworlds such as Catachan (but that was the fun part; especially in the beginning 40K was like a repository of references to cool scifi originals to me, and I've found out about a lot of classics through 40K. Plus: recognizing references that I already knew was even more fun, and obviously braggable ).

I would really like to know of the references to the other scifi originals you're speaking of.  If you remember any others, please post it!

To answer the original question in the post, no, I have not gamed Deathworld, but it would be a lot of fun! 

We've used NPC monsters and such in games of Fist Full of Lead and basically set counters all over the table.  When someone got within 6" or so (you could determine the best distance) the "counter" would be triggered and some baddie would bust out and attack.  I could see this being done, for sure.

Also, the amount of creativity to be had with miniatures for this would be quite expansive.  Lots of weird aliens and such.

I love it!

[Storm Wolf]

I just went and ordered the trilogy, because that's how I roll... 

And Voivod; I've listened to a lot of those being turned into audiobooks on Youtube a while back, under the moniker 'Humans are Space Orks'; a perspective where we, ordinary humans, are considered the equivalent of orks because of the amount of damage we can take, poison we can eat and drink (voluntarily!), our proficiency in fighting and more. Highly entertaining, those. For once, we're not the weak, squishy targets of each and every cosmic horror out there; we ARE the cosmic horrors... 

Deothar I've always said that any Vampire or werewolf would run a mile from us (humans I mean) because we can be far more evil (and good as well) than they could ever be. So maybe we are orks 

[Mark]

I seem to recall that 40K 3rd edition had rules for fighting on deathworlds in the Catachan codex, including coming across beasties and aggressive flora... my copy is long gone, but may be of interest?

[diehard]

I still have the Catachan Codex, will have to go dig it up now and check that out.

[Cacique Caribe]

I just found this Frazetta deadly jungle environment image, from the novel Beyond the Farthest Star*, which I have yet to read.  I really need to make a few old-looking vines like these on my terrain:




Check out these cool suggestions I found:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=67fYTJ6e9a4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D7-WThJaeGo&t=28s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ViO0ZHK8EK0&t=9s

Dan
* https://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks06/0606081h.html