Hobbies and RP

Home > Weyrling Information > Helpful Info > Hobbies and RP

Suggestions about Hobbies or Talents for RP

Remember -- these are just suggestions. It's just as fun to RP having no talent for anything whatsoever as to RP having a knack for making taffy. If you think of something not on this list, and it seems reasonable to you, by all means try it out. And above all, have fun with it.

Having a hobby can help contribute to RP -- perhaps you have a talent for producing fine embroidery, which you can trade to another rider for that rider's particularly tasty ale. Perhaps you have a modest talent for sketching which you use to produce gifts for your friends -- in a world like Pern, most people won't have portraits of their friends and loved ones to remember them by, and a rider's life is particularly hazardous.

In any case, a hobby can be used to stimulate a little RP when things get slow, or just add a little flavor to the standard klah-sipping RP in the living cavern late at night. Whether you want to RP finding someone who can teach you what you want to know, or just RP having had this talent or hobby all along, just keep in mind these things:

As a weyrling, your 'spare time' will be very limited. Drills, training, chores, more drills, plus taking care of your dragon means that during the weyrling period at least, it would not be IC to be producing cartloads of carvings or weyrfuls of embroidered shirts. Even as a rider, your IC spare time won't be all that plentiful, though you will have more.
Unless you were a member of a Craft before you Impressed, it is HIGHLY unlikely that you would have spectacular skill at whatever talent or hobby that you choose to RP. Pern is not a leisure world -- only Lord Holders' families are likely to have the leisure time to develop talents outside a Craft to any extent. That doesn't mean your projects have to be horrendous- beautifully simple objects are more to my personal taste than masterfully rendered things that are too expensive for me to buy anyway. So if you carve wood, for example, limit it to small fancies, buttons, spoons, bowls, small simple toys, things like that. No huge ornately carved wooden chests. (Remember again, where would you find the time?)

Hobby Suggestions

Tanning, Sewing, Tailoring, Wood Carving, Stone Carving
Barbaring, Weaving (fingerweaving, card weaving, no huge looms)
Leatherworking, Embroidery, Sketching, Furworking, Cooking
Baking, Macramé or Knotting (bags, nets, hammocks, etc.)
Spinning, Knitting, Crocheting, Candy-making, Beading
Game-Crafting (cards, dice, pieces, etc), Brewing, Pottery
Bead-Making (clay, wood, shell, etc, not glass), Painting
Rug-Braiding, Arrow-Making and/or Fletching, Scribing
Cartography, Designing (for etching, carving, clothes patterns, etc.)

When choosing a hobby or talent for your character, keep in mind the area they grew up, any contact with Crafters they may have had as children, that sort of thing. Someone who grew up in Tillek might have a knack for macramé or knitting heavy fisherman's sweaters, or both. Someone who grew up in Keroon might have a skill at embossing or tinting leather harnesses or leather in general. Or be able to translate their hobby of braiding attractive lead-ropes into something more fitting with Weyr life. Or not -- there's always the odd Gather or Traders coming through as an outlet for your excess creations.