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Dune Hero


TheDarkness

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Which feel?

 

Straight book.

The illfated movie.

The slightly better but still illfated TV mini-series.

Any, or even a melange of the three.

 

For my own game, I'd probably not focus on the game being closely tied in with the plots of the book series(especially since I really prefer just the first book), but this thread can be more general purpose for anyone wanting to run dune games.

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Using some of the thoughts from that thread, shields are a tricky build. I don't think I'd go the route that thread did for the slow knife penetrating the shield, some form of lowered OCV, because the most memorable shield scene for me in the first book was in Paul's training, and the fact that he didn't see the knife being the reason it penetrated.

 

I might lean toward a special attack using INT vs. PER for the attack roll, something like that, I'd have to think about it.

 

Mentats: they are more than human computers. Many are assassins, and the key examples from the books are Masters of Assassins. They tend to be tacticians.

 

Bene Gesserit- Body control, either mind control or strong PRE attacks, weirding way, some other things, contacts

 

Swordmasters

 

Royal Family Members- often some mentat training or bene gesserit training, contacts

 

I can't remember all the details, with age I fear my memories Feyd.

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I'm not sure I wouldn't go for a setting along the lines of the Fremen first arriving on Arrakis. That avoids the necessity of dealing with shields, House intrigue, and pretty much anyone that can see the future outside of the Guild Agents. I like stories about the struggle for survival over courtly intrigue though.

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I'm not sure I wouldn't go for a setting along the lines of the Fremen first arriving on Arrakis. That avoids the necessity of dealing with shields, House intrigue, and pretty much anyone that can see the future outside of the Guild Agents. I like stories about the struggle for survival over courtly intrigue though.

Even with the precogs, the odds of running into one are basically zero at any point. But the shields, I would want the shields as an option, but I could totally get behind the origins of the fremen type story you are talking about. Lots of knife duels, conflict of groups, riding worms into battle.

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If you want to GM a game set in the Dune universe, what about a team of operatives put together by the Emperor Paul I composed of different facets of the Empire. A Freman warrior, a Bene Geseret, a former Sadukar trooper, a Mentat assassin, a pilot of the Imperial Navy and so on. Diercted on secret missions by the Emperor shown to him in prophetic visions.

Of course it would have to be called..." On His Majesty's Secret Sevice."

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I'm a bit of an oddball when it comes to this. Often, when I play games that are, in essence, based around worlds with familiar characters, I usually don't want to interact with Paul. I guess I'm funny that way, but I tend to want to adventure in the world/universe, but not be closely tied to the main characters of the novels. Plus, it avoids killing Paul and things like that.

 

Not that there's anything wrong with tying in the characters of a novel, I just tend to avoid it. Plus, as GM, I'd hate to do a crappy job role playing Gurney or Thufir. If I foul up an NPC, I can always say, oh, that guy is awkward. That's just his personality. Brilliant assassin. Terrible conversationalist.

 

But, I would imagine that some sort of unit like that would play out well, regardless of who they are answering to. Plus, you have the advantage that any of them could be royal family members, as many received training from the mentats or the bene Geserit, etc.

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Just because the Emperor's visions put together the people and missions doesn't mean the PC's ever actually have any contact with him. Especially if these are covert missions against rebellious factions of the Lanstraad.

Ya know... Looking at that paragraph, I just realized I just created a evil Super-Agent game for Star Wars.

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Any, or even a melange of the three.

 

For my own game, I'd probably not focus on the game being closely tied in with the plots of the book series(especially since I really prefer just the first book), but this thread can be more general purpose for anyone wanting to run dune games.

 

 

That's my problem.  The movie Dune made huge and significant changes from the book Dune.

 

The the secret almost mystical martial art called The Weirding Way in the book became a ho-hum stupid sonic gun thing.

 

After expending a significant effort to explain why lasguns are simply not used (except for the occasional one off depending on surprise) in the book, the movie has the entire Harkonnen invasion force shooting lasguns like there is no tomorrow.

 

After extensive descriptions of how Ornithopter's resemble birds down to control surfaces resembling feathers, the movie gives us shoeboxes.  

 

And on and on and on. 

 

I'll admit that while I loved Dune, Herberts' follow on novels were just sorta OK.  I could never get past a couple chapters of the House books and other follow on novels by his son.

 

The movie was all glitz and very little Dune.  The Scifi mini-series was much better than the Movie, but suffered from the time it was made. 

 

A game based on the world as it is in the book Dune would be great.  But on the movie it would be lackluster at best.  All the color and wonder just sucked out and replaced by cheap imitation excitement, cue laugh track....

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That's my problem.  The movie Dune made huge and significant changes from the book Dune.

 

The the secret almost mystical martial art called The Weirding Way in the book became a ho-hum stupid sonic gun thing.

 

After expending a significant effort to explain why lasguns are simply not used (except for the occasional one off depending on surprise) in the book, the movie has the entire Harkonnen invasion force shooting lasguns like there is no tomorrow.

 

After extensive descriptions of how Ornithopter's resemble birds down to control surfaces resembling feathers, the movie gives us shoeboxes.  

 

And on and on and on. 

 

I'll admit that while I loved Dune, Herberts' follow on novels were just sorta OK.  I could never get past a couple chapters of the House books and other follow on novels by his son.

 

The movie was all glitz and very little Dune.  The Scifi mini-series was much better than the Movie, but suffered from the time it was made. 

 

A game based on the world as it is in the book Dune would be great.  But on the movie it would be lackluster at best.  All the color and wonder just sucked out and replaced by cheap imitation excitement, cue laugh track....

Oh, I'm personally on the same page, though I think the Dune movie really couldn't, at the time, do ornithopters or shields as well as they could be done now. And definitely, I'm all about the first book. And yeah, the weirding way in the movie was an odd choice.

 

This is sort of why I tend to favor not tying the characters to known characters when I run games. First, it's a big universe, there's going to be a lot of important things going on that don't directly relate in any way to Atreided or Harkonnen. There are going to be other fueding houses, conflicts between mentats and bene geseritt, etc. Tying in big characters runs into the same problem the books and the movie had, you start adding bells and whistles and, oh, more Duncan, and losing something in the exercise.

 

But for this thread, I just wanted to make something useful for all, whether they do want to play fedaykin with close ties to Paul or not, whether they are fans of the further stories, the movie, the scyfy show, etc. It's a bit like Star Wars, everyone has what they include in their canon, and what they don't care for or don't think about.

 

Actually, thinking about it did give me a seed of an idea for someone who can see into the future, and a means to handle that for a game, not sure that it will be a dune game at this point.

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Even with the precogs, the odds of running into one are basically zero at any point. But the shields, I would want the shields as an option, but I could totally get behind the origins of the fremen type story you are talking about. Lots of knife duels, conflict of groups, riding worms into battle.

I thought you did not want to open any can of worms? Now you are grabbing for the Dusbowl full of them :)

 

If you need a refresher on the technology, here is something:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_technology_in_the_Dune_universe

 

Overall with Computers being forbidden Dune has quite the "mystical" properties.

Gholas. Mentats. Axlotl tanks. Bene Geseret. Nobody but the crafters know how to make it. Kind of like magic items.

A lot of the stuff is transmited via Genetics, making Bloodlines relevant.

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Well, I have to admit that to me Dune is the first book of that title.  I really couldn't get into the rest of them.  I did read the follow on books written by Frank Herbert himself, but between how long ago and that I found them a real let down from the original novel, I just don;t remember them.   And I just couldn't muster enough interest to make it past a chapter or two in them. 

 

I may try again, now that I am a little longer of tooth.  But I just don't seem to have enough will :)

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