Check Out The First Dune RPG Art Preview

Modiphius has shared its first preview of the upcoming Dune tabletop roleplaying game -- it's a piece of art!

Polygon has some more information. The game will use Modiphius 2d20 System (as expected). You can create your own House or join one of Dune's existing major Houses.

Modiphius has a diverse team on this project. Chris Spivey, who you may know from Harlem Unbound, told Polygon that "The books themselves were very white-cis-male-focused. I wanted to attempt to expand that world, bringing different marginalized groups to the front. My goal was to show the history of humanity is vast and inclusive, and to explore the struggle as one where we must all work together to succeed." Khaldoun Khelil, another member of the team, talks to Polygon of his experiences in the Sahara desert -- "“Herbert was also very concerned with the environment, and the his focus on water and the desert as a living place has a special place in my heart as I’m half Algerian".

 

[ruemere]

He's still the prophecised white-guy messiah come to lead the natives to their manifest destiny, no matter how little he likes the role he's been cast into.

Is he now? One of most important points of the series is that Paul refuses to accept his role in the myth.

Secondly, Paul is intended to become a controllable product of eugenics. Thinking that for some reason his lineage was strictly white is quite a leap.

Three, Paul is not an outsider to Fremen culture, with all the work of Bene Gesserit and their missionaries. His fate is to become a cog in a complex machine.

 

[Tyler Do'Urden]

The Polygon article that was linked to in the OP discusses this a bit. And it's obvious just from reading Dune (the novel - I can't comment on the rest of the series): in my view it owes a great deal to Lawrence of Arabia/Seven Pillars of Wisdom, and clearly subordinates the agency of the "indigenous" people who figure in the story.

Yes, but a big point of the Dune saga is that the agency of EVERYONE is subordinated in one way or another.

 

[MGibster]

He's still the prophecised white-guy messiah come to lead the natives to their manifest destiny, no matter how little he likes the role he's been cast into.

This is deconstructed throughout the first book at the rest of the series as Paul is just a cog in the Bene Gesserit's machinations and he's cast out by the Fremen when they no longer have use for him. I'm going to disagree slightly with ruemere and say that Paul never really became a Fremen. Paul's son, Leto II, is a Fremen though and is able to ascend to godhood when Paul was not. Little Leto tells Paul that had he been Fremen he would have been able to make the same choice Leto had.

And I can't imagine many people who avoid Dune because they think it plays the Mighty Whitey trope straight are going to be interested in the RPG. Paul is baked into the setting.

 

[MGibster]

In Pendragon, you can play a campaign that takes places over different eras of Arthurian myths. You start out in the Uther era with kite shields, chain, and tiny horses, move on to the Boy King era, the Romantic era, and you end it wearing plate, with a large warhorse, and there are canons on the battlefield. It'd be very interesting if you could do something like that with Dune. Wow, suddenly I have interest in Dune where I had none before.

 

[TrippyHippy]

In Pendragon, you can play a campaign that takes places over different eras of Arthurian myths. You start out in the Uther era with kite shields, chain, and tiny horses, move on to the Boy King era, the Romantic era, and you end it wearing plate, with a large warhorse, and there are canons on the battlefield. It'd be very interesting if you could do something like that with Dune. Wow, suddenly I have interest in Dune where I had none before.

It has been suggested.

 

[imagineGod]

Anyone who has seen the beta rules (it was briefly posted on Reddit) but taken don) will notice the game abandons the attributes popular with D&D heroes and goes for some thing called beliefs to define characters. A hurdle, surely, to convince your D&D group to play Dune.

Modiphus has been hiding those rules from the public. Not sure if that is a winning strategy since maybe something closer to D&D could have been done with more feedback.

 

[Morrus]

Anyone who has seen the beta rules (it was briefly posted on Reddit) but taken don) will notice the game abandons the attributes popular with D&D heroes and goes for some thing called beliefs to define characters. A hurdle, surely, to convince your D&D group to play Dune.

Modiphus has been hiding those rules from the public. Not sure if that is a winning strategy since maybe something closer to D&D could have been done with more feedback.

They’re using their 2d20 system, I thought.

 

[imagineGod]

They’re using their 2d20 system, I thought.

Sadly, that Dune preview of rules did not look like any other 2d20 game. The radical new design seems interesting at first glance, but most people still play D&D so would surely be looking for attributes like Dexterity/Agility or even Intelligence/Reason or something like along those familiar lines. Dune is so different in play style, I am concerned it may get negative reviews from many a traditional RPG site.

 

[Morrus]

Sadly, that Dune preview of rules did not look like any other 2d20 game. The radical new design seems interesting at first glance, but most people still play D&D so would surely be looking for attributes like Dexterity/Agility or even Intelligence/Reason or something like along those familiar lines. Dune is so different in play style, I am concerned it may get negative reviews from many a traditional RPG site.

I don’t think that we’re at the dystopian future where new games get negative reviews just for being different to D&D yet.

 

[MGibster]

Sadly, that Dune preview of rules did not look like any other 2d20 game. The radical new design seems interesting at first glance, but most people still play D&D so would surely be looking for attributes like Dexterity/Agility or even Intelligence/Reason or something like along those familiar lines. Dune is so different in play style, I am concerned it may get negative reviews from many a traditional RPG site.

Burning Wheel, FATE, Apocalypse World, and other games are radically different from D&D but each managed to shine as critical darlings at one point or another. I don't think being dissimilar to D&D will prevent the game from receiving positive reviews. I don't own every Modiphius game, but their Conan games were obviously made by people who love the source material and it does a great job of putting players in adventures very reminiscent of Howard's writing. I expect that will carry over into Dune and Chris Spivey's participation leaves me with confidence that this will be an excellent game.

Will it be as popular as D&D? The answer is almost certainly no but then you can't measure success by using D&D as the standard.