The Dune RPG Has A Cover!

Following the recent art preview, Modiphius has shared the cover of their upcoming Dune roleplaying game! This cover art is by Bastien Lecouffe-Deharme.

They've also posted the first developer diary - "What is Dune?"

"And now, in Dune: Adventures in the Imperium, you and your friends can explore the planet of Dune as well as the many planets of the Imperium, exploring it through the context of a roleplaying game. The rules contained within this book cover character creation, skills and abilities, personality traits such as drives, equipment, and resolution of conflict, whether interpersonal, hand-to-hand combat, skirmishes, or even political House-based strife. Background information addresses the Imperium, the Landsraad, CHOAM, the Bene Gesserit, the Spacing Guild, and smaller groups such as the Swordmasters of Ginaz, the Suk School, and the human computers known as Mentats.

As members of your own House of the Landsraad, you can be deadly Swordmasters, Bene Gesserit acolytes, incorruptible Suk-school physicians, brilliant and devious Mentats, enigmatic agents of CHOAM or the Spacing Guild, hardy Fremen, resourceful smugglers, or even nobles with immense political power held in check by duty and responsibility."

 

[CubicsRube]

I've read the 2d20 rules a few times, but it's never really sat well with me.

I would have loved it if it it was produced in fria ligans YZ0 system. I think it would at the very least do a great job of capturing the lethality of Dune.

 

[imagineGod]

I've run STA multiple times. I've playtested Dune, and will run it again, as it solves a part of my issue with 2d20.

That issue exists in Conan and in STA - it's the infrequent but demoralizing case where the dice go against and a stack of more threat and complications pile up that the players realize the GM's out of ideas to hammer them with... or the GM can go killer mode, and snuff their characters with massive overkill. I'm talking a two player party that ended a published module with me having more than 30 threat, and the PC's having essentially spent their ship's crew and damned near provoked a war with the Klingons circa TNG season 3... and the very firm realization that if I had used all the threat, their pyrrhic victory would have been a total loss... It robbed a lot of fun of that adventure.
I've had it happen in several other published adventures, too.
A couple of guys I know have had the same issue... especially with that particular adventure - Doomed to Repeat the Past. It's a good adventure, but it leads to many difficult rolls, and can spiral the threat up fast.

The root of the problem is that there's no limit on players generating threat to do things they could do with their (sometimes non-extant) Momentum. At least, not in STA.

I'll note that Dune playtest sets hard spending limits that neither STA nor Conan have... not on total, but on how many things one can actually do. So, no dumping 10 threat at the GM for +10 damage... because you can't repeat that one.

For STA, if I run it again, I'll set a hard limit of 8 (threat generated+momentum spent) per turn. Just enough to trigger a quality and add 3d20 (for the max 5d20 without help nor computer).

I am not sure a hard limit is strictly necessary. That is the job of the Games Master to set. Personally, I never allow more than 2 points of extra a damage bought with Threat. And you are only able to purchase one extra d20 about the difficulty number. In Conan, you have enough Fortune to automatically succeed with one of the d20 dice for important things. In a Star Trek, you have less Determination points, but then you have the starship that offers lots of help even from orbit to away teams, so usually, there is enough Momentum.

The part that the Dune playtest will leave many D&D players disenfranchised is its non intuitive naming of core Attributes like Strength and Dexterity into Beliefs. So many conflicts with GM on what Belief fits. So unless the final Dune resolves that, not sure it will, many a group will pick up Dune and abandon it after a first play. Obviously, the PbTA crowd will enjoy Dune. But the true millions of potential buyers are from the D&D crowd that may feel confused by Dune's Attribute choices

 

[imagineGod]

I've read the 2d20 rules a few times, but it's never really sat well with me.

I would have loved it if it it was produced in fria ligans YZ0 system. I think it would at the very least do a great job of capturing the lethality of Dune.

This would have been perfect. The award winning Alien RPG proves it.

 

[Paragon Lost]

I am not sure a hard limit is strictly necessary. That is the job of the Games Master to set. Personally, I never allow more than 2 points of extra a damage bought with Threat. And you are only able to purchase one extra d20 about the difficulty number. In Conan, you have enough Fortune to automatically succeed with one of the d20 dice for important things. In a Star Trek, you have less Determination points, but then you have the starship that offers lots of help even from orbit to away teams, so usually, there is enough Momentum.

The part that the Dune playtest will leave many D&D players disenfranchised is its non intuitive naming of core Attributes like Strength and Dexterity into Beliefs. So many conflicts with GM on what Belief fits. So unless the final Dune resolves that, not sure it will, many a group will pick up Dune and abandon it after a first play. Obviously, the PbTA crowd will enjoy Dune. But the true millions of potential buyers are from the D&D crowd that may feel confused by Dune's Attribute choices

Gonna have to strongly agree with lack of intuitiveness of renaming the core attributes. That is going to cause problems for many players.

 

[PRAdams]

I make a point of spending doom here and there as I go but I also let it build up for the big boss fight. But I make a point of spending 'excess' doom to take care of small things (pay off NPC complications or throw complications at PCs, for instance). You don't have to spend all doom, but if a player or players are being ridiculous, you do need to spend appropriately to ramp up the tension. I haven't experienced the doom-spend crazy example you gave, but a soft limit is probably a good means of preventing abuse.

Thanks!

 

[PRAdams]

Gonna have to strongly agree with lack of intuitiveness of renaming the core attributes. That is going to cause problems for many players.

That's the drift with 2d20 I don't care for. Too much abstraction leads to time wasted arguing on nonsense. I'm fine with de-crunching a bit from Conan/Mutant Chronicles/Infinity. De-crunching to where it's just an alternative to PbtA or Fate? Not interested.

 

[Ilgiallomondadori]

I've read the 2d20 rules a few times, but it's never really sat well with me.

I would have loved it if it it was produced in fria ligans YZ0 system. I think it would at the very least do a great job of capturing the lethality of Dune.

I was in the same boat, and I vacillated between hate and vague dislike for the system.

This weekend I ran Star Trek Adventures Starter Set, and you know what? It was awesome.

I sort of get what they're going for. The momentum/threat sort of works like auto-balance, and i know - it's not necessary, should be entirely the GM, but I have to say, I'm coming around on it, and most importantly, the players had a tremendous amount of fun.

I'll give Dune a shot. It looks gorgeous. And I'll also keep running ST one-shots.