Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Rocket your D&D 5E and Level Up: Advanced 5E games into space! Alpha Star Magazine Is Launching... Right Now!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Grue" data-source="post: 3976420" data-attributes="member: 11989">Just screws with my suspension of disbelief.  While FH wasn't a hard science fiction writer by a long stretch, Dune isn't a fantasy novel.  I can swallow the Great Schools as a end result of the Butlerian Jihad... enhanced mental abilities, prana bindu, the voice, etc.  I can even ignore the fact Frank doesn't seem to have a clue how a computer works (otherwise the Jihad would also ban servoks as well, and most probably distrans)... fortunately he never really gets into that area.Fremen fighting prowess... just annoying and silly.  The Sarduakar are supposed to be roughly equal... if maybe they've become a bit lax and poltroons in their long service to the Golden Lion Throne.  As far as the Landsraad is concerned they are the supreme warmachine of the Imperium.  They're also fanatics.  Shields have made 'modern' style warfare obsolete (mostly...the Baron Harkonen gloats over use of his secret weapon... artillery).  Wars are fought hand to hand.  Since a lasgun interaction with a holtzman field can result in an explosion in the kiloton range, I would also assume the Sarduakar also know how to fight with and without shields.Enter the Fremen.  Paul beats one in personal combat (Jamis in a knife fight) fairly early in the novel.  Paul was trained by his House's Swordmaster (Duncan Idaho is regarded highly by the Sarduakar in the novel I believe... equal or slightly better than the best Sarduakar).  The Fremen are described as people raised in a harsh unforgiving enviroment, with significant times of shortages and deprivation.  At that point I gotta put on the blinders (and why I prefer wierding modules better than Xena warrior fremen for a scifi movie).  Harsh low caloric conditions don't produce humans that are better warriors.  They produce smaller, leaner, and presumably physically weaker people able to survive on less calories (and less water... smaller people also can handle heat better... considering the ecology research FH put into the novel... heh).Fighting skill.... lets say the Fremen have slightly superior skill (remember the novel places them roughly equal).  Anybody that's done any UC will tell you size and strength matter and count for more... the bigger guy has the advantage if they are roughly equal in skill.  If one highly skilled man is facing off against two moderately skilled fighters, a UC instructor should tell you to run the heck away if you can (unless the two you're facing are incompetents) or go for the sucker kill if you can't to even up the odds.  So we have presumably roughly equal Sardaukar (terror troops whose mercilessness is renowned), fanatics willing to die in Imperial service, getting their butts handed to them by women and children in Dune.</blockquote>

Verification