I've mentioned before about how Modiphius Entertainment came out with a pencil and paper Dune RPG, and I am puzzled.
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| Yes, they did win an Ennie award for it, but... From the Modiphius website. |
I mean, it not only exists --and Modiphius won awards for it-- but I just can't wrap my head around the concept of an RPG based on the Dune universe.
While I can understand the concept of a strategic game, such as the legendary Avalon Hill board game Dune,
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| It had been out of print for so long --and the Herbert estate had sat on it-- that I figured it wasn't ever going to see the light of day again. Still not sure how Gale Force Nine pulled this one off. From Boardgamegeek. |
an RPG based on the intellectual property is an entirely different matter.
RPGs are meant to be personal, so even when you have a troupe or stable of players, such as in Ars Magica or Vampire: the Masquerade, you can identify or understand the motivations of the player you're inhabiting at the moment. That intimacy doesn't necessarily translate into a universe where factions war with each other and unless you're at the heart of the malestrom you end up being chewed up and spit out. The novels themselves are focused among the people at the very center of everything, and Paul's family in particular, so a game like that necessitates you have to be attached to a noble house and perform deeds for that house. That sounds a bit closer in tone to, well, this particular game from Wizards of the Coast:
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| At the intersection of Eurogames and RPGs, likes this one. From Boardgamegeek. |
People I know who have played Lords of Waterdeep like it, but then again those folks tend to love Eurogames in general, and the crunchier the better.
I guess I'd have to see Dune in action to really make a better judgement, but for me it certainly seems like this has to be a hybrid type of RPG at best.
#Blaugust2023
Looking at the titles of a youtube series on it about two years ago, it seems they go as far as to have you create your own house before you create characters. Not sure I want to sit through 6-10 hours to figure out if I want to play it (I don't get into streamed RPG sessions) but it does seem it may be more like Vampire: The Masquerade and their factions.
ReplyDeleteAs for boardgames, there is a new deck builder/worker placement/resource management game, Dune Imperium, that is a tie-in to the current movie with a rating of 8.4 on BGG, so not Dune '79/Rex: Final Days of an Empire. It's made by the same people who made the Clank! games. That I have bought after I watched a playthrough but I haven't played it yet, what with other things going on, but it certainly seems to feel "Duneish", and man are there "upgrades" people have made for it.
Lords of Waterdeep now, I don't see that as an RPG at all. Sure, it's themed from Forgotten Realms, but there's not any necessary roleplay aspect short of what players bring to it themselves. It's really an intro to Euros game with a theme to try to hook a group that might be prone to adopt it.
I don't see Lords of Waterdeep as an RPG either, but you'd never guess it from the Eurogamer friends I have. One of them once said that LoW was the sort of RPG that they liked, and when I pointed out it was a Euro, they gave me the "lalalala I'm not listening to you" business.
DeleteHardcore Eurogamers are an odd lot, seemingly deathly afraid of randomness and misunderstanding what theme means outside a little something to paste on, but then I have very different wants in a game compared to them, so that's all on me.
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