Over a decade ago , sensation of the Coast ask Matthew Colville of Squaremans to write an theatrical role - playing game free-base on Frank Herbert ’s Dune . The game never saw mark , but here are some samples from the RPG .
In 1997 I started work at Last Unicorn Games , a tiny little game party long - since defunct , on the Dune CCG with Owen Seyler . We went on to make the Dune RPG , one of the prettiest and now rarest and most expensive RPG books ever made . in 2000 we were grease one’s palms by Wizards of the Coast and for a abbreviated time , we were working on a D20 version of the Dune RPG . That book never regard photographic print , alas , but I ’m send some of my work from it for posterity . A very tiny amount of writing was done , it ’s just a curio . And it ’s my committal to writing from 10 age ago so it ’s amusing ( “ Adventurons ” would have been rename before release , trust me ) and fairly primitive . But it ’s destitute , so you ca n’t gripe !
Download The Dune Adventure Outline
Download The Dune Adventure
When we started working on the d20 translation of Dune , my boss and I sat down and laid out what we want from the line . Any time you make a accredited game with classes and stratum , you get people say that it ’s totally inappropriate for classes and level . That ’s fine . But Owen and I completely fucking believed that Dune was perfect for classes and levels , we even talked about how this or that graphic symbol was multi - classed and what those classes were before we ’d ever started working on ANY Dune RPG . It was raw for us .
We wanted to let people produce their own Great Houses , Houses Minor , have rule that scale all the way up from the skirmish spirit level , which is to say a normal RPG , all the way up to global battle play out like an RTS . And we experience we could do it . We knew how it would influence . We had all the hoi polloi to do it .
We seriously thought “ there has never been a belongings better befit for this kind of unionized Play . ” And now we were at WotC ! We could really do it ! Some of that work got bug out , none of it got done . The d20 Dune was cancel . All we have is a tiny slash of on adventure . /sadface .
The Arrakis Adventure
WotC had this incredible cumulus of market data and one of the things they asked hoi polloi in their sketch was about unlike properties .
They asked them ; “ I would wish to make an original role ” rated 1 to 5 .
“ I would wish to play one of the existing illustrious characters from this place . ” 1 to 5 .
“ I would like to play through unexampled adventures . ”
“ I would care to play through the definitive plot line . ”
Etc … really fascinating shit . One of the most interesting thing about this was that reply varied from property to property ! Some of the properties were Star Wars , Robin Hood , King Arthur . Star Trek , and Dune . Some properties , mass overwhelmingly want to make their own narrative . Some , the great unwashed wanted to secern new stories . It was nerveless .
Well the data state that people wanted to play new , original character in Dune , but in the Main Storyline , but they did n’t want to act as the MAIN character . They require the history of Dune to spread as publish , with their characters as sort of Rosencrantz & Guildensterning around . I believe the data indicated they desire to have * some * influence on issue , but not strike major changes .
It came to me to envision out how to make that adventure . ab initio I thought “ human beings this is going to be a hurting in the ass , that ’s some passably fucking specific guidance . ” But that only lasted like an 60 minutes . As it turned out , it was * easy * . It was super easy . There ’s TONS of awe-inspiring shit in Dune , the actual novel , that happens offscreen .
You know , Thufir says “ We ’ve sent an advance squad to Arrakeen to clean out the palace , ” YOU ARE that advance squad . The first extremity of House Atreides on Arrakis ! “ We ’re have the devil ’s own time clearing out these sabotage devices , but we ’re almost done , ” because of YOUR work !
Anyway , we got started on that , never finished it . Hasbro , the literal genuine Hasbro , not the Hasbro gamers utter about when they intend WotC , handed down a directive “ no more licensed game , ” and that was that . There were some other issuance , it ’s more complex than that , but beyond the background of this post . Bi - lal kaifa .
This mail service originally appeared onSquaremans .
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