Dune 2D20 Rules summary

Dune: The Roleplaying Game
1

I made a rules summary, when I ran Desertfall. Feel free to correct me. Comms are on.

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2

Iā€™d like to ask you (as in, anyone thatā€™s reading it) how do I deal with effects and damage caused by poison or drug during a conflict. Iā€™ve been think on a few different scenarios, and wanted to know which one is the correct action.

if a character uses poison darts or poisoned blades:

  1. it will only cause battle damage + gain the trait poisoned (which I have no idea on what to do with it);

  2. it will deal battle damage (2 + assetā€™s quality), and discipline damage (2 + poison/drug quality); or

  3. it will only deal discipline damage (2 + assetā€™s quality).

O still have other questions, but they are more related to specific assets, and not exactly about rulesā€¦
(I new here so I still donā€™t know how to post, only how to answer while using my phone)

3

This is an excellent question. My initial thought is the poison would be applied as a trait to the character it is effecting. So Iā€™d go with 1. The effect itself would be determined by the poison type. I donā€™t see a generic poison in the core book to model after. You could make it a bonus to the progress to defeat.

The Conan RPG has the mechanic of persistent X damage which causes damage consistently. It is use this for Venomous Snakes. Perhaps we can apply that idea here to make specific poison effects persistent over time including after the conflict ends.

4

The main problem I have with traits is that itā€™s going to be my first time ever working with a system that uses them, so besides widening the complication range, i donā€™t know very well how this would translate to gameplay/in game effects.

And just now I made a Bene Gesserit character with a player, and they want to use the Gom Jabbar and Iā€™m just lost right on how to do it (since there isnā€™t the asset on the corebook, and it also uses poisonā€¦)

6

I hear you, they take some time to get used to. Approach it as best you can with a ā€œloose handā€. Thatā€™s my recommendation. donā€™t get too tied up in the crunch aspect and use them to your best judgment to put fun and tension into the game.

(I deleted the previous post to another discussion on poisons that I see you were on anyway.)

7

Iā€™m the kind of person that loves a rules-heavy system, so I really have to get myself used to this looser on rules system

8

Yup, poison is tricky as in most cases, getting poisoned means you are dead in seconds.
So the GM has two options here.

Option 1 - the poison is deadly, so if the attacker with a blade or the user of a poison assets in some intrigue get to ā€˜attackā€™ and hit the character they are just dead. No saving throw or the like as poisons are so advanced the smallest drop will probably kill an elephant.

But, thats a bit brutal when the PCs are meant to be the heroes!

So, as above, traits are the way to go. You gain the trait/complication ā€˜Poisonedā€™. A heavier dose might then multiply its effects, or the effects might increase with time - giving the PC only a certain amount of time to seek help before they collapse unable to do anything.

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