Dune: The House Sindri Chronicles - Season 2

[CountThalim]

As we are not going to be able to meet for several more weeks I decided to condense the epilogue from a full session to about half and hour of planning & RP.

Several weeks after the events of the previous sessions the Judge of the Change for the Kanly convened the parties at the Hall of Oratory on Kaitain.
The players had several verbal skirmishes with House Ecaz in the run up to the session, while ensuring their allies would be present.

As Count Ezharian had died in the fighting on Erif IV and his son was a prisoner of House Ecaz it came as no surprise that House Ezharian petitioned the Judge for Ezharian to relinquish it’s Landraad seat and enter exile on Tupile.
House Ecaz obviously claimed all the now vacant Ezharian fiefs as reparations.

At this point House Sindri declared it’s intention to take the vacant seat as the only House that controlled Cheruf. Bringing in the remaining House Minors of the planet to swear their allegiance to House Sindri. (House Hallas having been almost wiped out)
As previously agreed House Moritani immediately sponsored the House and on the sidelines Count Pellio Corrino gave a subtle gesture to the Judge that he, at least, agreed. (As a side note Pellio was very upset that his latest protégé, Iago Kinnard, had died in the attack on Cheruf)

A verbal battle between the Sindri & Ecaz representatives ensued, with the Ecaz side insinuating that any attack on non-involved Houses on Cheruf was merely the Commander of the force acting beyond his orders.
The sudden reveal therefore that the Ecaz commander, Captain Del Rio, was alive if badly wounded and being brought before the Landsraad did derail their position. Even though he did try to accept the blame having to use weasel words in front of a Truthsayer damaged their position with the other Houses even more.

Eventually it all came down to a single dice roll. It was a D5 TN to sway the Judge of the Change and the other Houses. With all their preparations they had brought it down to a D2 TN roll.
Lady Kristen rolled… and scored 3 successes!

I offered the players 1 additional advantage they could take from this as they beat the TN by 1.
After an… animated discussion they chose to request the former Ezharian Minor Fief of Tueris VIIa, and thus the Nascent House Bakken, as part of their reparations from the Kanly.
Lendmann Bakken was surprised, but seeing an opportunity to get as far away from House Griffon as possible, immediately swore allegiance to House Sindri.

Taking their new seat in the Landsraad House Sindri has managed to rise to a Major House. Though still weak and with a great many debts to others in the Hall, they have succeeded on a treacherous path that has claimed many before them.

The future of House Sindri? A tale for another time…

[CountThalim]

So we come to an end of what I like to think was one of my more epic campaigns.
17 sessions in Season 1 and 17 in Season 2 (pure coincidence they were the same).
So 34 sessions over about 18 months. Roughly 1 a fortnight. Not bad for our group.

My players created a Minor House with just a name and a few plot points. They ended as a Major House with a detailed and rich history.

For how things went there are a few aspects I think worked really well:

• The Family Tree and House Hierarchy.
  These were probably at the heart of the whole game. In the first season the family connections were all important. They were integral to the plot and gave the players characters to interact with not just names or positions.
  In Season 2 almost all the characters were tied into NPCs who were descended from those in the original season. The Kinnards, the Ashfanis, the Sindri themselves. They were connected into the world they had built previously. An entire branch of the House, The Complicated, came about from actions they had done previously. The House was Alive.

• The Multiple Seasons
  Partially for the aforementioned connections, but also it allowed the players to retire their characters and bring in new ones. Simply put, they got to play with more of the toys.
  I went for a century long gap, but a shorter period with the PCs becoming more senior members of the House would also work. Possibly making them DPCs (Directed Player Characters, sort of part way between PCs and NPCs) where the players would have some input in their actions could be a possibility.
  Dune works well with a Pendragon style campaign. The scale being measured not just in weeks and months, but decades and centuries.

• The Artwork
  I have never used as much art and handouts as I have in this game. Some I commissioned (PC portraits, the map of Cheruf), some I made myself (The sealed letters, reports from the Intelligence chief) and others I modified from what I found online (Character images, maps of locations).
  Some things require a table. A wax sealed letter can’t be passed around online, but a lot of the rest are able to be used IRL or digitally. While theatre of the mind is a key element of RP, sometimes it helps to have a springboard.

As with all campaigns there are areas I would alter, maybe change or approach differently.

Duels: I run combat light at the best of times, but I did try a duel early on. It didn’t really work and I ditched it pretty fast to switch to Skirmish. Just not a section that clicked for me.

Overly complex plots: In my first season I think I tried to be too clever. I wanted to set up a hard choice for the players between taking down the Brother who was the one who murdered the Warmaster or backing him as he was trying to prevent the Wife from taking over the House in the name of Solis.
In the end I think I buried the plot too deep with interwoven strings and my players decided to just take down the Wife without actually working out that the Brother had been behind the murder. It was all just pinned on the Wife.
Season 2 went better for this. They identified the treasonous House Minor fairly early on. After that it was just a case of how do they exploit it.

I will create somewhere to House everything to do with this campaign. The Artwork, the Characters, the Houses, the History, etc. Everything in one place.
Anyone can use any of it. I would love if you did.
Maybe let my players and I know what House Sindri gets up to in the wider Imperium. They all agree that they are the bad guys in someone else’s story.

[MichaelSD]

Wow, great game! Wonderful tools you created for group!

[SherpaSteve]

I’m just sorry I didn’t see these sooner! Impressive work!

[CountThalim]

Thanks, it is one of my most epic campaigns and the only one I have actually detailed anywhere. Normally these campaigns remain only as memories and anecdotes told by my group.
It was weirdly therapeutic to write it all down for once.

[CountThalim]

Given illness and holidays my player had plenty of time to complete the final crest of the Minors of House Sindri.

This is House Bakken. A Nascent House that runs a mining operation on the moon of Tueris VIIa.
Originally under House Ezharian, their fief was claimed by House Sindri as part of the fallout from House Ezharians collapse. They swiftly siezed the opportunity and pledged fealty to House Sindri, becoming the latest member of their growing family.