Harvesters of Dune Questions

Dune: The Roleplaying Game
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I just did a solo playthrough of Harvesters of Dune (the scenario at the back of the Core Rulebook). It was great fun (even Solo!) but highlighted a few problems I had understanding the Rules and also a few minor issues with the Plot

Rules Issues (Spoiler free)

  1. How Complications worked - I now think they should count only against the single Skill they were gained on, rather than affecting ALL rolls.

  2. If you Resist Defeat I now assume you remain on zero for the Battle Score Requirement, but can carry on indefinitely unless successfully attacked again.

  3. Granting Determination. I decided to grant one for a particularly self-sacrificing choice taken in-line with the Duty Statement “People are what makes a House great” even though it didn’t result from a roll - seems like this should be within the GM’s discretion? when deciding to carry a fallen House Soldier across the desert despite this making it much more likely he would fail the MOVE roll and die.

  4. At one point I threw a knife 1 Zone to disarm somebody of a Pistol. Should this have been allowed? I think I made it D4 rather than Contested which could have made it too easy.

  5. I always used MOVE Skill to dodge in combat, however I now think I should have stuck with BATTLE with “Combat Awareness” focus. The character only had 4 MOVE with no Focus so ended up taking a lot of “damage” and getting a lot of Complications so further attempts to MOVE/Dodge became a death spiral where I spent lots of Momentum to roll extra dice and got more and more Complications!

  6. For a BATTLE Skill Focus like “Combat Awareness”, is it OK to allow it to be used almost all the time in a combat? It seems so broad as to be over-powered.

  7. Should a Skill Focus only be allowed with its single Skill? I had UNDERSTAND (Tactics). If I wanted to move my House Soldiers asset during a skirmish, could I do MOVE and allow the focus of (Tactics) even though that focus is linked only to BATTLE Skill?

PLOT Issues (!!!SPOLIERS BELOW!!!)

  1. If you’d just spent time building a Minor House, you have to tweak the introduction so you have some reason to be helping root out issues on a Spice Harvesting Carryall owned by a Major/Great House (such as the Atreides) but including some operatives from your own allied Minor House.

  2. It seemed obvious to ask the crew why they looked beaten up (no guidance given but I assumed it was from a Disciplinary Flogging!)

  3. My character had his own personal Ornithopter as an asset (the speciality of the Minor House) so it was a bit of a blow to have it sabotaged (but OK). I also had to assume the saboteur removed the Fremkit from it in order to make the Desert section more of a threat.

  4. It seemed far too much of a coincidence to have Euler on the random Harvester - why would Obregon have blamed somebody who actually was working for him. I decided not to use Euler (in my version of this he really was stuck at the distant base, totally innocent but kicked off the Carryall by Obregon for asking too many questions and so not getting big money). It was obvious enough who had sabotaged the Ornithopter without needing to drag in Euler.

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I’ve seen a few attempts to explain Injury TRAITS as NARRATIVE and up to the GM & Players to determine at the table, but it seems the Harvesters of Dune scenario meant something specific when it says

…everyone else must pass a challenging (D2) Move test to only suffer the ‘Bruised’ trait. If they fail, they become ‘Battered’

Elsewhere in the rulebook “Bruised” is a suggested COMPLICATION resulting from use of the Battle Skill and “Battered” isn’t mentioned.

Do other GMs impose any Injury TRAITS (with mechanical impact on Skill Rolls) as an enemy makes progress against a character’s Battle Score Requirement?

Or is Injury during Duels and Skirmishes only modelled via Complications (with impact on Skill rolls and escalating Complication Range) incurred for high rolls and almost always “healed” at the end of a Scene?

Do other GMs feel uncomfortably like they are “picking” on a player if they spend Threat to make a temporary Complication or Injury Trait last longer than a Scene?

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Here’s a quick pass over those :slight_smile:

Rules Issues (Spoiler free)

  1. How Complications worked - I now think they should count only against the single Skill they were gained on, rather than affecting ALL rolls.

They count again any roll they might affect. It depends on what name you give the complication. A physical wound might only affect fighting and walking, but if its bad enough to be painful it might affect complex mental tasks. Its all about the description really.

  1. If you Resist Defeat I now assume you remain on zero for the Battle Score Requirement, but can carry on indefinitely unless successfully attacked again.

Basically yes. You just undo the last effect but don’t ‘regenerate’ any of the lost extended track.

  1. Granting Determination. I decided to grant one for a particularly self-sacrificing choice taken in-line with the Duty Statement “People are what makes a House great” even though it didn’t result from a roll - seems like this should be within the GM’s discretion? when deciding to carry a fallen House Soldier across the desert despite this making it much more likely he would fail the MOVE roll and die.

Sounds fair. Its up to the GM really, but Determination should be awarded sparingly a its really powerful. Different groups will want different ‘difficulty levels’ for their campaign and how easily determination can be acquired is a factor in that.

  1. At one point I threw a knife 1 Zone to disarm somebody of a Pistol. Should this have been allowed? I think I made it D4 rather than Contested which could have made it too easy.

Sounds cool so yes! Of course them the knife is in a different zone so the attacker is unarmed but not if he has another blade. D4 sounds tough enough as it would be a hard thing to do. But you can make it contested and apply a difficulty modifier to the attack’s roll.

  1. I always used MOVE Skill to dodge in combat, however I now think I should have stuck with BATTLE with “Combat Awareness” focus. The character only had 4 MOVE with no Focus so ended up taking a lot of “damage” and getting a lot of Complications so further attempts to MOVE/Dodge became a death spiral where I spent lots of Momentum to roll extra dice and got more and more Complications!

Yes, the problem with dodging is that you use up an action and so it just creates a stalemate. However, a defender’s part of a contested roll can be considered their attempt to dodge already.

  1. For a BATTLE Skill Focus like “Combat Awareness”, is it OK to allow it to be used almost all the time in a combat? It seems so broad as to be over-powered.

Up to the GM really, but no focus should be useful in every use of the skill. Combat awareness should only really apply to detecting surprise attacks or flanking rather than every attack.

  1. Should a Skill Focus only be allowed with its single Skill? I had UNDERSTAND (Tactics). If I wanted to move my House Soldiers asset during a skirmish, could I do MOVE and allow the focus of (Tactics) even though that focus is linked only to BATTLE Skill?

Not at all. Focuses attach to skills simply to manage them in character creation. Any and all of them can apply to any roll the GM agrees they may be a factor in.

PLOT Issues (!!!SPOLIERS BELOW!!!)

  1. If you’d just spent time building a Minor House, you have to tweak the introduction so you have some reason to be helping root out issues on a Spice Harvesting Carryall owned by a Major/Great House (such as the Atreides) but including some operatives from your own allied Minor House.

Not entirely. We assume every House on Arrakis has some sort of spice interest and at least a small franchised operation under the Harkonnen. Remember that while a House has its domains to show what it really excels at, all houses have very diverse interests outside domains.

  1. It seemed obvious to ask the crew why they looked beaten up (no guidance given but I assumed it was from a Disciplinary Flogging!)

Remember the workers will be working for the player character’s house not the Harkonnen. So it really depends how they treat them as to what they expect.

  1. My character had his own personal Ornithopter as an asset (the speciality of the Minor House) so it was a bit of a blow to have it sabotaged (but OK). I also had to assume the saboteur removed the Fremkit from it in order to make the Desert section more of a threat.

As the thopter is a set asset it is something you can expect to be replaced. Your House will buy you a new one if the old one can’t be repaired. Not every thopter has a fremkit, so you only get one of those if you make a point of taking one. Its a separate asset. However, remember that a fremkit doesn’t just make survival easy as makes it possible, Paul and Jessica nearly didn’t make it to the Fremen even with one. :slight_smile:

  1. It seemed far too much of a coincidence to have Euler on the random Harvester - why would Obregon have blamed somebody who actually was working for him. I decided not to use Euler (in my version of this he really was stuck at the distant base, totally innocent but kicked off the Carryall by Obregon for asking too many questions and so not getting big money). It was obvious enough who had sabotaged the Ornithopter without needing to drag in Euler.

Sounds fair, as always its fine to amend and tweak the adventure to suit your group.

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Thanks for the replies. I feel like most of what I’ve been doing is “legal”. I watched lots of Actual Plays, but as they (rightly) focus on role-playing and setting, they barely make use of the game mechanics. I’ve written a homebrew scenario specifically to. Trigger lots of Tests and include a Skirmish opportunity. I’ve run it for myself solo and for a couple of players and can now provide commentary notes on how it went. I should be ready to post it in a few days. it may be some help to other GMs

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Cool reply Andy. I will check out your adventure write-up MickH. This is my first post here. I’ve GM’d so far “Harvesters Of Dune” for 3 groups of Players. Getting ready to GM for a 4th time. Each run was 3 sessions of playing. We’re all learning the rules more-and-more as we go. I still have a lot to learn, on lore and mechanics both. As GM, I altered some aspects of Harvesters. My campaign is set in the early Atreides (rather than late Harkonnen era). The carryall of the PC House Minor or House Nascent is leased like a junker/hand-me-down from Attreides which pulled it out of Harkonnen junkyards. PC Houses get the worse/older/broken gear, Major and Great Houses are using any half-decent equipment. One group had a PC-Asset ornithopter. It was crashed twice when he let a fellow PC attempt to pilot. They bought-off the Complication by paying Threat to the GM pool. Narratively this meant he was able to repair it and fly again.

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