We’ve had various discussions around this and it comes down to 3 main options:
- Ignore the events of the novel other than as a starting point.
- Try to work around the gaps in the novel
- Take the action off Arrakis and either set it before the novel or have the novel just as background events.
The Modiphius approach with Agents of Dune & the forthcoming Masters of Dune is to remove the Atreides and do a ‘what if’ scenario.
In this case the events of the novel are no longer a restriction on the players and they can chart their own destiny on Arrakis.
Working within the gaps of the novel is harder, but there is a 2-year gap between the fall of the Atreides and the Fremen uprising that is not really explored.
I’ve had plans for running a game that starts during the fall of the Atreides and then moves into this 2-year gap with the players following Guerney to the Smugglers to continue the fight against the Harkonnens. It gives room for player agency, while still staying within the overall framework.
It is still constrained, but no more than setting a game in France 1940.
Personally, I have always ended up with option 3 and taken my game off Arrakis and set it before the events of the novel. It allows me & the players the freedom to do what we want, I can always visit Arrakis if I want, but we still have all the other world building (Bene Gesserit, Spacing Guild, Fuedal structure, etc) from the novel.
Maps and the images of the cities is a harder one in some ways.
I have always looked to Morrocco & Algeria for my inspiration as to what Arakeen & Carthag look like. Angled sandstone buildings with narrow, crowded streets baked by the hot sun. The shots we got from Dune 2021 felt a bit sterile to me. Arakeen didn’t feel like a city, more like an empty model.
If you search for desert city map you can find some usable ones. This is by Gilwe, it would need the open water to be changed to fit Arrakis, but the core base is good.
