Some questions before first game?

Dune: The Roleplaying Game
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Hello

I got some questions before first play through. I think we will start up by running the quick start, “Wormsign” to get a feel of the setting and the rules. Hope you can help :slight_smile:

1: If someone used a two-handed sword in a conflict, Duel would it then take up both guard zones?

2: Is there a recomended play order through the official scenarios? Right now I got “Wormsign” and “Harvesters of Dune” available - but I might buy “Agents/heirs of Dune”, “Desertfall” and “Sand & Dust; The Water Must Flow”. Just not sure if there is a right order to play them?

3: Move action: As I read it there is three types. A normal move (with momentum followup), a Subtle and a Bold. the last two requiring a Difficulty 2 test to succes … or do you allways choose either Subtle or Bold, as in only two options?

4: Traits: Is there a list somewhere? Or do I (as GM) just make them up fitting the current Scene?

5: Any other sites where people talk about rules and such? Can’t really find any other …

I probably got more questions later on and will update this post if okey.

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No problem

1 - No, it can still only cover one side or the other, its not that big/not that wieldy. To be honest, few if anyone uses such a weapon in Dune, far too big and clumsy. So I’d probably let it do another point towards the requirement if it hits as it’ll hit hard, but increase all the Diffiuclties for the wielder.

2 - Yes (ish), although you can play them as you like. If you follow the Atreides plot of newly arriving, Desertfall is first, followed by wormsign. From there Harvesters is a natural choice but you could play Water or Time in any order.
Agents is in a separate timeline effectively. But if you play it using your own House you could run Desertfall and Wormsign between Acts 2 and 3, then run any of the other adventures afterwards.

3 - I tend to just use bold of subtle and yes there is a difficulty to those. But Nathan also intended you to be able to move without a test, but doing so does not gain the bonus the other two do, it just moves your asset.

4 - That is something we didn’t list, although you will find an ocean of examples throughout the NPCs and adventures. Traits can be anything, and mean anything so they are very much up to you.
We did do a list of complications to give you a start though as they come up on a dice result and we felt the GM should have a helpful list when they are on the spot. Otherwise its up to the person gaining or giving the trait to give it a name depending on the situation.

5 - Yes, check out the modiphius discord channel and there are also several facebook groups. Thalim is probably on all of them :slight_smile: There are also plenty of streams you can check out to see how other people are playing the game.

Absolutely, ask away! :slight_smile:

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Discord link for the official Modiphius channel.

For facebook groups I am on some, though not all of them. I’d be totally overwhelmed otherwise.
I’d suggest Dune RPG: Adventures in the Imperium as a good starting point.

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Thanks for the answers guys - helps alot! :slight_smile: :+1:

Some more questions came to mind:

6: Sometimes the GM doesn’t tell the Difficulty of a Test to hide how hard it is. But I guess I have to tell the PC how much Momentum they got and there by reveal the Difficulty?

7: In the Core Rulebook there are different Faction Characters. Is there a “Faction Character” for Ginaz Swordmasters? One of my players will probably wanna go that way. Any good ideas for Traits, Skills and so on?

8: Using “Wormsign” I’m trying to run a Skirmish Conflict with 2 PC versus the 12 Harkonnen soldiers (the smugglers are in hiding trying to save there own skin for the time being). I have made six zones representing the smugler camp.It seems to allmost be a “Warfare Conflict” in scale with that many actors. Would you on the NPC’s turn just roll one Contested test against one of the PC or roll 12 times?

And they NPC’s are trying to act tactical and are now split up in two groups. One hard pressed in melee with the PC swordmaster - the other group managed to get to high ground to use there riffles. I guess I’ll handle them as two groups now (as in they get 1 roll per group). Any thoughts?

  • I allso ruled that when the PC’s gets + succeses on Contest tests vs. the soldiers, that normally would give Momentum it can count as Extra Kills to speed up the fight. Is that making the PC’s to powerfull?
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One of the principles in Dune is that you dont have hidden difficulties so RAW it isn’t an issue.
Not sure of a way round this if you want to keep a difficulty level hidden after the event except to maybe give a flat momentum bonus (say 2) if they succeed.

Ginaz level characters are coming in Imperial Court. I’m expecting this to be out early next year, as we have Masters of Dune and Houses of the Landsraad to co.e first.

Having 12 rolls seems like it would be excessive and slow to be honest.
Personally I would run it as a skirmish but cluster the Harkonnens into small squads of about 3 people. That way you only have 4 ‘NPCs’ to roll, but instead of them going down in 1 hit, they go down in 3.
You could do something similar in Warfare with 4 squad assets.

For extra hits translating to extra kills that us how i have been handling my mook squads. They are there to be mown down by the PCs. If you want it to be tough throw in a named lieutenant who is a major NPC who needs to be taken down like a PC.

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Mostly Thalim’s bok of secrets is correct :slight_smile:

I’d add

  1. You need not reveal the Difficulty as Momentum is awarded afterward. Once the roll is done you can say ‘and you got this much momentum’ as after finishing the action the PCS will know how hard it was.
    Generally I’d allow them to see the difficulty, but if they get too caught up on managing momentum you might like to pull the rug out from under them sometimes.
    Remember though that threat and traits can adjust the difficulty and mess with theri initial expectations/survey.

  2. Yes, there are swordmasters, and there are Ginaz swordmasters. They are coming in Imperial Court, along with a lot of other groovy things.

  3. Sounds like a skirmish, just a big one. Warfare is for when you move units of troops and bring in vehicles rather than single soldiers. But its all the same system anyway so you can mix and match.
    You might pair up soldiers into a unit that has better stats. But if they are only mook level thugs they should go down pretty easily.
    But you might rule that any PC can only be attacked up to 4 times as thats how many people can get round them to cut down how many attacks.

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