So now that the PDF has finally slipped through Danny’s fingers (he already lost control of some of the physical copies ) and is out we can start discussing it.
For those who haven’t got it yet I’ve done a brief summary below.
Chapter 1: The Great Game
The Landsraad & CHOAM. This section mainly discusses how the Landsraad is organised, what it does, how it interacts with the Houses and how the Houses interact with each other within it. Other than a few bits on new CHOAM talents it is purely background & worldbuilding for GMs to be able to include it in their games.
Chapter 2: Houses of the Landsraad
18 double pages on House Major goodness (Technically 17 + Richese)
You get information on each Houses domains, Homeworld, Power, History, notable members (Ruling Noble, Heirs + key staff), prominent Minor Houses (House Stewart for Atreides ) & Agenda.
Some very nice artwork for the banners as well.
Chapter 3: The Spacing Guild
Expanded details on the Spacing Guild & Guild Bank, plus new Archetypes, focuses & 11 Talents!
There are also some tables for random generation of a planet. Good for quickly generating some ideas for an adventure.
Chapter 4: Managing Your House
What people have been waiting for. Expanded rules on playing your House as it’s own character.
Key highlights
Tracking your Houses Status and the benefits & drawbacks of being seen to stand too high.
Use of Resources & Wealth
House Roles
Planetary locations
Warfare
How to change your Houses from Nascent all the way up to Great
I love Chapter 1. This is the kind of Worldbuilding off Arrakis that is really what I want for my campaign.
I also see too much of myself in some of the CHOAM talents but that is separate…
Chapter 2 is useful if you are starting a campaign or want to flesh out your universe. I already have my versions of House Ecaz & Moritani, but if my players want to suddenly seek out extra allies I can flick to this section and there I have a House, key characters and what they are about. Perfect.
Chapter 3 is good for being able to fold the Spacing Guild into your campaign. How many people will use the Spacing Guild talents I’m not sure. They are harder to bring in than a Fremen, though as with the Fremen Talents you could reskin them (or just use as is for some) without needing the character to be Spacing Guild (I’m never one to be rigid if my players give me a good backstory)
Chapter 4 ties with Chapter 1 for my favourite chapter. And not just because Andy did listen to my suggestions on Wealth & Resources. (Seriously, in the first draft I was using a spreadsheet for calculating them! )
Honestly, I am not going to use all the suggestions that are here. It is not how I run my games.
But giving more details to your House can help you really flesh it out. Do your people love you or hate you? Do you live amongst them or in massive palaces?
Similarly with Ventures I will use them as options that the players can do, but I will make them into elements of the story rather than mechanical rolls.
Finally the details on what a party needs to do to move from Minor to Major is a critical element that was sorely missing before. I have a few other ideas on top of what is here, but what is suggested is a solid base of what is needed.
Overall I think this is the best supplement that has been brought out so far. My campaign barely touches on Arrakis so being able to detail the wider universe is what is needed.
If I have one complaint it is that there is no special cover. But I have plans in that regard.
Finally a couple of questions I’ve not got answers to:
pg 103 House Roles, what is the benefit to Suk Doctor, Ginaz Swordmaster & Bene Gesserit trained?
pg 107 Stylish Appointment. Is this suitable or not suitable for entertaining other Nobles. It implies it is but says not…
Treasurer is still one of the most useful House Roles
You are quite right to use House Management as you are. The plan with it was to offer a massive everything system that people could take what they wanted from it. So its great you’re adapting it to your game. We were very aware that some people prefer a complex and involved rules system, and others might like a quick and dirty narrative option for a couple of things. Hopefully this does both.
As to your questions -
Having the extra training is really a narrative option. Such characters might have better skills, or function as a useful asset with more keywords, if used outside House Management. But they don’t affect their ability to perform that role as such characters are already very good at what they do.
For instance, the battle for Arrakis didn’t go much better or worse for Duncan having Ginaz training. But if you started playing out scenes during it, or running an adventure where he helped people escape, he’d be cutting down Sardaukar like a kinjal through butter.
Stylish appointment grants no bonus (apart from being a prerequisite) as its just the baseline. It is a home you would not be embarrassed to show other nobles. To impress them you need to do better.
I was really looking forward to this book, but I have to say the pricing on the UK store is a bit baffling. Why does this 128-page supplement cost £38, £10 more than similar supplements for STA or other 2d20 games? As much as I love Dune, I can’t really justify paying core-book prices for a supplement, especially when costs of living are completely out of control right now.
In any case, at least I’m glad to hear the content has turned out well. I’ll be following this and other threads on the book and living vicariously through others, and holding out hope for a sale at some point!
Sad to say, essentially, prices have simply gone up for us in printing too, although each line does have slightly different expenses, and Dune is one of the more expensive ones.
Modiphius has tried to keep the costs of earlier books the same, so earlier releases are less expensive, but you will see some of the later books in other lines are comparable prices.
The cost of living does suck, so we very much appreciate your position, but delivering this level of quality in product has also gone up in terms of paper costs, and especially shipping and transport and we have a lot of squirrels to feed.
But, we do run sales as often as we can and try to add bundle deals where possible as well to help our customers where we can.
I’d also add, as a GM myself who buys most of the books, now is a good time to get the players to buy some of the books and share the load a little too if you can
I received my physical copy yesterday, not all that long after the PDF being released.
I have to say this is the best sourcebook out yet for Dune, giving some much needed depth around House management - particularly considering how central that theme is tied in with the setting.
Thanks for the response Andy I can appreciate that printing costs have gone up as well, and that licences cost money. But to be honest, if this is the new price-point for supplements going forward, then future Modiphius purchases will only be possible during sales for me, unfortunately.
I’m an avid roleplayer who plays a number of different systems alongside 2d20. Recently I bought some massive hardcover core rulebooks with nearly 700 pages each (Flames of Freedom and Pathfinder 2E, to be specific), and each of them cost about the same as The Great Game, so that’s why I was so surprised by the pricing.
In any case, I understand there’s not much to be done, so I’m just putting this out there as (hopefully) some constructive feedback. I have plenty left to do in Masters of Dune still, but I hope that sometime down the line there will be a sale so I can pick up The Great Game for future adventures
Sooo when is it going to be on Amazon so I can buy it?
By the way I say Amazon because I have not really had much luck with the US store - I’m still waiting for my copy of the Infinity RPG Gamemasters Guide.
Issues aside - since that is a whole different thing - I really really REALLY am looking forward to this book. I wantz it, I wantz the precious!
It will be on Amazon at some point I expect.
Sorry you’ve had trouble with the US store, but they should get it before Amazon
They have been tricky to set up but they are improving all the time, and Amazon has a tendency to announce it has stuff before it actually gets it in stock…
It should also be with your local games store if you have one, if not get them to call us and we can point them at a distributor where they can get our stuff.
I’m looking forward to introduce the House Management System to my group as a minigame and am currently working on a spreadsheet to manage all houses, domains and political factions (more info when reaching alpha stage). They all love 4X- and Sim-Games, so this will be a lot of fun and a good way to get adventure hooks.
My question:
How to incorporate the income of Spice Harvesting? Since “Agents of Dune” uses a different scaling of Wealth points (-5 to +5), stockpiled Spice Points have more delta there. Even with 6 spice blows and a few more harvesters extra, each sessions generates 10 points max, likely it will be less. Or did you think of Harvesting as a monthly action?
They should already be on their way I believe.
If you’ve not seen an email saying its on its way you might like to ping customer services. But the warehouse may still be working through the list.
Ah, so you are using the Agents/Masters set up already, which is cool but House Management is very different.
Technically the governorship of Dune would be a new Major Domain, and it would generate wealth that way.
But if you are running a small spice operation on Arrakis and using the mini-game I think doubling the wealth points they make and adding it to the wealth you get from House Management would be about right. If they make a loss, drop the Wealth by that amount (but don’t double it) to represent sunk costs.
If you are actually running Arrakis as the governors you might multiply it by 3 (or even 4) given the value of spice.
I agree it is not entirely clear from a first reading I think they do take up a hex.
The reason for this is how both the Military Development & Mine ventures are written.
Military Development specifies it does not take up any extra spaces.
Mines must take up a space as when the mine is ‘tapped out’ it becomes an uncleared space.
You can use the Industrialize venture to pack more than one holding into a space however.
Yup, they do occupy a whole hex. The assumption is that its not just the pleasure houses you are adding but a new city district with homes, the odd factory and all the support industry to go with it.
It also just makes it easier to manage, if somethings layers on other things but some didn’t it would drive you mad pretty quickly
Question on Great Monument: Does this take up a space, or is is an addition to a space?
The ones I listed above are reasonably clear that they occupy a space, while most of the others specify that that they are additions to a space. (Planetary features being a hybrid)
Great Monument adds the ‘Impressive’ trait, but is this a Great Monument such as the British Museum (Impressive, but not district sized) or Mount Rushmore (Probably is District sized)?
) and is out we can start discussing it.
) & Agenda.
