A beginning is the time for taking the most delicate care that the balances are correct. This every sister of the Bene Gesserit knows. To begin your study of the life of Muad’Dib, then, take care that you first place him in his time: born in the 57th year of the Padishah Emperor, Shaddam IV. And take the most special care that you locate Muad’Dib in his place: the planet Arrakis. Do not be deceived by the fact that he was born on Caladan and lived his first fifteen years there. Arrakis, the planet known as Dune, is forever his place.
“Manual of Muad’Dib” by the Princess Irulan
Session 0.1 – Introduction
Dune, Arrakis, Desert Planet.
When I found out about the Dune RPG Adventures in the Imperium, I immediately ordered it. When I first opened the book, I was enthralled. I quickly realized that in just a few short pages at the beginning of the Core Rulebook, that you have everything you need to know up front about the MASSIVE Dune Universe. And then, it just …. goes…. deeper, and deeper. The Lore packed into the core rulebook and others is just massive. It’s worth the price alone just for the books to read, even if you never play the game. I’ve been wanting to play it since I got it, as I’ve finally gotten to a good point in my D&D 5E Solo Game, Blyris Bledstone’s Menagerie of Curiosities, I thought it was time to start a solo game up for Dune so that I could learn the system.
My friend the Space Cowboy and I are looking to start a game up soon as well, so I want to try to learn as much as possible. We decided after I got started with this series that it would be an interesting exercise to do a collaborative effort with him playing one house, and I the other. Both acting as GM and alternating between posts.
I’m not sure how well this will work, but it’s going to be a long game anyway, and posts few and far between as we work off of each other’s posts to drive the story.
Advice to the reader
In order to interpret the structure of my gaming session posts effectively, it is strongly suggested that you peruse A Readers Guide to Play Sessions on The Old Bard, if you haven’t already.
To better grasp what I mean when I bring up Fate questions, you might find it useful to keep the Mythic Fate Chart accessible, potentially in a new window or tab in your browser.
In this first post of a multi-part series covering the session 0 of this new collaborative game, I’m mostly just announcing that I’m beginning preparations to play in it. I’m going to be using Mythic to emulate the game master aspects. We’ll see how well that works out.
You can read the other posts related to Session 0 by clicking the appropriate link below:
- Dune RPG Collab Game 1 – Session 0.1 – Introduction
- Dune RPG Collab Game 1 – Session 0.2 – House Creation
- Dune RPG Collab Game 1 – Session 0.3 – Enemy House Creation
- Dune RPG Collab Game 1 – Session 0.4 – Character Creation Overview
- Dune RPG Collab Game 1 – Session 0.5 – Planned Character Creation
- Dune RPG Collab Game 1 – Session 0.6 – Character Creation In Play
- Dune RPG Collab Game 1 – Session 0.7 – Enemy Character Creation
- Dune RPG Collab Game 1 – Session 0.8 – Additional House Creation
I am a huge Dune fan. I didn’t actually read any of the book however until I saw the 1984 David Lynch version of Dune in theatres in 1984. I was immediately intrigued and bought the first three books and read them within a month. I of course realized just how much they changed the story in the movie. The SyFy miniseries of Dune and Children of Dune miniseries was much closer to the source material.
And then when I heard Denis Villeneuve (“Arrival,” “Blade Runner 2049”) was adapting Dune I was like hell yes! And for me, Dune Part 1 did NOT disappoint. I was of course concerned that Dune Part 2 (which covers the second half of the first Dune book) wouldn’t get greenlit, but it eventually did, and I can’t wait to see it. Christopher Walken as the Emporer… YESH!
And I’m super pumped that they are also moving forward with Dune Part 3 which covers Dune Messiah!
I now have many of the books I’ve gotten over the years, but have yet to get past Dune Heretics, but they await me. I think as I play through this first Solo game within the Dune RPG, I’ll pick the series back up also and try to get further into the books.
As I set out to look for videos of maybe Play Throughs, Tutorials and Reviews of the Dune RPG, I found that most of them just turned me off. The play throughs took FOREVER for the hosts to actually even begin really talking about the game, one taking literally 1 and a half hours before they even truly started creating their house. I mean, I can understand passion for a source material, but most of it was just banter having NOTHING to do with the game itself. I eventually gave up trying to find a group that really actually started playing the damned thing. Regardless, I did find this video by World of Game Design that covers the basics via an outlined overview within just under 25 minutes.
Bookkeeping
No bookkeeping for this one! But it’s time for me to go back through the core rulebook and prepare. In the next post, I’ll be establishing my house (House Maestoso?). I’m almost positive that my houses primary domain will be Artistic Workers or something like that, along with perhaps a secondary domain of Espionage. These musicians etc. are spies and infiltrators! I’ll have to give that some thought, and of course we’ll create my characters to begin the game.
Till next time!
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