Why not Dune?

[Paul10191]

In SP30rPG, Matthew Sprange gave us a whish list of RPGames. Dune was in the list. Why not. If a company succeeded (LUG, now defunct) with Dune Chronicles of the Imperium, why not to do again the challenge.

[Mr Evil]

ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

not again !!!

possably the licience cost out weights its possable sales , who knows

[MaxSteiner]

Theres already a Dune RPG out, can't remember who did it though...
Might be out of print come to think of it...
Either way though, theres no point Mongoose making RPGs other people have done already is there? Ebay makes all things available!

Plus the amount of research involved would really require a dedicated team, and a huge amount of man hours to do it justice, get it wrong and you'll hemorrhage money!

[MaxSteiner]

http://www.pen-paper.net/rpgdb.php?op=s ... ookid=1084

There you go!, gotta really want it though, the last copy I saw went for like 80 pounds...
Still thats not much more than a second hand copy of Delta green, and its only gonna get more expensive a pretty good investment if you're into that kind of thing...

[Paul10191]

I don't want a copy of Dune Chronicles of the Imperium, I have already one ! I suggest to make a new one with a new system. Dune demand lot of work but a publisher knows that there are many fans in the world who will buy it and it will earn lot of money in return of its investment !

[MaxSteiner]

Yes but it also requires alot of work, more work than Mongoose is gonna be able to dedicate for a long time yet....

If you dont mind me asking, if you already have one version of Dune the RPG, why do you want another? Is it the lack of support that version received? Or do you think Mongoose would do a better job? Do you think it would run better with the Runequest system? Or was it just not very good?

Is Dune still considered an almighty classic though? Loved it when I was about 13, but I thought those awful prequels would have damaged its claim to being a paragon of sci-fi (Especially if all that stuff has to be included, I preferred the Butlerian Jyhad back when it was a little less fleshed out lol), at least I know if I encountered one of those first I wouldn't have read anymore of the series (Never mind the fact that the first book is virtually a complete rewrite of Bouroughs 'A Princess of Mars'...)

[Kyorou]

If you read French, there's a guy who wrote a free Dune RPG. It is a lot better than the one of Last Unicorn, I think (and it's free) : http://storygame.free.fr/imperium/

[Paul10191]

Yes, the one of LUG is not perfect and there are little copies. Yes, I think Mongoose will make a better work. Yes, there is a leak of support and it is not good for a RPG. Yes, I know Imperium but many things are not canon with Frank Herbert's work.
Babylon 5 from Mongoose is a new one. The first RPG was "Babylon Project" and it is more a collector than a living RPG. But Mongoose have the courage to make a new one and it don't ask the question "why to do again a new one?". There are a lot of many fans for Babylon 5 and it is a success for Mongoose. And why not for Dune?

[Pietia]

Is Dune still considered an almighty classic though? Loved it when I was about 13, but I thought those awful prequels would have damaged its claim to being a paragon of sci-fi (Especially if all that stuff has to be included, I preferred the Butlerian Jyhad back when it was a little less fleshed out lol), at least I know if I encountered one of those first I wouldn't have read anymore of the series (Never mind the fact that the first book is virtually a complete rewrite of Bouroughs 'A Princess of Mars'...)

Hey, that's not a problem. Just pretend they didn't happen. I'm doing this with Star Wars episodes 1-3 . It's easier with Dune, as it is not Frank Herbert that is responsible for the "prequel disaster"...

[MaxSteiner]

We'll he is responsible for the conception of one of the writers

[Pietia]

We'll he is responsible for the conception of one of the writers

Maybe it was the gardener or postman? If he was responsible, the writer would have at least a trace of talent

[Mage]

The only thing that piqued my interest in this post was max stating that there is no point in printing RPGs that have already been done before.

I would like to contradict that point. Babylon 5 had two previous RPGs, and ditto for Elric, Judge Dredd, and Runequest.

I believe the problem with Dune was that the license is tied up with the people who did the tv movies. It should be on the first page of the official Dune sight, or possibly Brian Herbert's site.

[MaxSteiner]

I get what you're saying but the thing you have to remember is I'm a cheap scate .
I think the only RPG I have more than one edition of is Mage the Ascension lol.
Honestly Im more speaking from a personal bias than for anyone else, its why Im quite interested in the Hawkmoon RPG, but completly disinterested in the Elric one for instance.

[Tal]

Don't forget that there was a Hawkmoon RPG put out by Chaosium.

[MaxSteiner]

Ah see, Im far less interested in the Mongoose one now

[pasuuli]

Dune seems to have a loyal, cult following. Therefore, Dune RPGs will be sternly measured by how closely they follow the book...

...not that this is a problem. It may be that game designers are used to designing within tight external constraints (or ignoring them elegantly when necessary). I just suspect it would put pressure on Mongoose; it's hard to make something "exactly right".

[jonathan8604]

Yeah, Dune fans are pretty rabid about people f'ing with their books. I actually read a fanfic that got blasted by about a hundred different fans for straying out of the "norms" when I thought it was quite well done to say the least. If Mongoose did happen to pick up Dune I'd love to see the team work on it. Kind've like King James' threat of death to the dudes translating the Bible.

[pasuuli]

I think Mongoose would produce a good game for Dune. I don't know how slavishly they'd norm to the Dune People, but inasmuch as it's a cracking good setting, I'm all for it.

[Paul10191]

In Dune, all the universe must be created. You know about Atreides, Harkonnens and Corrinos but for the reste nothing. We also know things about the names of certaines Great Houses, the CHOAM, the BG sisterhood, the Spacing Guild. But for the rest is an affair of creation. Mongoose make a good work with Conan with differents sources about the universe and the hero and it do a good RPG. It is difficult for the fans to reject something that don't exist in the books.

[Mage]

I though a lot of the video games, though non cannon, covered it to a degree. Also, Frank Herbert's son did some other stuff with this other dude as well (which sucked I think).