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This is something that's been bugging me for the last couple of weeks since I rewatched the old Sci-Fi Channel miniseries adaptations; Warzone has come back from the grave, we have games based on Terminator, on AvP, even on Halo, yet still no real hint that one of the coolest scifi universes, and one ideally suited to a tabletop wargame format, is on the horizon. Are the people in charge of the IP rights opposed/uninterested/too greedy? Are companies worried it won't be able to gain a foothold given the presence of 40K(which has, shall we say, some striking similarities to Dune)? Is there really just nobody presently making wargames who likes/sees profit potential in the Dune IP?

It's puzzling - here's an IP where you(ie, the company making it) can start small with a modestly sized game system with a couple of faction infantry kits and a handful of add-on theme units/characters, yet still capture the IP thoroughly enough to entice in fans; the initial Harkonnen/Atreides conflict on Arrakis, particularly after Paul joins the Fremen, provides a solid narrative framework for a campaign system that takes players from small skirmish engagements through to larger battles, everything you need for an initial product is all there in the material from the first book. Then if it proves popular enough to expand, there's a wealth of material; other factions large and small in the Great Houses and the smaller groups to fuel model releases, Muad'Dib's Jihad and the subsequent novels provide a huge amount of narrative to flog as campaign books, even before you consider adding in your own "peripheral" conflicts that take place in the spaces between and around the official material. If you get really desperate for new stuff, you even have the mediocre prequel books written by Anderson & Herbert's son.

Yeah, like I say, it bugs me, it seems like such a no-brainer but there's just no sign of it happening.

The Dune II RTS game was really fun!

As far as I understand it, there are some significant legal entanglements around Dune - which is also apparently a reason that David Lynch's version is the last and only big-screen outing for the epic.

There was an RPG core book "released" some years ago (I say "released") by the sadly now-defunct Last Unicorn Games as it got one very, very short print run and now goes for upwards of £100/copy. A guy I know used to run a game store and brought 4 copies back from the con it was sold at (GenCon I think), and they were all spoken for before he even left the UK to travel to the US.

There are some minis inspired by Dune floating about though - BOF studio have some, and there is another, quite extensive line out there somewhere (sculpted as a private commission by Kev White of Hasslefree Minis) which is apparently now owned by someone who is planning to release it, but it's not yet seen the light of day sadly.

And the Emperor : Battle for Dune RTS. Sardaukar for all...

Personally? I think games based on franchise fiction (rather than the opposite, like 40k) suffer from a narrative disconnect. The most important story in that setting had already been told, so what does whatever we're doing matter? It's why STAW and the like never held any appeal to me.

On a more objective note, the first and best book in the series was not a story that really did a lot of large or even small scale combat. It's a primarily internal, character driven narrative that doesn't suggest much in the way of a game system.

I think the primary problem with having a Dune wargame is the scale of the game. at 28mm you'd have fremen riding a sandworm that would take up most of the battlefield you are fighting on.

There is the potential for a skirmish game in 28mm, that could involve fighting on top of a sandworm.



Alternatively, a 15mm or 6mm game involving larger forces and ornithopters, and so on.

The thing is, most combat in Dune is hand to hand, because of the shield technology, so it's more limiting in the range of tactical situations. Basically there isn't any shooting.

Thanks for reminding me I need to read Dune

I thought Fantasy Flight had a DUNE game?

Yes you do!

And if you know a lot of 40k background, certainly the early renditions, you'll say "oh my god" quite a few times..

Because nowadays people would just call it a 40k knockoff, being woefully and at times purposefully uninformed on how time works (hint 1965 is before 1987)

 Jimsolo wrote:
Personally? I think games based on franchise fiction (rather than the opposite, like 40k) suffer from a narrative disconnect. The most important story in that setting had already been told, so what does whatever we're doing matter?

Couldn't you say the same about a lot of franchises? How many games of 40k depict otherwise meaningless engagements in a galaxy wide eternal war?

Chaos Marine 1: "HA HA HA! We shall drive these loyalist scum from their planet!" Dakka dakka dakka.
Chaos Marine 2: "Yeah well, it's not the battle of Terra is it? Settle down there Larry."

40k still suffers dissonance based on fluff. Just look at fluff marines vs tabletop marine performance. It's not alone there though- WM/H as often as not ends with named personalities being dead every day. Fluff=/= Rules exists precisely because of fiction to tabletop dissonance.

The game would suffer from situations where some troll of a player shoots a lasgun at a model with a shield, and every model on the table dies.

40k 2nd edition virus warfare!

You come with your saudakar army, i with one fremen and a stamper, easy win

Alesso was making some noise about doing a Dune Game about a year ago.

If you're interested, there's a free set of skirmish rules called A Fistful of Saudakar out on the web.

When I was younger I wrote some Necromunda-style rules for Dune too, though I haven't looked at them in over a decade.

Cypher226 wrote:
there is another, quite extensive line out there somewhere (sculpted as a private commission by Kev White of Hasslefree Minis) which is apparently now owned by someone who is planning to release it, but it's not yet seen the light of day sadly.

I've got a few of those Bene Gesserit and Spacing Guild minis for use as 40k civilians. They're quite nice figures.

To me, I'm not really interested in Dune as a setting for a wargame; it's not that kind of story (a boardgame of political intrigue and conspiracy, however ...). Mind you, that's not stopped Doctor Who being adapted three times now as a combat-driven miniatures game, so why not?

What look do you go for? Lynch's movie, the miniseries, or go back to the books and make up your own based on fairly scanty evidence? Do you use the setting just from the first three books featuring Paul (Dune, Children of Dune, Dune Messiah), during Leto II's reign or in the post-Leto era of Heretics and Chapter House? (hopefully no-one suggests setting it during the prequel period!)

Lynch's movie has, I think, most cultural penetration, and the factions are pretty visually distinct. Based purely on the film, you can get four factions to start with - Atreides, Harkonnen, Sardaukar (although do we ever see them in their own combat gear? In the book, the Sardaukar are disguised as Harkonnen troops; I can't remember if that's the case in the film) and Fremen. With some creative licence you could get some Spacing Guild forces and then if you just start making stuff up based on flimsy references to the book you've got other Great Houses (the only other one named is Corrino, I think), Bene Tleilax*, Ix and Bene Gesserit. I think the latter only really had combat forces in the millennia after Leto II, though.

* Was there ever a mention of what "Bene" meant?

 AndrewGPaul wrote:
What look do you go for? Lynch's movie, the miniseries, or go back to the books and make up your own based on fairly scanty evidence? Do you use the setting just from the first three books featuring Paul (Dune, Children of Dune, Dune Messiah), during Leto II's reign or in the post-Leto era of Heretics and Chapter House? (hopefully no-one suggests setting it during the prequel period!)

Lynch's movie has, I think, most cultural penetration, and the factions are pretty visually distinct. Based purely on the film, you can get four factions to start with - Atreides, Harkonnen, Sardaukar (although do we ever see them in their own combat gear? In the book, the Sardaukar are disguised as Harkonnen troops; I can't remember if that's the case in the film) and Fremen. With some creative licence you could get some Spacing Guild forces and then if you just start making stuff up based on flimsy references to the book you've got other Great Houses (the only other one named is Corrino, I think), Bene Tleilax*, Ix and Bene Gesserit. I think the latter only really had combat forces in the millennia after Leto II, though.

Emperor: Battle For Dune borrows from the David Lynch movie for its aesthetics, and has House Atreides, House Ordos and House Harkonnen as playable factions, with the Saudakar, Fremen, IX, Tleilaxu and Guild of Navigators providing a couple of units each if you recruited them as allies.

* Was there ever a mention of what "Bene" meant?

According to Wikipedia, Bene Gesserit means "(She) will have conducted herself well" in Latin.

Avalon Hill published a strategic Dune game in 1979. It's been OOP for years, of course, but the rules are available as a PDF if you wanted to make your own board and stuff.

I actually played it at university, but I can't remember any details about it.

Bene means 'well' (adverb) in Latin, hence benediction, benevolent, and so on.

Do you mean the very sought after Dune which FFG remade in their own universe (losing a lot of the appeal for many)?



One of the first boardgame print and plays I ever made, that. I plan to remake it someday with the knowledge I have now, and with wooden pieces instead of card. Love the persons work who made the files.

There was also a CCG made. It was OK-ish.

 Turnip Jedi wrote:
Because nowadays people would just call it a 40k knockoff, being woefully and at times purposefully uninformed on how time works (hint 1965 is before 1987)

Known by TVtropes as "Seinfeld is unfunny"

 Grimtuff wrote:

 Turnip Jedi wrote:
Because nowadays people would just call it a 40k knockoff, being woefully and at times purposefully uninformed on how time works (hint 1965 is before 1987)

Known by TVtropes as "Seinfeld is unfunny"

Didn't like it when it was first shown - don't like it now...........

Never got to try the Dune RTS which is a shame because had a blast on the old Command and Conquer games

Some definite skirmish possibilities with assaults and assassinations in noble holdings, starships and the like and bigger wargames would work nicely.

But then I keep thinking about doing rules for a John Carter of Mars Skirmish game - maybe Osprey would be interested

Write some rules and send it to them for consideration. Their B5 books format is ideal for that kind of project, and they must be looking for new material.

 Nevelon wrote:
There was also a CCG made. It was OK-ish.

Still got some of the cards around somewhere. Decent game.

 Kilkrazy wrote:
Write some rules and send it to them for consideration. Their B5 books format is ideal for that kind of project, and they must be looking for new material.

Working on it now

You could do a really awesome wargame set during the Butlerian Jihad (the Machine Crusade), bit it really wouldn't be "Dune".

I love Dune so so much. I'd be excited to see a miniatures game but honestly the archetypal conflicts of the setting are political rather than military. It would make fine fodder for a(nother) board game or a FFG LCG. But FFG already tried and failed to get their hands on the license, specifically to reprint the excellent Avalon Hill board game, hence why Twilight Imperium exists.

They could call it:
kwisatz haderach, give a dog a bone!

 Manchu wrote:
I love Dune so so much. I'd be excited to see a miniatures game but honestly the archetypal conflicts of the setting are political rather than military. It would make fine fodder for a(nother) board game or a FFG LCG. But FFG already tried and failed to get their hands on the license, specifically to reprint the excellent Avalon Hill board game, hence why Twilight Imperium exists.

I honestly don't see how that's a problem. The archetypal conflicts thing, I mean. Really just about every IP would have most of its conflicts be political or covert, that hasn't prevented them from focusing their core iteration on armed conflict, or from supporting adaptations or spinoffs that do so; you focus on the parts of the setting that are useful for the medium you're working with. The rich factions, described or mentioned battles, and incongruously archaic methods of warfare in Dune would make for a fantastic tabletop wargame, and the Byzantine political aspects of the setting would still be there as the reason for those conflicts, or could even serve as the justification for an intricate campaign system with a detailed post-battle sequence.