Dune: What am I missing?

Caught this on ebay a few months back before the economy shit the bed.

Just read the rules over the weekend, and I think I know how to play but when I think about the prospect of teaching the game, I feel like I am missing something. Is it really as simple as I think it is?

I will probably run through a couple of turns solo to figure it out before I spring it on my game group but I was wondering if anyone here had any tips for teaching it, commonly forgotten rules, etc. It looks like I can explain it in ten minutes. Is that accurate or am I missing something?

hancock.tom wrote:

Just read the rules over the weekend, and I think I know how to play but when I think about the prospect of teaching the game, I feel like I am missing something. Is it really as simple as I think it is?

I seriously doubt it. I found the rules a horrible morass of bad explanations and references to things that are actually printed on player screens or aid sheets. But maybe they just suit your head better than the suit mine.

There are a number of rules rewrites around for Dune which attempt to get everything into one place for easier learning and reference. I find these immensely helpful. Here's an example:
www.starbasejeff.com/games/dune/dune_rules_starbase_v15.pdf

But that's pretty stripped down. I had to refer to this relative behemoth to actually get to grips with the game:
cid-0fab1e236bcb7de7.skydrive.live.com/s...ic/Dune%7C_rules.doc

Super helpful and exactly what I needed, thanks Matt.

The hard thing about teaching a game like Dune to newbies is that the mechanics are so well integrated with the theme that someone who hasn't read the book may have trouble remembering all the new vocabulary when the other 5 players are finding it pretty easy.

Tom,
Let us know how it goes. I'm hoping to arrange my first Dune session in a couple of weeks so any pointers would be great.

The rules rewrites mostly cover the special cases and clarify the timing of powers. The basic game doesn't have many of them at all. The advanced game gets a little tricky, and the expansions drop into a nightmare of rules conflicts.

The thing about Dune is that the rules are fairly simple, but the powers are extremely varied and powerful. Your entire strategy and role in the game revolves around your powers. That part takes some getting used to...but there aren't actually rules for it.

I've been spending some time this 3 day weekend working on my home-made copy of DUNE. All the cards are laminated and done. I am painting some 1.5" wood discs from Michael's for my leader tokens. I'm going to print out the map on Thursday with a large-format plotter at work.

Like Frank mentioned, most of the controversy I've read surrounding the actual play centers on timing ambiguities. I think lots of rules-lawyerish people want to read more into what's written than is actually there in most cases, but I'd be prepared to field questions. If you can get everyone to agree up front that you don't want to get sidetracked for a half hour arguing over the meaning of a couple words and would prefer to just rule on a simple interpretation quickly, I think you'll be fine.

Should I go with the advanced rules out of the gate? One site online (recommended by someone here) says to go ahead and throw them in because they add little complexity and a lot of good flavor. I am inclined to add them in just based on reading the rules. What are people's opinions?

I haven't played yet, but the word on the street seems to be that most people play with the Basic and Optional Rules, and leave the Advanced Rules out.

The Optional (I called them advanced.) are worth adding. The only one that gets tricky is the Bene Gesserit power.

The set of rules is worth using just to make that role more interesting. They kind of get the shaft a bit in the main rules.

For the most part if you are the only one who knows or looks at the rules, you'll be fine.

We do add one common house rule to our games: The victory conditions go up by one for every extra person in a group win. Otherwise, the strongest group of 3 can easily take and hold the majority of Sietches, and the game mostly ends at the first worm sign.

This is actually fine for a learning game, as it takes a couple of hours to get used to the thing anyway.

Anyone interested in using the VASSAL module send me a private message. We won't begin until after I get back from vacation in March but it will probably take that long to round up 6 players anyway.

moofrank wrote:

We do add one common house rule to our games: The victory conditions go up by one for every extra person in a group win. Otherwise, the strongest group of 3 can easily take and hold the majority of Sietches, and the game mostly ends at the first worm sign.

In a six-player game, the alliance wins are balanced out somewhat by the risk of a Ben Gesserit win. The BG player just needs to correctly predict one member of a winning alliance, as well as the winning turn number.

Keep in mind that the optional and advanced rules weren't written by the team that designed the game.

I remember reading a discussion with I think Jack Eberle where he said that they thought the game they submitted (basic rules only) was better than what Avalon Hill turned it into with the optional and advanced rules. There are some age-old questions about the advanced game that nobody is around to answer now.

I've only played Dune once, with 5 players and all the rules, but it wasn't that hard to teach the other players the mechanics even though only one of them had ever read the book. Getting them to really "get" the game was another story.