Conflict becomes a battle of wits and bluffing
May 20, 2017 12:01 AM   Subscribe

Ars Technica takes a look at Avalon Hill's legendary board game version of Dune.
posted by Chrysostom (37 comments total) 35 users marked this as a favorite
 
I don't have to read the article.

[hangs head]

SO many hours spent playing in Game Club in high school in '81...

SO.

MANY.

HOURS.
posted by Samizdata at 12:50 AM on May 20, 2017 [7 favorites]




We had that game! We played the hell out of it! Got it for fifty cents at a yard sale. I would have taken better care of it if I had known it would become a collector's item.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 2:01 AM on May 20, 2017 [3 favorites]


I love this game so much and own a copy. Its unbalanced-but-balanced mechanic works so well. The so-seventies-it-hurts art and Dune setting are just the cherry on the cake.

It kills me that I don't get to play it very often. Because the article is right - it's not particularly new-player friendly and you need at least four people for it to play properly.

Definitely one of the possessions I'd grab if the house caught fire though (luckily it has pride of place on a shelf in our front room, so it'll be easy to save!)
posted by garius at 2:11 AM on May 20, 2017 [3 favorites]


I have a very well-worn copy of this game. My gaming group still pulls it out from time to time. I also agree with the article that the two official expansions, which I also have, are pretty pointless — we played with each of those once or twice, never to be used again. Haven't tried the unofficial 7-9 player expansion.
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 3:47 AM on May 20, 2017 [2 favorites]


I have mixed feelings. I'm excited to find out such a game exists. And saddened by the realization that I'll likely never get to play it.
posted by zinon at 4:12 AM on May 20, 2017 [5 favorites]


Ah, memories. Armed with only one army and a personal shield, my general attacked the main Imperial force... whom I happened to know, from a side-deal with the Atreides, owned a lasgun.

Ka-boom.

("I use the Voice to compel you to use the lasgun! Lasgun + shield = death to both armies!")
posted by Mogur at 4:54 AM on May 20, 2017 [6 favorites]


Played this game three times. Always ends within 3 rounds when someone draws the Shai Halud, and the majority of folks decide to team up, control the majority of bases, and win :)
posted by triage_lazarus at 6:00 AM on May 20, 2017


I own an imported French language version and have played the hell out of it. Under the basic rules my gaming group eventually found that the unbalance-balance worked great.

The factions really have wonderfully good theming in their mechanics. Wonderful combos with treachery cards + faction powers.

My main complaint is that with experienced players it became hard for even a three player alliance to meet the victory conditions. This tended to give the Guild player an advantage to win via their special tie breaker end of game condition.

It's probably still my second favorite board game though.
posted by seejaie at 6:02 AM on May 20, 2017


We had to house-rule that you couldn't have more than two people in an alliance because otherwise we would always end up with five-player "wins" versus the one loser who didn't have a control point.
posted by Scattercat at 6:02 AM on May 20, 2017 [1 favorite]


Dune is an amazing game and we also played it endlessly, although I was part of the post-Sting cover era. I eventually picked up a second copy for parts and storing those useless

It was after one of those short games of Dune, in 1995 at Origins, that a fellow player pulled out this "amazing German game you have to try" which we did to fill our time slot. And so I got to play Settlers of Catan before it was distributed in English. That whole experience kicked me into my adult game design efforts leading to a couple games getting published. So, I have a soft spot in my heart as well.

Thirty years later I'd still rate it a top game. If you're a serious board gamer, seek out a chance to play.
posted by meinvt at 6:04 AM on May 20, 2017 [9 favorites]


I played this exactly once, many many many years ago. All that I remember is that I won because, in a crucial final set of battles, literally all of my enemies' generals were secretly working for me.
posted by kyrademon at 7:22 AM on May 20, 2017 [5 favorites]


Ah, wheel within wheels.
posted by jadepearl at 7:31 AM on May 20, 2017 [1 favorite]


Fantasy Flight Games wanted to re-release the game but couldn't get the rights to the Dune setting from the Herbert estate, so they re-skinned it, basically, and released it as Rex: Final Days of an Empire. It's the same mechanics and gameplay, slightly different flavour. So there is still hope for those of us who came too late.
posted by spindle at 7:48 AM on May 20, 2017 [12 favorites]


^^ I was just about to ask folks thoughts on Rex.
posted by snwod at 7:52 AM on May 20, 2017


Is there currently any way of playing online?
posted by justsomebodythatyouusedtoknow at 8:42 AM on May 20, 2017


I can't believe they didn't market "Spice Blow" as some kind of energy drink powder.
posted by lagomorphius at 8:51 AM on May 20, 2017


Is there currently any way of playing online?
Not sure if there is anything officially sanctioned, but you can use the Vassal engine and the Dune module. It's a bit clunky at times, but friends and I use Vassal to play Battlestar Galactica, and it works well. Definitely want some sort of voice chat (Discord, Ventrilo, Skype, etc.) for everyone, and it helps a lot if everyone has played the game or at least has a basic understanding of how it is supposed to work.
posted by xedrik at 8:53 AM on May 20, 2017 [2 favorites]


Holy shit, forgotten nostalgia out of nowhere. I played this back in the 80s with my regular gaming group. I still remember the worthless Trip to Gamont and La, La, La cards.
posted by Mr. Bad Example at 9:08 AM on May 20, 2017


Played it with my siblings. It was almost as bad as 'Happy Families' at causing arguments and upset. Good game.
posted by YAMWAK at 9:48 AM on May 20, 2017


This is one of those board game holy grails that I wish I would get to see and play some time. I have a group of players for Twilight Imperium 3, and one of the guys owns Rex, which we've been meaning to get to the table for some time now. So at least there's that, but the original still entices me.
posted by jklaiho at 9:58 AM on May 20, 2017 [1 favorite]


If one wanted to build a case against long copyright terms, an item for your example list would be the Herbert estate's handling of Dune, which has resulted in a whole string of crappy sequels co-written by his son but no rerelease of the Dune board game, which is decent enough proof that the copyright needs to be loosened a bit.

Unfortunately Rex: Final Days of an Empire probably loses something with its modern Twilight Imperium theming, compared to the Dune theme. The game was built around the first Dune book in an extremely close way, the reprint is a new setting built around that game, sort of a copy of a copy. Plus, you don't get to make silly movie jokes.

Played this game three times. Always ends within 3 rounds when someone draws the Shai Halud, and the majority of folks decide to team up, control the majority of bases, and win :)

Sounds like you should play Bene Gesserit in your next game!

Knowledge of the book isn’t necessary to play, and there aren’t any spoilers—players are rewriting the plot from the ground up each time.

This is the most insightful sentence, I think. I've written that, in roguelikes, at their best the game works as a kind of narrative generator, where the history of your character as interesting as a fantasy novel. The board game Dune works the same way, but as an alternate history of the Dune novel!

If you like Dune, you really need to check out the next game made by its creators, the wonderful Cosmic Encounter.
posted by JHarris at 10:13 AM on May 20, 2017 [8 favorites]


It looks like there's a couple Tabletop Simulator incarnations of it out, so it could theoretically be revived digitally that way.
posted by CrystalDave at 10:21 AM on May 20, 2017 [2 favorites]


We live in a world with the internet and ubiquitous colour printing, why aren't game nerds just rolling their own copies of the game if it is no longer being sold?
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 10:43 AM on May 20, 2017 [4 favorites]


I actually *did* make my own Dune board, but then I couldn't get my friends to play it. (loud and obnoxious SIGH)
posted by JHarris at 11:29 AM on May 20, 2017 [5 favorites]


I actually *did* make my own Dune board, but then I couldn't get my friends to play it. (loud and obnoxious SIGH)

Just a thought. A few minutes with a gom jabbar helps fools reconsider their bad life choices. You just have to approach problems with the proper Dune mindset.
posted by Samizdata at 11:51 AM on May 20, 2017 [5 favorites]


We live in a world with the internet and ubiquitous colour printing, why aren't game nerds just rolling their own copies of the game if it is no longer being sold?

They are. I thought about printing a set, but alas my gaming group doesn't have the patience for games that take more than an hour or two.
posted by surlyben at 12:11 PM on May 20, 2017 [6 favorites]


A different game comes to mind when I think of Dune, because I first read it at a certain age and forever have the Gom Jabbar test associated with Feeley Meeley. Too bad they didn't put Sting on the cover.
posted by lagomorphius at 12:53 PM on May 20, 2017


Wow, my father had this (1979 version) and I inherited it along with the rest of his Avalon Hill games. Trying to work out how to play it aged ten was tricky - trying to work out how to construct a solo version harder still, since it was so much about diplomacy and card matches. I'd be very interested to see how it plays with actual other players - wonder if I still have it?
posted by running order squabble fest at 1:18 PM on May 20, 2017 [2 favorites]


I've always loved the idea of horribly complex backstabbing boardgames. I need to make time and find a local group.

But I've also always tended more towards the tabletop RPG side of things than the boardgame side, and reading this review made me think of the Amber RPG.

Like the Dune boardgame, the Amber RPG eschewed dice and other random number generators in favor of encouraging hatred, enmity, and general ill feeling among the players through other mechanisms. And like the Dune boardgame, though perhaps to a lesser degree because as an RPG it didn't need to have a definite winner or loser, diplomacy and encouraging you to betray your friends was baked in from the very beginning.
posted by sotonohito at 2:12 PM on May 20, 2017 [2 favorites]


That sounds great. I want to be Fiona!
posted by ActingTheGoat at 2:42 PM on May 20, 2017 [2 favorites]


I have this, as well as a regular gaming group 4-5 of us playing weekly. I haven't played in maybe fifteen years, but I think I will bump it up the list.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 2:50 PM on May 20, 2017


Ah, original Dune gaming. No "insidious House Ordos" here!
posted by infinitewindow at 3:44 PM on May 20, 2017 [2 favorites]


Cosmic Encounter actually came out before Dune. A great game, back a bit more chaotic than Dune.

Nothing else has really come close to portraying a book as game as well as Dune. War of the Ring perhaps, but that's a simple good vs. evil, not the every house for themselves knife fight that is Dune. Game of Thrones boardgame could have taken lessons from Dune.

Rex has some changes, some balance issues, (Letnev can easily get a first turn win if everyone isn't paying attention, etc.), but it's probably cheaper than Dune. We'll see when I try to sell my spare copy...
posted by Windopaene at 8:09 PM on May 20, 2017 [1 favorite]


Like the Dune boardgame, the Amber RPG eschewed dice and other random number generators in favor of encouraging hatred, enmity, and general ill feeling among the players through other mechanisms.

Faithful to the books, then.
posted by sebastienbailard at 6:59 PM on May 21, 2017 [3 favorites]


Yes, that was the point.

The character generation mechanic was explicitly designed to produce rivalries and rifts in the group. It was a point build system, but instead of simply buying your attributes, skills, and so forth you had to bid on them with your points. And whether you won or lost the auction the points you bid went bye bye. The whole point was to set up your characters with alliances, rivalries, and factions from the very beginning and they figured the easiest way to do that was to engage the players where it hurt.
posted by sotonohito at 8:02 AM on May 22, 2017 [2 favorites]


One of my favorite boardgames from my high school days. Something eventually happened to my copy, but I managed to get another one in grad school, only to have someone walk off with it eventually. (This may have been with my permission, it's rather lost in the fogs of memory.)
posted by Four Ds at 8:32 AM on May 22, 2017


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