DUNE FOR THREE - Originally appeared in the Spanish magazine Troll, no. 20, November/December 1989 - By Mmolgthar, Enric Grau and J.C. Artes - Translated, the best I can :-) by Francisco Franco Garea (ffgarea@hotmail.com) (http://www.lanzadera.com/ffg) - Proofreaded by Richard Heli (heli@best.com) (http://www.best.com/~h eli) To play this variant we need the basic game, and also the expansion The Duel, which includes the leaders of strength 10, and the rules of Kanly. It tries to reproduce the situation depicted by Frank Herbert in his novel Dune. At the start and during the game, the Atreides are fixed in alliance with the Fremen while the Emperor is allied with the Harkonnen. The leaders of the Bene Gesserit are split between the Atreides/Fremen and the Emperor/Harkonnen. The Guild is the third side and receives also the unused Bene Gesserit tokens. The victory conditions are very easy: the player that has at the end of one turn all five strongholds wins. Otherwise at the end of 15 turns, the Guild wins. The Guild only needs three strongholds to win. COMMENT: Guild has two ways of winning, either by getting 3 strongholds at the end of any turn, or by avoiding the victory of any player during 15 turns. Traitors At the start of the game, each of the players randomly picks 8 leaders, and then chooses two of these as traitors. Before choosing, remove the loyal leaders (marked with an L in the chart of leaders), because these Loyal leaders can never be traitors. Movements The leaders must be associated with the troops in the planet. Any number of leaders can be associated with each group of troops. However the leaders are not put in the board (because they don't fit well). Simply put them aside and write locations on a piece of paper. In its turn of movement, each side has the right to make one landing and two movements of troops (each of these following the usual order). The leaders can be associated again in each turn without any movement limit. COMMENT: In fact we used a second map of DUNE (we had two copies) to put the leaders. The leader may move freely all along the map. You first move your two groups of tokens, and after reallocate all your leaders at will. Combat Before each combat, a kanly must be played. Kanly is a death challenge between the two sides involved in the battle, and must be resolved in a duel between a leader of each side chosen by each of the sides (if the three sides find themselves in battle, then there is an Assassins War), but the third player has not the duty to assist as godfather in the kanly. Another change in the rules: the attacker will be the last player entering in the territory. The result of the kanly doesn't matter in resolving the combat. The combat must be resolved anyway. One of the leaders associated with the troop must be chosen to drive the combat. If there is no leader, a cheap hero card may be used; this card need not have been previously associated. If a Bene Gesserit leader is placed into combat (for any one of the sides), it can use the power of The Voice to forbid or to force the use of a leader to the other side, but only if this is not also a Bene Gesserit. This does not include Paul, the Atreides leader, who can use the voice and his Prescience power, in the same combat without any restriction. Kanly between Bene Gesserit leaders is forbidden. Special powers Atreides The Atreides have 20 Fremen tokens plus 20 Atreides tokens. Begins with 10 tokens in Arrakeen and 10 tokens in Carthag. Also must place 10 Fremen tokens on the map following the classic system. All destroyed Atreides troops will turn into Fremen troops when revived (2 points of movement if not in possession of either Carthag or Arrakeen), and this will continue until the Atreides player has 40 fremen tokens; 6 of these can be Fedaykin. Also begins with 13 spice, and 2 treachery cards. The limit of treachery cards is 8. Has a free revival of 5 and a maximum of 6, but only one of these can be a Fedaykin every turn. If Paul is alive, the Atreides player can see the next spice card. Paul has the Voice, and Lady Jessica also, in addition to the Prescience power. The Kwisatz Haderach goes always with Paul, even in the kanly duel (so, Paul has a leader value of 12). In combat, the Kwisatz can be used by any leader, not to add the 2 extra points, but to prevent the leader from being a traitor. Each Fremen troop defends one Atreides troop from a worm. The Fremen leaders (included Mother Ramallo) are in the other side of the planet while another thing are don't said. Once there are in the north side of the planet, they only can abandon it to the exterior of the planet. COMMENT: Fremen leaders mean all five original fremen leader plus Mother Ramallo. They start the game in the south hemisphere (as well as Emperor- Harkonnen, Atreides and Guild who start outside the planet). Notice that the starting deployment represents the situation before the Harkonnen first attack. We did not included Duke Leto because of lack of leaders. Just assume that he has been killed just after debarking. COMMENT: The concept of reviving troops from the tanks is wrong. The new tokens are reinforcements. Only leaders are revived from Ghola. COMMENT: Regarding the last comment about Fremen leader abandoning the north hemisphere, I really don't remember what we really did intend with that. Now, I consider that if we want to be accurate with the bokk we should rule that all Fremen-Atreides leaders cannot abandone the planet to outside, but they can move to South hemisphere (to get a rest). If Fremen/Atreides revive any leader we may assume that Ghola sends them to the South hemisphere. COMMENT: Regarding the Kwisatz, Paul is the Kwisatz. So, he is a leader of value 12. This was needed to show him as the strongest leader is the map. If Paul is not the leader in a battle, then the use of Kwisatz (the overcoming presence of Paul) is used to avoid a leader being traitor. We could maybe enlarge the needed losen tokens to get Kwisatz up to 14 or maybe 21 to delay a bit the developing of Paul. Also, the Kwisatz should never be destroyed, unless Paul himself is killed. But Paul, with voice and prescience, is very tough to get killed (but he can be captured!!). Harkonnen Has 20 Harkonnen tokens plus 20 Emperor tokens. 35 are off planet, while the other 5 can be placed anywere in the north planet, but outside of a stronghold. Begins with 50 spice, and 3 treachery cards. The limit of treachery cards is 12. Takes a free treachery card any time he buys a treachery card, and takes the money when the other side buy a card. The Harkonnen player can choose up to 5 traitors, instead of 2. Has a free revival of 3 from a maximum of 6, but only one of these can be a Sardaukar. If win a combat, can capture the enemy leader that participated. The leader doesn't serve the Harkonnen (i.e., if not his traitors), but can maintain the leaders captured inside the planet under the vigilance of one's own leader or one's own troops. If these groups are attacked and defeated, the captured leader passes to the winner. Guild Begins with 40 tokens off planet (use the 20 Bene Gesserit tokens). Begins with 50 spice, and 1 treachery card. The limit of treachery cards is 6. Has a free revival of 2 from a maximum of 6. Not required to associate his leaders to the troops in the planet. Can buy at the price of his price in spice one or more leaders which have been abandoned after a combat (only outside a stronghold) in which the Guild has not taken part. Treachery cards Some of the treachery cards are changed or have new posibilites: -Residual poison: can only be placed on a leader outside the north side of Dune and in a random way. -Ghola card: Use to revive one's own leader free, or revive an enemy leader by paying its Strength in spice. This leader is then a captured leader. -A leader can be revived only when the player has 7 or fewer leaders alive. The Guild can revive leaders without these limitations. -Karama card: has new uses: - Nullifies all the power of Paul in combat. - Paul can use, in a combat, to see all the battle plan of the enemy. - Harkonnen can use to revive free an Emperor leader or a family member (Princess Irulan and Lady Fenring). LEADER CHART The leaders marked with L are loyal leaders. ATREIDES HARKONEN GUILD Paul Muad Dib L B. Vladimir Harkonnen L Edric Liet Kynes L E. Padishah Shaddam IV L Staban Tuek Stilgar M. Gaius H. Mohian Esmar Tuek Chani Feyd Rautha L Master Bewt Lady Jessica L Count Fenring Soo Soo Sook Alia L Princess Irulan Guild Rep. Mother Ramallo Lady Fenring Otheym Cpt. Aramsham Thufir Hawat Beast Rabban L Wanna Marcus Piter De Vries Gurney Halleck Burseg Shaout Mapes Caid Dunan Idaho Cpt. Nefud Jamis Bashar Doctor Yueh Umman Kudu As you may see, the rules are designed trying to be the most accurate possible to the book. The test we did were also a life report of the book. The Atreides starts in force in DUNE with 10 tokens in each capital, but Harkonnen-Emperor can pose a first attack with 20 tokens in each, plus plenty of cards and plenty of traitors to select. So, there is a strong first blow. Guild is completely appart at the beggining of the game with some few and weak leaders, but each time a battle ends outside a stronghold, there is oftenly a leader who seeks for cover under that side, and little by little Guild becomes also a military power. Anyway, everything can be improved. I bet you to test it also and make your own comments. Regards J.C.A. -- ************************************************************************** Joan C. Artes Associate Professor of Applied Mathematics Dept. of Mathematics, Faculty of Science, Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona 08193 Cerdanyola, Barcelona, Catalunya, SPAIN Phone: 34-93.581.15.05 FAX: 34-93.581.27.90 GSM: 34-610.59.50.00 E-mail: artes@manwe.mat.uab.es (artes@mat.uab.es) WEB: http://mat.uab.es/artes/artes.htm **************************************************************************