Dune RPG's next campaign book will let you play through new movie Dune: Part Two
Paul of the Imperium.
A new sourcebook for the Dune: Adventures in the Imperium tabletop RPG will take players through the events of the upcoming second film, which will round out the events as covered by Frank Herbert’s first Dune novel.
Dune: Fall of the Imperium, as the name of the sourcebook implies, will cover the events following House Atreides’ arrival on the planet of Arrakis and their attempts to fend off the Imperium’s dominion over the spice and indigenous Fremen who live there. This roughly equates to the second half of Herbert’s Dune and its cinematic adaptation, Denis Villeneuve’s Dune: Part Two.
Players will aid their house by navigating an increasingly hostile political atmosphere rife with double-crossing, assassinations, subplots and outright military hostilities. Control of Arrakis, and the spice that powers intergalactic travel, will stretch across countless worlds and give every House an excuse to air old grudges. Players may side with the Fremen and risk the Emperor’s full force bearing down on them, or perhaps they will endeavor to bring Arrakis and its inhabitants fully under his thumb.
Published by Fallout and Star Trek publisher Modiphius, this expansion to the Ennie-winning RPG will comprise a 144-page hardcover with a full campaign stretched across four distinct acts. Each act will send the players on three adventures, as well providing plenty of opportunities for side adventures, worldbuilding and carrying on in the wake of the film sequel’s conclusions. Whether Modiphius intends to continue on their own or wait for Villeneuve to continue his ambitious adaptation project is an open question.
Dune enjoyed an explosion of tabletop adaptations hoping to build on the critical and commercial success of the first film, which cast Timothée Chalamet as the young Paul Atreides as he discovers the beauty and danger of Arrakis while also falling headfirst into a prophecy beyond his control. Dune: Adventures in the Imperium took players beyond the film’s camera lens and allowed them to explore both the desert planet and the sprawling, ouroboros-like Imperium bearing down upon it.
The Dune: Imperium board game takes a more traditional route by wrapping a thematic shell around familiar deckbuilding and worker placement tactics - ultimately not excelling or failing in standing out within its genre. For those who are coming to the tabletop through Chalamet, Zendaya and other big name performances that have relit an interest in one of science fiction’s most beloved worlds, the Agents of Dune Deluxe Starter Set is a very solid boxed RPG that’s designed to teach newcomers how to play right out of the box.
Preorders for Dune: Fall of the Imperium are now available on Modiphius’ website, and the publisher expects the books to begin shipping in mid-March. Anyone who purchases the physical book will receive a digital PDF copy that’s immediately available.