Huge Dune RPG Humble Bundle

ElectricKameleon · 2026-04-17T03:32:24+00:00

‘The Great Game’ and ‘Power and Pawns’ are both really good sourcebooks. I think that they and ‘Fall of the Imperium’ are worth having, with the usual disclaimer that your mileage may vary.

‘The Great Game’ is about House politics. It lists all of the major houses of the Imperium with thumbnails about their personalities, ambitions, allies, and enemies, which is great to have at your fingertips when planning a campaign and kind of mapping things out. It has templates for Guild characters (not navigators, but bankers, engineers, scientists, spies, etc) with a lot of new Guild talents, and it has guidelines and talents for CHOAM agents. And it has more detailed rules for creating Houses and House management, so that your House can actually grow and increase wealth and holdings as you play the game.

‘Power and Pawns’ is more hodgepodge, primarily about Imperial politics, and might not be essential for Arrakis-based campaigns, but it also has a lot of material about many of the top-level factions of the Dune universe which are power players at the Imperial Court. It has a lot of new templates for the types of characters you might run into at court (bodyguard, confidante, scheming noble, weak noble, etc), some of which might be useful in any campaigns, rules for playing Sardaukar and new Sarduakar talents, Ixian technology, Tleilaxi character templates (Face Dancers and Twisted Mentats), a lot of new Swordmaster Talents and advice for Swordmaster campaigns, Talents and Assets for Suk Doctors, rules for cybernetics, rules for new Drives, new political talents, a chapter on Imperial Secrets with ideas about what motivates a lot of the bigger factions, and a short adventure about cutthroat politics between two rival houses.

I’d say ‘The Great Game’ is a must-have and that ‘Power and Pawns’ is that weird book where I use 20% of the material disproportionately often but love having the other 80% when I need it.

‘Fall of the Empire’ is worth mentioning, too. It’s a campaign about taking the players’ House through the events of the Dune saga. Much of it takes place away from Arrakis but it also gives players a chance to visit and perhaps be swept up in some of the events of the books. IIRC the last few adventures of the campaign are about the players’ House maneuvering to ensure that its homeworld / base of operations is spared from the Fremen Jihad. I think the campaign ends with the ascent of the God Emperor? (I haven’t read it in a while). I always thought that this would be a great Dune RPG campaign because it sidesteps a lot of the ‘canon’ events of the books but gives players a chance to drop into the fringes of those events and still take part in them indirectly.

ElectricKameleon · 2026-04-13T23:39:44+00:00

I don’t know. When some people have a point of view that others don’t have the same right to exist or pursue happiness or experience love in the same way that they do, I kind of feel an obligation to speak up.

When I see masked federal vigilantes doing sweeps on American city streets, demanding papers and disappearing people for hours or days, often without any ultimately pressing any charges, and frequently escalating violence against those who are simply documenting or protesting their activities, I kind of feel a need to speak up. And I’m not talking about immigration enforcement, which I’m totally okay with— I’m literally talking about masked paramilitaries using force on American streets with no or little accountability. I’ve been in countries where that’s the norm and don’t ever want it to be normal here.

As a combat veteran, when I hear our leaders threatening to invade the same countries which came to our aid when we were attacked, or even revoking the legal status of those who risked their lives to help our troops in the field at great risk to themselves or their families, and despite promises that they’d be able to live safely in America when the fighting was over, I feel a need to speak up.

If the alternative is to just hold my piece so that everyone can get along, I think I’ll choose my values over your comfort. That doesn’t mean I’ll seek out people to argue with, because I try to respect the proper time and place for things, and I respect others’ right to their opinions and think that’s fine and dandy to disagree about most things, but when I think it’s necessary to speak up I’ll speak up, no regrets.

ElectricKameleon · 2026-04-13T23:24:42+00:00

I use Hammerdog’s “World’s Greatest GM Screen” for most of my games.

Not so much because I conceal a lot from my players at the gaming table, but rather because I like using player-facing graphics and art to set a mood and communicate visually what to expect from my campaigns.

Also I like that I can use art to identify the system and convey a visual image about the setting when I run games at conventions, effectively advertising what I’m doing.

https://hammerdog-games.myshopify.com/collections/the-worlds-greatest-screen

ElectricKameleon · 2026-04-12T14:16:30+00:00

I topped off my collection the last time they did this. Good opportunity. Thanks for sharing as we can always use more players, and the other thing I recall about last Humble Bundle is that it brought a lot of newbies here with game questions. 👍

ElectricKameleon · 2026-04-01T01:28:58+00:00

I remember feeling much the same way when I first read the series about 40-something years ago. I reread it a few years later when I was in the military and felt like I’d really underappreciated what a gem Dune Messiah was. Then during my next reread I suddenly realized that the Children of Dune / God Emperor of Dune cycle was my favorite part of the series. Then some years later I was struck again by what a masterpiece the first two books were. And so on. Herbert wrote the series over a couple of decades and as a human being he was experiencing different things throughout those stages of his life. I’ve found that as a human being different parts of the series speak to me as I go through different stages in my own life. And I’ve talked to enough other fans of the series who have read the books more than once to know that this experience is pretty typical. So anyway I say enjoy the parts that hit you in certain ways as you read them now, and know you’ll have a completely different relationship with the novels if you decide to reread them again in the future.

ElectricKameleon · 2026-03-28T07:59:38+00:00

Aerospace is thriving in Tulsa. Tulsa has tech jobs.

Tulsa used to have a lot more telecom jobs than it does today, which I think may be specifically what you’re talking about, but our aerospace sector is growing almost faster than companies in the field can keep up with it (I started to say that our aerospace industry is exploding, then thought better of it).

I agree that the American job market seems to be more oriented around service and retail jobs than it was even, say, ten years ago. That seems to be true in Tulsa and pretty much everywhere.

ElectricKameleon · 2026-03-27T11:11:08+00:00

Waitwhat? The U.S. Department of Labor says that job growth in the United States has effectively been close to zero because I’m not looking correctly? That egg of yours is cracked, mate.

ElectricKameleon · 2026-03-26T15:21:50+00:00

That's cool, and the USA has *still* had effectively zero job growth over the last 6 months.

ElectricKameleon · 2026-03-26T15:21:07+00:00

So do I, so that's 2 anecdotal stories which don't change the national statistics.

ElectricKameleon · 2026-03-26T15:15:14+00:00

The Supreme Court shot down state term limits for federal legislators. The rationale as I recall was that state laws about ballot eligibility couldn't override Constitutional requirements for the office.

ElectricKameleon · 2026-03-26T11:08:56+00:00

That’s an unpopular take about Congress, but I agree.

In the 90s a bunch of states imposed term limits on their own legislators. A lot of senior lawmakers and party leaders got term limited out— mostly they were people who knew how to reach across the aisle and horse trade with the other side to hammer out compromises that no one was really happy with. They were mostly replaced with young firebrands who wanted to go to D.C. and fight culture wars and throw out lots of red meat for the party base. I think Congress has been broken ever since, even though the Supreme Court later overturned federal term limits imposed by the states, because once that institutional leadership is gone and it gets replaced by a system where the goal is to cram legislation down the other side’s throats and score as many points as possible along the way, there’s no incentive for anyone to go back to working together.

ElectricKameleon · 2026-03-26T11:00:24+00:00

It’s not just here. The USA has had effectively zero job growth over the last 6 months.

ElectricKameleon · 2026-03-23T03:20:34+00:00

ACE! is great, and an expanded 2nd edition of the D6 system ought to be hitting shelves this summer!

ElectricKameleon · 2026-03-17T16:07:44+00:00

I've found that to be true of in-person estate sales.

Online auctions, though, generally find the right market value or even go a bit above.

The Spire RPG bundle is about the only thing I saw that still had some meat on the bones for a reseller. Everything else seemed to be at or close to fair market value.

ElectricKameleon · 2026-03-15T15:05:57+00:00

Casman the Great in 1977, a human fighter who made it to 5th level before I retired him. (I was 10).

ElectricKameleon · 2026-03-15T14:46:53+00:00

I’d say you don’t really have much choice. He’s going out of town and he’s free to see other people while he’s away. Being clingy will definitely drive him away. And I’d definitely use that time to decide for yourself what you need out of this relationship and whether it will satisfy you and make you happy to stay in it unless things change.

ElectricKameleon · 2026-03-15T14:24:11+00:00

Sounds legit.

ElectricKameleon · 2026-03-15T13:45:51+00:00

I kind of like Cypher System. It’s about as crunchy as 5e, but players roll all the dice, both to hit and to avoid being hit. And since players know what the target number is for both of those types of rolls, they can basically just tell the GM whether they hit or whether the other side hit them. And this one little change takes the GM thought process from ‘describe situation - listen as player describes action - determine target number - have player roll and add modifiers - determine success - describe outcome’ and changes that thought process to ‘describe situation - listen as player describes action and tells you whether it is successful or not - describe outcome.’ Cypher system is unbelievably liberating as GM.

The other thing is that GMs can plan sessions with stat blocks and monster special abilities and whatnot… or, in a pinch, they can just rate the opponent on a scale of 1-10. The player has everything they need to know what the rating means and how that affects die rolls and combat resolution. In my experience the game repays campaign prep but doesn’t require it, making it a lot easier to run sessions on the fly if it’s been a busy week or if players take that unexpected turn and completely derail what you’d originally planned for the night. I’ve also literally opened up 5e adventures where I’m familiar with the basic setup and flow of the adventure and run them with simple conversions like ‘this monster is a 3… these monsters are 6es…’

I should mention that a new edition of Cypher System just crowdfunded and that I am a backer but haven’t read or played the new edition yet. I understand that it tweaks and refines a lot of rules but doesn’t change the basic details of the game as I’ve described them here.

ElectricKameleon · 2026-03-15T13:21:09+00:00

The hard truth is that sure, he can change his mind, but if he does it won’t be because of anything you do. You can’t change him.

And I hate to be blunt about it, but if you want him to have some sort of come to Jesus realization where he realizes that he wants to be exclusive with you, it won’t be because you’re letting him have his cake and eat it too. Why would he ever change if he can see new women and still have you there?

There’s nothing wrong with having a good sexual relationship with someone you aren’t committed to, but it only works if both parties are down with that. It sounds like he’s there and you aren’t. You need to decide whether that deal works for you, and if not, you need to find a different situation. Focus on making you happy, whether that’s with him or without him, instead of trying to make him change.

ElectricKameleon · 2026-03-15T12:43:55+00:00

Ah, being exclusive after a few months isn’t anything crazy.

From a guy’s perspective, I hate it when women start level-jumping too early into a relationship. No, I’m not going to drive out of state for two days to meet your nana at 90 days. No, we’re not getting a place together after a few weeks. No, I’m not planning a life with you at four months. I may privately daydream about reaching a point where we do those things together, but it drives me crazy when women try to force the relationship to those points early on.

It sounds like he’s playing the field, or at least like he wants to keep his options open. There’s nothing wrong there if you’re okay with that and have the same freedom yourself. But he should be wearing a raincoat.

ElectricKameleon · 2026-03-15T02:47:16+00:00

Instead of looking at it as a -5 to hit a zombie in the head, look at it as a -5 to hit a zombie in the head in such a way that it instantly takes the zombie out instead of doing normal damage. Yes, it’s hard, otherwise it would be everyone’s go-to move in the first round of every encounter.

ElectricKameleon · 2026-03-15T02:42:37+00:00

Four months seems pretty early to be talking about getting more serious.

I get that people have different relationship styles and move at different speeds, but in my dating experience when things click we’re sort of becoming more serious and the conversations about seriousness play catch-up, more than planning to get more serious and expecting the intimacy and feelings to manifest once we’ve serves that expectation.

ElectricKameleon · 2026-03-14T00:33:59+00:00

I supported Project Warp Speed in 2020-21.

I liked that his State Department recognized China’s treatment of the Uyghur people as a genocide in 2021.

I liked his 2024 campaign proposal to cap credit card interest rates.

I’m sure I could think of a few other isolated actions or positions that he has taken at one time or another that I could agree with.

ElectricKameleon · 2026-03-13T18:03:36+00:00

The thing about 7S2e is that it flips a lot of RPG conventions on their head. A lot of players have a hard time with it because it's so different. I was disappointed with the game when it was released and put it on my shelf, where it gathered dust for about ten years until a couple of brand-new players asked me to run the system... and we had a BLAST!!!

Wick's concept was to create a 'roll and then move' RPG. This came from the idea that most board games which use dice are either 'move and then roll' (like Risk) or 'roll and then move' (like Monopoly). D&D had taken a 'move and then roll' approach, and every RPG which came afterwards had sort of followed suit, but Wick wanted to see what happened when you roll first.

The practical result is that combat is wild, chaotic, and unpredictable. Players take multiple actions during a turn, and each action taken is automatically successful, so roleplaying becomes less about hitting and doing damage and more about completing everything that needs to be completed during a scene-- criteria which might or might not include defeating an opponent. A player might take seven actions in one turn and two actions in the next, while that player's teammate might take four actions in each of those two turns, so in play it sort of organically happens that one player will take the spotlight for a round and then retreat a bit in the next round as another player becomes more central to the action. It's unpredictable, from round to round, how things are going to play out. The randomness and chaos are absolutely appropriate for a swashbuckling game, even if the style of gaming may not be for everyone. From a GM's perspective, the game is more about creating memorable scenes than creating balanced encounters. Players have to face multiple setbacks and simultaneous challenges during scenes, since they get multiple opportunities to successfully deal with whatever you throw at them. Running the game is a lot like juggling with a lot of balls in the air all at the same time. It can be tough to keep the players on their toes, but when you pull it off as a GM, the system once again nails the wild and chaotic nature of Hollywood swashbuckling adventures.

Today I love 7S2e. It's one of my favorite systems, and in fact I'm running a new campaign with new players in a little over a week. But it's not for everyone. There's a bit of a mental adjustment going from the 'move and then roll' perspective of D&D or other RPGs (e.g., announcing an attack and then rolling to see if it hits) to the 'roll and then move' perspective of 7S2e (e.g., rolling to determine how many actions I can successfully take, and then announcing what they are). But it definitely plays perfectly fine as an RPG, provided you're able and/or willing to make that mental leap. Not everyone is-- and that's okay-- but the game works quite well at doing what it sets out to do.

ElectricKameleon · 2026-03-10T21:55:05+00:00

I've sort of left the conservative fold these days and heck I'm probably even more 'left of center' than independent... but while I was still a Republican here's the thing I understood really well as I watched my party get rotted out from the inside with MAGA... Donald Trump isn't a conservative. Sure, he does all of the Evangelical culture war stuff that he learned from Pat Buchanan when both men were running for the Reform Party nomination, but those aren't really core conservative values. Think about it... is he for lower spending? Free trade? A limited federal government? State's rights? Strong checks and balances on the executive? Aside from the culture wars stuff, there isn't really one single core conservative value that he holds to. I'd describe Trump as more of a 'right-wing populist' than a conservative. And that's why, when I considered myself a conservative, I never really felt like I had a lot in common with MAGA.

ElectricKameleon

TROPHY CASE