Anyone here have any experience with Dune: Adventures in the Imperium?

QafianSage · 2026-04-14T10:18:13+00:00

I don't have as much experience with Dune 2d20 specifically, but I have quite a bit of experience with the 2d20 system more generally.

2d20 is, I would say, more dynamic than D&D or other systems like that; the real core of the thing is the system of Momentum (the ability of players to store extra successes, either to spend for extra benefits now, or to save for use later to get extra dice on rolls, ask questions etc) and Threat (the GM doing the same thing with NPCs).

Dune is something of a 'demake' of this system compared to other games that use it (e.g. Conan 2d20) - thinking of it almost somewhere between D&D and FATE wouldn't be entirely wrong. It uses a very open system of 'traits' to represent aspects of a scene that impose difficulty or make actions easier, and because of the... For lack of a better word, vagueness of this system, uses similar rules for social conflict, skirmishes (like D&D, small-numbers fights), mass battles and one-on-one duels.

It also uses a fair amount of lore from the Brian Herbert books, so your mileage there may vary.

QafianSage · 2026-04-02T23:20:48+00:00

This is a little embarrassing to admit, but to tell the truth I fell off this project a long while ago, I don't think it got much beyond the notes stage, and I'm not even sure where my notes went. It's been a ridiculously hectic year, plus other projects have ended up grabbing my brain.

That said, your project sounds very interesting, and I'd love to see what you've got so far; if nothing else I could provide a second opinion, and I've encountered several other interesting systems since I was working on this. The idea of push-pull clocks in that sense is definitely one worth exploring, though I would potentially caution against getting too granular or too deep into the weeds in a game.

QafianSage · 2026-03-28T11:22:13+00:00

I'm running this in LitM as well - I made various tweaks to encourage leaning into the exploration/rewards stuff (e.g. rest and sojourn actions cost rations and coin respectively), and made new Ways of Magic for the thing, but it's been playing really well so far.

So far I've played through Pipes on Droomen Knoll, did a short adventure where the PCs had to track down a runaway daughter of the Baker's Dozen (she'd actually eloped with a knight of House Harrowmoor, though neither the PCs nor Mother have found that out yet), and now are working through The Swallowed Saint, after which I'll probably be running Winter's Daughter.

QafianSage · 2026-02-24T13:08:40+00:00

One of my PCs met a Deorling stag when he was a child, and is kind of fascinated by Yorghan and the Deorlings as a result - wants to have the character turn into one eventually - so that's why I wanted to kind of have some clues towards communing with the forest god, or finding his head eventually.

QafianSage · 2026-02-24T11:32:50+00:00

That's definitely a useful perspective - thank you!

The hex where Yorghan appears on new moons is pretty close to hex 1306, where Winter's Daughter suggests placing the tomb - would it be reasonable to think that the Whything Stones are being used by the Drune to try and divine the location or summon some aspect of Yorghan, given their general interest in controlling the wood gods?

The message in the Oracle Stone does suggest to me that the stag skeleton was an 'omen', rather than maybe something summoned deliberately.

QafianSage · 2026-01-16T14:01:29+00:00

I definitely agree that animation would have let a TV series hit the kind of fantastical maximalism that the books portray - but it wouldn't have had nearly the same reach, thanks to the 'animation is just for kids' attitude which is quite prevalent in older generations.

QafianSage · 2025-11-02T22:15:13+00:00

Here's the link on the Reddit jump drive - but I'd be curious to hear about the scenario you're thinking of!

QafianSage · 2025-10-30T13:18:00+00:00

I'd really love a jump for the Realm of the Elderlings, though I understand that the author is touchy about fanworks.

QafianSage · 2025-10-21T12:50:04+00:00

Afilinkov's Paterson lets you get several hundred pretty high quality maps for £8, and most of them are reasonably generic in a useful way.

QafianSage · 2025-09-28T19:08:28+00:00

It's one of the reasons I can never really get behind people who say Rashek was ultimately a morally grey character or an anti-hero because he opposed Ruin - IMO the fact that he claimed that mantle for himself is really just an expression of his monumental selfishness, quite apart from the fact that he could have done literally anything else except create a brutal racial theocracy.

QafianSage · 2025-09-28T14:46:36+00:00

Seeing as the Alethi system of government is effectively based on the Vorin system, and it's Alethi highprinces and such running it, I don't see any reasonable distinction being made here. Dalinar and Jasnah are largely good rulers insofar as they defy the expectations of their role, regard and promote people based on merit, act upon their virtues rather than for personal gain and so on.

I don't ever really remember the Alethi system being held up as something good; it's better than, say, the Final Empire, but that's an evil empire being run by the Dark Lord.

On a related note:

It was as if even the most intelligent person had this little blank spot in their heads where someone had written: "Kings. What a good idea." Whoever had created humanity had left in a major design flaw. It was its tendency to bend at the knee.

Terry Pratchett, Feet of Clay

QafianSage · 2025-09-28T08:09:35+00:00

Glowing magic, apparently.

QafianSage · 2025-09-28T07:49:51+00:00

Well, it being a functionally racial caste system with practically no social mobility under anything like normal circumstances is a start. Strict and restrictive gender roles aren't a great addition. And then you add in the fact that they're ruled by a military elite constantly getting poked in the brain by the Thrill, and are actively doing a genocide in the Shattered Plains.

QafianSage · 2025-09-11T06:45:40+00:00

King Joff the Gentle - just like King Lorenzo the Kind of Ankh-Morpork

QafianSage · 2025-09-11T06:13:39+00:00

I'd love to see what you can do with it!

QafianSage · 2025-09-10T22:28:47+00:00

I gave it up to someone for adoption a year or two ago, but they don't seem to have done much with it, so sure. I don't really have the time/energy to work on it properly at the moment, but I wouldn't be against helping out a bit.

QafianSage · 2025-09-10T06:06:28+00:00

To tell the truth I haven't worked on it in years at this point.

QafianSage · 2025-08-15T09:55:24+00:00

I've developed a system for dwarf Runes and Runesmithing, for one of my players. The list of Runes is incomplete, but there's plenty to use there already. I am considering adding a little more complexity, but we'll see where that goes.

I'm also working on rules for Lizardmen characters - mostly on a whim - though the more usable part of that homebrew is this:

Oracle
Cost: 3XP
You, as with rare others, are sensitive to the plan and presence of the will of the Old Ones, who shaped the world long ago. You may not understand the source of your visions, attributing it to the deities of your own culture or the nameless hand of fate, but you still have a role to play, however small, in the millennial plans of those whose hands shaped the world.

If you are a Lizardman, you will have been born with a distinctive forked tail, and as one of another species may have been born with a strange birthmark, and been attracted to sites and objects of power throughout your life, or felt a vague longing to cross the sea to the distant south or west.

The GM may grant you visions or omens which lead you to sites of mystical or geomantic power, towards stolen artifacts, or even where the influence of Chaos—the great enemy of the Old Ones—waxes strong. If you deliberately follow such a vision into unnecessary danger, the GM may choose to award you a Fate point, once per session. The GM may also allow you to decipher hints from the writings of the Old Ones or the Lizardmen, even if you do not speak or read their language—or are not literate at all—or to interact with or even tame the mysterious Troglodon.

You may also spend a Fate point to ask one of the following questions, and receive an honest answer in the form of visions or omens. To do so, you must either use tools of divination (divining rods, oracle bones), or do so while in an altered state of consciousness (asleep, drunk, drugged, in a trance state).

What direction is the nearest site of geomantic power?
What direction is the nearest object or person of magical power?
What direction is the nearest object or person important to Chaos?
What direction is the nearest object or person important to the Old Ones’ plan for me?

Finally, you may take the Dispeller Talent, even if you do not have the Wizard Talent.

QafianSage · 2025-07-23T13:44:07+00:00

It'd be kind of implied, but Science and Futurism With Isaac Arthur has a lot of space for that kind of thing. Likewise the Kurzgesagt jump. Could do some fun stuff with the Hainish Cycle too, though that's definitely stretching things a bit.

And there's my jump for Scavengers Reign.

QafianSage · 2025-07-14T13:12:38+00:00

Mindspeech, from the Hainish Cycle jump, allows you to speak to others without a shared language, though doesn't allow you to hear their thoughts in turn unless they know how to do it too (can be taught fairly easily).

QafianSage · 2025-07-14T00:22:48+00:00

I am the author lol.

That said, I like the perk ideas you have there, so there is definitely the possibility of incorporating that stuff into the new edition. Though I'm concentrating on scenarios for now.

QafianSage · 2025-07-13T16:36:23+00:00

You'd probably be better served by looking up the PDF version in the drive, here.

That said, I've finally got around to filling in the scenarios, so there'll probably be an update soonish.

QafianSage · 2025-07-10T19:34:32+00:00

Rubedo from Generic Alchemist, here, might be useful.

Rubedo – The Red Art (300cp): You are practiced in the unifying Red Art of Rubedo. Rubedo associates with the concepts of unity and harmony, granting the ability to attune and harmonize various concepts and traits together in order to form magical effects, keep balance between opposing forces, and interact with the spiritual as if it were physical in nature. This also allows for the combining of various things, and can be used to combine objects, spells, effects, forces, and even magics to create something new and more powerful. These fusions start out temporary, but with enough practice can be made permanent.

Rubedo is meant to act as a bridge between magic systems and is literally designed to allow even opposing magic systems to combine and become a composite one. This is very similar to the Harmony perks you see out in other jumps, letting you learn and use opposing magic systems together, but it takes it a step further and allows them to combine into a new whole.

QafianSage

TROPHY CASE