Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Dune Express: really digging it

(Get it? Digging? You know, sand? Desert? Bah, never mind ...)

I've been playing a lot of Dune Express lately, and my initial skepticism has been replaced with a healthy dose of respect. There's a lot of game there, man. And my biggest complaint — essentially, lack of movement — isn't nearly so important now that further plays have revealed more about the mechanics of the game (not to mention that the entire board only has six spaces; "movement" really isn't that necessary).

The game bills itself as a fast-playing version of the classic Dune boardgame from Avalon Hill, which is reasonably accurate. The only two major things that are missing are rules for leaders and storms, but both of those have been covered with fan-made variants. The basic game also doesn't include faction powers, but there's no shortage of variants for those, too.

I really heartily recommend Dune Express to fans of the original boardgame, those looking for a quick Dune-themed dicefest, fans of print-and-play games, or fans of the Dune series looking to play their first game with an Arrakis setting. And you can't beat the price; if you own a printer and some 6-sided dice, you're ready to go.
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7 comments:

pgocosmic said...

I'd like to know how anyone got the right to publish a Dune boardgame since we tried and even Hasbro couldn't get the Herbert estate to release them

TheDukester said...

The designer didn't even try for any rights. He just made the game, it became popular, and now it's fairly well-known.

There was the standard BGG copyright discussion a few months ago, with mixed results. Some felt that it was all a big violation; some felt that it was no big deal, since the game is free and the designer explicitly will not accept any money for it.

At one point, there was enough worry about it that someone re-themed the game into Napoleonic warfare. Same game, different setting ... wait, where have we heard that before? (*cough*Twilight Dune!*cough*)

My own take is that, yes, it is all harmless enough. But I also agree that if the Herbert estate ever really took notice of it, BGG would shut it down.

pgocosmic said...

Well in the FFG case, we, (Future Pastimes) retained the rights to our design when we did the original for Avalon Hill. It was explicitly NOT a work for hire and we did not have any DUNE rights (AH had them), but we were paid a royalty for our design- separate from the DUNE license - whereby AH paid Herbert. Thus we could relicense the design for another game.

The Warp said...

I'd love to see the game with a new theme... if it can't be Dune- it would be fascinating to see what it could be morphed into.

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