DUNE is Getting Officially Licensed Board Games from Portal Games
Dune has been seeing quite the revival lately. It’s got some comics from BOOM! Studios and a tabletop RPG was recently announced. Now, Portal Games has announced that they’re going to be releasing officially licensed board games in Frank Herbert’s universe! The first game in a trilogy is Dune: House Secrets and is set to release in Q4 2021. The game is said to take inspiration both from the book series and Denis Villeneuve’s film.
House Secrets will be using the game system from Detective: A Modern Crime Board Game to create a story-driven cooperative adventure game for immersing 1-5 players on the desert planet of Arrakis. The game will feature a prologue to get players introduced to the world and the game mechanics before embarking on three adventures. Each adventure should take approximately 2-3 hours to complete and will reward players with experience points to unlock new options and level up their characters between adventures. The game will feature both physical and digital elements which is always interesting to play with. After completing the third adventure, “[players] will unravel a master game narrative with an epic climax and unforgettable resolution with lasting impact on the future two games in the trilogy.”
In Dune: House Secrets, players take on the roles of rebels who must solve a series of challenging missions with a finite amount of time and resources. Players cooperatively make decisions on how to progress the story, as they decide to explore different regions of the world, follow leads, leverage allies, and overcome the opposition of all kinds. During gameplay, players utilize a variety of physical and digital game components to steer the narrative in fun and surprising directions – a deck of cards with essential clues and plot twists, a dozen physical handouts, and a dedicated website with additional resources – for a truly immersive experience.
This definitely sounds like an interesting game. House Secrets is designed by Ignacy Trzewiczek and written by Przemysław Rymer.