02C60: Return to Arrakis

Thursday - Omelet Pizza

We played through the next chapter of Dune: House Secrets last night, and it was pretty interesting. Dune is a franchise that is very near and dear to me and I've been both excited to play this but also apprehensive about how the story may go. But thus far, you can sense a lot of love put into the project in the unique that Portal Games does these things. If their earlier Detective games were filled of references to coffee, donuts, and a significant amount of cigarette smoking, this game makes sure to include at least one casual deeper Dune reference in each story card whether it's a maula pistol or a jubba cloak. It's the sort of thing that I appreciate but also get slightly distracted by as each inclusion still feels a bit strongly intentional versus naturally fitting and organic. But maybe that's just me being a huge geek about it.

But like the Detective games before it, the team behind the game has certainly created something that fully embraces the tropes and quirks of its narrative genre. And when you recognize that conceit, it does help to make things even more enjoyable. We have two more chapters to go and I'm still quite eager to see how the story will unfold. There are some genuinely interesting mysteries to unravel and the story does feel like it could have happened within the Dune universe. So credit to the team on that note.

With luck, this will mark the first of many of our campaign games that Tobie and I will finally go through together. After waiting so long to assemble the "perfect" team/s to make the most of the experience...we're just going to go through most of them on our own. It's a lot harder to arrange to game with people in person these days and at least this way we actually get to play these games. There are still particular games that we hope to play with specific friends, but I remain skeptical of the logistical feasibility of doing so in the near future. 

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