Ealier this year, I had the pleasure of working on the design of the newly released game, Arrakis: Dawn of the Fremen. The original designers of Borderlands wanted to leverage that game’s original design and mechanics as the basis for a game set in the Dune universe.
We all got to work, interested in using what was original and innovative about Borderlands, but finding ways of updating it. It was incredibly gratifying to see how changes not only improved the game play, but happened to be very thematic in each case.
Some differences between Borderlands and Arrakis
Borderlands uses the concept of phases in a cycle, repeated until there is a winner. Both games have:
Development (creating things with resources you have gathered)
Production (adding resources to a territory that can produce them)
Trade (exchanging resources with other players)
Shipment (moving resources and developments from one territory to another)
Action (attacking another player’s territory, and other possible actions)
Arrakis added another phase called Council, which in some ways acts as the Mental Pause from the Dune board game, but also is a formal time to forge alliances, or simply declare that a player or alliance is unstoppable, so the game should end.
The Production, Trade, and Shipment phases had a die roll at the start in both games. For Borderlands, it was a simple D6, and on a roll of 6 it didn’t happen. There wasn’t really a reason why. For Arrakis, it was clearly the Coriolis Storm that affected a phase. But we also realized that in this day and age, a custom die was easy to use, and since it could have custom icons on it, why stop at just 6 sides? We also felt that a 1 in 6 chance of a phase not happening was too frequent. 1 in 12 was better.
Having some unique effects opened up a lot of design possibilities. Since spice production on Arrakis is rare and dangerous, we felt it was one area where 1 in 12 was maybe too frequent. So we divided the 4 Spice Production tokens into two types: Full moon and Crescent moon. We could put those icons on the Production tokens, and on the Arrakis die too. If you rolled a Crescent moon, then those sites would produce spice, but the Full moon tokens didn’t. The other resources would also produce (food, water, worm teeth).
Borderlands had Horses that you could produce more of, and they helped with Shipment among other things. Here we went with Sandworms, but you had to call them with a thumper. The thumper tokens used the moon symbols on either side, so the Arrakis die could determine if you got another sandworrm to use each cycle.
Borderlands could be. Avery cutthroat game (which was perfect for the harsh life on Arrakis). but Fremen culture has a streak of honor running through it. We felt there should be some safeguards against getting utterly wiped out too quickly. A system of “water debts” was added. When you attacked a player, you owed them a debt. You gave them a water ring token. When a player had some of these, they could be returned in order to gain resources, or to prevent an attack. This ended up being a nice way to keep the game relatively balanced. If players ganged up on someone, they were arming them with the ability to produce a weapon in the next cycle, or to simply thwart an attack at a critical time.
Another element we added to keep players in the game, or to incite aggressive moves was the Scavenge deck. This was an action you could take in the Action phase, drawing a random card. It was always something good or useful, though sometimes it was a matter of when you got something or how you took advantage of it. It also allowed us to incorporate more thematic elements, adding Maula Pistols, Jubba Cloaks, and an Ornithopter. Sometimes you just found some food or spice. Sometimes you found something more powerful.
Borderlands was a game way ahead of its time- first published in the early 80s. By today’s standards, it would seem a bit dated. But Arrakis really modernizes it in many ways, retaining its strengths. It’s a game with no hidden information. Everything is there in plain sight, if you can see your optimal moves, or what your opponent might be able to accomplish. It’s still pretty cutthroat, but if you like interaction, with some elements of negotiation- and if you like the Dune universe, this is a great game for you.