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A collection of useful resources for anyone wishing to run an RPG set in the Dune universe. Most of it is based on two campaigns that I have run, using GURPS 3rd edition and set on Arrakis. Most of the information in these pages is system-neutral.
Generally, the kind of cannon-fodder opponents depends upon who the villain is. If he is, say, a Cabalist who has chosen to support the Nazis in a 1930-era alternate Earth, he'll be able to mobilize cultists of some sort, and, well, Nazis.
As to their tactics, they depend firstly upon the purpose that the encounter has in the development of the plot. If the purpose is to let the heroes capture a prisoner alive, and extract some intel from him, it wouldn't do if all the thugs in the encounter employ surefire suicidal tactics...
Then the tactics depend on what _the villain_ seeks to gain. Are the thugs defending an installation? Then they will not abandon cover, will not leave the installation unguarded, will call reinforcements in, etc. Are they intended to warn, harass, embarrass, distract the party, not to destroy it? Then this is a good situation to put to use the unarmed combat skills one of the players really wanted for his PC. Let the goons go and confront the heroes in a speakeasy, where nobody can carry guns (save for the bouncers), and try and give the PCs some public humiliation and bloody noses. They fail, OK, now any player worth his salt will expect an escalation to lethal weapons.
I also try and catch the players unprepared from time to time. At a certain point, their PCs all had developed a nifty WWII-era arsenal optimized for short-range engagements. I let them overcome the opposition, a couple of times, with a less-than-judicious application of sheer firepower. Then it happened that they were ambushed in the open from a distance, and the thugs had a nicely positioned HMG...
As to their tactics, they depend firstly upon the purpose that the encounter has in the development of the plot. If the purpose is to let the heroes capture a prisoner alive, and extract some intel from him, it wouldn't do if all the thugs in the encounter employ surefire suicidal tactics...
Then the tactics depend on what _the villain_ seeks to gain. Are the thugs defending an installation? Then they will not abandon cover, will not leave the installation unguarded, will call reinforcements in, etc. Are they intended to warn, harass, embarrass, distract the party, not to destroy it? Then this is a good situation to put to use the unarmed combat skills one of the players really wanted for his PC. Let the goons go and confront the heroes in a speakeasy, where nobody can carry guns (save for the bouncers), and try and give the PCs some public humiliation and bloody noses. They fail, OK, now any player worth his salt will expect an escalation to lethal weapons.
I also try and catch the players unprepared from time to time. At a certain point, their PCs all had developed a nifty WWII-era arsenal optimized for short-range engagements. I let them overcome the opposition, a couple of times, with a less-than-judicious application of sheer firepower. Then it happened that they were ambushed in the open from a distance, and the thugs had a nicely positioned HMG...