Well, I can't really say that, as I myself have a freakish obsession with Frank Herbert's Sci Fi masterpiece. But sometimes, my own kind infuriate me. Case in point. I was on ebay today searching for some items I'm always on the lookout for... and what do I find? THE HOLY GRAIL OF ALL OF MY YEARS OF RPG COLLECTING!!! A copy of Dune: Chronicles of the Imperium RPG, by Last Unicorn Games.
A little background info on this book for those who haven't given up interest in this post yet. In 1999, Last Unicorn games was riding high on it's relatively high profile Star Trek games. They'd even managed to land the liscense for a Dune RPG, which to it's core audience, would have been an unabashed success. They got so far in developing the book that they gave out 1000 advanced copies at Origins, the gaming industries biggest trade show. Enter Wizards of the Coast... the infernal creators of Magic the Gathering... who had just bought out TSR, creators of D&D (Wizards later improved the game by leaps and bounds.). Now Wizards was developing it's Star Wars game using a new rule system, and bought up Last Unicorn Games, promising to release Star Trek and Dune with this new rule system. What did Wizards do? They sold the Star Trek liscense off (probably for a nice chunk of change), and let the rights to the Dune property die. Why did they do this. One reason is that the Herberts wanted way too high a price to renew the liscense. But why didn't they just publish the book as is? Or just make a quick buck and release it as their own system before the rights collapsed and not publish any extra support for the game? My personal theory is that Wizards just didn't want any competition for it's Star Wars Game. Dune, Star Trek, and Star Wars are the three biggest names in Sci Fi. Those are three games competing for the same audience. They probably sold the Star Trek rights knowing that it would take whatever publisher got it a year or two to develop a decent game. And the Herberts probably did want too much money to renew the liscense, so it's resale value to another company was nill. Long story short... Wizards dashed my dreams of having a roleplaying game based on this magnificent property.
But what about those 1000 advanced copies? They have become a sought after collector's item by RPG collectors, Sci Fi enthusiaists, and all other types of Geeks. They're currently averaging from $160-$180 on the secondary market. And tonight, I found one. Going bid was $127. "Alright" I thought to myself "These things are getting increasingly rare. I have to own one." So, I bid $200, my entire after bill-time pay check... "No one will pay that much money for a book that has no, and will never have any published support." The page... "You have been outbid!" Goddammit... and I realized that there are people out there way more obsessed with Dune than I. If they're willing to spend $200+ dollars on a book... god bless 'em... but they have my eternal hatred and jealousy.