Dune
Dune is an incredibly influential series of sci-fi novels by Frank Herbert. Since then, it's been adapted to all sorts of media, including boardgames, video games, two mini-series, and a movie. Surprisingly, we are not all that obsessed with it, but we do respect Dune for all it's done for sci-fi.
Overall Setting
In the distant future, human civilization relies on "spice," a drug that allows its user to perceive the future. Because electronic computers are taboo even over ten thousand years after the Butlerian Jihad against thinking machines, interstellar travel relies on spice-using Navigators to plot safe paths through space and Mentats use spice to increase their cognitive abilities, becoming human computers able to process vast amounts of data. Spice also increases human life span threefold. You could buy a mansion on a core Imperial world for a deciliter of spice. Its most unpleasant withdrawal symptom is inevitable death. Naturally, "the spice must flow" is a common sentiment.
Spice cannot be synthesized and is found on only one planet: Arrakis, a bone-dry dustball where enormous sandworms produce it as part of their life cycle. Imperial citizens only live there to extract, process, and export spice, living in fear of their overseers, the sandworms, and the human natives called the Fremen. Whoever controls Arrakis has a stranglehold on the whole of human civilization, and multiple factions fight each other for control of it or to use it against their enemies.
The six books of the original series (Dune, Dune Messiah, Children of Dune, God-Emperor of Dune, Heretics of Dune, and Chapterhouse Dune) principally follow the scions of House Atreides as their futures become inextricably tied to Arrakis, the spice, and the future of humanity.
Dune is probably one of the most in-depth science fiction books ever written, considering the utter detail that goes into sociological, ecological, political, and economic elements that are added so neatly. It's like a textbook, only far cooler. Opinion on the later books in the series is split, with some feeling it's a continuous decline in quality through to the end, an increase in crap until you're four books in when you notice you're reading a doorstop chiefly composed of Leto whining that turning into a sandworm is haaaard, while others feel the next three books are crucial to understanding the themes Herbert started to explore in the original Dune (especially the damaging effects of hero worship on society). Still, everyone agrees that the prequels and sequels written after his death by his son are irredeemably bad, so avoid those unless you're a devout Slaaneshi follower trying to experience the whole spectrum of human emotion and the next thing on your list is mind-numbing disappointment and boredom. The last two books (Hunter's of Dune and Sandworms of Dune), which are essentially written by Frank Herbert and put together by his son and friend, stay right on course with being in-depth and of debatable quality, but nonetheless the most valuable part of the book is the end, which results in the one paragraph SPOILER, normal page resumes after next paragraph:
The defeat of Omnius results in the liberation of the war-machines, becoming independent beings like Erasmus (who committed suicide after experiencing said spectrum of human emotion and couldn't deal with mind-numbing disappointment and boredom), and there's still a goddamn Theilaxu around because the Bene Gesserit split between Murbella's New Sisterhood and Sheeana's 'traditional' Bene-Gesserit who are okay with axolotl tanks Heresy Blam if it meant defeating Omnius by basically bringing back all the protagonists of books 1 through 3 and only if women volunteered to be lobotomized wombs, the Navigators team up with the Bene Gesserit factions and that still leaves the fact the Ixians and Lost Theilaxu still exist to deal with.
Ultimately, this means the protagonists succeed with a -0.25 Henderson. However, realizing that after experiencing the spectrum of human emotions and passing enough will saves afterwards for two years, give or take half a year, and probably suffer from the d100 psionic effects table anyways [1], while trying to understand it [2]. Supporting the prequels and interquells would be significantly more difficult.
The Movie
Alejandro Jodorowsky was slated to direct a film adaptation, though sadly it was killed in pre-production. The David Lynch movie absolutely sucked (saying this out loud is a good way to troll hipsters). If you want a good laugh I'd suggest you watch it -- it's not often that you'll see a fetal manatee shit lasers. It's a classic case of Hollywood taking an amazing work of art and deciding "the audience" won't like it, so they get rid of the parts they don't understand. If you've read the book, the butchery is even more hilarious cringe-worthy full of lulz, though I suggest you don't watch the movie first. Who, after all, would want to read the Odyssey after seeing the movie? (I'd suggest you see the movie as well, as it is also that bad awesome. )
The Sci-Fi Channel produced two six-hour mini-series based on the first three books. Though low-budget (what did you expect from the Sci-Fi Channel?), they do manage to touch on each of the important plot points from those books and there's no skimping on the action to make "weirding module" toys to be sold as merchandise.
As an RPG Setting
Frank Herbert went into SO MUCH DETAIL in his novels, you've got plenty of material to use as a campaign setting. You've got politics, fightan, more politics, space travel, enough politics to give Machiavelli a headache, and room for quasi-magic shit. Go nuts.
There was an official Dune RPG, "Chronicles of the Imperium," but it got mired in legal bullshit, and then Wizards bought it out, did a 'Limited Edition' run of 3000 books and then the high masters at Hasbro said "no more licensed property" and eighty-sixed the game so nobody would see it ever again. Assholes.
- The only adventure module, unpublished even for an unpublished game.
Someone made a homebrew GURPS Dune splatbook. I had it around here somewheres.
The Games
The videogame Dune 2 is hailed as the first RTS game that got it right, and paved the way for all the others. It's widely-accredited as putting Westwood on the map. It was remade in 1998 as part of a renovation attempt, and the resulting game, Dune 2000, was a fun if somewhat off-centered RTS boasting fairly decent balance and was great fun to play in multiplayer LAN games, but it was hindered by the fact that the bulk of its gameplay had been lifted from Command and Conquer, creating a sort of hybrid that (justifiably in some cases) pissed off fans of both franchises. Then again, it had fucking Gimli as an Atreides Mentat, a kickass robo-Mentat that gets progressively more drugged out for the Ordos, and a good atmosphere and set design reminiscent of the good aspects of the Lynch film, so even then it has some good qualities.
There's three boardgames worth mentioning that were based on Dune. The first and best remembered is the Avalon Hill game made in 1979 by the same guys that made Cosmic Encounter, it's one of the crown jewels of the Avalon Hill body of work. The game property was bought by Final Flight Games, but the owners of the Dune trademarks said "no," so FFG published the game using their Twilight Imperium setting as a prequel to that wargame. need more talk about the fuckawesome 1979 game
There was an trashy tie-in merchandise boardgame based on the David Lynch movie. Paper pasted on cardboard, roll-and-move race game, typical Ameritrash. The less said about that, the better.
There is a free print-and-play game "Dune Express." You can use simple coloured dice, Skittles for your armies, and draw the map on the back of a pizza box, and yet it will still feel like great houses fighting over Arrakis. A decent beer-and-preztels game without being hurr durr dumb.