I like it, it's neat in that manner.<br/><br/>The 2d20 Dune clearly took it's structure from the ASOIAF (Game of Thrones) rpg from Green Ronin does exactly the same, including the House creation, though in Pbp I only ever saw it done where it did not use this default and the GM would have each player each make a House with these roles, which would immediately lead to PvP. GMs would play this as the intent, though it was not the case in the og rpg.<br/><br/>evilnerf, for Heir your character is most likely in the direct line for the throne, just not first in line.<br/>Through deciding what sort of character the Ruler is, whether they only had 'a heir and a spare' just to make sure the line continued from him and not had to fall to his brother or their next in line, or perhaps the Ruler has had many children (and/or perhaps the Ruler was an only child or perhaps they have many many siblings so they never felt too much intent to have a child for an heir, knowing their little sibling would inherit) it gives us an idea of who then the Heir is and then how someone (and perhaps not just your character if a rival is intended) can inherit the Heir title.<br/><br/>The Atreides and Harkonnen seem to have been quite chaste, Leto seemed to have Paul as his only heir, whilst the Baron Harkonnen was decadent and slept around with no regard to gender or age, though never had a direct heir (he did have bastard children though, Lady Jessica is a child of his though was official concubine to Leto Atreides and was therefore aligned to House Atreides and allowed to marry Leto, though after the loss of his first wife he decided to never marry again, though he loved Jessica all the same) and the Baron's intended heir, his nephew Feyd-Reutha was actually the younger brother of 'The Beast' Rabban.<br/>Of course plot-wise for the novel, this was to make it easy for the status quo to get shaken quickly, we needed to root for the Atreides as the good guys though at the start they held all the power, in most the first half of the novel we get a defender's POV where they were on the defensive from the Harkonnens. It's only when it looked like the Atreides were wiped out by the Harkonnens and we could have Paul and the Fremen shift to attack and take out the Harkonnen antagonists to wipe them out we got a moving plotline to the story that could get solved quickly and easily.