potential buyer question

[ALLGASNOBRAKE]

does the game insert any lore-flavor into all the actions, events, or card descriptors, or is this purely just a card game set in the Dune universe and the player's mostly looking at numbers and their modifiers and inferring from their own imagination to build the world's intrigue?

[View The Phenom]

Depends on your familiarity with the source material. If you've read the books or watched the movie(s), then it should be easy to see lore-flavor in every move made.

It's a very visual game.

[ocawna]

I've only played the boardgame version of this but Dune: Imperium is far less lore-immersive than the classic Dune boardgame re-released in 2019.

[Destro Yersul]

YMMV, obviously, but this is a game with Intrigue Cards as a resource with variable effects that you can use to surprise your opponents. Intrigues are available at Carthag, and from the Bene Gesserit and Emperor factions. Combat takes place on Arrakis, and troops can be deployed from any of the spaces which physically exist on Arrakis, including the Fremen faction spaces, plus specifically the Spacing Guild Heighliners. Fremen aligned cards often provide combat bonuses, and care about having other Fremen around. Emperor-aligned cards provide troops and money. There's flavour to be found, you just have to look.

That said, it is also a game where Beast Rabban can ally with the Fremen, or acquire the Lady Jessica card. It allows more for 'what if?' scenarios, and is not a game which seeks to re-create the situation that existed in the books.