[Dread] Jenga beat up my dice! My results from the indie horror RPG.

coyote6 · Apr 27, 2007

Assuming plans go as planned, sign me up for seat #3.

[size=-2]Or #N+1, where N is the number of people who've already called dibs. Whichever.[/size]

Piratecat · Apr 27, 2007

Zaruthustran said:
Question, though, for the big climax fight. If Bob pulls and dies, then Larry (and the rest of his party) get to pull with impunity. Does Dread address that? Maybe make two pulls per stunt at the end?

It does; knock down the tower, and you set it up with an immediate three pulls per remaining player. It'll start out rickety.

It's a good sign that I just ran it, and I really want to run it again.

Morrus · Apr 27, 2007

Wow - that sounds really fun! I'd love to play at GenCon if there's a space available!

Dammit. How can I add Jenga to my D&D game next week?

Piratecat · Apr 27, 2007

Err... build little castles out of the blocks?

This wouldn't work well for a high-combat game, I think. Too deadly.

Mark Hope · Apr 27, 2007

My gf and I were so impressed by the sound of this that she has just ordered a copy from our flgs Gamers about a minute ago!

Cool writeup, Piratecat - sounds like a blast!

GQuail · Apr 27, 2007

I don't know if this is the stupidest or the greatest idea I've ever heard: perhaps a perfect synthesis of the two. ;-)

I really like the idea of the Jenga tower as a clear physical prop to express the increasing difficulty of tasks - and as others have commented, it helps the horror style of "build up tension until it explodes". Although my own motor skills leave a lot to be desired, I'm quite interested by this, and will probably check it out now. ;-)

Desdichado · Apr 27, 2007

Wow, that sounds awesome!

The only question I have is; now that you've described how it works, what's the point in buying the game? It sounds incredibly simple mechanically to the point that your brief summaries gave me enough I could run with, and the rest I can manage on my own. What else does the package offer?

Piratecat · Apr 27, 2007

Hobo said:
The only question I have is; now that you've described how it works, what's the point in buying the game? It sounds incredibly simple mechanically to the point that your brief summaries gave me enough I could run with, and the rest I can manage on my own. What else does the package offer?

Not only that, but you can download part of the rules for free at their website! Adventures, too. They make it easy for you to do this. But speaking for myself, I felt a heck of a lot more prepared after reading the book.

There's an extremely useful chapter on designing the questionnaires, along with a ton of examples -- each page of the book has sample questions running in the footer. There are multiple chapters on running different sorts of games: action, suspense, mysteries, gore, etc. There's also three or four adventures included, along with copious notes on what to expect and good tricks to use.

Tiew · Apr 27, 2007

Sounds extremely cool. Do you think it would be a good system for introducing new role-players to the idea of a role-playing game? I have literary type friends who'd probably get bored a few minutes into me describing the rules of D&D, but who might get into the interactive story thing.

Epidiah Ravachol · Apr 27, 2007

Hobo said:
Wow, that sounds awesome!

The only question I have is; now that you've described how it works, what's the point in buying the game? It sounds incredibly simple mechanically to the point that your brief summaries gave me enough I could run with, and the rest I can manage on my own. What else does the package offer?

When we finally released the game in 2005, one of our first customers was a guy who was already running a Dread game. He had learned the rules by playing in a game of someone who played in a game of someone who played in one of our con games back in 2000.

I'm quite proud of how easily people have picked up on the rules and ran their own games with little to no input. The vast majority of the Dread book is simply advice on how to set-up and run a game--the sort of stuff Piratecat described in his post above. If you're interested in that, please pick a copy up, either through our website or IPR.*

If not, you should be okay with the sample chapter and quickstart rules over here. The one thing you might want to do, however, is find a game to play in before running it yourself. A lot of people find the pacing in Dread to be considerably different from most role-playing games. I spend some time in the book explaining it, but I suspect just participating in a game will make that part fairly clear.

* I recommend IPR if you think might be at all interested in any of their other games. Especially if you are getting it shipped in the US, where shipping is free if you purchase more than $35 worth of stuff.