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

Lol, I will do the very best that I can with what I have available. "You're gonna play a whore and you're gonna like it! "

I can't wait to play this. Maybe it'll work out soon. And I'll try to cathedral that movie. Haven't seen it yet. Thanks for the advice guys.

cyalume said:

Lol, I will do the very best that I can with what I have available. "You're gonna play a whore and you're gonna like it! "

I can't wait to play this. Maybe it'll work out soon. And I'll try to cathedral that movie. Haven't seen it yet. Thanks for the advice guys.

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alas, a joking movie reference may have been lost.

5 people go to a cabin in the woods. One is the star football player, one an academic, there's the girl who's been around, and the girl who hasn't. Then there's the pothead. Give them a flimsy reason for being at the cabin, and then kill them as best as you can. I recommend using mermen.

I knew what you were getting at! I thought at the end you were literally recommending that The Cabin In The Woods movie that come out a couple of months back. Which was ironic because it would have been the first such recommendation of that film. And mermen? What if they come from the toilet? Sounds like a plan! Pull from the tower to avoid the slap in the face from the turdy merman tail.

cyalume said:

I knew what you were getting at! I thought at the end you were literally recommending that The Cabin In The Woods movie that come out a couple of months back. Which was ironic because it would have been the first such recommendation of that film. And mermen? What if they come from the toilet? Sounds like a plan! Pull from the tower to avoid the slap in the face from the turdy merman tail.

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I am recommending that fine film. And that sounds like an excellent way to bring in Mermen.

Cyalume, one more caution about a two player game. The pacing is going to be *very* hard to maintain. With six players in a 4 hour game, it still feels like I require players to pull fairly often to destabilize the tower and maintain tension. With 2 players, I honestly don't think it's possible to do.

Except! You know what I'd do? I'd require players to pull 2 blocks instead of the normal 1 every time they need to pull, and possibly 3 blocks if they happen to be in combat. This effectively ratchets a 2 player game up to a 4-6 player game in terms of pacing. That'd work quite well.

Piratecat said:

Except! You know what I'd do? I'd require players to pull 2 blocks instead of the normal 1 every time they need to pull, and possibly 3 blocks if they happen to be in combat. This effectively ratchets a 2 player game up to a 4-6 player game in terms of pacing. That'd work quite well.

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That sounds like a great idea Piratecat. Do you have any suggestions as to what sort of scenario would work well with 2 players? Do you agree that it should be exploring an enclosed environment/resource management theme?

Thanks for your advice so far!

Piratecat said:

Cyalume, one more caution about a two player game. The pacing is going to be *very* hard to maintain. With six players in a 4 hour game, it still feels like I require players to pull fairly often to destabilize the tower and maintain tension. With 2 players, I honestly don't think it's possible to do.

Except! You know what I'd do? I'd require players to pull 2 blocks instead of the normal 1 every time they need to pull, and possibly 3 blocks if they happen to be in combat. This effectively ratchets a 2 player game up to a 4-6 player game in terms of pacing. That'd work quite well.

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Here's a couple add-on ideas:
Throw in some party NPCs. Let's say you're doing a Cabin in the Woods. 5 characters, 2 players. Let the 2 players control 1 PC each as normal. The GM controls the other 3 NPCs, but they will generally go along with what the players want to do.

However, sometimes, the NPC gets a stupid idea (like "let's split up and cover more ground!" A player can pull to convince the NPC to change their mind.

An NPC might need to so something dangerous. A player can pull to help him suceed. Failure means something bad happens to the PC because of what the NPC did. Maybe make it a random chance (NPC or PC dies).

Along the same lines of random chance of who dies is the Dead Man Walking. If the tower topples during a pull that doesn't make it obvious why a death would occur (it's not a direct pull to do something dangerous or fighting). Tell the player that there's a random chance that the PC might be dead, but that it doesn't get revealed right away. So basically, the PC thinks they MIGHT be OK. PirateCat says he's seen players forget, but this is another way to help trick them.

Yet another branch off of this in a few-players game is to kill off a random party member (your PC or an NPC, but not mine, because you drew). In this way, the NPCs become potential hit points. I suppose you could just burn off NPCs before affecting PCs to the same effect.

I'm not entirely sold on the NPCs as hit point things because odds are good, the tower will fall 3 times during a game. That's only 3 deaths. You could rule that each player can sacrifice one NPC party member, which would still work out to making the PCs emperiled.

cyalume said:

That sounds like a great idea Piratecat. Do you have any suggestions as to what sort of scenario would work well with 2 players? Do you agree that it should be exploring an enclosed environment/resource management theme?

Thanks for your advice so far!

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Zombie apocalypse seems like a self-sustaining format.

Whenever things quiet down, zombies show up.
If the party has weak shelter, only one or two show up and start breaking through.
If the party has strong/fortified shelter, it's a a horde of zombies, which will start breaking through the defenses
In either case, odds are good the shelter is compromised and the party must escape

The party will escape to some new shelter generally (or vehicle)

From there, you'll need resource scarcity. When things slow down, the party should develop a need for something they don't already have. Anti-biotics, regular prescriptive medicine (heart, asthma, etc), food, ammo, fuel. The party will form a plan to go out and get some, which of course encounters zombies on the way or while gathering or on the way back.

Both of these types of events are instigators. If things get slow or stable, introduce zombie assault or resource need and that'll get things going.

If the players are busy talking, debating, taking action, you probably don't need to do anything until a disucssion gets too heated or starts repeating itself and not going anywhere.

Tomorrow, I'll be playing in a game of Jurassic Park Dread! I get to be the tour guide, and I'm mind bogglingly excited.

I don't recall ever thinking or hearing of JP Dread before, but it seems like an absolute perfect fit. Running, running, and tripping the guy running next to you.

Has anyone else ever done this?

I just got back from my gaming pilgrimage to Minnesota.

Visited The Source and finally picked up a full paper copy of Dread.

I've run with the quick play rules before, but I figure the book covers elements I made up.

I'm thinking of building encounter tables for a Zombie Apocalypse type game so the whole thing is mostly random.