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[Dread] Jenga beat up my dice! My results from the indie horror RPG.
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<blockquote data-quote="woodelf" data-source="post: 3494504" data-attributes="member: 10201"><p>Well, Eppy answered most of the questions before i even discovered this thread existed, so i'm just doing a bit of cleanup.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>In our experience, this is <strong>much</strong> less of an issue than most people think it will be. First of all, plenty of people at convention games over the years have had a perfectly enjoyable time without making a single pull during the entire game. Depending on your character, the scenario, and your personality, it might be more enjoyable to avoid the tower (fine motor skill issues aside). </p><p></p><p>Secondly, we've had at least one person who had diagnosed hand tremors, and said after the game that he had a blast--and, yes, he did pull several times, and he didn't think his handicap really affected the game in a negative way (I know Eppy, the GM, was really worried it would). </p><p></p><p>Thirdly, and this is probably the most salient point: for the vast majority of people, skill at Jenga and skill at Dread are only very loosely related, at best. That is, having your character on the line changes it immeasurably, so the "Jenga masters" really aren't that much better than the complete beginners, who aren't much better than the klutzes. It sorta levels the field a bit--which, combined with the fact that you can (1) choose not to pull and (2) often choose to avoid situations where pulls are even needed in the first place, seems to minimize the issue. Due to years of playtesting, and then convention running, we've gotten inordinately good at Jenga, yet I can still have a blast playing a game of Dread, and don't feel particularly better at the pulling than the other players. </p><p></p><p>To be clear, motor skills disparity certainly could be an issue that would impact the game, but, in our experience, it takes a much greater disparity than people anticipate, before it has a significant impact on the game. People who don't want to get into the right mood are a much bigger problem for the game. So i'd recommend giving it a try before writing it off--there's everything you need to run a game on our website for free download.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Funny story, there: that's exactly what happened to us. That is, the core mechanic that evolved into Dread predated any of us having <strong>ever</strong> played Jenga, much less owning a set. So we had to put off actually trying it out for a week while i tried every store in town until i found one that had Jenga in stock (everybody just happened to be out at the time).</p><p></p><p>And, putting on my marketer hat, a Jenga set is only ~$12, maybe less, and provides all you need for an entire group to play. You can't even get two sets of dice for that much money, and most people want a separate set of dice for each player in most RPGs.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>As Eppy said, Dread has suckered several people that we know of into RPGs, who had previously rejected them. And, IME, it, if anything, goes <strong>better</strong> for the complete novice than for experienced RPers. So, if your current group won't go for it, maybe don't look for other gamers to play it--round up a bunch of your non-gamer friends for an evening. </p><p></p><p>Also, for those of you looking to try the game: we'll be running a whole bunch of sessions at Origins and GenCon this year, as usual, and should have extra GMs with free time to run pick-up games at GenCon, in case of significant overflow. And as much as we love seeing familiar faces at con games, we love seeing new faces even more.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Yeah, we've heavily re-structured that the last couple times we've run it at a convention, for many of the exact reasons you've identified. It still uses most of the same pieces as the version posted on the website, but has been, as you say, rearranged and restructured.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Yes. RSN(tm). I'm re-doing the layout to be home-printer-friendly, while still capturing essentially the same style as the printed version. Which means completely redoing the layout pretty much from scratch, due to how it is built. And i've just not gotten around to finishing it up. As soon as i do, it'll be up on RPGNow, or somesuch. Maybe this month? And, we've tossed the idea of PDF scenarios for a few bucks back and forth a number of times, and mostly just haven't gotten around to figuring out exactly how we'd want to do it, and then doing it.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Yep. There's Truth or Dare Jenga, which is, IIRC, 3 colors; Jenga Extreme, which is 3 colors, 2 finishes, and parallelogram-cross-section blocks; there's UNO Stacko, which is a 4-color knock-off; and there are any number of multi-colored knock-offs. One thing about the knock-offs: most of them don't stack quite the same: the length is greater than 3x the width, so the layers stack with gaps. No real impact on play, but it does make re-setting the tower a bit more fiddly, and thus time-consuming.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="woodelf, post: 3494504, member: 10201"] Well, Eppy answered most of the questions before i even discovered this thread existed, so i'm just doing a bit of cleanup. In our experience, this is [b]much[/b] less of an issue than most people think it will be. First of all, plenty of people at convention games over the years have had a perfectly enjoyable time without making a single pull during the entire game. Depending on your character, the scenario, and your personality, it might be more enjoyable to avoid the tower (fine motor skill issues aside). Secondly, we've had at least one person who had diagnosed hand tremors, and said after the game that he had a blast--and, yes, he did pull several times, and he didn't think his handicap really affected the game in a negative way (I know Eppy, the GM, was really worried it would). Thirdly, and this is probably the most salient point: for the vast majority of people, skill at Jenga and skill at Dread are only very loosely related, at best. That is, having your character on the line changes it immeasurably, so the "Jenga masters" really aren't that much better than the complete beginners, who aren't much better than the klutzes. It sorta levels the field a bit--which, combined with the fact that you can (1) choose not to pull and (2) often choose to avoid situations where pulls are even needed in the first place, seems to minimize the issue. Due to years of playtesting, and then convention running, we've gotten inordinately good at Jenga, yet I can still have a blast playing a game of Dread, and don't feel particularly better at the pulling than the other players. To be clear, motor skills disparity certainly could be an issue that would impact the game, but, in our experience, it takes a much greater disparity than people anticipate, before it has a significant impact on the game. People who don't want to get into the right mood are a much bigger problem for the game. So i'd recommend giving it a try before writing it off--there's everything you need to run a game on our website for free download. Funny story, there: that's exactly what happened to us. That is, the core mechanic that evolved into Dread predated any of us having [b]ever[/b] played Jenga, much less owning a set. So we had to put off actually trying it out for a week while i tried every store in town until i found one that had Jenga in stock (everybody just happened to be out at the time). And, putting on my marketer hat, a Jenga set is only ~$12, maybe less, and provides all you need for an entire group to play. You can't even get two sets of dice for that much money, and most people want a separate set of dice for each player in most RPGs. As Eppy said, Dread has suckered several people that we know of into RPGs, who had previously rejected them. And, IME, it, if anything, goes [b]better[/b] for the complete novice than for experienced RPers. So, if your current group won't go for it, maybe don't look for other gamers to play it--round up a bunch of your non-gamer friends for an evening. Also, for those of you looking to try the game: we'll be running a whole bunch of sessions at Origins and GenCon this year, as usual, and should have extra GMs with free time to run pick-up games at GenCon, in case of significant overflow. And as much as we love seeing familiar faces at con games, we love seeing new faces even more. Yeah, we've heavily re-structured that the last couple times we've run it at a convention, for many of the exact reasons you've identified. It still uses most of the same pieces as the version posted on the website, but has been, as you say, rearranged and restructured. Yes. RSN(tm). I'm re-doing the layout to be home-printer-friendly, while still capturing essentially the same style as the printed version. Which means completely redoing the layout pretty much from scratch, due to how it is built. And i've just not gotten around to finishing it up. As soon as i do, it'll be up on RPGNow, or somesuch. Maybe this month? And, we've tossed the idea of PDF scenarios for a few bucks back and forth a number of times, and mostly just haven't gotten around to figuring out exactly how we'd want to do it, and then doing it. Yep. There's Truth or Dare Jenga, which is, IIRC, 3 colors; Jenga Extreme, which is 3 colors, 2 finishes, and parallelogram-cross-section blocks; there's UNO Stacko, which is a 4-color knock-off; and there are any number of multi-colored knock-offs. One thing about the knock-offs: most of them don't stack quite the same: the length is greater than 3x the width, so the layers stack with gaps. No real impact on play, but it does make re-setting the tower a bit more fiddly, and thus time-consuming. [/QUOTE]
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[Dread] Jenga beat up my dice! My results from the indie horror RPG.
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