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

[Mark]

Just as an aside, it is certainly possible to simulate the jenga tower using dice.

Roll poorly and the DM sweeps your dice off of the table and onto the floor?

 

[Xath]

The Jenga tower adds so much to a horror game. In almost every Dread game I've ever played, I've been physically shaking out of nervousness during the later pulls of the tower. It adds a level of suspense and anticipation that truely adds to the game, wheras I think that a dice mechanic in a horror game pulls people away from the suspense of the situation.

 

[nerfherder]

We were playing a game on the Hyatt 3rd floor, run by Queen Dopplepoppolis (DangerGirl! on Circvs Maximvs), and someone passing by saw the Jenga tower. "Hey, is this Dread? Cool - I know the guy who wrote this!"

The Jenga tower adds so much to a horror game. In almost every Dread game I've ever played, I've been physically shaking out of nervousness during the later pulls of the tower. It adds a level of suspense and anticipation that truely adds to the game, wheras I think that a dice mechanic in a horror game pulls people away from the suspense of the situation.

I played in DangerGirl's Dread game at Gencon, and it was one of the highlights for me (and I played in 12 other game, none of which were duff). The tower certainly did add an increasing level of tension through the game, as I think you can see from some of the photos I took.

 

[Hypersmurf]

There simpy isn't any benefit in refusing to take pulls, unless your goal is simply to ruin the game for other players.

If the player defines success in a horror game as surviving until the end, not pulling can ensure it. He might survive in a world that's been wiped out by the zombie plague, and the character might perish in the epilogue the moment the game itself ends, but if he is resolved not to exit the game before the end, refusing to pull can ensure it.

I think it's no coincidence that the one person I've seen who approached the game with this mindset is the one person who appeared to have the least amount of fun in any game I've been involved in. The guys who were told "That's pretty insane - make five pulls", or who had half-hour tower duels against each other? They're the ones whose chances of exiting the game skyrocket, but they're also the ones who still tell the stories a year later, and (I suspect) will still be telling them in five years.

The Jenga tower adds so much to a horror game. In almost every Dread game I've ever played, I've been physically shaking out of nervousness during the later pulls of the tower. It adds a level of suspense and anticipation that truely adds to the game, wheras I think that a dice mechanic in a horror game pulls people away from the suspense of the situation.

I've found it seems to take about an hour and a half for the tension and shaking to completely work its way out of my chest and shoulders after a Dread game.

I don't get that from a d20. Dice have provided me with many, many moments of sheer awesome, and the occasional instant of terror... but dice have never given me that sustained anxiety that horror aims to inspire.

-Hyp.

 

[jdrakeh]

If the player defines success in a horror game as surviving until the end, not pulling can ensure it.

I suppose that's true, though. . . if a Dread player is refusing to draw, they're effectively refusing to do anything or take any action, which seems to be less about gaming the system than it is about deliberately avoiding expectations of the other players or the game. Exactly like those folks who join D&D groups and then refuse to have their characters partcipate in any adventures. Or folks who join games billed as 'serious' and then create characters with names like "Mister Nuckinfutz"

I seriously doubt that such attempts to avoid playing Dread by refusing to take action (or pull for action) have anything to do with prioritzing survival as a goal or 'not getting' the game. From experience my own with such folks (while playing Dread, as well as other games), I'm inclined to believe that refusing to play a game in the spirit that it is intended to be played or deliberately bucking the expectations of the group with regard to the game usually has more to do with somebody trying to ruin things for the other players.

 

[Hypersmurf]

I seriously doubt that such attempts to avoid playing Dread by refusing to take action (or pull for action) have anything to do with prioritzing survival as a goal or 'not getting' the game. From experience my own with such folks (while playing Dread, as well as other games), I'm inclined to believe that refusing to play a game in the spirit that it is intended to be played or deliberately bucking the expectations of the group with regard to the game usually has more to do with somebody trying to ruin things for the other players.

In this case, the player didn't actually refuse to pull ever. But he did do whatever he could to avoid getting into a situation where he would be forced to pull, and if he were offered a pull, he'd generally decline if he thought he could get away with it.

He wasn't out to deliberately ruin everyone's fun; I think he was quite literally afraid of the tower. And it's the wrong way to approach the game. He didn't ruin the game (I don't think one player in an otherwise great group could ruin a game with Piratecat at the helm)... but he did, I think, make it less than it could have been.

-Hyp.

 

[Bubbalicious]

At the start of the game, pulls are easy.

Yeah, at least if you're not cocky and nonchalant about it!

Seriously, another beautiful aspect of the tower is in that there are times when the tower looks like it can't possibly still be standing, but is. Or the times when someone thinks they have made a successful pull, only to have the tower tip over, agonizingly slow, and then crash. There is also the fact that the pulls you make earlier can make it easier or harder for the later pulls to be successful, depending on how much you "mess up the tower" on your pull!

All this having been said, I think Dread can stretch it's legs a small ways away from the Horror genre. I have an idea for an action/suspense Dread game that I hope to have ready for '09 Gamedays and GenCon. It'll be "Blade Runner Dread: Are You a Replicant?" I've already re-watched the movie (for the first of, probably, 10 or 12 times), and will next read the story on which it was based for the first time in 20 years, and then I think I'll be ready to plot it out!

 

[Maerdwyn]

Glad this thread got revived - Dread looks fantastic for one shot Horror games, which is all I've had time for for quite a while. Will be picking it up ASAP

It also occurs to me that the system might work for the style of Paranoia game I like to run - I'll have to experiment.

 

[Hypersmurf]

It also occurs to me that the system might work for the style of Paranoia game I like to run - I'll have to experiment.

For Paranoia, players make their pulls blindfolded.

-Hyp.

 

[Cassander]

I'm thinking Dread can work somewhat off genre as well, though you have to make sure your players know what to expect. Some of my players I think expected a bit more horror and a bit more camp.

I am planning on using Dread or at least a Dread blend for some gritty heroic fantasy. Stuff like the Hobbits and the Black Riders kinda thing would seem right for Dread.

I'd also love to do a Dread campaign at some point. I would think the tension would be really ramped up when you've had your player for more than one session so I think it'd make a great campaign game.