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

Piratecat · Aug 29, 2007

I doubt you'll be sorry. It plays that well.

My new scenario will hopefully involve a space colony and angry, angry prisoners -- as the PCs. We'll see how it goes.

Shawn_Kehoe · Aug 29, 2007

Piratecat said:
I doubt you'll be sorry. It plays that well.

My new scenario will hopefully involve a space colony and angry, angry prisoners -- as the PCs. We'll see how it goes.

Cool! David Fincher wishes you good luck

woodelf · Aug 30, 2007

Shawn_Kehoe said:
I'm not sure if Dread should be run with Jenga Xtreme though - I just picked up the set today, and after several tries my best result was 28 pulls. This might be dread's equivalent of the "killer DM."

Jenga Xtreme is for the group that has gotten too good at the pulling part of the game, or just is cocky and doesn't take it seriously, so it breaks the mood. And, yes, it is comparatively vicious. Though, if you're getting 28 pulls, you're doing pretty well. And keep in mind that 28 pulls just fiddling with it solo on a desk probably translates to like 15-20 in a Dread context.

Also, a word of warning: don't buy the "Vintage Edition" Jenga for your Dread game. It has numerous flaws that make it a lousy Jenga, and extra-lousy for Dread. It is painted and due to either poor manufacturing tolerances, or the inherent nature of painting (which is why i stained a set, rather than painting it, to get it darker), the blocks vary significantly in thickness (the variance could easily hit half a millimeter which, in this context, is huge) and appear not to always have flat, parallel sides. Simply stacking up the blocks led to a tower with a noticable kink of a couple degrees part way up the tower in 2 out of 3 tries. The alignment tool is, of necessity, folded in falh in the box, meaning you'll have to assemble it eac time you play, likely significatnly decreasing its lifespan. The tower can't be stored assembled (this is also true of the latest cylindrical packaging of regular Jenga). And, while i'm bitching, the insert for keeping the blocks in place is cheap flimsy plastic which (1) won't last and (2) looks completely out of place with the nice wooden bookshelf case. It really should've been dense cardboard, like the stuff they make egg cartons out of. Finally, the paint makes the blocks super-slippery which, combined with their unevenness, makes the tower very unstable. At one point, just playing with the Jenga, with no Dread characters on the line, i successfully pulled a block, the tower was not visibly moving at all, and then it just spontaneously collapsed before i could put the block on top. Oh, except for in high-humidity situations, where they get super-sticky. All around, i can't recommend the Vintage Edition Jenga for anything, but especially not for Dread.

Piratecat · Aug 30, 2007

I have a generic "Jumbling Block Wooden Tower" that works well enough, other than getting me mocked repeatedly by Rel. Except when I lend it to someone for a killer clown game and they drop it into a player's coffee...

Epidiah Ravachol · Aug 30, 2007

Piratecat said:
I have a generic "Jumbling Block Wooden Tower" that works well enough, other than getting me mocked repeatedly by Rel. Except when I lend it to someone for a killer clown game and they drop it into a player's coffee...

Did that stain it at all? I'm half tempted to coffee soak a generic Jenga just for the aesthetic.

But I must add, I've seen some really, really awkward Jenga knock-offs. So while I don't officially endorse any brand, I will caution people to pay attention to what they're purchasing.

Chaldfont · Aug 30, 2007

I saw this at Gen Con and thought about getting it, but I had already spent over seventy bucks on Reign and Dogs in the Vineyard. After reading these threads, I ordered it last night.

Wife: "Didn't you just buy a bunch of games at Gen Con?"
Me: "Uh, yeah... But.. eh... I looked all over for it and couldn't find it, so I ordered it online."
Wife: "Suuuuuure ya did."

BTW, I love the Jenga idea. Back in collage we had what we called Drunken Jenga. One night we took a Sharpie and wrote all kinds of nasty Truth or Dare junk on the pieces of our friend's set. Basically you had to pull a piece and do what it said.

I don't think Dread needs it, but this could be an interesting way to expand the game.

Nareau · Aug 30, 2007

Epidiah Ravachol said:
Did that stain it at all? I'm half tempted to coffee soak a generic Jenga just for the aesthetic.

No, only my reputation.

Dread was a little difficult to find at GenCon. I spent a while looking for it, and eventually found a copy at some indie publisher booth. I finished reading through it yesterday.

There's some excellent info in the book, but some issues (like combat) need to be addressed better. The developers do communicate via their forum though, so that isn't a big deal.

I think I'm going to try to run a series of games based around the "Breakfast Club" characters from my GenCon game. Each one will take place a few years later (at highschool reunions and the like).

Nareau

Piratecat · Aug 30, 2007

Nareau said:
There's some excellent info in the book, but some issues (like combat) need to be addressed better. The developers do communicate via their forum though, so that isn't a big deal.

Epidiah is the author. Yay, accessibility!

The game was for sale at the Indie Press Revolution booth. I had no problem finding it, but I knew where to look. I think it suffered from not having someone there to demo it. (unless there was, and I missed them.)

And not to worry, Nareau. While it's fun to give you a hard time, I never would have noticed the coffee if you hadn't told me. It wasn't a problem at all.

Shawn_Kehoe · Aug 30, 2007

woodelf said:
Jenga Xtreme is for the group that has gotten too good at the pulling part of the game, or just is cocky and doesn't take it seriously, so it breaks the mood. And, yes, it is comparatively vicious. Though, if you're getting 28 pulls, you're doing pretty well. And keep in mind that 28 pulls just fiddling with it solo on a desk probably translates to like 15-20 in a Dread context.

Also, a word of warning: don't buy the "Vintage Edition" Jenga for your Dread game. It has numerous flaws that make it a lousy Jenga, and extra-lousy for Dread. It is painted and due to either poor manufacturing tolerances, or the inherent nature of painting (which is why i stained a set, rather than painting it, to get it darker), the blocks vary significantly in thickness (the variance could easily hit half a millimeter which, in this context, is huge) and appear not to always have flat, parallel sides. Simply stacking up the blocks led to a tower with a noticable kink of a couple degrees part way up the tower in 2 out of 3 tries. The alignment tool is, of necessity, folded in falh in the box, meaning you'll have to assemble it eac time you play, likely significatnly decreasing its lifespan. The tower can't be stored assembled (this is also true of the latest cylindrical packaging of regular Jenga). And, while i'm bitching, the insert for keeping the blocks in place is cheap flimsy plastic which (1) won't last and (2) looks completely out of place with the nice wooden bookshelf case. It really should've been dense cardboard, like the stuff they make egg cartons out of. Finally, the paint makes the blocks super-slippery which, combined with their unevenness, makes the tower very unstable. At one point, just playing with the Jenga, with no Dread characters on the line, i successfully pulled a block, the tower was not visibly moving at all, and then it just spontaneously collapsed before i could put the block on top. Oh, except for in high-humidity situations, where they get super-sticky. All around, i can't recommend the Vintage Edition Jenga for anything, but especially not for Dread.

Good warning! I bought a standard Jenga set for dread, and will save Xtreme for when they get really good.

I was a little disappointed with the alignment tool in my Jenga set too. The box showed an illustration of a plastic sleeve, and my research online matched that. But the actual sleeve was flimsy cardboard, no good at all. I've taken to assembling it and using a hardcover book to straighten the tower.

Asmor · Aug 30, 2007

Not very happy with my Jenga set, either. I got the orange round box one, since that's all they had at Target (it was an impulse buy, I don't even have dread yet!). Flimsy, cheap cardboard aligner that doesn't work very poorly... I remember playing older sets with the plastic ones that worked well. And the box is terrible, hard to store and annoying to fit the pieces in there since they're not kept in a tower form, but if you just drop them in all willy-nilly they won't fit in.