Gameday 'Dread' session, after-action report
I plan on running this game at future gamedays, so if you think you might ever play in one of my games, you should skip this....
So, I ran my first Dread game at the DC Gameday last weekend. I was a little apprehensive -- Dread is a little out of my comfort zone DM'ing-wise, as I tend towards more tactically oriented games for the most part. Still, I had what I thought was a cool setting, and I tried to absorb as much as I could from Piratecat's exemplary game at GenCon.
The setting was the SS Morro Castle, a cruise ship that went up in flames off the coast of New Jersey in 1934, killing 134 people. It made a regular NY/Havana run at a time when there was increasing tension between the countries, smuggling, etc. To this day, no one is sure what really caused the fire, but 20 years later a crewman considered a hero during the tragedy was convicted of arson and murder...
So, the players knew ahead of time that the ship was going to burn. I wanted the players to start with the knowledge that people were going to die, and that the clock was ticking. I also wanted to give a setting where they could (literally) get away with murder, as there would be little chance of getting caught in the chaos.
The characters were: a businessman (who was actually an agent-provacateur for the US gov't), his wife (who didn't know of his secret), a ship's steward with a shady past, an auditor for the Ward Line investigating suspicious activity aboard the ship, a former diplomat returning home, and a nun. For the questions, I had a mix of personal background, some political, some seemingly innocuous (Did you order the chicken or the fish for dinner?), and a couple to start the players on the road to distrusting each other (What did you witness at the Hotel Nacional?).
Everyone did a great job with the questionaire, and with the characters in play. Some things went in a direction I totally didn't expect (2 out of 6 were closeted homosexuals, including the nun, so there ended up being a little of the Love Boat) but for the most part things played out more or less as I expected. They didn't all go for the main 'hook', but a couple of them stumbled upon it. A couple of them managed to get away with a fair bit of ill-gotten booty. And one of them got the gold, too
I screwed up a couple of opportunities -- I had a perfect chance to put the auditor on the trail of the treasure and the nun at the same time, and I totally brain-farted. I'm usually pretty good at winging things, but 15 minutes after the chance I was mentally kicking myself this time. Unfortunately, events had proceeded such that there was no way to retcon things at that point. Also, I apologize to the player of Mary Billings, as I don't think I had enough for her to do to make her an integral part of the session. I think in the future, I'll make that character an NPC (as it provides another reason for the spy character to be careful) and come up with another character concept to replace her.
Preparation wise, I read up fairly extensively on the history of the event. Aside from the rough time-line, I didn't script anything. There were certain historically accurate events mixed in (the captain's suspicious death hours before the fire, for example), but I did play a little fast and loose with the timing (there was more time between the interrupted party and the fire in real life). Pacing-wise, though, aside from a little nip and tuck, the game played out in a lttle over four hours, which was darn near dead on. I did the whole game from my head, with just a couple scribbled notes as the game went on. Next time I'd like to have some printouts of pictures of the ship to help set the mood, and also serve as an abstract map so that as people explore, it's easier to keep track of who's where.
As is typical with gamedays, the location was a little noisy, but not as bad as I'd feared, and I didn't find it distracting. Perhaps I was intent enough on juggling all the pieces, though -- I hope it didn't detract too much from the mood. I was fortunate to be able to exercise 'hosting privileges' and snag the area with the comfy chairs and sofa and coffee table, as opposed to the round table and folding chairs that most had to use. For Dread I think that is critical to have that sort of set up, where people can gather around but not have to worry about bumping the table, and be able to move about for pulls.
With what I've learned from this session, I've got several ideas for tightening things up and making the characters more inter-dependent/mutually suspicious, and of hooking them with the main macguffin earlier. I hope to get the chance to run it again.