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

[Cassander]

I ran my first Dread con game at GenCon this year and I think it went pretty well. The game featured the players as the Village People staying overnight at a YMCA for a promotional tour, with campy hijinks ensuing. The tone was much sillier than a standard Dread game, but the tower seemed to work well for the tone and the questionnaires definitely helped.

I definitely saw some things I could do better if I run this again but the parts that needed to work did, so I was happy with that.

I also had the pleasure of meeting Epidiah Ravachol, which was very cool.

 

[egarvue]

Glad this thread got bumped up to the top, I would have never heard about this great-sounding game. I'll throw in my two cents call for a PDF version.

I know that there are several people in my regular game group who would love a tension-filled story game like this one. As I read this thread, I was mulling over story and plot ideas, and how I could come up with interesting characters. I was doing a bit of multi-tasking too, punching out my new copy of Kingsport Horror, the Arkham Horror boardgame expansion here in front of the computer when it hit me: I've got all the tools right here to whip up a plot.

A variety of archtypical characters (8 in this box, lots of others in the original game and other expansions), a whole slew of locations to choose from on the map, heck, loads of monsters to choose from, Ally cards to use as NPC's, and on and on. Of course its set in the Cthulhu mythos, but there's nothing stopping me from making it more mundane horror if I want to.

I love the idea of Dread as a party game for my group, but I know I'm not the most creative person when it comes to horror plots. Using something like Arkham Horror to help generate a plot seemed like a good idea. I'm thinking of pre-generating the questionnaires to fit the plot, but letting them randomly drawing a character card and have the players do their best to answer the questions in light of the character they drew.

Just for fun, I'm going to try it out while I'm sitting here now.

• Location: Mysterious old Kingsport, Maine (the mapboard in front of me)
• Sub Locations: The South Shore neighborhood (drew a red card, indicating three sub-locations: The Hall School, the Artists Colony, and Neil's Curiosity Shop)
• Monster: Leng Spiders (random draw from the monster chits)
• Enemy NPC's: Dr. Herbert West (a familiar name to horror fans, randomly drawn from the Ally deck)
• Friendly NPC's: Professor Morgan, Asenath Waite, The Terrible Old Man (also drawn from the deck).
• How did this happen?: A "Crystal of the Elder Things" (draw from the magic items deck)

Ok, it may not be blockbuster material, but its not a bad start for something randomly generated. Strange deadly spiders from another dimension brought here by an evil doctor using an eldritch crystal; the players must stop them before they overrun the neighborhood. All the bare bones of a plot are there, and I can already envision some of the character questions.

Off to by a copy of Jenga tomorrow...

 

[paradox42]

I ran my first Dread con game at GenCon this year and I think it went pretty well. The game featured the players as the Village People staying overnight at a YMCA for a promotional tour, with campy hijinks ensuing. The tone was much sillier than a standard Dread game, but the tower seemed to work well for the tone and the questionnaires definitely helped.

I definitely saw some things I could do better if I run this again but the parts that needed to work did, so I was happy with that.

I also had the pleasure of meeting Epidiah Ravachol, which was very cool.

I was in the Village People game, and it was my first experience with Dread.

Suffice it to say that I plan to get a copy of the book, and a Jenga tower, as soon as funds permit (most likely next month). I can see now why there are so many raves about this game, it really does work to an astounding degree. Just about anything can happen, depending on how the players answer their questions and what the GM feels like allowing. And of course, what happens with the pulls from the tower during play...

 

[Festivus]

I gave in and just ordered a paper copy of Dread. Damn you all for reminding me how cool this game really is.

 

[Epidiah Ravachol]

I also had the pleasure of meeting Epidiah Ravachol, which was very cool.

I can't tell you how cool it was to finally meet all the ENworld people I met at GenCon. And to be a creepy little ninja spying on the late night Dread games on the third floor of the Hyatt.

 

[Rodrigo Istalindir]

I can't tell you how cool it was to finally meet all the ENworld people I met at GenCon. And to be a creepy little ninja spying on the late night Dread games on the third floor of the Hyatt.

I stopped by the booth to say 'howdy' and 'thanks' but I missed you. So, uh, 'Howdy!, and 'Thanks!'. Glad you got to see a bunch of us loving the hell out of your game.

And while working the ENnies booth Sunday, I got an awesome idea for my next Dread game.

 

[Epidiah Ravachol]

I stopped by the booth to say 'howdy' and 'thanks' but I missed you. So, uh, 'Howdy!, and 'Thanks!'. Glad you got to see a bunch of us loving the hell out of your game.

And while working the ENnies booth Sunday, I got an awesome idea for my next Dread game.

For some reason I feel like I had met you, but I think that's because your name came up a few times. I swear some of these ENworlder Dread scenarios are more well known than the game itself.

 

[Drammattex]

I gave up playing RPGs at cons long ago. However, DREAD was the single most fun experience of this year's Gen Con for me. From what I understand, our game didn't go near as well as the others did, and the GMs apologized for it.

No apology necessary -- it was a blast, and reminded me what is great and fun in RPGs.

 

[Mistwell]

Piratecat mentioned this game during our Mutants and Masterminds game, and I am happy this thread was bumped so I could read more about it.

Damn, now I have to go buy this, and convince some people to play. I should have just bought it at the con!

 

[Cassander]

For some reason I feel like I had met you, but I think that's because your name came up a few times. I swear some of these ENworlder Dread scenarios are more well known than the game itself.

I know I mentioned Rodrigo when talking to you cause he's the one who first ran Dread for me and got me into the game. That's the Morro Castle (sinking ship) game that he's run a few times at ENWorld gamedays. Sorry you didn't get to meet him, cause he runs a good game of Dread and I think, along with Piratecat, has helped introduce a lot of people to the game.