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

[HandofMystra]

I played a pick-up Dread game on Saturday when the BSG game flaked out. We were mind flayers working for the Elder Mind in a Paranoia-style game. It was fun but I had difficulty getting into my character (it is challenging to play a fatalist as an active PC). We only played for an hour and we never even got to the start of our mission.

 

[Rel]

we never even got to the start of our mission.

Sounds like almost every Paranoia game I've ever heard of.

 

[Joshua Randall]

This is kind of apropos of nothing, but I just need to share:

Bioshock + Dread = ...

Pure win? Epic fail? Only one way to find out!

 

[Matchstick]

I played Dread house Sunday afternoon with my 8 and 7 year old daughters, and we had a good time. There was a lot of "ooo" and "ahhh" moments with the Jenga tower. Myself and the eight year old managed to make it to daytime. The seven year old was a little upset when she tipped the tower and her character ran off, but then she got to play the mummy and it was OK. And I thought the monsters were going to win, I think the next draw from the tower tipped it (we did it just for fun).

I have a couple questions.

- What do you do after the tower tips? Do you rebuild it in a certain way? We had enough tower to keep playing with so that's what we did.
- When moving around in the house do you move in turns or together? We were split all over the house so we were going in more traditional turns, but it seems like the instructions want players to move in groups. After the youngest was playing the Mummy the two of us left tried to stay in the same room to avoid the Curse.
- The monster should be able to just Haunt you in whatever room you're in right? Aggressive monsters will have every character in their room drawing at least two bricks per turn, I would think that would burn through a tower pretty quick!
- I might have missed it but it might be a good idea to add the pennies or markers to indicate a room has been checked for items to the "What you need" list.

We had a really good time, and the jenga tower was as advertised. As I mentioned above the ability to come back as a monster was excellent salve for a tipping kid (as I think it was meant to be). There was a LOT to enjoy in this game!

- The cards are great! The girls LOVED all the little funny things like what the whispering voice says and the "Hi There" with the smiley face!
- The girls' spooky descriptions got better as we went along. By halfway through they had dramatic pauses, wide eyes, and spooky voices going!
- The monsters were a big hit. Personally I liked "Eddie Sparkle" but the girls were big fans of the ghost and the fish lady. After we were done they went through and read all the cards, characters, and monsters.
- Lots of debate about which characters to play. Seven year old went for the Athlete, eight went for the Artist, and they gave me the Gossip (I have no idea why). They were a little baffled as to why anyone would want to be a Bully, I guess they haven't started powergaming yet!

All in all we had a great time plus we can grow with the game because I know there were things we didn't take full advantage of (getting more blocks in our courage stack for one).

Good stuff!

 

[WizarDru]

I played Dread house Sunday afternoon with my 8 and 7 year old daughters, and we had a good time. There was a lot of "ooo" and "ahhh" moments with the Jenga tower. Myself and the eight year old managed to make it to daytime. The seven year old was a little upset when she tipped the tower and her character ran off, but then she got to play the mummy and it was OK. And I thought the monsters were going to win, I think the next draw from the tower tipped it (we did it just for fun).

Thanks for the review. Definitely going to have to add this to the short list of 'Games to Get'. Wish I could have made Gencon this year, but c'est la vie. Any game I can play with the whole family is a win...and Dread itself is oodles of fun.

 

[WizarDru]

Hmmm....just found out we'll be doing a 'friends' convention in October. Perfect chance to run a Dread game. Now I just have to work one out. Resident Evil: Dru? Nah, too obvious.

Maybe something with The Franklin Expedition a'la Dan Simmon's "The Terror"? Except the wife has read that book. I need to think about this.

 

[John Crichton]

My wife is working on two separate Dread games to possibly bring to the WNCGD.

She's gonna run something?!?!



So sad that I won't be there.

 

[Epidiah Ravachol]

I played Dread house Sunday afternoon with my 8 and 7 year old daughters, and we had a good time. There was a lot of "ooo" and "ahhh" moments with the Jenga tower. Myself and the eight year old managed to make it to daytime. The seven year old was a little upset when she tipped the tower and her character ran off, but then she got to play the mummy and it was OK. And I thought the monsters were going to win, I think the next draw from the tower tipped it (we did it just for fun).

Hearing news like this really makes my day.

I have a couple questions.

- What do you do after the tower tips? Do you rebuild it in a certain way? We had enough tower to keep playing with so that's what we did.

You should completely restack the tower. And then scramble to use some powers to refill the Courage Pile. The monster's powers should get enough pulls going that the tower will get dangerous again real soon.

- When moving around in the house do you move in turns or together? We were split all over the house so we were going in more traditional turns, but it seems like the instructions want players to move in groups. After the youngest was playing the Mummy the two of us left tried to stay in the same room to avoid the Curse.

You move in turns. However, whenever you leave a room that has other teenagers in it, those teenagers have the option to go with you. So you can get into situations where a bunch of kids are all moving together.

- The monster should be able to just Haunt you in whatever room you're in right? Aggressive monsters will have every character in their room drawing at least two bricks per turn, I would think that would burn through a tower pretty quick!

Yup! They appear wherever they want at the beginning of their turn and disappear at the end of their turn. The monsters need to get things going fast, because the tower is completely refreshed and you're much closer to the dawn. If you ever get two or three monsters in there, it gets really crazy. Fleeing becomes more and more attractive.

- I might have missed it but it might be a good idea to add the pennies or markers to indicate a room has been checked for items to the "What you need" list.

I don't have the book in front of me at the moment, but if that's not there, it's definitely going to be there.

We had a really good time, and the jenga tower was as advertised. As I mentioned above the ability to come back as a monster was excellent salve for a tipping kid (as I think it was meant to be). There was a LOT to enjoy in this game!

- The cards are great! The girls LOVED all the little funny things like what the whispering voice says and the "Hi There" with the smiley face!
- The girls' spooky descriptions got better as we went along. By halfway through they had dramatic pauses, wide eyes, and spooky voices going!
- The monsters were a big hit. Personally I liked "Eddie Sparkle" but the girls were big fans of the ghost and the fish lady. After we were done they went through and read all the cards, characters, and monsters.
- Lots of debate about which characters to play. Seven year old went for the Athlete, eight went for the Artist, and they gave me the Gossip (I have no idea why). They were a little baffled as to why anyone would want to be a Bully, I guess they haven't started powergaming yet!

All in all we had a great time plus we can grow with the game because I know there were things we didn't take full advantage of (getting more blocks in our courage stack for one).

Good stuff!

Seriously. Made. My. Day. And Emily's too.

I especially love how your daughters were honing their storytelling skills. And I'm so glad the monsters helped sweeten the bitter taste of the fallen tower.

I think I'm going to be pointing people here to illustrate what the game can do.

 

[Matchstick]

It was kind of funny. I had pulled in from my ten hour drive back from GenCon not two hours earlier and Dread House was the first thing they wanted to do. I think the "scariness" made it like a challenge to them.

Not refreshing the tower kind of sped things up, especially since the Mummy wasn't being terribly aggressive. Refreshing the tower completely makes a ton more sense, I just wasn't sure and I couldn't remember what the deal was in Dread either. Needless to say, the tower was looking pretty ragged pretty fast even after the tip.

I didn't have the book in front of me either, but I thought I'd mention the pennies thing. I remember being surprised at that showing up in the middle of the book, but I may have missed it earlier.

I don't think we fled even once. We're a bold family apparently.

I didn't get the move together option out of the instructions. Again, that could certainly be something I missed. I do remember being confused at the start of the game about movement and how it works.

I should have mentioned it, the map was a great source of fun as well. "Vlad was here" was (and continues to be) an absolute favorite. We left the spooky cards on the rooms after we explored them, but I kind of felt badly doing so because it covered up the map. The girls read through all the rooms and planned out how they were going to get to their specific special items.

They figured out the special links between the monsters and the teens and researched who was best against each monster. That's a nice mechanism, it adds depth that might not be apparent on first glance at the game. Same with the character items and the character special abilities. As mentioned above, we had a good time playing even without using those things (making it easier for the kids), but we'll be able to grow into that depth as we get more familiar with the game.

The ability to get the PDF is EXCELLENT. I really need to do that.

Let me know if you need kid reviews, I'll have the girls type some up and mail them to you.

 

[Epidiah Ravachol]

Let me know if you need kid reviews, I'll have the girls type some up and mail them to you.

Wow! That would be beyond awesome.

Also, I should really thank you for the questions. Right now Em and I are finishing up our post-GenCon vacation, but as soon as we get home we're going to assemble the PDF with clarifications. So your questions will hopefully benefit everyone with the game.