Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
The
VOIDRUNNER'S CODEX
is LIVE! Explore new worlds, fight oppressive empires, fend off fearsome aliens, and wield deadly psionics with this comprehensive boxed set expansion for 5E and A5E!
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
[Dread] Jenga beat up my dice! My results from the indie horror RPG.
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Cassander" data-source="post: 4457043" data-attributes="member: 8838"><p>When I ran my Dread game at GenCon, I had one player who had never played Dread before and after summarizing the rules, I was asking my players if I had missed anything. Someone brought up a rule that you can ask someone else to pull for you but you tak ethe consequences and there was some discussion about whether this was a standard rule. Some thought it was in the book, some didn't. I checked and couldn't find it, so it's possible it was just posted online somewhere or maybe I missed it.</p><p></p><p>I think this would be good for people who can't pull due to some sort of disability, but I'm not sure about it for those who think they're not good at pulling. They might just be shy. And it does take away a lot of the visceral feeling. But if someone really just has no manual dexterity and seems to definitely below the standard range of Jenga skill, it seems like the best option, as long as the player is comfortable. </p><p></p><p>I think there are a few factors that make the tower so good:</p><p></p><p>1) The visual. You can see the tower right there in front of you and can watch it sway and lean. You can see how close you are to disaster, and as you say, perhaps overestimate how close it is.</p><p></p><p>2) The control. The tower puts your characters fate literally in your hands. You are responsible, not some die. If it's just chance, you might throw up your hands and say "Whatever, let's roll the dice...". Having the tower there means you have to go up to the tower and do it.</p><p></p><p>3). Time and enough skill. Most of the alternate mechanics try to take the manual dexterity and skill out of the game. I think this is doomed to failure. The thing is, without the skill, you just have luck. And if it's pure luck, there's no need to be careful. This means that pulls go too fast. You don't have to think about your pull. You don't have to try different blocks. You don't have to sweat. And without that time, you don't have the tension. Plus you don't have the visceral fear of the tower as you have to interact with it. </p><p></p><p>It may be possible to replace the physical skill with mental skill. Something like a chess game could work, in that you'd want to think about your move a lot, but the problem is you can see check mate coming too fast. Still, if you could find a way to replace physical skill with mental skill in a suitable game, you might have something viable, but then you will probably even have a greater skill range than with Jenga.</p><p></p><p>4) Not too much skill. No one has complete control of the tower. The tower still has some complexity too it and most players fall somewhere toward the center. You won't have a gigantic advantage by being good. With something like chess, you have a tremendous range of skill that'd probably be too much.</p><p></p><p>5) Fuzziness. This is what Cerebral Paladin brought up. You don't know the odds and will likely (especially new players) overestimate the odds of the tower falling. This, actually, seems to be the biggest advantage of "good"/"experienced" players... they know when they can get away with pulling and are willing to try it when other characters stand in fear. But I myself have made the opposite mistake and been overconfident which lead to me knocking a tower over during what I thought was a safe pull.</p><p></p><p>6) The falling tower. This kinda goes back to the visual, but I'll emphasize it again. The sound and feel of the tower collapsing emphasizes the importance of the character being removed from the game. It also makes sacrifices look realy dramatic.</p><p></p><p>There are probably others I've missed, but I think just covering these bases as well as Jenga would be very difficult for another system. I think you'd really have to think about the trade offs and be willing to lose some of these and somehow compensate with something else if you're gonna get something that works. I still have some plans like this, but it does seem like the loss is felt when using something else.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Cassander, post: 4457043, member: 8838"] When I ran my Dread game at GenCon, I had one player who had never played Dread before and after summarizing the rules, I was asking my players if I had missed anything. Someone brought up a rule that you can ask someone else to pull for you but you tak ethe consequences and there was some discussion about whether this was a standard rule. Some thought it was in the book, some didn't. I checked and couldn't find it, so it's possible it was just posted online somewhere or maybe I missed it. I think this would be good for people who can't pull due to some sort of disability, but I'm not sure about it for those who think they're not good at pulling. They might just be shy. And it does take away a lot of the visceral feeling. But if someone really just has no manual dexterity and seems to definitely below the standard range of Jenga skill, it seems like the best option, as long as the player is comfortable. I think there are a few factors that make the tower so good: 1) The visual. You can see the tower right there in front of you and can watch it sway and lean. You can see how close you are to disaster, and as you say, perhaps overestimate how close it is. 2) The control. The tower puts your characters fate literally in your hands. You are responsible, not some die. If it's just chance, you might throw up your hands and say "Whatever, let's roll the dice...". Having the tower there means you have to go up to the tower and do it. 3). Time and enough skill. Most of the alternate mechanics try to take the manual dexterity and skill out of the game. I think this is doomed to failure. The thing is, without the skill, you just have luck. And if it's pure luck, there's no need to be careful. This means that pulls go too fast. You don't have to think about your pull. You don't have to try different blocks. You don't have to sweat. And without that time, you don't have the tension. Plus you don't have the visceral fear of the tower as you have to interact with it. It may be possible to replace the physical skill with mental skill. Something like a chess game could work, in that you'd want to think about your move a lot, but the problem is you can see check mate coming too fast. Still, if you could find a way to replace physical skill with mental skill in a suitable game, you might have something viable, but then you will probably even have a greater skill range than with Jenga. 4) Not too much skill. No one has complete control of the tower. The tower still has some complexity too it and most players fall somewhere toward the center. You won't have a gigantic advantage by being good. With something like chess, you have a tremendous range of skill that'd probably be too much. 5) Fuzziness. This is what Cerebral Paladin brought up. You don't know the odds and will likely (especially new players) overestimate the odds of the tower falling. This, actually, seems to be the biggest advantage of "good"/"experienced" players... they know when they can get away with pulling and are willing to try it when other characters stand in fear. But I myself have made the opposite mistake and been overconfident which lead to me knocking a tower over during what I thought was a safe pull. 6) The falling tower. This kinda goes back to the visual, but I'll emphasize it again. The sound and feel of the tower collapsing emphasizes the importance of the character being removed from the game. It also makes sacrifices look realy dramatic. There are probably others I've missed, but I think just covering these bases as well as Jenga would be very difficult for another system. I think you'd really have to think about the trade offs and be willing to lose some of these and somehow compensate with something else if you're gonna get something that works. I still have some plans like this, but it does seem like the loss is felt when using something else. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
[Dread] Jenga beat up my dice! My results from the indie horror RPG.
Top