Note: This review was originally posted on my old Jovial Gamer blog. I will move a lot of that content over to this new blog but in light of yesterday’s post I thought it fitting to include sooner rather than later. If there are games you would like to see reviewed let me know in the comments. I am always interested in trying out and talking about new games.
I’m a huge fan of the horror genre in gaming. The Call of Cthulhu RPG is a staple in my gaming group. One thing that is hard to do in a horror game is achieve a consistent sense of tension. Dread does this brilliantly by using a Jenga® tower (or reasonable facsimile) to resolve every risky move. Every pull from the Jenga® tower is full of tension, and this tension builds with every twist and turn in the story.
I’ve had a chance to not only play the game, but to run a few games. Using the 13 scenario as well as a couple scenarios I have developed myself (Madame LouLou’s Haunted Wax Museum, Arctic Fight or Flight) I have sent a couple different groups on suspenseful gaming romps. When running 13 I was amazed at how much fun the group of teens had even as their characters were being brutally slaughtered, animated clown doll riding a spider anyone?
In Dread your character is all narrative, you simply answer up to 13 questions about yourself (the character self you want to play). Based on these questions, known to you and the GM, you have the parameters for engagement and integration into the story experience. The last question is always, what is your name? This approach should give you a hint that this is not a statistics based system. In fact Dread runs more like a scripted Fiasco.
The game is broken into several acts. Each act contains its own set of dangers (where the players need to make pulls on the tower) and clues that move the story along. While there is often a happy ending that is possible, it is not likely to happen for the bulk of your players. But that is what makes this game charming. Each act has scenes, basically set-ups for little story happenings. For example one of the scenes in my Madame LouLou’s scenario involves a description of a room (enough to make them want to look around) and then an event that when it happens puts one or more of them at risk. The final act usually has some sort of showdown with lots of danger but also the possibility of a satisfying resolution.
The one drawback to this system is that Dread eliminates players. When you topple the tower your character is eliminated from the game in some way. A good storyteller will find ways to keep them engaged in the story until the end (especially the player who dies first). But this requires imagination and confidence. The Dread manual is a veritable smorgasbord of tips to help run a great game and is definitely worth the purchase even if you just steal the ideas for other games. I highly recommend picking up a copy of Dread especially if you are new to high-concept role playing games (those are games where the gamers are given broad concepts over specific tactical moves).
Likes: Best horror role playing experience ever.
Dislikes: There are a lot of ways an inexperienced GM could create a less than satisfying game experience, this is probably not the game for every group.
Fun: This is story telling indie role playing at its finest. With the right group the game is hugely fun and satisfying.
Quality: The rulebook is excellent, the game itself is simple and contained on a four page cheat sheet downloadable from the Dread site, but the rulebook gives you 92 more pages of pure role playing gold.
(re)Playability: The scenarios are not easily replay-able. There are only four official scenarios available. I’ve found a few online so they are out there, but this means creating your own scenarios. Fortunately, this is not too difficult. It requires a bit of work though. At conferences I aim for three hour one-shot sessions which basically works out to three acts. I wrote the bulk of Madam LouLou’s in a day, but a full day. This game is not really conducive to campaign play.
The picture at the top is from running 13 for my older daughter’s friends. I’ve since run other Dread scenarios for these teens and Elyssa has developed a few she has run herself. Testimony to how great a game Dread really is.
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