Dread is a

horror Horror may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Genres *Horror fiction, a genre of fiction ** Japanese horror, Japanese horror fiction **Korean horror, Korean horror fiction * Horror film, a film genre *Horror comics, comic books focusing o ...

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published by The Impossible Dream. The game uses a

Jenga Jenga is a game of physical skill created by British board game designer and author Leslie Scott and marketed by Hasbro. Players take turns removing one block at a time from a tower constructed of 54 blocks. Each block removed is then placed on t ...

tower for action resolution.

The game

Dread is a horror game, commonly played as a one-shot at conventions. It can also be used for ongoing gaming, though in practice this is less common. In order to play you need: * One

tower or equivalent * 3-6 players * 3–5 hours (can be extended to multiple sessions of similar length) * A prepared adventure and character sheets

The setting

Dread has no fixed setting - instead you can use it for any horror setting where it is expected that most of the characters will not survive through the session. The examples in the Dread rulebook are ''Beneath A Full Moon'' -

survival horror Survival horror is a subgenre of survival of the players as the game tries to frighten them with either horror graphics or scary ambience. Although combat can be part of the gameplay, the player is made to feel less in control than in typical ac ...

, ''Beneath A Metal Sky'' -

sci-fi Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel universe ...

, and ''Beneath The Mask'' - based on a

slasher film A slasher film is a genre of horror films involving a killer stalking and murdering a group of people, usually by use of bladed or sharp tools like knife, chainsaw, scalpel, etc. Although the term "slasher" may occasionally be used informally as a ...

and in which not even the GM knows which of the PCs is the killer at the start (they all have reasons to not know they are). Character creation involves each character in the game being assigned a part (in ''Beneath the Mask'' there are the Jock, the Head

Cheerleader Cheerleading is an activity in which the participants (called cheerleaders) cheer for their team as a form of encouragement. It can range from chanting slogans to intense physical activity. It can be performed to motivate sports teams, to ente ...

, the

Nerd A nerd is a person seen as overly intellectual, obsessive, introverted or lacking social skills. Such a person may spend inordinate amounts of time on unpopular, little known, or non-mainstream activities, which are generally either highly tec ...

, the

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, the Rich Kid, and the Best Friend) and each part coming with about a dozen questions, the final one being "What is your name?" Most of the questions are deliberately loaded, for example "Why do you intend to convince the others to split up whenever the opportunity arises, despite the recent events?"

System

Dread uses a very simple system. When you try to take a challenging action pull one or more blocks from the tower (a stack of blocks, such as Jenga or the like), as dictated by the GM. If you pull and succeed you succeed in your action. If you knock the tower over your

player character A player character (also known as a playable character or PC) is a fictional character in a video game or tabletop role-playing game whose actions are controlled by a player rather than the rules of the game. The characters that are not control ...

is out of the game, usually due to dying - or if there is no sensible narrative way for that to happen (for instance a knock over by spilling your drink) they are the "walking dead", unable to pull any more blocks and subject to death or removal at the next plausible or dramatic opportunity. Reviews of the game praise the "lethal suspense" of the game and its innovation, but note that it's useful only for horror gaming and one shot games.Review:Dread
- Play Unplugged In May 2015, Dread was featured as a two-part episode on

TableTop Tabletop may refer to: Mountains * Table Top Mountain in Rangeville, Queensland, Australia * Table Top Mountain (New York) * Table Mountain in Cape Town, South Africa * Tepui, flat top mountains in South America Places * Tabletop, New South Wal ...

Wil Wheaton Richard William Wheaton III (born July 29, 1972) is an American actor. He portrayed Wesley Crusher on the television series ''Star Trek: The Next Generation'', Gordie Lachance in the film ''Stand by Me (film), Stand by Me'', Joey Trotta in '' ...

in the introduction praised Dread's "very innovative device to build up

tension Tension may refer to: Science * Psychological stress * Tension (physics), a force related to the stretching of an object (the opposite of compression) * Tension (geology), a stress which stretches rocks in two opposite directions * Voltage or el ...

and really put the scare in players". In March 2019, Dread & its co-creator Epidiah Ravachol was featured on the ProudGamers podcast, ''The ProudTable''. Epidiah speaks about his inspirations behind the game.

Reception

''Dread'' was the winner of the 2006 Ennie Award for Innovation as well as being nominated for Best Game and Best Rules.

References

External links

* {{official, url=http://www.tiltingatwindmills.net/dread/index.html ENnies winners Horror role-playing games Indie role-playing games Open-source tabletop games Role-playing games introduced in 2005