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Finally, a horror game that will scare you.
Recently I had the opportunity to attend the Game Day in Raleigh, NC. I had the choice of running a game, or playing in something. After browsing the available games I came across someone running Dread. I had never heard of Dread so I quickly scanned its web page for the sake of burning a few extra minutes at work. It turned out that it was produced by a local, Rafael Chandler. Not only that, but he was the one running the game.
That sold me, and boy am I glad that it did. The horror genre has been, in my experience, a glorified hack-n-slash. My experience spans Beyond the Supernatural, White Wolf/World of Darkness, Cthulhutech, 2nd ed Ravenloft, 3rd ed Ravenloft and to some degree Paranoia, Shadowrun, Aliens, Dark Conspiracy and Lawnmower Man (obscurity anyone), games that I associate with being more of a dark, horror genre. And although it is true that any game can be made horrific by using the right narrative elements, it certainly helps when the materials lend themselves to establishing that mood. In the previously mentioned games it always seemed like horror, or horrific was purely measured by how much more powerful the creature was than your character. Once that gap was overcome through gain in levels or equipment the characters lost all fear of the monster in question.
Not so with Dread. It distinguishes itself from other games that I have experienced by being, in my humble opinion, really scary. There are demons in there that, regardless of how powerful your character is, you truly would hate to face for their sheer grotesque malice and/or twisted behaviors. If it hasn’t been made evident yet by my description of the game, it is definitely and firmly Rated R. In fact, it could easily slip into higher echelons of wrongness depending on where the Director of the game wanted to take it. Rafael makes this very clear in this Unrated Version of the game, and for me it simply reinforces that this game will indeed be one heck of a ride. I like my horror unashamed and unabashed, in your face and non-politically correct. If you agree with that, you may have found a game for you.
My review will talk about many different aspects of the game, based on opinions from playing it as well as reading the used copy Rafael was kind enough to let me have to satisfy my curiosity of the game. Although I tried to run the game once before this review, the opportunity was firmly crushed under a mountain of stinky, stinky diapers. However, I have read through the book and been to the boards to familiarize myself further with Dread. I even organized a scenario in preparation for the game that was never run. I mentioned some of the previous dark/horror genre games that I am using to compare this game’s theme elements to. For more general comments I am basing my opinions on 21 years of RPG gaming, a lot of that running games, as well as experience with a wide array of games that cover not only your mainstream (D&D, d20 Modern, Palladium, Shadowrun, White Wolf/World of Darkness) to the more obscure (Earthdawn, WHFRP, Cyberpunk, Mekton, Champions, MERP, others.
The Book:
We People of the Book. The pen and paper industry manages to survive under the onslaught of our digital age MMORPG counterparts partly because many of us still appreciate a good looking book up in our shelves. That is why, despite how crunchy the crunchy bits within a book are, the presentation is nearly, and to some, as important as the content. This usually plagues the independent gaming market as there is a definite rift in the art work that can be afforded by the established companies, and what someone that is just starting off may be able to furnish for their book.
Dread has an advantage in this because the game theme, the feel and style of the game does not cry out for Udon-eske colors and flare. It calls for monotones, for subdued grit and grim grays. The black and white presentation of the book is very appropriate for the content. The artwork ranges from sub-par to excellent, and is imbedded in a first-rate layout that keeps things from being cluttered while maintaining the mood. The book compares well with any off-the-shelf big company RPG. Therefore it would be unfair to compare it to the more minimalist independent companies because, frankly, they are not in the same league. Therefore, since I am comparing this book to my copy of A Game of Thrones, Earthdawn and other greats I cannot quite give it full marks. The fact that it gets a high score when in such lofty company hopefully reflects how impressed this writer was with the production value of Dread.
Rating; 4/5
The Fiction
Fiction can be a touchy subject in a lot of RPG books. The new Scion series from White Wolf seems to think that more is better. Many reviews I’ve read seem to favor crunchy bits over fictional pieces. I’m of the opinion that fiction, if done correctly, can ease the readers into the appropriate frame of mind for the particular game. It is often helpful in showing examples of the material and concepts being presented. One of the most helpful things for me when I purchased my 1st edition Exalted book was reading the great trilogy of Exalted novels that were released with it. They did a good job of showing me the tempo of the game, and how some of the abilities translated out of the crunch and into actual use. The fiction in Dread is the slap in the face that you need to wake up and pay attention. It injects the raw nature of the product, the realistic style that personalizes the horror by making it painfully obvious that these people and these circumstances could be a part of your real life. They are very well executed, refraining from embellishing the bad guys but choosing to dawdle in the abhorrent world that the Disciples (the PCs) find themselves in, and just how detestable the demons are.
Another form of fiction in Dread is examples. Do you like examples? Dread is a veritable buffet of examples, including them in every section, with every spell. To say this book is user friendly is an understatement. The author took great pains in making the game easy to understand.
Rating; 5/5
The Characters
Character creation is one of the universal aspects of RPGs that can be very contentious. One camp likes to define their characters to the minutia, not only on the character sheet but often having many personal details of him or her. Others like to skip that to get a character done that has enough numbers on it to play the game and little else. There is no right or wrong in taking either approach but players will lean one way or the other based on preference. Dread caters to the latter crowd that prefers quick characters with some degree of abstraction over lots of details, as well as to the former crowd that enjoys having deep characters. Yes, really.
For the game at the NC Game Day we had five characters done for five people in under an hour’s time, and that’s taking into account that some folks got there late. Character creation could easily take ten minutes if you are familiar with the system. There are three main stats (Strength, Sense and Soul) that you distribute points into and the general path of your character (Combat, Lore, Exorcism) determines which stats most of those points go into. Stats determine your combat rating, how many spells you have and can cast, and also how many skills you have. Right there, along with picking said skills and spell, is the majority of your character creation. However, if you are thinking that the characters are cookie cutter, and all much alike, then you are to be surprised when you make one for yourself. Things like Drive, Biography and Contacts are all background-dependant and plot-driving portions of the character process that help flesh out your character and make it more of a person. Life is the same for all, and equipment is kept to a minimum which suits this fast paced game. Overall, the Disciple system allows you to make an unique and interesting character in very little time.
Rating; 5/5
Game Play
Dread uses its own Disciple system, a d12 target-number based system. It further spices things up by giving you a bonus for rolling multiples. If you have a pool of 5 dice, and you roll three 10s, that actually becomes a 13 (10 + 3 instances of the number). Yes, you can roll a 13 on this d12 based game. The target numbers are really left to the Director’s fiat and depends both on the circumstances as well as who is doing it. Unlike some other games that pigeon hole difficulty ratings by listing them out on lengthy tables, this system allows the Director to say “Well, you are a an ex-body builder/furniture mover, and you are trying to bash this door down, your difficulty is 8.” If it was the ex-librarian/stamp collector that was trying it, the difficulty would be closer to 10.
The pools of dice are straightforward to figure out as well, and there is a built in bonus die for doing moves in a “cool” fashion. In other words, stunt dice, a reward much like that found in Exalted. This is appreciated by me since it is a game driven way to encourage exciting game play. There is also Fury, which is a pool used in a number of circumstances to again do over-the-top moves or have your heroic character avoid getting splattered all over the pavement. In fact, contrary to another review I read on this game, I found Dread to be very good about keeping characters alive. In many games I find myself having to fudge dice to keep a particularly unlucky set of rolls finish off PCs, but Dread seems to enjoy prolonging the character's suffering by keeping them around to witness the carnage.
A special note about the rules – we had lengthy vehicular combat in our session. Never before was I a part of a action car scene that didn’t break down into a lot of people looking into a number of tables in a number of books. It ran smooth, it was exciting, and was absolutely brilliant.
Without going into too much details, the spells, which really are no different from a game mechanics stand point, are like nothing I have ever seen. They are diverse, dark, creepy, cool, and often times, gross. They are truly, truly original and make me wander if Rafael is still taking his meds (I kid!).
HOWEVER, I know of at least one player in my group that would take advantage of the rules-lite game system by arguing with me about why a target number should be lower, as well as throw out whatever lame line he could to claim stunt dice, even though it does not have coolness associated with it. Those subjective parts of the rules are both a strength and a point of possible contention. The vehicular combat rules make up for that in my opinion, and a strong handed Director should be able to reign those sort of players in. Therefore I will not subtract from the rating based on the random power players out there.
Rating; 5/5
Campaigning
Dread is made unique not just by its innovative rules, macabre demons and obscene spells, but also by style the game is run. Think A-Team meets X-Files. The players are immediately immersed in the storyline of the setting. This gives them goals that can be satisfied chiefly by stomping out big bad demons. Rafael goes into detail about the design of a game session. There is a trigger that sets the players off investigating a number of locations. These locations will contain evidence, hostiles or both, and the players find themselves putting together the pieces to a puzzle. Ultimately this leads them to identify the demon, which they find a resolution for, usually in the form of lead propelled at high velocity hopefully after it is exorcised out of a victim. Investigation can, in other games, lead to a bog in the action as players sit around the table head scratching and eager to get to a fight. In this game the evidence gathering and researching process is streamlined to allow the action to continue unabated. After collecting enough evidence your investigator types try to glean information from the clues and depending on the rolls uncover new information of varying pertinence. The player that is the investigator/skills hound is every bit as important as your sorcerer or your fighter in this game, sometimes even more so as the exact identity of the demon can make all the difference in the conflict. I have seen in numerous games where the guy that has a bunch of skills and is more of a thinker/solver than a direct action type, be it by might or magic, would be outshined by the more obvious attributes of their compatriots. This game makes all the character types absolutely essential, and the puzzle solver will get as many kicks in this game as the guys looking for the action.
The game includes a set of tables with locations and hostiles that allowed me to put together an adventure , complete with NPCs and locations, in about an hour. The demon is one of the first things one must choose when putting together a game because they have a tremendous effect on the style of game that will be played, as well as inspire all sorts of ideas from their unique modus operandi.
At the same time, I can see where folks that like their RPGs completely free form may call this formulaic because it has a certain pattern or rhythm to it. I cannot completely disagree since the game was designed in that way and it is one of the things that I find attractive about it, since it helps in making adventures and getting to the action quicker. Certainly the game can be run with a much wider scope but I do not believe it could (or necessarily would want to) support that sort of game play without modification since cash and equipment are fairly abstracted and the book itself is designed for the type of scenarios described above. Since I am taking the book at face value it does prevent the game from getting a perfect score in this category.
Rating; 4/5
Total Score; 4.6/5
On a side note, I find this the perfect game for me at this particular stage in my life – wife, kids, job, etc. Games happen here and there, wherever time can be spared. Its hard to get people together. Dread allows you to play a full game, one with a number of action scenes, investigation, suspense, and big fight at the end, in one afternoon, one game session. If you are only meeting once every 4 – 6 weeks, this is absolutely fantastic. It’s like an episode of your favorite show, and there isn’t so much worry about remembering obscure campaign components, even though all your games could revolve around a central campaign/theme. Although I didn’t calculate this into the general review of the game because it applies only to others in a similar situation as I am, it is a very positive aspect of the game that bears mention.
I hope you enjoyed this review and if you'd like more information about this particular game or some of the sourcebooks or expansions coming out you can visit Dread at www.dread-rpg.com.
