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Dread: The First Book of Pandemonium is an excellent pick for a demon-hunting blast ‘em up game -- simple mechanics, graphic but effective magic, and highly original and evocative demons to track down in a modern setting. A potentially high mortality rate could make longer term campaigns somewhat problematic. Some organizational and layout issues make it somewhat more of a challenge to use than it should be. The website for Dread and other Neoplastic products, downloads, and a forum are located here.

Physical

The book is a nice hefty size. 280 pages. The binding in my copy is excellent and has taken a lot of handling with no ill effects. Space is well used. There is enough white space for easy reading. Good use and organization of artwork and text make this easy to read and follow…for the most part. My one complaint in this area is that there are a few too many pages of full-page art. While it adds to the atmosphere and feel of the work, it interrupts the flow of some of the sections.

Due to various reasons, the previous “Screaming Face” cover usually shown with these reviews has been changed. I’ve included the new cover above. It’s very nice, and I definitely prefer it. The interior artwork is generally much improved from the first edition of the game. A mixture of black and white photography and artwork are well done and selected. There are some poor pieces, but these are in the minority. The artwork related to demons is well done, ranging from stylized to graphically realistic.

The book has a very thorough Table of Contents, and a more abbreviated Index. You occasionally have to look a bit to find a particular detail, which was sometimes frustrating.

There are two supplements planned for Dread. The first is called “Pent” and is scheduled to be released in the very near future. It will cover the Angels of the Dread universe, and in many ways the Angels are scarier than the Demons. The next is called “Spite” and should be released in mid-2008.

Contents

Guts and Fluff. The fluff in Dread is very well done. These are short, fictional vignettes topically related to the sections where they are found, and provide a graphic illustration of the tone and topic under discussion. The writing is well done. There are various additional quotes, passages, etc. scattered through the various chapter pieces. I want to stress that the writing in these sections is quite good. I actually would like to see a novel incorporating the characters and situations presented. They really help establish a mood and feel for the game, as well as insight on how to incorporate the game's thematic concepts into your campaign.

The guts of the rules are generally well written, although tighter organization could have helped. I’ve decided to discuss the game as you would see it while looking through the book, covering the various mechanics as they come up.

So, on to the chapters:

1. Pandemonium – background of the setting. What the players know going in. This is our world, set today. Well, except that there are demons. As a result of this, the world is actually a bit darker and more violent, although this is up to the GM. How widespread general knowledge of the demons is remains up to the GM as well.

   This change occurred on the night of Sunday May 13 in Haywood, Oklahoma. They went to bed that night. The next morning the entire population was dead. Slaughtered or suicide. Some of the deaths were extremely gruesome. Suspicion began with some type of gas attack by terrorists, but no evidence could be found to support this. It was inconceivable…until it happened again. At various locations around the world, the scene repeated itself. Since then, unexplained disappearances and phenomena have increased, as has seemingly pointless violence.

   Characters have suffered tragedy before the game begins. Through circumstances beyond their control (or not beyond their control), they have reached the nadir of their lives. Things couldn’t be much worse, until something not of this world tried to kill them, or something unexplainable happened, and someone was there to save them. To take them in and bring them back. A Mentor to train them and give them purpose again. The Mentor made them part of a group with other Disciples like themselves, called a Cabal. The Mentor also explained the truth of May 13; that on that night the barriers between Earth and Hell dropped briefly. The same occurred later in other locations, releasing an unknown number of Demons into the world. As a Cabal, they form a team of Disciples specializing in fighting the Demons now threatening the world.

2. Overview of Dread – how the mechanics work, how things fit together, ways to approach the game. The basic mechanics involve only d12 dice. You roll a number of them equivalent to whatever you’re testing. If you’re rolling for your 3 Strength, you roll 3d12. Compare the highest roll to the GM-assigned difficulty to determine success. Identical results on the dice rolls provide a bonus. If you roll 3,6,6 then you actually have a (6+1) or 7. A roll of 2,8,8,8,9 would give (8+2) or 10. If rolling against another character, you compare highest rolls.

3. Character Creation – details on how to create a character. There are 4 basic parts to characters. Attributes, Skills, Disciplines and Magic.

   Attributes are broad: Strength, Sense and Soul. Two of them will be on scale with normal people, one will be superhuman. This will reflect how your character ‘adapted’ to his initial recruitment and training to become a Disciple. This attribute will also determine which Discipline your character follows: Combat (for Strength), Lore (for Sense) or Sorcery (for Soul.)

   Skills are also broad and intended to cover a variety of individual abilities. Example skills include: Computer Use, Crime, Hunting, Medicine, etc. You can also include a personalized Profession skill. These skills are individualized through context with your character. A former police officer with the Crime skill will be operating under different assumptions than a former carjacker. I have to say that this approach to skills worked very well for our group, and this falls into a good zone for me in terms of how skills should work in games. There is still a wide variety, but they are customizable without adding a lot of special rules and caveats or modifiers.

   Disciplines are the core of your character. Combat characters are effective killing machines, and can mow through normal opponents (normal opponents do not include demons.) They are not unstoppable, though, as we have had players discover. Lore characters tend to have high skill scores. They are sources of information, identifying targets, researching background and they tend to be highly skilled. Sorcery characters are the non-physical powerhouses. They will have more magic than the others, and are the only ones who can actually Exorcise demons without killing the host. While these are strong and well-defined niches, even within them there is room for customization and individuality. Our group had two Combat Disciples, but with very different approaches and specialties. One was oriented toward stealth and surprise, while the other was a former Green Beret type of character. Both proved very useful in their own ways, and there seemed to be no problems with “niche protection”.

   Magic is available to all characters. Non-Sorcery characters will have a more limited number of spells, but there are an incredibly useful variety of spells for any type of character. See the Magic section (next) for more details on how Magic operates.

   There are two mechanics present that were added for the second addition. “Rage” and “Retirement.” Every PC has 12 points of “Rage” at the beginning of each scenario. These points will tend to come and go. They are used in combat for moves to give you an edge. ‘Second Chance’ allows you to reroll. ‘Middle Wayne’ (a reference to the tendency of serial killers to have the middle name of Wayne), gives you two extra dice for damage if you describe a particularly merciless combat maneuver worthy of the name. If the GM agrees, then you roll with your two extra dice and the GM also rolls. Regardless of who rolls the highest, the damage is inflicted on your opponent. There are others.

   If your character falls below zero life points, he “Retires.” He rubs dirt on the wound, slaps a bandage on it, and returns to the fight. He’s living on borrowed time and he knows it. He immediately gains full Life and double Fury points, and gets to pick exactly how he’s going to go out.

   Two final parts of character creation are “Drive” and “Contacts”. You look over your character and decide what drives him. What nearly destroyed his life, and what he lives to fight for or against. Whenever his drive applies to a particular action, he gets an extra die. You also get to start off with contacts. The book doesn’t say how many, but from the sample characters it looks like you start off with two contacts.

   Advancement is very simple. At the bottom of the character sheet are thirteen circles. After every session, you put an ‘X’ in one. Once all thirteen circles are full, you can add a new spell or skill, or add a point to an existing skill. If you don’t play as often, you can adjust this (perhaps allowing two ‘X’s per session.) This seems slow, but Disciples start off extremely capable in the first place.

4. Magic – how to use magic and full spell descriptions. If there are two really original areas where Dread shines, it is in the area of Magic and Demons. Spells are powerful and useful, and none are wasted. There are spells that let you absorb the skill of another person for a minute. Spells to make a stranger think you are their best friend, or make a politician speak the truth in response to a question for 10 seconds without being able to stop. Often the spells are rather graphic. If you want to make an impression, have your abdomen rip open and attack with gleaming snakes and lamprey-like creatures from within. There are 30 pages of spells, all with thorough descriptions and examples of how they can be used in the game.

5. Exorcism – A short section covering the different methods of removing demons. There are three types of demons; hunters, defilers and stalkers. Defilers are the ones that possess people, and so can’t be killed without killing the host. Only exorcism can be used to drive the demon out. This really applies only to Defiler demons, since they are the only type to possess their victims. Although these demons can be killed by killing the possessed victim, the possibility of a demon possessing an inanimate object makes exorcism indispensable. There are several different types of exorcism, appropriate to different circumstances. Some are tougher on the victim than others, but most leave the victim alive. Only a character specializing in Magic will be able to perform exorcisms.

6. Combat – how to kill things. Combat in Dread is very fast and potentially very deadly. There is not a lot of number crunching. This entire section is 5 pages, not including the fluff text. What combat comes down to is rolling Strength vs. Strength. The loser takes the difference as damage. Weapons provide a bonus, but the bulk comes down to the skill rolls. Weapon damage ranges from about 1-4, with a 4 being for an assault rifle. Armor is a bit more complex, but not much. You roll dice equal to the armor rating, and dice rolled under the armor value will absorb damage. It degrades rapidly, differently from many systems. There are various modifiers included for things like range, cover, vehicles, but they are similarly straightforward. I’m not very happy with how armor works, frankly. It seems overly complex next to the rest of the rules. I think a simple deduction of damage points based on armor type would be easier and more in line with the rest of the mechanics.

7. Gameplay – an actual play snippet. A transcript from a game Rafael Chandler ran, followed by a few notes on what he thought worked and why. A short, nice touch and useful for GMs. It provides a feel for how the games runs in actual play, and provides a good example of one of the types of play that work well with this game.

8. Quickstart – quick start at the end. Since it was assumed the GM read up to this point, this section gives pointers on how to start a game in short order. Since this is a section intended for players as well, it was included here at the end of the player’s section rather than in with the GM section. As the GM, you’ve read the book, have a group and want to run an introductory scenario. It tells you what to aim for, how to put it together quickly, provides a handful of sample PCs and quick notes on how the players can finish them up so you can play. Another interesting touch I haven’t seen in other games. A prime piece of advice is to make this introductory scenario a Total Party Kill…and to let the players know this in advance. Helps set up the proper frame of mind.

9. Appendix – Oddly enough, the Appendix occurs at about the halfway point of the book. I assume this is because it is at the end of the section open to players. The remainder of the book is intended for GMs. The Appendix Is short, and contains a pronunciation guide to many of the words (particularly spell names) found in the book. There’s also a glossary of terms. This section would have been more useful at the end of the book, perhaps just before the index, which I assume the players will be using as well. This is an awkward location for it.

10. Direction – This is the beginning of the GM section. It starts with an in-depth look at how to put together a scenario. Everything from trigger events to pacing to atmosphere. This is very well done and I found it very useful. It discusses one-shots vs. multi-session games to actual campaigns. Very practical advice and suggestions.

11. History – This is a relatively short section that sketches out the truth of what’s going on. If you’ve heard anything of the background provided in the first edition, disregard it. The background and setup for Dread has been revised rather drastically. It’s much simpler and yet gives the GM more to work with. I won’t go into detail for obvious reasons.

12. Demons – This is the single longest chapter in the book, and it’s where Dread really shines. It starts off discussing the different types of demons, what demons are like in a general sense and how they should be presented to players. There is a description what it’s like to be around them and it discusses the general behavior of the different types of demons. There are three general types of demons: Defilers, who possess their victims; Hunters, predators that maim, kill and devour their human prey; and Stalkers, who haunt and torment their victims. Demons are tough. They’re not something a single PC can face and defeat, and even with a full Cabal it’s not unusual to lose a PC when facing one. If you play longer campaigns, you might want to tone them down just a bit. In addition to being very tough and often very smart, they have their own equivalent to ‘Rage’ called ‘Fury’ that can wreak havoc on their opponents. They usually have their own special abilities as well. These special abilities are often the single biggest challenge facing the Disciples, since they tend to represent the core nature of the demon and are often quite unexpected.

    The chapter then goes on to describe in detail forty-one different demons. Each demon is described using stats and often an appropriate picture. These pictures vary from realistic to stylized. There are then sections describing the appearance of the demon, its pattern of behavior, and ways it can be fought. Most demons get a full page of description, while a few get more.

    This chapter is the heart of Dread, and what really lets it stand out. Even if you don’t intend to run Dread, the book is worth purchasing just for this chapter. You can easily take these demons and work them into just about any other game (well, any other game that uses demons.) This was my favorite section in the first edition, and I was very please to see it expanded even further.

13. Scenarios – This section actually contains more than scenarios. It includes a number of hooks that you can build scenarios around. It includes two full scenarios. It provides a random scenario generator, perfect for spur-of-the-moment pick up games. There is also a graphic method of summarizing the important details of a scenario called the “Death Spiral.” It’s a series of boxes that contain location info, what can be obtained at that location, whether a battle is likely to occur there, and the associated NPCs. Sort of a one page summary that’s convenient to have at hand.

    The full scenarios are detailed and have all the information you need. They’re not railroads, and allow for a number of solutions and degrees of success. This is a good thing, because I screwed up the one I was running, and it was flexible enough to allow me some type of recovery.

    Actual Play

    So, that’s the book. I wrote this review as an actual playtest, so now I want to describe how the game went for my group. I admit that I hadn’t read it through thoroughly when we started. I had run the first edition and didn’t expect this one to be much different. Overall, it wasn’t. However, it was different enough in the details that I should have read it more closely first. The game would have gone more smoothly if I had. I’ll also say up front that I made a mistake as I ran this scenario. It was a careless mistake and I should have known better. I didn’t familiarize myself thoroughly with the demon involved. In the back of my mind, I was thinking of the demon from the first scenario I ran a few years ago, which was a highly combat-oriented demon. I’ll detail this error in a bit.

    In the first session we made characters and got underway. We only had one book, and although character creation itself went quickly (even for players who had not played my first edition game a few years back), spell selection took quite awhile. There are about 82 spells, and each player needed to go through them and decide on the ones that best fit their character. A summary listing of spells and effects would be helpful as a handout to speed things up. Apart from this, everything else was very straightforward, and it took little time for everyone to complete their characters. We began play with two combat specialists. One was an ex-merc—big, tough and with an impressive arsenal. The other was more an assassin-type, agile and stealthy. We had one scholar, something of a hacker-type and one mage.

    There were a few occasions where we had to stop and look up the rule to handle a specific situation. Now, normally I tend to handwave my way through these situations, but I was deliberately giving the rules a workout. There were a few items I had trouble finding and decided that they were simply not addressed. Afterward, I went back to verify these and did find where they were covered. Obviously, this might have been my fault, but I suspect the organization could be somewhat improved. A more thorough index might also address this issue. This organizational issue was the primary complaint voiced by my group.

    Combat itself went quickly and easily, apart from a speedbump caused by getting a handle on the armor rules. Players used Rage to gain advantage, and were creative in their combat tactics. The scholar’s magic was primarily defensive, so he usually turtled and called out advice. The mage made creative use of his spells. The game did seem to encourage finding imaginative ways to approach tasks. My players in this game were much less…confrontational…than in the first game I ran. I think this game definitely benefits from a “kick in the door” approach, rather than being hesitant and trying too hard to be subtle.

    The demon in this scenario was a Defiler, specializing in manipulation. Remembering the previous, more combat-oriented demon, I misjudged its reactions and allowed a physical confrontation that the demon should have worked to avoid. This lead to what should have the climactic battle with the demon occurring at about halfway through the planned scenario. Luckily, although they killed the demon, its machinations were still underway.

    The real climax occurred as they stormed the compound of a paramilitary group, and they got to see how they performed against vastly superior odds. They also learned that they weren’t invincible. One PC didn’t take a shotgun seriously and paid for it, giving us a chance to see how “Retirement” worked. He wrapped duct tape around his chest, got a clean shirt, and headed out for his final showdown.

    Overall, the players enjoyed the game. One felt that the rules were actually too simple, and preferred more complexity. I feel that the only other real complaints stemmed from my problems. I didn’t thoroughly familiarize myself with the rule changes, and misjudged character creation time due to the spell selection issue. I think a second game would go much more smoothly.

    Summary

    Overall, I would rate Dread: The First Book of Pandemonium a solid ‘4’ in substance. This is generally the highest I will rate any game that doesn’t totally blow me away. Dread has a lot of excellent ideas, and provides exactly what it sets out to provide. An episodic, action-filled demon-hunting game in a modern setting. I’m tempted to go ahead with a ‘5’ just based on how well it succeeds at its goal. I think it could stand some tightening in the rules, perhaps a bit more robust set of mechanics, different armor rules, and another editing pass to reach a ‘5’, though. If the rating scale were finer, I would rate it higher than the same '4' that I gave first edition, due to the improved background, expanded information on Demons and Spells, and overall expansion of the material provided in the first edition.

    I would rate it a ‘3’ in presentation. There’s a lot of material and it’s sometimes difficult to find what you need. There are a few instances of “See page 110” when it should have been “See page 114”. The index could be more complete. I wish I could have rated it a ‘4’ as well, but there is room for improvement. Similarly to above, if the scale were finer I would rate it higher than the same '3' I gave the first edition. Although the artwork is much improved, the organizational problems weigh against it to an extent. This is a much more ambitious book than the first edition, so the bar was also set somewhat higher.