[Dread: The First Book of Pandemonium] Fight Fire With Firepower

[rafael]

FIGHT FIRE WITH FIREPOWER

On August 23rd, I ran a game of Dread: The First Book Of Pandemonium with a bunch of total strangers. Well, except for one guy, this dude named Huey. I met him at Trinoc*coN. Turns out Huey's been playing the first edition of Dread for years. He asked me if I'd be interested in running a session with the new-edition rules. I said sure, so we all got together and I met the crew. There were seven of them. I'd never run a game of Dread with a group that big. Usually, I play with three or four people. In addition, we only had two hours to play (from 9pm to 11pm), and we spent twenty minutes on character creation. So that left me with an hour and forty minutes to get the bloodbath going.

This actual play report is based on my recollection of the scenario, but I've passed the link on to the gaming group, so that they may post corrections or additions here if necessary. I think I did a pretty good job of taking notes during the game session, though.

Notes: This is a shortened version of what transpired. Also, the demons aren't really described in great deal in this write-up, because it's not as important as what the players were doing.

ABOUT DREAD: THE FIRST BOOK OF PANDEMONIUM

Dread is a horror-action game about demon hunters called Disciples. Each Disciple was rescued from a life of failure or misery by a shadowy figured called a Mentor (whom most Disciples assume to be an angel of some kind). Disciples are taught the use of magic, and sent out to whip demon ass. The game runs on a simple d12-based system: the value of your attribute (or skill, or whatever) determines the number of d12s that you roll. You look at the highest number, and if you beat it, you're successful.

Fury is a resource that can help you during gameplay. By killing points of Fury, you can:
* Roll the dice again if you didn't like the result
* Recover from injuries immediately ("It was a flesh wound.")
* Perform crazy stunts like the Cock Punch and Middle Wayne (explained later)

THE CHARACTERS

Each character listed here has a short backstory and a Discipline (which is an area of focus: either Combat, Investigation, or Sorcery).

The characters were:
Doc, a disgraced doctor (Sorcery)
Iceman, a former special-forces soldier who suffers from PTSD (Combat)
Kuroctuk, a Klingon-obsessed Trekkie (Combat)
Phaze, a teenaged computer hacker (Investigation)
Skidmarx, an electrical engineer (Investigation)
The Great Wakini, a stage magician who accidentally killed his assistant (Sorcery)
Whisper, a professional cat burglar (Combat)

The characters were played by Matt Sayre, David Oswalt, Larry Pischke, Huey Hoague, Brian Jones, Andy (whose last name eludes me at the moment), and Greg Stopka, respectively.

HOOK

The hook is the introduction to the scenario, which I read aloud to the group:

"It's hotter than hell out. Sweat beads on your skin, slides off, sizzles on the pavement. Dogs don't run, they walk. Then they collapse on the shady part of the sidewalk, ribs heaving. Everything stinks. The garbage guys are on strike, and the trash is piling up on the streets. You're starting to get used to the smell. It's hard to act civilized in weather like this. The city feels like a prison just before a bloody riot, the kind where old grudges get worked out and snitches get beaten to death in the laundry room, the kind of shitstorm where guards just start sniping from the watchtowers for the hell of it. It's hotter than hell, but somebody's getting ready to turn up the heat. Time to gear up and go to work."

TRIGGER

Word on the street was that there was a fire at a nightclub last night. Three dead. One shot to death, one dead from smoke inhalation, one trampled in the stampede. All three were burned by the fire. All three had been partially eaten. Only the 'cooked' portions of the bodies were consumed. The bite marks weren't human, and the forensic experts couldn't identify them.

INVESTIGATION

Phaze, the hacker, cracked the police database and accessed crime scene photos. Doc had a contact who worked at the morgue, so he took a few of the guys with him and they checked out the bodies. The corpses reeked of orange rind, and the burned portions of the bodies were coated with a clear fluid that smelled like oranges. It was determined to be some kind of saliva.

Skidmarx hit the crime scene with the other half of the crew. The cops didn't want to let them in, but Skidmarx posed as an insurance investigator and used his Empathy skill to convince the police to let them in. Skidmarx found that although the security camera was fried, the computer that it was attached to had escaped the worst of the fire. He yanked the hard drive and got it back to headquarters, where he used his Engineering skill to fix the damage and get it into his own computer.

Security footage showed a gunfight between two men at the nightclub. A spilled drink, some hard words, and one shot the other. The place cleared out, and a man was trampled in the panic. Immediately, waves of fire blasted through the club, knocking the shooter down and setting his legs aflame. The three men in the club -- one dead, two unconscious, burned for a few minutes, and then the flames around them died down. Two demons appeared. They knelt down and tore into the burned bodies with their gigantic teeth.

Whisper used his Crime skill to investigate the nightclub. He found a drop of blood, and carefully brought it back to the headquarters. Kuroctuk found an animal tooth a few meters from the nightclub. Doc analyzed it, and they found that the blood was not human, and that it contained traces of bovine growth hormone. Further analysis indicated that the tooth was a fragment of a cow molar.

Phaze was monitoring police email traffic, and found something interesting. Word on the wire was that the NTF (Narcotics Task Force) had been suspended on suspicion of collaboration with a known crime syndicate. There were allegations of bribery, drug trafficking, and murder.

The Cabal elected to hit the Wharrion Foods slaughterhouse at the edge of town, as this was the most likely candidate.

CONFLICT

As they group approached the slaughterhouse in their van (with Skidmarx driving), they were attacked by two cars full of Syndicate hit men. One of the cars rammed the van, so Doc opened fire with his shotgun. Kuroctuk whipped out his bat'leth (a Klingon sword) and jumped out the back of the van. He landed on the roof of a car and started stabbing. He rolled a 12, 11, 7, 2, 2, 1, 1 against the Syndicate guy's 12, 6, 3. Since they both rolled 12s, we moved on to the next dice -- and 11 against a 6. The 11 was higher, so Kuroctuk hit, and the damage was 5 (11-6). The bat'leth did an additinoal 2 points of damage, sothe passenger was decapitated (which Larry described in gruesome detail).

Whisper climbed up through the sunroof and cast Stratus (a spell that allows you to leap great distances). He jumped about thirty feet and landed on the roof of the sedan, next to Kuroctuk, and he stabbed the driver through the windshield with his katana.

At this point, with both Syndicate guys dead, the sedan was out of control. Whisper and Kuroctuk jumped off and rolled on the highway, but the sedan was headed straight for the rest of the Cabal in the van.

Iceman flung open the side door of the van and hurled himself out, into the path of the oncoming sedan. He cast Anvil, a spell that turns your skin to metal and makes you immune to metal weapons. It was a stunt so crazy that it had to work. The sedan banged into him, then bounced back. He managed to keep the guys in the van from taking any damage in the collision.

The Great Wakini saw that the drivers of the other sedan were shooting with automatic weapons, so he jumped out the back of the van, landed on top of their car, and cast Jade. This turned his hands into glowing green blades, which he rammed through the windshield into the driver. The blades, being intangible, caused no damage, but they paralyzed the driver.

After the dust settled, the Cabal dragged the driver into the slaughterhouse and held him under the pressure-bolt. They interrogated him, but just to be safe, Wakini cast Confession on him. The hit man said that the NTF was meeting with the Syndicate in this slaughterhouse (which had been closed because of an outbreak of mad cow disease), and that they were supposed to be hammering out a plan of action to deal with the Internal Affairs investigation. Instead, however, the Syndicate had sent these two cars full of hitmen to set up an ambush and take out the NTF to tie up all loose ends.

Iceman hid all the vehicles while the rest of the Cabal set up an ambush along the slaughterhouse catwalks. Phaze and Skidmarx took up position in the control room, where they monitored the area with security cameras.

TAKEDOWN

The Cartel sedans arrived, soon followed by the NTF officers in a pair of unmarked police cruisers. They drove into the slaughterhouse through the back gate. The group leaders began to discuss their plan of action while the rest looked on, guns at the ready. After a few minutes, the Syndicate hitmen all ducked behind their cars. They looked up, confused, when nothing happened. The NTF, realizing what was going on, opened fire. A gun battle broke out, with both sides taking cover behind their cars.

In the control room, Phaze and Skidmarx suddenly smelled a sharp citrus odor, like a freshly-peeled orange. Phaze saw black flames curling out of the wall behind Skidmarx and opened fire with his pistol. Skidmarx cast Frostbite and hit the demon with a blast of ice. The demon attacked them, slashing with its claws as  Kuroctuk raced towards them to give support.

On the ground below, behind the NTF officers, the second demon began to materialize. They rest of the Cabal attacked. Wakini executed a Cock Punch, which is a dirty, underhanded combat maneuver that enables you to swipe the highest die from the Director's roll and add it to your own dice pool. In this case, it was a 12.

Iceman executed a Middle Wayne, which is a brutal and sadistic maneuver. When you pull a Middle Wayne, it doesn't matter if you roll higher or lower than the Director -- the demon takes damage either way. Iceman attacked with his hatchet, hooked it behind the demon's neck, pulled the demon forward, and chopped at the demon's skull. The other Disciples attacked, and the demon was killed.

Above, Kuroctuk attacked the demon with his bat'leth, and it responded with waves of black fire. Skidmarx yanked electrical wire out of the wall, then executed a Clusterfuck and rammed the still-sparking wire into the demon's back. The demon smashed Kuroctuk and Skidmarx, inflicting serious damage to Skidmarx. Kuroctuk executed a Cock Punch, wrapping the wire around the demon's neck and leaping off the catwalk while bear-hugging the demon. On the way down, he rammed his blade into the demon's body and tore through it like a pirate with his dagger in the sail. He sustained damage, but the demon was killed.

By this time, the Syndicate hit men and the NTF cops had killed each other, so the Disciples cleared out of the area and headed back to headquarters to await their next assignment.

WHAT WENT WELL

Combat was pretty quick and dirty. The fights were loud and crazy, but didn't take too long. Which was good, with seven combatants in different locations.

The stunts were a hit. The group really took to them, and I was impressed by the (sadistic) creativity that they displayed.

WHAT DIDN'T GO SO WELL

It was tough to get everyone an opportunity to shine with so many players. Usually, I run Dread with a gaming group of three people. At cons, I run it for three or four players. Seven was a challenge, particularly with the time constraints. So, I truncated the scenario and tried to keep the action moving.

It wasn't we started playing that I recognized the parallels to Predator 2. The players caught it pretty quickly, too. But, you know what? I liked that movie. It's one of the most quotable movies I've ever seen. And it has Gary "Teeth" Busey. Who doesn't love Busey? Anyhow, I'll make changes to the scenario the next time I run it.

-- Rafael

[Ron Edwards]

Hi Rafael,

This is a great opportunity to ask about the differences between the current version of the game and the version I played back in, whatever it was, four and a half years ago. I'd like to know! Partly because looking at your current play account, it seems pretty similar, in a good way. I always liked this game.

Best, Ron

[rafael]

This is a great opportunity to ask about the differences between the current version of the game and the version I played back in, whatever it was, four and a half years ago. I'd like to know! Partly because looking at your current play account, it seems pretty similar, in a good way. I always liked this game.

Hi, Ron,

Thanks!

The new version of Dread (the Unrated Edition, if you can believe that) includes some new features:
* Fury
* Kicking Ass
* Objectives
* Retirement

Fury
Fury is a resource, similar to Redemption in the original version of Dread. Fury starts at 12 points. During gameplay, you can kill points of Fury to shrug off injuries, roll again, score an automatic success, or Kick Ass (see below). At the beginning of each game session, your Fury goes back up to 12.

Kicking Ass
There are numerous stunts that you can execute by killing points of Fury. By kicking ass, you can perform all kinds of tricks, like swiping the Director's highest die and adding it to your own pool. Each instance of ass-kicking requires an elaborate description, usually of a sadistic or extremely risky attack. These stunts allow even a relatively weak character to bust out some pretty awesome moves in combat (but only a few times).

Objectives
There are four objectives in each session of Dread. They're worth three points of Fury each. Objectives are actions that aren't necessarily tied directly to the goal of the mission (which is killing the demon), but completing them would make the world a better place. For example, rescuing a cop from Mafia hit men isn't going to help you exorcise and kill the demon, but if you put yourself at risk to save his life, then everyone in the Cabal gets 3 points of Fury. This can come in handy as you get closer to the takedown at the end of the session.

Retirement
When your character's Life reaches 0, he or she dies. But death isn't immediate. First, you go into Retirement, which means that your Life goes back up to the maximum (12), and your Fury goes up to double the maximum (24). At this point, your character can shrug off damage that would ordinarily be immediately fatal, and s/he can perform all kinds of insane stunts without breaking a sweat. Like the mortally injured Samurai who can still perform one last act of bravery, your Disciple has just enough strength left to close out the case before dying.

The book also features about 100 pages of new material, including new spells, new demons, GMing advice, two full-length scenarios, and an all-new backstory. Almost all of the artwork is new (I only kept three pieces), and the layout has been improved pretty drastically.

So Dread has changed quite a bit in the five years since I first released it!

I'm happy to answer any other questions about the new edition here, so just let me know.

-- Rafael

[Ron Edwards]

Hi Rafael,

Is Redemption gone, then? That'd be interesting - it'd mean that the only thing left to the characters is to go all-out in an emotional surge, basically to flame-out in the cause of Good or at least in the interest of a given victimized innocent, or relative innocent. No personal benefit/fate at all.

Am I getting it?

About the session you described, were the characters pregenerated? I ask partly because I really liked the disgraced doctor character in my Dread game all those years ago, but also because it probably makes a difference to play. Character creation in Dread is pretty personal, as in most of the "begin as greasy loser with a ray of hope" games.

It also seems to me as if the demon went down really fast. As I recall, the Dread demons were incredibly dangerous opponents, and it was likely that at least one player-character wouldn't make it through a fight with one. Can you speak to that, i.e., did I get the wrong impression about this play session, or maybe, the outcome was due to some really good rolls, or whatever?

Best, Ron

P.S. I always thought Predator 2 was under-loved, too. Some of it is bog stupid, but the spine is great.

[rafael]

Hi, Ron,

Is Redemption gone, then? That'd be interesting - it'd mean that the only thing left to the characters is to go all-out in an emotional surge, basically to flame-out in the cause of Good or at least in the interest of a given victimized innocent, or relative innocent. No personal benefit/fate at all.

Am I getting it?

Yeah, exactly. The gameplay progresses inexorably towards a big awesome death scene for your character.

About the session you described, were the characters pregenerated? I ask partly because I really liked the disgraced doctor character in my Dread game all those years ago, but also because it probably makes a difference to play. Character creation in Dread is pretty personal, as in most of the "begin as greasy loser with a ray of hope" games.

The players were using their first-edition characters. We spent maybe twenty minutes converting them to the new edition (most of which time was taken up by looking over all of the new spells). But the characters all fit that pattern of "disposable scum-of-the-earth heroes with nothing left to lose". I can't remember if Matt's disgraced doctor was a coke fiend or what, but somehow, he had hit rock bottom.

It also seems to me as if the demon went down really fast. As I recall, the Dread demons were incredibly dangerous opponents, and it was likely that at least one player-character wouldn't make it through a fight with one. Can you speak to that, i.e., did I get the wrong impression about this play session, or maybe, the outcome was due to some really good rolls, or whatever?

No, you're dead on. This was an anomalous session.

In this particular example, even with two demons, a group of seven players were able to do some pretty solid damage pretty quickly. It's also worth noting that three of them had the Discipline of Combat, which meant that they were extremely capable fighters. In a regular session (maybe four hours long), I would have put the group through a hell of a lot more action prior to the fight, and there may have been a third demon to even things up a bit, but we only had the hour-and-a-half. Furthermore, a typical Cabal has a single fighter (although there's no reason that you couldn't have all the Disciples in your group take the Discipline of Combat, I've observed that more often than not, players want to make sure that the group has all the Disciplines covered).

In my regular gaming sessions, it's me and three players, and when I run the game at a con, it's me and two-to-four players. The sessions run about three or four hours, so there's time for some brawling with crooked cops or Yakuza prior to the battle with the demon. The characters take some pretty serious damage, and someone usually Retires, or comes very close.

-- Rafael