Malignant Games needs playtesters for its role-playing game of modern horror, Dread. For information, visit the company site at www.dread-rpg.com, or send mail to info@dread-rpg.com. We're interested in your feedback. Lots of good ideas on this forum, damned good ideas, and we're looking forward to your reactions.

Game information:

Dread is a game of modern horror, in which players assume the role of Disciples, desperate men and women with nothing left to lose. Their mission, inculcated by the group's Mentor, is to wage war against an onslaught of demonic entities hell-bent on seizing this world for their own. Game elements include hamartiology, sciomancy, the Rephaim, diablerie, the Grail, cathexis, and sawed-off shotguns.

The game asks a question: After years of throwing away good things, of screwing up second and third chances, of burning bridges, of failing time and again, can one still find redemption on the battlefield?

The Disciples are individuals who have given up. Depression, lost love, substance abuse, self-destructive impulses, neuroses, and selfishness have boxed them into corners, into a dark place where the phone doesn't ring, utilities are cut off, people cross the street to stay well clear, and it always rains. Somehow, all the promises of youth, all the aspirations and dreams, all the desires for glory and fulfillment, have failed to manifest themselves.

In this cold hell of ruin and frustration, a solitary figure intruded: the Mentor. Unsympathetic and harsh, she nonetheless spoke a satisfyingly hard dictum of discipline and valor. The words struck a chord, and after all that has transpired, the characters have learned that there is still a chance.

There is still an opportunity to live a life with meaning. The new life, a life of war, may well permit a chance to redeem a life of missed opportunities and failed gambits. The new life may afford a reason to live again.

The new life will probably end in great anguish, amidst screams and gunfire.

That is the nature of Dread.

If you have any questions, I'm happy to answer them here, or via private message, or via email. Thanks for permitting this.

[.deadguy.]

Interesting. Setting blurb reminds me [quite vaguely] of Armageddon (the game, not the movie, obviously) and WitchCraft. What's the system like?

it's simple, i think. a simple system.

i initially designed the game to be something that could be learned in a few minutes (more or less), something that my friends (who'd never gamed before) and girlfriend (who'd little experience with rpgs) could pick up and play in an afternoon.

so it uses nothing but the d6. all skills, attributes, and abilities range from 1 to 6, as do difficulty levels. roll a number of dice equal to your attribute or skill, and shoot for the target difficulty. it's something like other games you've seen, i'm sure. level advancement (so to speak) relies on redemption. act with valor, risk your life, and earn redemption. spend redemption points to augment skills and pick up new contacts. attributes can be raised, but this requires a hell of a lot of redemption.

in addition, you can spend redemption in single doses. instead of spending 5 redemption points to raise your anthropology skill by one point, you spend a single redemption point for an extra die. say you've simply got to shoot this guy before he gets to you, or you are going to die. so you spend that redemption point, and you get to roll an extra die when you attack. this basically lets players decide when they get a little lucky.

i'm butchering this, but i am at work. if you have any questions, let me know. basically, the system makes gameplay simple, and (on paper) encourages the players to develop noble or heroic characters.

is this making sense?

[.deadguy.]