Dread Actual Play

OK, so I just joined a new gaming group a few months ago. We’ve been rotating GMs every month or so give or take a week as the guy who’d been GMing when I started playing had been getting burnt out.

When my turn comes around I usually run Dreamwalker. In fact, they told me to always bring my Dreamwalker stuff in case the current GM doesn’t want to run so I can throw in a quick one-shot.

But, I’m not writing to talk about Dreamwalker. A few weeks ago the current GM canceled at the last minute which left an opening. I have been pushing Dread for a while now and after re-explaining the concept (and despite some grumbling and initial skepticism) the players made characters.

We ended up with a pretty standard mix of modern day characters.

One was a tech/gadget/inventor guy who was working late one night and was attacked by a hunting demon on the way to his car. One note: the player in question HATES magic (in any game) so he finagled me into allowing him develop technological devices that simulate spells, subject to my approval.

One character was an ex-forest ranger who was wanted for the brutal murder of a group of campers. The murders were actually committed by a demon and she barely escaped with her life.

One character was an ex-pro wrestler (The Might Beetle!) :) whose life had was being manipulated by a more subtle demon when he was rescued by his mentor.

The last character was an cat burglar who witnessed a demon killing a rich old couple during one of his burglaries.

Once we got all the backgrounds hashed out, I did a sort of prelude with each of them, going over details of the stuff listed above. We also defined each character’s Drive; Drive is what spurs the character to actively go hunting demons.

After that I described their mentor, whose was a semi-wealthy businessman. I initially had a mental image of him as Giles (from BtVS) and I didn’t like that so I made him tougher, a bit more shady, basically an (ex?) mobster type. I didn’t want him to play a huge part in the session so I gave a short narrative about how he had been arrested for murder and child pornography. The game started at the county jail where he was being held without bail. One of his contacts is a guard so he was able to get the PCs in at night with little surveillance. I let them talk to him and ask questions. He swears he is innocent (he is, I think). The players don’t know anything about the guy so they really don’t know what to think.

Anyway, they were all trained so he told them to go back to the city and continue the "police work" they had begun, but to be careful. He would be in touch. The players talked about breaking him out but he said that would only be a last resort.

The players left the jail and were driving home on a lonely road when they saw headlights swerving ahead. They slowed down but were still almost hit by an oncoming car. The techie made his driving check and swerved out of harm’s way---the other car smashed head on into a telephone pole.

The PCs went to investigate and smelled gasoline leaking from the tank so they pried open the door and dug a well dressed, unconscious man out of the airbag. They smelled alcohol on him right away. He also had an unbreakable grip on a .38 revolver and they chose to empty it of bullets after trying unsuccessfully to pry it out of his hand. The forest ranger applied first aid and they called an ambulance.

While this was happening, the wrestler noticed the car’s windshield was smashed as if something had been propelled through it. He also found a pile of black ichor accompanied by a horrid stench just a short distance away.

Obviously something demonic was involved. The PCs looked around for more sign of the demon and found none and decided it had either turned invisible or become incorporeal.


Back Story

What the players didn’t know yet is that the guy in the car had been targeted by a Benassim demon (the kind that feeds of drug abusers and alcoholics, encouraging their downward spiral).

Until recently, he had been the assistant manager at a nearby bank. His teenage son was visiting him for lunch one day when the bank was robbed. The boy had been shot and killed.

Since then he had been drinking almost non-stop. He lost his job and his marriage is falling apart---his wife blames him for their son’s death. She has also started drinking and taking pills and they have been fighting constantly. He eventually chose to move out of their home and into a motel rather than fight with her night after night.

The banker has also been seeing things (the demon) and thinks he is going crazy. After getting drunk tonight and mourning his son, he took his gun, jumped into his car and drove to the jail where the bank robber was locked up, planning to take revenge.

On the way there, he started having seizures from alcohol poisoning. Fearful of losing its prey, the Benassim materialized and started drinking his blood. It was so engrossed in its feeding that it didn’t comprehend the danger it was in until too late. The car swerved and struck the telephone pole and the demon was hurled through the windshield before it could dematerialize. Injured, it left the scene of the accident as the PCs tended the banker’s wounds.


Back to the Game

OK, so the cops and ambulance came. The cops questioned the PCs (while the forest ranger hid in the woods) and they were able to learn the man’s name. The banker was brought to the hospital. He was in a coma and it didn’t look like he would make it.

The PCs took it upon themselves to learn more about the banker since they knew a demon was somehow involved. They went back to their home base in the city and "burned" a computer hacker contact who told them about the robbery, the death of the banker’s son and his staying at the motel. The PCs has actually heard about the robbery in the news.

So now there was a ton of speculation among the players. They had a host of things that could draw the interest of a demon---alcoholism, depression, guilt over the death of his son, problems at home.

That last spurred them on to check out the wife. They went to her house posing as vacuum cleaner salesmen (don’t ask!) :) and ran into her brother who said she was at the hospital where the banker (her husband) was in a coma. So they went there and found her in the waiting room. It didn’t take them long to figure out she was strung out on something as well.

They talked to her briefly. The wrestler cast Astarte (sort of a charming spell) on her and they learned that her husband had been "seeing things" that no one else could see. He never specified what and she was afraid to talk about it because she had seen something as well. The wrestler got her to agree to stop drinking and popping pills. Of course the spell has only a limited duration but it was a good start for her anyway.

So, they decided to stake out the hospital and the banker’s room for any sign of the demon. They figured it would come at night (the book doesn’t specify, but it sounded good to me). Even so, they left someone there all day.

After the talk with the wife they realized the demon must be either spectral or invisible. The techie immediately petitioned for one of his "spells"---a set of goggles that would allow him to see invisible/incorporeal demons. I agreed he could whip one of those up but limited its effectiveness somewhat so he spent all day making that.

The day passed uneventfully. At night, the wife was still in the waiting room, now with friends and family. The PCs almost got turned away after visiting hours but the wrestler again used his Astarte. The cat burglar went onto the rooftop outside the banker’s window and kept watch. Of course, it started raining. I know, I’m mean. :)

Anyway, sure enough around midnight when everything was quiet, the demon materialized in the room. The cat burglar called the others on his cell phone and then smashed through the window while the others rushed through the door. They hit the demon with a barrage of guns and spells (the mandibles erupting out of The Mighty Beetle’s stomach were particularly nasty and effective). The demon met them head on and got off a grief inducing spell and one physical attack but was pretty much overwhelmed.

Of course now the whole hospital was in an uproar. The PCs left via the broken window, ran out across the rooftops, jumped down into the parking lot, hopped into their car and escaped (although the techie busted his ass and took damage from the fall to the ground). I had a security guard confront them in the parking lot but the cat burglar neutralized him with a Confound (confusion) spell.

They made it safely back to base and slowly wound down. I wrapped up a few loose ends with the PCs hearing about the big hospital shoot out on the news, discussing things with their mentor and letting the players know that the banker was recovering (although it was going to be a long hard road for he and his wife). And that was pretty much the end of the actual session.

In post game, the players discussed a ton of things they wanted their characters to do, including following up to help the banker and his wife kick their habits. They also asked me a bunch of questions about what sort of demon they had faced and things they might have done differently.

All in all the session went into the books as a big success. It was a fast paced game that didn’t bog down and was a lot of fun. Everyone liked it despite some initial skepticism. Will we play it again? I’m pretty sure we will. I actually finished writing this recap without the book (so forgive any errors) because one of the players (the cat burglar) the wants to take over this story and run it when it’s his turn to GM. The cool thing is, I’ve got a few ideas of how to incorporate it into my Dreamwalker campaign---there are a host of demons who cause bad dreams in their victims.


Technical Notes

The game mechanics are really cool. They’re very fast in play and have about a 10 second learning curve. The rules are designed to promote fun, fast paced, cinematic action so Bell-Curvers beware. :) The short version is you roll d12s against a target number and get to add 1 for any doubles. That means for instance if you roll 5 dice against a target number of 10 and get a 3, 5, 9, 9 and 9, you succeed, because 9 + 2(for each extra 9) equals 10.

Speaking of cool, Dread employs a "cool" die which allows you to roll an extra die if you describe what you want to do in an interesting (and cool) way. This is not the first game to use a mechanic like this (Ron Edwards’ Sorcerer uses a version as well) but it’s the first game I’ve run that does and it makes for some very interesting results.

"Burning" contacts is another neat aspect of game play. The players can introduce a new contact of their choice at almost any time as long as they have experience (Redemption) points to spend. It forces you as a GM to be flexible (something I enjoy). Otherwise, the players could really throw a wrench into your plans for the evening.

The spells are really wild and unpredictable. My players couldn’t wait to spit bile, pop mandibles out of their stomachs or sick giant leeches on someone. One thing I really like about the spells is they follow no rhyme or reason. Almost all of them are unique and different and you can choose any of them from the start of the game.

By contrast, the demonic powers are stripped down to the basic mechanical effects (roll vs. x and lose # of y). I didn’t like this at first considering how full of flavor the spells were but the more I thought about it, the more I liked it. It allows you to tailor demonic powers toward individual demons.

For instance, in the encounter with this demon, it used a power that caused feelings of guilt in its victim (the wrestler). I had this manifest as a sudden memory of an ex-girlfriend who had committed suicide via overdosing when the PC broke up with her. Benassim demons know all about overdosing---a different demon uses the same power and the guilt would manifest in a different way.

As to the actual effect, being able to tailor it to the PC makes it that much more personal. Was this a memory or just part of power? I don’t know. It’s ultimately up to the player to decide as far as I’m concerned but the fact is it opened up a whole story line if he wants to pursue it.

Now to be honest, I mentioned some initial skepticism from my players when I first started pitching Dread. I got a lot of "why not just play Hunter (tR)" comments. By the end of the night though, the players had completely changed their tune.

First off let me say I am not a WW basher. I run a regular VtM campaign and own a ton of WW books---hell I even listed VtM as one of the inspirations for Dreamwalker. In fact I hate to even compare to the two games but since it is a game about mortals hunting the supernatural there will be the inevitable comparisons so here is my take.

I think Hunter is a good game (I like it) but I think that Dread’s (unintentional?) focus of rules second/character first promotes much more exciting game play.

Another thing is that I sometimes find I am all too familiar with the World of Darkness. If someone is moving very fast, he’s using Celerity. A werewolf can soak aggravated damage. A Hunter is imbued. Hear a funny noise? Must be a wraith. Most of us who play WW know who is who and what is what.

I think another one of the biggest differences between the two games is in the supernatural abilities. Most WW powers go in degrees. That is, get one "dot" of Presence and you can awe people. Two "dots" you can create fear in mortals, etc. Stray too far from this format and you risk disrupting the flow of the game and game balance.

With Dread, you never know what to expect---what weird powers a demon will manifest, what spells someone uses on you, what type of demon you are facing. Sure, you can memorize all the ones in the book, but Dread is customizable enough that I can introduce new and insanely weird powers, or a brand new type of demon without disrupting game balance at all. I really like this kind of flexibility in a game. It keeps the players on their toes because they never know what to expect next.

Anyway, that’s just my take on the comparison between the two games, and like I said I hate to compare and I only mention it because Hunter was the first thing my players brought up.

So, to recap this recap, we all had fun, we’re going to play again and I’m actually going to get to make a character next time. To Rafael, I raise my cup in salute to an excellent and inspired game!

Pete

PS - This post will be reposted at RPGnet so if you see it there, it’s the same one. :)

Demonspahn wrote: In post game, the players discussed a ton of things they wanted their characters to do, including following up to help the banker and his wife kick their habits. They also asked me a bunch of questions about what sort of demon they had faced and things they might have done differently.

Demonspahn wrote: It was a fast paced game that didn’t bog down and was a lot of fun... The game mechanics are really cool. They’re very fast in play and have about a 10 second learning curve.

Demonspahn wrote: "Burning" contacts is another neat aspect of game play. The players can introduce a new contact of their choice at almost any time as long as they have experience (Redemption) points to spend. It forces you as a GM to be flexible (something I enjoy). Otherwise, the players could really throw a wrench into your plans for the evening.

Hi there,

Pete, one of the things that strikes me as different between your play of Dread and mine (which will see more discussion in my upcoming review) is that I emphasized to the players, at the outset, that their characters were Big Loooo-Zers. People who'd failed and messed up their lives, to the extent that friends and family really didn't want to see them any more. I was influenced as well, and I think this helped me to articulate the idea to the players, by Jared Sorensen's Schism, which has some good text on the topic.

So we didn't have a Special Ops guy, we had a redneck wannabe. We didn't have a brilliant scientist, we had a defrocked prof who'd swiped research to make her career. Similarly, and more directly in contrast to your group's characters, their lives had not been ruined by demons. They'd ruined their own lives all by themselves.

I think how different groups handle the notion of "who's messed up the character's life, before Our Story Begins" - which the game text makes pretty clear - is going to be a big deal in how they experience the game.

Second point, and a smaller one - you refer to Dread as characters-first, system-second, in contrast to Hunter. This strikes me as very, very odd. I would put Hunter and other WW games as characters-first, system-second, in that they expect one's emotional commitment to the characters to outweigh and override the system if (and when!) necessary, during play. The Golden Rule, remember? Whereas in Dread, the system is the system, and there's no funny business about ignoring it or fudging rolls or any of that stuff.

Best,
Ron

Rafael wrote:

Here's a question about gameplay: did it seem too easy? Sometimes, I find that the group's expended so much energy
hunting the demon down that by the time they find it, they're already in pretty bad shape. Other times, I've found that they've racked up so much Redemption that they wind up peeling the demon's cap back without much effort at all. Both scenarios have pros and cons -- I guess I'm just wondering if the players expected more, or if they saw the demon as incidental...

----

Hi Rafael,

Too easy? That's kind of hard to say. The final encounter with the demon was short and sweet. It stood up just long enough for every one to get at least once shot at it but they pretty much overwhelmed it. Then the flight across the split-level rooftops, the security guard in the parking lot and the sound of police sirens helped round out the climax.

I guess the actual fight was a bit one-sided but I don't mind that for the first few sessions as the players get used to the game. Then Whammo! :)

Seriously, if that is ever a question, I think Dread's easy customizability should make that a non-factor---sure in the core book it says an Aspinaba demon has (this stat), but those are average numbers. This one has been feeding well for months and is overflowing with strength and power.


Ron Edwards:

I think how different groups handle the notion of "who's messed up the character's life, before Our Story Begins" - which the game text makes pretty clear - is going to be a big deal in how they experience the game.


True and now I better understand the similarities you saw with kpfs. However, I don't recall the backgrounds needing to be so bleak. I remember that _something_ was supposed to have happened to the PC that sent him down this path but I didn't think it was necessarily his or her fault. I could be wrong on this and I don't have the book here at my house to double check. But I seem to recall a blurb about a Mafia don's daughter on the run from hit men and a cop that is plagued by nightmares? My PCs were either criminals (or thought to be criminals) or had dropped out of public view because of what they had seen/knew. Perhaps I misunderstood and it's quite possible that I (and perhaps my players) subconsciously drew from other sources in the beginning. Games like Hunter were mentioned, as were movies like Vampire$, Blade and Buffy so maybe the tone that was initially set was un-Dread like. But everyone had a good time so I guess that's OK. Like I said it was kind of short notice.



Second point, and a smaller one - you refer to Dread as characters-first, system-second, in contrast to Hunter. This strikes me as very, very odd. I would put Hunter and other WW games as characters-first, system-second, in that they expect one's emotional commitment to the characters to outweigh and override the system if (and when!) necessary, during play.


Well, I know what WW _expects_ to happen during play but I also know what actually _happens_ during actual play. :) I've played and run almost every WoD game at least once with many different groups and from what I see outside of LARPs, chargen is always a lot of min-maxing. Sure backgrounds and Preludes and such are developed but what the players seem to focus on most are how many dots in Disciplines/Gifts/Powers they can squeeze out of their freebie points. Then during play, most things the players attempt to do are based around his relative chance of success---if he's only got 2 dots in Manipulation he won't even try to convince the police officer he's innocent. I don't know if I'm, explaining this right.

I guess what I mean is that Dread's system was a non-factor during game play. The players were more focused on what their characters could do to change/help the world they lived in. Using Redemption and getting a cool die seems to give you a better than even chance to accomplish most tasks which means you don't have to worry so much about "Can I make this jump?" You just jump and let the dice roll.

*sigh* I still don't think I'm explaining myself well.

Pete