Will You Survive? (Dread Review!)

I think I may have missed last week, I do apologise for that. I can never really tell when I’m going to have a busy week and despite being the beginning of a taper (I think?) last week’s training really knocked me. Don’t think I’ve snoozed so much in my life.

Anyway, onto what this is really about! Dread! A table top RP game: think cluedo meets jenga and you’re getting close. I’m lucky enough (and nerdy enough) to be included in a D&D group. Although we haven’t yet begun our campaign, we utilised last Friday night to start creating characters and more importantly try our hands at a one-shot table top game called Dread. It was a super enjoyable experience and I believe one that less nerdy individuals may also enjoy. Unlike D&D you don’t really need to spend time on your character, just know their basic personality, inventory and their phobia – the host does the rest for you.

We were going around investigating the disappearance of a scientist (Dr Maxwell), his wife and all of their work force. Each time we wished to complete a task we had to take a block from the Jenga tower (or in facts it’s lesser known and harder to play ugly step sister Tumbling Tower), the harder the task the more blocks which needed to be taken – if the tower fell you were out of the game. At first we were just doing pretty simple things like moving desks, opening drawers and climbing under walls. But soon we came across an attic, which collapsed and during so released ‘Liquid Fear’ into the air. Quite rapidly the game ramped up in difficulty with zombies, grime monsters and spiders coming to ruin our day.

Unfortunately I didn’t last long and died whilst taking down a blob zombie. But unlike some games, it didn’t finish with our death. Myself and another fallen comrade came back as friendly ghosts and tried to help the survivors solve the mystery

– which we did! I mean…we may have gotten the super bad ending, but oh well!

The time went by so quickly. The story telling and general atmosphere created by our amazing host Emily and her well timed spooky music really helped to make the game. Overall it was a relatively short run as well which took us perhaps 4 hours, with a lot of deliberation at points, which I think is perfect for a onetime thing.

For anyone wanting to venture into the realm of table top roleplay, I would seriously recommend Dread! It’s great fun!

Natalie X