Dread (role-playing game)

Dread has no fixed setting - instead you can use it for any horror setting[3] where it is expected that most of the characters will not survive through the session. The examples in the Dread rulebook are Beneath A Full Moon - survival horror, Beneath A Metal Sky - sci-fi, and Beneath The Mask - based on a slasher film and in which not even the GM knows which of the PCs is the killer at the start (they all have reasons to not know they are).[2]

Character creation involves each character in the game being assigned a part (in Beneath the Mask there are the Jock, the Head Cheerleader, the Nerd, the Slacker, the Rich Kid, and the Best Friend) and each part coming with about a dozen questions, the final one being "What is your name?" Most of the questions are deliberately loaded, for example "Why do you intend to convince the others to split up whenever the opportunity arises, despite the recent events?"[2]

When you try to take a challenging action, pull one or more blocks from the tower, as dictated by the Gamemaster. If you pull and succeed, you succeed in your action. If you knock the tower over, your player character is out of the game, usually due to dying. If there is no sensible narrative way for that to happen (for instance a knock over by spilling your drink) they are the "walking dead," unable to pull any more blocks and subject to death or removal at the next plausible or dramatic opportunity. Removing more blocks makes actions more difficult to perform, which causes a feeling of suspense.[4]