[Rafael Chandler]

Originally Posted by flyingmice

The only reason the d12 pool bothers me is I only have about three d12s in my whole player group combined. We don't play any games which use them. If I had a bunch of d12s, it wouldn't be a problem. Now I'll have to pick up a bunch, now that I've picked up Dread...

Heh. Yeah, I can see how that would be annoying. Hopefully, the book makes up for the inconvenience.

Frankly, I don't know why more games don't use the d12. It's got this great spherical shape, but the faces are nice and large. And it's perfect for Dread, in that the game features a combination the infernal and the divine, while the dodecahedron features 12 faces (which match the 12 Disciples) and each face has five sides (like a pentagram). It's mad genius, I tell you! Bwaha... hahahaha... HAHAHAHAHA!

*cough*

Hi, Nilus,

If it's okay with you, I'll take a stab at your questions. Since it's Saturday night, and it's time for me to throw down, I'm going to cut and paste notes from a few other reviews (for the rest of these reviews, please check out the links in my sig). I apologize for the laziness of this approach, but these critics say it better than I could -- so it's for the best!

Hayley, of course, you're free to post your thoughts as well. And thanks again for writing the review!

Originally Posted by Nilus

What is the actual setting?

Dread is set in the modern world. To quote Jocelyn Robitaille: "One day, a small town 130 miles southeast of Oklahoma City got butchered by an unknown force. Then it happened again, and again, and again. Demons were invading our world. Amidst this simple premise, the characters are people who were heading straight to rock-bottom for some reason or another. At some point, they were about to be killed by a demon, until a powerful person showed up and saved them. This person, the group’s Mentor, teaches them powerful magic, arcane knowledge, and turns them into something more than human. The characters are now called Disciples, and their job fighting against the demons who threaten humanity."

And another perspective, courtesy of Matthijs Holter: "Dread is a game about people in our world and our time, facing a problem I think we're all familiar with: Kicking demon ass. Demons have broken through the barriers between our world and hell, and now they're wreaking havoc. The PC's are all people who have hit rock bottom, been saved by a Mentor, and now have special powers. They're called Disciples, and they fight demons."

Originally Posted by Nilus

What is the rule system like?

To quote Jocelyn Robitaille: "The game’s basic mechanic is a task resolution that uses a dice pool of d12s against a target number. When it’s an unopposed task, the GM sets a target number, and if one of your d12s comes up numerically superior to that target number, you succeed. In the case of an opposed task, you both roll, and if you score higher than you opponent, you succeed. If there’s damage involved, it’s equal to the difference between your highest die and your opponent’s highest die, plus any damage bonus from the weapon you’re using. If your description is cool, you get an extra die. If it’s so cool that your fellow gamers or applauding, fainting or crying, you get two extra dice. It’s a pretty simple system that fits the game’s cinematic action bill."

If you want more detail, this print-ready PDF outlines the entirety of the rules system. Just a note -- it's not indicative of the actual layout or art style of the book.

Originally Posted by Nilus

What dice does it use?

Dread uses a dice pool made up of d12s. Typically, a player rolls between 2 and 6 dice. However, it's possible to roll as many as 12 at a time, and if the GM is doing the same, you could require as many as 24 d12s. At my FLGS, this came to less than ten bucks -- and I got the nice transparent ones, too. Might have been cheaper if I just got regular old d12s.

Originally Posted by Nilus

How does resolution work?

To quote Thomas Ulricht: "To perform an action a number of D12s are rolled equal to the characters relevant attribute or skill . The highest die rolled is compared to a difficulty or opposing characters highest die. If in combat, the difference is the damage done. Thats about that for basic system.. There are rules for driving, weapons, armour and more, all of them simple enough that I can remember it all after just two read throughs of the book. That says quite a lot about the simplicity and elegance of the system."

Originally Posted by Nilus

What is character generation like?

To quote Thomas Ulricht: "Characters have three attributes. Strength wich is the Disciples power in combat as well as physical prowess. Sense, which is the intellect and senses. Soul is a measure of the spiritual power of the Disciples and helps in casting and resisting magic. Each attribute ranges from 1-6. Normal humans have values from 1 to 3, so in some areas Disciples are superhuman. In fact, every Disciple character will have one value that is either 5 or 6. Depending on wich attribute is high, the Disciple will master a certain Discipline. If a character has a 5 or 6 in strength, he is a warrior and can make multiple attacks in a combat round. If it's Sense he is an investigator and can deduce things about demons from the clues they leave behind. A high score in soul makes him an excorsist and gives access to excorsism spells."

Originally Posted by Nilus

What kinda characters can you play?

To quote Thomas Ulricht: "The player characters in Dread are called Disciples. Disciples are all people who had nothing left to live for. Their lives turned around when one day they were attacked by a demon and subsequently saved by a mysterious stranger. This stranger hooked the Disciples up with others like them in teams called Cabals and taught them to fight demons using fists, guns and magic. See, recently the barrier between hell and earth came down, just for a couple of seconds and all kinds of demons came through. Now, the demons have infiltrated human society. The nature of the mentor is never revealed (in the player section), but many Disciples assume that they are angels who have given up their wings to walk the earth and combat the forces of hell."

If you want to know what else people are saying about the game, this thread features a whole lot of people sharing their experiences with Dread. Also, as mentioned before, there are six other reviews linked in my sig.

Or, if you have more questions, please feel free to post them here, and I'll answer them (using my own words, next time -- I promise. ).

Thanks for your interest in Dread!

-- Rafael