[Dread] Crawlspace

[Herzwesten]

This past weekend, lepermint (creator of Dread) ran a fun and suspenseful one-shot for myself and a couple of newcomers to the game. The recap probably won't convey the suspense of the game, but as my new position as Official Dread Lapdog, I have to spread the word!

The time: the 1930s.
The place: a coal mine in SE Ohio.
The situation: after several miners disappeared without a trace, the company is forced to shut down the mine as the workers strike. Six months later, a group of miners cross the picket line to meet with a number of government men for a supposed rescue mission.
The players: Emukt as Gavin “Irish” McGrath, an immigrant with a loving family, Gronti as Slim, the keeper of the canary, and Herzwesten as Darryl Turner, a former foreman of the mine

The miners wait out in the rain at the mouth of the main shaft, as a number of black cruisers pull up and divest several G-men in suits. The leader of the government men is introduced as Mr. Branch, who is accompanied by a white-haired scientist named Dr. Holledah. The miners and the G-men are split into groups, and Gavin, Slim, and Darryl are assigned to lead Branch and the Doc down into the mine.

They all descend into the darkness, their helmet lamps lighting the way. As Darryl points the group to one group of miners’ last known location, Slim overhears the Doc say something to Branch along the lines of “they won’t leave them were they lay.” Slim is certain that this statement verifies his suspicion that they aren’t down there looking for lost miners, but for escaped prisoners.

Down in the cave where the miners went missing, the Doc begins to examine the walls, while Darryl begins to experience pangs of claustrophobia, a fear he thought he had repressed. Suddenly, there are gunshots up the tunnel, and Branch and his men go to investigate. Moments later, the lantern that illuminated the cave explodes, leaving the miners with only their helmet lamps.

In the gloom, Irish thinks he sees something run into the cave and the Doc cries out in pain. As Slim goes to investigate, Darryl’s helmet light catches someone creeping up on Irish. Someone with long hair, tattered overalls and, bare feet. Darrly cries a warning and tackles the stranger—a teenage boy—his skin covered in scar tissue. The young man squirms easily from Darryl’s grip and disappears up the tunnel. Meanwhile, Slim reaching for the Doc’s bag to get bandages, finds it filled with metal syringes and vials of strange liquid. The Doc passes out from his bleeding wound.

The miners all agree that its time to leave and they gather up the Doc. As the ascend, Irish notices another teenage boy following them, just out of the light of the lamp. As they turn a corner in the tunnel, they find a dead G-man, the flesh of his back in tatters. Irish grabs the gun from the dead man and takes a couple of shots at the young man following them, hitting him. The boy flees.

A boom in the distance and a cave in leads the miners to believe a controlled explosion has sealed them in. Luckily, Darryl knows of another way out—through an older section of the mine. They find a cart to hold the Doc’s unconscious body and begin to push it along. They arrive at another room to find some bones, most likely human, when Darryl spots the creature that looks like a teenager. Is the same one? Or a different one?

Darryl freezes in his tracks as he’s worked out that the creature’s vision is based on movement, while Irish creeps up behind and puts two more slugs into the thing, stunning it. Darryl rushes forward to grab a syringe from the Doc’s bag and plunges it into the creature’s neck, hoping that is why the Doc brought them along. The creature goes into convulsions and Slim smashes its head in with a shovel.

Irish wakes up the Doc and demands an explanation. All he gets are cryptic remarks and the knowledge that the Doc created these things and that four of them escaped into this mine. The Doc is manhandled to his feet and forced to walk the rest of the way, down an old boarded-up tunnel and to a room where a cave-in has all but blocked the group’s only way out. However, there is a small crawlspace through the cave-in that they might be able to traverse. Slim volunteers to go first and finds that the room on the other side is flooded—and he’s afraid of water!

Meanwhile, Irish has a plan to kill at least one of the creatures that he is certain are following them. He moves slowly toward the nearest tunnel and stands completely still while Darryl, syring at the ready, begins to make frantic movements, hoping to draw most of the attention. It seems to work as one of the mutants rushes past Irish to get at Darryl. Irish takes a close-range shot at the thing and blows off its jaw. Darryl triumphantly injects the stunned creature with the strange serum, finishing it off. However, Irish reveals that he saw a second creature in the tunnel—this one a girl and pregnant!

Afraid that these vicious mutants will breed, Irish rushes forward with his pistol and fires two shots into the thing’s belly. The mother creature freaks out and begins to thrash about wildly, dealing Irish a number of fatal slashes across the belly and chest. However, the brave immigrant is able to cripple the monster enough for Darryl to rush up and slit its throat with his Bowie knife. Sadly, Irish dies and with his last breath, tells Darryl to find his wife and tell her that he loves her.

Darryl is enraged. Though he only met Irish this day, he was a fellow miner and didn’t deserve to die at the hands of some government experiment. The foreman stalks up to the Doc and jabs him with one of his own syringes, killing him.

At the same time, Slim has learned that the cold pool of water in which he stands is occupied by another—what is hopefully the last monster. He tries to convey this information without alerting the creature to his presence, but Darryl cannot here. The foreman is girding his loins to squeeze through such a tight squeeze. With a swig of liquid courage and the last syrninge held in his mouth, Darryl begins to crawl.

On the other end of the crawlspace, Darryl is finally able to hear Slim’s warnings, but its almost too late. In a tense exchange, Darryl is able to get the final syringe into Slim’s hands while once again distracting the monster. Slim injects the creature and as it thrashes about, overcomes his fear of water to find a rusty pick at the bottom of the flooded room to finish it off.

After that, the remaining two miners eventually escape the caverns to rail at the boss man and the government officials who sent them down there to die. Slim spends the next few years trying to find Mr. Branch, but to no avail, and eventually distinguishes himself in the Army Corps of Engineers during World War II. Darryl quits mining for good and relays Irish’s final message of love to his sad widow.

[apOweyn]

Great write up. Sounds like the sort of game I'd have loved.

[Lepermint]

Here are a few of the highlights from the system-side of that game. For the curious, I've posted the questionnaires used to create the characters on the Dread blog, and Herzwesten was kind enough to post his answers in the "Process of Character Creation – Examples" thread elsewhere in these forums.

Kicking It Off

Because there were only three players, we primed the Tower with three pulls. Once it went live, the players were quite accommodating with the early pulls to do such things as remember rumors they heard about where the victims went missing, eavesdropping on the hushed conversations of the g-men, and keeping their own conversations secret. All of this worked well to swiftly bring the Tower to a threatening state.

Calculating the Melee To Hit Roll

When Darryl's headlamp shone on the first creature as it stalked Gavin, they weren't quite sure what it was, but it's ill intent was obvious. Herzy wanted Darryl to tackle him. My original instinct was to coax three pulls out of the situation. The creature was inhumanly fast. It could have easily torn open Gavin's back and be gone before anyone could react under normal circumstances.

So I offered Darryl two pulls: one to react fast enough and one to grab the creature. And then a third pull to for Gavin's safety that either Darryl or Gavin could take. Herzy was quick to point out that the Darryl's questionnaire did indicate that he played football and was particularly good at tackling. This was clearly applicable, so I only made him pull for reacting fast enough. Emukt agreed to pull for Gavin's safety.

The Tower was already shaky enough for these two pulls to be rather tense, but both succeeded. Of course, often the worst place to keep a wild creature is in your hands. Darryl was in for more peril and definitely more pulls before they were clear of the creature.

The Care & Maintenance of Your Retainers

Doc's wound was rather severe, torn to the bone. Slim went to examine it and try to patch it up, but they were in a filthy mine with poor lighting--particularly poor lighting for Slim because Doc smeared his headlamp with a bloody hand in an attempt to keep slim out of his medical bag. Plus, Slim had no explicit training in such things. And no supplies, as the medical bag turned out to only contain syringes. Not surprisingly, Doc soon passed out, before Slim could manage to wrangle any useful information out of him.

The above situation was the product of a series of "failures" in the game, but it seems a bit odd to describe them that way. That's because in Dread, failure results from choosing to fail. The only random element is when the Tower falls, and even that I can't comfortably be described as random. The chance of a character succeeding is almost entirely up to the player.

Gronti had to pull for Slim to be able to dig in the bag without hurting Doc as he tried to keep it closed. And again to patch up the wound. And finally, to extract information from the tight-lipped doctor before he collapsed.

Assessing the tower in each incident, Gronti decided against pulling. In his estimation, none of these tasks were worth risking weakening the Tower--or worse. So Slim tried his best to bandage Doc and chat him up, but to no avail. Now they have to carry the Doc around and Slim's headlamp is obscured.

So, were these refusals strategic? At the moment of decision, they might have been a bit strategic. Sometimes you refuse to pull because you're gut says the Tower is ready to fall. Sometimes you refuse to pull because you want the Tower to be a bit more stable later on. Sometimes you refuse to pull because it is just not something your character cares that much about. Most of the time, it's a combination of things.

Ranged Combat Modifiers

I love using firearms in my Dread games. They are so delightfully unpredictable and dangerous. There are a number of tricks I like to pull whenever they come into play. And a few of them worked in this particular game.

Generally, if it is a found gun, like it was in this game, it never has its full capacity of ammo. These players, however, were very careful about keeping track of it, so I didn't get any classic moments with a click where a bang should be.

Also, Gavin was in charge of handling it and his character questionnaire not only indicated that he had used on before, but that he had killed a man during his bootlegging days. So I went easy on the requisite pulling. Usually I’ll try to finagle a couple pull when it’s a character’s first time with the gun. Things like bracing for kickback and finding the stomach for shooting at a living person.

But shooting in a mine at something skirting the edge of your headlamp’s illumination is not an easy thing to do. So I pitted pulls against the conservation of ammunition and accuracy. Without pulling, Gavin could hit the creature, but he would have to use at least two rounds, and there would be no telling where he would hit it. I offered him a pull to reduce the amount of ammo used and a pull to make sure it was a hit a significant hit (and not just winging a leg or such). For the most part, Emukt opted to waste the ammo, but pull for the accuracy. And though he soon discovered bullets were not necessarily fatal to the creatures, they had stopping power. Enough so to allow the miners to administer a syringe or four.

Saved by Paralysis

Gronti had a light touch with the Tower. It was as if he only pulled with precisely the amount of pressure needed to overcome the friction of the other pieces. Once free of the Tower, gravity would take over, and Gronti would just let the brick fall.

This habit created several heart-stopping moments in the game, but none more so than when is character, Slim, was chin deep in stagnant cave water. And he wasn't alone. The only light source, his smeared headlamp, rested on a ledge behind him, causing the telltale ripples on the pool's inky surface to dimly shimmer.

There were the pulls to overcome his fear of water (which was noted on the questionnaire) and remain as still as humanly possible, to not attract attention as it swam behind him to investigate the headlamp. Gronti's gentle grip slowly dragged a block from its seat in the Tower, only to have it fall onto a lower level where it precariously clung and waited until we remembered to breathe again.

Bonus to Charge Attack Damage

I can usually tell if someone's going to sacrifice. Their body language, the way they study and prod the tower will telegraph their intentions a few pulls before they actually do it. I find myself biting my tongue, trying desperately not to scream, "Don't do it! There has to be another way!" Because even if you think it isn't necessary, there is something dramatically delicious about a sacrifice.

I definitely did not see Gavin's coming. By the time he was confronted with the pregnant one, the Tower had a lean to it. It was an ugly sight. And every time Emukt gingerly tested a piece, the whole structure would sway. I was so intently focused on this hypnotic sway of the Tower, that I almost missed the swift and violent punch he scattered it with.

As we restacked the Tower, we learned of the heroic and tragic fate of Gavin's charge into the mother-creature.

Listen Check

After the Tower had been reassembled, the remaining characters had enough going on that it soon became rickety enough to be a risk again. Slim was still up to his chin in water with a visitor on the other side of a particularly tight tunnel from Darryl.

This set up created one of my favorite moments of the game. Slim was trying to whisper a warning back to Darryl who kept shouting that he was on his way. However, Slim’s back was to the tunnel, and he wasn’t about to turn around. In fact, he barely even wanted to whisper. Because of these circumstances, I decided to have Gronti pull for Slim to whisper without attracting attention, and to have Herzy pull for how attentive Darryl was being.

Gronti decided to step to the Tower first and successfully pulled to whisper. But, after sizing it up, Herzwesten declined his pull. Leaving Slim whispering desperately, but too softly to be heard and Darryl deafly crawling towards the last creature.

Happily Ever After

At the end of it all, we tried out the experimental denouement rules which will be appearing on the blog later this weekend. They allow the players of the surviving characters to explain what lies in the immediate future for their character, with one or two last pulls from the Tower.