The Impossible Dream

[Rav950]

"Enter Access Code"
The Green Cursor flashed in time with the downbeats of Julie's heart. She keyed in the director's birthday.
"Code incorrect. Countermeasures armed."
Before Julie had time to react, the thick lucite door had already slid into place. A panel opened overhead to reveal a series of small nozzles.
"Enter Access code"


One criticism I have seen leveled in regards to Dread, repeatedly, is how it is reliant on how good a person is at Jenga. These are repeatedly and fairly refuted by that Jenga isn't something most of us are particularly good at, and how good it feels to make that tough pull.

Another point that comes up repeatedly is how the game is trying to recreate the tension of the situation through the tower.

However, the tower does a good job of recreating physical stress and focus... but not necessarily mental stress. The time limit crushing in, the death grip on the pen, the evasive solution...

While its use may not be appropriate to many scenarios, I'm submitting Big Brain Academy as a good potential addition to Dread.

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/30485

Big Brain Academy by itself is a fairly run-of-the-mill game... much like Jenga. On BoardGameGeek, they're even close to par with their ratings. Placed in context of a Dread game, however, it can take on far greater meaning (once again, like Jenga)


I have not playtested this... what you're reading is basically theory. I'll post more on it when I have had a chance to take it for a spin.


Modifications:
Some activities in Big Brain Academy are inappropriate for Dread.
- Remove all Memorize (purple) cards.
- Remove all "Get Physical" cards from the green deck, or remove the green deck entirely. Getting physical near the tower is a bad thing.
- Remove all "Get in Shape" cards from the yellow deck and set them aside in their own deck. These cards are slightly more challenging than the other cards in the yellow deck.

If you want the decks to be as serious as the game, pare it further:
- No green deck
- Remove all "Add Agency" cards from the blue deck
- Remove all "Animal Lines" cards from the Orange deck

This gets rid of everything with a cute picture on it. Depending on your scenario, cute pictures might help accentuate the insanity...


The counters and scale will not be used. All remaining cards should stay seperated out into their respective piles.


When to use the "Brain Pull":
This should be used when players attempt to do something involving brainpower instead of brawn. Here are some possible examples:
- Hacking into a computer
- Researching a subject in a library
- Attempting to understand some strange symbols
- Understanding what the tribal leader is shouting at you
- Disarming the bomb (might also include a tower pull as well)
- Which spot in the structure will need to be struck in order to have it collapse on the zombies
- Avoid going insane upon understanding the meaning of the words
- Repairing the automatic sentry gun
- Locating some medicinal herbs in a forest
- Rewiring the robot to hook it up to an external power source
- Completing the demon rabbit's nursery rhyme
- Locked in psychic combat with a dream-eater
- Get a crucial hint to help solve a puzzle

The actual makeup of the brain pull doesn't evolve over time like the tower, so it won't be memorable to any of the players unless there is a significant accomplishment, event or benefit tied to it. I would recommend no more than 2 per hour, if that many. Too many times, and it will slow the pace of the game too much.

Brain pulls should also be optional, not a requirement. If failing a brain pull would send the story to a dead end, don't use it. While a Brain Pull need not advance the story (it can be a "Red Herring", though one shouldn't lay many traps this way), it should never bring the story to a halt either. While it might not be absolutely necessary to hack that door access panel, its probably more appealing (and maybe better odds) than the number of pulls needed to escape the horde of mutants racing up the access stairs towards the players.



How to use the Brain Pull
The player seats at the end of a short table. The GM chooses another player to sit opposite and flip cards for the brain pull. The GM assigns a quantity of Brain Pulls according to the difficulty of the task and the desired effect:
- Blue pulls are relatively simple
- Orange Pulls are slightly more difficult
- Green and yellow pulls are the highest difficulty, with "Get in Shape" being the most difficult of all.

You want the player to acheive a certain number of successes within the time limit in order to pass the check. How many is up to you, but I recommend you "test" a couple of the players early on with a brain pull using blue cards. The objective of the brain pull shouldn't be particularly essential to the plot (just as early tower pulls aren't very threatening).

Weight blue as about half as difficult as yellow and green pulls, and orange pulls about half as difficult as "Get in Shape Pulls".

The count that the player successfully completes (or your estimate of what they'd complete) is referred to from this point forward as their "breaking point".



Progressing the Brain Pull.

Make a note of where you believe the player's breaking point on a Brain Pull is, and don't deviate too far from it. In later brain pulls, you can:
- Match it, for pulls made in fair circumstances
- Increase it by one or two for stressful circumstances
- An equal number of successes in orange or "Get in Shape" pulls
- Double the count and the timer to induce fatigue and strain
- Match it, but include environmental distractions (words of the insidious poem coming alive from the page, descriptions of what is occurring around them) to increase the strain. Do not use this option without forewarning players at the start of the game that it could occur, and use it with care... some players may enjoy the effect, while others may become extremely upset at what is perceived as unfair play. Only do this if the player will be just as thrilled by the possibility of defeat as they will be in their victory.

The important thing here is to *stress* the breaking point. You always want the player to have a reasonable chance of success. Don't stack it so thick that the player can't win, or they won't bother. Make them worry, like they worry with every tower pull, but never make it hopeless.

Also be sure to take a character's capabilities into account when assigning a brain pull. Give them an appropriate reduction in success count, a time extension, reduced penalty for failure or increased bonus for success.



Consequences of failing a brain pull.

In a case where the player's success is the difference between life or death, failure to succeed should result in a player making tower pulls; one pull for every blue or orange under target, two pulls for every green or yellow. This does not equate to pulls to avoid any other consequences, just the price of failure. This is a reflection of wasted time or missed opportunities, or how deadly the trap is that has now sprung.

Ex: When Julie fails to enter a correct access code, the chamber fills with gas. Some additional pulls may allow her to find a hole that she can breathe through until the gas clears, and perhaps a second chance at the panel if she's quick about it. Declining the pull may have her being knocked unconscious by the gas and collected by the security guards later. A tower collapse has her suffocating to death.

In a case where the player's success is the difference between a shortcut or the long way around, and lives are not on the line... failure is its own consequence. The players will have other pulls to make as the story progresses, putting everyone at greater risk.



That's that! Comments?

[WizarDru]

While I applaud your creativity, it sounds like you've taken one problem and made it in to a different, similar problem. People who aren't good at Jenga now become people who aren't good at lightning brain challenges or logic puzzles.

That, and the fact that this method feels more like the host is defining the circumstances of the pull, rather than the player. Also, that the loss of the physical reality of the Jenga lessens the dread. The Brain Pull sounds more like you're telling them it's just going to get harder as the game goes on, whereas the Jenga forces players to analyze their chances on their own terms.

When folks play Dread, the whole table tends to hold it's breath during a pull, even a competitive one. Most alternate methods just don't seem to bring that level of tension to the table. To me, one of the best parts of Jenga is when a player is given an option, but needs to make a pull...and that brief moment where they look at the Jenga and then have to decide: is it worth it? Can I do it?

This would make an interesting supplement or combination with the tower, though. I have the game, but haven't actually used it. How many cards are there? That's another issue that would concern me, is that there are a limited number of challenges available.

[Rav950]