DREAD: “He Knows When You’re Awake…”

About the Game

• You Better Watch Out

The Sacred Primrose Orphanage has always been quiet. Last Christmas Eve, the old Mother Superior died mid-scolding, her heart giving out as she pulled three squabbling children apart. Nobody cried. She believed the only good child was a quiet child, and the children believed her funeral was the best gift they’d ever received.

This year the new Mother Superior has promised a season of warmth and giving. There will be carols, cookies, and candles in every window.

But, in the dark – beneath the orphanage – something has dwelled for a very long time. It used to get regularly fed but it’s been a whole year since its last meal. Now, the children are hearing bells which no one is ringing. Closet doors are drifting open on their own.

And somewhere out in the snow a large man in red is watching the windows.

• You Better Not Cry

“He Knows When you’re Awake…” is a one-shot Christmas-themed horror scenario. The player characters are either a child of the orphanage or a nun in the Order of the Sacred Primrose. Either way, you’ll spend a long winter’s night trying to survive something which others in the orphanage refuse to believe in while the lights keep flickering in and out.

The scenario is inspired by the subversion of holiday norms: isolation where there should be togetherness, darkness where there should be light, and something lurking just out of the corner of your eye where a kind face should otherwise be.

The tone is tense and atmospheric rather than gory – horror which gets under your skin and stays there; the sound of crying in the darkness, adults failing to live up to the trust children so readily give, and a Jolly Old Elf who may be exactly what they seem.

• You Better Not Pout

DREAD is a tabletop roleplaying game built on a simple, elegant premise: instead of rolling dice to determine what happens to your character, you pull blocks from a Jenga Tower with a single hand.

Every time your character attempts something dangerous – something which could go wrong, something which costs something – you pull. The Tower gets taller. The pulls get harder. The game table gets uneasier.

There are no character sheets. No hit points. No levels. Just the Tower and the question of how far you’re willing to go before you stop pulling.

If the tower falls, your character’s story ends. Not because the rules say so, but because you felt it coming – pull by pull – and you pulled anyway.

DREAD works especially well with players who have never touched a tabletop RPG before, because the mechanic is physical, immediate, and honest. You don’t need to know any rules. You just need to know when to pull. And when to stop.

• I’m Tellin’ You Why

Characters in DREAD are built through a short questionnaire answered live at the table in about fifteen minutes.

There are no stats, no classes, no backstory: just five questions, answered in your own words, which tell us (and you) exactly who your character is before – and after – the night goes sideways.

The questions are not published in advance, because half of what makes them work is answering them at the table, with the other players listening.

The questions are designed to be answered quickly and honestly. While there are no wrong answers, there are, however, answers which will matter more than you expect once the tower is on the table and the woods are dark.

By the time you’ve answered the fifth question you’ll know your character well enough to play them, so come ready to answer honestly. Come ready to be surprised by what you say.

• Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town…

Every player receives a 10% discount at the Big Ugly Brewing bar for the duration of the session. (I recommend saving the stronger ones for later: you’re going to want to think clearly, at least for a while first!)

• Incidentals

Feel free to contact me at [email protected] if you have any questions!

For more info on DREAD, check out the site HERE.

About the Game Master