Hello lovely fan people. Kira’s got something special for you today: that guy I keep talking about, @Tibermoon, is hanging out with me today here at ye old blog. I was fortunate enough to be part of the beta run of the game he’s going to tell you about in a bit, so I can vouch for having a great time. #JeSuisBarb

I’m happy to welcome Ian Frazier, Lead Designer of Mass Effect Andromeda, and my partner in crime for a guest post today. He’s put together a few details about an RPG scenario based on the Netflix series Stranger Things, and the only reason I’m interrupting the flow of things is to put forth the disclaimer that neither of us are affiliated with Netflix, the Duffer Brothers, Dread, or any other corporate entities that might be mentioned in this post. Pip pip and cheerio.

Stranger Dread: A Free Scenario Based Loosely on Stranger Things

Hey folks! Kira’s boyfriend, Ian, here.

We’re both huge fans of the recent Netflix original series “Stranger Things,” and had so much fun watching the show that I decided to take it a step further and create a scenario for one of my favorite tabletop RPGs, Dread, using Stranger Things as the inspiration.

After running the scenario a few times and tinkering with it, I thought it would be fun to share online for other fans of the show (or ’80s horror in general). I don’t have a website of my own, so Kira was kind enough to let me talk a bit about it here on her blog.

If you’re not familiar with it, Dread is a tabletop RPG designed primarily for a single one-shot game of 2-4 hours in length, featuring a horror setting. Dread is unique in that instead of stats and dice like most other tabletop games employ, it uses a Jenga® tower (yes, Jenga, the wood block game) to represent how collectively screwed the players are. When one of the players wants to do something challenging in the game — leaping across the fiery rafters of a burning barn, for instance — the host will ask them to pull one or more blocks from the tower. As the game progresses and tension mounts, the tower becomes more and more unstable. Eventually it will collapse, and Very Bad Things™ will happen to whichever player knocked it over.

For more info on Dread and info on where you can buy it, check out their official website here.

Stranger Dread

Stranger Dread doesn’t directly mimic the show (that would be boring for anyone who’s already seen it), but it does try to follow Stranger Things‘ lead in several respects, from the archetypal 80s-movie roles available for players, to the overall setup, where a child is snatched away to a strange mirror-world and his friends need to rescue him. We’ve had a lot of fun with it thus far — I hope you do too!

You can download the scenario below.

Stranger Dread

If you try it out and have any feedback, good or bad, please hit me up on Twitter and let me know. I’d love to revise it in the future!