We’re taking a break from our most recent Blood Prairie recap to talk about tonight’s game: Jurassic Dread!
Brought to the table by our friend Jaki, tonight’s game merged the Dinosaur Horror of Jurassic Park with a Jenga Tower mechanism inspired by Dread. And, wow, what a game! The Jenga Tower mechanism is perfect for a horror game; I don’t know that I’ve ever had such a high-stakes TTRPG session.
Dramatis Personae
Our crew included:
‘Staci with an i’, a new hire, dinosaur-costumed-mascot, and kung fu prodigy. Played by Chelsea.
Jaime, the Maintenance Guy, who did not get paid enough to deal with the other characters’ bullshit. Played by Gabriel.
Monty, dino-scat expert. Apparently fought in the Boer War, which raised some questions. Since he was good with a Tranq Rifle, those questions went unanswered. Played by Josh.
Freddy, aka Freddy Two-Taps, a young kid on his first job: checking that the dinosaur cages were locked. Played by Ryan.
Dr. Pyramus Cubensis, scientist and corporate saboteur, sent to steal some dino-DNA for shadowy interests. Played by me!
The Action
We established our characters at an office party before breaking into smaller groups to finish up our work weeks. Most of the park employees were taking a weekend off; we were staying back a night to tidy up a few loose ends. The real action began with an earthquake!
As our residences collapsed, we got our first taste of the Jenga mechanic. Knowing that you’re only ever one failure away from character death keeps the stakes super high, even during the relatively safe opening moves.
Everyone survived, and we made it to the visitor centre. We grabbed some Tranq Rifles and made explosives while Jaime and Fredrick went to repair the generator. We identified a short circuit on the far side of the island, just past the T-Rex enclosure. What could go wrong?
In the ensuing chaos, we fed a Stegosaurus to a T. Rex, divided the party on two sides of a damaged bridge, lost two NPCs, got cornered by Velociraptors, called for a helicopter evac, and lured the T. Rex over a peroxide bomb using dino-mating calls. Ryan casually mentioned he’d played some Jenga with his cousins before turning young Fredrick into an absolute beast, Tranq Darting dinos left and right before setting off the climactic bomb with an incredibly unlikely shot.
Win or Lose?
Take another look at that Tower up there. Ryan pulled like five or six more blocks off that thing! And honestly the angle doesn’t even capture how unstable the whole thing was. I’m pretty sure he’s the only reason all the PCs survived this little romp. Thank him for his excellence by checking out some of the games he makes.
In summary, I highly recommend the experience! Try Dread, and keep an eye out for any future releases from Jaki. Dinosaur horror and Dread is a great mix.
Have you played Dread or a similar game? What did you think? Comment below. And if you like the blog, check out some of our other articles. Perhaps you’d enjoy a free Troika adventure, some Mothership module reviews, or a quick summary of Humblewood? We did a pamphlet toolkit for Mothership a while ago; if you’re into horror games check it out!