Advice for running Dread?

[D6xD6 - Chris]

For Halloween I am thinking of running a game of Dread.  I have a couple people that have not role-played before, so I thought Dread would be a fun choice to minimize the rules and allow them to have more fun role-playing.

The problem is that I have never run Dread before.  I haven't been a GM for years, but I used to run CoC regularly.  I have the quickstart rules for Dread and I was going to run the free introductory scenario, The Mask (slasher film story).

I am not intimidated by the game, but I want to ensure we have the most enjoyable time possible, especially for the newbies.  Does anyone have any best practices or techniques they have formed to run a great game of Dread?

[clockworkjoe]

Have more than 2 players.

Make sure the players are about the same skill level in Jenga.

[D6xD6 - Chris]

There will probably be 4-6 players.  Two will be noobz.

I was going to use a prepared scenario, but the free slasher flick one is...not very helpful.  :\   

I like the idea of the questionnaires, but I don't know how comfortable I am creating a scenario with those in mind.   But I also don't want the game to become Cthulhu Dark with Jenga....although that does sound kind of fun.

Can you avoid the questionnaire aspect of the game and use the Jenga tower for character actions?  Or am I better off just using Cthulhu Dark instead? 

[clockworkjoe]

I've only run Dread twice, once in the New Arcadia campaign and once in a game with just Jason and Tom. I am not a Dread expert, sorry to say. :|

There are other free scenarios available for it online. Did you look at the dread website?

[D6xD6 - Chris]

Yeah, I have skimmed through some on the website, but they all seem to say the same thing: "It is best if the players do this, but if they don't that might be okay, it is their story too, but they really ought to do this, but don't force them, use the power of our 2006 Ennie to tell a story..."

You know what?  Fuck Dread.  I am going to do my own mashup of Cthulhu Dark and Dread.... I will call it DREAD DARK.

And hopefully I can record it to post in the AP community thread.

[Dom]

You know what?  Fuck Dread.  I am going to do my own mashup of Cthulhu Dark and Dread.... I will call it DREAD DARK.

And hopefully I can record it to post in the AP community thread.

Sir, I salute you.