Appendix: Alternatives to the Tower

We highly recommend using Jenga® or a Jenga-like game for Dread, but if stacking blocks is not your thing, you can still play the game. There are a number of commercial and generic games out there that accomplish similar goals. Select a game that depends on manual dexterity and will grow steadily more difficult with each move, such as Pick-Up-Sticks or Topple. The rules for the actual game are unimportant. Instead, figure out what the equivalent of a pull for that game would be and substitute that into the normal Dread rules. You will have to experiment for a while, to determine how many pulls you will want to use in your game. Some games will grow more difficult at a faster pace and should reduce the overall number of pulls being made. Others may be easier. In generally, a Dread game is based on a casualty after every 35-55 pulls (generally near the lower number for beginning groups, and gradually increasing with experience). Adjust the frequency you ask for pulls (or picks, or whatever your game uses) accordingly.

If you have a bunch of dice lying around the house, you can use these. Grab your averagesized six-sided die. Trace a square around it on a piece of paper. Then, move the die to the left until its right edge is far enough from the square’s left side to fit a die between them. Trace another square around it. Do the same thing for the remaining three sides of the original square. You should end up with five squares arranged in the shape of a cross with a die-sized gap between each of the outer squares and the center square. Number the squares one through five, with five being in the middle.

During the game, when you are asked to pull, roll a die instead. This die may be of any size or shape you would like, as long as it has numbers on it. The number you roll determines which of these five columns you must stack the die on. If you roll higher than a five, the choice is yours.

In the end, the game was designed specifically with a block stacking game like Jenga® in mind, and only such a game will fit the rules exactly. But if you wish, experiment, and if you find something you like, let us know.