The rest of this book is taken up with three example Dread stories, with all the notes and character questionnaires you should need to run them. If you are not planning to host Dread games, or if you know that someone else is planning to host one of these specific stories, you should stop reading now. Reading these stories before you play them will spoil much of the fun, and quite likely eliminate the tension that Dread games depend upon. Stop reading now, close this book, and go play a game of Dread.
For the host reading these stories, here are some ideas and guidelines. All three should be suitable for even the beginning host, provided you read them thoroughly beforehand. Beneath the Full Moon is described in terms of themes, while the other two are structured around events. Beneath a Full Moon is the most straight-forward of the stories, and also the one with the most advice and support for a new host. Beneath a Metal Sky has a more typical level of detail, and a slightly less familiar setting. Beneath the Mask may be the most difficult of the stories, relying heavily on inter-player conflict, active deception, and the host’s ability to improvise. It probably shouldn’t be your very first story to host, unless you have experience in such things. In fact, playing them in order should be an excellent introduction to hosting Dread, as each scenario relies a bit more on your own abilities than the last.
Obviously, you’ll want to copy out the questionnaires onto separate sheets of paper ahead of time, so that the players don’t accidentally read anything they’d rather not. When hosting a story where the characters haven’t been specifically tailored to your players, the best way to assign characters is to give them very brief descriptions—usually derived from the first question—that let them know the character’s general role, but which don’t give anything secret away. Only after they’ve chosen should you actually give them the character questionnaire, in order to prevent inappropriate knowledge of others’ characters.