Tips for Running Dread as Star Wars

[Drache64]

Does anyone have Tips for Running Dread as Star Wars?

I am going to play Darth Vader as the approaching Dread, but I was wondering if I should add any extra mechanics for force powers, like a sperate tower for force abilities, and if it collapses the party is too exhausted to use abilities or anything else like that.

[TinyMushroom]

I like the simplicity of 1 tower. Are the players supposed to be very skilled at force stuff? You could make it so force powers are very costly (for example, inherently requiring 3 pulls unless there is a very good reason). Or perhaps you could apply colored stickers to the ends of certain blocks, making them "Force blocks". If you want to do something force-related you must pull a "Force block". The increased difficulty could come from that these blocks are fewer and don't always occupy a convenient position in the tower.

[CombatBunny]

¡Wow! You will hardly be able to run Dread like that, all its mechanics and philosophy are made with horror in mind, not heroism.

You would need to put your players in a no-win scenario. Maybe a group of survivors from a war, who are about to be hunted by the empire. Adding towers will only slow down the pace of the game. It’s not that you can’t play Stawrars with a Jenga tower, but you will need to do such a heavy house-ruling that you will end up creating a whole new game from the ground up.

The least resources you give to the players, the better, because one of the objectives of the dread system is to make the players feel helpless. If you want to add StarWars elements, you will have to tweak them a little so that they keep enhancing the dark tone. They find a lightsaber but it is horribly malfunctioning, flickering and even hurting the party. If they find a ship is in such a bad condition that it barely hoovers above ground and it threatens to collapse crushing anyone inside, etc.

[CarpeGuitarrem]

Nice to see some Dread love! I would say that the #1 thing is not to overthink it. It sounds like you already have the framing down, and the mechanics are simple enough to support it as-is. I do like the Force Blocks variant suggested above, and if you want to go a step further, maybe the tower falling when you make a pull means you turn to the Dark Side instead of dying, and you get to sorta play your character as an antagonist now.

You'll probably want to think about how to handle fights, because Dread is very "Do pulls, then you're done resolving the action." This works well but might surprise players used to a very back and forth combat system.

Also, definitely have moments where players need to make pulls to cope with the pull of the Dark Side, especially early on. I feel like the Tower works really well for modeling the emotional and mental state of people being pulled into the Dark Side. It's a very resonant theme to use in a Dread game.