RPGaDay: Stack

I've heard about Dread, the horror RPG that uses a Jenga tower instead of dice, but never actually played it.  The one time I've played with Jenga on the table was a game of Call of Cthulhu where the tower was part of luck mechanic - if you used luck, you had to pull a block from the tower.

It's possible that I might encounter it at a convention some day, but there is a reason I'm unlikely to ever play Dread with one of my regular groups, or use the tower mechanic in any other game for that matter, and it's that I rarely sit down at a table without at least one leg shaker.

It's bad enough in our regular Pathfinder or Star Wars games, with a bunch of drinks and minis on the table, when suddenly one of the players starts to jiggle and the whole table shakes like someone's just cast earthquake.  If we're lucky there's no spillages, and if we're really lucky we can remember where all the minis are supposed to be.

And then there's people getting up to use the loo or get coffee or go out for a smoke or all the other things that involve leaving the room - which then require them to squeeze their way past someone because the gaming room is small and the players are not.

There's a bit more room to move when we play at MK-RPG, but I still have my husband with me, who is by far the worst of the leg jigglers from the home group, able to set an entire table bouncing up and down without knowing he's doing it.  No Jenga tower stands a chance if he's in the party.

It's a really innovative mechanic, but not one that's remotely practical for the groups I play in.  I feel the build up of tension would be rather lost when the entire party die of random leg jiggles.

So I guess I'll have to wait for a convention one-shot.  And given the current coronavirus situation, I've no idea when that might be.