The new production group will be putting on two actual-play TTRPG performances later on Oct. 15 and 16
Image courtesy of Once Upon a Dreadful Night.
On Oct. 15 and 16, a new production group in Victoria, Once Upon a Dreadful Night (OUDN), will be putting on their inaugural improvised show, Dread Noir, an “actual play” of the game Dread.
Actual play — also known as live play — is a genre of podcasts and web shows where a group of people play a tabletop roleplaying game (TTRPG) for an audience, and has been popularized by shows like Critical Role, which features professional voice actors.
Dread is a TTRPG where players describe their characters’ actions through speech while remaining in character. Unlike other TTRPGs, such as Dungeons & Dragons, skill checks — which control how difficult a task is to do for a certain character — are determined by pulling a block from a Jenga tower, rather than rolling dice. The plot is guided by the Game Guide, while players improvise responses.
In Dread, if the player accidentally knocks over the Jenga tower, their character is removed from the game through death, insanity, cowardice, imprisonment, possession, and so on, at the Game Guide’s discretion. However, if a player knocks over the tower on purpose, they can choose between a heroic or dramatic exit.
OUDN hopes to combine the unpredictability of TTRPGs and improv theatre to bring an immersive experience to the stage.
D’Arcy Briggs, one of OUDN’s performers, who is also responsible for outreach, explained that TTRPGs usually involve players sitting at a table, occasionally rolling dice, which may not be as engaging for an audience. “Dread uses a wood block tower, a Jenga tower, which, especially if you’re using an oversized one like we are, it’s very easy as an audience member to get involved and get caught up in the moment.”
If played right, the drama of removing a Jenga block can add to the entertainment of the show, as the fate of the performers becomes more precarious as the blocks are removed.
“We’re telling a horror story,” said Briggs, and aiming to create “a great death.”
“Hopefully the tower doesn’t fall … but [it] should.”
Helen Burger, showrunner and performer, said that using the Jenga tower provides an interesting tension “between [the actors] trying to tell a good story, but also us having a little bit of that competitive edge, because the Jenga tower involves a little bit of skill, which a dice roll does not.”
Burger said the inspiration for putting on Dead Noir and establishing OUDN came out of their love for Dread.
“As a group, we liked coming together on a yearly basis just to play Dread for birthdays, and I think there was a moment last year after some very sweet, dramatic, heartbreaking moments at the end of a game that my partner and I thought, ‘wouldn’t it be cool to watch this on stage?’”
While parts of Dread Noir are scripted, the show is largely improvised based on the scenarios the GM), Ryan Nicolai, provides. A different scenario, or story, is offered each night, though the performers, Briggs, Burger, and Jordan Holloway, will play the same characters.
“[The Game Guide has] their ‘railroad’ that they’ve developed — their framework for what the plot is hypothetically going to be. They’ve prepared what kind of hazards their players may encounter, but then they have to keep an ear open for anything new that we might spontaneously choose to come up with during the scene,” explained Burger.
Exemplifying the role of the GM, in a rehearsal of Dread Noir, Burger’s character decided she had a murdered brother, and accused Holloway’s character of the crime. Nicolai then improvised a twist into the scenario he had created, revealing that a non-player character was responsible.
“We’ve got this sort of meta-thing going on where the show is telling the stories of us as actors playing a game,” explained Burger. “But most of the show is focusing on the story taking place within the game. So we’re focusing on the story world, and there’s an element of the performance of us as players playing the game.”
Tickets for Dread Noir can be purchased on OUDN’s website.
