HotD Amahara

A single or mildly multi-shot story about a group of high school students surviving in an unfolding zombie apocalypse. We will be using an adapted version of the Dread system that normally uses Jenga blocks as the main mechanic.

Mechanics

Whenever you attempt something that is simplistic (for the character) to succeed at, the action succeeds. If the task is impossible, then it fails. If the action may or may not succeed or refers to something that may or may not be there, a roll is made. The roll is always a percentage die - ie a 2d10 on the standard bot ranging from 00-99. To start with, a single number is secretly designated as a taboo number - if this is rolled, whoever rolled it is fucked. There are also destabilizing numbers - these will add taboo numbers when rolled. As things unfold, more and more numbers will be designated taboo, making rolls more and more dangerous, just like pulling and stacking blocks with a Jenga tower. The amount of taboo numbers is reflected by the state of the imaginary tower shown in the topic. Obviously, things get more dangerous as the game progresses until, inevitably, someone knocks it over.

Aside from performing actions that require are not certain to succeed, rolls can also be made by a character to be extra aware in a situation. Anytime a roll is made, it will always have some reasonably significant positive effect even if there is otherwise no explicit task attributed to it. If the roll is elicited from attempting some action, that action succeeds. Some difficult or complex actions may require multiple rolls. A player can change their mind at any time about what a roll represents. When requested to make a roll, a player can elect NOT to roll. This will mean their action fails and some negative (often lasting) complication may result - an NPC dies, their arm breaks, etc. - but the result will not be so bad that the player is likely to die.

In addition, there is one other option. A player may intentionally "knock down" the tower. This will reset the tower dice while giving an epic heroic success before the character suffers his/her horrible fate.