GRIM.

Dread is a classic of the genre, but it is intentionally low-overhead and narrative-forward, for better or worse. For those of you who love that, great! Go play Dread.

For those of you who wish it was just a little crunchier, using the same tense block-tower mechanic but with added strategy as to which block to pull, increasing the atmosphere of a slow spiral towards failure, I present: GRIM.

And make no mistake: this game is about failure. As a player, your chance of success is slim. Do not play this game if you are the sort of person who has to win everything. Instead, play to find out what happens to your character.

In GRIM, each block is numbered, and each character has numerical bonuses they may add to this number, vs a target number set by the GM. The players also have maluses which can be applied by the GM. That's about it.

There is the axis of numerical success, therefore, but also the encroaching threat of the tower falling and the players dying. This allows each challenge to have some tension even at the beginning, but ramps up the threat as the game proceeds.

As you pull blocks, you start to run out of options also: if you pulled high-scoring blocks to start you may be left with nothing useful when you direly need it. Similarly, if you fail too much too early, you may never even reach your target.

There is also some GM advice for pacing and constructing arcs. I couldn't fit advice on tone onto three pages, sorry. Plenty of advice to be found around the 'net, though. 

The PDF is set up to be printed double-sided and folded. It is also intended to be usable in companionship with the rules to Dread, if you wish, or separately. Either way, I encourage you to buy Dread. It's a great game.

Please leave a review/comment if you enjoy, or if you have constructive feedback!