Dread Expectations by Bruce R. Cordell is a role playing game supplement published by Monte Cook Games for use with the Cypher System. This is a superhero adventure.
The supplement is available as a 20-page PDF from DriveThruRPG for $4.99 but was purchased at a reduced price as part of a special bundle. One page is the front cover.
The single paragraph Summary explains the characters have to battle the forces of Doctor Dread to stop her from activating, or more likely having to defeat, a giant alien battle robot.
Details gives information on Doctor Dread, a supervillain and terrorist who uses fear and the media as a tool. She has discovered how to activate a battle robot used by the Vreek in an attack thirty years ago. The PCs need to stop her; they are the New York Sentinels, an elite superhero team.
The adventure starts with the characters being summoned to the Museum of Art to stop an attack by the Dread Corps. Once this is accomplished, the rest of the adventure is essentially a flow chart on a two-page spread that has various different ways it can progress and various different keys to uncover.
After this, using cyphers as inspirations and the Vreek invasion are covered, followed by ways of using this adventure in a campaign and further development.
The next page has two colour handouts.
The final twelve pages of content are six double-sided character sheets.
Dread Expectations in Review
The PDF is well bookmarked with major and minor sections linked. Navigation is good. The text, bar the flowchart, follows a two columns with sidebar format, with the sidebar containing stats and GM tips, and appeared to be free of error. There are a number of colour illustrations that appear to be custom. Presentation is good.
Though it is stated in the description, be warned that there is very little adventure here. Most of the adventure is in the two-page flowchart – which is not easy to read on single page spreads – with much of the rest of the adventure’s content being background and development ideas. If this is used as a one-shot, these are not useful, and some of the material will never be used. Realistically, if the actual content is placed on a page, this is a two-page adventure. Dread Expectations is a pretty expensive adventure at full price and it can be found by clicking here.
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