In this review we are pleased to tell you about Daily Dread – Everyday Evil, the new role-playing game strongly inspired by dystopian literature by Daniele Fusetto and Zeus Longhi. First of all we want to say thank you GrumpyBearStuff for sending us a physical copy of the manual.
You can buy Daily Dread on the GrumpyBearStuff e-shop at the price of 30 euros, in paperback edition with soft cover. The digital version is included in the price.
Review of Daily Dread: the Manual
The volume is in A5 format, practical and convenient to carry, which is well suited to your needs 240 pages. It’s about a solid product which can withstand manual use that requires a certain frequency of consultation. However, the soft cover requires a little care as it has a tendency to get damaged a little more easily.
The manual is not particularly rich in artwork. It has its own illustrations, equally divided between actual drawings and a more “graphic” style, but the strong point of the volume is its layout. It appears clear and clean, with a very careful use of colors to highlight and distinguish the various blocks of text and sections, but always remaining restful. Above all aesthetically follows a dossier, such as those of the public security forces, creating a strong reference context from a first superficial reading.
What Game Do We Play?
Designed and produced in Italy, despite the title Daily Dread it is also set in our country. To be precise in a dystopian version of it in a not too distant future. Players play as the Broken Wings, the few people who try to oppose a dictatorial regime with its own agenda aimed at the suppression of civil rights.
Specifically, the Operator, the role covered by the table master, prepares a Reform, a political maneuver of a liberticidal nature.
The goal of the Broken Wings is obviously to prevent the Reformation from coming to fruition. Borrowing mechanics that almost seem to harken back to some board games, according to a rather modern game design logic, the final outcome is determined by comparing the successes and failures obtained during the sessions.
Daily Dread: Game System Review
The game system is easier to apply than to explain. Perhaps in this sense the structure of the manual is not entirely helpful, as it brings forward mechanical and narrative elements at the same time. First of all, the character sheet is made up by assigning tokens, called Spies, to the three Behaviors (Empathic, Inflexible and Subversive) of the character. The same operation happens with the five Pulses choices, or the springs, motivations and abilities of the Broken Wings.
The tests are carried out by placing the associated Spies in a bag to the Pulse used, together with those that the Operator determines depending on the difficulty and danger of the action according to a specific table.
Their result is configured according to the colors extracted with respect to the choice made by the player, who will still be able to make “corrections” to the outcome by destabilizing or stabilizing his character, or by changing the color of the markers associated with his Behaviors. This means that Broken Wings are constantly evolving creatures, whose values constantly fluctuate depending on how much the “system” pushes them to the limit.
The Characters and Psychosocial Degenerations
A good guide to character creation are the Psychosocial degenerations. These are profiles drawn up by the authorities to identify potentially dangerous citizens.
- Friendship Traffickers, for example, are skilled manipulators.
- Jackal Psychosis afflicts individuals with a military background who exhibit antisocial behavior and try to hide from the government.
- The Mark of the Predator is a condition typical of criminals trying to re-enter society after a period in correctional institutions.
- Virtual Escapists are parasites who try to survive by infiltrating the government’s information system.
- Mephistopheles Syndrome is typical of those who try to take advantage of every type of knowledge and information.
- Dynamo-Addicts have a form of obsession with the threat of being reduced to poverty.
- Tentacle Personalities are nostalgic for the patronage state, and seek to develop as many useful contacts as possible.
- The Unredeemed Spawn is made up of suburban figures who seek to claim portions of urban land as their own, on a tribal level.
- The Echoes of Freedom are former rebels redeemed by the system who once again demonstrate tendencies towards subversion.
Setting Review of Daily Dread
The setting of Daily Dread it is strongly characterized, but not detailed point by point. What is most important is the presentation of the regime and above all of its way of acting. It is a specious structure, which never sets the objective of killing the citizen in an all-out fight. Rather, it tries to keep him calm, to narcotize his critical thinking by conforming it to the masses, while day after day he limits a new freedom.
With an open inspiration to 1984 by George Orwell, the authors have in fact decided to propose an Italian version updated to the ’20s of the 21st century. A form of fascism that is much more disturbing than the one that organizes parades in the streets, as it is creeping and cowardly (not that courageous forms of fascism exist) and that makes it even more difficult for marginalized individuals like the Broken Wings to carry forward their struggles and demands.
Security Tools: Fundamental
A very important element in a game like this is obviously the security tools. Daily Dread has developed a specific one. The manual also suggests others, specifying that each group can adopt what they prefer as long as they find a formula that provides for it. In fact, the game talks about violence, discrimination, dictatorship and subversion. Avoiding running into specific sensitivities of some players at the table is practically impossible.
However, the recommended system is that of Scale of Light. Very similar to the system of lines and veils, it is however structured in a progressive manner. Any player can switch from the white light, which indicates a comfortable situation, to the red light, which indicates approaching sensitive topics. And from the red one (or directly from the white one) to the black light, which indicates a desire not to delve further into that topic.
Conclusions of the Review of Daily Dread
Daily Dread is a very interesting game, in some ways almost experimental. It relies on a somewhat cumbersome game engine, which requires a lot of practice to master without constant references to the manual. At the same time it has a strongly alternative imprint, which without the players’ initiative from a narrative point of view would end up running aground. A particular compromise, which the structure of the manual does not help to manage, overlapping mechanical and narrative elements as mentioned. In this way you certainly get an effective reading, but also a less usable one.
The result is, however, very important, as it reiterates once again how not only can politics not be kept out of the world of role-playing games, but it goes hand in hand with it. Above all, like other products, it serves as a warning to always keep your eyes open, because fascism is not confined to history books alone, but creeps into everyday reality and it is necessary to stop it before only the Broken Wings remain to defend us.
0 Comments