The next tabletop RPG I jumped into was Dread, a horror game. Instead of using dice, we would influence our characters’ success and safety by pulling off blocks from the Jenga tower in front of us. As the story progressed, we pulled more blocks, as the tension built up; until finally the tower, and our lives, came crashing down.

The excellent DM ran a scenario like The Hangover gone wrong – we had awoken from a weekend of Las Vegas revelry to find our group battered, bruised, and in an apocalyptic nightmare, with the only escape being an evacuation point across town.

As noisy as the convention hall was, we were enraptured. The DM was lavish with detail and ambiance, and the Jenga tower kept our focus firmly fixated on our impending doom.