“The beast is not dead.”

“I put four bullets into him.”

“You think evil can be killed with bullets? Satan lives. The Unholy One is among us.”

This is a mystery/horror Dread scenario about a ten hour train ride from Shanghai to Moscow (click for the pdf link). Some people are going to Moscow, some are going further, to say, Britain. The current year is 1936 and this train is run by the Soviets, who keep it tight on security … mostly. One of the characters, Professor Saxon, has brought aboard what he believes to be the Missing Link and put it in the storage car where you’ll be safe from it… for now… Who will survive? What must be sacrificed to stay alive?

“But what if one of you is the monster?”

“Monster? We’re British, you know.”

This game was inspired by Episode 143: “You Can’t Just Set It On Fire” of the podcast Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff. I, the author, don’t own any of the material of the 1972 film Horror Express (here is the whole film with Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing on YouTube) of which this scenario was inspired, nor do I own the RPG Dread, which this scenario is intended to be used with. And of course, I also don’t own Ken and Robbin’s podcast (mwahaha). It should also be noted this isn’t a direct translation of proper nouns and character backgrounds from the movie. Lastly, this is a game of historical fiction. This steals the ideas of historical places, peoples, and groups to make the game more interesting.

This scenario assumes you know what an RPG is, read the rules of Dread and have a Jenga (ehem) *wooden tower* available to you. Don’t forget to grab some pens and paper, duh. Print out what you need from the document, then put on your GM hat and have at it.