Dreadful is a gothic horror roleplaying game about investigating and hunting things that should not exist—and confronting the personal cost of doing so. Set in a world that appears ordinary but has unsettling gaps, it invites players to portray people who search for the truth, take action against what they find, and record what happened, even when the record implicates them. Its themes include investigation, corruption, and consequence, with a central question: how much of the monster must a hunter become to destroy the next one?

The game is designed for three to five hunters and one storyteller. Its materials use an archival, case-file approach, presenting recovered documents and records as part of the experience. Examples include accounts set in Reichenau around 1340, Salt Quay in 1641, and Bristol in 1889. Dreadful is currently presented as a playtest draft, version 0.29, with playtest materials available. The brand’s tagline, “Do not tell,” reinforces its atmosphere of secrecy, evidence, and uneasy discovery.