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Windmill Game Co., Madison, WI (2026)

04/05/2026

Hello friends, family, and Windmill Patrons!

Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player,
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.

We are so grateful for your patience and support! We had a really active March Madness, and now we have a bit of April Madness! This month's offering is a Dread Skeleton of The Scottish Play, a community theater production of the famous Shakespeare tragedy!

(Because this is a couple days late, we will leave this one available to all of our Patrons until the end of May!)

To satisfy Al Gore's Rhythm, the image is a thumbnail to Extra History's "Macbeth - William Shakespeare - So You Haven't Read", link in the comments!

04/02/2026

It is April, my dude(s/ttes/xs), March Madness just ended yesterday so our April offering (a Dread skeleton!) will be out Real Soon Now (TM)!

03/31/2026

And by one vote we have a winner in our Dread Madness 2026.

The winner is.....

Lost in the dreams of a sleeping town, you and your fellow mindwalkers must discover what happened to the residents to trap them in their slumber, while surviving the worst of their nightmares.

Congratulations to all of our competitors.

03/28/2026

It has been a long March with our Dread Madness and we have seen tons of great ideas compete, but now it is time for our final round and we leave it to all of you to help us decide.

The link for voting will be in our first comment. Help us decide!

03/16/2026

Well our first bracket of round 2 has kicked off with some great ideas in some really tight races

Round 2 Match 1

A) You are members of the punk band Vampire Brides and your old van has broken down on a shortcut to the next gig. Fortunately you broke down outside a picturesque small town so squeaky clean it will make you sick. But you will discover that not everything is perfect in Happy Valley

B) (WINNER) Hrad Houska is a strange fortress with an even stranger history. All of its defenses face inward toward a deep pit. During the war, occult experiments were done. In modern day, the ghost hunter team gets to travel to a new location and see what is the truth.

Round 2 Match 2

A) (WINNER) You and the rest of the squirrel commandos of Squad Many-Threes have done your best to keep the world safe for the big folk of the city but when the rest of R.O.D.E.N.T. starts reverting back to simple animals, will you be able to save yourselves and stop the threat before it spreads.

B) “Endgame” is the thrilling virtual reality gameshow where contestants from all over the world can join in the wacky fun! Players work in teams, competing in physical challenges, trivia, and wits! To ensure fairness, all players are stripped of their memories for the length of the game. Unless, of course, you lose a challenge

Round 2 Match 3

A) (WINNER) Book conventions are a strange time. A place where successful writers, aspirants and fans get to meet and mingle discussing the trials and tribulations of the craft. Today’s panel offers the exciting title “Resurrecting the Dead, How to Finish what you Started”

B) The date is September 6th, 1954 and life is pretty good for you in a rebuilt Tokyo. But this is the day that Godzilla emerges from the sea for the very first time

Round 2 Match 4

A) It was the yearly tradition since you all graduated five years ago. You rent out an old bed and breakfast or ski lodge and have a murder mystery weekend. This year shouldn't have been any different. Though the dead body that was found is real dead and you are trapped because of the weather.

B) (WINNER) You have all volunteered for an overnight sleep study to treat your ongoing night terrors and parasomnias in an isolated sleep laboratory. But the experimental methods employed here may be…unorthodox. Sweet dreams.

Round 2 Match 5

A) The ongoing mine fire beneath Centralia, PA has reduced the former coal town to empty ruins and a mile of broken, graffitied highway in the woods. You are high school students visiting that abandoned stretch of road for a senior class rite of passage the night before it is buried by state officials forever.

B) (WINNER) None of you had heard of the town before you got the call to appear, but hey, the travel is comped, and the check has already cleared so what’s an independent wrestler to do but perform? But does the crowd look a little feral to you? Oh well, the show must go on.

Round 2 Match 6

A) (WINNER) The Tennessee farmers that had worked the land for generations weren't the only ones displaced when the government steamrolled in to build the Secret City. Entities as ancient as the land itself were awoken and did not take kindly to outsiders on their land.

B) Contestants on a reality TV talent competition start turning up dead. Those who are still living have to make sure they’re not next while they try to figure out the cause, be it magical or mundane.

Round 2 Match 7

A) (WINNER) On a late night train to Shibuya, a group of Japanese students miss their stop and must discover the things that live past the last station

B) You joined the alien abduction support group seeking solace and finding acceptance. But there seems to be something off with the newest member, in fact, you don’t remember seeing him at all before your yearly retreat. That has to just be paranoia, right?

Round 2 Match 8

A) (WINNER) 11:00 am, Wednesday,January 15, 1919 Boston Massachusetts. The pit of your stomach is churning with a horrible uneasy feeling and there is a thick sweet smell in the air.

B) Breaking into urban exploration is tough- finding sites that are both safe and cool is difficult, and the veterans don’t share their turf. But an anonymous online tip pointed your group to a prime spot- an abandoned funeral parlor longtime explorers seem to avoid.

Did the votes go thr way you would have wanted them?

See something you are angry didn't move ahead but you weren't sure how to vote.

Well there are still some rounds left and you can still join our large patronage site to get voting rites for the remaining rounds

Check the link in the comments.

03/13/2026

And our final block of round 1 has completed and things are definitely shaping up.

Now, before we announce the winners we have some questions for you. Have you been enjoying these prompts? Have you grown invested in your personal favorites and need to see them win? And not just see them win ,but be a part of voting them to victory? Well good news, you can all it takes is signing up with us on large patronage site and not only do you get to vote, but you get all the content we put out each year.

New dread scenarios
New ADGNEPSEF555 characters
Essays written by our wonderful GMs about the craft
Stories set in our wonderful settings
Access to our discord server
And more

Check the comments for a link.

With that being said, here is the shake down of our round 1d

Match 25

(WINNER BY 1 VOTE) The Lucky Morning Lead Mine has a long history of strange accidents and deaths, but has dodged close regulatory attention till now. You are part of the investigative team seeking an accounting after the most recent tragedy, but the afflicted mining community is curiously reluctant to cooperate…

With Graduation day looming a group of friends decide to go on one last road trip to celebrate friendship, college and the end of an era. One minute you a re driving down the road belting out Queen and the next you are sitting in a horse drawer carriage careening through the dark woods, howls from each side and a gothic castle on the horizon. Isekai? More like Ise DIE!!!!

Match 26

It is the very last shift on the Space Station Valkyrie before it is to be decommissioned and destroyed. Can you survive your last 8 hour shift with aliens, terrorists, and alien terrorists?

(WINNER) Rides at theme parks are complicated when they don’t have several dozen fully articulated animatronics. Maintenance is a full time job but there are times more indepth fixes have to take place. It is what your team is tasked with as you climb and maneuver your way through the twisting machinery and claustrophobic access tunnels of one of the park's main show pieces. You know for certain you killed the power but there are still parts of the attraction activating all around you.

Match 27

Installation night at the art museum! Between exhausted interns, exacting curators, scheming conservationists, and nutty artists, this all-nighter is a nightmare even before the demonic forces get involved.

(WINNER) It’s summertime, and you’ve signed on to be a camp counselor for the only reason anyone ever signs on to be a camp counselor: because you’re secretly a monster intent on preying on the campers. You’re not the only one this year, though…which might make things awkward. Or dangerous.

Match 28

(WINNER) Archaeologists find what is left of an advanced expedition in the Teutoburg Forest. Troops that had gone far ahead of the legions that Varus lost. Something tracked them and hunted them. You must determine what.

You are the Miraculous. The blessed maidens anointed by the Unseen Power to stand as the mystic barrier against the unholy disease that threatens the world. Your benefactors, The Order of Asmara, guide your steps. But perhaps not all is quite as it seems.

Match 29

(WINNER) New Year’s Eve 1999. Loud music. Pretty people. Penthouse Apartment 50 stories above the city. The party to end all parties. WHen the lights go out the Y2K jokes begin. But when the blood rains from the sprinklers and the fangs pop, the real struggle begins.

Miners in the 20s are being held down by the bosses. Then, when things go poorly, things go even further when they dig far too deep. Will the workers rise up against the horrors in the dark and the boardroom?

Match 30

The Serum was a revolutionary breakthrough in the fight against aging. It was touted as being safe and painless. The testing hadn’t been thorough enough. It took three years for the Serum to mutate, turning a cure for aging into a flesh eating disease. It took only five years for it to become a world wide pandemic, spreading to older individuals that hadn’t even taken it. And now ten years later the world’s population is decimated, governments have toppled, infrastructure has failed, and there isn’t a living soul over the age of 35.

(WINNER) Lost in the dreams of a sleeping town, you and your fellow mindwalkers must discover what happened to the residents to trap them in their slumber, while surviving the worst of their nightmares.

Match 31

(WINNER BY 1 VOTE) The Carpentersville Horror Club is a group of elementary school students who love to be scared. This week, everyone brought in their spookiest artifact…grave dirt, a ‘cursed’ doll. But the clear winner is the mirror whose reflection seems strangely alive….and promises to make your wishes come true.

The book Amy found in the old shop made it seem easy- call upon the Whispering Man, make a trade, and he’d eliminate rivals, exes, anyone who’d wronged you or stood in your way, even give you magic powers. But now the book is missing, Amy is dead…and you’re starting to hear him whisper.

Match 32

(WINNER) In 1500’s Germany, the long-missing princess of a principality has been recovered and restored. Everyone assumed she would lead their region to prosperity. Instead all evidence indicates she came back a monster.

It is January 31, 1915 and you are freezing in a trench as a Russian conscript on the eastern front. The Germans just fired shells that exploded in the air but nothing happened except the snow that’s falling tastes like chlorine

03/10/2026

Whew round 1c is done and we had some close as all heck out matchups with 4 of the 8 being decided by 1 vote.

Match 17

A) During the Black Death, young nobles and rakes defied the plague by gambling and holding orgiastic revels in cemeteries. Tonight, you’ve been invited to a private, high-stakes game in the crypts of Avignon. What will you wager as the world burns?

B) (WINNER BY 1 VOTE) The crew of a B17 Bomber must fight for their lives as they find themselves blown into a storm and an all together different fight than what they are trained for.

Match 18

A) In a steam punk London, clockwork servants have become the latest fashion amongst the nobility. As servants of a noble lord you must discover what is strange about the new “help” or be replaced as obsolete

B) (WINNER) Life as an NPC in a MMO is generally predictable and simple. To day was supposed to be the same, but then the notes came through and you found out your small town was set to be the site of the next tragedy, will you be able to rewrite your fate and survive or will you become a victim of…the Patch

Match 19

A) (WINNER BY 1 VOTE) Vesuvius sleeps fitfully. Pompeii has never been forgotten, but its message has, for modern Naples has spread and climbed where no city should be built. Today, the volcano wakes.

B) You can’t shake the feeling of being intently watched. You know your group isn’t the only one on the hiking trail but the dense vegetation and rocky terrain has kept all the other groups out of your line of sight and you out of theirs. The fae folklore of the area isn't helping to soothe your nerves. You turn looking over your shoulder to check on the ones behind you and find yourself alone.

Match 20

A) (WINNER BY 1 VOTE)Roman scouts advance into the dark wood of Germania before the legions. They find that they are being hunted by something and must prepare for what is to come.

B) A teleporter mishap has occurred. Fortunately, no one was hurt. Unfortunately, there are now two of each crew member, with the same base memories….and little time to adapt, with an enemy ship closing in. Can you trust yourself to watch your back?

Match 21

A) (WINNER BY 1 VOTE) Losing your parents was terrible enough, losing the caring old couple who ran your group home has been devastating. New management promises big changes and now all the older kids have disappeared. What a group of plucky orphans to do?

B) The year is 1878. Lutwidge Sanitarium, near Daresbury in northern England, is a small private hospital for the mentally afflicted. It’s respectable, reputable. And then a small group of residents are selected to try an experimental new treatment- and find themselves in another world.

Match 22

A) Separated from your families, you and several other neighborhood children were loaded onto the train and evacuated from London to the rural countryside. The house you arrived at was grand on the outside but something just didn’t feel right once you stepped into the aged manor home.

B) (WINNER) There was no shuttle scheduled to visit the ISS till next month…but your station crew awakens to discover that an unfamiliar ship has docked, communications with Earth are lost in static, and one of your fellow astronauts is missing.

Match 23

A) (WINNER) It’s been years since you lost your human form, and your story is far from unique in the enchanted forest. But every 15 years, the Sorcerer-King holds an amnesty, breaking the curses of anyone who has managed to hold onto their humanity. If you can make it there without losing more of yourself.

B) After a performance of The Muppet Show, Mrs Piggy finally snaps! Escape the dilapidated theater or get pork chopped! HIIIIIYAH! Get it? Pork chopped? Eeeeeh? Waka waka!

Match 24

A) A team of ghost hunters is filming a special in the Tower of London after hours.

B) (WINNER) Your starship is failing, held together by a wish and a prayer. Every transmission goes unanswered. Every waystation is abandoned. Every planet you reach is dead. As supplies and solutions dwindle, so do your options. How do you survive, when nothing else has?

Thats some good stuff but with 1 more set of 8 to go in our free for all round, will any new front runners come to the fore.

Who can say?

Well you can, even if you are not a large patronage site member, for one more matchup.

Check in the comments for the link

03/07/2026

Alright, alright alright, an hour late but that's because we had a close races decided by a single vote.

Round 1b comes to a close and here is our results:

Match 9

A) (WINNER) The ongoing mine fire beneath Centralia, PA has reduced the former coal town to empty ruins and a mile of broken, graffitied highway in the woods. You are high school students visiting that abandoned stretch of road for a senior class rite of passage the night before it is buried by state officials forever.

B) You and the ladies have been friends for 60 years, and you haven’t slowed down one bit! This all-seniors cruise promises the type of party you last rocked in the 70s, and the Itty Bitty Biddies Commitee is all aboard, baby! If only the body snatchers, shapeshifters, aliens and/or dopplegangers would leave well enough alone. Let’s go wild, girls.

Match 10

A) (WINNER) None of you had heard of the town before you got the call to appear, but hey, the travel is comped, and the check has already cleared so what’s an independent wrestler to do but perform? But does the crowd look a little feral to you? Oh well, the show must go on.

B) The Questing Knight begins a new journey. Accompanied by her Squire, guided by her Mentor, in full devotion to her Love. The names, the lives, the details….they don’t matter. The journey is always the same. The story is always the same. Find the ending you deserve.

Match 11

A) The earth had long since been explored and exploited. Now the company sends you to Europa to see what lies beneath even darker and more distant waves.

B) (WINNER) The Tennessee farmers that had worked the land for generations weren't the only ones displaced when the government steamrolled in to build the Secret City. Entities as ancient as the land itself were awoken and did not take kindly to outsiders on their land.

Match 12

A) (WINNER) Contestants on a reality TV talent competition start turning up dead. Those who are still living have to make sure they’re not next while they try to figure out the cause, be it magical or mundane.

B) First contact goes as poorly as possible when an alien prison ship crash lands on Salsbury Plains in 9th century England

Match 13

A) (WINNER) On a late night train to Shibuya, a group of Japanese students miss their stop and must discover the things that live past the last station

B) A tour of a cold war bunker turns hot when in an emergency the doors seal and the computers turn on.

Match 14

A) The gods are fed up with us. Humanity is now on trial, and you have been summoned by the gods to testify on its behalf. The continued existence of the world is at stake— and the jury is biased.

B) (WINNER BY 1 VOTE) You joined the alien abduction support group seeking solace and finding acceptance. But there seems to be something off with the newest member, in fact, you don’t remember seeing him at all before your yearly retreat. That has to just be paranoia, right?

Match 15

A) (WINNER) 11:00 am, Wednesday,January 15, 1919 Boston Massachusetts. The pit of your stomach is churning with a horrible uneasy feeling and there is a thick sweet smell in the air.

B) Midnight Manor is the hottest new Halloween haunt around. But when a group of dedicated horror fans go to check out its much-vaunted “thrills and chills”, they find themselves in scenes that are not so make-believe. Now they have to use all their smarts- and a heavy dose of genre savviness- to make through to the other side.

Match 16

A)Stories tell of a vast kingdom under the sea….tales whispered by old sailors of strange waters, alien monstrosities, and haunting denizens with unknown objectives. Should you sail these waters, post a watch…for you have something they want.

B) (WINNER) Breaking into urban exploration is tough- finding sites that are both safe and cool is difficult, and the veterans don’t share their turf. But an anonymous online tip pointed your group to a prime spot- an abandoned funeral parlor longtime explorers seem to avoid.

Whew another great round and we continue with the e eryone gets to vote round.

Round 1c is up and 3 days to vote.

Woooooooo

03/04/2026

Alright Gamers, round 1a is now closed and here is how it stands

Match 1

A) The last Neanderthals died in Spain less than 40,000 years ago. While excavating the cave thought to be one of their final outposts, voices not quite human begin to call out to you from the deeper, unexplored passages.

B) (WINNER) You are members of the punk band Vampire Brides and your old van has broken down on a shortcut to the next gig. Fortunately you broke down outside a picturesque small town so squeaky clean it will make you sick. But you will discover that not everything is perfect in Happy Valley

Match 2

A)The Train runs through the wasteland, self-sustaining and stopping only for the most dedicated of passengers. Its riders protect it, nurture it, survive it, always with an eye to the unmapped lands it traverses . . . and the things that live there.

B) (WINNER) Hrad Houska is a strange fortress with an even stranger history. All of its defenses face inward toward a deep pit. During the war, occult experiments were done. In modern day, the ghost hunter team gets to travel to a new location and see what is the truth.

Match 3

A) (WINNER) You and the rest of the squirrel commandos of Squad Many-Threes have done your best to keep the world safe for the big folk of the city but when the rest of R.O.D.E.N.T. starts reverting back to simple animals, will you be able to save yourselves and stop the threat before it spreads.

B) You bid on the storage unit and got it for pretty cheap. You weren’t prepared for what you started uncovering when the wooden crates were cracked open and the whirring of gears broke the silence.

Match 4

A) (WINNER) “Endgame” is the thrilling virtual reality gameshow where contestants from all over the world can join in the wacky fun! Players work in teams, competing in physical challenges, trivia, and wits! To ensure fairness, all players are stripped of their memories for the length of the game. Unless, of course, you lose a challenge

B) In the not so distant future, people start manifesting strange and mysterious mental powers. Now young people who manifest those powers are funneled into a government-sponsored school to learn how to hone and control those powers for the “greater good”. This is purely altruistic, right?

Match 5

A) Archaeologists find the remnants of an ancient civilization off the coast of Denmark. This predates what we know of the region. The scientists will be deep in under the waves exploring the unknown.

B) (WINNER) Book conventions are a strange time. A place where successful writers, aspirants and fans get to meet and mingle discussing the trials and tribulations of the craft. Today’s panel offers the exciting title “Resurrecting the Dead, How to Finish what you Started”

Match 6

A) (WINNER) The date is September 6th, 1954 and life is pretty good for you in a rebuilt Tokyo. But this is the day that Godzilla emerges from the sea for the very first time

B) They come for you in the day, clapping you in irons before God and your family. They call you Witch. They accuse you and others of Maleficarium against the Queen. They promise leniency should you confess. They promise horrors if you do not. How do you plead?

Match 7

A) (WINNER) It was the yearly tradition since you all graduated five years ago. You rent out an old bed and breakfast or ski lodge and have a murder mystery weekend. This year shouldn't have been any different. Though the dead body that was found is real dead and you are trapped because of the weather.

B) Bartholomew Bear and the Babblecreek Band might look like creepy animatronics, but they are actually just people in heavy, smelly costumes. Doesn’t stop your bosses from encouraging scary rumors for the viral marketing. But when an actual disaster strikes the county fair, it is a bad time for your zippers to get stuck…

Match 8

A) A tour group goes down into the Catacombs under Paris and takes an unexpected trip back in time.

B) (WINNER) You have all volunteered for an overnight sleep study to treat your ongoing night terrors and parasomnias in an isolated sleep laboratory. But the experimental methods employed here may be…unorthodox. Sweet dreams.

Congratulations to our round 1a winners.

Round 1b starts now, look for the link in the comments

03/01/2026

Good evening or appropriate salutation for whenever you see this. It is March and you know what that means, time for our Windmill Game Co Dread March Madness 2026.

This year we have 64 ideas battling it out for supremacy with the winning plot being selected to be fleshed out for a summer run time.

We have ideas from 8, count them 8 Windmill Game Co staff members going head to head to head to head to...you get it, I don't need to continue.

Now you might be asking yourself, "Self." How do i go about voting? "How do I go about voting?

Im glad you asked. This year everyone gets to vote in the first round of the tournament. The first round will be broken up into 4 brackets with 8 battles in each. Votes will be open for 3 days.

Now enough of the math stuff. Let's get to the first round.

For engagement sake the link that you can use to vote will be in the first reply to this post.

We hope you all enjoy and let us know what you think.

01/01/2026

Hello friends, family, and Windmill Patrons!

We've all made it. We've defeated 2025. We hope that all of you had safe and happy holidays, and that 2026 will be a kinder and gentler year for us all.

This month's offering is an article by the terrifyingly talented Paul, with some very excellent guidance for how to run Dread. Give "So You Want to Play Dread #5: What Your NPC Horoscope Says About You" a read!

To satisfy Al Gore's Rhythm, the image is a thumbnail to U2's "New Year's Day", link in the comments!

Windmill Game Co.

04/05/2026

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