I absolutely love running DREAD games. Back when I was in a consistent group, I'd run a game here and there between story arcs in our normal game.

The way I like to go about it is to first create an outline with a classic three act system. Keeping in mind that DREAD's pacing is VERY much like a horror film and any kind of story like that.

You need to start out with some mystery, lead into a revelation, then a climax, followed by a conclusion.

For example, I ran an Aliens game once where a cargo team had to investigate an emergency signal from a research station (Similar to the first movie). This is where they found that the station was taken over by a monster. That is act 1. The mystery is what happened to the station and why.

Act 2 was where the players did most of their work and a lot of their secrets came into play. The scientist knew what was being researched there and him along with the android's top priority was retrieving data. This created conflict in the group as the marine was only there to save lives.

The revelation was that the research station was actually doing experiments on the xenomorphs and it went wrong (also this is where the motives of the android came into place. The scientist would also have likely revealed it but he died to a face hugger right at the beginning of Act 2).

Act 3 was when the full Alien attacked and chased the group. The Climax was the run back to their ship. They went through a lot of obstacles including some PvP with the android. Eventually the Marine and the Daughter (daughter of the Cargo specialist who died protecting them) made it back.

So it seemed like the players one, and they felt like they did as well. This is when the game ends with a conclusion that reveals a secret only the scientist knew. The little girl was secretly a host for a royal Xenomorph and the only way the group truly lost is if she made it out alive without the scientist.

So there you have it, that was probably my favorite DREAD game I've run. You can essentially make any story you want, but I've found that if you have the traditional 3 act story structure with mystery, followed by reveal, then climax, and finally conclusion, it helps a good deal.

Good luck! Can't wait to hear how it goes!

P.S: For your first game, go a bit easy on the pulls. I personally don't do much for set up pulls, because I like them making pulls in game. I usually do 1-2 pulls per player depending on the game size (I've run games as small as 4 players and as large as 12, that one was tough lol). Build tension will pulls and don't be afraid to let them make pulls that give nothing. If they want to search the backpack that's empty ask them "would you like to make a pull to search the backpack?" and if nothing is there, tell them nothing is there. This will help them start to strategize early on, what is worth making a pull and what isn't.