This will be the first in an occasional series of Gamehackery posts I'm calling "DMing and Television". After all, TV is one of the most prevalent means by which we access and absorb storytelling examples -- it only makes sense to try to derive some sort of DMing wisdom from the shows we watch.
Three seasons in, and The Walking Dead has captured a lot of our attention. If you're not at least aware of the show, I sure hope it's comfortable under that rock you've been under for the past three years. If you're not watching it, seriously consider giving the show a chance, it's some of the best narrative programming on TV. And there's Zombies.
BUT for Gamehackery purposes, we need to glean some sort of wisdom or ideas from the show.
View attachment 57061
1. Home Base
Seasons two and three focused heavily on a single location -- Hershel's farm in season 2 and the Prison in season 3. These locations give the characters security, something to invest effort into (building up defenses, etc.). Using some sort of home base in a RPG isn't necessarily new, but it doesn't actual become the center of the action very often. Supers games, for example, tend to have some sort of home base, but only on rare occasions is that home base part of the story.
But that's where a lot of the story takes place in shows like The Walking Dead. For one thing, home is where the group feels safe enough to unpack their inter-personal baggage. Out in the scary, walker-filled world, the group has to behave very much like a D&D party does -- they must work together like a well-oiled team, look out for each other and focus on a common enemy or goal. But at home, behind fences and closed doors, the differences come out.
This is important for Dungeonmasters who would like to have that sort of interparty interaction going on during their campaign. It's not so easy when you don't spend very much time in that sort of safe environment where it's possible to unpack interparty conflicts.
The challenge, then, is to find a way to spend interesting time in a home base.Not all groups will have the sort of role-playing chops (or habit) to be able to sustain ongoing inter player action like that if they don't have something at stake some sort of mechanic to play around with.
What could be at stake? With players around the table controlling their own characters, it's very difficult to be able to have that sort of conflict go on and be interesting. So there needs to be something else in play there might be the affection and loyalty of NPC's who are traveling with the party the way there are noncombatants traveling with the group in the walking dead.
2. Recurring Villains
It's news to absolutely no one that a recurring villain is a good thing. And yet, very often they are not something that we see very often -- especially not if you're in the habit of using print adventures for your game.
Part of the problem is the challenge of creating a situation where the PCs don't reach for their swords as soon as they meet someone -- Think about ways that important NPCs are kept out of reach of trigger-happy characters in other media -- while still making it possible for the PCs to interact with them.
Use the delicious Evil of the Governor to be the catalyst for a re-commitment to using some recurring villains in your game.
3. Morality is Relative
The world of your game is very different from the one you see in The Walking Dead, but one of the clear parallels is the creation of an internal morality that makes sense for the game, even though it may not be what we would expect in a historical period, etc.
What's interesting is the way the story has forced the characters -- especially Rick -- to rethink the morality that they have lived with for more than a season. The episodes leading up to the end of season 3 have some really stark, dramatic illustrations of the "group first, forget outsiders" morality that they had come to accept as they way they needed to live -- and yet at the end, Rick leads the group to accept new members -- members that will not be much help in a fight, either.
As a DM, when you see your players developing their own internal morality along these lines -- not taking prisoners, or whatever that might be -- think about presenting them with situations that test that morality -- and situations that encourage them to consider changing it.
4. Campaign defines resources & rewards
Like Dark Sun, The Walking Dead's characters need to find basic provisions constantly to survive -- that becomes a critical commodity that they need to earn as they adventure. This creates some interesting dynamics in the game, and makes a nice change from the piles of gold we're used to amassing.
But any campaign -- no matter where it's set -- should really be built around the idea of earning or collecting some sort of commodity or currency. One of the unintended consequences we found in our 4e home games was that gold ceased to be an important reward for our adventures -- the magic item economy made it difficult to do anything especially exciting with the money that you gathered. There was very little reason to collect piles of money.
And maybe the gold was never a great motivator, anyway. As you prepare for your campaign -- or even a series of adventures in your game -- think carefully about what your characters are trying to earn as rewards. Can they earn noble titles? Military Rank? Is there a system by which they earn followers and disciples?
Look again at The Walking Dead. Yeah, the characters as a group are trying to keep finding enough food to live, but what else are they looking for? Security, like a new hideout? Trust, from each other (the way Michone earns trust from Carl, and the way Merle struggles to be trusted by the group). The way Rick fights for his sanity, Carl fights to recover tokens of his family.
5. Monsters are Tools
We've seen this very cool transition over the three seasons. IN the first season, the walkers were a threat, plain and simple. IN the second season, they become somewhat less of a threat. Hershel saw them as victims, maybe. Rather than destroying them, he penned them up and tried to keep them contained, hoping for a solution.
But the third season introduces the idea of the Walkers as tools, as weapons. Michone and The Governor both turn the walkers into a usable resource.
How might that play out in your games? If a player came up with a way of trying to harness a monster rather than simply killing it, what might it look like? And do your villains make use of the monsters in creative ways?
There's always a strained relationship between narrative entertainment and RPGs -- if nothing else, the group dynamic makes it difficult to create entertaining, playable interactions between player characters -- especially interactions that are as interesting as the encounters where they are taking on the outside world. But there's still a lot to draw from, ideas you can inject into your game as you watch. What are your favorite ideas for DMs from The Walking Dead?
Three seasons in, and The Walking Dead has captured a lot of our attention. If you're not at least aware of the show, I sure hope it's comfortable under that rock you've been under for the past three years. If you're not watching it, seriously consider giving the show a chance, it's some of the best narrative programming on TV. And there's Zombies.
BUT for Gamehackery purposes, we need to glean some sort of wisdom or ideas from the show.
View attachment 57061
1. Home Base
Seasons two and three focused heavily on a single location -- Hershel's farm in season 2 and the Prison in season 3. These locations give the characters security, something to invest effort into (building up defenses, etc.). Using some sort of home base in a RPG isn't necessarily new, but it doesn't actual become the center of the action very often. Supers games, for example, tend to have some sort of home base, but only on rare occasions is that home base part of the story.
But that's where a lot of the story takes place in shows like The Walking Dead. For one thing, home is where the group feels safe enough to unpack their inter-personal baggage. Out in the scary, walker-filled world, the group has to behave very much like a D&D party does -- they must work together like a well-oiled team, look out for each other and focus on a common enemy or goal. But at home, behind fences and closed doors, the differences come out.
This is important for Dungeonmasters who would like to have that sort of interparty interaction going on during their campaign. It's not so easy when you don't spend very much time in that sort of safe environment where it's possible to unpack interparty conflicts.
The challenge, then, is to find a way to spend interesting time in a home base.Not all groups will have the sort of role-playing chops (or habit) to be able to sustain ongoing inter player action like that if they don't have something at stake some sort of mechanic to play around with.
What could be at stake? With players around the table controlling their own characters, it's very difficult to be able to have that sort of conflict go on and be interesting. So there needs to be something else in play there might be the affection and loyalty of NPC's who are traveling with the party the way there are noncombatants traveling with the group in the walking dead.
2. Recurring Villains
It's news to absolutely no one that a recurring villain is a good thing. And yet, very often they are not something that we see very often -- especially not if you're in the habit of using print adventures for your game.
Part of the problem is the challenge of creating a situation where the PCs don't reach for their swords as soon as they meet someone -- Think about ways that important NPCs are kept out of reach of trigger-happy characters in other media -- while still making it possible for the PCs to interact with them.
Use the delicious Evil of the Governor to be the catalyst for a re-commitment to using some recurring villains in your game.
3. Morality is Relative
The world of your game is very different from the one you see in The Walking Dead, but one of the clear parallels is the creation of an internal morality that makes sense for the game, even though it may not be what we would expect in a historical period, etc.
What's interesting is the way the story has forced the characters -- especially Rick -- to rethink the morality that they have lived with for more than a season. The episodes leading up to the end of season 3 have some really stark, dramatic illustrations of the "group first, forget outsiders" morality that they had come to accept as they way they needed to live -- and yet at the end, Rick leads the group to accept new members -- members that will not be much help in a fight, either.
As a DM, when you see your players developing their own internal morality along these lines -- not taking prisoners, or whatever that might be -- think about presenting them with situations that test that morality -- and situations that encourage them to consider changing it.
4. Campaign defines resources & rewards
Like Dark Sun, The Walking Dead's characters need to find basic provisions constantly to survive -- that becomes a critical commodity that they need to earn as they adventure. This creates some interesting dynamics in the game, and makes a nice change from the piles of gold we're used to amassing.
But any campaign -- no matter where it's set -- should really be built around the idea of earning or collecting some sort of commodity or currency. One of the unintended consequences we found in our 4e home games was that gold ceased to be an important reward for our adventures -- the magic item economy made it difficult to do anything especially exciting with the money that you gathered. There was very little reason to collect piles of money.
And maybe the gold was never a great motivator, anyway. As you prepare for your campaign -- or even a series of adventures in your game -- think carefully about what your characters are trying to earn as rewards. Can they earn noble titles? Military Rank? Is there a system by which they earn followers and disciples?
Look again at The Walking Dead. Yeah, the characters as a group are trying to keep finding enough food to live, but what else are they looking for? Security, like a new hideout? Trust, from each other (the way Michone earns trust from Carl, and the way Merle struggles to be trusted by the group). The way Rick fights for his sanity, Carl fights to recover tokens of his family.
5. Monsters are Tools
We've seen this very cool transition over the three seasons. IN the first season, the walkers were a threat, plain and simple. IN the second season, they become somewhat less of a threat. Hershel saw them as victims, maybe. Rather than destroying them, he penned them up and tried to keep them contained, hoping for a solution.
But the third season introduces the idea of the Walkers as tools, as weapons. Michone and The Governor both turn the walkers into a usable resource.
How might that play out in your games? If a player came up with a way of trying to harness a monster rather than simply killing it, what might it look like? And do your villains make use of the monsters in creative ways?
There's always a strained relationship between narrative entertainment and RPGs -- if nothing else, the group dynamic makes it difficult to create entertaining, playable interactions between player characters -- especially interactions that are as interesting as the encounters where they are taking on the outside world. But there's still a lot to draw from, ideas you can inject into your game as you watch. What are your favorite ideas for DMs from The Walking Dead?
