The Gaming Outpost

First things first: Kevin Nunn dropped me a line to point out Robocop
as an excellent source of the trade-off between power and personal freedom
(see last month’s column). Given that Robocop is one of my favorite
movies, I was a little embarrassed to have forgotten to point out such an
excellent source for GMs. Thanks for the heads up, Kevin. Now, on with this
month’s column.

Apocalyptic gaming has remained the red-headed stepchild of gaming genres:
it’s been there since the beginning, but it has never had a successful title
as has fantasy, SF, or cyberpunk. The key is that the apocalypse in and of
itself really isn’t enough to support a quality game world. There’s a couple
of things most every apocalyptic game world has in common:

• Society is fragmented and unable to protect its members.
  
• Supplies are scarce and basic survival is not a given.
  
• The modern civilization has left behind a series of ruins full of danger
  and powerful artifacts.
  
• Weird mutations have introduced a host of bizarre new creatures.
  

Those four points can pretty much be found in almost ANY game setting.
There’s nothing there that’s unique to post-apocalyptic gaming. Most every
fantasy setting has some sort of lost ancient civilization. If society was
able to protect the characters, then they wouldn’t have much danger to deal
with. And just about every game uses magic, weird science, or some other
gizmo to give the players funny looking beasties to blow holes in. When you
come right down to it, post-apocalyptic gaming boils down to a different
background than other games: before your character was born a lot of stuff
went ka-blooie. That’s about it. That doesn’t mean that post-apocalyptic
gaming has to stay dull, however. This scenario has been used in quite a few
SF novels. By looking at one of the most effective ones, we can learn a lot
about how to construct a refreshing end of the world game.

There’s two different ways that you can end the world: with a bang, and with
a whimper. Almost every game goes for the bang scenario. Let the nukes fly
so we can get on with the five headed mutants that gamers love to gun down!
Well, I honestly don’t see much difference between most apocalyptic mutants
and fantasy beasties. Both look weird and both want to threaten humanity’s
fragile existence. There’s not enough of a difference there to really make a
compelling game. So, why not go the opposite way? Let’s end the world with a
whimper.

In Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower, society is crumbling. The
divide between rich and poor has become a gaping chasm. Cities (not just the
inner city, but any urban area) are now overrun with homeless drug addicts
and ultraviolent criminals. Those few who can eke out a somewhat civilized
existence huddle together within walled communities, living off of
subsistence farming and venturing outside of the walls only under the most
pressing circumstances. Most communities are little more than fragile
islands in a sea of chaos. Police and fire departments charge exorbitant
fees for their services, leaving only the rich able to afford services that
were once considered essential. Society has collapsed for all but the upper
class. For everyone else, civilization is rapidly becoming a distant, fondly
remembered bit of nostalgia.

Into this uncertain world steps Lauren Olamina, a young woman who possesses
maturity and foresight far beyond her years. Parable of the Sower
follows Lauren as she is forced out of her walled community and propelled
into a quest for survival. But Lauren’s quest isn’t simply one of survival.
Convinced that society is fundamentally sick, Lauren conceives of a new
religion called Earthseed. Earthseed is a product of its environment. Lauren
preaches that hard work and foresight rather than prayer and blind faith are
needed now. Lauren hopes to find a safe spot to build a tiny community where
Earthseed can take root and flourish.

What makes Parable of the Sower so effective is that the remnants of
society as we know it are still visible. The police are still there, but you
have to have cash in order to get any help out of them. You can still go to
the local market and buy food, toilet paper, and soap, but you had better be
ready to pay ultrainflated prices. Even if you have the money to buy
anything, there’s no guarantee that you can hold on to what you have. This
intersection of barbarism with our modern culture yields an effective
setting. One minute, you’re buying a sleeping bag at Sears. The next, you’re
fighting a running gun battle with a mob of drug addled psychopaths. This
should be a key point in your game. Take pains to relate the slow spiral of
decay to your players. Relate events to their everyday lives, frame items
and locations in a context that speaks to their knowledge of modern America.
A burnt out ruin shouldn’t be anonymous wreckage. Describe it as the remains
of a McDonald’s franchise. Use what you see in everyday life to fill in the
details and ram home the point that the players are adventuring in a
familiar setting gone horribly wrong. Think of the typical RPG setting and
turn it on its head. Often, games are set in an era that sees ignorance and
the unknown pushed back as civilization expands. In Parable of the
Sower, civilization is wiped away to reveal the barbarism and anarchy
that always lurked beneath it, ready to break out.

Any modern era game can use such a setting for a campaign, from Unknown
Armies to Werewolf: The Apocalypse. The advantage here is that
with the collapse of society there’s no central authority to get in the way
of any campaign plans your may have. The downside is that there’s no central
authority to get in the way of any campaign plans you may have. Yup, you
read that correctly. You now have a lot of freedom to come up with stories,
but on the flip side you also lose one of the most important story tools to
keep characters in line: the social repercussions of destructive behavior.
In a world gone mad, barbarism and brutality are the norm. If everyone else
is doing it, what’s to stop your characters from joining in? This is where
story goals come into play. In Parable of the Sower, Lauren Olamina
has her dream of a successful Earthseed colony. Obviously, dead men can’t
join religions, so violence isn’t the best way to gain recruits. Similarly,
you’ll need a story arc that gives focus to your game beyond blowing up
people, places, and things. The first place you can look for info is the
first Idea Mine. That article deals with gaming in a world overrun by hordes
of zombies. The basic ideas presented there work in a setting inspired by
Butler’s work, just without the zombies.

A more interesting story line to follow, though, is one that mirrors
Lauren’s struggle to form a new community. Rather than create a physical
challenge for the players, give them a social and spiritual one. There’s a
lot of roleplaying potential here. Can the characters recruit people to join
them? Can they convince the residents of the small town that they’re
journeying through that they are simple travelers and not psychotic drug
addicts? One of the major hurdles facing Lauren is that no one can afford to
trust her. On the other hand, allies and friends are worth their weight in
gold in a world gone mad. By giving others reasons to trust her, Lauren
quickly gains allies on her journey. A gun may be nice in a hostile world,
but a trusted companion or two is much more likely to help you survive. This
should be a major theme of your post-apocalypse game and can help
differentiate it from other gaming genres. Instead of busting heads and
racking up combat skill points, your characters would be much better served
by talking things out and gaining allies.

There’s another major point in Butler’s setting that deserves mention: what
little authority remains is hostile at best and dangerous at worst. With
civilization falling apart, there’s no one around to police the policemen.
Civil rights are a distant memory, and cops are often no better than
legitimized thugs and bandits. This corruption of authority also spreads to
corporations. In Parable of the Sower, slavery has started to make a
comeback in the US. Workers are often forced to pay exorbitant prices for
food and shelter at company run stores. When they eventually slide into
debt, employees are forced by law to work off their ever increasing debt to
their employer. As anarchy rises, the remaining bastions of order view any
freedom as a threat. The collapse of society has created a fascist backlash
amongst those who still wield any power. This can quickly become a major
complicating factor in your characters’ lives and gives you a ready made
source for antagonists.

Finally, you should add a twist to character creation in order to create
fully fleshed out characters. Have each player create a normal, modern day
person. Then, add the skills and stat modifiers that you feel reflect the
character’s experiences as society collapsed. This helps to define
characters along an important divide: all of them were different people
before society collapsed. It also helps create believable characters. Most
people will not have survival or combat skills. These only become important
with the collapse of society. By limiting your players’ skill selection, you
can highlight the theme of everyday people trying to survive in a suddenly
hostile world.

Post-apocalyptic gaming does not have to mean funny looking mutants and
death rays. Societies collapsed in the past without the aid of nuclear
weapons. A non-nuclear, slow decay of society scenario can be far more
challenging than the typical nukes and mutants game. Call of Cthulhu
is so effective because the characters in that game are ordinary people
facing extraordinary circumstances. The same thing is true in a game set
during society’s dying whimper. Put down Ethelred the 10th level warrior and
try playing Myron Smith, a lowly accountant now trying desperately to pull
his friends through the death of civilization. The change may do you good.