Parable of the Sower

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.