We tend to imagine that the hardest part of surviving a zombie apocalypse would be the zombies. But like properties like The last of us, The walking dead, and Navaar Jackson’s role play The corrupt show us, they’re actually different people.
Although there are other games that tackle the zombie trope, such as Free League’s licensed RPG The walking dead and D&Ds Domains of fearthe extent of the problems The corrupt are reduced to an interpersonal level – making them arguably more devastating. An intimate game about a small group of survivors, The corrupt takes a familiar basic d20 system and adds mechanics that highlight the difficulties of adjusting to the new normal of a post-fall world with people you don’t even know.
While there are combat mechanics for high-intensity moments, the game’s main strength is the emotional toll the apocalypse takes on this small group. Resource management increases the survival element of The corruptas food, water and other resources such as bullets are tracked over time.
The basic skills for the game include empathy, intellect, judgment, strength, agility, and vitality – and almost all of the skills are present during play outside of battle. Failed rolls not only prevent players from achieving their goals, they also actively cause stress and a unique “compromised” state that raises the stakes of any conflict. Unresolved stress then leads to conflict.
The conflict system mechanically represents tensions that arise from the literal stress and trauma of not only surviving, but also living with other people. These mechanics affect the way player characters relate to each other as well as to themselves, creating opportunities for conflict between players as the outside world throws an endless series of obstacles at them.
For those who want to see how emotionally devastating this game can be, Jackson produced Ties that bind. A slice of lifelike zombie apocalypse The corrupt, Ties that bind features Jackson alongside award-winning stage performers Hamnah Shahid and Josephine Kim. The stunningly edited audio AP weaves between the daily lives of three survivors as they deal with the interpersonal and ethical complications of figuring out what comes after the apocalypse, to the lives they led before the pathogen tore through the United States.