Five things to steal from the Mad Max video game

image from this review

The Mad Max video game has a lot to offer post-apocalyptic tabletop gamers.  The setting, mechanics, and story are all troves to be mined for the delight and enjoyment of players and GM’s alike.  Here are 5 things to steal from the Mad Max video game:

      1. A Thematic Setting

The Great White is the setting of the game. Once a seabed, the salted plains of the Great White are full of reminders of what it used to be. Rusting buoys, coral forests, great caves and canyons, and the remains of oil pipelines fill the landscape.  Piles of desiccated seaweed, bits of paper and plastic trash and derelict boats turned into shelters remind the player their world has been broken and remade as a landscape of madness.

For the table-top GM, the lesson here is theme.  While the Fallout games have a strong continuity, and there are a few memorable re-purposed structures (the satellite stations in Fallout 4 and Rivet City in Fallout 3 come to mind), the theme of the sea gives Mad Max a powerful continuity that those games don’t quite achieve.

What theme might bring cohesion to your wasteland?  Failed and repurposed technology? The land reclaimed by water and greenery?  Retail?

2. Threat Levels

The threat levels in the different regions of Max Max dictate the frequency of random encounters with hostile drivers.  As Max does specific actions (mostly destroying the infrastructure of the Big Bad), the threat level decreases, there are fewer random encounters, and various upgrades and missions are unlocked.

The threat levels give the player an easily-tracked measure of progress and a sense of impacting the world.  To give your players this tangible sense of impact, note on their map how the threat level changes in a region due to their influence.  There are 6 levels in Mad Max (0-5) but you could do as few as three.  For each level, have a different random encounter table.  Make the encounters more benevolent (or less malevolent) as the threat decreases.  Decide one or two milestones that occur at each change, the triggering events, and you’re good to go.  Your wasteland will feel more alive, and your players will feel more like they are affecting the world.

3. Scrap

Scrap is Mad Max’s currency.  Scrap buys upgrades and repairs to Max’s car and improves gear, skills, and bases.  Max acquires scrap by looting locations, bodies, and wrecked cars, salvaging buried wreckage from the seabed, finding it after huge storms, stealing trucks full of it, and as encounter rewards. Certain base upgrades generate scrap a well.

Because it is abstracted, the scrap mechanic doesn’t need a fiddly crafting system.  It works essentially like gold in any other game, but because it is canonically sourced from cars and is represented visually as car parts, it reinforces the setting while it simplifies play.

4. Vantage points

In each region of Mad Max, there is a hot air balloon that Max can activate to reveal points of interest on a map section. Usually, there is a fun challenge to get to the actual balloon. Once aloft, Max scans the terrain with binoculars, noting locations on the region map.

In a tabletop RPG, a region could have obvious vantage points: a mountain, a ruined skyscraper, a dirigible.  Using a vantage point can confirm rumors, correct the character’s map, and provide an intermediate goal for an adventure that opens options to players.  They can also entice players to explore: reaching a vantage point requires a journey. Even the vantage point itself can be an encounter site, providing some challenge before reaching the desired altitude.

5. Connections between factions via missions

One of the missions in Mad Max requires Max to mark three locations with flares that will enable a stronghold to produce gunpowder.  In turn, that allows another stronghold to produce ammo via trade.  This kind of connection between factions and the tangible reward the player receives because of it makes the setting feel dynamic and the player feel influential and powerful.

The quest also unlocks car upgrades and gives insight to a third faction via things Max discovers en route.   The mission accomplishes four things: it gives Max a benefit in two strongholds, it unlocks missions for Max that will unlock more upgrades and story progressions, it furthers the story by revealing more about Stank Gum’s foul nature, and it draws Max deep into territories that he might otherwise not visit.

Thinking about how missions or quests interact with the factions and the campaign map can add another dimension of wonder, exploration, and immersion to your campaign.

What about you?

What inspiration have you drawn from video games to make your RPG’s more fun and engaging?  Share below!