The Colony: a template for post-apocalyptic gaming

Courtesy Discovery Channel

I'm not a big fan of reality show television. Supposedly "unscripted" television isn't unscripted at all; a better description might be "non-professional actors." If you've ever worked on a film shoot, you know that reality is determined by the editor. But then I discovered The Colony.

The Colony is a controlled experiment to see exactly what it would take to survive and rebuild under these circumstances. For 10 weeks, a group of 10 volunteers, whose backgrounds and expertise represent a cross-section of modern society, are isolated in an urban environment outside Los Angeles and tasked with creating a livable society.

With no electricity from the grid, no running water and no communication with the outside world, all the volunteers have to work with are their skills and whatever tools and supplies they can scavenge from their surroundings.

Experts from the fields of homeland security, engineering and psychology have helped design the world of The Colony to reflect elements from both real-life disasters and models of what the future could look like after a global viral outbreak.

The Colony is part educational science lesson and trippy post-apocalyptic theater. It is essentially a filmed live-action role-playing game, with the survivors playing tougher versions of themselves. 

The Colony isn't content to just let the "volunteers" (I prefer to call them survivors, but my guess is legal obligations prevent the show from referring to the participants that way) pick their way through the faux-rubble of civilization. They stage psychological conflicts within the group and from outside: they must contend with threats of violence from thieves and thugs.  At one point, the show removes one of the survivors to simulate loss.

It's here that The Colony stumbles a bit.  We all know the person who went missing isn't actually dead. But the survivors do everything from creating a huge sign, building a communications device, and even shoot of fireworks so he will "find his way home."

You mean, get back onto the show after the producers removed him?

That minor quibble aside, this is a must-see for any gamer who is playing in a post-apocalyptic game.  Each one of the participants is a great playable archetype for a game and the conflicts are all excellent scenario ideas. An enterprising game master could watch the DVD, run his players through the same situations the volunteers experience, and then use the video as props and to show how a different group handled the same situation.

Now I'm just waiting for the zombies to show up.