Transmedia Pathos and Plot in The Walking Dead - Game Play: Paratextuality in Contemporary Board Games - page 61

the Rings: he Complete Trilogy, each space of WDGN is hexagonal and players
can move in any of the six directions (Figure 3.1). Players can choose to move
up to three spaces at a time, or additional supplies allow more movement if
deemed necessary. Ater a player moves of a space, however, zombies populate
that space, and the board gradually becomes illed with the undead. he game is
highly randomized, in terms of both objectives and game play. he players have
13 objective locations, only four of which are open at a time. As soon as one
location is cleared of zombies, another is randomly selected. When encountering
zombies, players roll multiple dice—sometimes as many as 10—in order to defeat
or survive the attack. Supplies can be found throughout the game, and can be
used in multiple ways. For example, if one inds fuel in the game, the player can
use it to either travel further or travel silently (avoiding the spawning zombies).
A player wins once he or she has cleared three locations of zombies.
Players can interact with other players in various ways—some randomly
selected cards force player interaction, either through ighting or through ethical
decision-making. In one memorable moment from a game my group played,
my opponent drew a card that asked him to decide whether or not I gained
supplies—if I did, he would also get supplies but I might be closer to winning.
Players, however, can also cooperate (as discussed in the previous chapter),
working together to defeat massive numbers of zombies, especially useful when
walking past the hordes created by the ones that spawn on vacated spots. In short,
at each point in the game, players are encouraged to make decisions that impact
not only their own character's survival, but also the survival of other players.
Players can follow multiple paths, and become invested in what others are doing.
In no way does this mirror the narrative of the graphic novel—the speciic scenes
and adventures that take place in Kirkman's topics are not mentioned, and only
the static elements of the series exist in the game. he dynamic elements are
those created by the players themselves, using their own decision-making to
afectively design their play experience.
he WDGN encourages players to revel in their own created world of he
Walking Dead , efectively transmediating the feeling that one gets from the
comic. Following the exploits of the survivors of the zombie apocalypse, the
graphic novel is more akin to a melodramatic soap opera than to a horror story. 48
For example, in the comic, protagonist Rick is knocked unconscious before the
zombie apocalypse, and awakens ater it had reached its zenith. Setting out to
ind his family, he eventually encounters them in the woods with a group of
other survivors and learns that his wife has had an afair with his best friend,