The City Manager and the Devil

The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of ASPA as an organization.

By Benjamin Paley
November 16, 2025

Dungeons and Dragons (D&D) is filled with unscrupulous politicians and bureaucrats. As in our world, those politicians and bureaucrats responsible for the upkeep of the many realms within D&D take advantage of their missions. They use their work in government to advance their own interests.

In addition to being a load of fun, D&D can also be an effective teaching tool for public administration programs across the country. In particular, D&D and other role-playing games can be used in an introduction-to-public-administration course. Role-playing games can be used to teach future government leaders how their choices have consequences, not only on themselves but also on the community they work for.

Role-playing games such as D&D are examples of the fantasy genre’s tendency to showcase real-world problems in a fantastical setting. For example, J.R.R. Tolkien’s writings about issues with the environment, such as the march of the ents in The Two Towers, drove many to want to implement policies and laws that are better for the environment.

Jeff Macleod, a Canadian professor of political science, writes about his use of D&D as a teaching tool. For example, Bill Brantley wrote a step-by-step guide for designing a public administration D&D game.

In my column this week, I want to outline the beginning of a D&D campaign that pits its heroes (public administrators) against a corrupt city manager. My hope is that this campaign can help public administration students realize what it means to work in a bureaucracy and can teach them how to make decisions.

Description of the Setting

Welkenburg (city of lost freshness) was once known as Bluteburg (city of full bloom) and was known for its immaculate streets and extensive records library. Two centuries ago, Bluteburg was founded jointly by five tribes that sought to put their warring histories behind them.

The city is run by an elected city council consisting of five members, each representing one of the tribes in the city and elected to two-year terms. The city council hires a city manager who is subject to at-will termination by a unanimous vote of the city council.

A few years ago, the city manager, Seti I, began to slowly amass a massive fortune for him and his tribe while the city fell into disrepair. The streets became derelict, the most valuable books and scrolls stored in the library were sold off and the rest ransacked.

The city council never did anything about things until it was too late, as the changes Seti implemented took so long that no one noticed. The city manager covered his tracks by cooking the books, making it look like funds had to be diverted to pay higher contractor costs. All of the contractors were from the tribe that the city manager belonged to.

A member of the city council met late one night in a dark alley with a contractor from another tribe who was purposefully excluded from bidding by Seti.

The heroes are low-ranking civil servants, clerks, auditors, archivists or city inspectors from a neighboring town, all working in the Department of Finance, brought in to help figure out why this once golden city had fallen into disrepair. The heroes were told to go undercover and to pretend that they were there to help out.

Discovering the Scheme and Concluding Remarks

The heroes arrive to the records library in the middle of the afternoon on a particularly sunny day in summer. An assistant archivist takes them to the office of the director of records. The director of records explains the task to the heroes. The heroes need to help organize files for Seti, who is planning another big project.

While processing financial documents, the heroes notice discrepancies in the city’s budget: massive sums of gold are disappearing from “Infrastructure Maintenance.” A requisition order from two weeks ago for 2,000 pounds of limestone is signed by an official who died several months ago.

Immediately, the heroes begin to investigate the records. In their research, the heroes realize that they have to sneak into the restricted “Sub-Basement of Records,” which the heroes were told is off limits.

Once the heroes discover that issue, their next task is to figure out why this is happening. They are about to discover a scheme that is so intense, it beats all other schemes involving local governments.

More information and all of the details will be the subject of the next column I write.

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Author: Benjamin Paley graduated in 2022 from the Shepard Broad College of Law with a J.D. and in 2018 from Florida Atlantic University with a Master of Public Administration degree. He can be reached at [email protected].

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