Webertown: An Example of Bill Brantley’s Role-Playing Game Design for Public Administration

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

By Benjamin Paley
June 30, 2025

Introduction

In July 2024, Bill Brantley showed us how to make a public administration role-playing game. Role-playing games—specifically, table-top roleplaying games (TTRPG)—“allow[] players to fulfill real-world social needs through interaction during imaginative play.” One of the most popular role-playing games is Dungeons & Dragons.

In addition to being a load of fun, role-playing games can also be an effective teaching tool for public administration programs across the country. In particular, 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.

In this article, I aim to show how Mr. Brantley’s step-by-step process works using Dungeons & Dragons as an example.

Dungeons & Dragons

A few months ago, I started playing Dungeons & Dragons, one of the leading table-top roleplaying games. Dungeons & Dragons was created by game designers Ernest Gary Gygax and David Arneson. In 1997, Dungeons & Dragons was acquired by Wizards of the Coast, a subsidiary of Hasbro Inc.

At its heart, Dungeons & Dragons is about collaborative storytelling. It’s a game where a group of players (known as adventurers) make choices under the guidance and watchful eye of a game master (known in Dungeons & Dragons as the dungeon master), the consequences of which are determined by rolling dice. However the roll goes, players have to live with the consequences—good and bad.

Designing the Game

Setting: Cities play an important role in any Dungeons & Dragons campaign. They serve as a home base for characters, a place where player characters can regroup after a tough battle; rest; restock on supplies, weapons and armor; enjoy a meal; and explore. Cities can also be the location for an adventure. Just imagine: government officials engaging in back-hand deals, elected commissioners threatening political opponents, unelected bureaucrats cooking the books to cover embezzlement. The actions or inactions of government officials can be the focus of a group of players looking for their next big adventure.

Let’s create a city that is full of government scandals. We will give it a name worthy of a fellowship of eager adventurers: Webertown (named for sociologist Max Weber).

Webertown has the usual local government set up: major policy decisions are made by a commission (headed by a town mayor), and a town manager and his staff execute those policy decisions. The current town manager does not like or agree with the policy decisions of the current town commission. At the monthly commission meetings, the town manager voices his concerns about most of the town commission’s recommendations. The town commission does not appreciate the town manager’s public statements against their plans. As can be told, the town commission and the town manager do not get along.

Webertown’s town manager has the loyalty of the senior bureaucrats (who agree with the town manager that the town commission’s recommendations are not sound policy) and the fear of the lower-level employees and clerks. Although there is a town commission, the real decisions are made in the office of the town manager.

The Storyline:
Recently, Webertown has seen a ten-fold increase in crime. This spike in the crime rate is due in part to the actions of a large crime syndicate that has been gaining followers.

In an effort to control the rise in the crime rate and the growing influence of the crime syndicate, the town commission sends the town manager to a rendezvous with the leaders of the criminal syndicate.

However, the town manager, unbeknownst to the town commission, has been responsible for the criminal syndicate. So when he meets with the crime syndicate, the town manager makes a deal with them to maintain order in one half of Webertown. That way, a dichotomy becomes evident as to the difference between the area controlled by the crime syndicate (which has order, albeit order by fear) and the area controlled by the town commission (which is still dealing with the high crime).

Game Mechanics

Character Creation: Character creation for this adventure will focus on abilities that are helpful to public administrators: high wisdom (measures perception and insight), charisma (measures force of personality), and intelligence (measures reasoning and memory) scores. Skill proficiencies will focus on skills that come from wisdom (insight, perception), intelligence (history, investigation), and charisma (intimidation, persuasion). Character backstories will emphasize why each character got into public administration.

Quests and Missions: The quests and missions for this adventure will be about helping the town commission get the crime rate in their half under control. This is because the town commission will be focused on getting the other half of Webertown, which is controlled by the syndicate, back under their control.

The first quest will have the players meeting with different residents and helping them with their issues. There will be about eight of these helping-the-people missions.

Engaging Players

Educational Objectives: In this adventure, the objectives will be the same as any introductory course in a public administration program. By way of example, the objectives of the introductory public administration course at Rutgers University include the following: the decision making process, the intersection of politics and administration, leadership, ethics and public performance. Each of these objectives are crucial aspects of the adventure and the choices and consequences of the player characters.

Concluding Remarks

As can be seen, Dungeons & Dragons is one of many role-playing games that can be used to teach students in an introductory public administration course about working in government and the issues that come from working in public administration. I think that if the storyline and quests provided in this article are greatly expanded upon, students will get an early taste of some of the issues public administrators face when working in government.

So give it a try and let me know how it goes.

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Author: Benjamin Paley graduated in 2022 from the Shepard Broad College of Law in 2022 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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