Yes, You Should Absolutely Run Severance As A D&D Game

It’s clear that Severance is among the most chilling television series in years, but it also offers great inspiration for Dungeons & Dragons campaigns, or unconventional mind-bending horror using other tabletop RPG systems. Severance sees Lumon employees undergo a procedure in which their minds are bifurcated. Their original persona has no recognition of what they do at work, while a brand-new work persona is “born” that has no recollection of life outside the office. This is ostensibly done to protect company secrets, but Lumon clearly has even darker machinations in play. Its employees worship the company’s founder, like a cult.

There are many varieties of fears that TTRPGs can tap into. DnD’s Phandelver and Below’s cosmic horror vibe is distinct from the Gothic horror of Ravenloft. Severance is a truly unique and terrifying show, one that should probably carry trigger warnings for anyone who works in a traditional office environment. Its horror centers on loss of personal identity and being trapped in a surreal and hopeless environment. This structure may not sound like it plays to DnD’s strengths, but a clever storyteller can use it, and other TTRPG systems, to capture the uniquely strange thrills and compelling mysteries of Severance.

Severance Is Ideal For D&D & TTRPG Horror

The Themes Of Identity Erosion & Cult-Like Worship Mesh Perfectly With RPGs

Many classic DnD horror adventures feature cults as antagonists. The idea of a cult like Lumon hiding in plain sight as a legitimate business adds an element of intrigue to a game. In the Forgotten Realms, Shar is a goddess of secrets and forgetfulness, among other things. It would not be out of character for worshipers of Shar to employ a unique form of the modify memory spell to split the consciousness of creatures, through magic, just as Lumon does via technology. In Severance, the personae of workers are called Innies or Workies, colloquially, while their original selves are called Outies.

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Whether DnD’s Tomb of Horrors is challenging or ludicrous may be a matter of taste, but dungeons can aid storytelling, too. Severance can inspire a scenario where player character cognition separates between Innies, the identities who experience a dungeon, and Outies, their original selves who recall their personal histories and experiences in the outside world. Much like how Helly R is a very different person from her Outie, these dungeon-based Innies and Outies could have very different alignments, without their personal histories conditioning them towards evil or good. Modify memory is not the only spell for Severance-style DnD campaigns.

The notoriously powerful Dungeons & Dragons spell simulacrum allows a spellcaster to create a duplicate of another creature that they can command. While the 2024 version of the spell alters the language, in 2014 the spell noted a construct it creates “lacks the ability to learn.” This suggests an intriguing interpretation wherein a simulacrum cannot form new memories from the time of their creation, potentially creating a loop where the players act as simulacra, experiencing a disorienting cycle, with each day becoming a fresh start, as if from the moment they were conjured. Some TTRPG settings already contain Severance-style elements.

TTRPGs Like Paranoia & Chronicles Of Darkness Are Easily “Severed”

Some RPG Game Worlds Already Tackle The Same Themes As Severance

There are great DnD third-party sci-fi settings, along with Arcanopunk worlds like Eberron and Crystalpunk, that use magic alone to achieve the aesthetics of genres like Steampunk and Cyberpunk. The Crystalpunk setting for 5e DnD has a dark twist on religion, where it already functions much closer to Lumon. Within the city of Prismatic Falls, there is no line between churches and mega-corporations, as the “cults” are both the officers of major businesses and the priests of the continent’s gods. This fusion of cutthroat corporate advancement and twisted worship perfectly mirrors the hymns to Kier Eagan sung in Severance.

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The tabletop RPGs about enduring oppressive societies can effortlessly channel the Severance vibe. Paranoia is a classic RPG that takes place in an underground bunker called Alpha Complex, not unlike the underground world of Lumon’s Severed Floor. The various conspiracies and betrayals that Paranoia thrives on could take on a form closer to Severance’s office politics, with Friend Computer taking the place of Lumon executives. Transhumanist RPGs like Eclipse Phase normally push the boundaries of the human form, but a campaign could instead deal with partitioned human cognition, thanks to cybernetic implants or genetic engineering. Severance’s horrors inspire endless options.

TTRPG horror fans know there is Vampire: The Masquerade and also Requiem, both originally from White Wolf publishing. The former was part of the World of Darkness game line, and Requiem was its successor in a revised WoD setting, a universe later renamed Chronicles of Darkness by Onyx Path publishing. Chronicles of Darkness added a central meta-plot antagonist, The God Machine. The God Machine regularly reshapes reality for some unknown purpose, and this Demiurge analogue could easily place the players into a Severance-style scenario. Similarly, the Gnosticism-inspired horror RPG Kult could make Severance even darker with its inescapable illusory reality.

A One-Shot D&D Severance Experience Can Spice Up Any Campaign

D&D Players Are Likely To Challenge Oppressive Authority Through Violence

A DnD campaign putting players in the role of abused simulacrum nails the Severance vibes, as the show’s Outies willingly choose to thrust their Innies into an inescapable hell. Modify memory creating “severed adventurers” could also form a campaign’s backbone. A unique Dungeons & Dragons one-shot adventure can stand alone, but they can also help spice up a long-running campaign. A DM might have the players act as simulacra for a session or two. A memory-manipulating cult that functions like a successful business could be an arc within a larger plot, allowing for a shorter trip into mind-bending existential horror.

Severance is easily one of the most original and thought-provoking television series in years, and creative storytellers are likely already incorporating its concepts and themes into tabletop RPG campaigns. The beauty of collaborative storytelling in tabletop RPGs is that the players are the protagonists. The Game Master provides conflict and narrative, but the players shape the outcome. The visceral satisfaction of Dungeons & Dragons player characters asserting their agency in a Severance-inspired game, wielding improvised weapons chosen from office supplies to violently resist a campaign’s analogue to Cobel or Milchik, could provide more satisfaction than slaying any ancient dragon.

Dungeons and Dragons

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Dungeons and Dragons is a popular tabletop game originally invented in 1974 by Ernest Gary Gygax and David Arneson. The fantasy role-playing game brings together players for a campaign with various components, including abilities, races, character classes, monsters, and treasures. The game has drastically expanded since the ’70s, with numerous updated box sets and expansions.

Original Release Date

1974

Publisher

TSR Inc., Wizards of the Coast

Designer

E. Gary Gygax, Dave Arneson

Player Count

2-7 Players