Let’s Play D&D With ‘The Walking Dead’
To celebrate the start of the final season of The Walking Dead, let’s invite one of our favorite characters and his dog to the D&D table.
The Walking Dead is back this week with its final season, and after what a long and weird ride it’s been I think even the fans who have fallen off of the show some seasons ago are curious to see how it will all end. But we have an entire season to get to that point; in the meantime let’s add a little of The Walking Dead to our next D&D horror one-shot by figuring out how to play just about everyone’s favorite character who is somehow still going.
For the most part the idea of combining D&D and The Walking Dead is laughable. None of the characters have super human abilities and their humanity is sort of the entire point. Plus, we all know that there are many better systems for playing a horror or zombie game than Dungeons and Dragons. Many of the characters would make for boring or strange sheets unless you were drawing the most basic inspiration from the character.
However, a game catered to a zombie story may lean into the normalcy of your characters and find ways to celebrate that and let it inspire you as a player. Daryl Dixon however stands out between his background and his unique skillset as a perfect example of a modernized ranger. Plus zombies are encounterable monsters in D&D so your DM could very well throw you into an undead themed session this Halloween season.
Like I said, Daryl is a ranger. His hunting background and uncanny ability to survive just about anywhere with as many or as few supplies as he happens to have make him prime ranger material. The bigger question for me was if if was of the Hunter or Beast Master conclaves. Beast Master would have given him a companion animal in his dog, Dog, but Hunter fits his background and abilities better. Plus, I decided to give him Dog anyway justifying it with some animal handling and animal friendship.
He’s been through a lot and he deserves a dog.
The Hunter Conclave also gave him Horde Breaker and Escape The Horde, which are fantastic accidental zombie puns a well as spot on abilities for Daryl to have. I made sure he had his signature crossbow and the Crossbow Expert and Sharpshooter feats as well as a dagger, but he never has real armor as much as heavy clothing, so he’s in leather armor. His favored foe are undead, naturally, and terrain is the forest, but I could also picture him thriving in the mountains… or plains. Or just about anywhere, really.
For spells I focused on hunting or animal handling specific spells because anything to flashy wouldn’t feel like Daryl. You may notice that second level spells are cut off above; I had some technical issues tonight but I had also given him Darkvision, Find Traps, and Pass Without Trace. There were no third level spells I liked for Daryl, but you may not agree with that call if you were to make a version of him for your own game.
How would you make Daryl, or any other Walking Dead inspired character for a D&D game? Are you excited for the final season of The Walking Dead or did you fall off of the show at some point? Who is / was your favorite character and are they still around? Let us know in the comments!
Happy Adventuring!
