Scorpion (in x-box colors) image from Pixabay.com / DirtyOpi

There’s a TV Series that every GM, regardless of the genre of their games, should be watching. It’s a show that I’ve discussed before, in a completely different context – in The Expert In Everything, and it’s name is Scorpion.

Why?

Simply put, because it contains so many lessons for the GM. To be specific:

Character Evolution

The characters evolve over the course of time in a way that seems quite natural and progressive.

Submerging integrated plotlines

What’s more, while there is the occasional big development thrust into the forefront, most of this development takes place in the background in small scenes. In effect, every character has their own plot arc consisting of numerous small scenes strung together. What’s more, these plotlines play off each other, intertwining regularly; it would be as accurate to describe them as the plot arc of one or more relationships within the group of protagonists as to describe them as plot arcs of a singular character.

Even more usefully, there is often a spillover between these subplots and the main plotlines of the show that makes the whole thing far more seamless than the disjointed impression created by the preceding paragraph.

Pacing

For that matter, there are lots of lessons in the pacing of the series – it regularly goes from sedately-paced to high-octane action and back again in the course of an episode, yet slower scenes and plot arcs punctuate the action seamlessly. It achieves this by substituting dramatic or emotional intensity for pace and duration.

This sounds complicated, but it’s not. But before I can explain it, though, I need to move on to another lesson that the show can teach the GM.

Plot Structure

When you break the show down to it’s plot elements, it’s a relatively straightforward recipe in 4-and-a-bit acts.

In Act 1, the current status of the characters is established and the personal development plot arc(s) that are to take place in the course of the episode are then introduced. A problem or crisis then introduces the main plot. Using their capabilities as building blocks, the team arrives at a solution to the problem almost immediately, and set about implementing that solution. Unexpectedly, there’s a complication or setback that usually invalidates the entire initial solution and/or makes the situation both much more serious and critical.

Act 2 brings a solution to the new problem, but successful implementation won’t fix the main emergency, before presenting a fresh complication / setback.

This pattern is repeated in Act 3. Time, of course, has been passing, and that usually means that a bad situation has been worsening.

Act 4 yields a desperate solution to the problem, which is then implemented. This leads to the Climax Moment, the last instant when everything that can be done, has been done, but the Audience has not yet seen the outcome. Quite often, the producers will tease the audience by showing the team members in a similar state of nervous anticipation before finally resolving the crisis/emergency.

Along the way, at the points where the intensity matches that of the action, the character personal development arc slides in. This might be a thirty-second scene, a conversation against the background of the developing crisis, or simply a line of dialogue between two or more characters while they are implementing the solution to the current immediate problem.

The show normally ends with an epilogue (the “and-a-bit” that I mentioned) which develops or resolves the character plot situation, and which may lead into the next episode’s personal development arc.

All this is illustrated in the breakdown below:

Regular readers will recognize that I’ve been advocating these plot and structural techniques for many years. In fact, structurally, Scorpion comes closer to being an RPG than any other show I’ve seen.

History

This article should really have been written back in 2014. Scorpion was initially the subject of heavy criticism for implausible problems and neglecting simpler solutions than those chosen by the team. I mentioned this in “The Expert On Everything” with the comment that I didn’t think the show was quite as bad as it was being depicted.

Nevertheless, I rarely watched it; the timing was inconvenient and other shows had a higher priority. And, to be honest, I didn’t expect the show to last beyond that initial season, and didn’t want to invest too much of my time and attention into it. As a result, I didn’t get to see it in the light in which this article presents it.

But the network who owns the rights has been repeating earlier seasons as well as airing the current (4th) season in different time-slots, and with the addition of an external hard drive, I’ve had the capacity to record and time-shift these episodes, so I’ve been catching up – fast.

This somewhat hodge-podge non-sequential viewing has had the advantage of making the character development far more obvious than it otherwise would be.

The Sting In The Tail

Unfortunately, the network which produces the series (CBS) has decided not to renew it for a 5th season, according to Wikipedia, based on reports in Entertainment Weekly. So the final cliffhanger with which Season 4 ended will not be resolved. That’s the bad news.

But when the world hands you lemons, the only thing to do is make lemon meringue pie with them. The silver lining is that all four seasons are, or soon will be, available on DVD.

Amazon lists seasons 1-3 as currently available, and is taking pre-release orders for season 4, “the final season”, to be released September 11th in a very poor choice of timing.

Season 1: DVD $12.99 Blu-ray $21.49, 246 reviews, aggregate rating 4.8 out of 5.
Season 2: DVD $14.99, 504 reviews, aggregate rating 4.7 out of 5.
Season 3: DVD $17.45, 241 reviews, aggregate rating 4.5 out of 5.
Season 4 (not yet released) DVD $37.36, not yet rated.
A number of retailers are offering the first three seasons as a set; the prices are comparable to those listed above, but with the convenience of one-click ordering. Ignore the suggestions that this is the complete TV series – until the 4th season is released, in terms of DVD availability right now, it is, but that’s misleading.

Making use of Scorpion

You may have noticed that I’ve said next-to-nothing about the show’s content. There’s a good reason for that.

For most campaigns, the show will be of only indirect value. It’s unlikely that you will find many episodes that you can use to inspire a fantasy adventure, for example; they are too rooted in the modern day, and the problems and challenges encountered are too geared to the team members in the show to be readily translatable to others.

But the indirect value is enormous, and irrelevant of genre. The best way to use the series is to watch it – not as a piece of entertainment (you can do that, too, if you like what you see), but critically, as a demonstration of technique.

Notice how two or more completely separate plotlines relate to each other? Notice how the scenes segue? Notice the timing, and how the writers let the characters decide “what to do,” only to block the easy solution and raise the stakes at the same time? Compare the characters as presented in seasons 2 and 3 with how they were in Season 1, then go back through the episodes and trace the on-screen evolution of the characters. Unlike some shows, it all does happen on the screen in front of you.

If you equate a single episode to a game session or to an adventure, you will find yourself picking up subtle tricks of timing and pacing, of integrating comedy and drama, and – to some extent – of characterization.

Scorpion won’t solve your every problem. It won’t even improve every area of your GMing. But in those aspects in which it is relevant, it really is a masterclass for the GM. Grab it while you can!

Postscript:

I’ve just seen the second-last episode and can add another lesson to the list – what it looks like when you stretch credibility too far… Despite this, I stand by my recommendation. Just thought readers would like to know.