Also, a question: When a character's clone is activated, to they still have laser barrels and misc. equipment, or do they have to recover them from their body? Because whenever a character was killed, the first thing the other's did was take his ammo, leaving him hated and unarmed as soon as he came through the door.
Every GM is different about this.
I usually let experimental equipment lay where it is, and have lately left all standard equipment behind.
That's why I have the players provided with knowledge of having signed forms at the start of the game that
1) explicity state that they are responsible solely for their own equipment
2) in the event of a teammember's demise they are responsible for the teammember's equipment until such time as his clone arrives.
3) the clone that arrives is then responsible for his own equipment
4) owning the equipment of another clone without his express written consent constitutes treason
So yeah, no looting the bodies.
Plus, shit is prone to explosion.
If important stuff is gone and/or troubleshooter loses all his equipment, he shows up with the bare necessities.
And what of Societies? None of my characters had realistic suspicions of any of the others, because none of the others played out their societies. One of them claimed not to know he even belonged to one, though I briefed him beforehand. They were all so covert about it that it may as well have been absent from the game.
And what of Societies? None of my characters had realistic suspicions of any of the others, because none of the others played out their societies. One of them claimed not to know he even belonged to one, though I briefed him beforehand. They were all so covert about it that it may as well have been absent from the game.
Should I give them more flamboyant missions?
Maybe. Were their missions mutually exclusive? If not, they probably should have been.
One person's mission was to find the Sierra Club member and eliminate him. (He interpreted this as "Skip the investigation and eliminate everyone on the team for thoroughness.") Another's mission was to frame another teammate as belonging to the Club, to avoid suspicion.
One person's mission was to protect WILLY the tourbot, and another's was to deface and hijack him. (Player A failed to pay extra attention to WILLY, allowing player B to succeed.)
1) You are a Citizen of Alpha Complex. Alpha Complex is run by Friend Computer through various bureaucratic means.
2) As a Citizen of Alpha Complex, you have a day-to-day job. This is expressed on your character sheet as a SERVICE GROUP. It means you may have skills that pertain to said group and/or connections to said group.
3) People *CAN* know each other's SERVICE GROUP. It is legal and encouraged to take pride in your Service Group. If your SERVICE GROUP reads Internal Security, that means your job is to be a SPY against a different SERVICE GROUP. Do not tell others you are in Internal Security unless it will work to your advantage.
4) In the same way that in the real world you can "get stuff" from a day-to-day job, you can probably work your Service Group to your advantage - employee discounts, information regarding back-door policies, access to floorplans, knowledge of accounting information, etc. If you think of an idea and want to requisition it from your Service Group, let me know. You CAN requisition these things publicly and possibly LEGALLY, but use your own judgement. You MAY or MAY NOT be successful and you MAY or MAY NOT owe someone for the favor.
5) Aside from Service Groups, you MAY or MAY NOT be in a Secret Society. A Secret Society is like a fun club you are in. They will likely have an extra "mission" for you to accomplish.
6) You CAN contact your Secret Society AT ANY TIME. They MAY or MAY NOT do favors for you. You can possibly requisition treasonous equipment, get detailed information or clues, etc. You can even attempt to contact secret society members that you might meet in day-to-day transactions through hand signals and passcodes.
7) DO NOT LET OTHERS KNOW that you are in a Secret Society, but DO take advantage of them.
8) Secret Societies are more risky than Service Groups. A Service Group might, say be a place where you requisition an extra stack of printer paper, whereas a Secret Society is where your requisition a forged document. Secret Societies WILL ask you for return favors, probably for every time you ask them for one. So be careful, but check in when you can.
9) You are also... A TROUBLESHOOTER. This is not your day-to-day job like a Service Group. It is more like being *cough*drafted*cough* in the National Guard.
10) You have a duty within the Troubleshooter team; this is the Mandatory Bonus Duty or MBD. Everyone knows what your and the other's MBD is. It's your responsibility within the team to ensure your MBD is up to speed.
*I tend to hate MBDs as they derail the game a lot, but it does give the Players something to do when you have a brain fart*
11) You MAY or MAY NOT have one or more Mutant Powers. DO NOT tell others what your Power is or even that you HAVE a Mutant Power.
12) If it says you are a REGISTERED Mutant, you CAN tell people what your REGISTERED Mutant Power is. You have a yellow stripe across your uniform that lets others know that you are a REGISTERED Mutant. REGISTERED mutants can use their mutant powers whenever they want, but not to excess. You cannot harm a registered mutant for using his REGISTERED mutant power.
*Optionally* In that stripe is the name of your Power.
*NOTE* I like to give the occasional Registered Mutant PSION member multiple powers, with only one registered.
Squash, are you GMing any JParanoia games within the yearcycycle?
I can't do IRC for consecutive hours at a time without getting pulled away from the computer for fifteen minute intervals every fourty-five minutes to deal with some shit or other.
i like the idea of forum-based because my schedule is all over the place. we'd also avoid the "brb getting drink/brb bio" stalling and any rules questions could be answered without any real delay to the game.
then again im fairly ignorant of the not-tabletop varieties of PnP games so maybe there's a down side im not seeing.
Always write the Backgrounds / Service Group Missions / Secret Society Missions / Pre-game Experimental Equipment Assignments so they are interlocking with other players in some fashion.
Start someone on Clone #2 and blame another player for the first Clone's death. Start another player on Clone #2 and don't blame anyone, but hint.
so, i am unable to get my hands on the sourcebook.
i did however look over the character generator for the jparanoia (or whatever the free program is, im at work and i dont particularly remember the name). it seems like the less the player knows of how skills work the better the game will go, sort of.
ergo i would be down for a pre-generated character.
additionally, how exactly do the skills work? from what i could tell, at least point-wise it seems pretty similar to d20 in that there is a stat assigned to each skill. im assuming there's a roll of some x-sided die thats added to the skill value? or is it a dice pool? im sure its not important.
what about the "special" skills or whatever, the ones highlighted red. why are they special? (lets assume i have UV clearance for that question) ... (and you do too)
Best part of Paranioa is that you dont need to know ANYTHING
You just tell the GM what you want to do, occasionally ask what an Item does (but even then, your character doesn't know half the time) and then go for it.
All the stats and rolling is done without your knowledge.
Next game, I will present all of my players with toy laser pistols to brandish as they wish. Pulling the trigger counts as firing at whatever you're aiming at- the ceiling, the floor, another Troubleshooter. Thus, there is a heightened sense of fear- it just adds a little something when, instead of saying "I shoot Victor", the player whips out a mock gun and pulls the trigger. I'm hoping to see some Reservoir Dogs going on.
Next game, I will present all of my players with toy laser pistols to brandish as they wish. Pulling the trigger counts as firing at whatever you're aiming at- the ceiling, the floor, another Troubleshooter. Thus, there is a heightened sense of fear- it just adds a little something when, instead of saying "I shoot Victor", the player whips out a mock gun and pulls the trigger. I'm hoping to see some Reservoir Dogs going on.
Ah...the elegance of a "point and click" interface comes to tabletop gaming.
Yes, and I expect that the players will likely tire of holding the guns and rest them on the table. But as soon as something goes down, one player picks up his gun and all the others follow suit, and suddenly my Shooters are finding themselves enthusiastically playing one-handed.
Yes, and I expect that the players will likely tire of holding the guns and rest them on the table. But as soon as something goes down, one player picks up his gun and all the others follow suit, and suddenly my Shooters are finding themselves enthusiastically playing one-handed.
I take it you're not of the group where you guys always play enthusiastically one-handed? :winky:
It occurs to me that Paranoia could easily be adapted to a one-shot LARP game, like those murder mysteries you can play at parties. In fact, there are lot of good parallels:
The game is played indoors, often in a series of interconnected rooms/areas (especially appropriate for Alpha Complex).
Actual paranoia and shifting, fragile alliances are common elements of play.
Everyone is given predesigned characters that mesh in interesting ways.
Secret communication and agendas are typically a big part of the game.
The organizer often plays the role of referee, adjudicating disputes and secret actions.
The rules are simple and usually include randomized conflict resolution.
I could totally run a live Paranoia game, even with people who've never played before. Simplify the rules, replace die rolls with RPS/Evens-Odds/coin flips etc., issue equipment with index cards and props, give the broad outlines of the setting and each character's place in it, use cellphones or passed notes for secret communication... Oh man, my brain is on FIRE!
I just had an idea for a way to screw around with the players' heads.
Suddenly switch around the clearance colors, and have no one else acknowledge that they were ever anything different, 1984 style. See if the players switch as well, or if they assume the whole thing is a commie plot, report every instance of clearance-related treason, and refuse to obey orders from people with 'higher' clearance.
[tiny]Whichever choice they make, punish them for it.[/tiny]
It occurs to me that Paranoia could easily be adapted to a one-shot LARP game, like those murder mysteries you can play at parties. In fact, there are lot of good parallels:
You know what's always awesome to see at a con?
The MegaParanoia games.
Imagine 100+ Paranoia players. Controlled chaos at it's finest.
I'll try to do some digging to figure out what rules they were using for it.
PMAvers on
COME FORTH, AMATERASU! - Switch Friend Code SW-5465-2458-5696 - Twitch
I was thinking of starting a new Paranoia thread, but someone bumped this year-old thread.
I'm planning on running a Paranoia game at PAX, and was hoping to post some helpful information. I should post to this thread instead of starting a new one, shouldn't I?
mspencer on
MEMBER OF THE PARANOIA GM GUILD
XBL Michael Spencer || Wii 6007 6812 1605 7315 || PSN MichaelSpencerJr || Steam Michael_Spencer || Ham NOØK QRZ || My last known GPS coordinates: FindU or APRS.fi (Car antenna feed line busted -- no ham radio for me X__X )
I was thinking of starting a new Paranoia thread, but someone bumped this year-old thread.
I'm planning on running a Paranoia game at PAX, and was hoping to post some helpful information. I should post to this thread instead of starting a new one, shouldn't I?
I'd make the post in the PAX forum, since you're specifically talking about a PAX game. You can link people here for general Paranoia stuff, though.
Well yeah, but I asked in #paforums_pax and was told I should make it a general console games thread. I'd feel like I was hijacking an existing broad-topic thread for my specific needs -- even though that's stupid because I made the thread in the first place.
You're probably right. I should keep that Paranoia stuff in the PAX forum. Perhaps edit my first Paranoia-related post and fill it with TONS of info.
Disregard.
mspencer on
MEMBER OF THE PARANOIA GM GUILD
XBL Michael Spencer || Wii 6007 6812 1605 7315 || PSN MichaelSpencerJr || Steam Michael_Spencer || Ham NOØK QRZ || My last known GPS coordinates: FindU or APRS.fi (Car antenna feed line busted -- no ham radio for me X__X )
Well yeah, but I asked in #paforums_pax and was told I should make it a general console games thread. I'd feel like I was hijacking an existing broad-topic thread for my specific needs -- even though that's stupid because I made the thread in the first place.
You're probably right. I should keep that Paranoia stuff in the PAX forum. Perhaps edit my first Paranoia-related post and fill it with TONS of info.
Posts
Every GM is different about this.
I usually let experimental equipment lay where it is, and have lately left all standard equipment behind.
That's why I have the players provided with knowledge of having signed forms at the start of the game that
1) explicity state that they are responsible solely for their own equipment
2) in the event of a teammember's demise they are responsible for the teammember's equipment until such time as his clone arrives.
3) the clone that arrives is then responsible for his own equipment
4) owning the equipment of another clone without his express written consent constitutes treason
So yeah, no looting the bodies.
Plus, shit is prone to explosion.
If important stuff is gone and/or troubleshooter loses all his equipment, he shows up with the bare necessities.
Sometimes a little bit of Straight's good to drag it out of Zap territory.
COME FORTH, AMATERASU! - Switch Friend Code SW-5465-2458-5696 - Twitch
Yeah, they tend to balance each other out into Classic.
Should I give them more flamboyant missions?
Maybe. Were their missions mutually exclusive? If not, they probably should have been.
One person's mission was to protect WILLY the tourbot, and another's was to deface and hijack him. (Player A failed to pay extra attention to WILLY, allowing player B to succeed.)
Especially with noobs or at conventions.
I announce the following:
1) You are a Citizen of Alpha Complex. Alpha Complex is run by Friend Computer through various bureaucratic means.
2) As a Citizen of Alpha Complex, you have a day-to-day job. This is expressed on your character sheet as a SERVICE GROUP. It means you may have skills that pertain to said group and/or connections to said group.
3) People *CAN* know each other's SERVICE GROUP. It is legal and encouraged to take pride in your Service Group. If your SERVICE GROUP reads Internal Security, that means your job is to be a SPY against a different SERVICE GROUP. Do not tell others you are in Internal Security unless it will work to your advantage.
4) In the same way that in the real world you can "get stuff" from a day-to-day job, you can probably work your Service Group to your advantage - employee discounts, information regarding back-door policies, access to floorplans, knowledge of accounting information, etc. If you think of an idea and want to requisition it from your Service Group, let me know. You CAN requisition these things publicly and possibly LEGALLY, but use your own judgement. You MAY or MAY NOT be successful and you MAY or MAY NOT owe someone for the favor.
5) Aside from Service Groups, you MAY or MAY NOT be in a Secret Society. A Secret Society is like a fun club you are in. They will likely have an extra "mission" for you to accomplish.
6) You CAN contact your Secret Society AT ANY TIME. They MAY or MAY NOT do favors for you. You can possibly requisition treasonous equipment, get detailed information or clues, etc. You can even attempt to contact secret society members that you might meet in day-to-day transactions through hand signals and passcodes.
7) DO NOT LET OTHERS KNOW that you are in a Secret Society, but DO take advantage of them.
8) Secret Societies are more risky than Service Groups. A Service Group might, say be a place where you requisition an extra stack of printer paper, whereas a Secret Society is where your requisition a forged document. Secret Societies WILL ask you for return favors, probably for every time you ask them for one. So be careful, but check in when you can.
9) You are also... A TROUBLESHOOTER. This is not your day-to-day job like a Service Group. It is more like being *cough*drafted*cough* in the National Guard.
10) You have a duty within the Troubleshooter team; this is the Mandatory Bonus Duty or MBD. Everyone knows what your and the other's MBD is. It's your responsibility within the team to ensure your MBD is up to speed.
*I tend to hate MBDs as they derail the game a lot, but it does give the Players something to do when you have a brain fart*
11) You MAY or MAY NOT have one or more Mutant Powers. DO NOT tell others what your Power is or even that you HAVE a Mutant Power.
12) If it says you are a REGISTERED Mutant, you CAN tell people what your REGISTERED Mutant Power is. You have a yellow stripe across your uniform that lets others know that you are a REGISTERED Mutant. REGISTERED mutants can use their mutant powers whenever they want, but not to excess. You cannot harm a registered mutant for using his REGISTERED mutant power.
*Optionally* In that stripe is the name of your Power.
*NOTE* I like to give the occasional Registered Mutant PSION member multiple powers, with only one registered.
I can't do IRC for consecutive hours at a time without getting pulled away from the computer for fifteen minute intervals every fourty-five minutes to deal with some shit or other.
Never get married, kids.
tee hee.
anyway, how forum-only compatible would this be?
i like the idea of forum-based because my schedule is all over the place. we'd also avoid the "brb getting drink/brb bio" stalling and any rules questions could be answered without any real delay to the game.
then again im fairly ignorant of the not-tabletop varieties of PnP games so maybe there's a down side im not seeing.
JParanoia is the thing to use.
What kind of information are you looking for?
I 100% recommend a group of GM-supplied pre-gens.
Always write the Backgrounds / Service Group Missions / Secret Society Missions / Pre-game Experimental Equipment Assignments so they are interlocking with other players in some fashion.
Start someone on Clone #2 and blame another player for the first Clone's death. Start another player on Clone #2 and don't blame anyone, but hint.
Vengeance, VENGEANCE, VENGEANCE!
Adds flava!
i did however look over the character generator for the jparanoia (or whatever the free program is, im at work and i dont particularly remember the name). it seems like the less the player knows of how skills work the better the game will go, sort of.
ergo i would be down for a pre-generated character.
additionally, how exactly do the skills work? from what i could tell, at least point-wise it seems pretty similar to d20 in that there is a stat assigned to each skill. im assuming there's a roll of some x-sided die thats added to the skill value? or is it a dice pool? im sure its not important.
what about the "special" skills or whatever, the ones highlighted red. why are they special? (lets assume i have UV clearance for that question) ... (and you do too)
You just tell the GM what you want to do, occasionally ask what an Item does (but even then, your character doesn't know half the time) and then go for it.
All the stats and rolling is done without your knowledge.
well, at least when I've played.
Ignorance and Fear.
Those are our watchwords.
Next game, I will present all of my players with toy laser pistols to brandish as they wish. Pulling the trigger counts as firing at whatever you're aiming at- the ceiling, the floor, another Troubleshooter. Thus, there is a heightened sense of fear- it just adds a little something when, instead of saying "I shoot Victor", the player whips out a mock gun and pulls the trigger. I'm hoping to see some Reservoir Dogs going on.
Ah...the elegance of a "point and click" interface comes to tabletop gaming.
I take it you're not of the group where you guys always play enthusiastically one-handed? :winky:
I could totally run a live Paranoia game, even with people who've never played before. Simplify the rules, replace die rolls with RPS/Evens-Odds/coin flips etc., issue equipment with index cards and props, give the broad outlines of the setting and each character's place in it, use cellphones or passed notes for secret communication... Oh man, my brain is on FIRE!
Suddenly switch around the clearance colors, and have no one else acknowledge that they were ever anything different, 1984 style. See if the players switch as well, or if they assume the whole thing is a commie plot, report every instance of clearance-related treason, and refuse to obey orders from people with 'higher' clearance.
[tiny]Whichever choice they make, punish them for it.[/tiny]
That's SOP.
You know what's always awesome to see at a con?
The MegaParanoia games.
Imagine 100+ Paranoia players. Controlled chaos at it's finest.
I'll try to do some digging to figure out what rules they were using for it.
COME FORTH, AMATERASU! - Switch Friend Code SW-5465-2458-5696 - Twitch
I'm planning on running a Paranoia game at PAX, and was hoping to post some helpful information. I should post to this thread instead of starting a new one, shouldn't I?
XBL Michael Spencer || Wii 6007 6812 1605 7315 || PSN MichaelSpencerJr || Steam Michael_Spencer || Ham NOØK
QRZ || My last known GPS coordinates: FindU or APRS.fi (Car antenna feed line busted -- no ham radio for me X__X )
I'd make the post in the PAX forum, since you're specifically talking about a PAX game. You can link people here for general Paranoia stuff, though.
You're probably right. I should keep that Paranoia stuff in the PAX forum. Perhaps edit my first Paranoia-related post and fill it with TONS of info.
Disregard.
XBL Michael Spencer || Wii 6007 6812 1605 7315 || PSN MichaelSpencerJr || Steam Michael_Spencer || Ham NOØK
QRZ || My last known GPS coordinates: FindU or APRS.fi (Car antenna feed line busted -- no ham radio for me X__X )
Console thread? Paranoia? Wha-wha-WHAT?