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Expendable
2009-02-05, 02:22 AM
I recently started running a game of Paranoia and mostly started this thread because the happiness officer likes the idea of leading the other players in moral songs and songs that praise the computer. However, if there is anything else that people would like to add about game or mission ideas feel free to add them as well. If anyone has never heard of or played Paranoia I recommend you check it out as it is a great change of pace from most other games you will play.

A few quick notes about my game. I am running my game modified so that it takes place in space on a space station but I still have ways for the players to get outdoors. I also have 13 complexes that know about each other although only at the highest clearance levels to give me more opportunities to have intercomplex struggles.
Thanks in advance for any help you can give me coming up with good songs for the players any advice you might have.

Cubey
2009-02-05, 07:07 AM
Paranoia is one of the games that I, unfortunately, had no opportunity to play yet. That's a shame because it looks awfully fun and amusing.

You may want to bring this on on Gaming->Roleplaying Games though. It's not just for DnD, and don't let anyone tell you otherwise!

BRC
2009-02-05, 08:44 AM
ATTENTION CITIZEN
This thread SHOULD go in the Roleplaying Games forum, posting a thread in the wrong forum is TREASON!

ATTENTION CITIZEN
Friend Computer has declared PARANOIA to be as perfect a game as ALPHA COMPLEX is a society, therefore, not spreading this perfection by posting threads about PARANOIA in every forum is TREASON.

With that said, some experimental equipment for you to use
The Ricochet Laser
The Double-Ended Laser (Never again be flanked by Commie Mutant Traitors)
The Sticky Grenade (Note, no handle, the entire grenade is coated with adhesive)
The Boomarang Grenade (Never again waste valuable computer resources, if you throw this grenade and miss, it will come right back to you!)

JMobius
2009-02-05, 01:46 PM
I love the concept of Paranoia, and I've had a blast with it before.Unfortunately it really doesn't go over well with my current group of players. Lots of complaining about the lack of defined rules and options. :smallsigh:

BRC
2009-02-05, 01:51 PM
I love the concept of Paranoia, and I've had a blast with it before.Unfortunately it really doesn't go over well with my current group of players. Lots of complaining about the lack of defined rules and options. :smallsigh:
Complaining about the lack of rules and options in Paranoia is TREASON!

Paranoia is really the perfect game for fixing a bad group of players. A Rules lawyer? Let them get used to playing a game where they arn't even allowed to know the rules. Players don't get along? In this game they are Expected to kill and backstab each other.

charl
2009-02-05, 02:31 PM
Don't overthink it. Planning a Paranoia session is an exercise in futility, as your perfectly made plans and scenarios will be shot to death for being commie mutant traitors within the first four minutes of the game. So as GM be ready to improvise.

Also, you are always right. Disagreeing with the GM is treason. Make sure your players know it.

As for mission ideas, well the threat of mutants is always good. Just make sure that each character is forced into fail-fail situations. Say, the mission is to find the secret society traitors hiding in the living quarters in sector BBC, which just so happens be the secret society the team leader is a member of... or so he thoughts, because at the same time the hygiene manager has been secretly told by his co-conspirators that it's another cell of their society hiding there. Then again, the happiness officer just got a secret message from his Illuminati masters that instruct him to make sure the missions fails, and also that food dispenser X-3456-J-B is to be painted bright orange. Meanwhile the remaining members are each told separately by the computer that there's a traitor in their group, and they are the only ones that can be trusted to secretly find out who it is. Too bad the equipment guy got told by his communist friends before the mission start "They know!" scribbled in blood on a food wrapper, and should now be starting to think about who to blame in the group, and whether the computer actually knows he is the traitor. (The game is called PARANOIA after all!)

Basically, just throw in as much doubt, conflicting loyalties and orders, distrust and conspiracy as possible and watch the situation unfold.

Cristo Meyers
2009-02-05, 03:26 PM
The Boomarang Grenade (Never again waste valuable computer resources, if you throw this grenade and miss, it will come right back to you!)

For when your players don't hate you enough...:smallbiggrin:

We always used thermonuclear grenades, actually levelled the entire sector.

Paranoia is the only game where you can make a several session adventure out of "take this message from point A to point B"

Zen Monkey
2009-02-05, 03:33 PM
Da Comerade, the computers is always a friend to the proletaria... er.. people.

Research and development jobs are a good source of adventures. Have them be responsible for testing out uses for weird things. My group once had to test-fire a small nuclear weapon, which was activated by lighting it's fuse. Fortunately, our clones had no memory of this and went on trying to come up with uses for a hammer, when we didn't have enough clearance to know about nails yet.

SharpWolf
2009-02-05, 04:29 PM
This game is so awesome!

As weird as it may seem, I've managed to set up one epic campaign in a a "Straight"-type setting with a group of veteran role-players. So far, the players have "survived" (as much as losing 6-7 clones each counts as surviving) through 3 missions and are now slowly discovering layers upon layers of ancient conspiracy in the Alpha Complex (as if killing each other wasn't scary enough).

With a bit of imagination, it's not too hard to create coherent rules -- they tend to become necessary when you want to play a full-fledged campaign rather than just one-shot scenarios, especially with a certain type of players.

What's *really* fun about PARANOIA is that, at last, as a DM, I can do exactly what I want, without having to fear about breaking the game-flow when someone dies or things like that. Want to make them fight against hordes of highly intelligent and well equipped traitors-mutants-communists? Go ahead! Put them next to a ticking nuclear bomb with one minute left to disarm it or escape? Have fun! Wish to relax by giving your players contradictory secret objectives and watching them backstab each other in the most sophisticated ways imaginable? Yes please! Once your players are used to all the craziness, this can make for some of the most hilarious and intelligent role-playing ever!

All in all, a great game with many possibilities if you have enough imagination.



PS: This message was brought to you by your friend the Computer. Your friend the Computer gently invites you to play PARANOIA. Not-playing PARANOIA will be considered as un-fun behavior, which is treason. And remember citizen, fun and happiness are mandatory!

MammonAzrael
2009-02-05, 05:25 PM
I really need to find a group to play this with. And pick up the rules.

charl
2009-02-05, 05:39 PM
I really need to find a group to play this with. And pick up the rules.

Knowledge of the rules is treason, citizen.

BRC
2009-02-05, 06:53 PM
If you want to take somebody down in Paranoia, ask them "Are you a happy communist?"

If they answer "Yes", then they are a communist, which is TREASON.
If they answer "no" then they are unhappy, which is TREASON.



The hardest part of GMing paranoia is getting the right voice for Friend Computer, it must be easily recognizable, cheerful, and intimidating. I was rather proud of my Computer voice, I sounded like a slightly demented summer-camp counselor, only instead of saying "Alright, Who wants to go swimming!" I was saying "Please report to the nearest confession booth for termination!"

I remember one session, I only had 3 troubleshooters (instead of the 4 that were supposed to show up), and had them investigate a crime in which they were the suspects, by the end, two people were going to be executed, and I left clues that pointed to all of them. It was fun.

Expendable
2009-02-05, 09:05 PM
Well I'm really happy to see there are other people who love Paranoia like I do let alone have heard of it. I first played years ago myself and have played off and on ever since as new players join in and hear stories about past games from the old guard. Unfortunately I lost all of my stuff after my last game and I have hard to start building back up from the beginning. I have the ideas for my games down right now I'm mostly just looking for good flair to add flavor to the game. One fun thing that one of the players is doing is that the person playing the happiness officer bought hand puppets on sale and the players are going to be using them in real life as their players use them in the game to improve moral. Remember citizen happiness is mandatory.

hewhosaysfish
2009-02-06, 10:15 AM
If you want to take somebody down in Paranoia, ask them "Are you a happy communist?"

If they answer "Yes", then they are a communist, which is TREASON.
If they answer "no" then they are unhappy, which is TREASON.

"Are you accusing me of being a Communist?! Unfounded accusations of TREASON are TREASON."

:smallbiggrin:

I've never played the game, just browsed the Red Clearance section of the rulebook sourcebook but even I can see a way out of that one.

grinner666
2009-02-06, 12:38 PM
"Are you accusing me of being a Communist?! Unfounded accusations of TREASON are TREASON."

:smallbiggrin:

Not when the question is put to you by the COMPUTER, Citizen. Questioning the questions of the COMPUTER is TREASON. Please report to the nearest Happiness Officer for summary execution.

Have a nice day!!

:smallbiggrin:

BRC
2009-02-06, 12:47 PM
Not when the question is put to you by the COMPUTER, Citizen. Questioning the questions of the COMPUTER is TREASON. Please report to the nearest Happiness Officer for summary execution.

Have a nice day!!

:smallbiggrin:
You failed to capitalize the letter "T" in "The Computer", Failure to properly capitalize "The Computer" is TREASON. However, because it is "Complex Service Day", please execute yourself. Thank you and Have a Nice Day!
:smallbiggrin:

grinner666
2009-02-06, 07:27 PM
You failed to capitalize the letter "T" in "The Computer", Failure to properly capitalize "The Computer" is TREASON. However, because it is "Complex Service Day", please execute yourself. Thank you and Have a Nice Day!
:smallbiggrin:

Providing a TRAITOR with the means to harm himself, and thus potentially harm loyal Citizens, rather than performing a summary execution is TREASON. Failure to perform a Computer-sanctioned execution is TREASON. Failure to utilize issued ammunition is TREASON. Unnecessarily capitalizing pronouns is TREASON.

Please report to the nearest Waste Disposal Officer for summary execution.

Thank You and Have A Nice Day.

:smallbiggrin:

Wafflecart
2009-02-08, 03:26 AM
Do something along these lines:

Almighty Computer: ATTENTION CITIZENS! An outbreak of small fuzzy creatures have escaped from an Indigo Clearence bio-lab. Please report any sightings to your closest bio-lab technician. Not reporting is TREASON! HAVE A NICE DAY!

GM: As you round a corner you see a pack of small, white, rabbity looking creatures, with matted hair, blood-red eyes, and venom dripping from their elongated fangs.

Once they see them...

Almighty Computer: ATTENTION CITIZENS! An outbreak of small fuzzy creatures have escaped from an Indigo Clearence bio-lab. Please report any sightings to your closest bio-lab technician. Not reporting is TREASON! HAVE A NICE DAY! Remember, these creatures are Indigo clearance, and any knowledge of their existence to anyone below clearence is TREASON! HAVE A NICE DAY!

....just throw in as many catch 22's as you can, and end them with HAVE A NICE DAY!

TheOOB
2009-02-08, 04:47 AM
It's been a long time since I played paranoia, and I have never read the book, so I don't know exact ally how things work. I did know that every mission I played required me to commit treason to complete, but failure was also treason, which lead to interesting reports about the shag carpet obscuring visibility when we went outside before we had clearance.

JonestheSpy
2009-02-08, 09:54 PM
Haven't played Paranoia in years, but totally loved it. One of my fave gaming memories is playing a robot bartender that looked something like a floating landspeeder with a few tentacles with which to dispense drinks and ice.

As the ice dispensers could shoot cubes of frozen H2O with the force of a slug thrower, "Do you want ice with that?" was my favorite and most-repeated line...

I also loved how the game inspired such creative bull****ting. As in:

"Are you a happy communist?"

"I love the Computer! I hate commies! Nothing makes me happier than rooting out and lasering commies and traitors for my buddy the Computer!"

I suspect most modern politicians have played Paranoia at some time or other...

grinner666
2009-02-08, 10:16 PM
"I love the Computer! I hate commies! Nothing makes me happier than rooting out and lasering commies and traitors for my buddy the Computer!"

The Computer is NOT your "buddy". The Computer is your FRIEND. Calling The Computer by unauthorized terms of endearment is TREASON. Please report to the nearest Commissary Officer for summary execution and disposal.

Thank YOU, and Have a Nice Day.

Soylent Green is your friend!!

:smallbiggrin:

EagleWiz
2009-02-08, 10:22 PM
I have heard of this, where can i find the rules.

charl
2009-02-08, 10:29 PM
I have heard of this, where can i find the rules.

Your friendly neighbourhood game store, or any of its online competitors. Do not pirate it from the Internet, that is illegal, plus we want to show that we like Paranoia so it doesn't go out of print (again).

EDIT: I just found http://www.paranoia-live.net/download.php JParanoia. It's supposed to be a nifty little IRC-like program made for playing Paranoia. It requires java (unfortunately) but it does seem promising. Would someone care to try it out some day?

Expendable
2009-02-09, 05:03 AM
I bought my copies of Paranioa and its add on books from Mongose publishing the people who brought it back from the dead. I even have a few that are listed as "XP" afterwards before they had to pull the xp part because it made a certain company unhappy. (At least that what I hear) I would recomend everyone buy it to support the system because to many of the games I like end up going out of buisness. If you buy it as a player feel free to just put it in storage forever or untill such time as you feel like running a game.

Carl I would love to do another Paranioa game through a system like this but between work and colledge I really shouldn't be running the first game.
I hope people try it out though and please let me know how it works because when I have more time in a few years it would be nice.