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View Full Version : What is Paranoia Classic?



Trekkin
2010-12-29, 07:17 PM
The title's basically it; I understand Straight and Zap, but XP SP1s description of Classic still leaves me unsure of what exactly a Classic game is like. Any information/anecdotes would be much appreciated.

Tokiko Mima
2010-12-29, 07:59 PM
The title's basically it; I understand Straight and Zap, but XP SP1s description of Classic still leaves me unsure of what exactly a Classic game is like. Any information/anecdotes would be much appreciated.

Citizen, you are only cleared for Infrared level information. Requesting further information of this type (http://www.ehow.com/how_2337717_run-classic-style-session-paranoia.html) is a treasonous offense. Please report to the nearest suicide booth at your earliest convenience for beta booth testing. Remember that any discussion of the booth or preemptive dying before reporting for mandated suicide is also a treasonous offense, and will require additional suicide booth beta testing.

Mongoose87
2010-12-29, 08:40 PM
You seem confused, citizen. Do you require an increase in medication?

sonofzeal
2010-12-29, 08:56 PM
The Computer is your friend. The Computer wants you to be happy. Happiness is mandatory. Failure to be happy is treason. Treason is punishable by summary execution.





Are you unhappy with "Classic", citizen?

Trekkin
2010-12-29, 09:04 PM
The Computer is your friend. The Computer wants you to be happy. Happiness is mandatory. Failure to be happy is treason. Treason is punishable by summary execution.





Are you unhappy with "Classic", citizen?

Not at all! I'm ecstatically euphoric at not being executed for not understanding Classic, and will be as long as I live! I simply wonder if the fine citizenry of Alpha Complex, ably educated in its ways as only Friend Computer could ever facilitate, might help me to better understand the means by which I may faithfully depict the glory of the Complex.

sonofzeal
2010-12-29, 09:13 PM
Not at all! I'm ecstatically euphoric at not being executed for not understanding Classic, and will be as long as I live! I simply wonder if the fine citizenry of Alpha Complex, ably educated in its ways as only Friend Computer could ever facilitate, might help me to better understand the means by which I may faithfully depict the glory of the Complex.
Ah, well then. It's kind of halfway between "Zap", and "Straight". They're each polar extremes, and a "Classic" game will borrow elements of both. Make sense? :smallsmile:

Trekkin
2010-12-29, 09:17 PM
In a broad sense, yes, but which elements are borrowed from what? I understand that the Complex isn't as functional, nor the computer as sane, as in Straight, and that it's not as trigger-happy as Zap, but beyond that I'm rather lost other than "there's a lot of bureaucracy".

kyoryu
2010-12-29, 09:37 PM
Zap is Warner Brothers. Classic is dark comedy (Very Bad Things?). Straight might be closer to Brazil?

At the end of the day, people are getting hit over the head with a hammer in any of them. But the buildup, and consequences, are very different.

Maybe even Zap as WB, Classic as Brazil, and Straight as 12 Monkeys works better.

sonofzeal
2010-12-29, 09:40 PM
In a broad sense, yes, but which elements are borrowed from what? I understand that the Complex isn't as functional, nor the computer as sane, as in Straight, and that it's not as trigger-happy as Zap, but beyond that I'm rather lost other than "there's a lot of bureaucracy".
In Zap, everything is quirky-random and hilarious. Throw a bit of that in, but don't make it ubiquitous. In Straight, NPCs are complex individuals with their own dark manipulations and objectives. Throw a bit of that in, but not for everyone.

When in doubt, watch Buckaroo Bonzai (http://www.figmentfly.com/bb/Images/ADVBUCKA-box_hires_dvd.jpg), and make it like that only filtered through 1984 (http://gregtork.files.wordpress.com/2008/11/1984-george-orwell.jpg). Where Zap is sheer lunacy, Classic has a touch of reality. Where Straight is gritty drama, Classic has a lighter tone.

Darrin
2010-12-29, 11:38 PM
In a broad sense, yes, but which elements are borrowed from what? I understand that the Complex isn't as functional, nor the computer as sane, as in Straight, and that it's not as trigger-happy as Zap, but beyond that I'm rather lost other than "there's a lot of bureaucracy".

"Classic" basically means the designers wanted the players to treat the scenarios seriously and care about surviving the mission, but they also wanted to make really horrible puns about show-tunes and pop-culture. Put another way, kind of like walking a tightrope of dark humor between hopeless nihilism and a gleeful worry-free killfest.

wayfare
2010-12-29, 11:41 PM
Maybe its just the way my group plays, but Class is really only slightly less fatal than Zap!But you can tell some kind of story without every scene devolving into a laser fight.

0Megabyte
2010-12-30, 12:56 AM
Hmm, while I haven't gotten a chance to play the game, with all you're saying, is it something like this?

Classic is more like something out of Kafka, with maddening contradictions, catch-22's, and satire, rather than outright parody?

Mongoose87
2010-12-30, 01:00 AM
Hmm, while I haven't gotten a chance to play the game, with all you're saying, is it something like this?

Classic is more like something out of Kafka, with maddening contradictions, catch-22's, and satire, rather than outright parody?

It can be pretty outright.