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View Full Version : DM Help Possibly DMing Paranoia for strangers. No DM experience. General advice?



LokiRagnarok
2014-09-14, 06:01 AM
Hi everybody!
Our CS department at the university is going to host an RPG evening for beginners in two months. The event is aimed at people who have no or little experience with RPG, mostly 18-23 years old university majors in CS, physics or math (ie your "typical nerd audience"). It will consist of people trying two different systems in a one-shot each (which systems, depends on who is willing to DM what). As we may be short on DMs, a friend of mine suggested I DM one of the games.

I would like to run a low-die-rolling-game set in the Paranoia world; I have played such a game before and I think particularly the CS students will enjoy the "AI is a Crapshoot" aspect of it. However, I am worried about a few things:


I have never DM'ed before. My playing experience consists of a session of Savage Worlds, Shadowrun, Paranoia and some custom-built "play yourselves in an eldritch horror scenario" each and a D&D 3.5 PbP which never got as far as the first fight. I do have a lot of experience talking and explaining to groups of students that age, though (I am part of a peer program at my university and have weekly meetings with freshmen). I have also read a lot of material aimed at DMs, so I think I know the usual advice (Three Clue Rule, don't outshine the party, no plot survives contact with the PCs, make sure you have everyone's attention etc). I also have wasted countless hours of my lifetime on TVTropes.
Probably everyone in the group will be new to P&P and role-playing in general (as I said, the event is advertised as an "RPG evening for beginners"). I worry that Paranoia, with all of its mutually assured backstabbing and the "we have to obey nonsensical and/or dangerous instructions from the DM/Friend Computer" bit, may be not a good introduction to the role-playing world. I worry about people not enjoying themselves who will think being a subject to the whims of the DM/trying to outsmart her is all it is about.
The people I will be running for will most likely be strangers - both to me and to each other. I am worried about IC conflict (which in Paranoia is practically guaranteed) spilling over into OOC grief against other players or the DM.


So, uh, any general advice or reassurance? Particularly on running a game in a Paranoia setting?

Anonymouswizard
2014-09-14, 06:29 AM
First off, I assume that CS is computer science? Bare in mind that some people do not like their specialist field to be misrepresented (for example, as an Electronic Engineer, I'm fine with a far future game, but put me in a game set in 2020-2060 and I will fume if there is no advancement in electronics, especially if you deny me stuff possible now), but it should generally be okay.

Anyway, the most important parts of GMing are:

1) you never have to tell the whole truth. Light misdirection can keep players on track, and you never have to give information that isn't asked for.

2) cheat. If you roll dice behind your screen, nothing says that you have to use at the result, or even look at the dice. I'll sometimes roll dice for preplanned actions, or to give me time to think of something, but if you roll a die in response to a player's action, they will feel like they have more impact on the game.

3) if you can't come up with something, just steal an element from somewhere.

Rainman3769
2014-09-14, 06:35 AM
I may be in the minority compared to others who will respond to your questions, but here's my two cents.

I wholeheartedly agree with your concerns with introducing people to TTRPGs with Paranoia. Don't get me wrong, its a great system and as long as everyone is on the same page about what kind of game is being played, great times will be had by all. But with an evening specifically for beginners, (especially beginners who are likely to not know each other) you have to remember that your players may all have very different expectations of what their experience is going to be like. I think newbies would have more fun sharing the exhilaration of clearing a dungeon together (or some equivalent system other than D & D) and working as a team as opposed to screwing with each other.

You may not have alot of experience DMing, but I don't think its a a huge deal. There are plenty of good references right here on the Playground forums on DMing advice, and the fact you are even concerned about your ability to do the job well probably means you care enough to do just fine!

Finally, I would suggest D & D as your system. It's arguably the most recognizable game out there, and there are PLENTY of one shot beginner level adventures available which are perfect for new players and DMs alike.

Good luck! I hope the event goes well and gets some new blood into our hobby :)

LadyMeyers
2014-09-14, 11:33 AM
I would like to run a low-die-rolling-game set in the Paranoia world; I have played such a game before and I think particularly the CS students will enjoy the "AI is a Crapshoot" aspect of it. However, I am worried about a few things:


Probably everyone in the group will be new to P&P and role-playing in general (as I said, the event is advertised as an "RPG evening for beginners"). I worry that Paranoia, with all of its mutually assured backstabbing and the "we have to obey nonsensical and/or dangerous instructions from the DM/Friend Computer" bit, may be not a good introduction to the role-playing world. I worry about people not enjoying themselves who will think being a subject to the whims of the DM/trying to outsmart her is all it is about.
The people I will be running for will most likely be strangers - both to me and to each other. I am worried about IC conflict (which in Paranoia is practically guaranteed) spilling over into OOC grief against other players or the DM.


So, uh, any general advice or reassurance? Particularly on running a game in a Paranoia setting?

I've run several Paranoia games, and so long as you make it clear from the outset how it is supposed to work, I don't know that you'll have problems. Generally, I've set up the adventure to make that explicit.

For example:
The mission I usually run for beginners is:
Overall Mission for All Troubleshooters, assigned by Friend Computer (aka "this is what you're supposed to look like you're doing"): Take a message from Sector O-N-E to Sector T-W-O.

Individual Missions for Secret Societies (aka "this is what you're actually trying to accomplish"): Steal the message, ensure delivery of the message, eliminate "Player X," protect "Player X," etc. **Notice that the secret society missions run counter to someone else's mission (even if the players themselves don't know that).

Way back when, Paranoia was my first experience with role-playing, so I can say that it can definitely work as a first game.

LokiRagnarok
2014-09-15, 06:16 AM
Thanks everybody for the responses so far!

First off, I assume that CS is computer science? Bare in mind that some people do not like their specialist field to be misrepresented (for example, as an Electronic Engineer, I'm fine with a far future game, but put me in a game set in 2020-2060 and I will fume if there is no advancement in electronics, especially if you deny me stuff possible now), but it should generally be okay.
Yes, CS is computer science. I see where you are coming from, but I think that will be righted by the general suspension of disbelief (I am a CS student myself and find the Friend Computer hilarious.)


Anyway, the most important parts of GMing are:
-snip-

Thanks, I'll keep that in mind.


I may be in the minority compared to others who will respond to your questions, but here's my two cents.

I wholeheartedly agree with your concerns with introducing people to TTRPGs with Paranoia. Don't get me wrong, its a great system and as long as everyone is on the same page about what kind of game is being played, great times will be had by all. But with an evening specifically for beginners, (especially beginners who are likely to not know each other) you have to remember that your players may all have very different expectations of what their experience is going to be like. I think newbies would have more fun sharing the exhilaration of clearing a dungeon together (or some equivalent system other than D & D) and working as a team as opposed to screwing with each other.

Hm, yeah, I was hoping that would be okay because they have the chance to try at least two systems in the course of the evening. I'll definitely re-think the whole thing with your advice in mind.



You may not have alot of experience DMing, but I don't think its a a huge deal. There are plenty of good references right here on the Playground forums on DMing advice, and the fact you are even concerned about your ability to do the job well probably means you care enough to do just fine!

That's reassuring to hear. Thank you.


I've run several Paranoia games, and so long as you make it clear from the outset how it is supposed to work, I don't know that you'll have problems. Generally, I've set up the adventure to make that explicit.

-snip-


That's useful advice and has given me a lot of ideas. I might follow Anonymouswizard's advice and steal that :p

I am still thankful for more advice or plot ideas.

Cristo Meyers
2014-09-16, 10:36 PM
That's useful advice and has given me a lot of ideas. I might follow Anonymouswizard's advice and steal that :p

I am still thankful for more advice or plot ideas.

Heh, go ahead. We did :smallwink:

One thing that I would add that my wife left out: we usually used pre-gen characters for those games. It helps to get straight to the game without getting bogged down in character-gen for characters that are, let's face it, dead men walking. Also keeps everyone at about the same power/ability level.