The Unthinkable Paranoia: How to run a Straight Game?

[Aidan305]

I've been GMing paranoia on and off in Classic and Zap for about eight years now, and feel I have a good bit of experience with the world in those forms.

The problem I'm having now, however, is that I have a (relatively) straight game promised to a friend in a couple of weeks. I know the rough premise, and the direction I want the story to go, but the one problem I'm having is the cold and frightening world of Alpha Complex.

How do I run a straight game?

[Kurald Galain]

Try and get your hands on the WMD splatbook; it has some good Straight adventures.

[Shadowknight12]

I've never run a straight Paranoia game before; things were always too queer, too outlandish, full of light-hearted gaiety. I think the game itself, the very rules, predispose the game towards wacky zaniness. You will have to ignore a lot of the rules and outright go against what the book recommends in many ways. As for ambience, remember Orwell's works and go from there.

[Name_Here]

Take away the clones?

At that point it's no longer "Oh I have X lives left" it's "How the hell can I stay alive with the entire world trying to kill me"

I could imagine that you could keep everything else unchanged and it would be a strait up horror game with everybody trying their best to survive.

[Tyndmyr]

I've never run a straight Paranoia game before; things were always too queer, too outlandish, full of light-hearted gaiety. I think the game itself, the very rules, predispose the game towards wacky zaniness. You will have to ignore a lot of the rules and outright go against what the book recommends in many ways. As for ambience, remember Orwell's works and go from there.

Yeah, this. I've never seen a straight game, and without explaining any particular style, the game heads straight for silliness and wackyness. This isn't a bad thing for most games, but playing it straight, you need a much slower paced, serious horror, almost call of cthulhuesque. Read a collection of dystopian future novels, and borrow heavily from other places for setting. I particularly recommend I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream.

[Comet]

A question: if you start borrowing stuff from other dystopias, at what point is the end result no longer Paranoia?

The way I see it a lot of the mood of any given game session is down to presentation. Obviously you'll want to dial down the material itself somewhat, too, but Paranoia is inherently inevitably a bit insane and ludicrous. The best you can do is make any comedy that might arise from that insanity as black as possible. Don't giggle, don't grin, just deadpan it and present the world as it is. Dim the lights, maybe, or even put on some freaky lightshow to unnerve the players. The idea about denying access to clones is good, too, if you want a more survival horror -like scenario.

[Kurald Galain]

A question: if you start borrowing stuff from other dystopias, at what point is the end result no longer Paranoia?

The setting, of course.

Paranoia is inherently inevitably a bit insane and ludicrous.

Ah, but here is the thing: so is the real world. There are real life examples of byzantine bureaucracies and extremely odd government policy, and these can be (and are) used as source material. The newer Paranoia books describe this well.

The key is this: make the PCs responsible for something.

[TheEmerged]

Ah, but here is the thing: so is the real world. There are real life examples of byzantine bureaucracies and extremely odd government policy, and these can be (and are) used as source material. The newer Paranoia books describe this well.

The key is this: make the PCs responsible for something.

Real life, corporate world example spoilered for being slightly off topic.

Spoiler

Show

At a previous place of employment, we were repeatedly told in training NOT to volunteer a certain pricing on a specific high-volume item. We were ONLY to give that price if the user gave us a certain code.

Inevitably, I got the call where the user asked what our lowest price on (item) was and I quoted him the official price instead of the special one. User then asked why he had a flyer with a lower price. I explained to him the lower price was a special offer, and we were only allowed to mention that price when the code on the flyer was given. He accepted that and finished the order.

The next day, I got called into the trainer's office and asked why I had lied to the caller. What followed is one of the most bizarre, twisted attempts at logic I've ever heard in my life. I had done exactly what I'd been told in training... but was being told by the person who had told me this I was on the verge of being fired for doing so. I then pulled out the training document, showed the trainer the procedure in question, and then was asked again why I had lied. This process essentially continued for almost 30 minutes.

When I was being considered for full employment, nearly all the questions in the interview dealt with this incident. "Do you still believe you were told by the trainer to lie to the customer?" "No sir, I was given an explicit direction on how to treat that scenario and did so." Remember, the trainer was the one who said I had lied...

...and I'm sure many people could give even crazier examples.

[Shadowknight12]

Real life, corporate world example spoilered for being slightly off topic.

Spoiler

Show

At a previous place of employment, we were repeatedly told in training NOT to volunteer a certain pricing on a specific high-volume item. We were ONLY to give that price if the user gave us a certain code.

Inevitably, I got the call where the user asked what our lowest price on (item) was and I quoted him the official price instead of the special one. User then asked why he had a flyer with a lower price. I explained to him the lower price was a special offer, and we were only allowed to mention that price when the code on the flyer was given. He accepted that and finished the order.

The next day, I got called into the trainer's office and asked why I had lied to the caller. What followed is one of the most bizarre, twisted attempts at logic I've ever heard in my life. I had done exactly what I'd been told in training... but was being told by the person who had told me this I was on the verge of being fired for doing so. I then pulled out the training document, showed the trainer the procedure in question, and then was asked again why I had lied. This process essentially continued for almost 30 minutes.

When I was being considered for full employment, nearly all the questions in the interview dealt with this incident. "Do you still believe you were told by the trainer to lie to the customer?" "No sir, I was given an explicit direction on how to treat that scenario and did so." Remember, the trainer was the one who said I had lied...

...and I'm sure many people could give even crazier examples.

That reminds me of the real-life cases Scott Adams (the creator of the Dilbert comic strip) often cites in his books/speeches/etc. I remember lots of bizarre, utterly illogical Catch 22 cases from his books that were meant to illustrate his claim that whatever happens in his comic strip, Real Life will always be weirder.

[Diskhotep]

You can still have weird and crazy elements in a Straight game. One of my recommendations for anyone running Straight is the movie Brazil. All kinds of crazy things happen in it, but I definitely don't consider it as much of a comedy as it is billed.

Other cinematic examples of Straight campaigns: Equilibrium, 1984, Fahrenheit 451.

[Xuc Xac]

If you want to run a Straight game, then don't tell the players that it's a Paranoia game. Just tell them that you want to run a game based on "Brazil" or "Logan's Run" or whatever. Give them custom character sheets that don't have "Paranoia" or clones or silly-sounding skills like "hygiene" written on them. If you want to use Friend Computer, then don't call it that. Give it a name like GLADOS, HAL, or VIKI. Then play it straight yourself. If you start getting silly and campy, you'll spoil the mood and then it'll be Looney Tunes and Monty Python quotes all the way down.

[kugelblitz]

"A Boy and His Dog" has a part where there is an underground "utopia" which is set in a wasteland. Good resource for dark paranoia. As an RPG I love dark paranoia and have run this setting multiple times. It is critical that all your players realize the difference beforehand. THX1138 could be a good source too.