Paranoia xp service pack 1 question

[Voadam]

Hi,

I'm considering picking up a pdf copy of the paranoia xp book. Mongoose offers two versions on rpgnow with the same price, same page numbers and same intro from the pdf preview, one is paranoia xp and one is paranoia xp service pack 1. One is a slightly bigger electronic file.

I found references in an rpg.net review that paranoia xp service pack 1 was planned as a second printing to fix a few bugs in xp (particularly the fact that it was hard to kill people).

Can anyone confirm that that is what service pack 1 is or say what other changes if any there are between the two?

Thanks.

 

[Obryn]

Go with SP1. It's the bugfixed version.

FYI, the included adventure (Mr. Bubbles) is, oddly enough, one of the very best adventures ever written for Paranoia in any system. Weird.

 

[Piratecat]

Hard to kill people in Paranoia? Bwah ha ha ha ha!

 

[Gort]

I've wanted to run Paranoia for a long time, actually. I've played in games that have been very well DMed, and I was wondering - are there any tips you old-timers have for a new DM? I've DMed tons of D&D since 2nd ed, and a smattering of other systems along the way. Anything I should keep in mind for Paranoia specifically?

 

[Obryn]

I've wanted to run Paranoia for a long time, actually. I've played in games that have been very well DMed, and I was wondering - are there any tips you old-timers have for a new DM? I've DMed tons of D&D since 2nd ed, and a smattering of other systems along the way. Anything I should keep in mind for Paranoia specifically?

Honestly, the XP book does an excellent job of teaching you to be a Paranoia GM.

But, for starters...

(1) Paranoia depends on the players more than it does on you. If your players don't buy into the basic concept and learn to accept the fact that they're completely screwed, they won't have fun and the game won't work. If they don't take their conflicting motivations and use them in a fun way, they're likewise screwed.

(2) Hopelessness. Put your players in hopeless situations. Situations that they know they're screwed in. They see their ultimate demise from a mile away, but they're powerless to get out of it. It's just a waiting game until the plug is pulled.
One of my favorite examples is the Commie Form. More or less, you hand out the same form to everyone - except for one player. That player gets a special form full of Commie propaganda and completely treasonous questions, where even the knowledge of it is a death sentence. What do they do? Obviously they can't turn in the form as-is, and obviously they can't reveal that there's something wrong with it. (In my game, the PC shot himself and bled all over the form.)

(3) Conflicting goals. Make sure that, whatever they're doing, they have orders from somewhere else to do the opposite.

(4) Computer. Every contact with the Computer should be fun and pleasant, with a lurking threat of death just below the surface.


Yeah, I could go on, but I will never do as good a job as the writers themselves. But really, IMHO, Paranoia is all about your players and their desire to play a game they can never really win.

-O

 

[Voadam]

Hard to kill people in Paranoia? Bwah ha ha ha ha!

The complaints were that 1) security armor made people practically invulnerable to laser blasts and 2) you basically had to take a crit before suffering any damage at all when grappling hand to hand with a traitor trying to strangle the life out of you or pummel your head into hard surfaces. These seemed counter to the desired feel of an everpresent risk of death.

I'm pretty sure nuclear explosions were still lethal (how our group always seemed to TPK before leaving R&D back in the 80s).

 

[Obryn]

Well, honestly, I'm still befuddled by the Paranoia XP damage system. I've used it, and it pretty much works, but I can't shake the feeling that it's about three times as complicated as it really needs to be. There's more math and tables than I'd expect for a game like this - but then again, it's just one die roll, so I suppose offloading all the processing to the DM isn't a bad thing.

-O

 

[Umbran]

..., so I suppose offloading all the processing to the DM isn't a bad thing.

I don't have the XP rules, but offloading the processing to the GM is a good thing for Paranoia, in general. Paranoia is not, imho, a game in which the players should have any ability to say, "But it doesn't work that way!" In other games, the GM should attempt to be fair, and mechanics transparency is an aid to that. But the only fairness called for in Paranoia is in even-handedly handing out vouchers to call up your next clone.

I mean, in prior editions, expressing knowledge of certain mechanics was considered treasonous!

 

[Obryn]

I don't have the XP rules, but offloading the processing to the GM is a good thing for Paranoia.

Oh, I agree! But the system, IIRC, goes something like this.

(1) Player rolls 1d20. If the GM is sensible, he'll ask him what his Weapons skill is. If the GM is hardcore, he'll have it written down himself. Let's say the PC rolled a 6 and has a 14 in Energy Weapons.

(2) GM subtracts the result from the PC's skill. So, in the above example, there's a margin of 8.

(3) GM looks at the weapon's damage. It's in a code which states the minimum amount of damage a weapon will do, the interval, and the maximum. For Lasers, I believe this is W3K.

(4) Looking at a chart which I don't have in front of me, the GM starts with the W, which stands for Wounded, The margin of difference is 8, so the result is increased by 2 steps. I believe this would go from Wound to Maim to Incapacitate. (Next step is Kill, IIRC. But I could be 100% wrong here.)

(5) From there, the GM moves back up for the target's armor. If it's your basic Reflec, it might move the damage back 1 step, I think. So, from Incapacitate to Maim.

(6) Then apply each of the conditions that apply. For Maim, this is probably a lost limb or something like that.

I dunno, I just think it could be easier.

-O

 

[Piratecat]

Yep. I tend to use the Rules-Lite version: PEW-PEW-PEW then whatever's funniest happens, and then you probably mark off a clone. Like Feng Shui, Paranoia is too fun and fast a game to have to do math in your head.