Paranoia virgins, looking for some advice how to run a game...

[Cergorach]

Hello citizen ;-)

My regular group of D&D players wants a break from regular D&D and everyone has heard amazing stories of Paranoia. A couple of days ago a friend and i got the ball rolling, now atleast 80% of the group is very enthausiastic, maybe a bit to enthausiastic. I'll DM, and although i am a very experienced DM, i have never DMed Paranoia. To be frank, i suspect everyone is having unrealistic expectations, Paranoia has been elevated to a sort of Legendary status. So i looking for a bit of advice, in the Paranoia DM department and the overall running of a Paranoia game.

I'll be using the Mongoose version of Paranoia (Paranoia XP SP1) and i'm interested in Flashbacks (compilation of classic missions). I'll be running a 'Classic' game. Should i get other material from the Mongoose line (and why)? I might also have access to some of the old Paranoia material, what should i read there?

I'm thinking of sending everyone a red shirt and a clearence pass (which they should wear during the mission of course *grins evily*). And at the start of the session give everyone an apple (references from the book), just to get everyone into the mood, or is this a bit over the top?

Any advice/ideas/suggestions are welcome.

 

[Tinner]

I'm thinking of sending everyone a red shirt and a clearence pass (which they should wear during the mission of course *grins evily*). And at the start of the session give everyone an apple (references from the book), just to get everyone into the mood, or is this a bit over the top?

Any advice/ideas/suggestions are welcome.

That phrase I highlighted in your original quote?
"Over the top" has NO meaning when you're playing Paranoia.
By all means, if you want to set a mood, send the players shirts, badges, anything at all to help get the mood right.
Here's a few things that were helpful when I ran Paraoia back in the day.

1. Kill them. Kill them often. Paranoia is a different kind of game. If a PC doesn't die at least once in an adventure you've done something wrong.

2. Give them anough rope and they will hang themselves. The PC's all have perfectly good reasons to zap each other. This should be encouraged. Party infighting is a good thing in Paranoia. If a character says something vaguely traitorous, and the oher players don't pick up on, be sure to point it out to them. "Are you going to let him say that?" I a perfectly valid technique in Paranoia.

3. Be vague. Never tell the players exactly what the Computer wants them to do. If their assignment is to capture and return Enw-O-RLD, don't tell them to do that. Instead tell them they are to "handle the Enw-O-RLD problem." By being vague, you increase the odds that the PC's will do something really off script, and give the Computer the chance to vaporize or demote them.

4. Look for the Catch-22. First off, if you haven't wached the movie, or read the book Catch 22 - do so. It's perfect fodder for a Paranoia game. Look for no-win situations. If you can give them PC's a choice between certain death, and treason followed by execution, then you're doing very well.

5. Bureaucracy is your friend. Ever been to the BMV? Ever wait in line at a bank, or oher institution and after reaching the front of the line been told that you were in the wrong line, and had to start over? The computer runs things even less efficiently than that. One of the best examples of this I ever saw, was a Paranoia GM who told his PC's to report to R&D to be assigned experimental weaponry. R&D was located in a room with a rainbow of stripes on the floor. Like this.

Counter
Violet
Indigo
Blue
Green
Yellow
Orange
Red

The sign on the wall said take a number.
The sign next to it said stay on your stripe!
The numbers were hanging on a hook located in the Violet stripe.
The Red troubleshooters spent several comical hours trying to figure out how to get a number without violating a stripe they were not authorized to step on.
Classic stuff.

There's tons more, but IIRC there's a great GM section in the rulebook. Follow that advice and you'll be just fine citizen.
You are fine ... aren't you citizen?
The computer wants you to be fine.

 

[Silver Moon]

Based upon my one failed attempt to run a game with my weekly gaming group I can attest to the fact that I'm not the one to give you advice on this - but if either Piratecat or Crothian post to this thread listen to every word they say!

 

[Jack of Shadows]

I would also highly recommend seeing Terry Gilliam's Brazil. This will definately give you insight on how to run the mad bureaucracy of Alpha Complex. Beyond that kill the characters as often as you can while making it look like they did it to themselves.

Jack

P.S. So long as it makes you, as the GM, laugh with evil mirth you're running it properly.

 

[Crothian]

Ifyou have a bit of money, find the Paranoia Screen for the new XP edition. It has great table for creating an adventure. The tables will allow you to capture the feel or help capture the feel of it. THe screenn I have found to be the best source material so far. I don't have flashbacks, so I don't know how well the adventures are in there (probably good though).

Many games though goto the zap side of thing. So if you want classic you may need to reign in the PCs from just blantant killing each other. I personally just run the game and see what style the players take me to.

 

[WillieW]

Make sure everyone has expermiental (read as "useless" or possibly "deadly to operator") equipment, and have been really, really, really, encouraged by The Computer to use it as often as possible. They'll be expected to make a report on its best points at the end of the mission. The other clones will be expected to answer a pop quiz on other clones' use of the valuable equipment, but of course won;t be told this in advance. (As no-one will probably survive the mission, this is probably irrelevant anyway).

Not only screw over the player characters, make it *obvious* that they're being screwed over by the bureaucracy and supply clerks.

If Secret Societies are being used, make sure something glaringly crucial to the aims of the sceret society is available in the adventure. It should be the complete opposite of the aims (if these are even in any way clarified) of the mission, and possibly the opposite of the goals of other secret societies among the Troubleshooters.

Give somebody a purple-coloured bicycle. A purple-coloured bicycle is treasonous by its mere existence.

Make LOTS of GM-player "private conversations" to increase general player paranoia.

Oh, and make sure the players know that it is "possible" that there will be a high-level of attrition in the game. Players of other RPGs are sometimes horribly traumatised by Paranoia.

Serve the Computer

Trust no-one

Keep your laser handy

 

[Cergorach]

Many games though goto the zap side of thing. So if you want classic you may need to reign in the PCs from just blantant killing each other. I personally just run the game and see what style the players take me to.

I read into 'Classic': Run however the Computer... erm, DM wishes. *grins evily* So players won't know wether to expect zapping or something more sinister...

 

[Primitive Screwhead]

Big suggestion.. be prepared to wing it..

One of my best Paranoia sessions lasted 20 minutes.. the party got thier briefing {only had 2 clones delivered during that..}, then they walked into the hallway and *talked*

All I had to do was announce Clone passings and replacement Clone arrivals!

Much of the game has to do with player involvment, more so than most games.
Also much of the game has to do with how well you can talk.

As to letting the players know about the level of lethality.. also let them know that accomplishing the mission is nice, but not nessecary. I had one session where the group actually accomplished the mission {due to Mass Domination mutant ability and blackmail of the resulting treasonous activity }

Great game.. love it! Defiantley go for the red shirts.. even have a couple other colors for in field promotions.

 

[Crothian]

Paranoia is one of those games that I set up a situation, and just let the players take off. At timers I am just the referee trying to deal with the things they create and do. THen when they slow down, I push them to the next thing and let them go off again.

 

[Macbeth]

I agree that Paranoia i all about the setup. Let the PCs wite the punchline, so to speak.

One of my favorite adventures from Flashbacks (a very good book, by the way) is a short adventure near the beggining of the book. Basically, it puts the PCs in a room with a broken robot that may or may not be a weapon of mass destruction, a prototype, or a refigerator. Great setup: just put the PCs in the room and see what they do.

Also, sometimes the best jokes are made by the PCs. Don't go out of your way to make every situation funny, just give a humerous setup and the PCs will ikely do the rest.

Finally, overact the NPCs as much as you can. Every Commie traitor should be done in your worst Russian accent. Exagerate EVERY NPC quirk.