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

[Glyfair]

As someone who has never played or GMed Paranoia, it feels odd to answer this. However, I have a large number of friends who enjoy this (indeed, I would probably, too - but fate just never got me in a game).

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.

Every story I've heard players tell about Paranoia ties into this. For example, one player had his character use his telekinesis power to levitate another character. He then pointed to him, yelling that he was a mutant using his levitation power and then shot him.

Paranoia seems to be a DM lite game. The DMs job is mostly to set the backdrop of the players messing with each other. Everything you can do to encourage that is ideal. As soon as possible get your players out of their RPG comfort zone. Don't expect to survive. Don't expected to complete the mission.

 

[Mishihari Lord]

Lots of good advice above. I've GM'd Paranoia a few times and the best suggestion is to keep your pacing in mind and don't overdo things. In the games I ran, I had adventures all prepared, but the game never got past the "outfitting" and "requisitioning experimental gear" stage because both the players and I were getting far too involved and using up too much time in these early stages. As a result, while we had fun, these games were not entirely satisfactory. Keep the pace going.

 

[Crothian]

Lots of good advice above. I've GM'd Paranoia a few times and the best suggestion is to keep your pacing in mind and don't overdo things. In the games I ran, I had adventures all prepared, but the game never got past the "outfitting" and "requisitioning experimental gear" stage because both the players and I were getting far too involved and using up too much time in these early stages. As a result, while we had fun, these games were not entirely satisfactory. Keep the pace going.

Paranoia is a differnet kind of game, and not completed an goal or even getting close is part of the game. I've had great games where the players never got out of R&D. It is not that unusual especially for the Zap style of play.

 

[Lonely Tylenol]

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.

I always liked to have the players be briefed by a trio of upper-ranked officers. Two of the officers are normal, boring, bored officers. One is an eccentric who talks in an overblown Russian accent and has a habit of going off on socialist tirades, stopping himself just before he gets to the really treasonous parts. During the briefing he adds extra objectives that the other two don't mention. Neither of the other officers seems to find anything wrong with this. The player characters have to decide whether they should accuse a higher-ranking citizen of treason without evidence, or go along with what the obviously commie officer orders them to do, knowing that somehow it will turn out to be treason and they'll get blamed.

I also, as a matter of course, send a secret society mission to each player that names one other player for assassination and has an objective that cannot be achieved surreptitiously and cannot be completed without major deviation from or ruination of the mission. If I have more than 5 players, I make sure that two of the players are ordered to kill each other, and then swap their mission orders so that they each get the note that says to kill their own character. They don't know who got the note intended for themselves, and would have great blackmail material if they can prove that the note was intended for the other guy...who has great blackmail material if he can prove...etc.

Ensure that at least one character has a mutant power that has a flashy effect, and one character with Teleportation.

Work on your computer voice. Decide what it will sound like and never deviate from character. That voice will eventually start to creep your players out, especially because once you've established the voice, you can have a monitor nearby suddenly spring to life just by talking like that. Which is amazingly effective to do right after a major party schism or fubar has just occurred.

Always remember that Paranoia is a game for DMs to relax and get back at their players in the most cruel and petty ways they can dream up. The game actually works best if you keep this in mind. Do not provide instructions, provide mandatory goals. Do not provide help, provide experimental equipment. Do not provide assistance, provide malfunctioning support bots. Issue a metric ton of Bouncy Bubble Beverage, and then make sure that the players don't get to leave PLC without it. If all the clones die in one shot somehow, set it up so the next bunch of clones are issued the same equipment that their clones had...the equipment that is still lost in the field, so they have to recover it in order to have any equipment at all. Frustrate, blockade, and divert. And then punish for deviating from the mission. Eventually the PCs will start to get creative, and then the game really gets good.

Also, make sure there is no shortage of incendiary explosive devices. You wouldn't believe how bad the aim on an average troubleshooter is.

 

[haiiro]

Having just picked it up at GenCon, I'd recommend using Mongoose's Paranoia card game as an intro to the RPG -- it's got all of the key elements, and it's cleverly constructed to make infighting, backstabbing and other Paranoia staples mandatory. Plus, it covers the color spectrum and typical troubleshooter missions rather nicely -- I think it'd make a pretty ideal intro.

 

[Aaron L]

When I first saw this I thought it was asking for gaming advice from paranoid virgins. I was trying to come up with advice all night!

 

[Coredump]

I haven't played Paranoia in... well... decades. But I remember how odd it seemed that a game based on no one surviviing, had such a cool system for developing your character. You just never lived long enough to use it...

ah, the joys of living with the computer.

 

[Crothian]

I haven't played Paranoia in... well... decades. But I remember how odd it seemed that a game based on no one surviviing, had such a cool system for developing your character. You just never lived long enough to use it...

THe new system has much rules and ways to sustain a campaign

 

[StupidSmurf]

Ah, Paranoia....Lovely game. Here's advice, and, of course, a war story:

1. For the computer's voice, try doing a very pleasant HAL2000 voice.
2. Spurious logic is the rule of the day: "Rookie troubleshooter armor is red" "Tomatoes are red" "Therefore, rookie troubleshooter armor is a tomato".
3. Props are fun.
4. R&D shouldn't stand for Research & Development. It really stands for "Research & Die".

Favorite Paranoia story:
We were all getting a briefing for our next mission. The adventure, I believe, was The Yellow Clearance Black Box Blues. Although I'm our group's chief gamemaster in most systems, I yield the screen to a particular player for Paranoia. He's amazing at it. This guy starts us off in a briefing room with three high-level (I think Violet) officials sitting behind bullet/blast-proof glass, and are about to give us our mission, courtesy of an intercom system.

The first man says "Now listen closely, for I shall only say this once." Then, the GM proceeds to place a styrofoam cup over his mouth and begins talking and making the usual gestures that would accompany someone explaining something to a group. Of course, we can't make out a bloody thing, and obviously the GM is playing out the fact that the intercom system doesn't always work properly (ya think???).

The first man looks stern, say something stern, points to a female player, and, by the muffled tone of his voice, is asking a question. The female player, Sofia, looks like a deer caught in the headlights, then finally just decides to take a gamble and says "YES!!", nodding her head.

The eyes of the briefing officer go wide, and he points at her, while screaming to the rest of us, and his intent is quite clear: "Shoot her!" We do. She's vaporized.

Here's how the exchange really played out:
GM (as the briefing officer, talking sternly): "This mission is top-secret, and no one knows anything about it unless they are some spying filthy commie mutant traitor (pointing at Sophia) Are YOU a commie mutant traitor?"
Sophia (take a gamble and nods) "YES!"
GM (as officer, eyes wide): Shoot her! Shoot her! SHOOT HER!!!!!
Rest of us: ZAP ZAP ZAP ZAP ZAP!
Sophia: Bleed bleed bleed.

Good fun. So. Her clone comes in. Mysteriously, the intercom system is now functioning perfectly.

GM (as briefing officer): Clone #2, time for a pop quiz. Was your predecessor a traitor?
Sophia #2: Um...no.
Me (as JON-Y-WRU-3): Hmmmm. Her predecessor was executed. Traitors are executed. Therefore, her predecessor was a traitor. Her replacement just said her predecessor wasn't a traitor. Therefore, her replacement lied. All commie mutant traitors are liars. Therefore...
Rest of us: ZAP ZAP ZAP ZAP ZAP!
Sophia #2: Bleed bleed bleed.

Two clones owned by the same player...skragged in under a minute.

I have GOT to get out and buy the new version....

 

[the Jester]

Running Paranoia, eh? Here's my advice:

1. Kill the bastards.
2. Get the pcs to turn each other in as traitors.
3. Kill the bastards.
4. Get the pcs to kill each other.
5. Put the pcs in positions where, if they don't commit treason, their secret societies kill them.
6. Kill the bastards.
7. Use lots of props.
8. Give the pcs secret society missions involving killing each other.
9. Kill the bastards.

...should be messy, but fun.

Remember: there is no such thing as a Paranoia campaign.