[Basic] Disadvantage of the Week: Paranoia

[johndallman]

Paranoia [-10] is a mundane mental disadvantage, with no self-control roll. You’re convinced that everyone is conspiring to bring you harm or disadvantage in some way, except maybe your oldest friends, but you keep a close eye on them. This disadvantage appeared in GURPS 1e, and hasn’t changed much.

Most people react to you at -2, which seems to be the basis for the price of this disadvantage. Paranoid NPCs react at -4 to any stranger, and double any reaction penalties those strangers suffer from. Paranoia complements Delusions, since a conspiracy provides an explanation for any strange way that you get treated because of your delusions. I’ve seen real people slide into paranoia when the root problem was that they were treating everyone else badly. Nobody wanted to do as they said, or assist them, and they treated that as a conspiracy.

This disadvantage is a reasonably common option on published templates, notably for types likely to make enemies, such as assassins, and people who live alone. Discworld treats it simply as a Delusion, which makes sense. Bio-Tech can cause or prevent Paranoia via genetic engineering, and High-Tech psychiatric medications can mitigate it, or cause it as a side-effect. Horror has plenty of examples, including Men in Black who need to make people paranoid to stay alive themselves; Madness Dossier has paranoia as a theme, and drugs to cause it. Mars Attacks is a remarkably paranoid setting, as is Monster Hunters, for similar reasons. Power-Ups 6 has quirk versions of this disadvantage, and it’s a possible result of Psionic Powers crippling. There’s a lot of Paranoia in Reign of Steel: Will to Live, and Space’s racial psychology system gives it to carnivores with high Suspicious ratings. Paranoia is a symptom of PTSD in Tactical Shooting, and a cliché for sapient computers in Ultra-Tech.

You have to draw a distinction between “sensible caution” and outright Paranoia. Unfortunately, that line is really fuzzy when there are important things going on and people are prepared to use violence to achieve their objectives. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a GURPS PC with Paranoia played for any length of time: maybe I play with people who use suspicion in everyday life, and don’t want irrational suspicion in their gaming lives. Some real-world computer programmers, including me, find a deliberately cautious and suspicious world-view helpful with producing reliable software. Distinguishing that from Paranoia (Aspected, -20%) is basically a matter of finding out if it’s voluntary.

How has Paranoia made your games more complicated?

[Fred Brackin]

Gage, King of Rogues in my long-running World of "D'y'r't campaign had Paranoia but she did remarkably little talking to NPCs and it was a very small factor. Her player picked it herself and just considered it part of her character's world view.

The PC group may have caused more paranoia than they personally suffered from.

[FuelDrop]

Are you calling me paranoid?!? I'm not!!! It's just that people like you are all out to get me!

Personally I think this one is best for NPCs. The old man with the mythos lore your characters need is paranoid and refuses to speak with you because, well, you're asking about things man was not meant to know. The MK Ultra test subject that knows the location of the secret CIA base is a little crazy due to, well, being a test subject for MK Ultra. That sort of thing. It's a good obstacle to overcome, making it hard to build trust with a vital source of information for the group and potentially spawning a side quest or two.

[whswhs]

I have to say I've never created a character, either PC or NPC, with Paranoia. It's just not something I have any wish to roleplay. It's too much of a handicap for a character who has to actually function, and too simplistic for most roleplaying purposes. I don't dislike it in principle, as a thing I would automatically skip over, but it just never looks à propos when I'm building a character sheet.

[Phil Masters]

I don't think that I've ever taken it on a PC, I guess because I find that a lot of games start with the PCs' first meeting - even if it's the basic "You're all drinking in the same bar" or equivalent. Active paranoia would then make it a real pain to get the group working together properly.

[Anders]

I've turned it into a Self-Control advantage, with the cost [-10*]. Make a Self-Control roll whenever you have to trust someone.

[Rupert]

I don't think I've ever seen it in play on a PC. In my experience players often play their PCs like they're paranoid, but don't like not being able to turn it off when convenient.

[FuelDrop]

I have actually had a paranoid PC. We were playing a delta-green style game, cthulhu mythos monsters.

PCs were FBI agents who had no idea what they were getting into. Naturally, that meant a ton of fear checks. One of the PCs flunked badly enough that they picked up a disadvantage, and that disadvantage was paranoia.

The PC in question was our team face.

To the player's credit he really leaned into it. Through a convoluted series of events he ended up getting uncontrolled telepathic powers, which he A) had to keep secret from the team and B) meant that he could read the minds of nearby people... which fed straight into his paranoia.

It was a really fun game. Campaign was intentionally short, but a blast none-the-less.

[YankeeGamer]

Paranoia could be nicely augmented with Delusion: "The Computer is my friend..."

[Pursuivant]

This is one of the really ancient disadvantages, from back when GURPS came in a box.

I've always considered it to be a classic NPC disad, designed to complicate social influence attempts by PCs. A -8 to reaction rolls due to a legitimately founded paranoia is guaranteed to make reaction rolls and social influence attempts flounder.

Unless it's dealt with in creative ways, it's not so good for PCs since it messes with party unity.

Effectively, it's similar to Delusion ("Everyone's plotting against me"), Intolerance (Everyone), Odious Personal Habit, or Phobia (Xenophobia) and/or Intolerance (Everyone), but rather than triggering an outright phobic or hostile response, it focuses more on questioning motives and making contingency plans to deal with non-existent threats.

Ignoring the roleplaying aspects, it follows the -5 points per -1 reaction penalty.

It could easily be turned into a leveled Disadvantage.

-1 point for -1 reactions to strangers, Rare -1 to reactions from others.
-2 points for -2 reactions, Occasional -1 to reactions from others.
-5 for -3 reax/-1 to reactions from others.
-10 for RAW -4/-2

It could also potentially be a disad which allows a self-control roll, with costs and effects similar to Shyness. In that case, I'd call it -5* points with a -1 reaction penalty to strangers per -3 points the disad costs (rounding up), and a -1 penalty from those around you per -5 points (rounding down).

The beneficial effects of Paranoia are covered by Standard Operating Procedure perks.