[Basic] Disadvantage of the Week: Paranoia

[ericthered]

My first Gurps PC that saw any play had Paranoia, and I don't think I've GM'd it or played it since. He was in a world-hopping campaign so I could use whatever background I wanted, and I chose a telepath who survived a war in which permanent mind alteration of the enemy was a regular thing. In addition to paranoia, he had the delusion that people don't like telepaths. He worked with the party because he was obsessed with getting revenge against the big bad of the game.

I think I played out his paranoia, but it usually came off as pretty justified: mind control was a big aspect of this game, and he was in the best position to check for it. Plus he was probably the weakest combatant in the party. Which meant that it came off pretty normal, and other aspects of his personality were more important (callous and obsession (revenge)).

I think he's the least personable guy I ever played. And he ended up playing a face role for at least part of the game.

[evileeyore]

While I've never seen it on a sheet... I've had Players that played it.

[Þorkell]

"I'm not Paranoid, but..." is a sentence frequently heard in my gaming group.

Though not in English.

[RogerBW]

Originally Posted by johndallman

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.

Especially when there are big knowledge differentials: you and I don't believe there are insects being planted in our brains to listen to our thoughts, but there are certainly settings runnable under GURPS in which this could be the case and a PC might know about it. We'd call it Paranoia; the PC would call it Truthfulness.

(On the other hand most people will react with disbelief when you tell them how much their phones are leaking about them…)

[Pursuivant]

Originally Posted by RogerBW

Especially when there are big knowledge differentials: you and I don't believe there are insects being planted in our brains to listen to our thoughts, but there are certainly settings runnable under GURPS in which this could be the case and a PC might know about it. We'd call it Paranoia; the PC would call it Truthfulness.

The character point value of justifiable paranoia is more or less the same, but the game mechanics and roleplaying motivations are different.

In "secret threat" campaigns, PCs who publicly engage in self-preserving behaviors which normal people would consider to be paranoid might easily get a bad Reputation for "clinically paranoid" behavior.

If the bad guys control the levers of power, anyone with knowledge of the truth will also have a Secret. Anyone who goes public with "the truth" turns their Secret into a combination bad Reputation and Unknown Enemy.

In any campaign, a character who takes "security consciousness" to an extreme level might have a Compulsive Behavior, Obsession, or Odious Personal Habit.

That said, straight-up Paranoia is appropriate for otherwise-sane characters who are just beginning to grasp the overwhelming horror of "The Truth," but who have no idea who their real enemies are.

Meanwhile, your garden variety Paranoid Schizophrenic is going to have disads in addition to, or instead of, Paranoia - Compulsive Behavior, Delusions, Flashbacks (for visual hallucinations), Neurological Disorder (for tactile hallucinations), Phantom Voices, and/or Phobias.