Am I being Unreasonable for not liking the idea of Paranoia (the rpg)?

[trooper6]

Originally Posted by Anaraxes

You could have a fun game set in Alpha Complex, and one more serious than Paranoia. I'm not sure it'd be a Paranoia game, though. You're not going to get through much of the "so much to do" with only six lives, and the silliness will be hard to reconcile with a more serious theme. But you can drop or at least tone down the silliness.

"Logan's Run" wasn't meant to be campy, after all, nor was it seen that way when it was released.

De gustibus non est disputandum. Matters of taste are not matters of logic.

I do think there is space for "absurdist dark satire" Paranoia as well as space for "high camp silliness" Paranoia and have them both be paranoia. In the same way there exist both "everybody dies and goes insane really quickly" Call of Cthulhu and "PC live and struggle longs times" Call of Cthulhu.

I think both Paranoia work...but I do really think it is important that everyone be on the same page.

Now, having a vindictive killer GM will make Paranoia not fun...but having a vindictive killer GM will many any game not fun in my experience.

[Dead Monky]

Is Paranoia still in print? PDF? I've always wanted to give it a go (and I think my players would love it), but I don't know anyone who has it and I can't find anything for less than $50 on Amazon.

[David Johnston2]

Originally Posted by Irish Wolf

Yeah, I obviously don't know the entire story, but it sounds like your GM didn't get it. The GM shouldn't be out to screw the characters over - the setting should be. The PCs shouldn't get shot by ray guns, they should get blown up by the experimental ray gun R&D issued the team. They shouldn't be ambushed by the Commie mutant traitors they're looking for, they should be ambushed by another team of Troubleshooters (preferably also PCs) who think they're the Commie mutant traitors.

(After all, Troubleshooters don't solve problems; they find trouble and then shoot it.)

GMs. Two of them. After two games in which I couldn't find a way to leave the hallway, I was cured of a desire to play Paranoia.

[johndallman]

Originally Posted by Dead Monky

Is Paranoia still in print? PDF? I've always wanted to give it a go (and I think my players would love it), but I don't know anyone who has it and I can't find anything for less than $50 on Amazon.

Mongoose Publishing have run a Kickstarter for a new edition. Their sales strategy is rather different from SJG: a game gets produced, has quite a lot of supplements for a few years, and is then either dropped or rebooted: this will be the third version of Paranoia they've done in about 15 years.

[whswhs]

There is nothing that says you have an obligation to have any specific set of personal tastes. If you don't like something, you don't have to like it and you don't have to try to enjoy it.

There are several RPGs that I find so innately repulsive that I would never think of trying them. Three that spring to mind quickly are Castle Falkenstein, FATE, and Feng Shui. This is not a matter of "bad game"; it's "totally not to my taste," to the point where I wouldn't even think of trying to acquire the taste. Paranoia doesn't give me that negative an impression, but if it strikes you that way, you shouldn't play it, and your GM should accept that and run something different. When we're talking about taste, there is no such thing as "unreasonable."

[Phantasm]

I tried to be in a Paranoia game once. The GM was going for full-on campiness, while I tried to "play it straight" (full-on campiness is not for me). I'd been in some of his "Riftsanoia" games (basically, Alpha Complex was a secret Coalition prison in the Rifts setting, with our characters being built as Rifts characters and just entering the Complex), but I saw potential for the game to be more than just the slapstick comedy he saw it as.

First off, the puns. Oh gods, the puns! One of the NPCs was Darth-V-ADR. Other NPCs were similarly named. The GM insisted that our characters' names should also be puns. I can't remember what mine was but I want to say it was Steve-R-GDF; I just remember the GM started complaining about the name because he didn't see the pun (there wasn't one).

Second, secret societies. "Secret societies are treason. Everyone is in a secret society." (Apparently, an actual quote in the book the GM was using.) I wanted my guy to be a True Loyalist to the Computer who would never knowingly commit treason by being in one; ultimately the GM found a "Cult of the Computer" in one of the splat books he had. (I still would have been happier without one completely.)

In the end the GM threw up his hands and said. "You don't get the game!" and refused to help with chargen after that. He was the only one with the book, too.

Ultimately, the game didn't last more than a session with me spectating. Very little actually happened as while he saw it as slapstick the PCs started getting frustrated when his "obstacles" turned into TPK deathtraps.

[ak_aramis]

Originally Posted by David Johnston2

My experience is that the people most drawn to the idea of being a Paranoia GM are the ones who should never run it. But I may be prejudiced by my characters never making it to the briefing.

I've seen quite a few of those. There are, however, a few. A guy I knew in high school, Warren W., was a great paranoia GM. He was, inherently, a funny guy, and he was, at the core, a fair-play oriented GM. Him GMing it was fun.

Paranoia is, for me, best done as a one-shot game.

[Parody]

Originally Posted by ak_aramis

Paranoia is, for me, best done as a one-shot game.

Exactly. While the potential is there for a campaign (and the authors have tried a couple of times to mitigate the system and setting in this regard, most recently in Paranoia not-XP*) it really is best as a break from the other stuff you do.

I've been running Paranoia for a long time (~20 years). My adventures are comedy one-shots designed for gaming conventions. I, as the GM, am not usually out to get the players or the characters. (As the Author I'm trying to set up situations where they want to get each other.) Occasionally the dice may hose them (rolling high is always bad) but in most cases you can wait for the characters to hose themselves and then the other characters get them for you.

Not everyone is going to enjoy playing that sort of game, and that's OK. Plenty of games available at gaming conventions. But if you are up for a diversion from your home campaign, Paranoia events can provide one!

Stay alert! Trust no one! Keep your laser handy!


* Thanks, Microsoft.

[trooper6]

Originally Posted by tbrock1031

Second, secret societies. "Secret societies are treason. Everyone is in a secret society." (Apparently, an actual quote in the book the GM was using.) I wanted my guy to be a True Loyalist to the Computer who would never knowingly commit treason by being in one; ultimately the GM found a "Cult of the Computer" in one of the splat books he had. (I still would have been happier without one completely.)

One of the conceits of the game is that all the PCs automatically have things that will mark them as traitors if those things were found out:
1) They are all members of Secret Societies
2) They all have mutant powers.
It is part of the conceit of the game.

Now there are True Loyalist Secret Societies, and you could easily be a True Loyalist in a Secret Society that is dedicated to the computer...for example First Church of Christ-Computer Programmer. Also...the vast majority of the citizens of Alpha Complex are in Secret Societies, many of them supported by the computer or High Programmers for various reasons.

I have Paranoia XP (though I've never run it), and it mentions three different styles of play: Classic (which has the puns), Straight (which doesn't and is much more serious, though still a dark satire), and Zap...which I think is just about Gonzo shooting at things.

I bet with a GM and party who matches your play style, you could have a really fun straight game of Paranoia.

[Irish Wolf]

Yes, "being a member of a Secret Society" is technically treason, and everyone is a member of a Secret Society - but some are tacitly permitted or even supported by the Computer, while others could be organizations that a loyal citizen like you is infiltrating on the Computer's behalf. (Some could even be supported by the Computer sometimes, and opposed others - Ultraviolet-level citizens have clearance to reprogram the Computer, so a lot of its directives are mutually contradictory as they were written by Ultraviolets to support their own agendas.)

And having a mutant power is technically treason as well - but if it's a useful one, like PC Jim's ability to fly, you can register it with the computer. You'll have to wear a special badge, and you'll start with one strike against you as a potential traitor in the Computer's ocular sensors, but at least you won't be automatically shot for using it.

Sorry about the pun names, though. That started with supplement writers who got clever or bored, and tried to come up with designators (like the Blue-level IntSec operative, James-B-OND, or the short, sticky-fingered Orange-level Troubleshooter from "Yellow Clearance Black Box Blues", Frod-O-THF). It was just supposed to be name, clearance level, and three-letter sector designation. If our GM had insisted all the names had to be puns, I'd have probably quit then and there, because in my experience most folks aren't half so clever as they'd like to believe, myself included.