Post by camberme on May 25, 2015 17:47:48 GMT
Paranoia is a dystopian science-fiction tabletop role-playing game originally designed and written by Greg Costikyan, Dan Gelber, and Eric Goldberg, and first published in 1984 by West End Games. Since 2004 the game has been published under licence by Mongoose Publishing. The game won the Origins Award for Best Roleplaying Rules of 1984[1] and was inducted into the Origins Awards Hall of Fame in 2007.[2] Paranoia is notable among tabletop games for being more competitive than co-operative, with players encouraged to betray one another for their own interests, as well as for keeping a lighthearted, tongue in cheek tone despite its dystopian setting.
The game is set in a dystopian future city which is controlled by an artificial intelligence construct called 'The Computer', and where information (including the game rules) are restricted by color-coded 'security clearance'. Players are initially enforcers of The Computer's authority, and will be given missions to seek out and eliminate threats to The Computer's control. The players are also part of prohibited underground movements, and will have secret objectives including theft from and murder of other players.
The game's main setting is an immense and futuristic city called Alpha Complex, which is controlled by The Computer, a civil service AI construct
The player characters frequently receive mission instructions from the Computer that are incomprehensible, self-contradictory, or obviously fatal if adhered to, and side-missions which conflict the main mission. They are issued equipment that is uniformly dangerous, faulty or "experimental" (i.e. almost certainly dangerous and faulty). Additionally, each player character is generally an unregistered mutant and a secret society member, and has a hidden agenda separate from the group's goals, often involving stealing from or killing teammates. Thus, missions often turn into a comedy of errors, as everyone on the team seeks to double-cross everyone else while keeping their own secrets. The game's manual encourages suspicion between players, offering several tips on how to make the gameplay as paranoid as possible.
Paranoia features a security clearance system based on colors of the visible spectrum which heavily restricts what the players can and cannot legally do; everything from corridors to food and equipment have security restrictions. The lowest rating is Infrared, but the lowest playable security clearance is Red; the game usually begins with the characters having just been promoted to Red grade. Interfering with anything which is above that player's clearance carries significant risk.
The full order of clearances from lowest to highest is Infrared (visually represented by Black), Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet, and Ultraviolet (visually represented by White). Within the game, Infrared-clearance citizens live dull lives of mindless drudgery and are heavily medicated, while higher clearance characters may be allowed to demote or even summarily execute those of a lower rank and those with Ultraviolet clearance are almost completely unrestricted and have a great deal of access to The Computer
One of the things that draws me to the game is the fact that as a GM there are so many different behind the scene factors to think of, it's super easy to change the direct of the story based on the players actions. #1 chief being the fact that each player has a SUB mission, they are trying to complete while trying not to die them selves. If the players are getting bored, then my all means switch subjects. The computer is Insane since not only does it have the entire city to protect, but it has to track all the people in the city, and all the different "ultraviolet's" constantly trying to change it's programming to better suit their needs.
The game can quickly become uninteresting if people are "losing" but thats half the fun, get the players drunk, throw some comedy in there, and all the sudden we're having fun again.
The game is set in a dystopian future city which is controlled by an artificial intelligence construct called 'The Computer', and where information (including the game rules) are restricted by color-coded 'security clearance'. Players are initially enforcers of The Computer's authority, and will be given missions to seek out and eliminate threats to The Computer's control. The players are also part of prohibited underground movements, and will have secret objectives including theft from and murder of other players.
The game's main setting is an immense and futuristic city called Alpha Complex, which is controlled by The Computer, a civil service AI construct
The player characters frequently receive mission instructions from the Computer that are incomprehensible, self-contradictory, or obviously fatal if adhered to, and side-missions which conflict the main mission. They are issued equipment that is uniformly dangerous, faulty or "experimental" (i.e. almost certainly dangerous and faulty). Additionally, each player character is generally an unregistered mutant and a secret society member, and has a hidden agenda separate from the group's goals, often involving stealing from or killing teammates. Thus, missions often turn into a comedy of errors, as everyone on the team seeks to double-cross everyone else while keeping their own secrets. The game's manual encourages suspicion between players, offering several tips on how to make the gameplay as paranoid as possible.
Paranoia features a security clearance system based on colors of the visible spectrum which heavily restricts what the players can and cannot legally do; everything from corridors to food and equipment have security restrictions. The lowest rating is Infrared, but the lowest playable security clearance is Red; the game usually begins with the characters having just been promoted to Red grade. Interfering with anything which is above that player's clearance carries significant risk.
The full order of clearances from lowest to highest is Infrared (visually represented by Black), Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet, and Ultraviolet (visually represented by White). Within the game, Infrared-clearance citizens live dull lives of mindless drudgery and are heavily medicated, while higher clearance characters may be allowed to demote or even summarily execute those of a lower rank and those with Ultraviolet clearance are almost completely unrestricted and have a great deal of access to The Computer
One of the things that draws me to the game is the fact that as a GM there are so many different behind the scene factors to think of, it's super easy to change the direct of the story based on the players actions. #1 chief being the fact that each player has a SUB mission, they are trying to complete while trying not to die them selves. If the players are getting bored, then my all means switch subjects. The computer is Insane since not only does it have the entire city to protect, but it has to track all the people in the city, and all the different "ultraviolet's" constantly trying to change it's programming to better suit their needs.
The game can quickly become uninteresting if people are "losing" but thats half the fun, get the players drunk, throw some comedy in there, and all the sudden we're having fun again.
