Paranoia XP Tabletop RPG 'Goes Gold'

Costik writes "Paranoia XP, the new version of the cult tabletop RPG which first debuted in 1984, and in which a 'well-meaning but deranged Computer desperately protects the citizens of Alpha Complex, a vast underground city, from all sorts of real and imagined enemies', is done, and will appear at Gencon Indy later this month. The interesting aspect is that it was designed 'in public,' using a weblog, an online forum, and a Wiki, with enthusiastic support from the community. Fans of the game wrote text, debated rules, proofread, ran statistical analyses, and even wrote a computer simulator to test the game's paper-and-pencil rules. Allen, the game's designer, says 'We borrowed the tools and methods of open-source software development for a paper game, and it worked brilliantly.'"

Comments

I've often said it:

[Thedalek]

Paranoia is a great way to entertain someone for a few hours. Unfortunately, that someone is going to be the GM, and everyone else is going to wind up hating him or her, and to a lesser extent, each other.

Now I know what many of you may be thinking: Just because I had a negative experience with Paranoia doesn't make it a bad system. I'll point out that I've had a particularly long string of bad experiences with Paranoia, even with GMs who, in other systems, do quite well. Paranoia seems almost structured to punish players for any action or inaction. Especially if you're testing technology for the lab guys.

I will readily admit that I haven't really gotten into the resistance side of the game, so it may be that all the rest is to try to force the player into becoming a rebel.

Re:I've often said it:

[Kenegan]

Experiences will always vary. In the hands of a psychopathic GM, Bunnies & Burrows can turn nasty and Rocky & Bullwinkle may become more bloodbath than party game.

Allen and the massed forces of the Paranoia fanbase have turned out a game that better caters to differing styles of play. You can continue to play old style blast 'em til they glow games, but the background is broader with support for less frantic and casualty-heavy styles of 'straight'-play.

I would recommend that you give it another go if you get the opportunity.

Re:I've often said it:

[darkmayo]

It is obvious that Thedalek is under the influence of commie mutants, and he shall be re-educated immediately, friend computer told me so and friend computer is always right.

Re:I've often said it:

[DaveTheTriffids]

I will readily admit that I haven't really gotten into the resistance side of the game, so it may be that all the rest is to try to force the player into becoming a rebel.

Looks like you may have been playing it wrong -- or, if that seems too prescriptive a verdict for a free-form roleplaying game, then at the very least I'd say you've been missing out on a lot of the fun. Isn't trying to hide your activities on 'the resistance side of the game' the whole point of it for players?

Re:I've often said it:

[Zab UvWxy]

It is obvious that Dark-MAY-O is a commie traitor, since he would rather take pity and "re-educate" (whatever that is) a fellow Commie Mutant Traitor. Friend Computer clearly says that all CMTs are to be executed upon identification as a CMT.

Please remain still as the Destruct-O-Ray cannons lock onto you. Attempting to flee is treason, punishible by death.

Re:I've often said it:

[Anonymous Coward]

Being killed in Paranoia is not punishment, it's fun. Fun is mandatory. Not having fun is punishable by summary execution. Have a nice day.

Re:I've often said it:

[Chelloveck]

Paranoia is a great beer-and-pretzels game. It sounds to me as if you and your group are taking it way too seriously. It's not really the kind of game suited to epic campaigns; it's more of a sci-fi version of Toon.

Re:I've often said it:

[Allen Varney]

Paranoia is a great way to entertain someone for a few hours. Unfortunately, that someone is going to be the GM, and everyone else is going to wind up hating him or her, and to a lesser extent, each other.

I'm the principal writer for the new PARANOIA. The new edition of PARANOIA changes the relationship between Gamemaster and players from open malevolence (as established in the 1987 second edition) to a more interesting Skinnerian psychology. Briefly, the GM should condition his players, using a wide variety of tools explained in the rules, to reinforce behaviors he likes and punish behaviors he doesn't.

Presumably the GM wants to condition the players to play more PARANOIA. He does so by letting them have fun, allowing them to occasionally win through despite obstacles (temporarily, anyway), and rewarding them for entertaining him and the other players.

The GM's attitude should be a lofty, Olympian amusement at his players. This, I hope, will discourage bad experiences of the type you report.

Re:I've often said it:

[Colazar]

Now I know what many of you may be thinking: Just because I had a negative experience with Paranoia doesn't make it a bad system. I'll point out that I've had a particularly long string of bad experiences with Paranoia, even with GMs who, in other systems, do quite well.

The thing is, the ability to GM a game of Paranoia well has no correlation to the ability to GM in any other system.

Back in college our gaming group was co-founded by someone who loved to GM, but was absolutely horrid at it. We all avoided his games whenever possible. And then he roped some of us into a game of Paranioa, and it was amazing how fun it was.

In Paranoia, it's OK for the GM to be harsh, unrealistic, and arbitrary, as long as he can keep the "cartoon logic" going, and is funny about it. It's definitely a different set of skills.

Open-source RPG?

[Airwall]

Apologies if this sounds like pimping...
Obviously we're smaller and don't have the fan following of Paranoia, but a bunch of us are making a Free (capital F) tabletop RPG called Sacred Steel. The first public milestone release is being playtested now. Approx 40,000 words over 100 pages, nicely layed out, with artwork.

Alpha Complex

[straybullets]

Please report to the nearest extermination center :)-

Open source paper+pencil system

[numLocked]

It seems to me the logical extension of this would be to build an actual open source engine based on a pencil+paper system, like perhaps GERPS. Creating the actual game could be left completely to fans, and the engine could be modified at will. A commercial model could be developed based on selling the engine along with popular fan-made extensions. If one could generate enough buzz for such a project, an entire game engine could conceivably be built for no cost and the contributers could split any profits that were incidentally made.

Tabletopism

[Turn-X Alphonse]

How can you play a game which requires a GM without a GM? The scripted events must follow some sort of order and totally removes the "you pissed me off last game so this game I'm going to tentical rape you" element which makes pen and paper so fun...

Re:Tabletopism

[Takyn-U-RUN]

If you're wondering about the computer simulator, I can let you know some more about it, since I wrote it. It's just a simple, dumb combat simulator, where Troubleshooters shoot Commies and vice versa until one of them is all dead. No backstabbing, no running away, no using mutations... not very Paranoia at all.

But of course, the point of the combat simulator wasn't to make a Paranoia game, it was to help Allen balance out combat. You could adjust the amount of damage done by the weapons, the protectiveness of the armor worn, the penalties that different levels of woundings gave you, and various other important-to-game-balancing stats like that. It was a very simple project, but I'm glad that he/Mongoose got enough use out of it to think it worthy to put in the press release.

Re:Where can I download it then?

[bugbread]

People do fun stuff for free all the time. If someone else makes money off it, it doesn't make it any less fun or any less free.

Re:Where can I download it then?

[PhilHibbs]

When Greg Stafford formed Issaries Inc. to publish a new Gloranthan RPG, he didn't have any cash to do it with. So, he asked the fans to join the GTA, the Glorantha Trading Association, at varying levels of contribution starting at a hundred bucks. For that, you get a T-Shirt, access to a few online tidbits, one free book when it's published, and a free drink at any GTA party you can make it to (I've been to four so far at RPG conventions). No way is this monetarily worth it, but without our contributions, the game would never have been published.

In short: I want to see glossy supplements on the shelves of my FLGS. So do the contributors to Paranoia XP.

Which is why I love it! :)

[PhoenixOne]

I can't speak for you (I don't know you) but the majority of people I've talked to who hate Paranoia are people who take RPGs way to seriously. They memorize things like 'rules' and offen do things like correct the GM ("What do you mean I don't hit him? I rolled a 12, the monster is a class-2 slime based creaper. I have a sword of +2 vs. plant which in the third edition rules gives me +4 on slime...")

Paranoia is D&Ds evil twin. You play it to have fun. Your characters are more disposible then your bic-lighter. If they player shows any knowledge of the rules, they are killed. Basically, it is pure hell for "type-A" RPG players (which is why I love it!)