How I got all of this is a story in and of itself. Basically, someone who was given all of this, gave it to my sister, to give to me. The only thing I ever purchased is that 2nd edition Gamemaster's pack. So that's why so much is shrinkwrapped. Orcbusters was, too, but I eventually opened that. Part of me wants to keep these in a salable condition. Another part of me wants to open Yellow Clearance Black Box Blues because, well, John M. Ford. I remember interacting with him on the Pyramid message boards . . . such a great guy.
But here is what I have:
Paranoia boxed set
Paranoia GM Screen
Yellow Clearance Black Box Blues
Hill Sector Blues
Send in the Clones
Orcbusters
Vapors Don't Shoot Back
Clones in Space
I'm absolutely going to run the game. I'm just not sure what adventure I'll use. Not Orcbusters - I want something without any fantasy to it, even spoof fantasy. The basic adventure is fine but might not work for 9-10 troubleshooters that I expect to have.
I will probably run this with the 1st edition Paranoia rules. GURPS would work, for sure . . . and be easier to run. But it would also be easier for the players to understand their relative skill levels and try to maximize them. That's no fun. It's better if they have no real clue how good or not they are. They'll find out. After all, a bunch of Red-clearance or Orange-clearance shlubs sure have no idea. Fear and ignorance! Ignorance and fear!
I gave away all this stuff, that I had kept in boxes for decades, about two years ago. My memory was that some of their published adventures seemed more like parodies of modules. I tried running a few and they gave few options to players. Then again, we were young. This stuff had just come out. It was wonderfully hilarious to read.
ReplyDeleteGURPS Paranoia seems to defeat Paranoia's simple set-up and combat rules. I remember when one of the characters was "vaporized" by a shot. The look on his face... But then they sent in the next clone of him.
Where do you find all those players?
GURPS would really be fine - 4e rules, using the Basic Combat Rules with no options except reduced dodges against gunfire is really, really fast and light and easy to run. It's just that my players know the rules really well, and they'd play based on their experience estimates of their actual ability to pull things off. Red, Orange, and Yellow-level troubleshooters are much more entertaining when the players running them don't really have a clue about how good or bad they are and just try stuff.
DeleteHow did I find nine players? Here and there - one guy from all the way back in high school, two others from my first game post-college, the brother of one of those guys, the son of one of them, a cousin, a guy we met through this blog and his two sons, a couple of online friends who turned out to live close by . . . so, here and there, really. We also always hold spaces out for returning gamers. If we get all of the regulars we have like 9 players. If we get the occasional ones we'd have 11. If the guys who dropped out all came back we'd have, 15 or 16?
It's a long, long time since we played with one GM and two players and longed to get 1-2 more. Six players is a small session these days.
I've got most of those books, and few newer ones (the aforementioned terrible art 5e-1995 book, and one from 2016 Mongoose publishing).
ReplyDelete" GURPS would work, for sure . . . and be easier to run. But it would also be easier for the players to understand their relative skill levels and try to maximize them. That's no fun. It's better if they have no real clue how good or not they are. They'll find out. After all, a bunch of Red-clearance or Orange-clearance shlubs sure have no idea. Fear and ignorance! Ignorance and fear!"
Hmmm. For GURPS you could do a "Blind Build". They get to chose artfully named "attribute packages" (like Strong Guy, Healthy Guy, Smart Guy, etc, and secondary packages, "Fast Guy", Tough Guy, Eagle Eye") and then "profession packages" and you simply don't give them a character sheet (clearly you assemble the packages and see the sheets). They just declare their actions and roll the dice and learn the character's abilities little by little as they play.
Remember, they were work-a-day button pushers in the Button Pushing Department where they just pushed the buttons they were told to push all day, so they have no idea how they'd fair as Troubleshooters doing honest-to-Computer troubleshooting.
I ran an amnesia Fallout campaign like this once, it went over great with some players, less so with others. But if you have buyin for a one/two-shot, it should run great.
True. My players would start to back-figure by successes unless I roll for them and don't tell them the rolls. That's a lot of work, compared to giving them numbers they don't understand.
DeleteBut it's a fun idea for another type of game. I'll hold onto that idea.
I've got a few different editions of Paranoia, and I still run with 1st edition.
ReplyDeleteYou must open up Yellow Clearance Black Box Blues. It's both funny and an eminently playable adventure. That and Vapors Don't Shoot Back were enormous fun, as I recall.