[Paranoia] GNS and short attention spans

[museleading]

I came across this the other day. http://www.escapistmagazine.com/issue/36/17 - My Eyes Glaze Over: Roleplaying theory for short attention spans by Allen Varney

This bit struck me
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The Fruits of Their Effort
Though I'm a professional game designer, GNS theory hasn't directly helped me improve my craft. Partly, this is because for two years I've been concerned exclusively with a new edition of the classic RPG PARANOIA, an offbeat game that fits awkwardly in the GNS framework. (Forge articles seldom mention PARANOIA.)
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Does this hold true?  Does it fit 'awkardly'?  Does it fit at all?

[Ron Edwards]

Unfortunately, much as I'd like to clarify some widespread (and strange) notions about the Big Model and Paranoia, this post can't continue as a thread, as currently constructed.

The best solution is probably for you to present any of your experiences with Paranoia - who it was with, how it went, how much fun it was, why, and all that sort of thing. If you do this, then this thread can get moved to the Actual Play forum, we can all learn from one another, and fun will be had.

So if you'd like, post a reply with such a description. I'd love to see it.

Best, Ron

P.S. Damn it ... I can't help it. The reason Paranoia and some other great games aren't represented in the theory essays is because they're second-order games - humorous, satirical, meta-role-playing in a lot of ways. You're not only playing, you're playing about playing. The theory still holds for them in full, but you have to talk about the kind(s) of play that playing them is commenting on. So talking about them in the essays wasn't a high priority.

Consider that a teaser, and with any luck, reassurance that yes, I do think Paranoia and some other greatly-influential but less-mentioned games (in my essays, that is) can be discussed via my ideas without any lack of fit or uneasiness or whatever.

Despite my weakness of spirit in including this P.S., I meant what I said above. Without some actual-play discussion to work with, this thread has to be closed.

[oliof]

Hijacking museleading's thread for a moment.


Playing Paranoia was one of my earliest 'breaking out of the usual dysfunctional fantasy gaming' experiences ever. First of all, the rules made it very clear that the GM is out there to screw the players, and the 'cool stuff' about your character, namely secret societies and mutations had very high amounts of 'screw you' potential. I got paranoia as a birthday present at a party with a lot of non-gamer friends (I was quite new to the hobby then as well). While some people knew we were playing some strange games, at that party, genuine interest was only sparked by Paranoia, and not other games I had lying around.


We ended up with an impromptu session (8 players) that had really funny scenes, although I guess most of us didn't realize why we were having fun then. I was not able to describe what made this gane rock for the two hours it lasted. Premise was explained quickly, and then it was mostly player interaction, with me acting more as a rules moderator and trying to get folks from briefing to R&D. Later, the music and boy meets girl stuff took away attention from the game, which had served it's purpose. Unfortunately, I cannot go into much detail since this has happened about 15 years ago, but I remember everyone having a blast (no pun intended) when the first thermonuclear hand grenade was thrown (those who don't know: in paranoia, the thermonuclear hand grenade's blast radius exceeded it's maximum throwing range).


The rules, being 'complete' in a nerd sense (I don't remember drowning and falling rules though), beat themselves senseless with the 'dramatic-tactic combat system' (don't know if that is the real name, I am retranslating from german). Seeing the rules as a commentary on other games is valid, but having that in a game that stands on it's own feet and is enjoyable by non gamers is quite an achievement.

PS: Who thinks it's funny dreamhosts datacenter went offline the minute I try to post a Paranoia article?

[museleading]

Having steered away from Paranoia for the past few years, I'm afraid I don't have a blow-by-blow memory of the last game I played.

Respecting the mods wishes, I'll just take note of both Ron and Oliof's satirical and meta-game elements and consider them offline.