Howdy! :D

Currently, I'm in the process of writing up a game that explores conspiracies, cover-ups and all that fun stuff called Operation: Majestic. I am mainly doing this because I didn't like most of the games out there that covered this kind of game and that most of them were just basic RPG systems that didn't really add anything to that type of story. One of the main things I wanted to do with this game was to stress paranoia and mistrust both as a theme and have a spiffy mechanic that would go along with it.

Well, I was stumped for mechanic ideas, so I sat down with my buddy trav, who has all sorts of cool ideas and discussed what it was that I would like and not like for a paranoia mechanic. Well, now we have a rough idea and I have some questions at the end of the post (feel free to comment and suggest away on other stuff too, however).

I'm going to start out with what I don't want for this idea, then go on to what I did want, and finally describe the rough idea that was hashed out.

What I don't want:
1.) A 'scale' where one end is desireable and the other is very bad. Paranoia should be "neutral", not a moral mechanic.
2.) Getting your character taken away or tossed into the realm of NPC if you get to the bad maximum.
3.) Total player responsibility on "acting out" the effects of the mechanic.
4.) Total GM responsibility on the GM to enforce the mechanic.
5.) A crazy one trick pony of sanity. While being out on the deep end would eventually ware away your sanity, I don't want mental illnesses flying this way and that.
6.) No checks every time something happens (ala "humanity" or other moral mechanics).

What I do want:
1.) To get the feel of paranoia, but not necessarily terror or horror (although they go hand in hand sometimes, they don't have to be one in the same).
2.) Surprising to the players.
3.) Fairly "transparent" to the system.
4.) Understandable by the players, but not guess-able. Basically so they know HOW it works, but not when its working.
5.) To be fun, most importantly with a low logistical load! ;)

What the idea is:
Basically, what we came up with was that there is a "pool" of points, maybe a draw string bag and little beads or coins for points, that measures the Paranoia rating of the session. The more points in the bag the more Paranoia is taking hold.

Points are put into the bag when ever the characters spend them. We were thinking maybe each character has a "Trust" rating that they can use for bonuses (what those bonuses are, I haven't figured out yet), but when they spend one, the Paranoia goes up one.

To add some Ompf! to the game and keep everyone on their toes, the sessions would start off with a random number of points already in the pool. Maybe a die roll at the start of the session based on whats going on in said session (not sure yet)?

What the pool would do, is measure how high the paranoia of the session is going. How that is handled is in the flow of information that the GM gives the players. Things such as pointing out details that may or may not be significant, which can become more intense, more bizarre, more random; etc, based on the current paranoia rating. Im not suggesting that the GM lie, just control the flow of information and play details off of each other in an attempt to (hopefully) get the characters and the players in a paranoid mind set.

I think it could be very fun, but like I said it's just an idea right now, so I have no idea if this is even feasible. I've been milling it over the last few days and it seems interesting to me, but that doesn't mean it would work.

I guess my biggest question would be if this would be too much for the GM? Also, Im of the opinion that the GM wouldn't (shouldn't) be lying to the players, so could you actually pull off the feel of parinoia with out lying and just controling the flow of stimulus yet still get the parinoia flowing?

Suggestions? Comments? Hate mail? If you need anything explained clearly that I didn't make clear, please ask.

aaron

A thought that just came to my head would be to use dice for the objects in the bag. Then taking one or more out and using them to determine something; how much info the GM should give, how accurate it should be, how important/vital to plot it should be, used as some other situational modifier to actions/sanity/paranoia/etc.
The Trust rating could be a modifier to social interactions. Make the character seem/be more or less credible, likable, believable, wierd, spooky, etc.
I know that there is a game called Paranoia, but I think that it is supposed to be a spoof/funny. Delta Green (a cross between Cthulhu, X-files and men in black) and Unknown Armies (crazy people doing postmodern magick with cosmological stakes) have pretty good conspiracy stuff. Not just the books, but the support, fan sites, forums and mailing lists are full of paranoia/conspiracy stuff.
Hope some of this helps.
-Craig