Don't know if this is common knowledge, or if it is the right place to post it, or even if it is a good idea to post after seeing the emotions a similar post stirred up, but reading it made me smile as it was so topical for me, at least....

In the Introduction chapter of the Paranoia XP rulebook is this quote in their "Non-Example of Play" Section:

"Nearly every published RPG starts with an explanation of how a RPG works.  We Famous Game Designers used to skip reading these, until we realized they tell a lot about the designer's philosophy.  Many RPG's describe roleplaying as 'It's "let's pretend - but with rules.' Others call it a deeply emotional collaboration in storytelling.  Some offer scholarly and arcane discussions of Gamist, Narrativist and Simulationist RPG philosophy.  Some indie games even compare roleplaying to laying down tracks in a hot jazz band. 

We like all of these descriptions.  Paranoia is somewhat like all of them, in a non-jazz-band sort of way, but it is also different.  Paranoia is also something of a psychological exercise.  Because of this, we won't tell you how to play, unless you are cleared for it.  We won't even show you an example of play for this game.  Instead, here's an example from some other game..."

[An example of play from a classic dungeon crawl follows]

Isn't a Forge author also responsible for the "jazz band" metaphor as well?  I remember reading that somewhere...

Hi there,

I was the one to mention the jazz band analogy in one of my essays, but I wasn't the author for that concept. As cited in the article, it first appeared (that I know of) in the Avalon Hill edition of RuneQuest. So the actual author was one of the writers who worked on that, but I don't know who specifically.

For those of you who don't know this, getting a solid mocking from Greg Costikyan is a high honor. It is wonderful to be mentioned in Paranoia with whatever adjectives he decides on.

Also, I have to hang my head in shame for not mentioning Paranoia in my essays or discussing its key role in the general history of RPG design and publishing. One of these days ... along with the Champions essay perhaps ... arrrghhh ...

Best, Ron

Hey,

I just read that this weekend!  I got a bit of a kick out of it, I must admit.  I read the jazz-band comment, and thought "I get that," with a big smile on my face!

Also, if you look at the credits page, you'll see a few Forge Posters mentioned there, including Zak Arnston, Jared Sorensen, and Paul Tevis.

Just for completeness: the credits in Paranoia XP say that the Forge was a major influence in the way the game was designed. If I remember the quote right: "We liked the Forge model, so we stole it".

And the credits mention My Life With Master as a big influence.

Graham