So, after last session's absolute chaos, I decided to try the module at the back of the book again, Mister Bubbles. This was a group of three troubleshooters, and it was a rather serious first game. Well, it was serious in comparison to last week's mess.
I'm not sure I am capable of doing an incredibly serious session of this game. It just lends itself to ridiculousness too easily. In this campaign, we have a Computer Phreak who is irrationally afraid of robots, a woman who occasionally (read:when hilarious) responds with animal noises, and a fellow who's going to learn that his 17 in Cash Hacking isn't a 17 in covering his trail. How could I not make that hilarious? Maybe that's why Paranoia always works so well: the situations are so ridiculous that the game just succeeds, almost regardless of anything. (For examples, just look back at all the other disasters I've GM'd.) Oh, and everyone has a lightsaber. Ridiculousness.
Regardless, everyone had fun and good times. So, another roaring success.
-Flare
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
Saturday, October 9, 2010
Initiation of New Citizens
So, I've moved to a new locale. It's fantastic, but I don't have any of the players that I had before; the people that I learned the game first with. So, I had the wonderful challenge of trying to teach people, en masse, how to play the game. My strategy was... well, this is what it was.
1) Hook people. I gathered some of my friends and told them about the game in a quick, 2 minute bit, outlining the basic point of the game. "The computer hates traitors. Traitors come in various forms: Communists, Mutants, Secret Society members, and people who hate the computer. The thing is that everyone playing is all of those things, so you have to prove they're traitors and kill them before they kill you." I managed to get 8 people interested, which was a tall order.
2) I randomly generated characters for everyone, tics and all. (Resources can be found here:[http://paranoia.polyatomic.org/] and here:[http://gmftp.paranoia-live.net/max/wheelOfTics.swf].) Then, I handed them out and explained the perversity system and how to roll for certain stats. Other than that, I left the players in the dark.
The game was absolutely chaotic. Incredibly zap, with people falling left and right. People were coming into and out of the game like crazy. Furthermore, mutant powers and secret societies were mentioned only once. Strangely enough, everyone seemed to have fun, even though it basically consisted of everyone messing around. I never consulted a table once: it was entirely making stuff up.
It seemed to chaotic to be fun to me, but when I asked, no one had a sour word for the game. They all enjoyed it (not immensely, like I had hoped, but they all had a good time) and wanted to play again at some time. I always find this game amazing in that no matter how chaotic or unplanned things may be, or how terribly things went, everyone enjoys themselves. It's a mystery that I may never be able to solve, no matter how I may try. I did collect some notes, though, that I'd like to share.
First, put a limit on the number of players, unless you like really, REALLY chaotic games. I'm fairly certain that that's where a fair amount of the chaos came from (we had 8 players at one point, and people kept coming in/out of the game). Also, I felt like I couldn't give everyone the attention they needed, and that's not a good feeling.
Second, when including new players, keep it simple. Play a zap game with few rules, just to start. You pick up hardcore D&D people and casual ones alike, and the chaos is kind of enjoyable. Next time we play, I'm going to do something more serious, maybe even have a written campaign, but always start simple. Especially if you want to start playing fast.
I believe that's it. Hopefully next time I can curb the chaos and start having serious fun. But honestly, I'll take any sort of fun. GM's are pretty desperate like that.
Until next time,
Flare
PS - Someone planted the idea of using the Paranoia system in a different environment: perhaps present-day or something like that. Maybe later. First things first: making players that can play.
1) Hook people. I gathered some of my friends and told them about the game in a quick, 2 minute bit, outlining the basic point of the game. "The computer hates traitors. Traitors come in various forms: Communists, Mutants, Secret Society members, and people who hate the computer. The thing is that everyone playing is all of those things, so you have to prove they're traitors and kill them before they kill you." I managed to get 8 people interested, which was a tall order.
2) I randomly generated characters for everyone, tics and all. (Resources can be found here:[http://paranoia.polyatomic.org/] and here:[http://gmftp.paranoia-live.net/max/wheelOfTics.swf].) Then, I handed them out and explained the perversity system and how to roll for certain stats. Other than that, I left the players in the dark.
The game was absolutely chaotic. Incredibly zap, with people falling left and right. People were coming into and out of the game like crazy. Furthermore, mutant powers and secret societies were mentioned only once. Strangely enough, everyone seemed to have fun, even though it basically consisted of everyone messing around. I never consulted a table once: it was entirely making stuff up.
It seemed to chaotic to be fun to me, but when I asked, no one had a sour word for the game. They all enjoyed it (not immensely, like I had hoped, but they all had a good time) and wanted to play again at some time. I always find this game amazing in that no matter how chaotic or unplanned things may be, or how terribly things went, everyone enjoys themselves. It's a mystery that I may never be able to solve, no matter how I may try. I did collect some notes, though, that I'd like to share.
First, put a limit on the number of players, unless you like really, REALLY chaotic games. I'm fairly certain that that's where a fair amount of the chaos came from (we had 8 players at one point, and people kept coming in/out of the game). Also, I felt like I couldn't give everyone the attention they needed, and that's not a good feeling.
Second, when including new players, keep it simple. Play a zap game with few rules, just to start. You pick up hardcore D&D people and casual ones alike, and the chaos is kind of enjoyable. Next time we play, I'm going to do something more serious, maybe even have a written campaign, but always start simple. Especially if you want to start playing fast.
I believe that's it. Hopefully next time I can curb the chaos and start having serious fun. But honestly, I'll take any sort of fun. GM's are pretty desperate like that.
Until next time,
Flare
PS - Someone planted the idea of using the Paranoia system in a different environment: perhaps present-day or something like that. Maybe later. First things first: making players that can play.
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