When Will I Learn?

Every December, since about two years ago, I've had a tradition of holding a Christmas-themed Roleplaying session. Since I don't have an active group, I decided to do a Crimbo-themed Paranoia session. (Crimbo being a non-denominational abbreviation for Christmas that I stole from Kingdom of Loathing). First, I'll have to describe exactly what I implemented, and then I'll describe exactly what I did wrong.

The idea was to have a Crimbo-themed mission, where the players would have to do away with a "smelly red-clearance man bribing random people to curry their favor in a communist plot against the Computer". Obviously, Father Christmas is a communist. The mission was rather interesting, as it basically involved tracking down Father Christmas, who was leaving a wake of holiday cheer. For example, one encounter was with a group of people who were given a "green needle-tree, colorful boxes, and strings of multicolored lights".

I implemented a few new Christmas-themed weapons. My favorite was the L.I.N.U.S., an acronym that changes meaning every time someone asks. Basically, it's a giant mech, with a small card slot in front of it. In this slot is a baby-blue card with the word "BLANKET" typed on it. When LINUS has his blanket, he's in defense mode. When LINUS doesn't, though, he destroys everything in his path to get it back. Needless to say, I love "A Charlie Brown Christmas". Also making it's triumphant return was the Yule Log, a comically large log which explodes in a shower of fireworks at the slightest provocation, and the Sneaky Snake, which does whatever the GM wants it to at the most convenient time. I also had two "Christmas Cheer" Lasers, each by itself would only make the target feel happy. Both simultaneously would make the target's heart explode.

All of that was very fine and good, and got a fair number of laughs. However, my problem was that, in good Christmas spirit, I invited all my friends. The problem with living in a dorm-like setting is that I can have a game with eight or nine people in it, like this one. Earlier, I mentioned that a large group was only good for Zap games. Well, it is fine for very zap games, but the reason for that is that bookkeeping and quick communication is pretty much impossible. I constantly had a stack of sticky notes, all full of actions that no longer had any meaning because things had already changed too much. It made many of the players feel powerless, which isn't a good thing. They should feel like they have options, even if all of them are damning. Communication seems to be a constant struggle in these sorts of games. So, when will I learn?

Well, I'm going to start trying now. I'm going to try playing with a cap of 5 players. Smaller groups are worlds easier to communicate with. I'll allow others to be involved, but they're going to be involved as "NPC's", who will play various NPC characters I need played and occasionally pull people to the side to roleplay side encounters with secret societies or the like. That should help decrease the workload on the GM and allow for faster communication during firefights and the like. So, I'll tell you all how that goes.

-Flare

PS. It was one of my players' birthday today, so Father Crimbo pulled a cake out of his bag of goodies during the game. Happy Birthday, and thanks to everyone that made that happen.