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I have generally enjoyed XP very much and I would say it is the "definitive" version. I don't have any of the older versions on hand, but the Perversity bid mechanic is novel to XP, right? I remember reading it and thinking that it sounded very modern but it also slid in really well, especially since it let you stay in the game even if you were on clone cooldown or just not present.
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Jul 15, 2023 17:57
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Nessus posted:I have generally enjoyed XP very much and I would say it is the "definitive" version. I don't have any of the older versions on hand, but the Perversity bid mechanic is novel to XP, right? I remember reading it and thinking that it sounded very modern but it also slid in really well, especially since it let you stay in the game even if you were on clone cooldown or just not present. I believe they mention somewhere that it's one of the things they were directly inspired by My Life With Master for, yes.
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Jul 15, 2023 17:59
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Perversity is still one of my favorite game mechanics ever. The fact that Inspiration was added to D&D is proof of how awesome an idea it was.
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Jul 15, 2023 19:21
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Mirage posted:I just hate any edition of Paranoia that lets you buy new clones. Everything else is OK. I always thought that the joke about communists being the bad guys was supposed to be: The computer, when it was fully working, determined that the optimum society was effectively communist and implemented a system like the USSR, then when it got broken, society degenerated into a parody of the bloated bureaucracy of the USSR at the time that the original version of Paranoia came out. But since the computer had been developed by the US military during the cold war it didn't call it's society communist, and instead publicly vilified the concept of communism. But that joke became increasingly less relevant after the fall of the Berlin wall. And now I'm not exactly sure what the joke about communists is? "I used to be with it. But then they changed what it was. Now what I'm with isn't it, and what's it seems weird and scary."
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Jul 15, 2023 20:48
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The joke about Communists has always been making fun of 1950's Cold War paranoia (heh), while giving players the opportunity to do their best Boris and Natasha impression. Every secret society is a fairly mundane idea viewed through the lens of a 294-year-long game of Telephone. Giving any of them any sort of real influence over Alpha Complex (besides tacitly Computer-approved ones like FCCCP) just feels wrong.
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Jul 15, 2023 23:46
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Morbid and irrational fear of communists is probably more relevant in 2023 than it was when XP was the hotness. Also imo The Perfect Edition is very good, back to that delicious Alpha Complex Flavor.
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Jul 16, 2023 03:39
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But to keep the jokes 20 years out of date, the latest one worries about terrorists. There's something to be said for consistency, I suppose.
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Jul 16, 2023 04:00
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The more things change
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Jul 16, 2023 04:14
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Commie Mutant Terror Traitors
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Jul 16, 2023 04:51
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Hey you know what XP and Perfect both have that 25th Anniversary definitely doesn't? Art that I don't hate. 25th's art is bad.
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Jul 16, 2023 06:08
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I sat down and plugged away at the Paranoia FIST hack and ran into literally the exact same problem as when I sat down to do a Cortex hack: XP/25th is genuinely the perfect Paranoia engine.
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Jul 16, 2023 06:46
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Mirage posted:I just hate any edition of Paranoia that lets you buy new clones. Everything else is OK. Honestly, it works for me because it's an excuse to keep a player in the game until the very end, but raises the specter of erasure if you're not doing your level best to pay off your debt. Do your best (worst) mafioso impression and have the collection agency goons "speculate" about what terrible accidents they're going to have that won't kill them.
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Jul 16, 2023 08:02
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the only time I ever ran a game for my old group was a Stealth Train one-shot highlights included: - they really liked the HELLO MY NAME IS sticky badges that I made them replace every time they died - buying clip-on badges for MBDs is fun - use the extra badges to make a full extra set, and give one player every MBD, including team leader - nobody will ever agree on who the team leader is - my friend said I made her break out into a sweat while grilling her during the train inspection
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Jul 16, 2023 08:50
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I remember buying the book that had Stealth Train and being in literal floods of tears as I read through the scenario and realised just how much worse things were going to keep getting. "The troubleshooters stay in one place and have to deal with everything going wrong, including their own solutions to earlier problems" is my favourite setup for a mission. A few I've run in the past have been: - Guard the gates of a VIOLET's mansion on the eve of his promotion, unaware that he has killed himself several hours before the Troubleshooters arrive - Make sure that only the right guests are admitted to the most exclusive party in Alpha Complex - Stand in a corridor and ensure that the button there is pressed every fifteen minutes, real-time, no more, no less.
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Jul 20, 2023 14:22
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The only full-on published adventure I've ever run was "Me and My Shadow Mark IV," where the Troubleshooters are assigned to guard a gigantic OGRE-like warbot that obviously doesn't need guarding. I hope someday to have a group that I can run Yellow Clearance Black Box Blues for.
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Jul 20, 2023 14:55
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What are some good secret missions that aren't "Kill this other player" that people have seen?
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Jul 22, 2023 18:47
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Capfalcon posted:What are some good secret missions that aren't "Kill this other player" that people have seen? * Try to recruit them because they're supposedly sympathetic * Plant contraband of some kind on them * Take detailed notes about them on an impossible to use form * Test an experimental device on them (or get them to test one)
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Jul 22, 2023 19:00
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Capfalcon posted:What are some good secret missions that aren't "Kill this other player" that people have seen? Get them to assemble an old world artifact - something the actual character doesn’t know but the player does. Like the Sierra Club wants a leafblower recovered.
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Jul 22, 2023 19:16
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Capfalcon posted:What are some good secret missions that aren't "Kill this other player" that people have seen? *Destroy or sabotage something specific *Bait a PC or NPC into incriminating themselves *Unmask a PC or NPC as a mutant/secret society member *Never draw your laser *Leave this satchel inconspicuously near [thing] *Speak the trigger phrase for an NPC's operant conditioning but work it into conversation if possible *Prevent Player A from killing Player B (bonus points if neither player has a secret mission that involves killing another player at all). [Edit] forgot my favorite: Collect 20 kg of scrap metal and deliver it to your debriefing officer (who does not know about this secret mission). 1secondpersecond fucked around with this message at 05:34 on Jul 23, 2023 |
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Jul 23, 2023 05:28
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IMO what makes a good secret mission in Paranoia is if it directly contradicts another player's secret missions. Player A: Sierra Club says you need to protect this important tree that houses the last remaining arboreal ground squirrel nest. Player B: Death Leopard says you gotta burn that tree to the ground cuz trees suck! Player C: Illuminati says you gotta move that tree 4.5 meters to the left, do not ask questions.
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Jul 23, 2023 15:15
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Say this coded message to somebody you're going to come into contact with during this mission. No, I won't tell you who. The coded message, of course, is cumbersome and nonsensical, and contains keywords that are also meaningful to a different secret society.
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Jul 23, 2023 15:34
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Bucnasti posted:IMO what makes a good secret mission in Paranoia is if it directly contradicts another player's secret missions. I specifically select oppositional secret societies for this exact purpose. It's time for a Computer authorized Alpha Complex FunFact ™ Statistically, 97% of all briefing officers are in a secret society. One popular way these nefarious secret society members can accomplish their secret missions without putting themselves in any danger is to tack them on as unrelated secondary objectives to the actual task the Computer requested. Be ever vigilant, troubleshooters! (™ stands for 'that matters')
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Jul 23, 2023 17:46
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I didn't know about paranoia until I borrowed my friend's copy of red clearance, but I loved it immediately. I was drunk and talking about that on Saturday when I found out that pre-orders were available for perfect addition so I pre-ordered it. It was delivered today! The dice are so good! Red clearance edition had white dice with colored pips and they were ugly as gently caress. But now I have a perfect little rainbow of dice and a fun new way to torture my friends. My ongoing project has been to work out the best way to handle troubleshooters going off grid, being replaced with fresh clones, and then being pitted against themselves without realizing it. It just doesn't seem very doable. Harold Fjord fucked around with this message at 21:42 on Oct 19, 2023 |
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Oct 19, 2023 21:36
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Harold Fjord posted:My ongoing project has been to work out the best way to handle troubleshooters going off grid, being replaced with fresh clones, and then being pitted against themselves without realizing it. It just doesn't seem very doable. Have the whole team fall down a dark hole. Activate clones. Some time later, the team realizes that everything that's happening around them is due to a rogue group of Troubleshooters. Right at at the climax, hand out copies of their character sheets (with the numbers and colors of the missing group) to different players. Encourage them to play the most exaggerated, cartoonish, obnoxious versions of those characters throughout the big showdown. Ignore regular initiative and do halfsies: Players A, B, and C be themselves, players D, E, and F be the shadow versions, then switch. As long as your players don't kill each other in real life, it'll be glorious.
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Oct 19, 2023 22:35
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Mirage posted:Have the whole team fall down a dark hole. Activate clones. I really like this. Paranoia combats are easy enough to run (hey, the core rule is "make poo poo up") that you can pretty easily have players control their character and some kind of goateed mirror universe evil clone, and as long as they're on board with the core conceit of the game, there's really no dissonance in the experience to worry about either.
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Oct 20, 2023 00:27
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I love the High Programmers version of XP/Anniversary. If Friend Computer will allow the slight twisting of an old saying, (yes, I know, old sayings are treason).. "To Err is a Troubleshooter, but to really mess things up, you need a High Programmer"
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Oct 20, 2023 00:37
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There was at least one published adventure with a similar concept, one of the chapters in "Sweep of Unhistory" from Alpha Complex Nights. The PCs are memtape uploads of the characters, and at one chapter they meet themselves a decade into the future, highly promoted and heavily armed.
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Oct 20, 2023 00:43
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Is there an existing decent simple PbtA hack for one shots - or do I have to write my own?
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Nov 8, 2023 00:45
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neonchameleon posted:Is there an existing decent simple PbtA hack for one shots - or do I have to write my own? I'm not aware of one, which is shocking because it seems like it would adapt really well.
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Nov 14, 2023 18:24
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Vincent Baker released a pdf for an Apocalypse World setup suitable for running at cons World Wide Wrestling comes with a guide to running one shots
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Nov 14, 2023 18:37
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I'm trying out the new Perfect Edition rules by running a one-shot (edit: it'll be Stealth Train) with six random strangers in Barcelona this weekend. I'm pretty jazzed about the changes to initiative order relative to how they were handled in the first MGP box set; they seem tuned to lead to self-sabotage and blown rolls. Should be good for a one-shot with a silly tone, but might need some adjustment for a longer or more serious game.
1secondpersecond fucked around with this message at 15:19 on Dec 13, 2023 |
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Dec 13, 2023 10:25
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Let us know how it goes!
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Dec 14, 2023 01:44
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Golden Bee posted:Let us know how it goes! OK, so in my opinion it's a huge improvement over the "RED Edition". No more cards, better integration of secret societies, favors, etc. The new initiative system is much more intuitive and leads players to thin their pool of dice, blow rolls, and then spend Moxie to succeed, which creates a path to freakouts and infighting. It works so well that you might need to tune it down a bit if you're playing a game that's more "Strait" and less "Zap!".
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Dec 16, 2023 19:31
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I still refuse to believe that anyone actually plays straight.
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Dec 16, 2023 22:24
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Capfalcon posted:I still refuse to believe that anyone actually plays straight. My other game is a Straight campaign that's been going for 3 years. Every straight campaign eventually becomes about hunting high programmers and destroying The Computer.
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Dec 17, 2023 04:51
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I have an idea for a straight campaign where it's based on the British Misfits TV show. The role of the computer is loosely playing by probation worker gives them community helping tasks that they have to then prevent being disrupted by the power of the week without exposing the existence of powers to the world (cuz it's been established that in that timeline milk boy starts murdering everyone)
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Dec 17, 2023 19:44
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Capfalcon posted:What are some good secret missions that aren't "Kill this other player" that people have seen? One that I like to use is to give two players out of a team the mission "Player A, Player B is trying to kill you because XYZ. Stay alive." and "Player B, Player A is trying to kill you because XYZ. Stay alive." Neither one is specifically directed to kill the other, and if they ever decided to not attack or be suspicious of each other they could both succeed at their own individual missions. That is basically what never happens though, and it's my favorite part of Paranoia. You didn't tell them to do that, they decided to, and now all this complicated poo poo that has happened as a result; well now guess that's their fault isn't it? What kind of gimmicks or actions do people here like to do as a GM? I enjoy telling everyone to "roll to find out if you see anything strange" and then telling them all "You don't notice anything". Because there was nothing. Handing one person a folded up piece of paper with a message on it. The message is something like "Nothing special, just wanted to give you a message." Depending on timing and recent events this can be used for a variety of paranoia-directing or mis-directing purposes. One player was annoying me by, whenever there was an introduction or explanation of someone or something, immediately announcing they were going to shoot whatever it was before the explanation. Just immediately said "I want to shoot it". So they found a "Long abandoned door on the side of the hallway. You open the door and see dirty, disused tile walls and flooring, then some movement....." *cue player announcing they are shooting it, rolling the dice and scoring a hit* "....that movement was yourself in the bathroom mirror on the opposite wall. Roll to soak damage."
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Dec 18, 2023 19:47
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bird food bathtub posted:Handing one person a folded up piece of paper with a message on it. The message is something like "Nothing special, just wanted to give you a message." Depending on timing and recent events this can be used for a variety of paranoia-directing or mis-directing purposes. the one IRL game of Paranoia I ran I did some notepassing with players with index cards; I also had a few note cards with spam messages, the Sector Quarterly Newsletter (Mandatory Survey Inside!!), etc.
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Dec 18, 2023 20:06
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1secondpersecond posted:I'm not aware of one, which is shocking because it seems like it would adapt really well. For the record it does. But I should write down more of the system rather than having run it largely out of my head (with some new secret societies such as the Swifties) and denying the PCs access to the rules.
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Dec 20, 2023 00:12
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bird food bathtub posted:What kind of gimmicks or actions do people here like to do as a GM? My most recent game, I had four players. With one of the blank character sheets, I included a note that the character is a humanlike android with a 300 kg steel frame and skin that passes for human unless you look real close. I gave the other 3 players Frankenstein Destroyer secret society and had the settings contain a bunch of elevators and pressure panels, and I made a lot of effort to describe the effects of the much heavier character stepping on things. Took them until 3/4 through Stealth Train, when they were all already shooting at each other, but it paid off well in ongoing carnage.
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Dec 25, 2023 03:29
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