Official development blog for the PARANOIA roleplaying game. No description is available at your security clearance. The Computer is your friend.

Wednesday, May 09, 2007

...and now they hate me 

There's an interesting PARANOIA thread over on rpg.net. The initial poster, Haecceity (a lovely word, by the way, meaning the essential thisness of a thing)said:
At the end of it, the debriefing officer told the troubleshooters that they would recieve a 500 credit plasticred bonus for their mission. Moments after he leaves, Intsec goons escort in some poor damn bastard. Pushing a cart. With sacks of Plasticreds. Five hundred thousand, in one credit increments, for each Troubleshooter.

After the fuss died down, I asked the players what they were doing. Their answer? Reporting this to the computer and going about their daily business as if nothing had happened.

Well. That had me flummoxed. I was not expecting that.

The rest of the thread is 50% discussion of what the players want, player/GM commmunication, social contracts and so forth, and 50% PARANOIA discussion, and there are some great lines in that second 50%.

Gentrification: "If you present a hook where the smartest, safest, and easiest thing to do is ignore it, then you're going to get exactly what you'd expect. Especially in Paranoia. You really should have come up with a reason why the troubleshooters would've been more screwed by not taking the credits."

Agent Oracle: "How I would have handled it:

PLAYERS: "Friend Computer, there has been an error in transaction."

COMPUTER: "please stay on the comm line, a troubleshooter will be with you momentarily"

And then have their communicators go off. it's Alpha sector, telling them that there is a problem, exactly where they are standing, and to rectify it."

Reverend Keith: "After they walked away, why not have Friend Computer tell them that a Commie Mutant Traitor had sabotaged accounting records, and the troubleshooters were accidentally assigned 500,000cr rather than 500cr. The computer then informs them that each of them has twenty four hours to return the 499,500 credits. When the PCs head back to the briefing room, the bags are gone and the clock is ticking..."

ShannonA: "You'd practically have to be a communist just to leave money behind like that.

Perhaps the next batch of clones would have been more responsive."

What would you do if your planned (ha!) mission involved the Troubleshooters being given 500,000 credits, and they ignore the hook?
Posted by: Gareth Hanrahan / 7:15 AM

Comments:
What would I do?


The Next Day...
Friend Computer: ATTENTION TROUBLESHOOTER TEAM XR28937! INTERNAL SECURITY AND PLC JOINTLY REPORT AN UNAUTHORIZED INCREASE IN EXPENDITURES AMONG INFRARED AND RED CLEARANCE CITIZENS IN BOTH LICENSED PLC OUTLETS AND IN TREASONOUS EXCHANGES IN SECTOR XJN. PROCEED IMMEDIATELY TO SECTOR XJN, DETERMINE WHO IS FINANCING THIS INSUBORDINATE MANIPULATION OF THE COMPCONOMY, AND REPORT THEM TO INTERNAL SECURITY IMMEDIATELY.

And all of the clones spending all of this money say they "just found it lying around"...
# posted by Anonymous Pad-R-AIC : May 24, 2007 7:51 AM
 
At least two players are shortly thereafter contacted by their secret societies, who want them to appropriate the money for some sort of operation. The IntSec officer is told this is a loyalty exercise and is asked to urge the player group to cover up the mistake. HPD&MC is running a 'reality vid show' to see what the players do, and the ratings better stay high. A UV High Programmer is enacting a transaction for this Fridaycycle's poker game, and the players just intercepted it... oops. As far as The Computer is concerned, having no interest in money is a good sign that you're probably a red Commie.
# posted by Blogger boylegd : June 06, 2007 3:49 AM
 
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