Paranoia Ruleset

[Andeee]

I would dearly love to create a Paranoia ruleset, despite the fact I haven't played it in years. The only problems are, that I'm new to FG, have zero xml experience and don't know what I'm doing.

Is this then, a bad idea? How much free time would I need?

Cheers
Andeee

[PneumaPilot]

I would just recommend taking something easy like the adventure_npc.xml file (that's the NPC window) and start playing with some of the numbers to watch how controls move around. Start with the stuff you can understand - like the size and location numbers - and slowly work your way up to more difficult concepts (like scripting). I think that anyone can do it if they have patience. It also helps if you really plan to use it. I know that in the development of my ruleset (the nWoD one) that the fact that I have to play with five other guys every Thursday keeps me tweaking when I might otherwise have stopped.

[mr_h]

Paranoia would be an awesome ruleset to have. I echo Pilots comment, that's how I did my first ruleset. It's mostly trial and error. Concentrate on the character sheet first...that's really what you HAVE to have to play the game....

[PneumaPilot]

It wood be cool to have a trainer for noobs that would have a mostly blank character sheet with one of each of the most simple controls. They could change things, type "/reload" and watch the effects. The character sheet that comes standard in the D20 set is so complex that I was scared to delete anything at first because I thought it might cause a massive crash.

[Oberoten]

Hmm... There is a Generic basic ruleset here somewhere on the forums.

I'll add it to the Wiki

[Andeee]

Cheers Oberoten. I'll take a look. Well, if people are interested, I'm prepared to give it a go. I don't have a gaming group at all at the moment, but I've seen Paranoia mentioned a number of times in the forums. Actually I haven't played in years, hence FG.

[Brenn]

Wasn't there a new version of Paranoia that came out? Was it d20?

[Griogre]

A d20 version of Paranoia was released. I only played the original version myself though.

[Doswelk]

Wasn't there a new version of Paranoia that came out? Was it d20?
It used a d20 (I think) but it was not d20! (as in not a OGL game)

Not actually played Paranoia XP was very tempted to buy it just to have a Paranoia rulebook again (my 2nd edition book fell apart due to too much abuse!)

[Oberoten]

Gods... I *MISS* my Paranoia books. I made the misstake of uping and leaving with the ex and hence a LOT of my RPG material got left behind.

I was a Jhonny come lately to it though... 2nd edition. I just might have to run a Paranoia-game again someday.

- Obe

[Griogre]

It used a d20 (I think) but it was not d20! (as in not a OGL game)

Not actually played Paranoia XP was very tempted to buy it just to have a Paranoia rulebook again (my 2nd edition book fell apart due to too much abuse!)
Ah. That could be true. I only saw mention of a d20 and assumed. :p Man that was one very funny game. I ran a campaign for quite a while in college - I lost my voice running the game once. :) To actually get a campaign out of it I dialed back the lethality of it a notch, after all the toubleshooters are also part of The Computer's valuable property, so I made them do a better job of justifying killing each other - they need *some* proof or at least a good story. :D One of the funniest things about the campaign for me was I made them fill in after action reports for each character - some of the those were the most hilarious things to read as they tried to tell friend Computer what had happened and just how *trustworthy* the other troubleshooters were as well as justifying breakage of any of The Computer’s valuable property. I would start laughing out loud as I read the reports behind the screen which seemed to make many of the players very nervous. ;)

[Brenn]

Yeah Paranoia had me in tears more than once. Damn that was a long time ago...

[Doswelk]

Two memories that spring to mind (2nd edition Paranoia)....

In a big fight some commie-mutant-traitors were fighting with the party (HIL-Sector Blues), they were at the top of the stairs, and the PCs were at the bottom, so a player threw a hand-grenade, up the stairs, and missed, and then the party watched the grenade bounce back down the stairs and land at their feet.....

The other was when the R&D sector successfully created (i.e. they really did work!) some Thermo-Nuclear hand grenades (as I said they did actually work, but you needed to be able to throw one at least 30 miles to escape the blast!), anyhow party was fight Ram-B-eau (mutant that was immune to all weapons), so the PCs were getting through clones at a rapid rate, in the end one PC a registered mutant, teleported behind Ram-B-eau, and triggered a Thermo-Nuclear Hand Grenade!

Now these beasties did level 20 damage (or whaterver it was called), basically on a 2-20 target is vapourised on a 1 they merely die!

I had to laugh as every PC and half of Alpha Complex were vapourised, Ram-B-eau suffered a slight sun tan and the PC would triggered the grenade rolled a 1!

[Griogre]

I have a similar story. I ran a scenario where there was a real Communist Uprising in USR Sector against Friend Computer. I started the scenario with a loudspeaker announcement for all Internal Security personal of Yellow level or lower to report immediately to the USR Access Elevator. Five minutes later the Computer ordered all Armed Forces Personnel in the sector the PCs were in of Green Level or lower to report immediately to the USR Access Elevator. Five minutes later there was a call for all available troubleshooters of Blue level or lower to report to the USR Access Elevator which got the PC troubleshooters involved.

Arriving at the access elevator lobby, the troubleshooters found a frightened and furious Violet level R&D female in charge of the operation, backed by an Indigo level IntSec officer and an Indigo level Armed Forces commander. The lobby is full of and surrounded by a sea of Infrared IntSec and Armed Forces personnel. The IntSec officer was reminding the Violet that Friend Computer was expecting another update in 10 minutes. Recognizing the PCs as a group of reasonably high level troubleshooters (the highest level PC was Blue), the Armed Forces Commander reminded the Violet that she had advised mass wave assaults by infrared troopers against a fixed defense had a low probability of succeeding anytime soon. However, led by a small well trained team of troubleshooters with the clearance to carry heavy weapons - and backed by her troops there was a much better chance.

And look, Friend Computer, had wisely sent such a team to them. Naturally, the Armed Forces were ready to support such an operation seeing how IntSec had already failed to detect and stop the commie traitors from uprising in USR sector. Spotting the troubleshooters, the Violet agreed. But, she said that conventional weapons had failed up to now. Obviously, the troubleshooters were going to need the very best weapons R&D had available in this sector. She then called the local R&D labs and told them to outfit the troubleshooters with heavy weapons of Violet level or lower. When the man in charge of the lab mentioned it would take time to fill out the authorization paperwork, the Violet had him summary executed as a communist sympathizer. She then told the new leader of the labs that if the troubleshooters were not outfitted in 5 minutes after their arrival at the labs, the new leader was to report to the termination chamber for immediate termination - on the other hand if the lab leader got the troubleshooters outfitted in 2 minutes or less he would be immediately promoted.

The Violet then ordered the troubleshooters to the labs to pick up their equipment and told them to be back here ASAP. When the troubleshooters arrived at R&D, they had a large amount of weaponry shoved into their hands, were given command of three bots and were immediately shoved back out the door of the labs. One of the bots was a floating coffin looking thing, the other was a large missile on a chassis and the final one had a spherical body on tank treads. There was a rather funny scene where the PC troubleshooters spent a bit of time yelling through the door trying to get R&D to tell them what the weaponry and bots did – but then the leader decided they should stop wasting time and they ran to a nearby Armed Forces armory and each checked out some more conventional heavy weapons of their own clearances.

The group of troubleshooters arrived back at the elevator in time to hear the Violet giving a report to Friend Computer about the upcoming assault. There were three large elevators, the troubleshooters were to go down in the middle one. While they were gone, apparently the IntSec officer had convinced the Violet to send IntSec troopers down for the assault instead of the Armed Forces ones. So the other two elevators were crammed full of IntSec troops to help the troubleshooters in their assault. One squad of IntSec also was to go down in the PC’s elevator.

The troubleshooters and the IntSec Infrareds were getting into their elevators when the lobby was attacked by real communist sympathizers. The IntSec Indigo died in the first volley of shots. The Armed Forces troops returned fire and when the troubleshooters hesitated, the Armed Forces commander told the troubleshooters and IntSec troopers to GO, GO, GO!
The troubleshooter leader hit the close door and down they went. As soon as the doors were closed the troubleshooters promptly ordered the IntSec squad with them to arm themselves with most of the R&D heavy weapons they had been given. :D

The troubleshooter’s elevator was the second to arrive. The first elevator was taking heavy casualties and the floor of the lower lobby was covered with clone bodies. One of the troubleshooters was pretty sure he could fire the missile bot but the back blast would probably be lethal if they couldn’t get it and them out of the elevator. Thus the troubleshooters charged out of the elevator along with the IntSec Squad.

There was a barricade across the corridor leading from the elevator lobby and the Commies had mounted up two heavy anti personnel weapons on top. The barricade was manned with a ton of Commies with good weapons. The incoming fire was murderous – I don’t think a single IntSec trooper got out alive from the 3rd elevator. One of the troubleshooters got the missile bot out of the elevator and aimed, but the coffin bot didn’t move very fast. Getting desperate, they finally just shot the missile anyway. The back wash knocked out the coffin bot but the troubleshooter actually got a great shot off with the missile and blew up half the barricade and took out one of the mounted weapons.

They still could not figure out what the spherical bot did, but they had got it to roll out of the elevator in front of them so they were using it for mobile cover. Things were actually was starting to look like they had a chance of success, some of the R&D weapons actually seemed effective, though several more IntSec troops were vaporized trying to use the others. Some of the IntSec troops out of the first elevator were still alive and they managed to thin out the remaining Commies on top of the barricade. The real problem was the communist’s last mounted heavy weapon. They just couldn’t knock it out and it began to kill one troubleshooter after another. Eventually there weren’t any Commies left on top of the barricade, but by then were where only a couple of trouble shooters left and a handful of IntSec troopers.

The highest ranking troubleshooter left decided to pull back with the good weapons into the elevators and go up and get more of the Arm Forces troopers and make another assault immediately. He was wounded, but didn’t want to leave the last bot just sitting there, so he screamed out at it to “DO SOMETHING!”

The number 15 appeared on the side of the bot. Then that vanished and was replaced by a 14. Unfreezing, the other surviving troubleshooter hits the elevator close door button and then the up button. I counted down for them – 13, 12, 11, 10, 9, 8, 5 – the elevator slows and stops with a jerk in the access lobby. Open door, hit the Open door button yells one player. 4, 3, the doors open. Dive out yells the other player… 2… “Close the door and run!”, said the first player. 1, 0… the ground shakes with the force of a tremendous explosion. :)

And yes it was a nuclear explosion. I pretty sure one of the remaining troubleshooters even survived, and that was how the Commies of USR sector were defeated, LOL, with a nuclear bomb bot.