Roleplaying Systems

[Allan53]

What sort of role-playing systems (if any) do people like to use in their tabletop gaming groups? I personally mostly play nWoD (hoping to give Classic a spin with this group at some point, since I think it's a lot better in some ways, if weaker in others), but also some D&D 3.5 and I'm running a Mistborn RPG starting in a few days.

[sunnyside]

I don't have the free time for tabletop anymore.

I've done some Shadowrun by forum before starting here with homebrew systems. For something different I'd like to try Paranoia.,

[Allan53]

I've heard...things about Paranoia. Frankly I'm reluctant to try it, because it sounds very much like a game that punishes trying to be creative or think outside the box. I'd like the dystopian setting, but really unrelenting and unforgiving oppression with no chance of avoiding or improving the situation? That sounds just frustrating to me.

That said, I've never played it.

[sunnyside]

Well, the first thing you need to know about Paranoia is that it's meant to be funny. Gallows/dark humor a bit, but humor. Slapstick and pop culture jokes too. Really it's quite unrelenting with the puns, probably to keep you from forgetting the nature of the game.

I'd say the game is actually one of the best for encouraging creative out-side-the box thinking and encouraging the use of a quick wit. In most games you can plod through the campaign best by staying on the rails and stabbing whatever needs stabbed. Generally the encounters and whatnot are geared so that the party is expected to be able to defeat them. Anything clever you do is just a bonus.

In Paranoia trying that will get you killed for sure and lead to failure of the mission. Of course there's a pretty good chance you'll fail the mission anyway, or that actually completing the mission is even more treasonus and likely to get you executed than failing to complete it, but if you're clever you can realize that it's better to fail deliberately, and manage to pin the blame on one of the other players because they disobeyed your directives as hygene officer for the mission. That works better if said players character accidentally feel into a vat of acid shortly thereafter...along with the rest of the team except for you. And then you get promonted and will lead the clones of the other characters on the next mission. And you already suspect you'll have to write them up for excessive scowling. Also their players keep passing the GM notes on folded up sheets of paper.... maybe you ought to encourage The Computer to sign the group up for some nifty new devices from R&D that they could "test".

And that gives you a bit of the flavor of why it's called "Paranoia".

Really it's best for the sort of group that has been there and slain that. Those who have enchanted swords lost in the couch cushions back home and keep mixing up the names of the princesses they've saved. Or maybe just some people that really liked the humor in Portal.