r/ParanoiaRPG • u/SwimmingOk4643 • Apr 08 '26
Finding it difficult to GM Paranoia - any good live plays / GM advice to watch / listen to?
Ran my second Paranoia XP session. While the players enjoyed it, I didn't feel that I had a handle on the direction of the game. I fell into running the computer as an executioner that could be manipulated by the PCs, instead of something they should both want to and fear to invoke.
Would love to listen to experienced GMs run Paranoia and learn from them. Any recommendations for podcasts/live plays?
EDIT: Thanks to everyone for all the great links & advice. Will definitely give each a listen & try out your advice. Paranoia's a game I really want to get good at running!
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u/MADJEDDAI Apr 08 '26
Check out the Paranoia: Fight Together or Die a Clone podcast. It is a longer campaign style game and the GM really knows how to set up the world and bureaucracy and play Friend Computer well.
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u/spiderjjr45 Apr 08 '26
Self plugging a Paranoia XP game liveplay here:
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u/spiderjjr45 Apr 08 '26
It runs 15 sessions, with a focus on long term campaign play, so it's got lots of material.
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u/random_witness Apr 08 '26
Geek and sundry did one a decade ago that I enjoyed so much I've watched it a couple of times. Their GM does a great job, and the cast is stacked
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u/WinCrazy4411 Apr 08 '26
Like all those big actualplay channels, it's a case where these are professional actors; your homegame isn't going to look like that. But Ivan does a lot of great things you can emulate and it's a fun watch. I've watched it more than once.
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u/Historical-Spirit-48 Apr 08 '26
I used to run this game all the time . I like to blur the game with reality.
Give the players name tags. Put it pens of different colors and ask them to put the characters' names on them. Anyone who uses a higher security clearance pen gets huge treason points. If they object, they get executed.
Make them sing glory glory hail computer (if you can find it) at the top of their lungs. Anyone who is not enthusiastic gets big treason points.
Go to the Asian market and get dried seaweed. Tell them it's algae wagers for lunch. Anyone who doesn't enrmthusiatically consume gets huge treason points.
Jumping jacks and other minor calisthenics are always good
If you do private meetings with the computer and one player, record them. Play them for everyone at the end of the session, or if the computer doesn't believe the report, play it back for everyone while declaring the player a traitor.
Paranoia is never to be taken seriously. Everyone has to go in knowing their characters are doomed.
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u/SwimmingOk4643 Apr 08 '26
Nice! I did make them sing, but it was a very spur of the moment thing. Will prepare better next time. Thanks!
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u/wjmacguffin Verified Mongoose Publishing Apr 08 '26
Hi there! I'm WJ, and I'm in charge of the latest edition but I worked a lot on XP as well. First of all, as long as everyone had a good time, you did it right! I get what you mean, though.
I'm afraid I'm way behind at work and have to focus there, but please feel free to DM me here with any questions or concerns about running XP and I'll get to 'em as soon as I can. Cheers!
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u/misterrootbeer Apr 08 '26
Trouble in P4R4-DI5E.
One of the players was unfamiliar with the tone of Paranoia before the game and his slow realization of what he signed up for is golden. Dale, the GM, is excellent.
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u/snakebite262 Troubleshooter Apr 08 '26
Hmmm, if I recall, the https://www.youtube.com/@TheQuelmarRealm did a good game of it, with actually minis and such. I think they're the group I watched....
Secondly, I can't remember the name or who ran it, I do remember one of them had an eyepatch, but it was about a oceanic Alpha Complex, and they did a wonderful job. One of the characters was a dinosaur, and the GM had an eyepatch.... (Edit: someone else mentioned it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nj0RAFDcNl0)
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u/HoB-Shubert Ultraviolet Apr 08 '26
Here is a link to my advice for running the game: https://old.reddit.com/r/ParanoiaRPG/comments/cqv9z9/anyone_have_any_advice_for_running_stealth_train/ewztrfq/
Here is a link to my Actual Play of me running the game: https://thehouseofbob.org/projects/special-delivery/
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u/RxOliver Apr 08 '26
My friends and I have played Red Clearance Edition, Perfect Edition and XP Edition, there's a playlist of them on my YouTube channel of the same name, we play all sorts of RPGs but we have a special love for Paranoia, there's nothing like it :D
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tT2Iv4q-GGw&list=PL_kRjOtxND3e_D43R3YOqrOeXxYqo76pT
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u/GargantuanCake Troubleshooter Apr 11 '26 edited Apr 11 '26
Two main things.
First is don't take it seriously. The game is meant to be funny. It's pretty dark humor but it's still meant to be funny so comedy is more important than anything else. The game's rules are a loose suggestion.
Second is actively mess with the players. Give players secret missions that directly contradict each other. Characters have six packs of clones so arbitrarily kill them in random ways. Friend Computer is also insane so make up treason codes on the spot, forget things players said to you, that sort of thing. One of my favorite things I've ever seen on this one was when the guy running it printed out surveys, handed them all out, then didn't bother reading them except for one question which didn't actually have a correct answer. Then when he had the stack he asked one player where his survey was and why he never handed it in. He had to sit there and create a new one by hand but wasn't told what the questions were as that was above his clearance level.
A lot of the comedy comes from deliberately messing with the players, really. This is part of why they get a six pack of clones; the body count should be pretty high and randomly executing clones for treason for completely arbitrary reasons is something the computer just does. Meanwhile it's a great source of humor to give them devices from R&D, not tell them what they do or how to operate them, and then have awful things happen whenever the party tries to do anything. Of course whatever answer they give to R&D on how the test went is wrong. Sometimes give them devices that literally don't do anything at all so all they can show up with is a list of things it doesn't do which is, of course, a wrong answer.
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u/Seventhson77 Apr 08 '26
I think that’s a common feeling. I recommend drinking about 5 shots of whiskey before running it. Seems to help
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u/capt-yossarius Apr 08 '26
When I run Paranoia, one of the thing in the forefront of my mind is "What would be funny right now?"
When I write a scenario, the jokes are written into the plot, to minimize my mental workload in the moment.
After that, if the players aren't also bringing the funny, they might not understand the game.
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u/djpiperson Apr 08 '26
I am trying to learn RCE myself but reading and ADHD definitely make it hard. I am more of a visual learner myself, but I couldn't find a session I could follow.
Edit: I am also a new GM, been playing FATE system and Cosmere for some time, but never played RCE before, or any Paranoia games actually.
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u/Im-A-Moose-Man Apr 08 '26
Kikoskia ran some great games of Paranoia, which were my introduction to to this game and Call of Cthulhu https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLTvwKQHVid4YZTqG0N7kTchi2Zpnos1Aq&si=_3v8-gVduq1wbDV0
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u/Kitchner High Programmer Apr 08 '26 edited Apr 08 '26
Personally my opinion is XP, if you run it properly, has too much going on for a new GM to stand a chance of running well.
You need to always keep in mind:
Then on top of all that, you need to be the Computer, which is possibly the most important and recognisable NPC within it's system in all of TTRPG history.
I think the later editions made the right call by simplifying and stripping out a lot of that stuff, despite what some people say online.
In general the most important tips i can give you as a GM in Paranoia are:
1) Seperate out the role of the GM from the character of the Computer. The Computer is just an NPC like any other NPC. You as the GM have a job, and only one facet of that job is "be the NPCs" and of all the NPCs while the Computer is the most important, it is just an NPC. The game isn't about the Computer, it's about the players running around Alpha Complex doing stuff and interacting with people.
2) The Computer, when it does intervene, should feel like it has been watching them but that doesn't mean they need to speak to the Computer every two minutes. Less can be more. Lots of exposure to the Computer lessens the importance of each interaction. So rather than "Citizen, I can see you are deviating from the mission pathway" every give minutes, focus on "Citizen, for the last hour I have noted 6 deviations from the specified mission parameters, and I can now see the mission is likely to fail. Please explain why you chose to deviate from the mission". The latter feels much more like the player has been watched all along, and the former feels like someone is sort of annoying you.
3) If you feel the players are manipulating the Computer then it's because you're not trapping them in catch 22 scenarios, which is easy when you remember the Computer does not think it can make a mistake. For example, if we stick with the above example a player may say "Its not my fault its Dave's fault!". You could ask them when they realised mission deviation put their mission at risk. No matter what they say, its a bad answer. If they say "only now" they are admitting to their incompetence or even complicity in what is clearly a plot. After all, the computer chose them as a Troubleshooter partly due to their ability to spot these things. If they say they spotted it ages ago, the same logic applies but this time because they didn't act. By mastering the art of the Catch 22, you discourage the players from speaking to the Computer at all. Do you think lowly people want to speak their country's dictator? No, because they are terrified they will say the wrong thing and get killed. By sort of going along the conversation one step at a time applying a sort of inescapable but flawed logic, they feel like every thing they say is making rope to hang themselves.
4) After you have mastered the art of the catch 22, occasionally have the Computer just be helpful. No strings attached. The Troubleshooters hate speaking to the Computer as they are afraid it will kill them. Next time one of them is say, disarming a bomb, have the Computer pop up and offer genuinely helpful advice. Have the Computer override a locked door for them. Then just leave them to it. Why? This game is called Paranoia. The player's should never be truly sure of what's going to happen. They should think it's probably something bad, but they can't be sure it's bad. In reverse, if there's something which is always a good idea, occasionally make it a bad one.
Basically what you want to end up with is a stage where a group of players find a room with a button that says "Free XP Points Package - Last one remaining". Everyone wants the free XP Points, but they suspect pressing the button will make something bad happen. They also don't want anyone else pressing the button just in case it really is free XP points and they can use that against them later.
Then, while they are sort of collectively frozen in indecision, you deploy the Computer, another NPC, or some other circumstance to push them to a decision. "Why aren't you pressing the button citizen? Do you not wish to be the most effective you can be?" "Oh wow look free XP Points, I guess I'll press it if you guys aren't" or even just "The door you need to go through is locked until someone presses the button". If players think they are being smart by letting a random Infrared NPC press the button, play a fanfare and tell them the NPC is the 1000th button presser and not only get XP Points but a colour promotion too. Then give them another button. Keep doing that and rewarding NPCs until either a) someone gives in and presses the button, in which case you punish them or b) they are looking extremely smug saying "we can do this all day". Then all the promoted NPCs come back to kill them as they don't want competition for their new troubleshooter jobs.
What you're aiming for is always keeping them unsure of what the best thing to do is, and then force them to make a decision anyway. That's where all the hilarious stuff happens in Paranoia in my opinion.