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| Allen Varney |
 Posted: Fri Jun 10, 2005 6:06 pm Post subject: |
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Gamma Very High Programmer
Joined: 22 Feb 2004
Posts: 1083
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| * Deadlines are really more of a suggestion than anything else. |
Five treason points for Biggles! |
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| M-III |
| Posted: Sun Jun 12, 2005 9:44 pm Post subject: |
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ORANGE
Joined: 14 May 2005
Posts: 24
Service Group: Power Services
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| On a rudementry level it defenatly teaches the colour sprectrum, and probably with the concept of not taking games so seriously and being able to lose. |
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| Setec Astronomy |
| Posted: Sun Jun 12, 2005 10:00 pm Post subject: |
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RED
Joined: 23 Apr 2005
Posts: 105
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It teaches not to take everything at face vaule. It teaches you to actively look for lies. It teaches you to keep secrets.
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My Socrates Note |
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| Lord Matthius |
| Posted: Mon Jun 13, 2005 12:52 pm Post subject: |
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YELLOW
Joined: 25 Sep 2004
Posts: 644
Service Group: R&D
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Lateral thinking is what it teaches. To use anything that is handy in unlikely ways. It's like the RPG equivilant of Monkey Island 
_________________
It's amazing how many clones you go through when B3 is around.
Name : Maph-Y-USS-5
Works in : PLN sector R&D.
Times interrogated : 4
Status : Wandering around, 3 feet tall.
Wearing : A lab jacket. And little else. |
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| Adam-R-LON-1 |
| Posted: Mon Jun 13, 2005 2:13 pm Post subject: |
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INDIGO
Joined: 23 Aug 2004
Posts: 3852
Service Group: HPD&MC
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Fast thinking, too. Spurious logic. Improvisation.
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For the Glory of Friend Computer! |
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| Aratos |
| Posted: Mon Jun 13, 2005 2:17 pm Post subject: |
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BLUE
Joined: 06 Aug 2004
Posts: 4622
Service Group: Power Services
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| bootlicking, comic timing, the fact that setting wight dragons and Lichs in fountains on D&D players isn't as evil as you thought.. |
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| Bee-R-CAN |
| Posted: Mon Jun 13, 2005 2:39 pm Post subject: |
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ORANGE
Joined: 21 Mar 2005
Posts: 2665
Service Group: R&D
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That power corrupts, even if you don't notice it doing so. And absolute power corrupts absolutely.
That all government models, taken to extremes, become unviable. Except for weird ones like feudalism and democracy.
You were expecting a better joke? Very well then: Two cans of B3 are sitting in a vendobot. One says to the other, "Gee, it sure is cold in here, huh?" and the other B3 can says, "Waaah! A talking B3 can!".
Thank you, I'll be here all week.
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Werewolf/Mafia/With Hunt game! Starting in the PBEM area! Linky! |
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| El-R-KIN |
| Posted: Wed Jun 15, 2005 5:03 pm Post subject: |
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YELLOW
Joined: 17 Dec 2003
Posts: 458
Service Group: HPD&MC
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In my opinion, at least as a person with much more GMing than playing experience, I can say it taught me awareness. I'm not talking about the big issue of how any government could be dragged into totalitarism. That I already know. I'm talking about the smaller details.
I, personally, don't like using prewritten missions. I work best with original material, and more specifically, one which I draw from my immediate surroundings. Because, really, Paranoia is a satire. Alpha Complex doesn't work on its own twisted logic - it runs on the same twisted logic as our own world. Finding manifestations of this twisted logic in our everyday life and translating them into Alpha Complex language is what makes a good Paranoia game.
I'll bring a small example. A little while ago, I thought of strapping a troubleshooter to a wheelchair for a service service, and making the others fill out reports on handicap accessibility. So, looking for stunts to pool on my players, I started noticing common accessibility issues. I noticed how often does a flight of stairs lead to a barely-functional elevator which is supposed to serve the handicapped. I noticed how often does the slope of wheelchair ramps (when they exist) is bordering on verticality. I noticed how a heavy iron chain is blocking the entrance of wheelchairs to Social Security, where the disablity grants are given. My players, needless to say, encountered extreme versions of these common obstacles during their mission.
Of course, they all laughed allheartedly as the poor wheelchair clone fell down another flight of stairs, when he couldn't get into the narrow elevator or scale the vertical ramps, or when, at the end of the mission, he discovered that he had to climb some more stairs before he could return the wheelchair to HPD&MC.
This one, I believe, was more of a learning expereince to the GM than it was to the players (though it would be nice if the they indeed remember it when they go up a flight of stairs), but I do believe Paranoia really is more educational than people tend to think. Look at registered mutants, for example. In what other RPG situation could you get the little bigot out of your players, get them to conjure the darkest form of prejudice and xenophobia, and at the same time know that they are completely aware of the sheer absurdity of it all, as with a registered mutant teammate in Paranoia?
Paranoia, of course, is not about awareness or education as much as it is about having fun. I don' t want my games to turn into Berthold Brecht: The RPG. Still, I say it teaches you more than your average RPG.
Oh, yeah. And my few experiences as a player did, as mentioned by others, teach me to scheme, backstab, betray and lie convincingly. Not that I used this knowledge in real life. 
_________________
Clone number: 1
Status: Doing some final arrangements to the shootings of the new season of Teela-O-MLY. |
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| Mesh-U-GNA-6 |
| Posted: Thu Jun 16, 2005 8:29 pm Post subject: |
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ORANGE
Joined: 24 Mar 2005
Posts: 23
Service Group: Internal Security
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Things PARANOIA teaches. Hmmm.
It teaches:
Good sportsmanship: The ability to "lose" not only gracefully, but ENTERTAININGLY, such that the other players have as good a time as you.
Critical Thinking: Much like such games as Illuminati, Diplomacy, Kingmaker (etc etc ad nauseum), the PARANOIA environment requires you to critically consider everything, from information you get from the environment (GM) to advice you recieve from friends. Instead of teaching distrust, it teaches you to always establish your own opinion, rather than to accept that of another person.
Creativity and improvisation: Almost every problem players run into in PARANOIA cannot be resolved in a linear fashion, and yet nearly every group of players DOES find a way around, over or through each obstacle they are presented with. Creative ways.
Social lessons: Much like George Orwell, and other dystopian authors, PARANOIA teaches, via negative example, the importance of freedom and liberty, and the dangers of allowing political authority and social control to run rampant.
Just my 2 cents worth... |
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| Allon |
| Posted: Fri Jun 17, 2005 3:13 pm Post subject: |
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ORANGE
Joined: 13 Jan 2005
Posts: 57
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*Your friends really aren't the goody-two-shoes, take-one-for-the-team, laid back, nice guys you thought they were.
*ALWAYS keep your laser handy. |
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| Zathril |
| Posted: Fri Jun 17, 2005 3:20 pm Post subject: |
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ORANGE
Joined: 06 Sep 2004
Posts: 673
Service Group: CPU
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| NekoAbyss |
| Posted: Fri Jun 17, 2005 3:22 pm Post subject: |
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GREEN
 
Joined: 14 Jun 2005
Posts: 1207
Service Group: R&D
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Always check what you are eating before you eat it. Don't want it to explode or anything.
_________________
IC notes:
Fullname: NekoAbyss-Y/G-KAT-4
Status: Umm...?
Equipped: YELLOW Jumpsuit, RED lab coat
Mutation: Fireproofness |
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| Vatman22 |
| Posted: Sun Jun 26, 2005 2:41 am Post subject: |
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GREEN
Joined: 16 Feb 2005
Posts: 127
Service Group: Internal Security
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| El-R-KIN wrote: |
| Finding manifestations of this twisted logic in our everyday life and translating them into Alpha Complex language is what makes a good Paranoia game. |
I don't get to play anything, but I've picked up that too. I frequently find myself looking around for new tricks to throw at Troubleshooters and the local university provides me with a seemingly endless supply of nonsensical red tape. Paranoia has definitely sharpened my ability to pick out idiocy and responsibility-ducking among bureaucrats.
Other people have already listed what else I'd say - creativity, lying, backstabbing, scheming. Scheming and lying in-game can help the players spot similar behavior in the real world, whether it's one of TV's talking heads or a local type trying to pull a fast one.
Paranoia also shows the face of humanity when its members are backed into a corner. They have to choose between survival and ideology. Most people will pick survival while rationalizing their ideological betrayal into some debased version that helps them sleep at night. This is useful just as general knowledge - it helps explain a lot in terms of why politicians act like they do, for one thing. This isn't exactly the best conversation piece one gets out of Paranoia, but it ties in with the importance of dystopianism.
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"Heads don't USUALLY explode for no reason."
-Friend Computer NugoWis #224. |
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| Burg-R-KNG-1 |
| Posted: Sun Jun 26, 2005 2:49 am Post subject: |
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YELLOW
Joined: 13 Mar 2005
Posts: 566
Service Group: Technical Services
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| Vatman22 wrote: |
| creativity, lying, backstabbing, scheming. |
Playing Paranoia is just as effective as going to Law School and becoming a Lawyer the old-fashioned way!
_________________
IC notes
Works at: PLN Sector Technical Services Brigade
Clone Number: 1
Location: Roaming the complex, citizen. |
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| Doublethink |
| Posted: Thu Aug 18, 2005 4:37 am Post subject: |
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ORANGE
Joined: 09 Dec 2004
Posts: 245
Service Group: Internal Security
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It teaches you how to cover your ass. Scapegoating, boot-licking, misdirection; all valuable skills.
_________________
IC Info
Full name: Doublethink-O-FBI-1
Job: Intsec constable
Current appearance: ORANGE jumpsuit and boots. Dead mutant stickers. Small scorch wound on left calf. |
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