Paranoia-Live :: View topic

Allen Varney · Posted: Fri Jun 11, 2004 6:37 am Post subject:

Unprompted and on my own initiative, I have proposed the following PARANOIA-specific style notes to Mongoose in hopes they will append them to their existing company style guide. They haven't responded directly, but I understand second-hand they have begun sending these guidelines to prospective writers.

I wrote the PARANOIA rulebook with most of these style notes in mind, and have decided others since completing the manuscript. I hope future writers will follow these notes in the support line for the sake of consistency.

I share them here to alert potential PARANOIA writers to my personal biases, and to prevent and/or start arguments.

*****
PARANOIA line style notes
[Draft 1.6 -- February 10, 2005 -- A. Varney]

LINE STYLE
The PARANOIA line, unlike other Mongoose books, uses American spelling. However, quotations use single-quote marks (') in British fashion, not double quotes ("). Mongoose doesn't use the serial comma.

Unlike other Mongoose lines, the PARANOIA line can address the reader directly in a witty, breezy manner: 'We shouldn't say this, being Famous Game Designers and all, but you can just junk all this stuff and use your own ideas.' Use the editorial 'we.'

Use he, him, his, for the generic third-person pronoun.

Avoid passive voice when you can.

You can say 'hell' and 'damn' for specific comic effects. 'Ass' and 'snot' are iffy. Don't get more vulgar, obscene or profane than that.

GAME MECHANICS
In any given game situation, encourage the Gamemaster to call for or make lots of die rolls, often hidden rolls, and then to cheerfully ignore or replace the result to support his intent for the scene. Always represent instructions as guidance, intended to stimulate the GM's own imagination.

The PARANOIA XP rules replace conventional charts of die-roll modifiers with a 'General Perversity Modifier' system. When the Gamemaster allows it, players may spend Perversity points to collectively determine a modifier to a die roll; then the GM retroactively interprets in-game situations to account for the modifier.
Don't describe a given circumstance as imposing a fixed modifier. Rather, list a variety of funny circumstances that could individually account for portions of the final Perversity modifier. Follow the example of the Perversity modifier charts in Chapters 24 and 30 of the rulebook.

Numerical ability scores are called 'ratings.' Players have attributes (Power and Access), skills (Management, Stealth, Violence, Hardware, Software, Wetware), common and narrow specialties within those skills, and Secret skills (categorized as Uncommon, Unlikely and Unhealthy). Chapter 3 of the rulebook lists the common specialties. You may invent new common specialties as needed, especially to assign to pregenerated player characters; include a sidebar in the text explaining the new specialty.
Assume players will invent their own narrow specialties on the fly throughout a mission. Invented narrow specialties (for instance, 'Get My Boss to Sign Forms Without Reading Them') offer easy and funny way characterization, so create and assign them generously in your NPC writeups.

Assume the Gamemaster makes all attribute rolls (Power and Access) in secret, hidden from the players. Players don't know their attribute ratings nor how many points their actions drain.

Note: The Stealth specialty High Alert doesn't mean 'danger sense' or 'especially perceptive.' A character with High Alert is well informed about popular scams and traps, and can recognize one when someone tries it on him. The rules intentionally omit danger-sense specialties. Certain mutant powers like Hypersenses cover some of that function, but in general, assume perception comes down to a simple Stealth roll.

CHARACTER STATS: LONG FORMAT
Mission writeups can present character statistics in two formats. Long format, a two-column format, is generally reserved for pregenerated player characters. Such a character has 'public' (non-treasonous) statistics in one column, and secret statistics, background, current secret society mission and possessions in the second column.

A published mission usually offers six pregenerated PCs, fitting three on a page. The page's obverse shows the public columns of the three PCs left-to-right, #1-2-3; the reverse prints the same three characters' secret columns right-to-left, #3-2-1. The Gamemaster can cut the sheet into thirds vertically, so each third offers one character's public and secret columns, front-and-back.

For long format writeups, follow the six pregenerated character examples presented in the 'Mister Bubbles' mission in the PARANOIA XP rulebook.

CHARACTER STATS: SHORT FORMAT

In presenting NPC and other game statistics in a mission you'll almost always use short format. Present short-format statistics in a sidebar to your main text. Place each sidebar in the text near the first point where those statistics become important. Alternately, in a short chapter, place all statistics needed for that chapter in one sidebar near the chapter's beginning.

Short-format character entries follow this format:

Character name, position or narrative function; service group, secret society, mutant power (Power rating); pertinent skills or specialties in Name X format, where X is the rating; first weapon (statistics in parentheses after the weapon name), second weapon (statistics), third weapon, etc.; armor (statistics in parentheses). Ratings below 10 should be presented with an initial zero: 03, 09, etc. Armor ratings are either an unadorned numeral representing universal protection against all kinds of attacks -- Combat suit (4) -- or one or more specific types of protection designated by an initial (B = bio, E = energy, I = impact) -- for instance, Kevlar (I3). If the armor offers different protection against different attacks, separate the types by a slash: Gauss suit (E2/I1).

If the statistics include skill ratings, list the skills in this order: Management, Stealth, Violence, Hardware, Software, Wetware, Uncommon, Unlikely, Unhealthy. List specialties immediately following their governing skill. You needn't list skills that are unimportant to the character's narrative role. Include notes as needed either as a paragraph of text, asterisked footnotes or both. For example:

Lennox-B-DON-5, IntSec Agent; IntSec, Humanists, Bureaucratic Intuition (12); Quote Obscure Regulations 15, Moxie 12, Stealth 09, Shadowing 13, Suggestion 13, High Alert 11, Violence 09, Energy Weapons 13, Field Weapons 12, Thrown Weapons 10; laser pistol (W3K), tangler (entangling), ECM grenade* (H2J); X-317B full combat armor (4)
* Effect of grenade is as per slugthrower ECM ammunition.
Lennox-B-DON is an IntSec agent's IntSec agent. So says his commander, though no one is quite sure what that means.

This example includes the invented narrow Management specialty Quote Obscure Regulations; the designer considered it irrelevant to list the Management skill rating itself. Note, though, the listing includes both the Stealth skill and the common Stealth specialty Shadowing, on the assumption both ratings will prove important in play; ditto Violence and the three Violence specialties.

TERMS OF USE
'Alpha Complex' always, never 'Alpha' alone. 'The complex' is permissible. Never use the possessive form, 'Alpha Complex's.'

In game text addressed to the Gamemaster, generally refer to 'The Computer' and not 'Friend Computer' except for specific comic effect. Never 'FC.' Characters in dialogue can use 'Friend Computer.' The Computer is referred to as 'it,' lower case, not 'It' (capitalized) or 'he.' EXCEPTION: In text and dialogue attributed to the FCCC-P secret society, capitalize 'It' in reference to The Computer, their deity.

Do not characterize The Computer as an "electronic life form" or anything along those lines. We're not saying it isn't; we just don't want to go there.

Communists, traitors and enemies of Alpha Complex aren't "evil." No one thinks of them as "evil." They are misguided, and with proper education, brainscrubs, and perhaps multiple terminations will inevitably perceive the wisdom of befriending The Computer. "Evil" as such doesn't really exist as a concept in Alpha Complex, except in the FCCC-P and other fanatic secret societies.

'Mission' always, never 'scenario' or 'adventure.' 'Bot,' not 'robot.' (Yes, it means 'bottom' in British slang, but rather than conform, we would prefer to see British slang change.) By the way, it's 'scrubot,' not 'ScrubBot.'

All bots are always 'it,' not 'he' or 'she.'

Write character names in full on first use (Ben-R-GOX-1) and, in general, shorten to name and security initial thereafter (Ben-R). Never use the name without the security clearance initial. Even spoken dialogue always includes the initial: 'Ben-R,' not just 'Ben.'

There are titles and honorifics in Alpha Complex, but they are not commonly used in conversation. In talking to IntSec officer Dave-G-BHR-3, you could say 'Officer,' but it's more common to call him 'Dave-G.' (After all, you're all friends. Everyone in Alpha Complex is friends with everyone else!) In the unlikely event you need to refer to Old Reckoning titles and forms of address, follow the Chicago Manual of Style regarding capitalization.

Use "citizen" to refer to a person, not "clone" just to be jocular. Use "clone" specifically to refer to a clone backup or clone replacement. Characters in dialogue can use "clone" as a generic "guy" slang term ("Listen, you stupid clone --").

The first- and second-edition terms 'pre-Oops,' 'MegaWhoops' and so on are deprecated. Use 'Old Reckoning' instead. In the terminology of world-shattering catastrophes, generally avoid frivolity except for specific satiric effect.

Use 'Personal Digital Companion' or 'PDC,' not 'cellphone' or 'mobile phone.' The rulebook is in error here.

'Teela O'Malley' is the by-name for Tella-O-MLY. Note: 'Tella-O,' not 'Teela-O,' though this is ignored so often the distinction is mere pedantry.

NUMBERS AND DATES
Write out numbers up to ten; use numerals for 11 and up. EXCEPTIONS: Use numerals for all numbers referring to die roll results, prices or in-game quantities: 'margin of 3,' 'spend 5 Perversity.' Secret society degrees are always numerals.

For four-digit numbers and above, use comma separators: 2,400. In prices expressed in credits, no space between the numeral and the 'cr' abbreviation: 3cr, 3,000cr.

This is Year 214 of The Computer. Months are numbered 01 through 12, days 01 through 30. Weekday names are Oneday, Twosday, Threeday, Fourday, Fiveday, Sixday and Mandatory Inspection Day (alternately 'Sevenday'). Dates are in Year.Month.Day format, with Month and Day in two-digit form: 214.06.09. Generally use 'year,' 'month,' 'day' rather than 'yearcycle,' 'monthcycle,' 'daycycle' unless for a specific comic effect. Don't use the 'cycle' suffix for intervals shorter than a day.

Try not to name specific dates from Old Reckoning times. If necessary, write them in North American format as Month-Day-Year: July 13, 2004 or 7/13/2004. Always write all four digits of the year. The first- and second-edition terms 'pre-Whoops,' 'MegaWhoops,' et al are deprecated.

Don't use Roman numerals, which are an artifact of decadent and corrupt Old Reckoning times. Example: 'Mark 4,' not 'Mark IV.'

CAPITALIZATION
'PARANOIA' in ALL CAPS when referring to the game, in italicized boldface. Other game names in title case, italicized.

Headers and subheads in sentence case.

'The Computer,' both 'The' and 'Computer' always capitalized. Put 'citizen' in lower-case, except when using it as a title: 'Citizen Ben-R.' Put 'security clearance' in lowercase except when referring to a specific color clearance: 'His security clearance is Clearance GREEN.' Color clearance names in ALL CAPS: 'GREEN goon.'

Put 'sector' in lower-case except when referring to a specific sector: 'JKL Sector.'

Play style, attribute, skill, specialty, mutant power, service group, service firm and secret society names are capitalized.

Weapon and armor names, insanity conditions, most bot names and most drug names are lowercase. (The rulebook mistakenly capitalizes several drug names.) Damage steps and treason damage steps are lowercase (wounded, snafued, termination). Equipment names don't follow a uniform style; follow the published examples, or use judgment.

'Mandatory Bonus Duty' is capitalized, but individual MBD duties are lowercase (loyalty officer, happiness officer).

Some specific terms of used, in alphabetical order:

YELLOW Clearance Black Box Blues, The

DESIGNER PREFERENCES (optional)
The preceding style points are mandatory. In addition, I, Allen Varney, PARANOIA XP's principal writer, wish to advance my personal preferences, which you may follow or disregard according to your own (and Mongoose's) inclinations. In order of importance:

1. Always remember: satire, not parody!

2. Avoid routine by-the-numbers gags, such as appending 'cycle' to any time unit or substituting 'clone' for 'citizen.' Avoid stale formulaic gags along the lines of West End's infinitely repeated Mister Rogers cliche: 'Can you say "deathtrap"? We knew you could.' (Exceptions: It is permissible to keep rehashing the 'Famous Game Designers' and 'other (non-fun) games' gags until they are not only stale, but positively dead and rotting. Some traditions we must keep up.)
Be cautious in repeating pop-culture humor. I've known people whose sole idea of humor is to recite famous lines from Monty Python sketches. I don't mean using these lines in creative ways to enhance their own wit, but just repeating the lines verbatim. Those people have no actual wit; they're only borrowing it.
The PARANOIA line needs humor, not a simulation of humor. If you think your prose is funnier because you quote the Dead Parrot sketch, or say 'minutecycle' instead of 'minute,' or prefix common nouns with 'synthe-,' think again.

3. Pay particular attention to Chapter 17 of the rulebook, 'The Computer.' The Computer means well. It is not actively trying to kill the Troubleshooters. It genuinely wants them to succeed. The trouble is, it's totally nuts.

4. Try to support a broader range of play experiences than just the familiar slapstick. Do not force jocularity in the manner of the latter West End line. In general, aim to portray satirical situations in a witty but fairly straightforward way; the humor and slapstick will emerge naturally during play.
Those designers serve PARANOIA best who broaden its range of play. It is fine to develop a new slapstick deathtrap, but how much better to devise a new flavor of the game's characteristic fear, suspicion and frustration. The cardinal example here is Chaosium's CALL OF CTHULHU, which has brilliantly explored many kinds of horror from existential Lovecraftian dread to monster-movie camp. PARANOIA has already explored camp rather too extensively; it's long past time to extend its reach, to explore what other kinds of emotions the setting can invoke.
Certain setting elements lend themselves to different play styles. For instance, Death Leopard would do stuff suited to Classic; PURGE works better as an authentically scary society of terrorists, like Al Qaeda, and would better serve a Straight style.
When writing a given mission, present it with a particular style in mind (such as Classic or Straight). If good ideas occur to you that might be better suited to a different style, present them in the text as suggestions the GM can adapt as he wishes. We present play styles not as rigorous categories, but as guidance. We're not trying to lock a given GM into a given style; we want to present a given mission in a dominant style, but with the understanding that each GM creates his own unique style, adapting our materials as he sees fit.

5. In general, it is tiresome to see story devices recycled from other missions. For example, don't bring back Randy the Wonder Lizard from 'Orcbusters,' nor the Mark 4 warbot from 'Me and My Shadow, Mark 4.' This was a signal failing of the later West End line.
Similarly, avoid meta-plot at all costs. 'Meta-plot' means a plot element that relies on groundwork laid in an earlier published product, or a continuing storyline that arches over a sequence of independent products -- for example, the Secret Society Wars, the Crash and Reboot Alpha of the later West End product line. These products attempted to substitute an ongoing narrative for a skillful evocation of paranoid tension, with disastrous results.

6. Write reasonably near the limit of your education and vocabulary while maintaining clarity. The reader is smart. Don't talk down to him.

7. Never present anything as absolute truth. In Alpha Complex there is no truth. When the players think they understand something, there is always another trapdoor.
All rules and details of setting are optional. Encourage the Gamemaster to be creative. Present your material as modest suggestions intended to stimulate his own superior imagination.

8. Try not to go Outdoors. The Alpha Complex setting, the underground city itself, is key to PARANOIA's appeal.

9. Please lay off the punning character names. If you must pun, please make the pun names remotely plausible as actual names.

*****
_________________
-- Allen Varney
PARANOIA (2004 edition) principal writer
http://www.allenvarney.com
PARANOIA development blog: http://paranoiarpg.blogspot.com/