I’m not sure.
My primary problem with the Paranoia trailer — aside from the fact that I was and am an unashamed Zap!-style player of the game who reveled in the sleazy puns and cheerful ultraviolence — is I am wondering whether or not this game is going to be funny. Which is related to the previous point, really. The Paranoia RPG has gotten more satirical over the years, and the more satirical it has gotten the less I have enjoyed it. I feel that the second edition holds up, even today, but the more topical editions date themselves, very very quickly.
So if the video game just isn’t funny, I’m probably not going to finish it. This doesn’t mean that it’s a bad game, just that it’s not a game really designed for me. Which happens.
There was a Paranoia comic book quite a while back. It was a limited series, though I don’t rememver how many issues were planned for it. I skimmed through the first issue.
It was not wven amusing.
Yeah, I bought all the issues. It was not good at all.
Yeah, one of the big issues with the current version of Paranoia is that the designers seem to be going out of their way to tell me that “I’m playing the game wrong.” And there’s a few political jabs scattered in there as well that rub me the wrong way.
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This though? It’s giving me a very “We Happy Few” vibe. Which isn’t necessarily bad, but It’s probably not what I want in a Paranoia game. (A Paranoia rogue-like where you have six lives and try to survive as a troubleshooter to become a High Programmer… With a FTL/X-Com/King of Dragon Pass vibe. Hmmm…)
Far be it for me to say that anyone is having fun “wrong”…
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But if your session doesn’t have a moment when the players are faced with an instruction to stand on the X and push the red button, then I’m not sure I want to know you.
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I drove one player in particular nuts by secretly flipping a coin to see if a good roll was high or low. The outburst of “I don’t understand how any of this works!” was perfectly in character. Friend Computer’s reply was that such information was above his clearance, obviously.
Enthusiasm for the game is mandatory. Liking the trailer is mandatory. Not liking the trailer is treason. Treason is punishable by death.
Good thing I have my Official Teela-O-MLY Traitor Whistle at hand!