Post originally by Dan Davenport at 2004-10-08 07:33:01
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You really did a great job of covering both the rules and the setting.
I do have a rules-related question, though: as I understand it, the rules no longer include attributes. IIRC, one of the mutations from a previous edition was super-strength. Is it still there, and if so, how does it work now that "normal" strength isn't there?
Post originally by unterhund at 2004-10-08 07:56:38
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Second on the excellent review!
And second the question, come to think of it.
And so this isn't entirely a dittohead post, a tip for those GMs who like chaos and whose party includes one registered mutant. Include a "mutant detector" that actually detects the color yellow instead. In testing with Red-level ops, it always picks out the registered mutants. This assumes that registered mutants still have yellow stripes. (I really need to buy this book instead of just reading reviews.)
Post originally by Darrin at 2004-10-08 08:40:35
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Super strength would be covered under the mutant power "Adrenalin Control" (Classic Only). Page 143, or thereabouts. Violence/Agility and Violence/Unarmed Combat get temporarily boosted to 18.
To address the broader question, though (i.e., what happened to Abilities?)... it's not entirely intuitive, but the new skill system is not built around specific physical/mental stats. It's built around "what effect is the character trying to accomplish?" rather than "My BLAH+X stat gives me a +X bonus on any BLAH-related actions."
Think of it like this... a character in another game might have an 18 Strength or Dexterity, which gives him a +4 to a specific and defined list of actions, skills, saving throws, etc. From there you derive a target number or DC, using as many 300+ page books as possible.
Paranoia XP reverses that... you start with the desired result and sort of work backwards, assigning a skill category according to whatever would best produce that result. The players essentially assign the DCs for all their rolls up front and you handwave the physical/mental attributes with something about Computerized-trait-selection and genetic breeding programs. You can just say all clones have roughly the same physical/mental stats because, well, they're CLONES for one thing.
Example: You decide, in blatant defiance of the whole genetic breeding thing, that your clone is much more physically impressive than the other characters, and you want to bully them around. You can do this by punching someone in the nose, which is essentially an application of brute Violence (specifically, Unarmed Combat specialty). Or he could flex his muscles and shout really loud, which would most likely be Management/Intimidation. Is he really physically stronger than the character he is threatening? Well, it doesn't really matter... he may have a higher Violence score because the Computer decided to genetically breed in stronger muscles, or maybe his Secret Society taught him the treasonous secret skills of the ancient art of Pro Wrestling. He's most likely going to die horribly so maybe it's not really worth it to quibble about actual physical stats.
It's not perfect... characters become a little more difficult to individualize. You also run into problems when characters go up against non-human opponents, like robots and 100-foot cockroaches.
Does that make any sense or am I just rambling incoherently?
Post originally by Darrin at 2004-10-08 08:59:06
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Registered Mutants still wear yellow armbands. I'm not sure such a device would really create much tension, given that the Registered Mutant has already publicly identified himself as such. Now, if the troubleshooters kept running into a lot of YELLOW security clearance clones, that could be interesting... accusing a superior of being a mutant is a little more dangerous than accusing your fellow REDs!
The classic R&D mutant detector automatically beeps whenever you point it at any clone (since all clones are mutants). This is only really dangerous if it gets into the hands of a Registered Mutant, who can then set up *anyone* other than another Registered Mutant for Hot-Treasonous-Death, and back it up with hard evidence.
Another idea that could create some havoc... how about a Mutant Detector that actually tells you what the mutation is? Make it difficult to attach ("attach sensor to suspect's tongue"), or mislead the user about how it works... he points it at another character to find out their mutant ability, only to discover the device announces in a loud booming voice what *his* mutant ability is.
Post originally by unterhund at 2004-10-08 11:01:14
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Darrin wrote:
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Registered Mutants still wear yellow armbands. I'm not sure such a device would really create much tension, given that the Registered Mutant has already publicly identified himself as such. Now, if the troubleshooters kept running into a lot of YELLOW security clearance clones, that could be interesting... accusing a superior of being a mutant is a little more dangerous than accusing your fellow REDs!
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Exactly! Or have a PC promoted to yellow clearance, etc. But then, I always enjoyed watching the PCs shoot each other anyway when I ran Paranoia. One more excuse . . .
Post originally by Allen Varney at 2004-10-08 11:45:38
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(((what would you use to determine if a character can lift something, for example?)))
All physical efforts of this kind are Violence rolls; GMs may rename the Violence skill "Fitness" if it suits them. There is also a generalized "Agility" specialty of Violence that helps with running fast, jumping, etc.
Post originally by Gon at 2004-10-09 15:24:27
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Actually, ParanoiaXP does have a Mutant Detector. It's a programme for the Multicorder as described in the book easily verifyable by any reader of clearance Ultraviolet or higher.
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