Paranoia (Ultraviolet Clearance)

[Zarathud]

Since I have the most fun adrift in a sea of ideas, I'd like to get some suggestions for impossible complications to throw at my random convention players. After selling out my event in the first 30 minutes, I feel oddly responsible for preparing to run my first convention game.

Spoiler:

My general idea is to run a combination of Inception meets Minority Report, ending with some elements of Traitor Games. Basically, the Computer believes that traitors are present at a cafeteria. Hapless citizen is interrogated and confesses to being unnaturally unhappy. Computer overcompensates, sending in a Troubleshooter team to root out the treason by supervising the cafeteria to increase its happiness quotient. Chaos ensues, attracting the attention of real traitors and R&D decides this is the perfect situation to unleash their latest experimental devices. The last 30 minutes will end up with an express "last Troubleshooter standing" scenario where the defeated troubleshooters get to play NPCs. Hopefully, this will provide the opportunity for a "winner" of the event while encouraging everyone else to enact gleeful revenge by the time the game slot ends. Debriefings are so overrated, anyway.

Also, I enjoy the process of giving the players a sandbox to build their own means of destruction.

[Chaosraven]

My favorite way to start is to have a YELLOW FOLDER with the mission details.
Whoever gets the Orange promotion from Red to lead the party gets the folder.
Which is above their clearance.

[Chaosraven]

and amazingly, I still have the one I used in the 80s!

[Zarathud]

Since I enjoy forms and props, I will be implementing this. Whoever pulls the folder gets 10 treason points, a temporary clearance promotion and team leader status.

Spoiler:

When Team Leader dies in the field, the designated assistant team leader takes over. A non-Orange Team Leader gets a temporary clearance promotion. So that gets me a nicely chaotic chain of command with the tone starting off right. And a way for the NPCs to blame everything on the "Orange Team Leader."

[Cylus Maxii]

Since its a cafeteria - I would definitely put in some sort of mutant food life form that escaped from a higher clearance area. I'm thinking of some sort of green gelatin that acts like Flubber and tends to imprint with PC actions. The more they play with it, the more treason they rack up for corrupting the experiment. Plus, you can use it to mock them and goad them on. If you need more chaos, it can always reproduce via binary fission. Any number of conspiracies can be involved with how it got out and why.

To get the right sort of atmosphere, have the creature played by a 10-year old during your test sessions and use that as a template for the actual sessions.

[Zarathud]

I think hepcat has the right attitude for a gelatin creature...with great hair.

[hepcat]

Of all the things I've been called over the years, gelatinous may be the most confusing.

[Remus West]

I thought it was spot on.

[Zarathud]

Spot in, you mean.

[Zarathud]

Ok, I need some more ideas for annoying mildly treasonous Old Reckoning "mascot" characters for the Troubleshooters to suit up in for "entertaining" higher clearance characters. My ideas are trending too much towards kids shows (Barney the dinosaur, etc.).

[Remus West]

Cosplay?

[AWS260]

Ok, I need some more ideas for annoying mildly treasonous Old Reckoning "mascot" characters for the Troubleshooters to suit up in for "entertaining" higher clearance characters. My ideas are trending too much towards kids shows (Barney the dinosaur, etc.).

Ah, the big Violet dinosaur. Surprisingly high clearance level on that guy.

[Zarathud]

Torn between trying to convince a RED to get into the Violet costume or having the bastard turn up and order the Troubleshooters around.

I think Alpha Complex is going to be "helpful" enough in the mission to make it feel like drinking from a firehose.