Paranoia setting for Pony Tales - Supplement included

So, over the past couple of weeks, I've been thinking of running a Skype game as a DM. One of the concepts I considered as a setting was to basically convert the "Paranoia RPG" mentality/rules and apply it to Pony Tales, or Living Legends. Specifically, the "classic" method of playing ('dark' would be a possibility as well, though)

EDIT: I made a big doc with all the stuff. The link is below!

Paranoia for Pony Tales

For those unaware of how Paranoia works or what it is - here's a brief summary.

The setting would be this: Harmony Complex, an underground, isolated facility, ruled by an insane, paranoid AI - Friend Computer, who rules with an iron hoof. The computer is hell-bent on ensuring its citizens are happy, harmonious, and safe from discordians (mutants), changelings (commies) and traitors. Especially discordian changeling traitors. Technology would be high-tech (laser guns, robots, etc). The players would be "Troublebuckers", a squad of ponies (freshly promoted after reporting a traitor), who's job is to, in no particular order:
-Do what Friend Computer tells them (or die)
-Report traitors (read: backstab each other)
-Find trouble and shoot/buck it (or the opposite)
-Test experimental tech
-Survive up to mission debriefing (unlikely)
-Survive debriefing (yeah right)
The main problems the players have? Each of them is a member of a secret society, and has a discordian power (mutation). Both are highly treasonous to have/be, and treason is grounds for an instant execution. Troublebuckers, as such, have the average lifespan of a mayfly, surrounded by frogs, and having other mayflies knock them out of the air into the frogs.

Some of the mechanics of making it work are becoming a bit of a trouble spot though. As far as the mechanics goes, here's what I've come up with and believe would be required for such a setting:

1) Clone families - This one is easy to implement, in the form of having every player default to having a free "nine lives" racial, worth six resurrections. Almost identical to paranoia rules, allows for the (many) colorful deaths that make up a paranoia setting.

2) Mutations (discordian abilities, mutations) - A lot of the utilities could fit as mutations, as could a majority of the racials/destinies. The issue arises from the fact that not every utility fits as a mutation/treasonous skills, or the setting at all (most destiny abilities, for instance). I have no idea how to properly implement mutations to players, or give them the choice of such (even if it's randomized, they need a group of what's allowed and what isn't), other than manually hand-picking mutations and skills and assigning them to a player to roleplay.

3) Skills, professions, expertise, employment assignments - Best way I can think of doing this would defaulting 2 FK's to each player (much like the clone families), limited to specific skills related to their assignments.

4) Secret societies - these would be likely strange pony-versions of secret societies (for instance, "the crusaders", "fashion police"...). Not sure whether to make these an option for players to pick, something they can literally invent on the spot (flavor), or randomly assigned to play with.

5) Combat - Combat in paranoia would have to be REALLY fast - more akin to a "skill check to see if you dodge or are vaporized" than the rounds based PiP combat, otherwise minor inter-player conflicts could eat up the time of a single session very quickly - and paranoia usually is a "single session games" deal. It would also be hideously unbalanced (as PVP is) and the flavoring of such combat could actually be viable to make players traitors/treasonous (in other words, players are flagged as traitors for entering combat and throwing a "fireball", or summoning minions...). Best way of dealing with the issue would be to cut combat as it is entirely and degrade it to the "grapple rules" system Hayate made or similar form of skill checks, leave it in for players to pick (and risking long sessions of combat and general combat unfairness), pick combat for the players and assign it to them (hellish work for the DM, and unsatisfying for the player). The in-combat versus out-of-combat barrier would also have to be ignored - anything can kill you in Paranoia, and treachery can use every advantage it can get.

6) Items, as far as combat/non-combat goes - the paranoia "equipment" and "experimental tech" items mixed in with pony items should work, though combat items are iffy.

7) Stats in general - Some of the skills don't really match up what would be needed in a paranoia setting, are useless, or are outright deadly - history and arcana is viable to get you murdered for being a traitor! The skills, if put to choice, would likely result in everyone maxing stealth/perception, due to its back-stabbly natures.

8 ) Magic vs technology vs TREASON - Big iffy issue, since mutations in general are likely to be magic, and friendship is literally magic. Is a unicorn with ponykinesis an automatic traitor mutant? Or is there a degree of "allowed" magic uses? Would pegasi be seen as mutants?

9) Player-DM Secrecy, player-in fighting - Skype actually allows this to be easily implemented, via instant messages to the DM.

10) Element abilities, destinies, traits, and other character growth stuff - these would have to be scrapped entirely, I think. They can't really fit in the "short lived" aspects of paranoia.

Anyone got suggestions as to what of the suggested to implement, or any extra ideas/features/mechanics to make this setting work?

A fun sounding idea. I 120% support this... Just wish I had some ideas. But nothing comes to mind.

Since pegasi and unicorn magic are completely integrated into pony society, I'd assume that the things any pegasus or unicorn can do naturally (flight, ponykinesis and limited weather manipulation) would be sanctioned, where anything beyond that is treason/unnatural.
since friendship is magic, and magic is treason, friendship is treason. If the players are too friendly to each other.... boom
Destinies could be implemented as part of the "secret society". Not sure though, never played paranoia.

I'd be interested in this.... *EvilGrin*

Sounds fun. I've personally been wanting to play Paranoia at some point so this works great.

My Little Pony: Friendship Is Mandatory!

Just a reminder: could use some actual feedback on the mechanics I mentioned - the game can't work (secrecy/backstabbing/mutant powers-wise) if the mechanics don't work, or if the mechanics are slowing the game/making it un-fun!

kajisora wrote:Since pegasi and unicorn magic are completely integrated into pony society, I'd assume that the things any pegasus or unicorn can do naturally (flight, ponykinesis and limited weather manipulation) would be sanctioned, where anything beyond that is treason/unnatural.

Yes, I imagine I'd either have everypony be an earth pony (with pegasi/unicorns/other races being a mutation), or have the common unicorn/pegasi races be accepted/registered as such. Of course, a few secret societies could spring from this racial diversion...

There's also a notable fact: In paranoia, there isn't any real gender differing - all clones are pretty much hormonally inhibited via drugs (or magic, in this case?) and all reproduction is done via cloning. The only alternative I can think to this is that "love" (since this is a pony setting) would be treated similar to "happiness" - as in, it's mandatory, and "special someponies" are assigned rather than chosen. Which is... yeah.

Zarhon wrote:There's also a notable fact: In paranoia, there isn't any real gender differing - all clones are pretty much hormonally inhibited via drugs (or magic, in this case?) and all reproduction is done via cloning. The only alternative I can think to this is that "love" (since this is a pony setting) would be treated similar to "happiness" - as in, it's mandatory, and "special someponies" are assigned rather than chosen. Which is... yeah.

Honestly, with the cloning/genderless issue, I see no reason why it couldn't be done in the same way: all ponies are kept genderless through magic/biotech. Earth pony "enclave" sounds good (could even put in a bunch of propaganda against the outside world, what with the dumb chickens and those evil, sly narwhals). On the other hand, the freedom to play any of the three main races is nice.
The love thing... Ponies, at least in the show, are more focused on friendship. You can do this in two ways, as far as I see it:
1: Friendship is mandatory
All shall be friends, by decree of the Great and Powerful Computer. Any subject that is seen to be to unfriendly, or even (Computer forbid) DISTRUSTFUL of his/her/its companions shall immediately be terminated.
2: Friendship is Treason
Polar opposite of the above.

Honestly, the first one seems so much more..... Fun*.
I can only imagine the paranoia created by having to be friendly and trusting to all party members, even the ones that you KNOW are going to stab you in the back.

*:as understood by all players of Dwarf Fortress.

Been brainstorming a bit, and have come up with some of the secret societies, as well as "troubleshooter assignments"!

Secret Societies

HUSH (Humble ultra-secret haymakers)
"Speak softly, and carry a dirty nuke."
Members of this society are easily mistaken for "loyal" citizens - extremely polite members of society, humble, submissive and obedient, they believe that such behavior can only lead to good things. They also, however, realize that Friend Computer is far too dangerous a threat to be dismissed with politeness, and bring a degree of assertiveness against it. Minor things such as sector-clearing bombs, highly virulent bioweapons, nuclear devices, and other highly-impractical weaponry. Lead cause of member fatalities are accidental suicides, caused by overkill with the sabotage process, or by casual body-scans revealing an armory worth of dangerous weapons on their person.

Book Binders
"Knowledge is power, and we want it!"
The members of this society value knowledge above all else - a risky endavour in itself, but they go out of the intentions of Friend Computer to acquire classified or restricted information, both current and old. They despise the security and censorship restricting the free flow of knowledge, and as such, seek to release it from the grasp of FC and into the free public, whether they want it or not. They especially value to propaganda of other, supposedly traitorous organizations, and physical books from the old age.

Mystics
"Practicality of Force, Superiority of Will"
Members of this society make it their objective to hunt down and put to use magic of any sort, with a key focus on magical and occult artifacts. They desire the end of Friend Computer, and to take its place, using their superior power to exert their influence. They also despise the advanced technology of the complex, and seek to destroy it where they can.

Ponitarians
"Friend Computer is wrong, we aren't, consarnit!"
Ponitarians are the closest to being the most "common sense" enstilled traitors - they realize that FC is dangerously insane, and that the hunt for traitors is meaningless. Their goal is the improvement of life and survival within the complex, and working to free it of FC's grasp. Their main fault, however, is that their methods, whilst certainly effective in improving life expectancy, are a bit lacking in the "speed" department, and are buried in burocracy.

Clock Punkers
"Who needs magic when you've got gears?"
Clock - Punkers revel in technology - they're obsessed with mechanics, clockworks, machines, artificial constructs and other creations of pony hooves. While they fear the computer and do not agree with its methods, they can't help but admire it's apparent perfection. They are strong enemies of magic and magic users. They seek to spread technology and improve it, for better or (much more commonly) for worse, and eradicate magic use.

Null Dividers
"Power in chaos!"
Null dividers embrace the abberant, unnatural changes brought to their physique, and seek to employ it to its fullest. They regard non-mutated (or "ungifted") as unworthy, and seek to ascend themselves and their kin to rule over all the complex.

Anti-Discordians
"Death to mutants!"
Anti-Discordians hate mutants to the fullest, considering them monsters, and seek to eliminate them wherever they may be. Of course, they themselves are discordian, but they get over this fact with plenty of pamphlets and a sea of denial.

Nature's Wranglers
"Our fate is to harness nature!"
This society considers nature the ideal, and themselves masters of it. Pegasi and earth ponies are common within it, due to their innate abilities to manipulate nature, as repressed as it may be. They seek to bring the forces natures back into the complex by any means, and have the furry claws of bear vengeance tear down the mechanized one.

Changelings
"Hiss! Rawr! Blargh!"
Members of this society are a result of one too many traitorous accusation on a fragile, drug-addled mind, mixed in with a bit of resentment towards being ruled by Friend Computer. They believe themselves to be the very force Friend Computer fears most, despite having no knowledge of what being such a force entails. They often dress in (bad) changeling outfits, attempt to infiltrate other societies, as changelings would do, and generally attempt to live up to Friend Computer's paranoid expectations.

Z!Z!Z! (Zoot! Zing! Zot!)
"Wheee!"
The members of this society, whilst certainly adhering to the strict "fun" requirements of the complex, go above and beyond it into full lunacy, disrupting the complex with their efforts to ensure "fun" for all. They do what they want, and nopony can stop them - without spending some ammo in the process. They are one of the more "accepted" societies, so long as they don't try to do anything that would spite the Friend Computer (a mathematical improbability in itself)...

Troubleshooter assignments

Brave Pony Team Leader
Coordinates the rest of the troubleshooters into achieving their mission objectives, as well as having the general "final say" in decision making. Generally of a slightly higher security clearance than the others, giving him/her limited ability to boss the others around.

Fun Officer
Their tasks are ensuring the team is at acceptable fun, happiness and friendship levels. This is achieved in a myriad of ways, the most common being jokes, pep talks, motivational speeches, interpretive dancing, being entertaining, threats of termination until morale improves, and mind-altering mood enhancers, administered via syringe where deemed required.

Enviro-Controllers
Typically given to pegasi or others with weather-crafting capabilities, enviro-controllers have the task of altering or manipulating the (strictly regulated) artificial weather within the sector to ensure success in the mission, or to benefit the sector (as security clearance allows it, of course).

Hygiene & Medical officer
Hygiene officers ensure all members of the team are within hygiene standards (clean uniforms, etc...), and are charged with keeping the team in mission-fit duty to the best of their abilities, via the use of medication and medical devices.

Loyalty Officer
Friendship officers ensure that there is a good cohesion within the group. In other words, they're the ones tasked with finding and eliminating traitorous activity withing the troubleshooter group itself, as well as looking for the tell-tale signs of treasonous consideration in its budding and discouraging it. Due to the sensitive nature of this task, they are commonly given a "cover" assignment, protecting their identity.

List-Checker
Chroniclers of a the team, they employ checklists, devices and magic to create audio and visual records of the mission. These are later presented for post-mission debriefing and as proof of treasonous activities.

Magic Monitor
Ensures the team uses natural unicorn magic at Friend Computer-approved ways and amounts. They are also charged with checking for signs of Discordian abnormalities and anomalies, brought by mutant powers.

Equipment Officer
In charge of obtaining, utilizing, handing out and taking care of the mission-assigned equipment and R&D tech supplied for the mission. This can include control and manipulation of bots, vehicles, constructs, experimental equipment, computers... They are held responsible if anything supplied is lost, stolen or damaged during the mission.

Quality of Life Engineer (QL-Engi)
They're in charge of maintaining some of the basic facilities and technology ensuring the happy (and sustained) life of the sector's inhabitants - food dispensers, life support systems, lights, doors, terminations booths, hygiene booths...

Task-Buckers
A mix between a soldier and a personal team bodyguard, they are granted responsibility over any specialized or non-standard, dangerous weaponry (warbots, rocket launchers, grenades...), and are employed to use their armaments against trouble, traitors, and other enemies of Friend Computer, and to protect their team, when and when able.

I like HUSH...
especially if playing a really high-strung member:

*Chatting amiably. Party is almost convinced the character is ACTUALLY innocent*
...
...
*random noise*
"YOU WILL NEVER TAKE ME ALIVE!"
*Total party kill*

How about this one:
Huggers
"All we want is a hug!"
The huggers are, of course, discordians, living the life of near-outcasts in constant fear of discovery.
They want the freedom not to hide, the freedom live with other ponies in broad (day)light, without the fear of being terminated for something they do not control.
So what if they have poison stingers? So what if their level of radiation is fatal to healthy individuals?
All they want is a hug.

No Illuminati?

Pinkie Promisers
No pony is really too sure what these guys' goals, beliefs, and preferred methods are... even their members. They swear a very special oath of total obedience towards a cult leader... and never have direct contact again. Orders are given very subtly, secretly, and with no explanation whatsoever; a Pinkie Promiser is the epitome of total trust in the leaders of whom they have never even heard their names... though their members are also frequently part of other cult(s) as well.

We need a Trekkies...

Fashion Police
"Ugh, this armor clashes with my pants..."
This particular society has somewhat... skewed... priorities. Their members are generally recognizable by either garish, outlandish colored clothing and accessories, or uniform, sleek and fashionable wear, befitting their security status. Some members go as far as to avoid getting promoted, lest the enforced color-coded dress code ruins the rest of their ensemble. They have a strong distaste for the color-coded security system in general (particularly GREEN clearance citizens, whom they bludgeon with fancied-up batons), and thus go out of their ways to nullify or sabotage it. They also have an interest and use in "historical" clothing", which is now contraband, due to its use as "fashion statement" sowing treason.

Painbows Dashers
"Two limbs down, yet still awesome!"
The Painbow Dashers are... special. Their prime motivations are "coolness", "awesomeness" and "radicalness" (the exact order and priority of such is a hotly-disputed topic, often ending with a few smoking lasers), which they believe Friend Computer and the High Programmers are preventing, due to being an "utterly lame eggheads". They often carry or wear strange, "cool looking" trinkets of varying treason-levels, engage in strange mannerisms (posing when not under camera, leaning at a specific angle against vertical surfaces, insisting on wearing infrared-clearance goggles irregardless of actual clearance, etc...), and perform stunts that would have Friend Computer scheduling terminations, assuming they survive the stunt in the first place (many fail to realize that the fabled achievement of "casually trotted from an explosion" is exclusively posthumous).

Upper Crusts
"How dare you speak to me, infrared peon?!"
Upper crusts have advancement as their goal - they seek to soar through the ranks of Friend Computer's chosen and trusted, dismissing all those beneath them in the process. They differ from the other boot-lickers in that they use sabotage and treason as an exclusive means of achieving such - actual boot-licking, or honorable behavior, is reserved only for Friend Computer, and it wears no boots anyway. Their arrogance is great, and they revel in ordering those of lower security clearance around, but never the reverse. Their opinions of mutants vary - powerful mutations are accepted and approved, but unsightly, useless ones are disliked, at best. Their words commonly employ imperatives, colorist remarks, and perfect knowledge of every synonym of the word "vassal".

I decided to make a consolidated doc for all the paranoia stuff (link to it in first post as well). I added a bunch of things to it as well, including skills, setting explanations, combat (decided on just using the grapple system by Hayate), and races. I think all that's missing now is the mutations themselves.

Paranoia for Pony Tales

Feedback would be appreciated, as always.

Oooh, Zarhon... Simplify, simplify. Just a little bit.

Discordian powers? Easy: let everyone have their utility talents, just like a normal Pony Tales game. Dan has already worked very hard to balance them; if it ain't broke, don't fix it. Anyways, at least two of those talents must be picked (preferably at random) as Discordian Mutations. Using them is Treasonous. The other three (or less, depending on how crazy the player is) are considered to be natural trained abilities that anypony might have, and are not Treasonous (usually.)

Cutie Marks? Again, reflavor slightly. Backstory time: The Friend Computer decides that while Ponies shouldn't have cute little pictures on their butts, they are definitely better than others at certain things. So the FC makes sure, once they figure out what that something is, that said ponies do largely that and little else. Special Talents are Mandatory. Not using your Special Talent is Treasonous.

Also: no Crystal Ponies?

Also also: Yay Pinkie Promisers!

Grey Pen The Flawed wrote:
Discordian powers? Easy: let everyone have their utility talents, just like a normal Pony Tales game. Dan has already worked very hard to balance them; if it ain't broke, don't fix it. Anyways, at least two of those talents must be picked (preferably at random) as Discordian Mutations. Using them is Treasonous. The other three (or less, depending on how crazy the player is) are considered to be natural trained abilities that anypony might have, and are not Treasonous (usually.)

Actually, since these games would be a lot shorter than the standard, you might consider giving each character 4 utilities:2 legal, 2 illegal.
Or have a list of "legal" talents (sayy Longrunner) and "illegal" or "discordian" talents (teleport), and select all 4 at random.
5th slot is taken up by 9 Lives, powered down to 6 uses.

That's a thought, but I wouldn't pick the talents themselves at random; there's just too many, and quite a few have prerequisites. An alternative is pick the headings at random, and you get to pick so many talents from those headings. For example: I might get, in order:

1. Skull Duggery
2. Spellcraft
3. Woodsman
4. Spellcraft

So I would get one Skull Duggery talent, two Spellcraft talents, and one Woodsman talent. Or I could end up with two Flight talents and two Psionics talents. Or four Everypony talents. This allows a fair amount of randomness, while still allowing some design and working around prerequisites.

ohh, nice idea.
The random thing was mostly so that the player would have no control over whether they got legal or illegal utilities, should they be divided in that way.

I altered the cutie marks to be "invisible without special imaging/scanning equipment", and have every race have one, kept secret from other players. I also added ruling on magic points - they can work a bit like perversity points.

The thing with utilities is that a whole lot of them make no sense to be "traitorous" (e.g. nimble hooves), while others are useless/pointless/broken in paranoia. In the same way, a lot of the racials would count as mutant powers. I was also kinda planning to put in some of the paranoia mutations.

There's also the actual scientific areas of expertise - a lot of them are highly specialized and require a technologically advanced world, which the utilities lack. Those will probably have to stay in some fashion (otherwise characters with high mechanics become super-competent).

One compromise could be:

- Everypony gets 4x expertise areas, which is four choices of the paranoia "highly specialized" sciences (from the list), getting a +5 bonus in each.
- Four headings are rolled out of the utilities, some of the racials, and the original paranoia mutations, from each of which, a single one is taken by choice or randomly.
- Two of the ultimately picked utilities are designated as "mutant", at DM discretion. Nonsense utilities can be re-picked if needed.
- Mutant utilities are secret and can backfire.

End result: Everyone gets the equivalent of 2x freaky knowledge, two random utilities that aren't traitorous, and two mutant ability that are.

Alternately, the mutations could be decided to only encompass the original paranoia ones and whatever utilities can be modified to match.

For now, I'll have to look over the "mutations" and list them before a decision is made.

Update!

I added the paranoia handbook mutations into the doc, as part of the list of mutations. I noted the powers that are similar to the utility talents/racials of Pony Tales, and added the closest "comparison" to each (for instance, invisibility mutation is pretty much stealth mode).

I'm thinking of having the mutations be just "vaguely described abilities" that need a d100 roll when activating (allowing for crit fails, crit successes, successes, and failures, as with normal ones). The rest would be entirely up to DM discretion and player creativity as to how they get used, or what they do.

Zarhon wrote:Fashion Police
"Ugh, this armor clashes with my pants..."
This particular society has somewhat... skewed... priorities. Their members are generally recognizable by either garish, outlandish colored clothing and accessories, or uniform, sleek and fashionable wear, befitting their security status. Some members go as far as to avoid getting promoted, lest the enforced color-coded dress code ruins the rest of their ensemble. They have a strong distaste for the color-coded security system in general (particularly GREEN clearance citizens, whom they bludgeon with fancied-up batons), and thus go out of their ways to nullify or sabotage it. They also have an interest and use in "historical" clothing", which is now contraband, due to its use as "fashion statement" sowing treason.

I see what you did there.

Also:

Cutie Mark Crusaders
These guys just KNOW there's supposed to be something on that one spot on their butt. Members of this society are constantly trying to make their cutie marks appear, usually by attempting to do as many different activities as quickly as possible until something shows up. Special Talents are Mandatory, and according to these guys so are Cutie Marks.

Another update up! I added the utilities, some DM/player tips, a "session flow" example, sample items/equipment.

I think the doc is pretty much done at this point! Anyone else got some feedback? I'm considering testing this thing out as a skype session thing.

Edit: Added the CMC secret society.

If anyone is interested in playing a test session of Pony Tales Paranoia over Skype, PM me a character sheet (use the doc to make one) / Skype details / when you can play, roughly. Have one person's sheet so far, need at least three or four more players. It would be probably be in this or the following week, once I get enough players to try it out.

putting a character together, will post later today

Alright, I PMed a character, I'll help TEST at least.

Cool beans. Now I just need Kaji's sheet.

How open are people for playing next friday?