Kubkanoia

No Problemo running Paranoia on little sleep. No one knows anything anyway. Knowing the rules is treasonous. Disagreeing with the GM is treasonous. No wonder I love this game!

OK, ya gotta have some sleep. Todd had to catch a 8AM flight for some work thang. He took off around 6AM. I'd actually gotten to bed around 2:30. Tossed & turned as I was trying to work out an unresolved detail in the Paranoia game. About 3:30 it came to me to have the mission briefing on a roller coaster and be presented by an inspirational speaker type. 2.5 hrs later, woke up long enough to wish Todd good travels. Back to sleep...or not. Toss, turn, punch pillow, rinse, repeat... Not so much with the sleeping.

Arrived at the Paranoia game with a slack 2.5 hrs of sleep. Awesome! 5 Players for 6 slots. 2 of them had never played Paranoia. Awesome! They were both crashers. Awesome! Three Players had played with me before, Tom & Patrick Idleman & Mike Garcia. One registered Player came in & told me she was bailing as her husband had gotten into another game & they wanted to be together. Not so awesome. I told her I understood. (It's a game con. I don't really understand, unless she's a gamer girlfriend/wife. Hmmmm). After letting the con staff know that I had an opening, I assigned characters. In Paranoia, I've quit having Players pick characters. Instead I hand out the best combo of characters and have them pre-organized based on where they happen to sit down. Welcome to Alpha Complex.

I launched into the description of life in Alpha Complex. Ya gotta lay a lot of pipe to get folks to understand the world of Paranoia. But... launch isn't the right word. I stumbled, stammered, stuttered and struggled through the intro. Way less than awesome. Then a miracle occurred. I mentioned above that knowing the rules of Paranoia is treasonous. Experienced Paranoia Players know this - or should. I tried a trick which I try every time I run Paranoia. I paused to 'look something up' and asked young Patrick to explain how the die rolling works in Paranoia. He was kind enough to launch into it. After which I thanked him and then told him that he'd lost his 1st clone because he displayed knowledge of the rules. He looked shocked for a second, then pumped the air with both fists, shouted "awesome!" and marked the clone off on his character sheet. Now we were rolling!

I got the characters to the briefing room with minimal clone loss, but lots of whacky FunBot fun, when one of he Players got my attention. "Friend GM?" he asked. "Yes, friend Player?" He took a breath, "I don't think I'll have fun playing this game." Awkward silence... It was difficult for my sleep deprived brain to grasp the idea that anyone might not have fun playing Paranoia. Even later, I find it difficult. After what seemed to me like black hours of awkwardness, I recalled that there are some games that I'm not interested in playing. More importantly, I was glad to have someone realize that they weren't going to have fun early on rather than sit through hours of misery and make it less fun for everyone else. I thanked him. I really meant it.

The remaining Players had a great time. I had a great time. Patrick was stoked at having lost all of his clones even though one was lost in time. Afterward, I pitched the Dead of Winter event to them and the new Player pitched an idea to me. Sounded cool. I hope he submits it.

During check-out I lost the 3/4 case of energy drinks. Easy come. Easy go. I don't drink 'em anyway. I hope they weren't wasted. Wrapped Kubla by having an early dinner with Shannon McNamara. He's stoked on Dead of Winter. It was a great way to finish up. Can't wait til next year!