How do you handle NPCs?
Over the course of the new edition of Paranoia (from the starter set to Acute Paranoia), NPC stat blocks have changed somewhat. More recent missions feature a few more instances where skills are listed, for instance.
How have you been handling them?
I'm totally knowledgeable of the "it doesn't matter!" mindset of Paranoia, but I'm asking because obviously the designers (Computer bless their souls) have determined it's worth including a bit more info. Additionally, I'm one of those GMs that actually gets a kick out of developing a stat block and seeing how its mechanics intersect with the players' dice rolls; not out of 'fairness' so much as it allowing me to be a (slightly more) neutral arbiter of things. I like being more of a referee than a storyteller, if that makes sense.
Posted Jul 24, 2019, 9:20 PM UTC
For random NPCs you just bump into i just basically "make it up" in terms of whatever is most entertaining to happen happens. Skill rolls don't mean anything, HP doesn't matter.
For set piece combat or important characters, I just jot down their HP, any skills they have positives in. I don't bother with negatives.
I used to be a bit like you where i crafted these in depth characters for all my RPGs, with skill sets and stat blocks etc, but I found 90% of the time you don't even need to check what skills they have. Typically in a game you know what a "good" stat looks like.
So in DnD it's 10 is an average, 11-15 is pretty good, and 15+ is ridiculously good. 40K RPGs an average stat is about 35 i think, in GURPs it's 10 is a 50/50 chance etc. In Paranoia it's really simple in the sense that any +X to a skill means you're above average, and +5 is as good as any human reasonably can be.
So basically if someone needs them to make a skill check I just ask "How good iwould this person be" you should know, you invented them! It's a bit more tricky when you're running a game written by someone else as you didn't invent the characters, which is why I think you need that stuff in the book because you need the GM to see it and go "Ah ok, thats what they are like". Players won't see that, they just see what you show them.
The reason I write down the big ones is a) players interact with them more so it's less likely to be a waste of effort or b) they are crucial to the plot so if something doesn't work if someone get supset later you can show them how skilled they were designed to be at X.