› A Brief Briefing on Briefings
You need more than 'Find & shoot traitors'?
It's a staple of the Troubleshooter mission: the PCs receive a mission alert telling them to go to some random location for briefing. Of course, they have no clue how to get there, so they spend a good hour of real time (and a clone or two) getting there after dealing with broken elevators, high-clearance corridors and the occasional surly IntSec checkpoint guard. Finally, they can start the mission ... after their briefing officer has a few words for them.
Is all this necessary? Some of it is, and some of it definately is not. We will not explore the various kinds of briefing rooms, as the PARANOIA Mission Blender does that beautifully. Instead, we'll focus on why all missions should start with some kind of briefing, including what should be in a good briefing, what shouldn't be in any briefing and an exploration of how troublesome it should be to find the damn room.
Structure is a good thing, right?
The Dark Room is an optional part of the PARANOIA mission structure, and Outfitting can probably be skipped if you don't plan on giving the Troubleshooters any new toys. But the mission briefing must, must, must be in every mission. Without it, the players have no idea what they're supposed to do, and that night's gaming session will suffer because of it.
Yes, this is PARANOIA. Information is rationed like clean water on a desert island and the team might not be cleared for the mission's objectives. But that rationing exists only to make the game challenging and fun. (Sure, it's a twisted kind of fun, but fun nonetheless.) Info should be given when it's entertaining to share it, and info should be withheld when it's entertaining to not share it. And a briefing is where it's entertaining to share some information because this info will make sure there's a point to the game--and because your players need some structure for their roleplaying.
We've all GMed a game on the spur of the moment where, with nothing prepared, we wigned it and explored improv GMing. Most likely, it didn't work well. There might have been a few moments of originality and fun, but the players probably said it wasn't as much fun as other games you've GMed. (Thankless bunch of whiners, if you ask me, but that's besides the point.) It wasn't as much fun because there wasn't enough structure. While you don't want to put the mission on rails and force players to read from a script, you don't want a mission devoid of plot or structure.
The inevitable analogy
Let's put it another way using a familiar film as an analogy. In the original Star Wars movie, the point of the plot is made readily apparent: Luke and the gang need to defeat Darth Vader and the evil Empire. This drives the movie and gives us a reason to watch--and a reason for the characters to do stuff. In other words, there's a point to all their running around and shooting stuff, and without that point, it's all rather ... well, pointless. It would be a film of guys just hanging out and stuff.
- Luke: I'm homesick! I wanna go back to Tatooine!
- Han: Tought, kid. We're going to the strip clubs on Titular IV.
- Chewie: Raaarrrrgh! Mharrr-garrgh!
- Han: Yes, we have plenty of singles.
So by giving some information in the briefing, you give the players something to aim for (besides each other, that is). You also give the mission a point, which gives enough structure to the game session so that it's fun to play. If your players have played PARANOIA before, they know to take what's said at a mission briefing with a grain of salt. But your job as GM is to give them something to take along with that salt.
We're not saying the Troubleshooters need to be told the truth at these meetings. No, no, no! But what you should do is use the briefing to give the players some idea of what they need to do during the mission. It can be vague or specific, muddled or clear, rambling or to-the-point, full of lies or straightforward, but it must give structure to the mission. Otherwise, your players will get honestly frustrated (not the fun kind of frustrated) because they don't know what to do next.
Why are briefing officers always so insane?
All right, enough with the long-winded and partially academic explanations. Time for some bite-sized, easy to digest, overly simplistic bullet points! Here are some things you should include in a briefing:
- Include a briefing officer. He doesn't have to be physically there in the room; virtual conferencing technology could be readily available in Alpha Complex. He can even be an it: a recorded message, a bot or The Computer itself. But the Troubleshooters need orders, and it's fun to have a boss delivering those orders because you give them a person to fear and loath. We know that doesn't exactly sound like fun, but it is in PARANOIA.
- Put the briefing in a location. From a tiny closet to a flybot hanger, it's best to give the Troubleshooters a location to meet and receive the briefing. Not only is it lots of fun to create briefing rooms full of irritating and possibly dangerous aspects, it lets the Troubleshooters interact with each other and their briefing officer. You'd be surprised how often this interaction leads to backstabbing later on in the game. And what's a PARANOIA mission without backstabbing?
- Include mission objectives. Although there is no winning in an rpg, most players expect benchmarks for their character's performance--some method of measuring whether their character is succeeding or not. These benchmarks are the mission objectives, which are presented at a briefing. They might be contradictory, senseless, impossible or even outright lies, but they should be presented.
- Use carrots and sticks. Now that you've gotten some objectives to the Troubleshooters, it's time to give them some reasons to achieve these objectives. Carrots are the rewards; be they promotions or credit bonuses, players will roleplay better if they think their character will get rewarded for success. Sticks are the punishments; be they demotions or terminations, players will roleplay better if they think their character will be punished for failure. Notice we said 'think.' You don't have to actually reward a Troubleshooter--just tease them with the chance of reward.
- Assign Mandatory Bonus Duties. These are great tools for generating rivalry, resentment and terminations between Troubleshooters, so why would you ever leave these out? If your PCs don't already have MBDs assigned to them, have the briefing officer assign them. It doesn't matter how you assign them, just dole them out and let the players start scheming.
- Don't make the briefing too long. This is where you set up the plot, so set it up and let the players explore it. If you're planning on a mission taking 4 hours, you really shouldn't spend 1 hour just trying to set things in motion. Get the Troubleshooters to the location, give them objectives and MBDs, then send them on their merry, treasonous way.
- Don't terminate anyone--except if they really deserve it. PARANOIA is more fun if the players fear each other rather than the GM, as that can easily lead to thinking the GM is out to get them--players don't mind backstabbing, but they resent being singled out. Besides, you want them to play the fine mission you bought or made, right? Unless somebody does something stupid like attack the briefing officer, let them get through the briefing with the same clone number they came in with. Clearance, credits, equipment ... that's another story. Mess with those all you want.
- Don't make the briefing so bizarre that it doesn't work. PARANOIA is chock-a-block with messed up briefing rooms. That's a great and noble tradition, one that we won't tamper with, but ... sometimes it can get too messed up. The point of a briefing is to set the mission so it provides structure for roleplaying, so a briefing in an extremely screwy room or with a really insane officer can detract from the structure. In other words, don't let the context ruin the content.
Getting there is half the frustration
Almost as infamous as the, 'That information not available at your security clearance' gag is the, 'How do we find the briefing room' joke. The team is told to report to a random room on the other side of Alpha Complex for briefing. How do they get there? Even if they find a ride, do they know how to get there? In our opinion, which is in no way related to Mongoose Publishing or any official PARANOIA product or person living or dead ... this joke is dead.
It's just not fun anymore. You want to throw lots of puzzles and problems at your players, but they need to be solved in a relatively timely fashion so they can continue to play the mission. Why stop the narrative at the beginning with a super-long and super-frustrating scene where the Troubleshooters spend hours just trying to reach the starting line? Unless your mission is unique (like the mission is a test to see if the team can arrive at a briefing room on time), limit how problematic it is to find the briefing.
Besides, don't you want to start the mission? Didn't you work really hard on it? Or, if you bought one of the many fine PARANOIA products and are running a mission found therein, don't you want the players to experience the trauma and terminations waiting for them in the mission's episodes? Especially these days, folk don't like to be kept waiting. Give your players some obstacles but get them there. And never shy away from the old, 'Time passes and you get there' convenience. It works.
Sometimes there's a difference between entertaining and difficult
We're not suggesting you make it easy for them. No, no, no! Make 'em work for it--but reward creative roleplaying with success. If a player says, 'I keep asking citizens if they know the way to FDD Sector,' then arrest him for not knowing what he should already know and treasonously forgot; or did The Computer forget to tell him? But if a player says, 'I go to PLC, buy a fruit basket, ship it to the briefing room for immediate delivery and shadow the delivery guy,' then let him find the briefing room and give him some extra Perversity Points for being clever.
So there you have it. Always use briefings to give the official missions some structure (or at least a point). Include a briefing officer, a location, some mission objectives, some MBDs and rewards and punishments. Then make sure the briefing isn't too long, too deadly or too bizarre, and let the players get the briefing out of the way so the mission can start.
It's a shame when all those deathtraps and catch-22's go unused.
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