Paranoid Delusions

Paranoid Delusions

Designer: Brian R. Train
Publisher: Microgame Design Contest
Type: Miscellaneous
Status: Free
Available from: http://tomhiggins.googlepages.com/mdc2006

The 'paranoid style', a term coined by Richard Hofstadter in 1964, is now a pervasive and inextricable feature of our present day mental culture. Conspiracies, whether they exist or not, are subject to constant investigation and revelation by paranoids, who themselves have real or unreal enemies. So why not make a game of it?

In the game, each player adopts simultaneously two roles: the 'Paranoid', who represents a lone conspiracy nut who must struggle against obscurity, the machinations of external and hostile agencies, and his own weakening grasp on reality to unmask the plots of the other player or players; and the 'Enemy', who represents a network of real or unreal groups hiding a nefarious secret. There are two ways to win the game, and part of a winning strategy is attacking yourself!

What is going on? Well, that's one of the first things each player's Paranoid has to figure out! Meanwhile, the Enemies do their best to mislead the Paranoids, betray their competing plotters to them, or just drive them insane (for purposes of entertainment only, though some people do take their games much too seriously).