Para, paranoia! Paraaaaaaa, paranoiaaaaa!

Doesn't mean they're actually out to get you. Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar. I love players, generally speaking, I count myself as one more than I imagine myself to be a GM.

There is, to me, a line when "healthy paranoia" and plot bogging detail over trivial matters. I'll give a few examples of the situations I have run into recently.

I'm starting a game on Saturdays and I have a pretty good group of players. I'm really excited and I'm trying to build a world they can feel a part of. I want their choices to actually make an impact in their surroundings. It remains to be seen if my reach is further than my grasp or not. However the subject came up in regard of car theft. Not the players stealing cars (a poor beaten dead horse in Shadowrun) but their cars..or rather their car getting stolen. I mentioned that generally speaking I try not to destroy/steal expensive gear but if reasonable precautions are not taken shit happens. Decks get shot, cars get stolen.

So the player that owns the team's car started to worry what I saw as a reasonable precaution. We had a long talk where he expressed his concerns that he might have his car stolen and I tried to reassure him that yes if he locked his car door that he need not worry about his car being stolen more often than not.

To me, that's reasonable paranoia. I can go with that and I have no problem taking the time out of my day to handle the situation.

Its the unreasonable stuff that gets on my tits.

Player: I go up to the bar and order a beer.


GM: The bartender deducts the cost of the beer and slides it across to you.


Player: How did he get access to my comlink?


GM: Uh..you were buying a beer..


Player: OK I take a moment to reboot my comlink. I want to roll judge intentions on the bartender. Does he look nervous now that I have my beer?

GM: Uh...what?

Player: Does it look like he might have slipped something in my beer? I have a chemical analyzer in glove, I stick my finger in the beer to see if there's any drugs in my beer.


GM: What makes you think he's drugged your beer. You just ordered a beer, he gave you a beer!!

Player: I'm just being careful, you never know, someone might have paid him to drug my beer.

GM: Aaaaarrrrghh!!!

Other Players: Does anyone know CPR? I think the GM just had a heart attack.