Need some info about an RPG

So I have been a fan of mechwarrior since I was a kid and only within the past couple years have I discovered an RPG existed. I bought the core books for second and third edition and got A Time of War recently. Is it just me or is this RPG totally unplayable?

What I mean is, the game has you design a mech pilot character, then tell you that you can't play without buying the actual table top mini war game. So the core book becomes a total lie since you can't actually be a mechwarrior in Mechwarrior/Battletech.

If I am wrong and it is possible to play with JUST the core book, please let me know. I hate games that have a core book and then reveal, inside, that you actually need supplements to play cause the core book is just a sample like how New World of Darkness seems to be.

Haven't played BattleTech myself, so I can't comment on that, but I think the comment about new World of Darkness is a bit unfair. The core book for that game was only ever meant to be about the mortal side of it, they were very clear about that from the start. World of Darkness is a series of games that run on the core mortal mechanics, of course they're not going to give you rules for Vampires, Werewolves, Changelings, Hunters, Prometheans, Mages and so on in that central book. For one thing, the book would be ridiculously big, and it'd be a terrible business model.

I have a copy of the MechWarrior RPG but speaking as a Mecha-niac I had a lot more fun designing mechs and playing with the loadouts with Battletech.

When I was playing Battletech we rotated this game with traditional RPGs like Call of Cthulhu and AD&D when we wanted roleplaying. The whole appeal of giant warmachines with guns the size of utility poles is stomping around, blowing things up, getting blown up in return and dragging your battered machine back to base leaking hydraulic fluid from every orifice. In effect, the giant robot becomes your character and roleplaying the pilot inside is kind of superfluous for this genre.

The RPG is supposed to be a secondary add-on to the tactical game. I can't understand why anyone would want to play MechWarrior without the tactical war-game because the latter is the essential essence of the MechWarrior experience.

If you don't want to play the war-game, you should really be playing a different rpg altogether.

Right fine. Just saying I don't like the games that require more than one book really to play. So I am wondering how in the mechwarrior/battletech rpgs you are supposed to play it when there is no way to be a mechwarrior without also buying the war game.

Also wondering, as a gm, how I "advance" a player in Paranoia. Like exp, levels, skill points, etc..

I also picked up Shadowrun 5th edition and it is overwhelming.

Simple answer, you're not. BattleTech is really more of a companion to the war game, based on what LazarX said. Similar to the Iron Kingdoms RPG, it uses very similar rules to the Warmachine/Hordes skirmish games, and as written basically requires you to have minis and a battle field setup, since it uses actual measurements instead of just squares representing 5ft of terrain.

If you really want to run mech-pilot role-playing without the war game, the only way I can think of would be to homebrew something to handle it.

Just a few examples of games that you only need one book for if you're looking for some:

- Shadowrun 5th Edition (though as you said, it is complex, and there will be further rulebooks later when Catalyst get around to it).
- Hollowpoint, rules light game focused on heists and so on, meant to emulate movies like Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction etc. Not great for long term play
- Don't Rest Your Head, surreal horror roleplaying, again not great for long running games. Has one supplementary book, but it's entirely unnecessary.
- Fate Core/Fate Accelerated, easy to run, easy to customise for whatever you want to play. If you want it even more streamlined, grab the Accelerated edition.
- Part Time Gods, fantasy game where the players play as normal people who receive divine sparks, very simple system.
- AMP: Year One, upcoming super hero game from the guy who made Part Time Gods
- Unhallowed Metropolis, steampunk horror fantasy set in a dying world
- Godlike, gritty superhero game where heroes stay in the shadows.
- The Laundry RPG, horror/dark comedy game that mixes Call of Cthulhu with British public service bureaucracy and spying. Has plenty of additional books, but you don't need them.

No idea if that helps or not, but hopefully it does.

As for Paranoia, I've never had characters get to the point of needing advancement, so I can't be of much help there sorry.

Ok here is what I am saying. The Battletech A Time of War is advertised as roleplaying game and didn't say anywhere that the tabletop is needed. That the book is all you need. So they lied and essentially robbed me with false advertising? I have heard of it called, on other forums, as "get out of your mech RPG." And some people like the lore and universe of the battletech world, not just the combat. The politics of the great houses, corporate espionage, and all that stuff with the occasional mech combat. The book is huge but you would think the rules would be there on how to run it really. Heck, there is a Warhammer 40K roleplaying game and you don't need the tabletop war game to play it. I just want what was advertised to me. A fully fledged out roleplaying game in the Battletech Universe. Heck, reading through the book, it didn't even mention other books.

Sorry if I am coming off as hostile though. I am running Paranoia's Mr Bubbles campaign for some people. They are close to the end and each have 3 clones left.

I own mechwarrior 2nd edition boxes CityTech, AeroTech, BattleTech Reinforcements, and the battletech main box (Yes I know these are the war game) and the mech technical specs book including the unseen mechs and the mechwarrior RPG. Then I habe the Battletech Compendium The Rules of Warfare book by fasa which is a thin book with 3rd edition stuff, then I bought A Time of war. The 2nd and 3rd edition stuff I got for $10 total.

I own Call of Cthulhu V5.56 and Delta Green, though a dog chewed a corner off my delta green book. I have played Shadowrun 4th edition and hated how it treated the hacker/decker and really want to learn Shadowrun 5th, but the best way really is to find a group of easy going experienced people and join them. Anyone doing that here?

Like I said, I haven't played the BattleTech RPG (I get my mech shenanigans from CthulhuTech if I want it, though even there I tend to ignore mech pilots in favour of Engels and Tagers). So I can't comment on the book. But if people are referring to it as the "get out of your mech RPG", that to me sounds like it's going to be focused on the human side of it, not the mech side. So I'm not entirely sure what is missing here. Is it that there's insufficient rules for running out of the mech combat and so on?

Given that Shadowrun 5th Ed is relatively recent, I don't know how many really experienced groups you'll find. I've got the 4th edition rules but never played it, last time I played was 2nd or 3rd edition rules (can't remember which). So I'm having to teach myself it from scratch pretty much to run my upcoming games... going to be interesting.

I have never heard of CthulhuTech and I am very intrigued. I have been trying to find a group that plays any non-d20 cthulhu game for years. I have only ever GMed Horror on the Orient Express but never finished because my players just spent the whole time trying to grind skill points from using skills in dumb ways. One guy tried to raise his hide skill by hiding from the postal worker at his door. Another kept trying to use photography in a fight with a dimensional shambler.

But yeah Shadowrun 4th has almost a 3.X D&D level of bloat and some books, like War, are considered broken for the Adept. Also there is no reason to be a hacker in it because anyone can do it if they have the money since it does not use your logic attribute at all. Instead, every program basically has a built in wizard.

My confusion with Battetech was it had rules for Mech Pilots as well as other things like spies and whatnot, and mech piloting skills. I searched the book cover to cover only to find out, on the forums, that if you want mech combat you have to use the war game which annoyed me. Thanks though Tinkergoth.

Also, and I hope this does not come off as rude, but to that Lazar and folks that call the roleplaying part pointless to the game, that is like saying playing the roleplaying game of WOTC era D&D is a pointless add on to just the combat of the minis game. Some people prefer the world lore from the novels and whatnot and playing in that rather than just fighting. Heck the novels I have read in Battletech were mostly about the people while the mech combats were just a small portion of it.

As an aside, in case you're interested in trying CthulhuTech.

It's definitely worth a look, though the books can be hard to track down these days (PDFs are readily available though). The system is fairly solid, though it does have it's quirks. It's basically Lovecraftian Horror meets anime (think Neon Genesis Evangelion, RahXephon, Guyver and so on). Only real issue is that as more books were released, the authors seemed to fall into the trap of thinking that to keep the theme, the game had to be unrelentingly horrifying and nasty. It's more of a fluff issue than a mechanical one, but when

The thing to be aware of with it, that tripped a lot of groups up, was how to maintain balance. The trick is to decide what kind of game you're going for, and make sure everyone builds PCs to match it. So if you want to run a mech-pilot game, make sure everyone's running Mechs (you can still do out of mech stuff easily). Likewise, if you're running Engel pilots (Engels are basically mass produced Evangelions, so bio-mechs), don't try and mix in foot soldiers, it just doesn't work. Run investigative games with standard humans and a few mages, run Tager (think the bio armour from Guyver) games with Tagers, and so on. Otherwise the power levels just get too far out of balance. The types of games you can run are actually really diverse. Though it is worth noting that to get a decent amount of variety for Engels, Mechs, Tagers and so on, you really do need some of the later sourcebooks.

Ok that does seem neat but from what I read in that trigger warning..yeah... See, there are reasons I don't touch things like FATAL. Heck I have trouble running Call of Cthulhu sometimes when it is set in the united states in the 20s or 30s and race becomes an issue with how the players act.

Oh remembered something else I would like info on for RPGs. Whenever we play things more tech based like star wars or whatever, one person in our group always wants to be a pilot and is adamant about it. This always makes the games not happen as I have to explain to him "What are you going to do in the adventure when we're on foot?" This came up when I mentioned mechwarrior. He said he wanted to be a jet pilot. I told him "So you want to be there for one round of combat, then gone for the rest cause jets don't hover?" He just got all huffy. But yeah for star wars games, it gets real boring when the GM has to make a starfighter scene just so he can have something to do when we were all on foot and bounty hunting or exploring old jedi ruins.

Just to be clear, it's nothing like FATAL. Like I said, it's mainly a fluff thing, and it mostly appears to be in the sample adventures and a few bit here and there in the later books. Easy to rip out those parts. Just something to be aware of.

As for the second part of your post, I think that's largely part of the social contract we form as a group. While it's not 100% the same situation, this example might help you explain it to the player. Until recently, I was involved in a GURPS supers game. A few of us in that game were playing characters that were very definitely loners and anti-heroes by nature, but we understood that to keep the game fun for everyone, we needed to work as a team. So while my character spent most of his time wandering the Rocky Mountains, protecting what he considered to be his territory and looking after towns in his domain, that was his "solo comic" if you like. As soon as the session started, he'd get a communication telling him to meet the group, and he was off for our equivalent of the Justice League stories, except for the occasional time where we'd do character specific stories (each character got one of these that helped resolve major parts of their backstory).

I guess the point is, try to explain to the player that part of these games is understanding that everyone plays as a team. So playing as a starship pilot is fine, so long as he understands that the vast majority of the game is going to take place away from ships, so his character needs to be competent at other stuff as well (and the pilot thing should probably be more of a character backstory more than anything else, through some skill points of whatever at it, but don't focus on it). Likewise, in a MechWarrior game, a jet pilot isn't an appropriate choice, because as you said he's rarely actually going to be able to get involved. It's all about making choices that will allow you to function in the context of the group.

Ok here is what I am saying. The Battletech A Time of War is advertised as roleplaying game and didn't say anywhere that the tabletop is needed. That the book is all you need. So they lied and essentially robbed me with false advertising? I have heard of it called, on other forums, as "get out of your mech RPG." And some people like the lore and universe of the battletech world, not just the combat. The politics of the great houses, corporate espionage, and all that stuff with the occasional mech combat. The book is huge but you would think the rules would be there on how to run it really. Heck, there is a Warhammer 40K roleplaying game and you don't need the tabletop war game to play it. I just want what was advertised to me. A fully fledged out roleplaying game in the Battletech Universe. Heck, reading through the book, it didn't even mention other books.

They didn't false advertise you. They're simply selling to an audience which with your lone exception is basically Battletech wargamers. I don't think you quite understand the culture. When FASA, the folks who first had the franchise, were running things, they actually had Mech cockpits in several venues (including a huge Battle Center in Chicago) in which you could pilot a mech with all the realism you might desire. I'm not kidding in full complex mode, the cockpit has as many working controls as a modern jet fighter.

Even the novel plot stories are generally setups for the big mech combats. That IS the culture the RPG was created for. You've somehow managed to miss out on that, which I find almost hard to believe.

They didn't lie to you... they just didn't count on you being so obtuse, as to miss the forest for the tree.

Also wondering, as a gm, how I "advance" a player in Paranoia. Like exp, levels, skill points, etc..

You're not doing a proper job as a Paranoia GM if the question is coming up. :)

LazarX, calling someone obtuse is pretty rude. I expect civility and on these forums and no personal attacks.

Look, the game is advertised as a stand alone RPG and all you need, plus there is a quick start guide solely for the RPG to get players into it. I do love the mechwarrior video games but the roleplaying game is a separate entity entirely. The four (technically five) entities of experiencing Battletech are the board game, the novels, the roleplaying game, the video games, and possibly the tv show from way back. Yes, the combat aspect may have been how it started but things change over time. Initially, Magic the gathering was supposed to be people buying a deck and just a couple boosters to supplement but that changed. D&D was initially intended to be a table top war game but that changed heavily to a roleplaying game. If they didn't want people roleplaying with the lore and other aspects of battletech, they never would have made the roleplaying game at all. Heck, even the old dos game let you train as a footman and go through school instead of just jumping into mech combat. There is a massive world of lore that people want to play in, not just fight in. That's kinda like saying you are playing cyberpunk wrong if you don't get augmented with cyberware. It is a massive multi-aspect world with many ways to enjoy it. Oh, Fallout is a video game but there is also a roleplaying game. Am I wrong if I want to play the roleplaying game because the video game is how it was intended? Same for Dragon Age. Heck there is a ghostbusters roleplaying game and TMNT as well. If I am playing those, I'm not playing the video games or reading the comics. Is that wrong, too?

Don't call someone wrong for not always wanting the same thing you do.

Sorry for going off. I just hate it so much when people throw insults. And yes Obtuse is an insult. You called me simpleminded. Very rude indeed.

Tinkergoth, what is some advice you can give when a DM constantly nerfs your powers in a supers game like Marvel Superheroes by TSR just because you use them in a creative way to be almost godlike? I mean like, ok we all did full random rolls to make our characters, powers and all. I got the power of molding. I can change the shape of any object and it looks like claymation when I do that. He was ok with this and didn't make me reroll. The written rule on it is the only way to stop the power is to have a force field, specific magic powers, or shapeshifting power. As soon as I start using it to flatten sentinels into flat discs or cube shapes, he drops the rule out of nowhere that it doesn't work on their metal. Yet enemies that have that power remain unchanged and just rock us. I ended up retiring my character cause I was fed up and he said I ruined his game by doing that, and scrapped the whole thing. He was also pulling the "Special NPC you can't touch even if you figure out how" type GM cheating. Like, Doctor Octopus was supposed to escape but I used molding to attack his tentacles to the floor. He took the power book, re-read my power, then decided that doc ock has a forcefield around his tentacles after the fact. No, finding a new GM isn't really an option as it is a small factory town and there aren't any other GMs. He seems to be ok though when he uses and adventure path in things like pathfinder.

About Paranoia. My job is not to just kill them. My job is to stack the deck against them and let them screw with eachother. Also, like every GM should do, I reward them for being smart (or funny) when they manage to find a way out of their situations. They are sorta surviving because they decided to try and get the mission done so they called truce. So far though, they have been run over by autohacks, sprayed with napalm from a misfire, and executed for killing a green citizen.

I'm pretty flat out here today, let me have a think about it and I'll get back to you when I get home from work. It can be a difficult situation to handle, and it's something I've been meaning to write an article about for a while, so thanks for the reminder. Might be the nudge I need to finally do something about it :)

Well that's convenient. Good luck with that. I mean to each their own but I am a firm believer in if the player thinks of a way to turn a situation to their advantage that the GM did not consider, they should be rewarded not punished. Also there's GMs having their NPCs act on information they would have no way of knowing.

Oh in Paranoia though, how do I deal with tension and clearance? Not to clear on it.

LazarX, calling someone obtuse is pretty rude. I expect civility and on these forums and no personal attacks.

Look, the game is advertised as a stand alone RPG and all you need, plus there is a quick start guide solely for the RPG to get players into it. I do love the mechwarrior video games but the roleplaying game is a separate entity entirely. The four (technically five) entities of experiencing Battletech are the board game, the novels, the roleplaying game, the video games, and possibly the tv show from way back. Yes, the combat aspect may have been how it started but things change over time. Initially, Magic the gathering was supposed to be people buying a deck and just a couple boosters to supplement but that changed. D&D was initially intended to be a table top war game but that changed heavily to a roleplaying game. If they didn't want people roleplaying with the lore and other aspects of battletech, they never would have made the roleplaying game at all. Heck, even the old dos game let you train as a footman and go through school instead of just jumping into mech combat. There is a massive world of lore that people want to play in, not just fight in. That's kinda like saying you are playing cyberpunk wrong if you don't get augmented with cyberware. It is a massive multi-aspect world with many ways to enjoy it. Oh, Fallout is a video game but there is also a roleplaying game. Am I wrong if I want to play the roleplaying game because the video game is how it was intended? Same for Dragon Age. Heck there is a ghostbusters roleplaying game and TMNT as well. If I am playing those, I'm not playing the video games or reading the comics. Is that wrong, too?

Don't call someone wrong for not always wanting the same thing you do.

Magic the Gathering was not designed to be a game with just couple of decks. it was designed to be an addictive hobby in which players would be driven to collect more and rarer cards. You either were someone who eventually carried briefcases of cards to tournaments, or you quit the game early on.

Mechwarrior was never intended to be a standalone RPG. It was designed as an integrated adjunct to the tactical war-game. And it was marketed to those war gamers who were looking for a roleplaying component as well as role-players who were developing an interest in wargaming. None of the other games you're talking about were designed as adjuncts but as complete self-contained games. I've read the novels and the lore and for the most part they're setups for the big mech battles in which the major plot points are advanced. Everyone who bought the rpg also bought into the rest of it as well. The major yearly supplements were not new classes but new updates in Mechwarrior designed as the Inner Sphere conflicts moved on into the Clan invasions.

Battletech A Time of War, which is the newest edition is marketed as an RPG. I know you're gonna keep arguing that it's not but this will be the last time I acknowledge you LazarX. You're a rude person and just not worth the effort. A single personal attack in any of your posts just kills all possibility of me taking you seriously. Unless you just wanted to argue, why did you bother even posting after making your point? Just today I have found people on youtube playing A Time of War with only that book and no mech combat at all. Never call people wrong for playing differently than your way or claiming even that is how everyone does it since I doubt you have direct contact with every mechwarrior fan out there to claim that heresay.

Anyways Tinkergoth, I hope to see that article you intend on writing. Oh and I would like some info on Call of Cthulhu since I can't seem to remember. In 5th ed era at least, were there movement speeds for the odd time a fight does happen? I had a group of investigators on a farm and they chose to stand and fight zombies. I couldn't find much on speed and movement rules so I had to slap things together. Oh! And is there initiative at all in paranoia?

Anyways Tinkergoth, I hope to see that article you intend on writing. Oh and I would like some info on Call of Cthulhu since I can't seem to remember. In 5th ed era at least, were there movement speeds for the odd time a fight does happen? I had a group of investigators on a farm and they chose to stand and fight zombies. I couldn't find much on speed and movement rules so I had to slap things together. Oh! And is there initiative at all in paranoia?

Okay, easy bits first.

Paranoia: Sorry, I'm a really bad source of info for rules on this one. It's been years since I've played it, and my memories of it are more of the stupid shenanigans and long running jokes than of the crunch of it.

Call of Cthulhu: Again, long time since I've played base CoC, but yes, the system does include movement rates. CoC is pretty vague on them, while other games using the BRP system like The Laundry RPG use it more. I think standard human move is 8 units per turn, but what each unit equates to is up to the GM. I could be wrong though, I'd have to track down my Laundry RPG book to check, and at the moment that's easier said than done. I rarely use maps, so it doesn't come up often, but when I do, I generally do it as 1 unit = 1 square on the map.

Now that we've got that out of the way...

It'll take me a little while to get the article written and onto the blog, I have at least a week's worth of updates planned already, but if you like I'll make a note to PM you when it's posted. In the mean time, I'll try and sum up how I look at this sort of situation.

Same as always, there's two sides to it. I haven't got first hand knowledge of the situation, so I'm not going to say that either side is right or wrong. In most cases, both sides actually have some valid points, and there's a bit of give and take needed.

The key point is consistency. House rules are often vital to a group's enjoyment of the game, but they need to be consistent. It shouldn't shift from session to session. That's not to say that every on the fly ruling should be set in stone for future occurrences, in cases like that, the best option is for the GM to say "To keep the game moving, I've decided this, and we'll research it before the next session and make a decision then."

So, to start with everything looks good. The group has decided to roll everything at random, the GM has okayed the powers after reading the rules, and said that he's happy with the rules as written. All good to this point.

It looks like the problem has come into it when the GM realised that he hasn't taken the full scope and impact of the powers on the game into account. I've had similar issues with players in games before, and my usual way of dealing with it is to discuss it with them outside of the session and ask if we can look at finding a way to tone it down that's acceptable to all concerned. Whether that involves putting certain restrictions on the powers, or changing characters if that's what the player wants, whatever works basically.

With handwaving that your powers don't work on the Sentinels, but other enemies with the same power have no problems, we come back to the issue of consistency. If it's been established that they have the same powers, they should have roughly the same boundaries for those powers (there may be some variation to suit concept of course, think of it like archetypes in Pathfinder. 3 people might be playing bards, but could all be very different). That's not to say that handwaving is always a bad thing, sometimes it's worth letting the GM pass something off using the Rule of Cool, but that's normally something that works to the party's favour rather than hindering them, since it's often used as a way to reward a player coming up with a really awesome and/or out of the box solution to a problem. Again, it's all about the player and the GM working together to have fun.

The part about not being able to stop Doc Ock because he meta-gamed it. Okay, based on what you've said, not cool. A couple of reasons he may have done this though. Maybe Doc Ock is meant to be a vital recurring NPC in the story, and he couldn't think of how to workaround his capture on the spot. Maybe he wanted to work it into a bigger chase scene, instead of just having it end quickly. Part of being a GM is learning to handle the curveballs players throw at you and adjust as necessary, but not everyone is able to do it easily. Some people just need more practice and encouragement. Again, it may come back to the fact that he just didn't anticipate how overpowering your abilities were going to be once the game got going.

Saying "You retiring your character has ruined this and I'm not playing anymore"... that one, to my mind, is a big no. Now to be fair, I have stopped a game because the players were ruining it for me... but that was 3 out of 4 in the group, and it was after a year and a bit of them derping around and making no progress on the story at all, while being misogynistic, rude, argumentative, unreliable and generally unpleasant to play with (the 4th player was an unfortunate casualty of the attitude from the other 3). If he's truly not having fun running the game, then I agree that he should stop, but the right way to go about it is to talk to the group and explain what the situation is. Maybe a solution will be found and the game can continue, or maybe everyone agrees to stop and start up a new game. Again, this is just based on one side of the story, his perspective on the matter is likely to be very different.

So to try look at it from his point of view, he might have a great big storyline worked out (a lot of people do this, and then have issues deviating from it), and suddenly there's one player with godlike powers able to basically curbstomp anything thrown at him. Suddenly he's looking at a story in tatters and may not know how to pick up the pieces. I'm not saying this is exactly what happened, but it's a possibility.

The big thing here is going to be communication. Talk with the GM, explain why you were unhappy playing that character. See if he'll continue the game with you running a different character, or with nerfed (within reason) abilities that have clear guidelines. Don't get angry with him, because A) it's not worth getting worked up over, and B) it'll just make it harder to work things out. Talk calmly, politely, and see if you can come to a compromise. Use anything I've written if you want to and think it will help, just remember that the game needs to be fun for everyone, the GM included.

Hope that helps. Wrote a little more than I'd planned to, but at least it gives me a bit of a basis for the article when I get around to it.

Oh we talked and here is what came up. He claimed he ended the game because one, since I retired my character it set of a chain reaction in the group causing two others to retire their characters. We all wanted to try new guys and we were at that adventure's end. Felt like a good stopping point to us.

Next, he said he feels villains should not be nerfed as well because the players have to have a challenge and it isn't fair to ask him to make the villains follow the same rules. I countered by asking how is that fair to us at all and there are plenty of villains out there that just get stomped by heroes, plus there are heroes that start off really powerful too. Their stories don't revolve around gaining power but learning to hold back and saving the people in their lives. Power and responsibility and all that. Also the Marvel Superheroes system is designed to be total random roll based because nobody really gets to choose what powers they get or how powerful they come out as. And yes, there is sort of a control system. If you roll too high on a power, you have to spend karma (exp) to reduce your roll so you don't accidentally kill someone.

For the adventure, he was adamant on us playing the next part of the story where each session would have us take control of a different 4 hero team with pre-generated characters so we would learn more of their motivation. I had to tell them that as roleplayers, we would not be allowed to actually learn anything since using any information they gain for our own characters is metagaming, plus we wanted to play characters we made.

It also turned out he was trying to build up to the One More Day and Marvel Civil War storyline. We all thought it would be a story separate from any marvel universe and not bound by the adventures in the comics, since that is what he told us.

Ah. Unfortunately this actually sounds more like a case of completely incompatible goals for a group. Not much I can really suggest there sorry...

Ok lets see another thing here. There is a player in my group that refuses to even try any roleplaying game he is unfamiliar with because, in his words, he needs to be able to tell what is going to happen based on how he has seen the writers make adventures. That is why he likes D&D and pathfinder. He is used to it and pretty much always knows how an adventure path will go cause they are kinda predictable. he hates paranoia because he is not allowed to read the entire book and that the rules can change on a whim of the computer and ultra violets. Same goes for his reason why he wont play many other games. Is there any way you can think of to actually get this guy play other stuff? We don't have many players in this town since it is a big community of "If you're not working or meeting women, you are wasting time." I can't even get this guy to try the doctor who game and he likes the show.

Not a situation I've really had to deal with since I finished school sorry. And back then, everyone was happy to play D&D cause it was all we had access to in that town (we relied on my uncle bringing game books down from the city when he visited).

In my current location, while it can be a little tricky to get the groups sorted, generally I can find enough players for any game I want to run.

Do you have enough players that you could still run a game without him? About the only thing I can really think of is saying to him that the group is going to run something else, and he can join in if he wants, or he can wait until you're playing D&D again. The idea of not having any games to play might get him to try it.

Not playing wont bother him much. He is a bit of a shut in and only goes out for D&D. Aside from that, he does a lot of forum RP.

Eh the only other person in town I know of, over the age of 18 (I require legal adults in our group) that plays is kinda..well...he still hits on high school girls so I don't want him near me. It's not a good situation. I have considered putting an add in the local game shop (It's just a candy shop that sells magic cards and sometimes special ordered books) but again, it's mostly kids that go there and that wont go over well. RPG night is our night to cut loose. Light drinking, lots of cussing and off colour comments, and other things.

Also due to the skulls and shackles campaign, I am starting to get the "Killer GM" rep. Thing is, I was the only GM in our group (Rotating GM) that didn't handhold players since we have been a group for the better part of a decade. Told them right out that yes, they have to deal with spell components if they are expensive like in raise spells and stupidity will have its consequences. After all, open sea and pirates. PVP almost happened several times, but people that were agitating other players would tend to die in encounters and the rest of the party would not revive them. I still remember in book two when I rolled on the encounter table. 2d4 Saltwater Merrows. I rolled 8 but since they were in a ship to ship chase that spanned multiple days, I had half attack the other ship. Still, four slaughtered half their crew and one or two PCs. They were gonna wipe early on so I made the call that after getting enough "meat" to take with them, the merrows jump overboard and leave. But yeah, I am the Killer GM now among this town and the next town over's gamer community. I have never killed anyone arbitrarily but yes, there were a lot of deaths when I ran Skulls and Shackles. Mainly because these experienced roleplayers thought that since I was new to GMing Pathfinder/D&D it would be cake. They forgot I was a Call of Cthulhu GM before that and I do Paranoia over skype.

By the way currently in Paranoia, one guy tried wiping napalm off of his reflec pant legs. He doesn't have hands now and a docbot put molds on the stumps that will regrow them in an hour and a half. 250 credits of course and the happiness officer is keeping him doped up. Also unfortunately, the napalm on his red jumpsuit had blue dye in it (The IR market guy's special blend) and the C&R officer had the computer in a call at the moment.

Hmmm. Well, if you have enough players to run something else without him for a while, I'd say go with that. If the dude really doesn't want to play anything else, I don't think there's a lot you can do. People can be surprisingly stubborn about things like this.

I can definitely understand not wanting that kind of person around. I also only have adults in my group, except for the teenage group that my cousin put together, I run games for them to teach them the rules of various systems while they decide what they want to play. But the regular games I run, yeah, adults only.

The Killer GM rep can be a hard thing to shake. Sometimes (as it sounds with your situation) it's not even deserved, just a case of dice rolls going against the party. I'll admit that I'm a proponent of not letting characters die trivial deaths, and I'll on occasion fudge rolls to stop something utterly stupid from killing someone off (though if the dice keep telling me that's going to happen, after multiple rolls, then I'm more likely to let it stand, since a higher power than me seems to be demanding their blood). That said, I won't save them from themselves (Example: Shattered Star, party is webbed by spiders, they spend all their time trying to break free instead of fighting through the penalties, so they're all getting wasted by the spiders. Wizard has the bright idea of trying to use burning hands... except that the spiders are clustered around his team mates... spiders make saves, team mates don't. Almost a TPK, and the only reason one of them survived was that he had a plot twist card that got him rescued just before he was about to expire).

Ah Paranoia... kind of want to play it again now.

I will fudge dice if my players are having trouble but if they are having an easy time, I may fudge a little the other way. No cakewalks and all that. I try to encourage players, in any game, to have a little strategy and unless an NPC actually is dumb, I will almost never allow them to have stupid tactics. Also rarely do sapient enemies fight to the death. If they are going to lose, they will try to run or surrender. I also make sure that the party's reputation follows them if they are around a rotating group of NPCs a lot and those NPCs like to talk. Say, like if the PCs announce who they are and then start a tavern brawl. That REALY came back to bite them in Skulls and Shackles when they announced how they got their ship in a full tavern at the wharf. My rule is, you can act how ever you want in my games but stupidity will come back to bite you.

Call of Cthulhu, for instance, one player lost his wrecked copy of De Liber Ivonis and then saw a flyer showing the "new display" at the miskatonic library. He tried to break in and steal it back, starting with beating up a security guard then running out before the police came. He tried again the next day by first summoning a dimensional shambler in the street and had it attack a foot patrolling police officer. It couldn't get in because there was an elder sign above the door of the library inside. Well he went in, punched the security guard in the groin and ran out. This time he ran to the cemetery to hide in a tomb. When he went in there, he stumbled upon a ghoul having dinner and got attacked. He survived because of the police tracking him with dogs which scared the ghoul deeper into the tunnels it was using. Well he ended up retiring his character and quit the game cause he was mad at me. Apparently having his character arrested just because "He was playing his character" is something a GM shouldn't do according to him. He never played in one of my games again and I have not missed him.

Am I wrong in how I punish stupidity? Also I wont go into details about the skulls and shackles game due to spoilers but if you have played it, you know what I am talking about.