In search of rampant competition

[radiantfracture]

Does anyone know a fun indie TTRPG with competitive elements? All the ones I know are delightfully co-operative...

It doesn't actually have to be super indie, but it does have to be something a student could read and come to grips with over a couple of weeks, so not all of D&D for example. (Though D&D isn't actually competitive, now that I think of it -- combative but collaborative.)

So let's say the main criteria are that it is a game with story and/or character, but also there are competitive elements between the players.

I found an intriguing list of just such games, but it's from 2006 and all the links are dead.

{rf}

Comments

[radiantfracture]

And it is fun? :D

Is there anything about it that would make it unsuitable for study by a first-year college student?

[elusis]

Well, it is fun. :)

The player characters frequently receive mission instructions from the Computer that are incomprehensible, self-contradictory, or obviously fatal if adhered to, and side-missions (such as Mandatory Bonus Duties) that conflict with the main mission. Failing a mission generally results in termination of the player character, but succeeding can just as often result in the same fate, after being rewarded for successfully concluding the mission. They are issued equipment that is uniformly dangerous, faulty, or "experimental" (i.e., almost certainly dangerous and faulty). Additionally, each player character is generally an unregistered mutant and a secret society member (which are both termination offenses in Alpha Complex), and has a hidden agenda separate from the group's goals, often involving stealing from or killing teammates. Thus, missions often turn into a comedy of errors, as everyone on the team seeks to double-cross everyone else while keeping their own secrets. The game's manual encourages suspicion between players, offering several tips on how to make the gameplay as paranoid as possible.


But I don't know if it violates your ask in terms of complexity - I've never run a game and it's been decades since I played it. As, in fact, a first-year college student. But looking briefly at the Wikipedia entry, it sounds like Paranoia XP, "Zap version," might be workable.

Someone crowdfunded a card-based adaptation of it in 2017, which I admit that I bought and have not played ever.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paranoia_(role-playing_game)

[radiantfracture]

This is beginning to sound vaguely familiar... I think it must have been described to me back in the 1990s, though I don't know if I actually played it. Mmmaybe.