Daelly Osorio '22

In spring, the on-campus Brooks community typically plays Paranoia — an all-campus game of tag that causes participants to go to extreme lengths to tag their target before being tagged themselves. Complex alliances are formed; schedules are scoured; rules are debated; eventually, a champion is crowned. Each year, two anonymous students manage the game. The Bulletin sat down with the 2021 Paranoia Gamemistress, one of the two students, to hear more about the importance of the game to the Brooks community.

Describe Paranoia. What does it look like?

"Anyone in the on-campus Brooks community can participate. A lot of students play, and we also always have some teachers and other adults playing. The game runs during the academic day. Every day, you're assigned a new target, and your goal for the day is to eliminate your target by tagging them with a piece of cardboard. You've also been assigned as someone else's target, and they're trying to eliminate you. It's pretty silly, and people really get into it. So, we all end up running around, hiding behind trees and around corners."

How do you ensure that the game ends and a champion is crowned before the end of the school year?

"That was a little more of a concern this year. Because of the pandemic and the restrictions we were under, we didn't know if we'd be able to play Paranoia until the last minute. The rules always get looser as the game goes on — we purposefully make it easier to tag people and get tagged — but the game usually starts in April and this year it didn't start until May. We had to drastically change the rules this year to help the game move along. This year, to speed the game up, we gave everyone multiple targets a day instead of just one — that's never been done before! We're on day 12 now, and we've gone from a little more than 160 participants down to around 20."

How did you become the Gamemistress this year? How is the title passed down between students?

"I took initiative. We didn't get to have Paranoia in 2020 because we were all virtual. My colleague from this year, the Gamemaster, and I wanted to bring Paranoia back because we were worried that it wouldn't continue next year — that it would end — if we didn't bring it back this year. An effective Gamemaster or Gamemistress is someone who knows a lot of people in the community, but is also someone who will respect the integrity of the game, who will keep it fair and fun; somebody who cares about the game and will put in the time and work it takes to organize it every day."

What does the game look like behind the scenes? What do you and the Gamemaster do every day?

"We keep a list of everyone who is still playing, and every night we send out an email to each participant naming their target for the next day. At the beginning of the game, randomizing that list and sending those emails out took an hour or two every night. Now that there are fewer people playing, that part is easier. I think the hardest part of being the leader of the game is that we have to deal with a lot of disputed tags and challenges. There are a lot of emotions that come with that because people really don't want to be eliminated from the game. We have to remain impartial and fair, and we end up talking to witnesses and figuring out who to trust. That's challenging, but the fact that the game is happening makes it worth it."

Why is Paranoia important to you? What does it mean to the Brooks community?

'I think it's really a symbol of how fun and connected our community is. People who don't know each other well can come together and talk about what's happening in the game. You get to know people while playing because you have to know a little bit about your target in order to find them and tag them. People form alliances with people they wouldn't normally get a chance to team up with. And, it's just a fun way to see everyone — teachers and students — taking life a little less seriously. It's been nice to have this tradition come back in such a weird year. It gave me a glimpse of the past Brooks, and it made this spring feel more normal and familiar to me."