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Paranoia Gambit
- 91 statements
- 16 feature instances
- 98 referencing feature instances
| Paranoia Gambit | type |
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| Paranoia Gambit | label |
Paranoia Gambit | |
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| Paranoia Gambit | comment |
Alice tells Bob that she will "get him". Bob freaks out and goes to great lengths to avoid falling victim to her plans. In the end, it turns out that Alice wasn't going to do anything to him and that her whole plan was to just sit back and let his paranoia make him do stupid things to himself. A variation commonly occurs where the gambit is not intentional, and Alice admits that she actually was going to do something to him, but everything Bob did to himself was much better than what she had planned. This is usually a case of Restrained Revenge, although it can also be a practical joke with no prior provocation. It may overlap with Self-Fulfilling Prophecy when paranoia of a specific event (even if it's unlikely) causes said event to occur. The nastier versions may overlap with Fright Deathtrap. Since it relies on the mark's paranoia, it resembles a Batman Gambit. Compare Confound Them with Kindness, where Alice acts nicely towards Bob after the fact to confuse him. Often this relies on making something innocent look like Shmuck Bait. Also compare Kansas City Shuffle, where the target's attempts to outmaneuver a con set him up for the real con. Also #20 of The Thirty-Six Stratagems. Compare and contrast with Properly Paranoid and Improperly Paranoid. |
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Dropped link to CryingWolf: Not an Item - FEATURE | |
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| Paranoia Gambit | isPartOf |
DBTropes | |
| Paranoia Gambit / int_2dab4fef | type |
Paranoia Gambit | |
| Paranoia Gambit / int_2dab4fef | comment |
Snopes has an article debunking the myth that a car engine can be destroyed by putting sugar in the gas tank... but notes that since the myth is so widely believed, you could seriously mess with a person by simply spilling a bit of sugar on the ground near their car's gas hatch and dropping an empty sugar bag nearby. | |
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| Snopes (Website) | hasFeature |
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| Paranoia Gambit / int_35e05f2a | type |
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| Paranoia Gambit / int_35e05f2a | comment |
In RWBY, a number of villains have played on General Ironwood's fears and Control Freak tendencies to manipulate him into traps. The clearest example, however, comes in Volume 7's "Gravity": After Ironwood manages to undermine the villains' plans for once by telling the truth and uniting Atlas and Mantle, Cinder leaves a chess piece on his desk as a taunt. He takes this as sign that he was playing right into Salem's hands and reverses his plans, turns on the heroes, and tries to abandon Mantle, effectively destroying all of his resources in the process and leaving Atlas ripe for the taking. | |
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| RWBY (Web Animation) | hasFeature |
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| Paranoia Gambit / int_36ee2abe | type |
Paranoia Gambit | |
| Paranoia Gambit / int_36ee2abe | comment |
Paranoia: Friend Gamemaster is encouraged to occasionally roll dice for no particular reason and smirk, or pass a note to a PC that just says "Act like this note says something important". (Or better yet, "Roll _____ and tell me the result", because then they're in the dark too.) | |
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| Paranoia (Tabletop Game) | hasFeature |
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| Paranoia Gambit / int_3f4a104b | type |
Paranoia Gambit | |
| Paranoia Gambit / int_3f4a104b | comment |
An early Dilbert comic has Dogbert chuckling around Dilbert. Dilbert immediately figures out that Dogbert is only doing this so Dilbert will think Dogbert has played some kind of prank, so Dogbert upgrades to maniacal laughter. Dilbert does the same, and the strip ends with both of them sitting back to back, maniacally laughing, as Ratbert enters. | |
| Paranoia Gambit / int_3f4a104b | featureApplicability |
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| Dilbert (Comic Strip) | hasFeature |
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| Paranoia Gambit / int_41c629e2 | type |
Paranoia Gambit | |
| Paranoia Gambit / int_41c629e2 | comment |
Baby Blues: In one Sunday strip, Zoe goes to take a shower and warns Hammie not to try and scare her. In fact, just to make sure, she announces that she intends to lock the door. Hammie says, "Good," which convinces Zoe he must have rigged the doorknob somehow. She announces she won't touch it to prevent his trick from working, but then realizes that means he can come in and scare her like always. That being said, Zoe is also capable of doing this towards Hammie. On more than one occasion, she's told Hammie stories with the intention to either scare him or mess with him. |
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| Baby Blues (Comic Strip) | hasFeature |
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| Paranoia Gambit / int_42ffb88e | type |
Paranoia Gambit | |
| Paranoia Gambit / int_42ffb88e | comment |
SCP Foundation: Dr. Clef is very fond of these. | |
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| SCP Foundation (Website) | hasFeature |
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| Paranoia Gambit / int_583fe53f | type |
Paranoia Gambit | |
| Paranoia Gambit / int_583fe53f | comment |
The same plot device is the basis of the American remake The Man with One Red Shoe, between the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency and his ambitious, backstabbing subordinate. | |
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| The Man with One Red Shoe | hasFeature |
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| Paranoia Gambit / int_5bcfe070 | type |
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| Paranoia Gambit / int_5bcfe070 | comment |
In Unreal Estate, Kisei does this to the man who had her father killed, promising to come back and kill him on a Wednesday. "Maybe next week, maybe 20 years from now." She has no intention of coming back. | |
| Paranoia Gambit / int_5bcfe070 | featureApplicability |
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| Unreal Estate | hasFeature |
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| Paranoia Gambit / int_78ae0d07 | type |
Paranoia Gambit | |
| Paranoia Gambit / int_78ae0d07 | comment |
You Don't Know Jack, starting in volume 3, has a category known as Impossible Questions, mind-bendingly difficult questions which are worth a game-breaking $20,000 to whoever can get one right (or a game-breaking loss of $20,000 for whoever gets one wrong.) One of the Impossible Questions is from a category called "It's a Dog!" The question is "What has four legs, barks, and is a common household pet?" Awkward silence from the contestants. (The answer really is "a dog.") | |
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| You Don't Know Jack (Video Game) | hasFeature |
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| Paranoia Gambit / int_89d71fb5 | type |
Paranoia Gambit | |
| Paranoia Gambit / int_89d71fb5 | comment |
Non-Stop: The bad guy frames Marks as the hijacker and counts on him unwittingly acting like he is hijacking the plane because he wants to expose the incompetence of the air marshals and American security in general. It works better than expected when the passengers turn on him. | |
| Paranoia Gambit / int_89d71fb5 | featureApplicability |
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| NonStop | hasFeature |
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| Paranoia Gambit / int_9d34190a | type |
Paranoia Gambit | |
| Paranoia Gambit / int_9d34190a | comment |
In The Elder Scrolls series, one of the myths surrounding Sheogorath, the Daedric Prince of Madness, has a wizard come to him asking for power. Sheogorath says he can have it, if Sheogorath fails to drive the wizard insane within three days. The fear drives said wizard completely bonkers even though Sheogorath hadn't actually bothered doing anything. | |
| Paranoia Gambit / int_9d34190a | featureApplicability |
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| The Elder Scrolls (Franchise) | hasFeature |
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| Paranoia Gambit / int_b3f687d1 | type |
Paranoia Gambit | |
| Paranoia Gambit / int_b3f687d1 | comment |
FoxTrot: When Peter accidentally destroyed Jason's rocket, the latter proclaimed that he will have his vengeance in the next 12 hours. This led to Peter, among other things, jumping out of his room window after hearing a knock on the door, hiding all the knives in the house inside the toilet tank, destroying his mom's rose bush by hiding in it, hiding under the couch dirtying the house (all of the aforementioned actions causing him to be grounded), eating leaves for dinner and lying on dog poop for several hours. Just as Jason planned. Another strip had Paige getting ready to eat a sandwich only to find Peter staring at her with an evil grin. She proceeds to bombard Peter with questions about why he's smiling and if he did something to her sandwich (specifically spitting on it) only for him to constantly shoot her down. Paige then dares him to eat the sandwich... All three Fox siblings have fallen for this at some point. Another strip has Jason hiding in the garbage after playing some prank on Paige. Peter and Paige then talk about how they love it when their little brother punishes himself. |
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| Paranoia Gambit / int_b3f687d1 | featureApplicability |
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| FoxTrot (Comic Strip) | hasFeature |
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| Paranoia Gambit / int_c00034c2 | type |
Paranoia Gambit | |
| Paranoia Gambit / int_c00034c2 | comment |
Beetle Bailey: "The trick was, there was no trick." | |
| Paranoia Gambit / int_c00034c2 | featureApplicability |
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| Beetle Bailey (Comic Strip) | hasFeature |
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| Paranoia Gambit / int_cc69e03e | type |
Paranoia Gambit | |
| Paranoia Gambit / int_cc69e03e | comment |
VGA Planets: If you're controlling a faction that has cloaking technology, having your ships pop into view in an enemy's territory can cause them to panic and waste time and resources, even if you don't actually have the ships do anything. | |
| Paranoia Gambit / int_cc69e03e | featureApplicability |
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| Paranoia Gambit / int_cc69e03e | featureConfidence |
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| VGA Planets (Video Game) | hasFeature |
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| Paranoia Gambit / int_dbbd4a28 | type |
Paranoia Gambit | |
| Paranoia Gambit / int_dbbd4a28 | comment |
Early in Amnesia: The Dark Descent, it will give you the helpful hint of how to hide from monsters. There are no monsters for quite a while. Not that you'd know that. The game in general does this so well, minor sounds can get you to scream just because the tension is that high and you're that paranoid. | |
| Paranoia Gambit / int_dbbd4a28 | featureApplicability |
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| Amnesia: The Dark Descent (Video Game) | hasFeature |
Paranoia Gambit / int_dbbd4a28 | |
| Paranoia Gambit / int_e4b79b6d | type |
Paranoia Gambit | |
| Paranoia Gambit / int_e4b79b6d | comment |
In The Tall Blond Man with One Black Shoe, the head of the French secret service pulls one of these on his Starscream number two, by convincing him that a completely random stranger, the titular blond, is in fact a top agent who will 'deal with him'. This causes the number two to get increasingly paranoid, and eventually results in him dying. The same plot device is the basis of the American remake The Man with One Red Shoe, between the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency and his ambitious, backstabbing subordinate. |
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| Paranoia Gambit / int_e4b79b6d | featureApplicability |
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| The Tall Blond Man with One Black Shoe | hasFeature |
Paranoia Gambit / int_e4b79b6d |
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