Paranoia RPG Returns in New Edition

Allen Varney writes "The classic tabletop roleplaying game PARANOIA, originally published by West End Games in the 1980s, returns in a new edition this August from Mongoose Publishing. PARANOIA, the game of a darkly humorous future, is set in an underground Alpha Complex ruled by an insane Computer. I am writing and (re)designing the main rulebook, under direction from original PARANOIA co-designer Greg Costikyan, with contributions from novelist and game designer Aaron Allston. I'd be happy to answer questions from Slashdot's gamers."

Christ! That brings me back!

[phiwum]

Paranoia! Late night playing sessions in the dormitory bathroom (helped the atmosphere of the game somehow). Jeez, what a game.

Of all the old roleplaying games, the only one I still own and cart with me when I move is Paranoia. I'll probably never play it again, but I can't bear to get rid of such an entertaining rulebook.

Good luck with the next edition. It will be hard to write a book that stands up well next to the original.

I have nothing in particular to say, but

[Anonymous Coward]

This is *awesome*.

As a somewhat younger and more recently-introduced gamer, I have never actually seen a copy of this game. However, I have heard about it.. heard very much about it. This game is absolutely legend and I always thought it was a shame it had been lost to the world.

What is different in the new edition? What do you think about the old ed needed revision? Has anything in particular changed about the spirit or tone?

SYB Notes

[mwheeler01]

The most intriguing part of the game for me was the encouraged use of screw your buddy notes. AKA FYB notes, these were fun because you really did get the feeling that everyone was out to get you and this prompted you to scribble off another note the to GM to perfrom a preemptive strike on your team mate because he was obviously a communist.

There is a god! er I mean computer, dont shoot me!

[August_zero]

I pulled out my old second edition Paranoia stuff one night with the group I played D&D with. They had never even heard of the game before, but got the hang of it quick enough. Within the first 30 minuets 2 players were already down 3 clones apiece, several others had lost a clone, and a major reactor leak killing several thousand citizens resulted from an over entusiastic attempt to retrive a bag of crunchy-time algea chips from a fission powered snack machine. Even if I never get the chance to play it, I will definately be buying the book.

In short, it's the best pen and paper RPG ever made. Not that I am biased or anything.

Beta Testers old Module

[dougermouse]

As a long time Paranoia player (I love Randy the wonder lizard), is there going to be a beta testing program? Where can I sign up? And are the modules going to be updated as well? What mods to the tech trees are you going to add considering "pre-whoops!" developments like the Internet?

Which system?

[spamfiltre]

Will the new version have a brand new system, use an existing system (D20, GURPS, ad infinitum), or use a mod of it's original system? Will we see Living Paranoia anytime soon?

My kind of MMORPG

[droleary]

Now I know that the article is mainly about an update to the RPG rules themselves, but I can't help but think how awesome a computer game set in that universe would be. One of the great points of Paranoia is that you go in knowing you're probably going to die a number of times, so you get really attached not to the clones, but to the game play. There are levels of sorts, but not in such a way that the game is about leveling up, so it would still be fun for new players (and/or yourself when you've run through your clones). With the "unseen enemy" angle, you can constantly have the goals of a troubleshooter changing so it would never get stale. The article states rights have been sold for a text version, but if someone wants to make a killing they should snap up rights for a graphic version.

Re:Tinfoil hats

[onyxruby]

Novice, yes, only played a couple times, but a novice that managed to get a paint robot to paint his character blue. GM didn't realize what he'd done until it was too late. Of course being paranoia, I did well to last almost one whole session before my guy was killed and the blue was gone.

Fear and Ignorance! Ignorance and Fear!

[mikeophile]

That was printed on the GM side of the screen just to remind me who was boss in the game.

My poor players never knew what they were in for when I ran that game. Hot fun and happy pills!

I always broke out Paranoia when my CoC or Champions players started getting a little too big for their britches with five hour character generations and rules lawyering.

This game was truly a masterpiece of catharsis for overworked gamemasters. I am so glad it's getting a rework, I could just implode with delight.

Thank you Greg! The computer is the bomb!

No wait! It's just an expression! I didn't really mean bomb! I just...ZZZZZZZZZZZZAAAAAPPP!

Mike-O-Phile2...you are lucky enough to have been activated for duty in service of the Great and Benevolent Computer! You are to report to Mission Room 5 in Slashdot Sector immediately for briefing.

first time players

[sckeener]

Paranoia is one of the few RPG games that new players do the best.

If you are a regular player, you care about your character. Newbies go for broke.

I once knew a cop that attended a Nancon convention here in Houston (back in the day) who had never played Paranoia, but threw himself into the role and won the tournament.

I always wondered if being a cop gave him an edge in that game....i.e. maybe he is a professional Paranoia player...

Re:And its the basis for...

[Anil]

Are you sure you're not thinking of Call of Cthulhu? I don't really see a link between Resident Evil and Paranoia.

The first RE game really just reminded me of Alone in the Dark, which really just reminded me of Call of Cthulhu.

Though, I do see the connection between CoC and Paranoia (mainly because those were the only 2 tabletop RPGs that I really liked and they were both out around the same time).

Is Paranoia a joke between GM and author?

[ChaosDiscord]

I like Paranoia, but I like it in much the same way I like HOL [rpg.net] or Orkworld [rpg.net]. Great read, fascinating ideas, but is it actually playable? The best summary of Paranoia's problems I've seen amounted to basically, "Paranoia feels too much like a private joke between the author of a given adventure and the gamemaster." To players things (notably death) seems a bit arbitrary. The jokes often aren't comprehensible if you don't have context that only the GM has. (The "disco" scene in Yellow Clearance Black Box Blues comes to mind).

If Paranoia is just social commentary and satire, well, that's and interesting read, but it's a basis for a game I play more than once. If it's about humor than the jokes need to be visible to everyone; I'm not going to play a game to amuse my GM. I think that the core game play of Paranoia is supposed to be about the struggle to survive in a bureaucratic nightmare, but that's not the feeling I've gotten from the games I've played. It's unfortunate, because it's such an appealing premise.

I see a lot of potential, but I've never seen it pay off in actual game play. Maybe I've just been unlucky and didn't have GMs up to the task (I've been in love with Shadowrun since the second edition, but only recently actually played in a game I enjoyed), but Paranoia seems like a fundamentally difficult game to get right. The only "famous" module I've played was YCBBB. YCBBB is is generally held to be one of the best modules for the game. What I saw wasn't terribly impressive and appeared to have a strong "private joke between the author and the GM" element. (To be fair, given that the players weren't haven't alot of fun, we stopped playing after only a few sessions.)

So, is the accusation that Paranoia is a private job between the creators and the GM fair? Is there any truth too it? Is Paranoia fundamentally an extremely difficult game to run? Are you changing anything to address these concerns (including possibly working to clarify incorrect perceptions)? What do you feel is the key attraction to playing for players?

Re: Alpha Complex Dandy

[Allen Varney]

I'm an Alpha Complex Dandy
(Sung to the tune of Yankee Doodle Dandy)

Those lyrics were written by Warren Spector, my collaborator on the early Paranoia adventure Send in the Clones. Truth! Warren has since become a well-known producer of computer games, including Deus Ex, and runs the game studio Ion Storm Austin.

Re:Christ! That brings me back!

[Golias]

If you want a game to just read rather than play, the highest honors go to Macho Women With Guns.

Paranoia Live Action

[proggoddess]

I remember the days when I was in college at the University at Buffalo and a member of their gaming club. I learned to play Paranoia by signing up for their LARP version of Paranoia. It's a lot more fun with evil props and no rules. Challenges were arbitrated with the use of old land cards from Magic: The Gathering. If you drew a color that was lower than your security clearance, you won the challenge. Of course the "computer" would always stack the deck against you...

I think this is the URL for the club web page: http://wings.buffalo.edu/sa/sarpa

Re:SYB Notes

[Golias]

If your players were not more confused that you, then something needs to change.

Not that you need to be more clear-headed, just that you should facilitate more confusion among the players.

Back in college, I would prepare notes ahead of time so players could get "secret briefings" from both their Alpha Complex department as well as their secret societies. Nobody could be sure if another player was getting a "top secret" briefing from a superior officer, or plans for treason from a secret society comrade pretending to be a superior officer.

This also ensured that each player would have several different competing motivations, none of which improved their odds of survival, and all of which made their actions very confusing and unpredictable to the other party members.

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Any Additions to Secret Societies?

[netglen]

Now this game was a blast from the past. I remember spending a ton of hours with friends playing Paranoia and Junta. Do you think they'll add /. as a secret society within the Paranoia Universe?

Other games

[mollace]

Will there ever be a new edition of Globbo?

Re:Is Paranoia a joke between GM and author?

[Allen Varney]

Is the accusation that Paranoia is a private job between the creators and the GM fair? Is there any truth to it?

Yes, historically. Too many adventures were written solely to be fun to read, as opposed to fun to play.

Is Paranoia fundamentally an extremely difficult game to run?

No. PARANOIA is generally an extremely easy game to run. Players aren't allowed to demonstrate knowledge of the rules (no rules-lawyer arguments). The Gamemaster has absolute and unquestioned authority. Players generally entertain themselves by busily plotting against one another.

That said, good gamemastering does call for a sharp sense of humor and a willingness to improvise. This can alienate certain prospective Gamemasters.

Are you changing anything to address these concerns (including possibly working to clarify incorrect perceptions?

The PARANOIA supplement line will have to do this. I'm just writing (most of) the basic rulebook. I hope the Mongoose line editor will avoid the trap of PARANOIA's adventures from the latter 1980s and early 1990s, which had The Computer deliberately setting up traps to kill its Troubleshooters. This is all wrong. The Computer means well; it wants loyal Troubleshooters to survive and thrive in its service. The problem is that The Computer is totally nuts and inevitably finds treason even where none exists.

I will certainly include campaign advice along this line in the rulebook, which may help Gamemasters detect and correct errant supplements.

What do you feel is the key attraction to playing for players?

In every other RPG on the market, you're supposed to cooperate with everybody, be a team player, know the rules, and generally behave. In PARANOIA you are specifically enjoined against any of this. You aren't allowed to behave. For players this can be an exhilarating and genuinely liberating experience.

Re:And its the basis for...

[lysander]

Actually, there's a little-known crossover mission between CoC and Paranoia called Call of Computer. It took me forever to find the requisite Pyramid magazine that had it (thanks ebay!).

There's original author has (or had?) a website up with supplemental mission information and scenarios. I can't seem to find it now; google's turning up 404s. I've got a hardcopy of it somewhere...

Haven't ran it yet, mainly because the people I game with don't follow Cthulhu and thus wouldn't get any of the jokes.

Ia! Ia! Ultraviolet programmer with a thousand clones!

Re:From the article

[Allen Varney]

Are you prevented from calling it just plain PARANOIA for copyright reasons? Or is it that you wanted to separate the new version from the old?

We aren't prevented from calling it anything we want. We do want to distinguish it from past editions, but the "XP" name is provisional. Any loyal citizen who provides a better name will earn a commendation point.

Re:From the article

[demi]

But XP also refers to Extreme Programming; and what programming style could fit Paranoia better than one where your "buddy" looks over your shoulder as you code?

Are you going to fix it?

[ArmorFiend]

It seems all the paranoia games I've played in have lead to charges of treason even before getting to the mission briefing. Its a gag game, and as long as you take down your fellow citizen, who cares if you get vaporized as well? Is there going to be an attempt to address this problem, or are the people we play with just curs?

Re:SYB Notes

[Creepy]

I always liked how there was a warning that reading the rulebook is treason (and then encourages reading it...) - we had a rules-lawyer who kept getting himself killed by telling the GM he was running the game wrong or using the wrong table or any number of stupid things...

I went through clones fast sometimes, especially with kill happy GMs, but that guy lost all 6 in less than 20 minutes, and only about 3 of which he had a character in the game - with the most lenient GM I've ever had for Paranoia (heck, I think everyone else made Green or Blue clearance before being finished off). I admit, I've lost 6 in under 20 minutes, myself, with a different, kill happy GM - losing 3 to walking land mines alone and almost losing another for failing to test certain R&D equipment such as the thermonuclear hand grenade, but I DID end up testing it :) My first two clones were killed in the initial briefing when the GM read something like 20 pages of text and you needed to quote one exact sentence or die (and the GM changed the sentence after I failed the first time).

Re:From the article

[Leperflesh]

Paranoia ME would be a better parallel... millenium edition makes sense in both ways, and of course. Windows ME is almost psychopathically broken, which is appropriate too...

-Lep

Hunter Planet

[Anonymous Coward]

If you liked how Paranoia encouraged fun over simply following the rules, then you may also like "Hunter Planet" - The Australian role playing game.

Hunter Planet was set somewhere in the future after the Earth had been discovered by the FOP (Federation of Planets) (not *that* Federation) and sold to an alien safari tours company.

The character classes are completely open, limited only by the player's imagination - anything alien is fine. Back on their home world most characters are shop assistants or salesmen, etc, and are expecting an "exciting" safari tour on this primitive world, called "Dirt" by the natives.

I used to love stumping the players with difficult "puzzles", such as how to open a human door...

"The wall has a rectangular recessed section, with a raised outline, approximately 2 metres high and 1 metre wide. There is a round protuberance about 1 meter high on its left hand side. What do you do?"

(I walk/roll/hover through the "door")

"You bump into it. It doesn't open."

(I push on it)

"Nothing happens"

(I pull)

"Nothing happens"

(I twist the knob)

"Which way?"

(Left)

"Nothing happens"

(Right)

"It turns. Nothing else happens"

(I twist the knob right, and push)

"It turns. Nothing else happens"

(Argh!! I shoot it!)

"What blaster setting, 1 to 5..."

(1)

"There is now a small smoking patch on the recessed panel's surface"

(5)

"OK, the blaster starts to hum slightly, more, and more, until it reaches a deafening pitch, growing uncomfortably hot to hold, and glowing slightly. Do you pull the trigger?..."

Mayem ensues.

http://www.freewebs.com/ariel_archives/Hunter.ht ml

Sadly, it is _long_ out of print...

The computer is your friend.

[Stephen Samuel]

This is, essentially the motto of Paranoia, but there's an extended (and illegal) version of that

• The computer is your friend
• 
  The computer is your only friend
  Trust the computer
  Trust only the computer,
  and remember: in all likelihood the computer wants you DEAD

Basically, every player starts out with 6 clones, a couple of mutant abilities and membership in a small handful of secret societies.

You (usually) start at one of the lowest security ranges (InfraRed) and your goal is to climb to the highest security range (Ultraviolet -> programmer) -- mostly by fixing the damage done by secret societies, commies and mutants.

Oh, and did I mention that exposure of either your mutant abilities or your secret society membership is cause for instant termination??

In any case, my favorite mission occured with a couple dozen of us playing at a science-fiction convention (Orycon, if I remember corectly). Within 45 minutes we had about 8 dead and another dozen or so seriously wounded.

We hadn't made it out of the briefing room.

Re:I have a question...

[slaker]

I ruined someone else's angsty, longstanding "Vampire: the Masquerade" campaign by involving a couple of his players in a run through "Alpha Complexities".

Man, I wish I could've seen those last few sessions.

More Playability

[Anonymous Coward]

Don't get me wrong, I LOVED Paranoia.. well reading the sourcebooks, that is. I found playing it paled in comparison. It was fun, but the lack of structure makes it hard to really play, imho. And I'm used to non-structured play. I often was the GM for my little RPG crew, and most of my adventures were totally ad-libed. I once based an entire adventure around a small metal ball that the player find. There's a button on it, and when you press it, the ball becomes 300lbs heavier. I had absolutely no background thought up or anything.. the party just assumed they'd get in trouble if anyone saw them with this ball, so naturally hijinx ensued as they they tried to carry this around and hide it.

It's just too easy to go off the deep end with Paranoia, to the point where you're not even really playing a game anymore and it's more like improv comedy or something. And your friends aren't professional comedians; no matter how funny you find their antics it's hard for even professionals to do improv for more than 15-30 minutes.

Classic Moments in Paranoia Gaming

[slaker]

1. One of my players realizing the full, evil power of his role as Hygene Officer, in a roomfull of "Real Role Players". He brought along some old bottles of cologne, Listerine, and, soap for the washing of commie, mutant traitors. The poor bastards even went along with it.

2. A paranoia mission known as "Whitewash", wherein players were tasked with painting an Ultraviolet-clearance hallway Black. A Code-7 masterpiece, it was fully capable of killing dozens of clones with literally no prompting on the part of the GM.
Experienced players don't even bother with that one.

3. Telescopalmine. Visomorpain. Rolactin. ...and the side-effects that happen when you take 'em all at the same time.

4. Invisible Commies, sub-bots and Plaid-clearance rooms in "Alpha Complexities".

5. The sheer, character destroying joy of "Me and My Shadow", in which characters are tasked with guarding a Mark IV Continental Siege machine.
Anyone remember the simple joy of "A Piece Falls Off"?

Re:The computer is your friend.

[QEDog]

This games sounds really really interesting. Can anyone provide hyper-links to more information online? I bet the rule-book is hard to find, but where can I learn more about this game?

Re:Extreme Paranoia

[Mike Lemmer]

I have all 3 Paranoia books. Capsule reviews will follow: 1.Extreme Paranoia is THE Paranoia book to get. Although the Troubleshooting team in it doesn't die as often as in real games, the R&D equipment, layers of conspiracy, mishaps, and sick, twisted ingenuity of our hapless Troubleshooters are all on the mark. 2.[Title Deleted for Security Reasons] is okay. The Secret Societies are more involved, but there's a curious lack of death, destruction, and mishaps. It doesn't really pick up until the end, which includes inspired chases through a bureaucratic processing center, R&D, and a nuclear reactor. 3.Stormshooters & Troubleknights is Torg/Paranoia crossover filled with short stories. They're pretty hit & miss (most of them miss). The best one is where the ninja assassins discover the joys of cloning. ("He's looking pretty healthy for someone we just beheaded.") Mediocre at best.