Paranoia

Overall score:

The first thing you should know about Paranoia is that it's all about mood.

No, not that kind of Vampire, angsty, depressive suicidal mood. It's more of a "They're out to get me," psychopathic, conniving, pee-in-your-pants laughing kind of mood.

The second thing you should know about Paranoia is your character is going to die. Probably several times. If you can't handle dying before the adventure even begins, than don't even think about playing. You'll just whine and sulk and make the game much less fun for all your friends. Don't worry about dying. Characters are easy to make and you get six clones of each one anyway, the next of which is delivered within a few minutes of the previous clone's death.

The copy on the box asks you to envision a world created by Karl Marx, Hitler, Kafka, and the Marx Brothers. This is about enough for you to figure out what's coming, but I'll give some details. You live in Alpha Complex (formerly something like San Francisco)--an underground complex used as a bomb shelter during the nuclear war (which may or may not have really happened) and which thrives independently, thinking that all other complexes have been destroyed. The computer runs Alpha Complex. The computer is your friend. The computer might ask you to do things. Not doing those things would be considered treason, whether it's cleaning the sewer duct or killing giant mutants. Treason is punishable by death. Treason is fairly easy to pin on someone. Probably hundreds are executed for treason daily. In a good Paranoia campaign, the players will start blaming each other right away and many of you will be killed before you even get out of the briefing room. This is because you're a troubleshooter, which means your job is to find trouble (or failing that, invent some) and then shoot it.

Trouble comes in many forms--all of them, if not treasonous, at least close enough that you should shoot first and probably not ever bother to ask any questions at all; but you should at least be ready to make up something that makes it look like your target was guilty. The main forms of treason include disobeying the computer or your superiors, being a mutant, and belonging to a secret society. You happen to be a mutant member of a secret society, though no one else is supposed to know that. Aren't you glad that you get to carry a laser? Just watch out, because your "team" mates all do as well, and if they can't get any evidence that you're a commie mutant traitor (commies are the worst of the secret societies, as they were responsible for the war), than they'll either manufacture some or they'll catch you for not being happy or being unclean (dirt under your fingernails is enough), both of which are also treason. After all, you'd do the same to them, because it's the easiest way to keep yourself alive (or at least ONE of your clones).

Sure, there's a few other things, like how the "outside" is surpassed in sheer terror value only by the R&D department where every good GM will always force your party to go (think of Q from James Bond fame on a mixture of crack dissolved in vodka, with 6-10 times the firepower in each weapon, and about 10% of the items even remotely functioning right), but the point is, it's a hilarious, surreal place. It's scary, but it's fun.

You just CAN'T be attached to any character, or it's only going to make you angry. This is not about developing a character, or even a plot. This is about laughing your butt off. Only about half the adventures make it to the R&D workshop before the characters die. Probably only half of what's left make it any further. If by some miracle more than one party member manages to survive a mission, and by an even further miracle they won't be executed for failure, there's still the debriefing session at the end of the adventure where players and NPCs have one last chance to kill each other for high crimes.

So that's the setting, but there is a system attached. You have a certain number of attributes and skills, and your skills can be increased with experience (though it hardly matters with the rate of death in this game). Essentially, you just roll a 20-sided die against your skill. There, that's the system. It's fast and simple, though not terribly realistic, and combat is deadly. The selection of skills is interesting, with several dedicated to sycophantry or spurious logic/convincing power, but the focus of the game really isn't the system. It's easy and fast, and the most information you need is a) what secret society you belong to (they usually give you a goal to try and accomplish along the way), b) what mutant power you have and whether it's registered (registering your power will prevent people for killing you for the mutation, but makes them much more likely to focus on you in finding something to kill a companion over), and c) how many clones you have left. Heroism is rewarded in story rather than stats (usually by letting you accomplish your goal) and survival rate is not a factor. So if you successfully kamikaze the enemy, your next clone will probably be promoted.

The only other way of advancing is in security clearance. Non-troubleshooters have "infra-red" clearance, and most characters start off with Red clearance (though if you have a clever naming scheme, the GM may optionally let you start at a higher clearance. Clearance levels run through the rainbow and end up with violet. Rarely do any players get to yellow, let alone beyond, but higher clearance means higher confidence, and it gives characters an advantage in the accusation wars.

Paranoia is a classic fun game. You don't run a Paranoia "campaign." It's a one shot, made before there were many on shots. It's a nicer book (a couple hundred pages, trade paperback, square binding) than most one-shot games, which tend to be published via Xerox, and it's worth it. It's more clever and better thought out than most one shot games. If you see a copy of Paranoia in your local used book shop (any edition will do), it's usually worth picking up.

Written by SaintEhlers on September 03rd, 2003