Paranoia Review

My initial thought when I first heard that Paranoia would be back in print was “that makes me feel old!” I remember playing this when I was a wee bairn in shorts, just out of nappies and still calling for mummy when I grazed my knee (note: I may be exaggerating here).

I was actually very excited; I remembered getting some damn good role-playing sessions out of this game, and looked forward to seeing what they had done to it to make it still applicable to the modern day.

Allen Varney made the updates to the original masterpiece, and I have to say that he has done a damned fine job!

The book as it comes has a red cover with some really fantastic art on the front. The back brings back fond memories of what it was like to really screw with my players’ heads, and still features the old computer monitor with trite sayings from the Paranoia universe (in this case: “You are in error. No one is screaming. Thank you for your cooperation”).

A small note: this was originally called Paranoia XP, but apparently a big, bad company thought that this might just be some kind of infringement on copyright laws or some such bother, and they had to pull the ‘XP’ bit. This is so ironic, it makes me laugh! The copy I have still has XP written on it; I’m expecting some corporate types to come round with a black marker-pen any day now to modify it for me…

The artwork is a bit patchy in the book, I have to say. The artist (Jim Holloway) has done his best to reproduce some of the classic pictures in the original game, and has come up with some new ones of his own in the same vein as the old ones. In this he was only partly successful. The new illustrations seem OK on the whole, but the copies of old pictures are not really up to scratch and seem almost half-finished. But he has promise, I’ll give him that (and he can draw a damn sight better than I can!).

The book contents break down like this (approximately):

Fifty pages of player information.

Fifty pages of Gamemaster information.

One-hundred pages of ‘Sourcebook’.

Forty pages of missions.

Ten pages of charts and reference thingies.

The player information is the entirety of what the players are allowed to read; knowledge of any other information in the book is treason, and that player’s character can expect a rough ride…

The player is taken through the system (such as it is), how to create characters (such as they are), how the Alpha Complex works (such as it does), and how to play your character properly. This last is the most important bit, really.

The book contains lots and lots of advice on how to play the game properly, rather than tedious background and system stuff. This is very, very useful. The players get a long introduction on how paranoid to be (very), and how often you should be trying to kill the other characters (constantly), and what to do if you get killed by another character (get them back ASAP).

There is even a little paragraph-flipping solo adventure to run through to really get you into the swing of things. And it is, of course, all brilliantly and humorously written.

The system, by the way is about as basic as you can get; roll a twenty-sided dice, and if you get under your skill or attribute score, you have done it (the margin that you get under your score tells you how well you’ve done it). The players need know nothing else (and in fact are liable to get their characters terminated if they let slip they do know anything else).

The main wrinkle to this rule comes in the form of Perversity Points. Players (not characters) earn these by being entertaining, and having their characters be … well, paranoid. Any player is able to spend these points at any time that any player is making a roll to either add or subtract from that roll. This, of course, means that you can have a ‘bidding war’ if there is a really important roll, and some characters don’t want it to succeed (thus using Perversity to subtract from the roll), and others do want it to succeed. Fun!

The Gamemaster bits are just as informative. But I can’t really go into details here, because you might be a player, and I don’t want to get your characters in trouble, do I? *innocent smile*

Suffice it to say that there are loads of cool pictures, information on what Alpha Complex is like, how to use the system to create amusing stories, and how to deal with players (“Bad player! Sit, player … siiiit! Good player! Have a Perversity Point.”). Actually, I have to say that the background information (the stuff on Alpha Complex itself) was the driest and most boring bit of the book. Not to say it was really *boring* or anything, but it is … well, kind of, um … *factual*. And reading through the service firms nearly made me want to skip bits! (Treason!) But persevere, Gamemasters (and sneaky players, if you are up for the challenge), because the information could prove useful (and is, of course, mandatory).

There are, by the way, three different ways to play Paranoia: Classic, Straight and Zap. It is up to the Gamemaster to decide how he wants to play. In Classic, you play it like slapstick. Straight is an attempt (only partially successful) to present a serious way to play the game. And Zap is like Toon – with treason and lasers!

The mission section starts by outlining the mission layout. All missions have the same basic layout and timetable (this is so that you can mess with players’ heads when they get used to the timetable by screwing around with it). The various bits and pieces are described here, and will allow a Gamemaster to go from basic idea to full-fledged scenario pretty easily. One glaring and surprising change from classic Paranoia is that R&D may not be involved! I was scandalised, but let’s just say that, if you should want it, it will be there for you. And if you don’t, there are lots of other alternatives for you to inflict on your poor and terrified players…!

The mission included in the book is great. It is humorously written, and gives your players a very good intro into the world of Paranoia (Formerly XP).

So, how does it play? My game took place with three PCs (two of whom were played by people who had never heard of Paranoia before). The game moved along pretty rapidly, and I soon put the fear of Computer into my players – as early on the newbies thought that they could get out of any sticky situation by calling on Friend Computer (oh, the naiveté!). After a couple of times of the Computer just helping make a bad situation worse, they soon got the message.

The system rarely gets in the way, and I never struggled to keep up with what the players were doing, or got lost in charts and tables looking for expected outcomes or anything. The characters provided for the scenario were well-written and encouraged back-stabbing and double-dealing every step of the way.

If any major problem can be found with the session we ran, it’s that I had almost too much material to work with – what with mutations, secret societies, service firms, quirks, scenario events, NPCs, and general Computer mayhem, I sometimes felt that I was leaving too much out in the rush to actually complete the story in the scenario (there is enough material in the background and the scenario to just keep it going and going and going…). I did struggle a little with conveying the correct atmosphere to the players – especially the new players. I worried (perhaps a bit too much) that they weren’t ‘getting it’, and tried to push them into action, when maybe they weren’t ready.

The ending was a little anti-climactic, and the players themselves only really ‘got’ the scenario once it had completed and I explained exactly what just happened. I think they enjoyed themselves – I know I did, and had a blast revisiting my ‘role-playing roots’.

Summary

Presentation: Some patchy artwork in the book mars it, but generally it is acceptable. The writing is top-notch, and I couldn’t put the book down (a rare find for a role-playing book). The book looks chunky, weighty, and kind of imposing (with all that red on the cover…). 7.6/10

Clarity of Rules: This is about as simple as role-playing rules get. They are laid out in an informative and entertaining manner, and are easy to get to grips with. I can’t go into any details, because you never know when a sneaky player might be reading this… 8.9/10

Game Length: Well, this actually suffers a bit. I planned on running the introductory scenario in one evening, but there was just so much stuff to fit in that we ended up having to play on a second night as well. Of course, that may not be a bad thing if you are really enjoying the game… 6.7/10

Value: Role-playing books are notoriously expensive (for a book, that is). However, when you consider that you will get many evenings of enjoyment out of the book (once you’re spent a few days reading it as well), then the value increases dramatically. For me, twenty quid spent on a game like this, which will see (hopefully) repeated play at my table is more than worth it. 9.5/10

Overall: A great improvement over the original in all but artwork. This is obviously a labour of love for the author, and that comes across in the writing and content of the book. It plays very well, and helps the Gamemaster (and player) along at every step of the way. If only all role-playing games gave this much information on how to actually play the game! 9.5/10 (not an average)

Review by David Plank