 Goto [ Index ] |
You turned in a friend for treason. The Computer had him executed for betraying Alpha Complex. The Computer rewarded you for your loyalty. Now you root out all traitors and apprehend or execute them. You uncover corruption among The Computer's servants and turn them into Internal Security. You find trouble, and you shoot it. A traitor is a malevolent human citizen who has betrayed his friend The Computer and seeks to destroy The Computer, Alpha Complex, humanity and life as we know it. You must unmask and destroy all traitors. Watch out! Traitors are everywhere! Mutants are traitors. These genetic freaks have uncontrollable abilities they selfishly use for their own advancement, rather than to serve Alpha Complex. You must subdue or eliminate them. Members of secret societies are traitors. In organizations unsanctioned by The Computer they conspire irresponsibly to undermine the good order of Alpha Complex. You must destroy them.
By the way... you are a mutant, and a member of a secret society. You are a traitor.
Introduction
Released over twenty years ago, Paranoia refuted conventions of mainstream roleplaying. No longer did you cooperate towards a common goal. No longer was your objective loot and treasure. The game centered on atmosphere, not the characters. The GM may be impartial, but he was hardly ever fair. And if you thought the GM was vicious and heartless, just try the other players. You goal was to out-think your fellow players in a dystopian deranged world as entertainingly as possible. Surviving three editions, Paranoia XP mechanics re-introduces a darkly humorous future with better tailored mechanics, expanded GM material, and the best of its previous incarnations.
As a troubleshooter, players serve The Computer. The Computer, well-meaning but deranged, presides over the underground warren known as Alpha Complex. Alpha Complex is riddled with bureaucracy, unnecessary technology, power-hungry superiors, and the ever-present (although you can't see them) Commies. Schitzophrenic and obsessed, The Computer's enemies are both real and imaginary. Good luck serving the computer.
Art, Writing, and Layout
Part of what set Paranoia apart from other roleplaying games is how the art and writing greatly helped set the mood for the game. (And considering how most rpg books read like textbooks, Paranoia's writing stands out more than ever.) In addition to humor, the writing provides substantial advice in how to play the game. Paranoia XP sets up player expectations, and provides ettiquette guidelines and tips on play. Since most of the rules are only known by the GM, Paranoia XP has suggestions on how a GM can best adapt, improvise, and otherwise ignore the rules to best create the spirit of the game.
Art: In particular, Jim Holloway's deadpan art are some of the funniest gags ever. Unfortunately, as a Paranoia grognard, I was surprised at how much of the art was revised. Normally, I don't find rpg art all that important to the rpg, but was somewhat disappointed. The illustrations were also oddly blurry, as were the secret society logos. You can get an idea of the writing and art on Mongoose's Paranoia page (see URL below).
Layout: Paranoia preserves the three-column layout it used in previous editions. Text continues from one column to another. But since XP has much more information than previous editions, the text feels much denser, and its sometimes harder to find information. XP also adds flavor text in side boxes, making the layout appear busier. I would have preferred more use of whitespace to make referencing easier.
Tables and the Character Sheet: Tables are printed alongside the rules. Tables within the rulebook are a little hard to find, since they're shaded the same color as flavor text. However, commonly used tables are also printed at the back of the book for easy reference. (Tables used for character generation are only in the Player section.) Like second edition, the character sheet has a "public" page on one side, and a "secret" page on the other.
Table of Contents, Indices, Typos, and Stuff I Never Use: Somewhat inaccessible, the table of contents begin each section and are tucked in towards the spine. The one-page index is easier to find, at the end of the book. (As a purely unscientific test, I was able to easily find the designer's notes, but not how to promote troubleshooters another clearance.) The guidelines suggest improvisation over looking up rules anyway, to maintain the frantic flow of the game. I didn't notice any typos in the book, though wasn't looking for them.
Web Support: The Mongoose Publishing site has free downloads of the character sheet, handouts for the included Paranoia adventure, and pregenerated characters from the main rulebook. Even if your players are creating their own characters, the pregenerated characters will be useful guides in creating characters. I would have also liked to see copies of charts, tables used for player generation, and Manditory Bonus Duty forms (see below).
URL: http://www.mongoosepublishing.com/home/detail.php?qsID=530&qsSeries=19
I. Player Section: Red Clearance
Paranoia XP begins by dropping players right into the atmosphere of the game. Starting off with something of an rpg FAQ written in the Paranoia style, it then throws some flavor-text propaganda, presents an overview of the game, and begins character generation.
Character Generation
Stats and Skills: Character generation starts with the familiar "stats and skills" method: Each player has six base skills, ranging in value from 4 to 10. Each skill is subdivided into specialties. Specialty scores range from 1 to 20 (not that characters will ever reach 20...), and success is determined by "rolling under" with a d20. Specialties are further divided into Common specialties, useful for survival, and Narrow specialities, not at all useful but hopefully amusing in play. Each player chooses up to six Common specialities at 4 and six Narrow specialties at 6 greater than the Skill of the speciality. (Note that no beginning character's Common speciality starts above 14.) However, for every Common speciality the player increases, the must take a Common speciality in the same Skill of 1. The Narrow specialities are player-defined and a player may keep the Narrow speciality slots empty, filling them out during play ("Why, yes, I do have the Fix Two-Meter Wide, Grey, Multi-Pronged Device speciality."). For example, Dexter-R-FCP-1 has a Stealth Skill of 08, Security Systems Common speciality of of 12, and a Narrow speciality of Hear Own Name Being Said by Others of 14. Paranoia grognards may note the specialties as a combination of the second edition character skills and the first edition skill tree. This part of character generation can be easily followed on a character sheet, and a copy of a pregenerated character from the enclosed adventure should come in handy.
Background: The next part of character generation requires consulting tables in the book. Players roll up (or are assigned by the GM) their Service Group, Mutant Power, and Secret Society. Players also select additional skills from their Service Group and Secret Society. Service Groups include Armed Forces and Research and Development, and are further divided into Service Firms, such as Power Service's Fuel Cell Replenishment. Secret Societies, such as Death Leopards and the Sierra Club, provide background for character conflict and roleplaying possibilities. Mutant powers provide kewl powerz. Definitely Xerox these tables before play to avoid grubby player fingerprints and table-consulting bottleneck ("You can have the book after I roll up my character, okay?").
Perversity Points: Players then receive 25 drama -- sorry, Perversity - points. These points can be spent before the d20 is rolled (Paranoia even suggests different ways the GM can allow spending points). The GM awards Perversity Points to players at the beginning of a scene. Perversity Points are owned by the player, not the character. (Players may spend Perversity Points at the end of a game to increase skills and stuff, but that would be boring.) In addition, players may receive up to 10 additional Perversity Points by adding Tics to their PC. Similar to GURPS' Quirk, a tic is a distinct behavior your character has (and it had better be unique!).
Attributes: Each player also has two attributes, called Power and Access. Each attribute is a pool of points -- and only the GM knows how many points a PC has! Mutant powers require Power points, and cutting through red tape / cashing in favors require Access points. No, players don't know how to actually use these attributes. Good luck.
Security Clearance: Players begin at Red clearance. Security clearances haven't changed. They're still the colors of the electromagnetic spectrum: Infrared, Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet, and Ultraviolet. As in second edition, troubleshooters are promoted a clearance at the end of a mission (if they're lucky).
Credits: PCs receive a Red Clearance income of 1000 credits per month -- and their rent is 1000 credits per month. PCs can gain additional credits through their service to the computer and can be fined for innappropriate activity. PCs also receive the Mercantile Enterprise or ME card. Unfortunately, the card's built-in sensors do not test if the holder of the card is the rightful owner. Hee hee. Paranoia XP greatly expands the use of credits in the game.
Clones: To offset the terminably abrupt life of a Troubleshooter, each PC has six clones. Paranoia XP now has rules about purchasing additional clones (in Classic and Straight games). See how useful credits are?
Manditory Bonus Duty: Each PC is assigned one six duties: team leader, loyalty officer, hygiene officer, communications and recording officer, equipment guy, or happiness officer. Yes, when there are more than six troubleshooters, the rest are assigned as loyalty officers.
Conclusion: Compared to first and second edition, character generation is much longer, covering fifteen pages versus the previous editions' five pages. However, unlike the previous two editions, XP follows a "let the mechanics fit the game" design, with elements that encourage role-playing and dramatic play. New players may balk at the unique and complex character generation system, so you'll need to assure them of the game's fast and furious play which you, as the Gamemaster, are responsible for.
The section ends with player etiquette (stuff like not taking the game personally), a solo mission, and tips for traitors. This material appeared in previous editions. The solo mission does an excellent job of aquainting a new player to Paranoia's Alpha Complex, and the etiquette and tips are concise and well-written. (When it comes to players, the less they have to read the better...)
II. Gamemaster Section: Ultraviolet Clearance
Thankfully, Paranoia has some of the best Gamemaster support I've seen in a roleplaying game. Nowadays, advice in how to run a particular roleplaying game is pretty commonplace, but twenty years ago, it was quite unique. Paranoia XP's Gamemaster Section combines both GM guideance and mechanics only the GM should know.
Styles of Play: Remember The Prisoner? 1984? Dr. Strangelove? Paranoia now supports three styles, Classic, Straight, and Zap. Classic is the conventional way most gamers have been playing Paranoia, Zap is the liberating rush of newbie play, and Straight allows "serious" play in the dark future. Changes in mechanics and advice, however, aren't too extensive or dramatic for these styles.
Universal Hostily Formula / Combat: Probably the major mechanics change from previous editions is the "margin of success" Universal Hostility Formula. It's probably best to explain it by an example. Dexter-R-FCP-1 has a Violence of 6, and an Energy Weapon of 10. His handy laser is an Energy weapon of W3K. The first letter is the minimum damage he will cause. W stands for Wound. The last letter is the maximum damage. K stands for Kill. The number is the Boost Number. Dexter rolls a 6 on a d20, so his margin of success is (10 - 7 = 4). Divide the margin of success by the Boost Number (and round down), and this is the number of Damage Steps above the minimum damage. 4/3 = 1, and one rank above Wounded is Maimed. However, his opponent has Reflec armor, which is E1, meaning that it reduces Damage Steps from Energy weapons by 1. His opponent is merely Wounded. (And, yes, you can roll on the Hit location chart, like in previous editions.) An important change is that PCs are no longer Stunned, but SNAFU'ed -- meaning they can do anything except attack. Another is that damage is non-cumulative. (Well, it's not a change if you don't feel like changing it...)
Universal Hostility Formula / Treason: The first rule of Paranoia is The GM is Always Right, but here's how UHF works for treason. Jan-R-EEE-1 accuses Mark-TOR-1 of Destroying Computer Property. Jan has a Management skill of 10. Destruction of Computer Property has a statistic of P4T. P stands for Probation, and T stands for Termination. He rolls a 5. That's 5/4 = 1 (rounded down) step up above Probation, or Censure. The margin of success also allows for accusations affecting more than one player. The margin of 5, for example, would include other troubleshooters in the party. The treason section also comes with a table of fines for specific acts of treason, supporting the importance of credits in Paranoia. Like damage, treason accusations are non-cumulative. Maybe.
III. Paranoia Sourcebook: Ultraviolet Clearance
The sourcebook begins with a brief origin (so to speak) of Alpha Complex and everyday life. The Sourcebook is pretty much a continuation of the rest of the book, going into detail topics introduced in the previous two sections.
The Economy: Credits are now extensively supported in the game. Players have the ME card, living expenses, bribery, fines, purchase of additional clone families, and, of course, equipment. While optional and usually used in Straight games, credits can add a dimension of play to other styles.
Skills: Skill descriptions and mechanics are mostly unchanged from second edition. Secret Societies now teach PCs new, secret skills. Skills use the "margin of success", but not the Univesal Hostility Formula.
Service Firms: Service Groups have been expanded. In order to increase efficiency (cough) Service Groups have outsourced to Service Firms. While a Service Firm doesn't create the backstabbing or color of Secret Societies, Service Firms allow the Computer to assign secondary missions to PCs. And a few other underhanded things. Unfortunately, since the text runs from one column to another, individual Service Firm descriptions aren't easily xeroxed as player handouts. The Mission has Service Group descriptions which can be used as player handouts.
Mutant Powers: As said under Styles of Play, different mutant powers are available depending on the style of play. For example, Transmutation (does what it sounds like, but only on inanimate objects) is a Zap mutation, while Bureaucratic Intuition is a Straight one. The boring Mental Block and three slightly-too-powerful mutations are now reserved for NPCs.
Secret Socities: Secret Societies remain unchanged, except for two interesting subtleties. Rank is now from 1 to 20, not-so-coincidentally the same numbers on a certain isocahedron. However, no explicit descriptions are provided to assist GMs to determine how successful a player is when he contacts his Secret Society, how long a request will take, or how successful the request will be. Another subtlety are the classifications into different levels of threat to -- and control **by** -- The Computer.
Equipment: Weapons, Bots, Coms, Multicorders, Bots, and Vehicles are unchanged from second edtion. Paranoia XP adds Personal Digital Companions (PDCs), Stupid reflec upgrades (illegal and maybe even effective), plus a side box of the Thirty-one Official Flavors. I should say the bot creation guidelines are concise yet inspiring enough to create enjoyably lethal 'bot NPCs. Vehicle guidelines are simple, yet helpful for non-vehicularly enlightened GMs. (Personally, I would have preferred the equipment section be expanded, rather than the addition of Service Firms. The bot rules are from the second edition, not supplements.)
Manditory Bonus Duty: Originally a handout from the second edition boxed set, the entertaingly hilarious MBD is yet another device to create player disharmony. Each PC is assigned one six duties: team leader, loyalty officer, hygiene officer, communications and recording officer, equipment guy, or happiness officer. Each duty allows players to roleplay a position ("Let's all put on our happy faces!"), as well as provide opportunities to abuse power ("I'm sorry citizen, but you're not happy enough. Have some Qualine! HAPPINESS IS MANDITORY."). The MBD process begins with the MBD Determination Test 88-9b, a useful form players can use to kill time while waiting for pizza to arrive. The MBD section also comes with badge / handouts for the players. (Unfortunately, the badges aren't as easy to xerox as the original handout.)
Medication and Sanity Test: These sections were originally in the first edition supplement, Acute Paranoia. Medication includes both guidelines for play, and a useful selection of tranquilizers, mood modifiers, and even experimental drugs. Sanity tests are actual tests you can pull on a player, along with a table of amusing random medical treatments.
The section ends on an essay / discussion about malware: buggy proprietary code, application bloat, viruses, and suggestions of their use in play.
IV. Mission Section: Ultraviolet Clearance
The Mission Section begins with more GM advice, this time how to structure a Paranoia adventure, and half-page descriptions of the eight service groups, suitable as handouts for players. The introductory mission itself, Mr. Bubbles, is a twenty-five page adventure for a GM and 4-6 players. The mission is meant to run for 1-2 sessions (6 hours), in the Classic style. Notes are provided for playing it Straight. Six pregenerated characters, including backgrounds, are provided. As mentioned, character sheets and adventure handouts are available at the Mongoose website.
Without giving too much away, the adventure does a good job of introducing the players to the Alpha Complex, better than previous editions.. (If you recall, much of the first and second edition introductory adventures took place outside of Alpha Complex.) It has the standard Paranoia adventure elements: backstabbing pregenerated characters, handouts ridden with technical babbleese, a briefing and debriefing, the trip to mildly deadly R&D, annoying NPC's, and Asimov-ignorant 'bots.
The section ends with designer notes, reference charts, random stuff charts ("What's in that crate, anyway?"), a character sheet (it even includes a second page for secret information), and a one-page index. The character sheet is available as a download from the Mongoose site. The random stuff charts look just like the reference charts, but a post-it on the "Universal Hostility Formulae" page should prevent in-play fumbling for reference sheets.
Conclusion
I don't have any problems recommending Paranoia XP to new Paranoia players with roleplaying experience. Its darkly humorous world is as alive and paranoid as ever. Paranoia XP mechanics, however, are unique, and character generation is somewhat more complicated compared to "rules light" games. (Since skills and specialties range from 1 to 20, perhaps the simpler second edition skill resolution mechanics could have been included.) But, unlike previous editions, Paranoia XP mechanics fit the play style of Paranoia better. And Paranoia XP is one of the few rpg hardbacks that doesn't read like a textbook. Grognards should be aware that some of the source material appeared in previous Paranoia material. Still, despite my comments, Paranoia XP retains the dark humor that brought us veterans the joy and happiness of the first and second editions.
Because happiness **is** manditory.
Help support RPGnet by purchasing this item through DriveThruRPG.
