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This line sold me on the book and still makes me snicker.
The following information is cleared ULTRAVIOLET: Possession of this information by any Citizen of Violet Clearance or lower is a violation of IntSec regulation 4444-X-BPRD, punishable by brainscrubbing administered with one standard-issue sledgehammer.
This is the Mutant supplement for the revamped Paranoia, just as the Traitor's Manual was the Secret Society supplement. In addition to new mutations, equipment and forms, The Mutant Experience includes a How-To guide for creating new mutations and information on the appropriate atmosphere for mutants in the different play styles. Not that it takes much for Zap! games.
The overall tone of the book is set by the cover illustration - a Blue-clearance Citizen in a nuclear reactor's control room fighting with two extra arms growing out of his own shoulders, one of which is trying to laser him in the temple. There are also flashing lights, steam shooting out everywhere, radiation alerts and Citizens in HazMat suits dying. The only hitch to the cover and indeed to the art in the book overall is that the designer's credit partially obscures what looks like a small one-handed circular saw, which the afflicted Citizen is trying to get to. If the viewer does not look closely he or she could easily miss said saw.
That apart, the rest of the art is done by Inimitable Jim Holloway and holds up to the Paranoia standard of amusing carnage or carnage-to-be. It's hard to laud the artist any more than he already has been - he deserves every word of it, though. Several of the mutations have been illustrated - Call Bots and Corrosion are two of my favorites.
The book is bookended, appropriately, with amusing charts. Mutant Experience adds an extra level of classification onto mutations - in addition to varying them by play style, there are charts for Metabolic and Psionic Mutations. Metabolic mutations are unsurprisingly ones that have to with the body, while Psionic ones have to do with the mind. This alone is handy for GMs, since they can hold up a book the players aren't cleared to read and say "Hmmmmm" a lot while the players are rolling up new Troubleshooters, then cackle maliciously when they get to their Mutant powers.
The first two chapters of the book discuss the finer points of mutations. Where other Non-Fun games tend to spend the first chapter or two in long-winded, irrelevant and frequently shamelessly awful history or backstory, TME dives right into the guts of the issue. This chapter is the introduction - some basic concepts and new ideas are introduced. And there's a section called When Powers Go Wrong, my personal favorite for the chapter. Plus there's a section on how to condition your players in a Pavlovian sense so that they'll be more entertaining, and a section on how to run the game so that the players will be able to use mutant powers when appropriate. Sometimes the game moves so quickly that you weren't able to do something when you wanted to do it - just about everyone's had this happen at least once. Plus the Power Studies Secret Skill is addressed - a vital tidbit for members of certain Secret Societies. This also shows the Famous Game Designers' scrupulous dedication to the line - many other, Non-Fun, games omit or exclude critical bits like this in some supplements or core books.
Chapter Two, titled "Variations", is just that. It discusses how to have characters with no mutation, a useless mutation, or several mutations, and defines several phrases used in describing the new mutant powers. It also has a chart for how to practice a mutant power and the Random Mishap table.
Chapter Three is the one everyone will want to see whether they're cleared for it or not: it's the one with all the new mutant powers in it in alphabetical order. Each is classified either Metabolic or Psionic, and each has small icons by its name indicating the play styles it fits best. Some only fit one style, others fit all of them. But these rules do not have to apply if the GM does not want them to - a perfectly acceptable, nay, laudable aim. Each power writeup has a description of what the power allows the user to do - change shape, see through things, eat anything, generate a cloud of nuclear byproduct, etc.
Each power also has three subsections: Variations and Limitations, Mishaps, and Overkills. Variations and Limitations allow for altered takes on each of the new mutations and the ones in the core book as well - a mutant with Pyrokinesis can now breathe fire, raise the ambient temperature, or use his eyes like blowtorches. Blinking would probably be a bad idea in that situation. A Mishap is caused when the mutant fails the Power roll by a sufficient margin - an unforunate user of the Mental Blast power could knock himself unconscious, cause his targets to realize who blasted them, or even cause a spate of EHS - Exploding Head Syndrome. An Overkill occurs when the mutant passes the Power roll by a sufficient margin - a mutant using the Call Bots power could wind up being stalked by an army of slavering scrubots or be constantly dodging tankbots intent on running him over.
Chapter Four discusses miscellaneous mutations and problems related to them - difficult mutations like Precognition or Mind Control, mutations generally better suited to an out-and-out horror game instead of the average Paranoia session, or mutations that are just useless - "Look Really Ugly" is a good one. There's also a sidebar going into just what makes a suitable mutation if the GM wants to create new ones.
Chapters Five and Six are fairly standard - how to run a game incorporating mutations, where mutations come from, and other nut-and-bolt questions. Chapter Six also goes into detail on possible viewpoints Friend Computer or other Citizens have on mutants. Hint: the Zap! one is not particularly philosophical.
Then there's Chapter Seven, or, "Fun Things To Do To Your Players." It's not capitalized in the book, but I feel that it's important and amusing enough to warrant it here. Missions, plots, mutagenic reactor byproducts and the Unstoppable Mutie Horde. There are not many pages devoted to this chapter, which is somewhat unfortunate, but half the fun of Paranoia is throwing stuff at the players that they can't find in a book.
Chapters Eight through Ten discuss items or objects related to mutants - the specifics of mutagens mentioned in Chapter Seven, various widgets and R&D devices related to mutants, and more medications that have to do with mutants. The Appendix provides several more amusing charts, while the back of the book contains the all-important Mutant Registration Form.
I only have one problem with the book - the pages have a tendency to wrinkle near the binding of the book and sometimes do not turn easily. I do not know why this is - I might just be storing them in a way that causes this. The Mutant Experience also includes the usual scrolling jokes near the bottom of each page on the right-hand side, sidebar stories or quotes attributed to various Citizens, and lots of computer monitors containing statements made by Friend Computer. These are not essentially, but are usually funny and sometimes useful for session kickoffs - such as the one about how the would-be registered mutant does not have a mutation.
All in all I give TME a 4 for Style (the bit with the cover being the most outstanding reason why this is not a 5) and a 5 for Substance.
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